Before the School Meeting
Finally, the daytime portion of the school had ended, and she really wanted so badly to head home, but she knew that she still have to do a few more things before she could. Thankfully, her Shadow Veil's technique was useful in term of speeding up the process in a very short amount of time. From time to time, she stopped to think: think of what to say to her daughter, think of ways to make up for the whole trouble she caused Kenya, and think of ways to help the Magical Girls as redemption for her evil behavior she once had just a moment ago. And, every time that she considered these thoughts, tears poured down her cheeks.
Completing what she needed, Mrs. Crawford went to the Principal Office. Being a living shadow, she wasn't really bother by her fellow employee's sand appearance and probably the only school staff who was immune to his sleep abilities. She had met with him before a few times in the school board before the sun incident, and found the man to be very worthy of being the Principal. She wondered if she was worthy anymore of her own title as Vice Principal, but she make a mental vow to become more worthy from this point onward.
"Sorry for the intrusion, Mr. Erin. I know that this might be asking a lot from you, considering how much work loads this might bring, but would it be okay if I can go home for the rest of the day?"
The Principal just paused with a serene smile on his face, before responding, "Very well, but if you don't mind me asking, might I ask why?"
"It's okay," Mrs. Crawford started, but she stopped for a moment, not sure to explained the whole story. She tried her best to hide her sadness, but while the Principal didn't show it, he could sense it somehow. "Well, I am very worry about my daughter and I wanted to check up on her. I-I..." she paused again, but she knew that she can't lie about it, and she trusted him, "I hadn't been myself since my transformation lately, and unfortunately, I haven't been a good mother as well. I need to go see her, so that I can check to see if she is doing okay and help her."
"Well, in that case, I don't think anyone would object to you going home. Tell your daughter that I said hi and I'll inform the other that you had something important to deal with."
"Thank you and I will," she said happily, but felt that she needed to add something else, "I'll explain a bit more tomorrow about the whole story."
"Very well, but you don't have to worry, I'll keep the matter private for your sake. Good luck with everything and hope that everything will turn out right for you."
That brighten her mood a bit, feeling that sense of kindness that she felt from Becca. She waved goodbye and exited the office, and left the building in a rush, so worry about her daughter. She entered into her Shadow Fae's form in order to use her shadow abilities to jet like a rocket to her home in a pure shadow form.
As she got closer to home, her thought went back to the questions. She was so worry that her daughter will be completely afraid of her. The thought of her daughter completely in terror from seeing her caused to momentary stopped instantly out of fear and pain, but she continued onward again, this time with more determination. She will make this up to her; it might be the toughest thing she will ever do, but she will make it up to her.
Present Time, at Emily Crawford's Resident
In a rush, Mrs. Crawford didn't even bother leaving her pure shadow form; she just slid underneath the door. When she enter the house, she decided to finally reformed into her humanoid form and head to the door to her basement, where she remembered locking her down there to prevent her from going anywhere. She once again clinched, hating herself more and more for her past evil actions. She unlocked the door and closed it behind her, but just stood there for a moment.
Fears that her daughter will be afraid of her shocked her to her core. But, she knew that she got to face her daughter and earn back her love. She slowly walked down and suddenly heard whimpering. Realizing that her Shadoe Fae's form might not be the best form to see her with, she shifted to her original form. She continued downward, slowly so that she didn't startle her fifteen year daughter.
She finally able to touched the floor of the basement, and didn't see anyone, but she could heard a muffled whimpering. Mrs. Crawford stared around the room and found her hidden in the corner of the room, hugging her knees tightly on the ground and whimpering more frequently. Seeing her daughter like this was tearing her apart, but she held on to her composure and walked closer in a slow manner. She got a more louder whimpering as a response, causing Mrs. Crawford to stop for a moment.
