Chapter 9: Opening up Yourself
The door to Anya's room was opened, and it turned out to be Charlie who had saw the little child sleeping, hugging her chimera doll and the penguin plush beside her.
She walked over and noticed that the girl was wearing one of the pajamas her and Angel Dust had bought the afternoon collected the rest of the clothes and put them in the wash so that the child could wear them more comfortably.
The princess began to gently wake the little girl, who began to slowly open her eyes and look at her.
"Good morning, Anya. I came to wake you up for breakfast. I see you had a very busy day yesterday, to be sleeping so soundly, right?" - Charlie declared, smiling gently.
Anya rubbed her eyes, and sat up in her bed, looking around and then back at then slid off the bed and walked to the bathroom, and climbed onto a stool to reach the sink and began to splash water on her face and brush her teeth.
After that, she followed Charlie to the kitchen, and drank her hot chocolate with peanut cookies, which she ended up loving.
A while later, the girl once again took a bath in the bubble bath in her bathtub, and put on one of her newly bought clothes. It was so nice to wear a different outfit in a long time.
She excitedly ran to Angel Dust's room and knocked on the door, hoping he would open it for her. But nothing but silence was that's when she remembered, Angel had said he would leave this morning to go to his job.
The child then started heading to the lounge, going to meet Husk and Niffty. She found the red girl reading another one of her fanfics written in her book on the couch. Her thoughts made Anya a little uncomfortable, and so she headed to the bar, where the feline was again.
The little girl sat on one of the stools and began to talk to him, with a smile on her face. - "Good morning, Mr. Husk." - as soon as he looked at her, his serious expression changed to a smiling one.
"Good morning, Anya. How's your day going?" - he asked, going back to sipping his drink. The child smiled at him, as she thought of what to say.
"Do you spend a lot of time behind the counter or something?" - the feline just looked at her and replied. - "Well, yes. Because besides taking care of the drinks, I also check in at the entrance."
"Ooooh, and do you also drink when you have free time?" - she asked again. - "Well, yes." - The girl could see in his thoughts that he hoped she wouldn't ask him so many personal questions.
Anya then decided to think of something that wouldn't bother him so much, but that wouldn't give her away directly either. - "Can you fly, Mr. Husk?"
Husk was taken aback by this question. He then began to think about how to answer, in a way that she wouldn't think something negative about him. - "Well, yes and no, girl. But it depends on the circumstances."
Despite this, the girl saw in her thoughts that one of the reasons he didn't do it was because he was lazy and because he is not fond of his demon form in general, which made her feel uncomfortable, and she nodded in understanding.
"Okay, and what else do you like to do?" - the child decided to try to find out Husk's favorite hobby or something.
"Hmm, well... I like drinking, magic shows and back massages." -he replied, hiding other things listed, which in turn, Anya read in his mind.
The little girl rested her head on her hands and her elbows on the counter, her expression now interested. - "Could Mr. Husk do one of those magic tricks for Anya someday?"
The feline was surprised by the little girl's request and murmured. - "Maybe I'll think about it, little girl. On your birthday, perhaps?" - With this suggestion, Anya imagined having a little magic show at her birthday party, like she saw on the orphanage's television programs.
But then she realized something. - "Anya… doesn't have a birthday." -she muttered sadly. Husk was surprised by that and approached the counter. - "What do you mean, child? You don't know your date of birth or something?" - he asked.
The little girl looked at him sadly and shook her head slowly from side to side. - "No, Anya never actually celebrated a birthday, not even at the orphanage Anya lived or with the other families who adopted Anya. Anya doesn't even know when was born."
Tears ran down the little child's face as she remembered not only the orphanage, but also about the laboratory. And what Husk asked her shocked her.
"You've been somewhere other than the orphanage, haven't you, child?"
Anya recoiled slightly, nearly falling off the bench. - "What does Mr. Husk mean?!" - She tried to maintain her composure, but the feline continued. - "I can read people, Anya. And I can tell that you're hiding a lot from us."
The girl started to sweat coldly, she didn't count on this ability of Husk, and then she decided to question. - "Like what, Mr. Husk?"
Husk smiled, seeing that the child was slowly opening up to him, and he continued. - "You were in a horrible place, much worse than the two orphanages you were in. I don't know where, but from your expression, it must have been horrible enough to cause you deep wounds, am I right?"
Anya's expression confirmed that he was right, and then him continued. - "And you managed to escape from that place and went to an orphanage. But after two rejections, you were transferred to another one, where you suffered two more rejections. And then, you ran away from there and somehow, ended up here. Did I get it right again?"
