My Mother's an Alien

My Mother's an Alien

I pulled onto the M25 in front of a lorry, harsh bibbing ensued and I ignored it.
How else was I suppose to get on here, I thought angrily, no bloody bugger lets me
through. I could have been queuing for hours, I thought glancing in the rear view at
the traffic that was at a stop on the junction. Quickly I tried to pull over into the next
lane and get away from the lorry driver.
Only an hour or so to go till I get to Mums, God knows why she had insisted I
spend my 25th Birthday with her to celebrate. The woman had never took an interest in me before now, avoiding birthdays like the plague, usually avoiding me like the plague. I could count on two hands the number of times I had done something with my Mum, I had spent most of time with Nanny Tess. She may have had a face like a camel’s backside but she had a heart of gold and loved me very much, although she actively despised my mum. I felt the familiar lump in my throat then. I missed Nanny Tess so much and it had seemed that as soon as I was able to take care of myself her heart gave up, I had been 12.
A car swerved in front of me bringing me back to the present and I honked my horn twice, what was he, a bloody nutter, you can’t just pull out in front of someone and hope they move out the way. My road rage dissipated quickly as I realised I had just done exactly that. Nerves I told myself, just nerves, this would be the first time my Mum had been there for my birthday, arranging a meal and everything. Despite her lack of mothering skills, I loved her deeply, she was my mother and she was truly beautiful. She had hardly aged at all since she had had me.
Squashing thoughts of my Mum I switched the radio on and flipped to Radio 1,
Scott Mills was replaying a wind up with an Indian takeaway. I laughed along loudly
and let myself go, no more worries, today was a good day.

I arrived at my Mums two and half-hours later, extremely sweaty and grumpy,
having been at a stand still most of the way and patience is definitely a virtue that I lack. I knew some of my grumping was nerves, this would be the first time I’d seen my Mum for a couple of years, I can’t even remember the last time I spoke to her on the phone.
I pulled up in front of the double garage and looked up at my child hood home. The place was beautiful, an old Georgian style house with 6 bedrooms and 12
bathrooms, a fact that still surprised me, why would anyone need 12 bathrooms? As gorgeous as the house, or mansion more like, was it still felt intimidating and it
certainly didn’t have that homely feel to it. But the apartment above the garage was
another story, that sparked a warm feeling inside, memories of baking cookies and
eating crap in front of Disney films.
I got out my car and slammed the door, making my presence known. Butterflies in my stomach I approached the tall dark wood front door and knocked. I waited,
shuffling from side to side. God woman hurry up, I just wanted to get this over with.
Now I was here I wondered whether I had made a mistake coming.
I heard the rat tat tat of high heels and held my breath, the moment of truth had
arrived. Did I still love Mum unconditionally?
The rat tat tat stopped and the door was flung wide open.
“Jadie, darling. Happy Birthday, a whole quarter of a century, you lucky thing, I
would kill to be that young again!”
I was pulled into a tight embrace and for the first time ever my Mum hugged me. I
could smell her sweet perfume, vanilla, woody and expensive. I settled in to the embrace, tears in my eyes. My Mum was hugging me and was actually pleased to see me. Stepping back she looked me over head to toe, drinking me in. I felt awkward under that gaze, under that scrutiny, but nothing could ruin the euphoric feeling inside.
“You look so well darling, come in, come in. It’s been too long, but we’ll make up
for it tonight, won’t we sweetheart?”
Mum looked at me with that wonderful smile lighting up her face, her blue eyes
glowed with happiness as she waited patiently for me to say something.
“I’m so pleased to see you Mum, you’re right it’s been far too long.”
“Come Darling, you go and sit in the lounge. What can I get you to drink? A bit of
the hard stuff or would you prefer a glass of wine?”
“Wine, white would be great, but just one I’ll be driving tonight.”
“Nonsense, it’s your birthday, have a drink and you can stay here tonight, in your
old room. That’d be great.”
With that Mum hustled me into the lounge and plonked me on the sofa and then
was gone in a rustle of skirts, off to get my wine.
I looked around the room, in 9 years nothing had changed. The same old
chocolate leather suite dominated the room, same original dark wooded floorboards,
and the only thing that was different was the 50-inch plasma TV screen that hung on
the wall. Shocked I realised that in all this time, the room looked hardly used and
very dusty. I hit the armrest and a cloud of dust formed, coughing I moved to sit on
the settee.
“Here you go, sweetie”
I took the proffered glass of wine and relaxed back. Taking a long mouthful, we
just stared at each other. I racked my brain for something to say, anything at all, this was one of those uncomfortable silences.
“How've you been, Mum?”
“I’ve been good, feeling tired a lot lately, must be getting older.”
A dark looked crossed Mum’s face and she looked away. I felt sorry for her, the
one child hood memory I had was of Mum was always looking nice, always off to
spas for the latest anti aging treatment.
“You look great Mum, you always do. You’ve hardly aged a day since I last saw
you.”
Mum laughed then, a deep-throated sound that reverberated through me. I sat still, I didn't think I’d ever heard her laugh before. I shook my head completely amazed, this was not the aloof woman I remembered. I felt myself warm to the fact that after all these years I could finally have a proper relationship with my Mum, the one thing I had always dreamed of.
“Oh, Jane sweetie, you are so funny, if only you knew”
“I know Mum, you were always worried about your age. I remember you going off
for all the newest treatments and that.”
The dark looked crossed her face briefly and then she smiled. That smile lit up my world and I remember trying my very hardest to do anything that would make her smile like that at me.
“Come through to the dining room, I have prepared your favourite dinner, a nice
roast chicken with all the trimmings and apple pie and custard for dessert.”

