<h4>Chapter 412: 412-He Wants Me To y My Mother</h4>


    <strong>Clementine:</strong>


    Without realizing what I was doing, I came out from behind Ian’s back and rushed toward the clown. I wrapped my arms around her and cried hysterically.


    "Clementine! No!" Ian yelled, getting surrounded by the clowns. He started to fight them. I knew it. I heard the groans, the growls, and the howling.


    The clown wrapped her arms around me, and I smiled. Even though her nails dug deeper into my back, I did not break the hug.


    I lifted my head from her chest to look at her face and smile at her. However, she began to scratch my back, causing me pain and making my blood pour out.


    Then someone snatched me away from her. The way he pushed her made me scream.


    "No!"


    My hand reached toward her, but Ian put me over his shoulder, and the next thing I knew, he bolted outside the theater.


    Wended on the road. My mind went numb, and my eyes filled with tears of desperation.


    The clowns reached the windows and stood there watching us, and she was one of them.


    "What were you thinking, Clementine?" Ianined, growling. But I could not look at him. My eyes stayed on that clown.


    I got up from the ground to run toward her, and Ian wrapped his arms around me, stopping me.


    "What is wrong with you, Clementine? Tell me," heined as I cried. I raised my finger to point at her, slowly reaching toward the window while he held me tight so I would not go inside. I pointed at her through the ss and turned to look at Ian.


    "That is my mom," I whispered.


    "I had a feeling my mother was here because I found her pendant, but I did not know she had turned into a monster, and that it was on the dark side of the north," I stated that after calming down, I had cried for 20 straight minutes while standing in front of her shaking and shivering bed.


    I remembered thest time I had seen her was when I was a little child. I sniffled as I watched my mother’s smile frozen in a creepy position.


    "Come here," Ian remarked, grabbing my arm and pulling me toward him while gently rubbing my back.


    I hid my face on his chest and cried. The fact that she became a monster that nobody wanted to look at hurt me deeply.


    "Why do you think she turned into this?" I asked him, sniffling hard.


    "I do not think it is up to them to decide. Most of the time," Ian replied.


    I broke the hug so that I could turn around and look at her again. My hand gently grazed over the window.


    "Ian, we said we would clean the dark side of the North. Does that mean we will get her killed too?" I asked him, turning around to look at him with my head tilted.


    The way he looked so concerned just from the way I looked at him gave me goosebumps.


    I did not want to put him through so much stress and so many tests, but I needed to know. I needed to know what would happen to my mother now.


    "I do not think she is alive," he whispered, and I broke down again. As soon as I started to drop to my knees, he rushed to me and held me in ce.


    "But I am sure that wherever she is," he began, but I forced him back and got up, pointing at the mirror and at the ss window, even tapping on it. "This is where she is, Ian. She is in there. She is not dead," I hissed, huping as I ced a hand on my chest.


    I felt like my heart was stopping at that point.


    "Clementine, please calm down." He tried to step toward me again, but I kept pushing him away while I rubbed my chest and turned to look at my mother, my hand on the ss window.


    "This is not fair. If we kill them, then she will be gone." I paused as I rested my forehead against the ss, getting as close to her as I could.


    There was makeup on her face, white powder and red lipstick like a clown would wear, but she was not a clown.


    She was a mother who had faced so much horror in her life just to keep her children safe.


    "Then she will be gone," I repeated, gently running my hand up and down the ss.


    "Do you think this is what she wants to be?" As soon as he said that, I stopped crying and lifted my head from the window.


    Baxter approached me from behind while I looked straight into my mother’s eyes.


    Then he tore open the shirt on my back, causing me to gasp and slowly turn to look at him.


    "Look at yourself," he told me, turning me around and then moving my head to the side so I could see my reflection in the window.


    The scratches were big, and they looked like they were done to harm me. Blood poured from them.


    "Do you think she looks at this and is proud of it?" he raised his voice, pointing at my mother this time.


    "Do you think she wanted to kill you? She did it because she is not herself, and you wanting to keep her alive, do you think that is fair?" he scolded, ring at me for refusing to put her to rest.


    "But she is my mother. How can I kill her?" I asked him, tears leaving my eyes as I faced him. The cold wind started to touch my bare back and the wound there.


    "Clementine, you can set her free. Your mother, from the way you are, I can tell she was kind. Every person she harmed here, deep down I bet she regrets it, because she is your mother, because she must be that gentle of a person," he remarked, gently rubbing his thumb over my cheek.


    My head turned toward my mother again. Little hups still left my lips.


    "I want to be alone with her for a moment," I told Ian. In fact, I demanded it, and he began to shake his head, so I faced him again.