Before I go on, I just want to dedicate this chapter to Mystic Water Bender3, who not only consistently reviews my stories (thank you so much!) but has also written a Bat Boy story herself, one that far exceeds mine in excellence (especially this one - but I think you all know my everlasting shame about this one). Go read it!

CHAPTER 9

The other ducks stared, and said, "Look, here comes another brood! And what a queer looking object one of them is; we don't want him here," and then one flew out and bit him in the neck.

"Let him alone," said the mother; "he is not doing any harm."

"Yes, but he is so big and ugly," said the spiteful duck "and therefore he must be turned out. The others are very pretty children, all but that one; I wish his mother could improve him a little."

"He is not very pretty" replied the mother; "but he has a very good disposition, and swims as well or even better than the others. I think he will grow up pretty," and then she stroked his neck and smoothed the feathers, saying, "I think he will grow up strong, and able to take care of himself."

- The Ugly Duckling


Ellis looked up as the sobbing woman dumped herself into his chair, the piece of furniture creaking slightly under her weight.

"May I help you, Ms.…?"

The woman gave a loud sniff, blew her nose into a large handkerchief, then whimpered, "Mrs. Taylor. I hear you are the owner of the horrible bat freak that bit my poor baby boy?"

"Was the owner, Mrs. Taylor, and I must offer my condolences about your son. I did try to warn you, of course…"

"And you were right!" the woman wailed, enormous tears sliding down her face and neck. "Oh Mr. Ellis, you've gotta save my poor baby! He's lyin' in the hospital, writhin' and shriekin' his dear head off – why, it just makes my heart break!"

"I know Mrs. Taylor."

"And that Meredith Parker! She's the one been hidin' the thing in his house all this time! And she won't put it down!"

"I'm so sorry Mrs. Taylor," Ellis said soothingly. "You know I've wanted it dead ever since it escaped. But you needn't worry. I will be dropping by with the sheriff tomorrow morning. We will pick up the creature and have it killed. And," he said with great generosity, "I will give you its head for display.

"Oh…Thank you Mr. Ellis!" Mrs. Taylor continued between long sobs. "Oh please, kill the bat freak! Help me save my son, and keep my other children safe!"

Ellis nodded gently, then left his desk and placed a comforting hand on the woman's shoulder. She cried even louder, grabbing his hand and sobbing into it as well.

"Don't worry, Mrs. Taylor. By this time tomorrow, the Bat Boy will be dead."


There were only a couple of days before the sheriff would come, and Shelley devoted all her time to making up for her little tantrum. She and Meredith worked together constantly to drill him in speech, in manners, in social mores.

And gradually, Shelley came to see the burgeoning intelligence inside the boy. He was a genius - there was no other way to say it. He read, it seemed, at twice the speed of others; he absorbed every bit of knowledge. Before long he was the one tutoring Shelley in her homework, though always in a shy and diffident manner, as if she were the smarter one.

Those were what happened during the daytime.

When Shelley had steadfastly refused to talk to him, she had also taken to locking the door to her bedroom. During the nights, she would sometimes hear him walk about outside, never coming in, merely waiting. As the week neared its end though, he started to give up. And the nightmares came back with a vengeance, increasing in frequency as the days were counted down. Sometimes Shelley would hear her mother go running to his room after a particularly vivid one.

Now, she let him back in. Sometimes she was awake when he came, and he would lie next to her and sleep peacefully. Sometimes she was asleep, and would wake in the morning to find him curled in some spot in her room. Either way, her presence seemed to reassure him, more so even than Meredith's, which Shelley found quite puzzling. Sometimes Meredith would try to get him to actually talk a bit about his dreams, but he would shake his head and run from the room. He was ashamed of his nightmares, ashamed of his fears and of the memories it brought back. He kept it locked up inside his head, where it should remain.

And finally, the big day arrived.

Meredith smiled but pretended not to notice when Shelley and Edgar came down, she holding his arm down the steps. The light and energy in him was back. Shelley had finally apologized.

But the battle was only half won. Today the sheriff would be coming over to inspect Edgar's progress. And though she knew that Edgar was virtually a normal boy – albeit a shy one – she couldn't keep back a twinge of worry. After all, what if Edgar suddenly lapsed back into his animal state? What if he refused to speak in the presence of strangers?

