Tia settled herself beside her mother, getting as close to her as she was allowed. She was so sick, looking worse than she did yesterday and it frightened Tia but her mama was still in here, another day that Tia was relieved for. She still needed her mama, her laugh and voice and hair and smell. She didn't want to let go, not yet.
Her mother reached for her hand and she gave it to her willingly. She couldn't hold her hand properly, she couldn't squeeze her fingers in comfort for fear of hurting her mother.
Oh, what had happened? Her mother's beautiful color was all but ashen and rotten. The whites of her eyes yellow and the gentle brown color Tia had found comfort in countless time were dull and staring.
"Soyez bonne." She rasped. "Soyez bonne."
Tia nodded, her throat too tight to say anything, only moving closer to her mother's deathbed because there was nothing else she could do. Medicines didn't work, praying didn't work, being a good little girl didn't work. Her mother was rotting away to nothing, nothing, nothing.
Suddenly, her mother's grip on her wrist tightened. "Soyez bonne." She said again.
Tia nodded, still unable to speak.
"Soyez bonne." Her grip tightened still, unnatural for her decaying body and Tia felt her skin bruise. Her mother's nails dug into her skin, blood welling almost instantly, red against her yellowed nails.
Horrified, she tried picking her mother's fingers away but they broke off in her own fingers. Screaming, she tried to yank back, to get away, please, Mama, no,
But her mama held tight with her remaining fingers, reaching for Tia's face with her other hand while her skin melted away, maggots burrowing in her eyes, and repeating "Soyez bonne" in an endless rasp and Tia couldn't escape, couldn't leave her mother, but Gods please let me go! And suddenly, without teeth, her mother's mouth was awning open to consume her -
She woke up frozen in her bed, her body paralyzed.
She couldn't breathe, she couldn't breathe.
With a soft sob she forced her body to move, the muscles feeling strange and unknown and stiff in her body as she threw back her covers, stumbling in the dark over the night table.
Hands grappling in the dark for anything else to trip her, she fled the room and into the hallway, the light blinding her and scaring her. Her feet took her as far away from the nightmare as possible, down the stairs of the hotel and down another hallway, turn after turn until she didn't want to go any further because she couldn't draw air and the pain was unbearable. Her hand grasped her shirt tightly in a fist as she fell into the nearest wall, landing hard on her ass, her chest heaving as she gasped.
Her mama hadn't looked like that. Her mama hadn't looked like that. Her mama hadn't looked like that.
She covered her eyes with her hands to hide but it just brought the terrifying face back and she cried out, forcing her eyes open as tears streamed down her face.