A Strange Bond

by Mariel1

The Tooth Fairy is still reeling from a recent tragedy, and Alpha is trying to get things together in The Hollow. Meanwhile, Jack Frost has a plan that might help solve both of their problems...or backfire on him. Can the Tooth Fairy and a Werewolf work out as a couple? Will Tooth Fairy's people be as accepting of Alpha as The Hollow is of him? Read and find out! Dark themes.

17. Chapter 17: Bringing Down the House

"A Strange Bond"

Note: Alpha and Tooth Fairy weren't able to have a proper go at The Founders when all was said and done, but that doesn't mean revenge can't be had! Mild content warning for alcohol use, though it isn't severe, and I guess I should have posted a content warning for Robert's nicotine habit and the occasional swearing a long time ago, but better late than never. The backing track for the video montage at the end of the tape is 'Johann Pachelbel- Canon in D [Electric Guitar]'. You can find it on YouTube. Seemed fitting!

Scenes from the tape will be written in the same way as 'present-day' scenes, and rather than switch back and forth between the two using horizontal lines to break up the text, I decided to just write it all straight through. To avoid confusion, footage will be mainly dialogue-driven and written in bold italics to allow for character reactions without breaking the narrative too badly. Hopefully it works! (I found some mistakes on a fresh read-through, so I corrected those and re-wrote a few sentences that didn't look so good in the light of day.)

"Chapter 17: Bringing Down the House"

March 7th

Robert unlocked his front door and crossed the threshold ahead of Alpha and Tooth Fairy, flicking on the light and calling over his shoulder, "I invite you in. Oh...sorry, habit."

"Huh?" Tooth Fairy squinted, not quite getting what just happened. There was a half-full ash tray on the coffee table, and the pervasive smell of cigarettes in the place caused him to sneeze, but he didn't complain.

"Bless you," Alpha said, then explained in an undertone, "Vampires can't enter a dwelling unless the person living there invites them in. I've been here, but you haven't, and old habits die hard."

"Oh," Tooth Fairy nodded, then raised an eyebrow and asked, mostly in jest, "What were you doing here?"

Robert popped in the tape and answered the question before Alpha could. "After the usual 'getting to know the newbie' visit, it was usually to tell me off. She never came over to hang out, or anything. Seriously, what's up with that? I'm a likable guy."

Alpha rolled her eyes at the Vampire's teasing grin. "You have your moments. So, is this the final cut?"

"Yeah, Kyle dropped it off this morning. We really need to modernize our editing system, though. Took him forever to do it with these tapes. Those DVD players he scavenged from the dump and fixed up are all right, but VCR's are so out. You can hardly find replacement parts anymore." Robert noticed they were still standing, and pointed to the couch. "Go ahead and park it. I'd get you some popcorn, but I don't eat, so...yeah."

Alpha and Tooth Fairy sat down on the couch, waving off Robert's almost-apology, and the Vampire sat on the arm of the couch at Alpha's other side. She raised an eyebrow. "Are we talkin' VHS or Beta?"

"Damn, you're old!" Robert laughed.

Alpha gave it right back to him as he picked up the remote. "You were born, what, four years before the first Beta came out, and you're callin' me old because I remember those?"

"Hey, I may be the Vampire here, but you're the old bat!" Robert turned on the TV.

Alpha turned to Tooth Fairy, who was snickering at their antics. "See what I have to put up with?"

"Uh-huh. Rob, you gonna press 'play', or what?" Tooth Fairy lifted his chin to talk over Alpha's head.

Robert started the tape before Tooth Fairy had finished his sentence, and they settled in to watch. Tooth Fairy anxiously licked his lips, and Alpha looked over at him with a little frown. He nodded back to answer her unasked question; he was okay. So far.