It was useless to worry. He was coming in a few hours. She had prepared Edgar as best as she could. Now it was all up to him.

At the table, Shelley was doing her own pep talk.

"You'll do fine," she said quietly, patting his back. They had dressed him in a shirt and pants – nothing too fancy, just something any normal teenage boy would wear. If it weren't for the fangs, pointy ears and the scarring peeking through his sleeves, he would look like a normal young man.

"Just be yourself," Meredith suggested.

Shelley rolled her eyes. "Edgar, be yourself, but don't run around crazily or try and drink his blood, okay?"

Edgar nodded.

Shelley added, "Don't forget to actually talk to him. You don't need to say much, but answer him, okay?"

"Sit up straight. Look at his face, not the floor. Try not to fidget."

"Or drool."

"Shelley…"

"Sorry Mom."

"You will be fine," Meredith said firmly. "We all have faith in you, Edgar."

Edgar gazed at the faces of the two people he trusted most in the world, and felt a little bit of hope rise in his chest. He could not, would not, disappoint them.

The doorbell rang. Shelley smashed a plate on the floor.

Meredith ran to the door.

"Hello Sheriff -" She froze when she saw the other man.

"Hello Meredith," the sheriff said, looking distinctly uncomfortable. "This is Mr. Ellis, from the carnival."

Meredith nodded stiffly. "Hello Mr. Ellis."

He greeted her just as shortly. "Good morning to you, Mrs. Parker."

The sheriff said, "Could we see the Bat Boy, Meredith?"

"Edgar," she emphasized. "His name is Edgar."

She led them inside, where they sat on her sofa. From the kitchen came Shelley and Edgar. The poor boy froze in the doorway upon seeing his former captor.

"Edgar, this is Sheriff Reynolds," Meredith said, neglecting to introduce Ellis. "Sheriff, you know Shelley. And this is Edgar."

The three sat across from the two men. The sheriff eyed Edgar. He was acting quite differently from the last time they had met. He noted his demeanor, his dress, and narrowed his eyes slightly when he saw the white, raised tissue crossing Edgar's wrists and neck. Edgar did not notice; he was staring at the floor and only looked up at a sharp nudge in the ribs from Shelley.

"Good morning Edgar," Sheriff Reynolds said respectfully.

"Good morning," he answered, and Meredith and Shelley were rewarded with a brief flash of surprise across the men's faces.

"Now, we are not here to take you away Edgar," the sheriff continued. "Merely to talk about what happened with Rick Taylor a week ago."

Edgar nodded, reaching unconsciously for Shelley's hand.

"Now then, Shelley told me he was teasing you, is that true?" the sheriff said in a business-like manner. Ellis watched from his seat silently, observing the group expressionlessly.

"Yes," Edgar said. He could have nodded, but he wanted to use every opportunity to speak – to show he was human.

"Can you recall the events of that night?"

Edgar nodded once and began to talk. He spoke of how he and Shelley had been alone when Rick and his siblings came through the door. He told them what Shelley had said, how Rick had started teasing them. But then the story seemed to diverge. He told them that Shelley called Rick a bad name, that Rick pushed her, and that it was only then that he bit Rick.

The sheriff raised an eyebrow questioningly but didn't comment on the small change. He remembered how Edgar had reached for her, saw how he looked at her. The boy was clearly in love with Shelley, though both she and her mother appeared ignorant of this.

And who was he to ruin young love?

Edgar was finished. He looked nervously around; on either side of him, Shelley and Meredith were waiting, in equal trepidation. Sheriff Reynolds snapped shut his small pad and stood. "Thank you Meredith, and Edgar. We will still have to question Mr. Taylor when he is…fully conscious, but your story is very similar to Shelley's." He shuffled his notes a bit, then said, "Meredith, you have done some unbelievable work here."

Shelley sucked in a breath.

"You mean -" Meredith breathed.

"Edgar here is one of the nicest young men I've ever met," the sheriff said. "I see no reason to even think of him as an animal."

Meredith and Shelley both squealed and grabbed Edgar, hugging him tightly.

"Did you hear that Edgar?"

"You're going to stay! You're going to stay!"

