Chapter 5: Pre-teen Moxxie (age 10)
Moxxie woke up on his bed alongside Millie, he immediately felt the stiffening tightness of the Tweenie pyjamas put on him on the previous night. He jumped off the bed and stripped down. He could see that he was taller, he was double his size from yesterday, but he still hadn't hit puberty. He wandered to the bathroom and looked at himself in the mirror, his hair was about full length and his horns were at full length, but not full thickness. He said his name to himself in the mirror, his voice was still unbroken. He looked at his teeth, all adult with two just starting to protrude through his gums. "Ten, I'm ten." He thought to himself.
He went back to his room and went into the box Millie had got his clothes from the previous day. He pulled out a blue galaxy patterned t-shirt with black tracksuit bottoms and white boxer shorts which were the right size for him and put them on before climbing on top of the covers of his bed and sleeping for a little longer.
He was soon awoken by a sweet aroma. He stirred and sat up, rubbing his eyes to be greeted by a plate of strawberry and chocolate pop tarts and his wife Millie, now double his size looking lovingly at him. "Thanks Honey." Moxxie said, licking a strawberry beard from around his mouth.
"They were my favourite at ten." Millie informed Moxxie.
"So, what's the plan for today?" Asked Moxxie.
"You know Mox, I haven't decided. Why don't we curl up on the couch in front of the TV and then go to an arcade and a restaurant tonight, you'd have most of the arcade to yourself."
"Perfect." Moxxie smiled and took his wife by the hand and lead her to the TV. Moxxie turned on the TV to an advert about rainforest holidays in the sloth ring.
"You know Moxxie, I always wanted to go to see a rainforest as a tot, but my parents couldn't afford it."
"Do you still want to?"
"Yeah, one day."
"You know I wanted to at ten too, I asked my dad…"
"And…"
"He punched me in the face and called me an ungrateful little brat." Moxxie's eyes welled up, "Millie I never asked for anything, they never gave me anything, that was the last time I ever made an effort with any of them." Millie was heartbroken to hear this; it was even worse hearing it in a child's voice. Millie enveloped Moxxie into a hug and let him sob, Moxxie was quick to calm down. "I'm sorry Millie." He apologised to her. "It's ok sweetie, you poor thing."
The imps then departed from each other, there was another advert on the telly, one advertising a talent show for children aged eight to twelve of all species in the Pride Ring which was to take place that very day: the prize was 2000 devil dollars. Millie smiled a sly grin, "Moxxie, you thinking what I'm thinking?"
Moxxie looked up at his wife, "But sweetie, isn't that kind of cheating?"
"Moxxie, this is hell, no one cares. Besides, who's going to know."
"Good point."
"Get your guitar, change of plan, we're going to the Pride Ring."
Moxxie ran and got his guitar, he could only just hold it. He ran behind his wife to their car and climbed into the front seat. As Millie drove through the portal to the Pride Ring, she looked down at Moxxie, "so what song are you planning on playing?" Millie asked.
"Oh Millie."
"Moxxie that is sweet, but Moxxie, you're ten. As beautiful as your song is, it is for your wife and you're still a child, plus one of the lyrics is a bit, well, risk-kay."
"You're right." Moxxie thought for a moment and then grinned, "I know just the one, it's a little childish, but I think it'll work out."
The imps were soon at the talent contest, Moxxie was sent to play with other children in a tent whilst Millie signed him in under the guise of his mother. There were twenty contestants in all, each was called up one by one to be given a number, Moxxie was given number fifteen. Moxxie spent his time playing chess with an eleven-year-old imp, who was at the show to do a magic act. He mixed the games between purposely letting the kid win and choosing to beat him.
Eventually Moxxie was called out by his number to the stage. He nervously walked on stage, shaking slightly in his white, light-up trainers, he stopped at the light and stared out at his audience of approximately thirty, not too bad. Nevertheless, he still felt nervous and small.
"What's your name son?" Asked a deep voice of a hell hound at the judge's desk.
"Moxxie."
"Ok Moxxie and how old are you?"
"Ten."
"And what are you going to do for us today?"
"Sing and play my guitar."
"That sound great, in your own time Moxxie."
Moxxie gave it a couple of seconds before confidently letting out a "One, two, three, four" before battering out a loud song on his guitar:
I'm gonna play my guitar,
I'm gonna play all night!
Gonna be a big star,
see my name in lights,
I wanna go to town,
my friends and me,
travel in a limo!
Be back in time for tea.
But my homework, is still waiting for me
and I'm copyingnames and they'll be no TV.
Why do parents always get you
down, down, down.
Gonna be a rockstar,
I won't need to go to school,
gonna be a rockstar,
I'll be living by the swimming pool,
gonna be a rockstar,
just you wait and see,
coz that boy on that stage will be me!
In the studio,
I'll be good to go,
with my awesome beat,
I'll rock the show,
gonna jam all night,
I'll be getting em down,
to a morny light,
I'm gonna fool around.
