Ankyra Sound and it's as if my eyes have been replaced with gasoline.

Ephraim was kidding himself to think his mother would respond to him. Much as he would have liked the cut of her humourless voice more than the unintelligible noises she made as she dragged herself toward him, he was kidding himself if he ever thought she could respond. He was too late to know whether her opinion of him could change, although the truth of it was that he was likely irredeemable in her eyes. Yet feeling her wrath slicing to his core would've been preferable to this.

Mom, he pleaded, despite knowing he could not reach her now. Ephraim couldn't help himself from stumbling toward her, ignoring the screaming of his instincts to stay away. Would it be so bad to go the way she was going when he was alone in the world anyway? At least in one way he could follow in his mother's footsteps... It was worth it if he could comfort her in her last moments.

But even though he reached for her, allowed himself to come dangerously close to her, Ephraim was on the tips of his toes, ready to pull away if her ragged body lurched for him. He was stupid in a lot of ways but Caiaphas had passed to him a strong sense of self-preservation. He would do anything to cheat death and he knew it. He reached for her in hopes he could, at the end of her life, be the son he'd never been to her when she was still cognizant, but if things went south, he was ready.