Edgar was too stunned. He had passed the test, he wasn't going back to the cage? He looked at the two women hugging him and felt an overwhelming gratitude towards them both.

"You're staying Edgar!" Shelley cried, and then she leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. Ellis's eyebrows rose several inches. "Aren't you happy, Edgar?"

"I'm…staying," he repeated, still in disbelief.

"You are, Edgar," Meredith said softly, stroking his arm. "You're here to stay, as long as you want."

"I stay," he repeated. He looked at both Meredith and Shelley. "Thank you," he said with such sincerity it made both women's hearts ache. "You did all this for me and I'm still not sure why…"

"Oh Edgar," Meredith said, hugging him. "It's because we love you."

"You're not…ashamed of me?" he asked hesitantly.

"Never," Shelley said firmly.

Ellis watched the entire scene with narrowed eyes. The sheriff, however, was eying Ellis balefully, daring him to disturb the scene. "Any objections, Mr. Ellis?" the sheriff growled.

Ellis turned to face the man, the movement looking unnatural. "No Sheriff," he said finally. "Nothing at all." He, too, stood up and, to everyone's surprise, went over to Edgar and held out his hand. Edgar froze in his seat.

"Well then, Edgar, it seems I was mistaken about you," he said evenly. Edgar shrank away from him. "You have done very good work here, Mrs. Parker."

Meredith barely nodded, her eyes fixed on him and Edgar.

He continued, "This is a fine young man here."

Even the sheriff was staring at him suspiciously. Edgar was gripping Shelley's hand so hard her blood was being cut off. He wanted to run away; he couldn't look at the man without dredging up memories of years of abuse.

Ellis spoke as if he had read Edgar's mind: "Then I hope, Edgar, you can forgive my past actions?"

Edgar shrank from answering. He bore no anger or vengeful desire against the man. Part of it was because much of the first seventeen years of his life were a haze; another was because, for all the man's mistreatment, he had still been Edgar's only caretaker during that time. Yet Edgar could not forget the years spent in a cage, loveless and abandoned.

As the man continued to hold out his hand Edgar felt a rising panic in him; he didn't know what to do or what the people expected him to say.

"Mr. Ellis," Meredith said, seeing Edgar's distress, "I do not think Edgar has an answer for you."

Ellis withdrew his hand. "That is to be expected," he said, seeming unfazed. "After all, I have not done much to earn the young man's trust. But should you ever feel the need to speak with me, my tent remains pitched on the open area. Good day."

He bowed slightly and left the house abruptly, before Meredith or Shelley could voice any of their concerns. The sheriff shrugged as he went.

"Funny man," he muttered, "hope he goes soon. Well," in a louder voice, "thank you Meredith, again, for letting me into your house."

"Of course, Sheriff."

"Let me know about any updates on that venom thing of yours."

"I will." She held open the door as he left. "Goodbye Sheriff Reynolds."

"Goodbye Meredith."

She shut the door and waited until he was out of sight before letting out an explosive gasp of relief. Behind her she heard Shelley and Edgar reacting in much the same way.

Shelley was the first to recover; overcome with giddiness she squealed and grabbed Edgar's hands. "We did it, Mom! They're gone and they can't take Edgar away!" She hopped around like a little girl, and Edgar, happy that she happy, hopped with her. It was so out of character that Meredith had to laugh.

"Yes! We did it!"

Now there was only the town to overcome. But Meredith, flushed with triumph, wasn't worried at all.


Setbacks occurred. The unsuccessful let them block them from their goals, made do with second best.

He, however, would overcome them.

Already he had received several angry visitors. The sheriff had personally called a town meeting to tell them of Edgar's continuing presence in Hope Falls. The reaction had been loud and angry, some going so far as to call for the resignation of the sheriff. Mayor Maggie, fearing a mob, had worked quickly to calm them down.

The little town was a bomb waiting to be explode.

And he would be the one to light the match.

Before he went to sleep, Edgar knelt at his bed. He had seen Shelley doing this, and Meredith had taught him its purpose.

"Dear God," he said quietly, "please make me into a normal boy. I don't want to complain – but please, could you get rid of my thirst for blood, and make me look normal?" He paused, then quickly added, "And please, could you make Shelley like me? Thank you. Amen."

He stood and rolled into bed, curling up under his sheets.