[ WP ] Killing any creature inflicts an illness or blight upon yourself , for example killing a spider gives you a persistant itch , and killing a dog renders you paralysed for a long time . You 've just had to kill an animal that was attacking your young child , and are now suffering the consequences .

It is the one sound that can shatter a parent. In the back of their mind, buried behind the mundane everyday worries and clutter hides the fear of hearing the sound of their child's voice, their last earthly sound as it is ripped from their throat as they take their last breath. 
 
 My son lay upon the grass, the knees of his stained and his trainers kicked off as he played. The picture of childish curiosity, his head thrown back to look up at the clouds and his soft voice called out the shapes his mind formed for him. I was lounging on the sun bed set up on the patio, reading the latest trashy paper back novel, I knew I should have kept a close eye on him however my mind was whisked away on romance and the pangs of lost loves that the novel inspired. What danger could possible happen to my son, even if I was not there in mind? I believed my bodily presence would worn off any potential evil doers. 
 
 The sound of his voice, one terrible long plea was all it took destroy me. 
 
 `` Mummy!'' He cried. It was the last sound, the last mark on earth that would hold the memory of my son. It would echo though the ages, as I now sit, burning itself into my consciousness. Least I forget my folly. 
 A snake has wrapped itself around the arms of my son and plunged it's venomous fangs into his tender, pale fresh as easily as a knife passes though butter. Vivid green with a body as thick as my son's torso, this snake was fresh from the garden of Eden. Satan was taking my child from me, it seemed. It's tail trashed on the ground, mocking me to save the Apple of my world. 
 
 I gripped the hellish tail and pulled with all of my might, feeling the satisfying coil of my muscles as adrenaline surged though my body. It come free from my son with an odd squelch, red rivers oozed from the wound on his neck but I had a more pressing matter of Satan turning his wrath upon the only available Eve. 
 
 It lunged forward like a bullet, it's fangs getting stuck on the rubber insole of my shoe. A shovel that my husband had been using to do yard work was impaled in the ground, I grasped the hilt like it was Excalibur and brought it down upon the snake's head. There was a sickening crunch and it was over, the life drained out of the snake's coils, lifeless as a piece of string. 
 
 I turned toward the body of my son with relief coursing though me, I had won! I had saved my son! I fell to my knee beside him and scooped him tiny body into my arms, watching how his head lolled to the side as it was made of lead. 
 
 If you have ever had a moment where your mind seems to disconnect and the pounding of your heart is all that you can hear. This is what that moment felt like, I could have died a thousand deaths in those few precious moments before it hit me. 
 
 The sound of my Son's voice pushed against my ear drums, a soft whisper that I had to strain to hear over the gasping on my breath and the tears that flooding down my cheeks. His plea sounded again, this time crescendoing to a ear spilling scream. 
 
 `` MUMMY!'' 
 
 I looked down at the life my husband and I had created, our own piece of heaven that Satan had taken from me. His lips were still, no voice was coming from his throat. 
 
 His voice screamed again and then I knew I would be hearing it until the day I died. It would not stop until it has engraved itself on the inside of my skull and the whole world would hear of my shame. 
 
 My next door neighbours laughter danced over the fence. A twisted benediction for my Son's body.