Tooth Fairy had never seen the whole movie 'Halloween' before, but he had caught the first ten minutes of it before deciding that it was not for him, and he recognized the theme music and the opening shot of a camera slowly zooming out on a pumpkin. He wondered if there had been a mistake, or if the demolition tape had been recorded over it, but what came next clued him in on the kind of thing he could expect. There was a 'record scratching' sound effect, and a stranger's face replaced the jack-o-lantern. It was that Vampire from the library, if Tooth Fairy wasn't mistaken.

"Nope! This isn't that kind of horror flick. Hi, Kyle here, and I'm gonna be your tour guide on the journey of a lifetime. There will be elegant architecture...an inside-look at a lavish lifestyle...and we're gonna rain all over that parade, because that eyesore of a mansion is coming down!"

Robert, who was holding the camera, added, "It's gonna be one hell of a party!"

Kyle nodded, adjusting his 'Metallica' T-shirt. "Hell yeah, it will! I just want to give a shout-out to our new leader, Alpha, who came up with this idea...but let's be honest, with The Founders gone, you know that place was coming down! Harry's bringing a surprise for everyone, we have spray paint, sledge hammers, all kinds of stuff. And-"

There was the sound of a distant howl, and Kyle cut himself off. "Speaking of Alpha, there's the call. Come with me!"

Tooth Fairy, who had never heard Alpha howl before, felt the hair on his arms stand up. That was an eerie sound! Not for the first time, he found himself thinking he was glad she was friendly. On an unrelated note, he saw no family resemblance between Robert and Kyle, but their mannerisms were similar and he asked anyway, "Are you two related?"

"Pff, nah. We were frat brothers, and we got turned the same night, so we go way back. I guess we might as well be brothers." Robert explained as the video cut to a shot of nearly the whole town gathered around the mansion.

Tooth Fairy noticed that there were no children there, so clearly this was an adults-only event. The sight of the mansion caused him to stiffen in his seat. He brushed the back of his hand against Alpha's, and she turned her hand palm-up, allowing him to take it. Okay...he was still okay. He had just gotten used to that building not being there.

Several bonfires lit the area around the mansion. Monsters of every description, from the stunningly beautiful to the horrifyingly macabre, to everything else in between, were adding pieces of broken furniture to the fire. All around were the sounds of talking, laughing, and even crying as they reveled in their new freedom. Food was being cooked on a few of the fires that weren't being used to burn The Founders' possessions, and Harry, the lead Sasquatch, directed his four sons in placing seven wooden crates on one of the nearby folding tables.

Alpha was talking to Punky near one of the bonfires, and she laughed at something he said before spotting Robert with the camera. Still laughing, she laid back her ears and stalked towards him. "Get that camera oot m'face!"

"Hey, don't break it; it's Kyle's!" Robert backpedaled, and the image jounced around before straightening again. "What do ya got planned?"

Alpha put her hands on her hips. "Tonight, we're takin' out everything we can, puttin' what looks valuable in storage, and destroyin' the rest. With so many people millin' about, and with all the broken glass and whatnot, this might get a bit dangerous. So, the Witches have banded together and cast a safety charm on the whole area around the mansion. Ye won't even need to wear a hard hat."

"What if we want to?" Robert demanded.

"Knock yerselves out." A beat, then she added, "Figuratively."

Tooth Fairy chuckled softly. "Bit camera shy?"

Alpha gave his hand a squeeze. "I just wasn't expectin' it right then."

Alpha turned and did a double-take at the crates, now open, and saw that each crate contained twenty-four brown bottles. "Where'd all that beer come from?"

Robert, still holding the camera, moved in to get a better view of the table. "Harry has an unauthorized microbrewery in his basement."

Harry overheard this and grinned, taking two bottles and popping the tops with his thumbs as he approached, and handing one to Alpha. "And there's more where that came from!"

Alpha took the bottle with a grin. "I knew there was a reason I liked ye, Harry!"

They clinked bottles and drank, and Robert brought the camera into the mansion. He walked across the planks that had been laid across the trapdoor in the foyer. The trapdoor was actually closed, but the planks would prevent an accident if someone stepped on the wrong tile and opened it. The camera shook again as Alpha moved past him, and he filmed her going up the stairs. "Where ya goin'?"