But I'm in my room,
just stuck here again,
but the stage I could be on thereand entertain,
Why do parents always get you,
down,down, down!
Gonna be a rockstar,
I won't need to go to school,
gonna be a rockstar,
I will be nobody's fool,
gonna be a rockstar,
just you wait and see,
coz that boy on that stage will be me!
Gonna be a rockstar,
never need to go to school,
gonna be a rockstar,
I will be nobody's fool,
gonna be a rockstar,
just you wait and see,
coz that boy on that stage will be me!
Moxxie slid onto his knees at the end of the show, and gave his guitar one last strum across his chest. He then heard the sound of cheering surrounding him, he looked down to the whole audience and the judges themselves, all three of them, giving him a standing novation.
Moxxie's eyes filled with tears of joy as he went back into the tent and sat down to a game of battle ships with a 9-year-old succubus until the final act had finished.
Moxxie and Millie were driving home after the talent show, both of them in the front and a suitcase full of prize money in the back. "You did so well Moxxie." Millie praised him.
"Thanks Millie."
"We'll get that trip booked as soon as you're back to normal, which should be in a couple of days, and when I can organise a good time for us to be off with Blitzo, but it may take a while."
"I know, I understand, it's fine. Oh and Millie, I don't want you to take this the wrong way, but I wasn't spoilt as a kid I didn't go around asking for stuff all of the time. My parents, treated me the way they did, and I only wanted their love. I saw the advert for family rainforest holidays and I really liked the look of it and was hoping something fun would get us to bond, get them to know me and love me. But all it got was a slap off my dad and a beating from both later. That is when I gave up. I just didn't want you to think I was a spoilt kid in anyway."
"Moxxie I would never think that, I know your parents treated you terrible. Speaking of which, if you don't mind me asking at this time, I was going to wait until you were better but I was wondering, remember the first morning I had you as a baby."
"Yes. Sorry about all the crying." Moxxie was now blushing.
"It's ok, it wasn't your fault. I'd be scared too, but what was with you when I tried to stick you in a play pen?"
Moxxie sighed heavily, staring down at the car's footwell. "When I was little, my parents used to place me in what they called a play pen, but it wasn't a play pen, it was a cage, a literal cage. It was when I made too much noise when playing or when I came for cuddles or attention, I would beg them not to put me in their every time, but they did. It was replaced with the cellar when I was six, but that was only because I outgrew the cage."
Millie was knocking back tears at this; how could anyone be so horrible to their own child? "Moxxie, I'm so sorry."
"It's ok, it wasn't your fault. Let's just forget them, get this money home, go to a McDonalds (yes they have those in hell), arcade and see what is on at the cinema." Moxxie beamed up at his wife.
"That is a very good idea."
Millie pulled into a mall and let Moxxie out of the car, then she took him hand in hand led him inside. She first took Moxxie to a McDonalds, the two shared 20 nuggets share box with sweet and sour sauce and cokes. A teenage imp approached the two at the end of their meal with the bill and a plastic car, "here, for your kid." She grinned before taking Millie's money plus tip.
"Thanks." Moxxie smiled, slipping the car into his pocket.
Moxxie was then taken to the arcades, him and Millie spent two hours playing air hockey along with various shooting and whack a mole game. Millie was impressed at Moxxie's skills, even at ten he could fire a perfect shot and take a perfect aim with a ball or dart. The two spent hours playing and laughing together. Eventually Moxxie embraced Millie around her waist and held for what seemed forever before taking her hand and taking her to the cinema on the second floor. The two went to see Cruella, before the movie started Moxxie whispered to his wife, "remember when you dressed up as Cruella for Halloween?" He asked.
"Yes."
Moxxie then started to sing, "Millie DeVille, Millie DeVille, if she doesn't scare you, no maniac will." Millie giggled and held Moxxie close to her before handing him a large bag of popcorn just as the lights went down.
After the movie Millie was carrying Moxxie out of the theatre in her arms and back to the car. She placed him in the front seat and drove him home. Moxxie looked at the lights shining through the Pride Ring, and then the Greed Ring before he was returned home to Wrath. "It really is beautiful, all of the lights." He said. Millie smiled down at him, "yes Moxxie, I agree."
Millie then pulled outside of the pairs apartment and carried Moxxie inside, she placed him on the floor in their bedroom and handed him his adult lavender striped pyjamas and carried him into the bed to avoid him tripping over the excessively long trousers. Moxxie sat up in bed, his eyes still wide and awake, his tail wagging. Millie sighed and asked, "would you like a story?"
"Yes please." Millie pulled out a book of fairy tales and read Moxxie a hellish version of Rapunzel, Rumpelstiltskin and Little Red Riding Hood. These were roughly the same as Earth's versions of the stories but they are more grim and the bad guys win in them. Just as Millie was reading about the Big Bad Wolf devouring the huntsman and chopping up Red to death before displaying her head on a pike in the woods, she looked down at a sleeping Moxxie. Millie gave him a stroke across his cheeks before getting into her night dress and climbing into bed alongside him.