"The sun bursts through in unlooked-for directions!  Strong thoughts fill you, and confidence - you smile!  You forget you are sick, as I forget you are sick, you do not see the medicines - you do not mind the weeping friends - I am with you, I exclude others from you - there is nothing to be commiserated, I do not commiserate - I congratulate you."

      "Yeah...congratulations," Pierce muttered, crumpling up the note and tossing it in the air.

 

      The walk to the cleaning supply closet seemed endless for Pierce.  Not just because it was freezing outside and the cold wind kept stinging his face and ears, but because he never expected to have to do this.  Cleaning up dead bodies at his resort?  Why was this happening?  He felt like he didn't deserve this fate, and it just made him all the more angrier at the vicious killer who was murdering innocent people.        

      He finally reached the lobby and angrily stamped the snow off of his boots, listening to the echo that bounced off of the walls.  He wanted to be true to his word, so he would just grab a mop, some plastic bags and carpet cleaner and hit the road.  The closet was dark when he opened the door, so he fumbled for the light switch and flicked it on.

      Pierce let out a surprised gasp when he found himself staring at a woman who was tied up and gagged on the floor.  She squealed against the duct tape on her mouth and thrashed around, as if to ask him for help.

      "Oh my God..." he bent down next to her and began working at the knots of the rope that held her wrists together behind her back.  "I'm going to get you out of here, okay?  Don't worry.  It'll be alright."

      She watched him intently through a pair of dark brown eyes, not saying a word, but instead holding still as he undid the knots and freed her wrists.  It was then at that moment that she knew...this wasn't just anybody who was helping her.  This was her son.

      Once she was able to move, she quickly ripped the duct tape from her mouth and grabbed Pierce's shoulders, looking at him and studying his handsome features.  She could feel her heat beat start to speed up as her breaths grew quicker.  Gently, she placed her hands on the sides of his face and stared into his eyes.

      "Pierce," she whispered breathlessly.  "Pierce Gabriel Callahan."

      He sucked the air into his chest alarmingly, seizing her wrists and pulling her warm fingers off of his cheek.  The look on his face was one of complete fright, and he slowly backed away from this strange woman.

      "How...how do you know my name?" he asked cautiously.  "Who are you?"

      "I'm...well, I don't really know how else to say this except to come out and say it directly.  I'm your mother, Pierce."

       He was positively frozen.  He wasn't even sure he had heard her right, but the look on her face told him that he had.  Yet, he didn't know whether or not to believe her.  She might very well be crazy or delusional, because there was no way that he had found his mother in the cleaning supply closet now, after twenty years of longing for her and hoping that she'd just magically turn up someday.  Now, all of a sudden, some woman was claiming to be his mother?  Did she even know him?  Where had she been all of this time?  She couldn't possibly understand how many hours he had spent wishing that his mother would come and see him and tell him how much she loved him - if she understood, she wouldn't have waited until now to acknowledge his existence.

      "You're not my mother," he said in a low voice.  "So don't tell me these horrible lies!  I have no clue what you're even doing here, but - "

      "Look at me!"  She grabbed his face again and forced him to lock eyes with her.  "I am your mother, Pierce.  And I've waited a long time to see you."

      "You can't be!"  He shoved his hand into his pocket and took out his wallet, going through it until he had found the worn black and white photo.  "You just can't be my mother, because..."  He stopped talking when he held the picture up to her face - and noticed that it was an exact match.  The eyes, the nose, the full lips...it was all the same.  The only difference was that she was older now, but still just as beautiful.

      "No..."  Pierce dropped the picture and scrambled up from the ground, backing away even further.  "No...I mean...why?  I mean...how...how could you be here right now?  Do you even know what I've been through the past twenty years?!"

     "Yes, I do, because I've - "

     "No, you don't!"  he exploded.  "You think you do, but you don't.  Did you know that when I was five, I had a birthday party - with just my dad and me, because I had no friends - and when I blew out the candles on my cake, I wished for a mother because all of the other kids had one?"

     "Pierce - "

     "Did you know that when I was eight, we had a Mother's Day party in my classroom at school and all of the other kids had mothers that came and brought homemade cupcakes and brownies and they all laughed together, but I didn't.  I sat alone at my desk and pouted because I felt so left out."

     "You have to understand - "

     "Did you know that when I was eleven, my sixth grade class had a mother-son banquet, and guess who was left to stand in the corner, all dressed up with no mother to dance with?  I'll give you one guess, mom...mother...Lorelei, whatever your fucking name is!"  He jammed his fists into his eyes, trying to hide the fact that the tears were beginning to flow freely.  He couldn't remember the last time that he had cried because, according to his father, it wasn't considered "manly" to show emotion, so he always held it bottled up inside.

      "Pierce, I'm sorry!" Lorelei exclaimed as the tears spilled from her eyes as well.  "But there are a lot of things that you don't know.  I just...I came here because I heard about Nicholas' death and now, more than ever, I wanted to fix things with you and see how wonderful my son turned out."

      "I'm a fucking basket case, no thanks to you!  I mean, I lead a sheltered life on this God-forsaken ski resort, I've never had a best friend for more than six months because no one wants to make the drive to come play at this house, my father hated me and basically told me my only purpose in life was to take over this resort when he died and, oh yes, I'm gay.  Yeah, I'm sure you'd want to write all of your friends telling them that one, mother."

      "Pierce..." Lorelei trailed off, getting up from the ground and coming over to him.  She placed a comforting hand on his arm, but he just shook it off and turned away from her.  "I don't care about that.  I just care about you, and I want to get to know you...and I hope that someday you'll forgive me."

      Slowly, he turned around and faced her.  He didn't bother to wipe away the tears that ran down his cheek, but instead just gazed at her for a moment, contemplating what she just said.  More than anything, he wanted to hug her - she looked so soft and warm, just like he had imagined.  Then, before he knew it, he had wrapped his arms around her and leaned his head on her shoulder, even though he was considerably taller.

      "Oh, Pierce.." she sniffled and hugged him tightly, not wanting to let go.  "I have to tell you something.  About why I left, twenty years ago..."

      Suddenly, the door opened and because Lorelei was facing the entrance, she was able to see who came in.  She screamed, and Pierce didn't even have time to turn around before a large, blunt object came down on his head.

      And then it went black.