I followed Mum through the archway to the dining room and looked at the feast laid
out before me. Five different types of potatoes, ten different types of vegetables and
six or seven different types of stuffing.
“This looks fantastic Mum! Bet it tastes just as good as well”
“Well, tuck in Darling. There are loads to be eaten up. I just wanted to cook my
daughter a very special meal for her 25th birthday, so enjoy”
Excited now, I dug in, sampling all the different potatoes that were on offer. My
mouth watered as we passed the platters between us.
“You’re not eating much, mum?”
“Oh, you know how it is, the older you get the easier it is to put on weight. Plus I’m saving all the room for dessert”
“Mmmmm dessert, I’m looking forward to that”
Mum smiled at me and we carried on filling up on all the trimmings. The food was
lovely and despite myself I was impressed with Mum’s cooking skills. I think this may have been the first meal she cooked me. I shrugged off the resentment and tried to just enjoy the here and now. But as I watched Mum watch me eat, whilst she hardly touched a thing, I started to feel uneasy.
I poured us both another glass of wine while we chatted, dinner heavy in our
bellies, well heavy in mine at least. Small talk was coming more easily now, I loved
filling in Mum on my life and how I was over the moon with the Animal Shelter I had
opened up. I was doing most of the talking, but I was enjoying myself.

“Now dinners gone down, would you like some dessert? I thought we could sit in
the living room and relax.”
“That sounds great, I love apple pie.”
Standing up I tipped slightly to the side and laughed as I tried to straighten myself. I looked at the three empty bottles of wine on the table, God, I hadn’t realised how much I’d drank.
“More wine?”
“Yeah, sure, why not? You’re only a quarter of a century once”
I watched my Mum smile and walk off towards the kitchen, I looked down at all the
dirty plates on the table and shivered. I had a gnawing feeling in the pit of my
stomach and I felt very light headed. Holding a hand out to steady myself I used the wall to help me to the living room.
Collapsing on the settee I stared at the fire my Mum must have started at some
point. The fireplace was huge and had a large spit going across it, Mum had kept the spit as it kept the character of the house. The feeling in the pit of my stomach was turning to cold ice fear, something wasn’t right. I tried to push myself up and realised I couldn’t feel my legs, slowly I felt a numbness take over my body all the way to my head, I opened my mouth to cry out and nothing happened. Terror gripped me as I realised I was paralysed, the dreams came rushing back then, my worst nightmare was not being able to move. How many times had I woke in a cold sweat because I’d dreamt I was unable to move. My chest tightened and my breathing became laboured, God I couldn’t breath, I was going to die. Where was my Mum?
Just then she walked in, fear enveloped me completely as I stared into her red
burning eyes. The realisation dawned that my own Mother had done this to me. My eyes followed her across the room, she sat opposite me on the floor in front of the fire. The woman in front of me was not beautiful, her eyes glowed red and her teeth were all fangs double layered pushing her lips back from her mouth in a horrific grin.
The rest of her was human, it was just the face that betrayed her true colours.
“Relax, it will all be over soon. I drugged your wine with my saliva, you see it is
deadly to humans, although a little slow taking effect.”
She stared at me and I couldn’t tear my gaze away from those eyes. Briefly the
thought crossed my mind that this was probably the same fate my father had
suffered, he probably had never run off with another woman. I felt the tears then, my
God what was she?
“I am your mother, well at least I did give birth to you. I was most disappointed to discover you were human, I had to carry you around for a whole nine months in