"I forgot something."

Tooth Fairy watched Alpha's interaction with Harry in amusement; it seemed the Sasquatch was a pretty easy-going guy, for someone who was eight feet tall and covered in long brown fur. He looked away when the inside of the mansion was shown, and cleared his throat. "Can you pause it for a minute?"

Robert did so without asking why. "You okay, bro?"

"Yeah, I just...gimme a sec." He stood up and moved off, then turned back. "It doesn't show the study, does it? Because if it does, just...warn me first, so I can leave the room."

Alpha shook her head gently. "It doesn't, luv. That's actually what I was going up to do; mark the door so no one would go in."

Tooth Fairy's racing heart began to slow again, and he glanced at Robert; the Vampire was tapping the end of a fresh cigarette against the pack to tamp down the tobacco, seemingly not paying attention. He sat down again and nodded. "Okay...Robert, I know it's your house, but could you hold off on that until we leave?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah, sure." Robert laid it on the coffee table and took the remote again. "Here, why don't you hold onto that? You can pause it yourself."

Tooth Fairy took it with a nod, and pressed play again as Alpha discreetly rubbed his back.

Kyle had the camera again when Alpha came back, and the three of them were joined by a Witch and a Goblin who carried a can of spray paint in each hand.

The Goblin tossed one of them to Robert, and the Witch handed one to Alpha.

"All right!" Robert shook his can and uncapped it. "Time to improve the decor!"

The Witch, a teenaged girl with bubblegum-pink skin and curly black hair, looked uncertainly at Alpha. "We're really allowed to do this?"

"Well, just this once," Alpha replied.

"But...shouldn't we open a window? For the fumes?"

The Goblin, who was around the same age as the Witch, picked up a chair and smashed the window, causing Witch to jump. "Window's open."

Alpha looked off-camera at what Robert was spraying on the wall, and she burst out laughing. "That is not appropriate!"

"Why're you laughing, then?" he asked.

"I said it wasn't appropriate, I didn't say it wasn't funny!"

This last bit got a laugh out of Tooth Fairy, and when the camera panned to the right and he saw what Robert had drawn, he gasped and covered his mouth before laughing even harder.

Alpha talked over the on-screen banter, "Aye, there's a reason the children weren't allowed to attend. That, and the noise would've scared 'em."

He nodded, winding down from his laugh.

Ten minutes of very little discussion but quite a bit of destruction followed.

Harry and his brood punched and kicked several holes in the walls, while being warned to avoid load-bearing ones. "That's for sending my wife up there last Halloween."

A female Vampire took a sledgehammer to one of the many lavish bathrooms. The toilet and sink were shattered, and she was working on the tub and the wall tiles. "That's for keeping us trapped down here!"

Alpha cheered. "Get'm, lass!"

Kyle came out of a side room, carrying a huge crystal punch bowl above his head like a trophy. "Should I break it?"

"Yeah!" Robert hooted.

"Should I break it?!" Kyle roared.

"Yeeeaaaaahhh!" Robert roared back.

Everyone in the room started pumping their fists and chanting, "Break! It! Break! It! Break! It! Break! It!"

Kyle hurled the bowl against the only wall in the room that didn't have a hole in it, and it burst into a cloud of scintillating shards.

"Awooo!" howled Alpha as the room erupted in a chorus of rowdy cheering.

Tooth Fairy quietly observed the destruction with very mixed feelings. It reminded him of how he'd destroyed Viola's study in a fit of rage and grief, but more than that, there was an overwhelming feeling of savage joy that almost brought him to tears. Alpha's howl did choke him up a little, because he understood better than anyone what was probably going through her head at the time. The bad as well as the good. He swallowed hard, and smiled. "I would've said 'no' if you somehow tracked me down and asked me...but I'm kinda sorry I missed it."

Alpha smiled back and leaned her head against his arm.