"I-It's okay, p-pumpkin, I-I'm not going to hurt you," she noted as friendly as possible, but it didn't seems like it helped at all. Then, she got a closer look at her daughter and nearly threw up right there and then. Her shredded clothes, dirty and filthy, didn't do much to hide the scars on her once cute body. She didn't have any pant or skirt on, just her underwear, which is able to still do its job of hiding her private part, despite the shape it was in. She stared at the poor girl's stomach and saw how unhealthily thin she became.
Couldn't bare it anymore, she ran toward Kenya and put her in a motherly hug. Full of fear, she tried everything in her power to struggle out of her mother gripped, crying and yelling in a vast panic for a moment, but she was too weak to do successfully get out and soon become too tired from her struggles to continue her effort, leaving her to only whimper. Seeing her daughter like this, she held her closed to her body with her own tears, rubbing her back gently as she tried to comforted her in a sobbing tone, "I-It o-okay, p-pumpkin, Mommy i-isn't g-going to h-h-hurt you anymore."
She calmly picked her up and rocked her easily, as if she was a little baby, though her face was becoming more heartrending with her lips and eye trembling faster. "I-I-I s-so s-sorry, m-my little Kenya, p-please f-forgive me! P-p-please don't be a-afraid, y-your m-mommy has r-r-return...I-I am your Mommy again!" She burst out crying loudly now, hugging her closer to her body, "I-I-I A-AM S-SO, S-S-SO SORRY, P-P-PUMPKIN!!!"
Kenya slowly began to calm down when she noticed the woman, that once was her mother, was having a crying fit. She held up her head and found something she didn't expect from her: a face full of emotional pains and regrets. "M-m-mom, i-is that you...i-is it r-really y-y-you?"
She tried her best to straighten her voice, though not completely with success, "Y-yes, P-pumpkin. I-I am n-not e-entirely m-myself, but y-your Mommy is back to her o-o-old k-kind self. P-pumpkin, I-I n-never meant to h-hurt you, I...I j-just l-lost myself f-for a moment. H-however, n-now that I'm back, l-let b-bring you upstairs, so that I-I can treat those wounds and feed you. Y-you a-also need a good bath and some clean clothes on."
She carefully brought Kenya upstairs and to her room, and then gently put her down on her bed. "Pumpkin, c-could you lift your shirt up f-for a moment, so I c-can see how b-bad those s-scars are?" Reluctantly did as she was told, still feeling a bit nervous around her mother, she lifted her shirt up to her averaged size B-Cup bra. Mrs. Crawford carefully run her hands just above her midsection, never was touching the skin for fears of causing her pain. She turned her head in disgusted, feeling that previous of throwing up beginning to resurfaced, but she kept it down.
"Y-yep, those s-scars need medical t-treatment fast." She let out a soft growl at herself, feeling angry at what she done, "I just can't believe that I was the one responsible for this!" Kenya remained quiet, not sure how to feel, but she did felt a strong guilt from her mother. She gave a weak smile and an apologizing glaze, rubbed her daughter's head, and headed outward to get some antibiotic medicines.
Kenya was waiting patiently for about a good ten minutes before her curiosity overwhelmed her. She walked out of the door and head off through the hallway. She did her best to stay out of the light, but as she walked onward, she saw the door to the outside. She felt a strong urge to bolt out that door, even despite the sunlight and the new 'revolution' of her mother. However, before she decided to follow through with her urges, she heard banging noises from the kitchen.
She cautiously walked toward that direction, trying to draw up what left of her courage. When she reached her destination and peek out from the corner, what she saw surprise her. Her mother was repetitively banging her head on the refrigerator, crying as she was doing it, though not from the physical pain. Her mother had the medicine she was looking for in her left hand, but the other hand held a photo Kenya realized as the one recently taken before the change in the sun of the two of them happily together, the one that had been on the very refrigerator she was hitting her head on.