stead of the Endorian 4 weeks. Most aggravating, I must say. I had been quite
looking forward to another of my kind, especially as I will be stranded here for at least another year. It will take my family 55 years to get here.”
She looked at me then and nodded to herself, getting up she stoked the fire and
tested the spit. An awful thought formed, was she going to eat me? She laughed
then, an eerie reminder from earlier that evening.
“Yes, you’ve quite the brain there, I am going to eat you. Nearly time. This is the
one thing I love about Earth, no shortage of food here, but I do only have to eat every
twenty five years so there’s no chance of the Human population becoming extinct.
But once my family is here, maybe the whole race of Endorians could re-locate here. That was what I was sent out for, to look for a new source of food as our supply was running low. And then I crash landed right into the richest food source ever!”
That laugh again. She put the poker beside her and turned back round to face me, teeth bared in a snarl.
“You’re a tough little thing aren’t you?”
Growling she stormed from the room. I watched her leave and for the first time
ever prayed there was a God and that He or She would see fit to get me the hell out
of here. In utter defeat I flung my head back against the settee and screamed
silently. Sound came out. Shocked I tried again, there it was, barely, but it was there, a slight moan. I wiggled my toes and my fingers, slowly but surely the numbness was receding and I could feel life flooding through me. Within seconds I felt energised, more alive than I had ever felt. I knew what I had to do; she would kill me without a second thought.
As quietly as possible I leant forward and grabbed the poker. Laying back I closed my eyes and stilled my breathing. I heard her footstep cross the landing and come into the living room. I felt her lean over me and even in the darkness behind my lids I could still see two glowing pinpricks of light. Just a little more, I told myself as Mum leant forward.
“Almost gone, darling”
Not yet, not yet, now! Lunging forward I knocked my Mother on her arse and brought the poker from behind me, staring up at me I saw her mouth widen into an o of shock.
“No, no, no, this can’t be. You should be dead!”
“Night Mum”
I swung the poker round hard and nearly knocked her head clean off her shoulders. Blood spattered everywhere, I swung hard again and this time her head went, rolling off and on to the floor with a loud thump. Blood flooded everywhere, soaking me from head to foot. I stared at what was left of my Mother and felt no remorse. I watched till her eyes stopped glowing, then I knew she was dead.
I was suddenly sickened at what I had done and ran from the room, from the
house, slipping and sliding on pools of my Mum's blood. Feeling the fresh air hit my
face, I stumbled and collapsed by my car, heaving up the lovely dinner Mum had
cooked. I lent my head back against the car and laughed and laughed and laughed. On the verge of hysteria now I felt the tears come and silently rocked back and forth.

After what seemed like an age I realised my car keys were in my bag which was in my Mum’s house. I had to go in and get them. Standing on the doorstep I peered in, I could see my bag sitting on a little occasion table, only three or four steps in to the room. Counting to ten I made a run and grab, dashing back to the car I fought the urge to look at the remains in the living room.
I got in my car and slammed the door, thankful for the first time ever that my Mum
had no neighbours. I started the car, put the headlights on and in the dim light
realised just how much blood I was covered in. I knew I should be disgusted,
sickened, but I wasn’t. I actually felt pretty good.
Pulling away I glanced in the rear view mirror and wiped some of the blood off my
face.
Red glowing eyes stared back at me.

But thankfully no fangs.


The end.