Alpha took the camera and went into another room, where things were being sifted through to determine their worth, and the camera picked up the sound of her snickering at Omen, who was sharpening his claws on an empty china cabinet. "Havin' fun?"

"It's nice to be able to do this without getting yelled at," the cat twitched his tail and bolted out of the room.

Alpha traveled from room to room, saying nothing for a time, and simply capturing the action.

Someone took the camera as she shook her can of spray paint and approached an oil painting of The Founders. It wasn't the same painting as the one in the study; they were in a different pose. She popped the cap off the can and blackened out both of their faces. "Tae match yer hearts, ye wee bastards..."

The camera cut to several days later, and the mansion was mostly ransacked. Once more, Alpha had the camera and was bringing it down the grand staircase. "I think that's just about everything we could find that was worth taking out. I'll make a final sweep o' the place in a bit."

From outside, Kyle called importantly, "Bring the camera! It's window-breaking time!"

"Keep yer shirt on, laddie!"

Robert explained, "Not a lot of interesting stuff happened in the days in between. The excitement kinda wore off after a while, and it turned into work. We weren't even talking much. This is about when it started to get fun again.

"Okay," Tooth Fairy shrugged, then paused the video. "Just how did you knock the place down? Don't tell me you have the equipment for that down here, because I know you don't."

"You'll see," Alpha smiled, and he unpaused again.

The scene cut back to the group outside, and Robert had the camera again. Alpha sat on a large, flat-topped boulder, and three empty beer bottles sat beside her as she sipped from the fourth. An old wooden chest sat at the foot of the boulder, and she was staring pensively down at it. Robert tapped her on the arm. "Hey."

"Hm?"

"So, that new friend of yours, the guy with the wings. Think he'll show up for the grand finale?" Robert asked.

Alpha shook her head. "I don't know where he is now, and I got no way o' contactin' him."

"That sucks."

Alpha didn't respond, unless one counted a blink.

"Drunk yet?"

"Pff...no, I'd have tae drink the whole supply to even get buzzed, and I cannae hold that much." she replied.

"Your accent's thicker than your skull all of a sudden." Robert went on, ignoring her narrowed eyes. "You were laughing before, what's up?"

"Just thinkin'."

"Thinkin' while ya drinkin'?"

Alpha polished off her fourth beer and went to put the empties in the return bin to be used again at some point.

"Oookay, then." Robert drawled, and the scene skipped again.

Tooth Fairy didn't have to ask what she had been thinking about. That place held bad memories for both of them, and he knew what was in that chest. He wondered if she was remembering her family. Or maybe she was remembering how he broke down and cried on her shoulder after they found Brinna's wings. Probably both.

Alpha scratched her nose. "I wish you'd cut that part out..."

"Too late now," Robert shrugged, but he did seem apologetic.

Alpha had another bottle in her hand as she watched the few stragglers who wanted to see this through to the end throw rocks at the mansion's windows. Punky stood at her side, neither of them saying a word, until Robert came over with something in his hand.

"Hey!"

"Aye?"

"I'll bet you can't break three windows with one throw!" Robert held out his hand, which contained three small rocks, each about the size of a golf ball.

Alpha looked at the rocks, then back up at Robert, and then she smirked. "Haud m'beer an' watch this!"

Robert took the bottle and passed her the rocks before turning to face the camera. "Tell ya what, Kyle, if she makes this shot, I'll eat those rocks."

Kyle laughed.

Crash-crash-crash!

Alpha laughed. "Hope ye brought yer appetite, fang-face!"

Robert turned back. "Hey, it doesn't count if I didn't see it!"

"Oi! Kyle, did ye get it on film?"

"Yeah," Kyle snickered. "Sorry, Rob."

"Well, that wasn't part of the bet, so I'm not eating those rocks."

Alpha waved a hand. "Relax, I wasnae serious."

"Well, do it again, I wanna see it this time," Robert handed her three more.

She took the rocks and moved off to find three more windows.

