Hearthway Hollow

Bishop

Nonbinary Reader x Male Monster

You visited Hearthway Hollow once on a school trip, the kind your seventh-grade class took every year. An old lumber mill there served as a working museum. Part of it showed how the timber used to be milled, and another part paid tribute to the those who had settled and founded what was now Hearthway Hollow. Yet another segment of the museum was dedicated to the wildlife conservation efforts in the area. This was your favorite part, because you got to see an actual wolf in person. It had struck you so much to be so close to a creature so big and powerful. Ever since then, it had been your dream to return to Hearthway Hollow and live out the rest of your life there.

It took some time, but eventually you made it. For years you had dealt with your parents, being taken out of their home only to be put back in. Once you turned eighteen you thought you could escape, but then your mother got sick and you became trapped in the tarpit. You worked and worked, only to have your wages blown by your drunk father. Your mother got addicted to pain pills and, well... after two years you'd had enough. You left home without a word, taking only a suitcase full of clothes and special items with you.

You got a room at the Locklear Hotel until you could find a job. It was better than your old home - it was clean, the bed was comfortable, and you didn't have to wake up to tend to your parents on a bender. The owner of the hotel, Mrs. Locklear, was nice enough to give you work around the hotel for a discount on your room. She was the first person you opened up to and allowed yourself to openly cry on.

"Pasts are hard," Mrs. Locklear told you one day. "They make futures seem difficult. But you trust an old lady when she says the future is the easy part once you let go of that anchor."

"But how do you let go?" you asked with a sob.

Mrs. Locklear grinned. "You wear it out."

Eventually, you found a job at the local pawn shop, and once you saved up some money you got a room to rent in one of the apartment buildings near the college. It was close to work, close to the bar, and it was all yours.

The pawn shop was an okay job. A little weird at times, but what pawn shop isn't a little odd? You had a regular clientele, people you had gotten to know well. Your boss wasn't picky; as long as the shop stayed clean and organized, she was pretty happy with your work.

Ruthee was a Locklear, a niece of Mrs. Locklear, and she had become one of your closest friends in Hearthway Hollow. In her early forties, Ruthee was well over six foot tall, muscled, covered in tattoos, and had vivid blue hair. Her long-term girlfriend was petite and wore Lolita fashion. An odd couple as any, they were like the parents you always daydreamed about as a kid.

"Baby," Ruthee calls to you one day from the back. "Can you show me how to back up the computer again?"

"I've showed you once a month for the past two years, how the hell do you keep forgetting?" You go back to her office and lean over her desk. "Do I need to write it down?"

Ruthee shrugs. "Probably." She smiles up at you. "By the way, what are you doing this weekend? Mimi and I would love to have you over for dinner."

You've been on a diet of fast food for about a week now. You've not gone grocery shopping and have opted for something easy. A home-cooked meal sounds like heaven.

"Please?" you ask softly.

Ruthee chuckles. "I insist. Mimi is making sushi. My baby brother is coming home, so we wanted to celebrate."

You glance down at her. "Baby brother?"

"He's a welder, so he travels a lot," Ruthee leans back in her chair. "He's coming home to roost for a while. He got a bad knee injury a while back, and I think we've finally convinced him he needs to stop working so hard."