Mrs. Crawford stopped banging her head and just rested it on the refrigerator, sobbing and whimpering, saying the same thing over and over, "I'm a terrible mother!" After a minute, she quitted throwing a fit, just went onward to cry. She stayed like that as time goes by, until she felt something wrapped around her waist. She tilted her head and bewilderingly found Kenya hugging her body.
"M-mom, i-it's okay, r-really. I-I forgive you. So, p-please stop beating y-yourself up."
Her mother was stunned by what she said, but she shook it off and returned the hug, both of them sobbing in a relieved tone. It took some time before Mrs. Crawford returned her daughter back to her room. Having her taken clothes off, she put the medicine on the scars, causing Kenya to flinch a bit. She soothed her daughter and tried her best to distract her pain until it was finish.
Looking at her daughter's eyes, she took a gulp before she could work up the courage to make a suggestion, one that she knew might make her daughter nervous. "Pumpkin, I might have an idea to speed up the recovery process, but it will involve me...well, going into my shadow form. I know that form might bring up some bad memory, so if you don't want me to do it, I won't. However, in that form, I have an ability that created an artificial time inside a veil of shadow. Basically, that means that I can speed up or slow down time within the veil, turning five minutes into an hour inside the veil or vice verse."
Mrs. Crawford waited for the answer, knew that she was asking a lot. She could tell her daughter didn't like to see that form again, but she would like to recover a bit faster. "Mom, is it safe?"
"Yeah, my little pumpkin, you will be completely safe in it. It won't affect your biological clock or anything like that. And, normal light like from the light-bulb above us can work inside it, so you don't have to worry about being scare of the dark. I do have to refresh it from time to time, though, since it has a time limit, so you unfortunately might have to deal with my Shadow Veil. But, it is very important that I speed up your recovery, so I don't think refreshing my Shadow Veil for every fifteen minute would hurt, but it is up to you."
Kenya paused, thinking about it, and then sighed and gave a weak smile, "O-okay, then go ahead, I guess."
She returned the smile, before letting out her own sigh and morphed in front of her daughter. She heard a little whimpering, but it wasn't too bad to stop and returned back to normal. Finally, she had returned back to her Shadoe Fae's form. She opened her sad eyes toward her daughter, expecting old fear to show up.
However, as her daughter noticed something off with her form. "M-mom, your eyes...they...didn't change this time around!"
Shadoe Fae stared at her daughter in confusion, wondering what she meant by that, until she found her gaze on her daughter's mirror and discovered what she meant. Somehow, her eyes not only didn't glow, but it was actually the same eyes she had as a human. She held up her left hand to touch under her eyes, before realizing that her mouth wasn't glowing either, just a dulled dark red.
"I guess ever since I was snapped out of that stupid evil spell I was under, it must have an effect on me," she said, mostly to herself, "I wonder, though...was Becca's healing ability the one responsible for snapping me out of it? Maybe the positive energy, among with Becca's own feeling, was the cause. Heh, I got to ask Trident about that tomorrow."
A dark shadow crawled from her feet, going from one room to another, slowly crawling all over the wall and the ceiling. She heard her daughter getting a bit scared and comfortingly put her left hand on her daughter's shoulder with the most loving smile she ever shown before. It seem to done the job as Kenya calmed down, and for a moment the place become dark, until lights shown up again. The Shadow Veil had covered the whole interior of the small house at last; feeling like it can't be increased any further.
"Okay, Pumpkin, I need you to get some clean undergarment on, but don't put on any new clothes yet for a bit. I want your body to get some fresh air for a while to help your body. I'll get something for you to eat; you must be starving to dead. Rest up as best as you can, okay."
Kenya smiled and nodded, a bit more cheerful now and replied, "Okay, Mom. Thank you!"
"P-pumpkin, you don't need to thank me...after all, I-I was the one w-who did this to you in the first place. But, I will promise you, to the best of my ability, that I will never hurt you ever again! And, I just want you to know: I love you, my little pumpkin!"
"I love you too, Mom."
