Hey, new chapter update! I should have a special Thanksgiving and Christmas chapter sometime soon, even though technically, monsters don't (as far as I know) celebrate either one.
Randall runs from his father when he learns that his dad found the scalpel and demands to know what it's doing coated in dried blood.
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He made sure to dart past their own yard before reappearing. He knew his father would be angry as hell at him when he decided to go back home, but for now, he would wait for his fther to figure it out. The best thing to do was wait.
He slowed a bit and looked for Bracknell road. Surprisingly, it was the first brock apartment building he came to, on his left. It was shabby, of that he had no doubt. It was run down and old, of that he was sure.
He aproached the front door and looked to his right. There waws a panel of vuttons there, each labeled with a faded name. He looked for 6b. It was labeled as "marble".
He buzzed it anyway and waited.
And waited.
And waited.
And waited.
Finally, he gave up and backed up aways and began searching the windows. It wasn't something he normally did; after a few minutes, he thought he saw a flash of wing membrane and teal skin, and reaching down quickly with one of his lower hands, he tossed himself a pebble and chucked it at the grimy window.
The monster inside looked out the window and he saw with some relief that it was her.
She opened the window and craned her head around, her long hair falling in a thick, tangled sheet of dark red hair.
"What do you want?" she called down, seing him at last.
"Can I come up?" he replied, deliberatley not answering her question.
She scrutinized him for a moment, appearing to think a moment, and finally said, "alright, I suppose."
Randall opened the front door and began climbing; it figured she was on the top floor.
Finally, out of breath, he reached the top floor. The walls were a peeling yellow and the floor was carpeted in brown. There were only three doors. He knocked on the one marked 6b and she opened it a moment later. She had no shirt on, but was wearing the same skirt. Looking closer, he could make out a couple livid bruises only a few shades darker than her skin. It finally hit him; here she was, injured and obviously in pain, and she had still taken the time to bake cookies AND go through the trouble of going to see him, and he had been a jerk.
"Well? Are you going to stand there or do you want to come in?" she asked, breaking him out of his thoughts.
He stepped inside her apartment and ersisted the urge to comment.
It was small and rather shabby, but it had a strange homey feeling. Milk crates with wooden boards for tables or chairs, one overstuffed recliner chair, a couple photos on the wall and a single mattress with two thick quilts on them.
He took a seat on the edge of the mattress and waitedfor her to emerge from what looked like a tiny kitchen. She re-ammmerged with two steaming mugs of something that turned out to be hot chocolate.
"Err.. thanks," he said, blowing on his before taking a sip. It was rich and creamy, infused with warm milk.
"I grew up in Vermont, we have chocolate like that all the time," she said, waving an impatient hand. She took a sip of her own without blowing on it and set it down gently on one of her homemade tables. She took a seat in the armchair and continued to loo at him curiously.
"Why'd you leave," she said nonchalantly; it wasn't a question.
"My dad..er... found the scalpel," he replied.
"Mmm. So you ran away."
"I suppose. I don't really hav anywhere else to go, and you gave me your address, so I just thought..." he trailed off, not really sure what he wanted to say.
"Thought you could come here," she finished for him.
Randall gave a noncommital shrug and a jerk of his head.
"So?" she asked.
Randall took another sip of the chocolate, making him warmer.
"So... what?" he asked.
"Well, I have an extra air mattress from when I first got here, if you wanna kop here for a few days. How long were you planning on waitingbefore going home," she said, finishing her chocolate and getting up to take it back into the kitchen.
Randall was quite taken aback. Who on earth would invite some totaly stranger to stay for a few days? She didn't even know his name!
That was when he took a closer look at the pictures on her walls.
Humans.
So she was either a banished monster, or... she was born to banished parents?
So why would humans take her in?
She came back in and saw him looking at her pictures.
"What are these?" he asked.
"My family. I was born in that meadow," she said, pointing to the wildly overgrown land on the edge of the woods.
"Humans can't be our family. We're monsters," said Randall. The very idea was ridiculous. Humans were toxic!
She glared at him with light green eyes and slowled.
"They can be and they are. Mary and Bill raised me like a daughter and I grew up with their son Matt. They're as good a family as any," she retorted.
"Okay, okay, sheesh," he said, putting all four hands up in mock defense.
"I was abandoned and Bill found me when he was out hunting. I lived there ever since," she finished, gazing at the humans in the photograph. Randall resisted the urge to roll his eyes.
"So... I can bunk here for awhile?" he asked.
"Sure."
She got right in his face then, her hair falling on either side of ehr face. Her green eyes narrowed slightly and Randall blanched.
"But only if you stop that cutting," she finished.
Randall was so cowed by the look on her face, all he could do was swallow and nod.
"Then you'll find the air mattress rolled up in the closet. There should be extra bedding in there as well. You can leave whenever you want to, but I'm gonna do what Bill did for me when I was feeling depressed," she said matter-of-factly.
"Which is--?" he trailed off, not sure if he was going to like it.
She smiled grimly.
"Make you wear t-shirts," she said.
She was grinning mishciveously, fangs glistening.
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Well? What did yo uthink? Please review!!