Loving a Monster

Mother has the Most Beautiful Smile

I stand on the doorstep of my mother's home, two weeks since Nick passed. Jack is beside me, so is Zalgo. All of us are looking as human as possible.

I knock hesitantly. The last time I was hear I was leaving for school, four years ago. So much has happened since.

Loud, hurried footsteps echo through the door before it's swung open, a furious, ragged mother baring down at me. For a moment, she's confused. Then she sees Zalgo, the small bag I have, and Jack. And then she's holding me, petting me, crying into my shoulder.

"Oh, my dear sweet (y/n). I thought I had lost you, too. I thought you'd run away forever. And then when (f/n) left for business with the Hunters, I thought you were dead!" She blubbers. Finally, she pulls back and wipes away her tears. "Come in, come in. Please." She keeps a hand on my shoulder, as if I might turn and run away.

We all go into the living room and sit on the couch. My mother bustles about the kitchen, making some coffee or tea. When she comes back, she hands each of us a steaming cup. I steal my nerves and take a sip. It's actually... not so bad. Still horribly revolting, but not bad.

Several minutes of tense silence pass before we all break and try to talk at once. We all laugh and my mother looks at me.

"Mother, I'm afraid I can't stay."

"Well, of course you can't. You may very well look human, sweety, but you need to go home with Zalgo and stay there." She looks and sounds shocked by the suggestion.

"And I'm afraid I don't bring good news." My voice is heavy.

I watch her face fall as she sets her cup down on the table. I open the small bag I have, pulling out a vile of ash attached to some string. Her hand goes to her mouth as she stares at it in horror.

"Nick... I found him two years ago." And so I tell her. I tell her about everything that's happened since the day at school. By the end, she's crying, cradling my brother's remnants.

I come over and hug her. We sit there for a while. Zalgo eventually comes over, too, and hugs us both. We comfort my mom as she cries for a long time. When she's pulled herself together again, she slips the necklace over her head, tucking it under her shirt. She forces the same smile I have used my entire life.

"Who's this?" She looks at Jack.

He gets up and shakes her hand. "Sorry, Ms. I'm Jack. E-eyeless Jack, that is. I'm, uh," Jack flounders.

"He's my boyfriend." I finish for him, pulling him back to sit with me on the couch.

She cocks a suspicious eyebrow. "I can't imagine that is going well, considering my daughter should be well over three hundred degrees regularly, and you being about as cold as a corpse."

We laugh at that. "Actually, we haven't had many chances to do anything past hugging." I say, extremely uncomfortable.

Mostly because we have, in fact, done some, ah, scandalous activities, though I still can't hold my form through the entire ordeal I'd like to go through with him. And both of my parents are in the room.

"Oh, I remember you. It was your blood we found in the bathroom the night before (Y/n) disappeared." She points sternly at Jack, who looks like a dear caught in headlights.

"My what?"

"You're blood." My mother insists. "We found it in the bathroom. Small droplets all around the sink and toilet."

I smile. "Sorry, yeah. He saved me from some gang-bangers that day. He got hurt, so I brought him home and fixed him."

My mom must have suddenly remembered something, because she looks horrified. For a moment, we're all silent, looking at her in confusion.

"I-I didn't, I mean, it wasn't what I did, I guess what I'm saying is did I make you..." She scrambles, looking at me like she'd killed me.

It takes a moment to piece together what she's talking about. "No." I decide. "No, it wasn't you. It was the kids at school that did it, actually. Bullies. They never got over what happened in middle school." I shrug. Gods, that seems like a lifetime ago.

"Oh, dear. It must be those girls that have been calling." She mumbles, looking towards the house phone we have.

"What?" I sit forward.

"It's nothing. Just a few rude girls that kept calling after you disappeared. Some of the messages, at first I think they were directed at you. Once I picked up, and told the young ladies to stop calling, but it only seemed to make it worse." My mom sounds faint, "But that stopped happening three years ago." She snaps back to now.

The rest of the visit is small talk, and doesn't last long before Zalgo needs to go back to his realm. Before he leaves, he kisses my mother's hand and tells her she is still forever welcome in his house. Apparently she knows how to get there, but I don't. Lovely.

"We should get going, too." I say when dad is gone.

She nods, tears in her eyes. She hugs me tightly. After four hard years, she still has a grip of steal. "Thank you, sweety. I'll visit often, but don't come here again. You'll put us both in danger. I love you." She whispers before letting go, shaking Jack's hand, and sending us off.

We're walking down the sunny street when Jack asks, "So what now?"

I smirk. "You know, I was thinking to pay some old friends a nice visit."

I look at him, and he's wearing that mischievous grin I love so much.

It only takes a few hours, but we take care of the four pests one by one. My first real kills. And, to be honest, it felt great.