Monstrous ➙ Theo Raeken

One Shot #1

•Set two days after the Eichen House break in •

Corey Bryant felt like he was dying. His skin felt like it was still on fire from the way that Parrish had slammed into him and his head was a muddled mess as he stared sleepily at the ceiling of the room that he had taken at Evelyn's house. It wasn't much but it was more of a home to him in the last few weeks than his parent's home had been to him for sixteen years.

Corey had never really imagined what a proper home would feel like until it was within his reach. Home wasn't a building to sleep in and rest, it was a place that was surrounded with unconditional love and affection.

Love and affection that he had been given because of the woman that was applying a cool and damp cloth to his forehead.

He had been wary of Clarissa Bane at first. The older girl had been nothing more than a peer mentor to him from the moment that he had sat down in the library at Beacon Hills High School until she wasn't. Clarissa was the type of person that weaseled her way into someone's life and made plans to stay there indefinitely.

He had heard he rumors about the older girl from the second that his foot had stepped into the school hallway. People had spoken about how the people that had grown close to her and her friends disappeared or died from close proximity. Especially after the deaths of Allison and Aiden.

He could remember the way that the auburn haired girl had retreated into herself after the death of her friends and he was expecting her to leave him the same way when his tutoring was over with. Something that never happened.

It started out slowly and he hadn't noticed it at first because when Clarissa put her mind to something, there was no stopping her.

It started out with the messages that encouraged him to meet her at her house for tutoring because it would make her more comfortable. He didn't mind it because everyone knew that you shouldn't be at the school after a certain point because of the strange occurrences that seemed to happen there after dark.

It was at that point that Corey had been submerged into the lives of the Bane family.

He had never really spoken to his classmates before he was tutored by Clarissa and Delcan Bane was no exception to that rule. Corey had flown underneath the radar to hide the way that he would show up with occasional bruises so that he wouldn't have to give excuses to the people he cared about. That's why he had chosen to remain invisible to his peers just like he seemed to be at home.

Delcan Bane was welcoming to the slightly shorter and frailer boy immediately. He had befriended him and made sure that the boy was no longer alone as he walked down the hallways in school. He helped him with lacrosse and vouched for him to join the team even though the deadline was past the date.

Which led to the next action that Corey Bryant noticed Clarissa did sneakily.

Lacrosse was expensive and Corey had saved up all of his money that he earned from his summer job to pay for the team equipment that he would need. He knew that his parents wouldn't pay for it and some days he wondered if they even remember that they had a son when they weren't yelling at him.

He noticed the way that Clarissa would sneak money into his text books a month or two into their tutoring sessions. He had tried to put it back into her own things but the next day the money would be back where it was and at some point he realized that arguing with the girl would not do him any good.

He didn't know if the money had come from her parents or her and her brother had combined their allowances together to help him out but Corey knew that he couldn't repay them for the kindness that they were showing him.