Crash-crash-tak!

One of the rocks just missed, bouncing off the side of the window pane. Alpha snapped her fingers, turned to the camera, and made a pinching motion as she mouthed, 'this close'.

Tooth Fairy had a feeling they were nearing the end of the video, and he was actually a little disappointed that there wasn't more to it. "Nice throw."

Robert leaned over and said in a stage whisper, "He means the first one."

Alpha put a hand over Robert's face and playfully pushed him away. "Ha ha."

Another skip, and Kyle slowly panned the camera around at the small group of about twenty-five. "So, we're about done. We're just waiting on the Goblins to bring up the explosives. The Witches should all be here soon. We're gonna need another protection spell for this one."

"Yeah," Robert sat on an overturned crate. "When do you think Alpha will wanna knock down the other nine houses?"

"I dunno. It's been a busy week."

The scene changed, and Alpha was speaking in a mutter as she filmed her trip through the mansion. "The Goblins just finished setting things up. Charges have been placed, and if all goes as planned, that'll be it for this place. I'm just doing one last walk-through to make sure no one's still inside. You know, I have to tell ye...it's goin' tae be weird not seein' this place up here. I never thought I'd see the inside of it, that's for sure. And I'm glad I won't have to see it ever again. It's enough to make ye sick...how we had to live, and how they got to live. I don't need much, don't get me wrong...but who needs all this? How much o' this could have gone towards...I don't know, fixing up the buildings that're fallin' apart, or...getting better medicine, nicer clothes? I just don't understand it...how anyone can be so greedy. I mean...if some of us who can pass for human went up and sold what we took from in here, the stuff that wasn't worthless junk, it could keep this place going for years, and it just makes me sick."

Tooth Fairy put his arm around Alpha, whose face was blank as she remembered. He saw Robert wearing a similar expression, and it didn't look right on the goofy Vampire's face. These people really had suffered. All of them. How much of their joking around was a facade to hide the pain they'd endured? And yet, now that he was learning more about them and meeting more of them, in some ways they were more welcoming to him than his own town was. Once they got over the fact that he was an outsider, they simply accepted him as he was and treated him with respect, which was more than he could say for many of the Fairies he knew!

"I'm still not satisfied with how The Council of Legendary Figures handled them, but...at least, wherever they are, they can't do anymore harm. Well...that's the last room, and the only one in here is me. Time to leave."

The scene jumped again, and this time the mansion stood in the far distance with all the lights on. Several of the stone gargoyles had somehow been knocked off of the roof, and every square inch of the exterior was covered with some form of graffiti. From such a distance, the profanity couldn't be made out.

The rest of the town had gathered once more to say good riddance to the home of their former oppressors. It was unclear who held the camera now, but at the front of the group, in silhouette, was a line of familiar figures. Kyle. Harry. Harry's four sons. Pearl, with Omen on her shoulder. Robert. Punky. James the Skeleton. And, finally, Alpha.

Canon in D began to play, but then the slow electric guitar notes made it was obvious that this wasn't the original version. What followed was a montage, starting with a silhouette headshot of each of the people in the front row. The shot cut to the mansion itself as the implosion began in slow motion. Then the music sped up!

Interspersed with footage of the mansion collapsing to the ground, shots of the destruction leading up to it were spliced in; footage that had already been shown, and footage that hadn't.

A Goblin boy breaking a window for ventilation.

Robert making an obscene spray paint doodle on the wall.

The Sasquatch family turning the walls into swiss cheese.

Alpha taking a sledge hammer to an enormous statue of a griffon.

The Vampiress demolishing the bathroom.

Omen jumping from a high shelf and shredding the curtains on his way down, reminiscent of Errol Flynn in 'Captain Blood'.

Kyle breaking the punch bowl.

Alpha defacing a portrait of The Founders.

Pearl and Punky lighting furniture on fire outside, Pearl with her magic and Punky with his fire breath.

Alpha and several others standing outside, throwing stones through the few unbroken windows that remained.

