"Baby. I'm naked." Celeste said amidst laughter.
Ives caught himself before he could eyeroll.
"Mom. I'm sorry. I didn't think what I made would have this issue." Ives apologised as he scuffled around looking for any spare clothing they could use.
"Baby, It's fine. You made it to heal our bodies. The last time I checked clothes weren't part of our bodies." Celeste consoled him.
She couldn't help acknowledging the ridiculousness of the situation. Here she was with her son after being dead for god knows how long and both of them were nude in the same room.
"This feels like the opening to some weird adult film." She suddenly blurted out and Ives coughed and looked away.
Celeste hearing her words only after they had left her mouth didn't know what to say to normalize the situation.
"Ummm... It's not that..."
She rushed to explain herself buChaptert Ives had already began laughing.
Celeste breathed a sigh of relief.
"You're exactly like how I remembered you."
Ives' words were beyond accurate, he remembered Celeste as the mom who would point at random people and whisper whimsical narratives of what she believed their lives were.
A man walking on street could suddenly become an amnesiac alien trying to adapt to human society while trying to understand the intricate processes of how to use our toilets and somehow this explained why said person had a grumpy look.
Little Ives could laugh on for days that spark died when she did then suddenly that bright colourful world became a lot more scarier and brutal.
Celeste watched Ives wait in place, contemplating something only he would know about. His face was hidden by his palm, it looked as if he was trying to compose himself after the laughter but she knew immediately that he was still reeling from a lifetime of pain without her to get him through it.
Suddenly she didn't care about her naked body and went behind her son and pulled him into a tight hug.
She pressed her warm body unto his allowing him to experience the sensory outline of her uncovered form.
Celeste wanted every part of him to remember her what it felt like for her to be near.
"My Baby Boy. I'm so sorry."
Ives slowly turned his face to meet hers, she saw wet streaks running down his cheeks leftover from tears he cried where she couldn't see.
Celeste felt a sharp pain in her chest seeing him like this, the boy she carried for nine months willing to raise him even when his father wasn't willing to be a part of their lives.
She fought through labour, built a warm home for him to grow up in, laboured late hours ensuring that one day her work with Mister Carpenter could a vastly better life that she ever had.
Only to have that chance taken from her, the memory of being stabbed multiple times overlapped in her mind. One when Ives was but a boy waiting for her to reach him a few blocks down and the other when she saw an unfamiliar white haired gentleman moving towards her with desperation. Both ended with her being stabbed by masked individuals but the second time was different he could bring her back.
Celeste licked up the salty trails of tears that ran down his eye, she did this when he was younger to stop him from crying further.
After doing this reaffirmed her love for him.
"I haven't done anything to deserve this second chance but I swear on my life to never let anything separate us again."
She kissed his forehead.
"I Love you, My child."
Ives wrapped his arms around her waist and felt her not briefly but deeply, ingraining her presence into every inch of his senses.
"I Love you mother."
Celeste laughed happily when she heard this.
"We're a family again."
"Yeah..." Ives agreed with her but still reminded her of the stakes. "...but none of this will last if we're not careful."
Ives placed his mother on the bed, deciding to use his power to solve their shared problem.
Celeste got to witness her son's supernatural ability with stunning clarity.
It barely took a second, the room grew brighter and the bulbs came to life without warning. Celeste's hairs stood on end as an invisible surge poured out from Ives whose form briefly resembled a silk haze before an eruption burst out of him with inconceivable speed. Everywhere shone white for a mere nanosecond and when things came to Celeste was standing in a room that had undergone a full makeover no longer dusty, dark and ragged hideout they met it as. It looked clean and posh and in the center of it were both of them.
Ives now dressed in a long black lion mane trench coat, black shirt and trousers.
And her in a warm sweater, black pants and cute white boots.
Ives brought out a pair of glasses and placed it over her eyes.
"In case, you still need it."
Celeste beamed, "How convenient. Thank you my Love."
------------
"Sinata by Eris Vöndel"
The piece was called and Isolde played it out. Her fingers trembled, gliding across the violin strings like it was performing a gentle dance.
The entire hall was silent, enraptured by the majesty of the atmosphere her piece created.
She was stunning and everyone felt that. And no one else more than her father who sat at the VIP seat listening and observing.
His was a mixture of love, sorrow and suspicion, after that call with seemingly another copy of his daughter he hadn't been able to return to the normal pace of things.
It was impossible for it to have been a prank call and when he even tried to confirm all traces of the call existing had vanished.
He hoped to God that experience was just an illusion created by his overworked mind.
"Excuse me." He said to Sabine sitted beside him.
"Of course, be back soon."
He moved carefully through the almost empty hallway lit up by thousands of sparkling bulbs towards the bathroom.
But he bumped into an old friend arriving late for the recital.
"Faust. Always fashionable late I see."
"Shouldn't the father of the star be watching her play?" The old man jokingly questioned as he hugged him.
"I have beem out of it lately so I came outside to take a breather."
He explained.
"The most famous scientist on Earth is anxious of something. Hopefully a humble physicist like myself can help." Faust offered.
"I suspect that the world as we see it can very well be an illusion."
"Do you believe that such is possible creating such a detailed physical experience so convincing it is almost impossible to disprove?" Faust took a jab at him.
He stood unsure of how to answer.
"I do too, it is actually part of what I am currently working on though I can't reveal too much but what I can do is to give you this."
Faust placed medicine bottle in his hand.
"It is a herbal blend, it reinvigorates a weakening mind."
"Thank you." Just as he was about to collect it, Faust pulled him into a hug and whispered in his ear.
"Take it in the bathroom, read the cap first."
Then Faust left with a smile.
He walked into the large men's bathroom which was thankfully empty and sparkling clean.
Standing before the mirror over the sink, he unscrewed the cap and read what was under it.
WE ARE TRAPPED. DO NOT DRAW SUSPICION TO YOURSELF. TAKE ONLY THE PILL WITH A RED BAND ON IT. AND AFTER YOU DO UNFOCUS YOUR GAZE, BLINK FOUR TIMES THEN LOOK.
His heartbeat spiked but he kept his composure, found the right pill and took it.
He unfocused his gaze, blinked the correct number of times and looked straight ahead into the mirror then his eyes widened in horror at what he saw.
He returned to the recital, went home with his family then entered his office in the middle of the night repeated the same procedure and saw it hidden above everything a colossal stretch of pulsing flesh mass littered with human remains who seemed to still be active though now with a dull gaze that studied everything without much concern, most of their faces were covered by a kind of silk outgrowth like a kind of fungal growth.
'None of this is real.' He said within himself.