James standing on one leg and using his own femur to break the small, hollow lion statues that stood on either side of the front door.

Robert smashing a crate open, only to find that it contained wooden stakes...then Robert being led away by Alpha, one hand over his eyes and his mouth twisted in a grimace of anguish.

Punky setting the stakes ablaze with his breath while, blurry in the background, Kyle sits with an arm around Robert's shoulders as the latter sobs.

Alpha casually raking her claws along the wallpaper as she walks down a hall, leaving five long slashes in her wake.

Four clips of Robert going to town with an axe, demolishing a table, a mantelpiece, a couch, and finally the china cabinet.

Kyle sitting down to take a break.

And then the montage faded out, and the slow-motion collapse of the mansion resumed its normal speed. The massive cloud of dust met an invisible dome, and as the mansion temporarily became invisible the group in the front stood in a line with their arms around each other's shoulders and waists. When the muffled rumbling ended, the Witches caused the dome-like shield to compress the dust until it lay safely on the ground.

The music came to an end.

Alpha heaved a deep sigh. "Take that, ye wee bastards."

"Screw you." Robert growled, flipping off the pile of rubble.

Punky looked from left to right; the only indication of this was that the crooked pumpkin stem on top of his head changed direction. "So...now what?"

Alpha chuckled. "I don't know about you, but I'm goin' home. And they're not!"

A chuckle swept through the group, and the townspeople dispersed.

Tooth Fairy was speechless as the tape ended. He was still trying to process everything he had seen. None of them said a word as Robert went up to the VCR and ejected the tape to put it away. Alpha wiped away a tear, but she also wore a smirk.

Finally, Tooth Fairy nodded. "That was really somethin' else. I get that it's pretty personal, so...thanks for showing me."

"It's personal, dude. But if you guys hadn't been there to help us kick their asses, we'd still be where we were before. You woulda been welcome to join in, but...yeah, I get why you wouldn't have wanted to." Robert folded his arms as he leaned against the wall. He was eyeing his cigarette, but keeping his promise. "I had family on the surface, you know. After we end up here, we..."

Tooth Fairy waited for Robert to continue, but he didn't. "You can't see them anymore..."

Robert shook his head. "Not unless we want to turn them. I didn't want it for myself. Why would I want it for them?"

"I can't even imagine." Tooth Fairy shook his head.

Robert finally smiled. "I can't imagine your sitch either, bro. We all got somethin'. Anyway, I'm really jonesing for a smoke."

Tooth Fairy and Alpha took the hint and got up, and Alpha surprised Robert by giving him a brief hug. Tooth Fairy didn't do the same, but he held out his hand, and the Vampire shook it before clapping him on the arm.

"Later, Wingman. Alpha coulda done a lot worse."

"Thanks..." Tooth Fairy's brow furrowed, and he gave Alpha a wry look. "I think."

Alpha and Tooth Fairy left Robert's house and strolled through the streets. They found each other's hands and walked along in silence, emotionally drained but content.

I needed to see that. There's no way I could've handled being there and seeing it in person, but at least I got to see that place fall. Brinna, did you see it? Were you there, somehow? I hope so. We got 'em, little sister. We got 'em.

Of course, no reply was forthcoming, and he caught Alpha watching him with a concerned look on her face.

"Are you all right?" She squeezed his hand.

He squeezed back. "Yeah. Must've felt great to take a sledgehammer to the place."

"My shoulder from the next day would disagree," she smiled. "But yes. Um...Roy, why don't we skip the journals for today and come back to them another time?"

He sighed, having no name for most of the things he was feeling at the moment, but two words stood front and center; 'tired' and 'satisfied'. Reading those journals on top of this vicarious release would be a very big mistake. "You read my mind."

Note: So, this chapter was a bit of an emotional roller coaster for these guys, but TF finally got some closure as far as the mansion is concerned. I might have to bring Kyle back at some point! He just sort of popped into my head and asserted himself.