He saw the child slowly start to feel sadness and afraid of what else he could discover about her, and then he decided to finish. - "And in the end, I noticed how you've been looking at us these two days since you got here. It's as if you wanted to read or see something about each of us. You even developed a fear of Alastor, even though he hadn't done anything to you yet."
Anya felt the blood drain from her face as the feline continued. - "And seeing it even now in front of me, I have come to a conclusion." - instead of saying it, he answered in thought.
"You can read people's minds, can't you?"
Anya held back a scream as she felt like she was going to faint again, but Husk grabbed her by the back of her clothes and pulled her behind the counter with him.
He handed her a paper bag so the girl could pull and push air into the bag to calm herself down.
Once she calmed down, Anya looked back at Husk, still shocked by all of this. - "How... did Mr. Husk find out all of this about Anya, just by reading Anya?" - she asked, still in disbelief and scared, as she struggled not to cry in front of him.
"I don't like when someone isn't being genuine with me, child. But I can understand that you're afraid of being abandoned or taken advantage of, right?" - he asked. The girl hesitated a little, but nodded slightly.
Husk sighed, before sitting on the floor and declaring. - "As you can see, a lot of people I know also try to keep their problems to themselves. Angel, for example, he also does the same thing, but he's terrible at keeping it. Did you manage to read his mind too, girl?"
Anya thought for a bit, and heard Husk's mind saying that seeing his thoughts didn't count there, but she didn't need that and replied.
"Anya... first read it, on the day that Mr. Dust found Anya on the streets and when he brought Anya to this hotel. And the more Anya spent time with Mr. Dust, the more oblivious his mind became. And the more Anya tried to read, something always stopped Anya."
The feline sighed in relief, and the girl realized that he didn't want her to find out anything more about Angel Dust. - "Well, that's great. But can't you stop yourself from reading people's minds or something?" - he questioned.
The child looked down and replied. - "Anya has no control over this power. And it's worse when Anya is in a crowd. Sometimes, Anya even gets dizzy and bleeds from her nose. And depending on someone's thoughts, Anya also gets extremely dizzy and faints." - she explained.
Husk then realized that for her, having this ability to read other beings' minds was both a blessing and a curse.
"But Anya has a weakness. During the New Moon phases, Anya loses the ability to read minds. If Anya is not mistaken, it's called "Eclipsing". Anya is happy to be able to relax the mind a little and at the same time terrified because Anya doesn't know who might be nearby." - the girl explained.
Husk continued listening carefully to the girl's explanation and heard her ask. - "Can you tell if the moon also affects Hell or something, Mr. Husk?"
The feline thought for a moment before shrugging, indicating that he didn't know how to say it. With that, the girl sighed and leaned back on her knees, then asked him.
"Will Mr. Husk tell the others that Anya can read minds?"
Husky looked at her and smiled briefly. - "Your secret is safe with me, child. As long as you don't act like that again in my presence, okay?"
Anya smiled at this and stood up and walked over to Husk, hugging him. The little girl realized that Husk was also nice to hug, even though she imagined how uncomfortable he felt right now. To her surprise, he put an arm over her, returning the hug to her.
After a while, she released him from contact and the feline guided her to the exit of the counter. With that, she returned to the bench and sat down. And then she whispered.
"Can Mr. Husk at least pretend with Anya that nothing happened when there are other people around?"
Husk glanced at her briefly, and nodded. - "Alright, kid. Let's pretend... around other people." - At that moment, they saw Niffty coming back from the library and deciding to join them.
"Hey, guys. How are you?" - she asked, completely oblivious to the conversation they had earlier. Anya smiled and commented. - "We're fine, Niffty. Where have you been all this time?"
"Ah, I was cleaning some furniture. So, what did you think of yesterday's surprise?" - the cyclops asked, waiting for an answer from the child.
Anya looked at her, surprised. - "Did you know, Niffty?" - she asked. Niffty nodded and began to reveal. - "Angel gave it to me on the way to his room without you seeing, and then I washed and dried it and in the end waited for you two to arrive to deliver it back to him."
The little girl was fascinated by how much work Dust and Niffty had gone to surprise her. She felt her face heat up and then she declared.
"Wow, Anya doesn't even know what to say... Thank you so much, Niffty." - the girl in red smiled in response, and then addressed the feline. - "Hey, Husk. Could you offer us both a drink, yes?"
Husk snorted in response and then declared. - "You're lucky I'm in a good mood. And by the way, would you girls like to try some new drinks I thought of making recently?"
Niffty and Anya were excited and agreed, and the child even heard the feline's thought that she probably also knew about this surprise before, and she just looked at him and smiled in response.
01/28/2025: I wrote this chapter weeks ago when I wrote and posted on other sites. And yes, Husk is someone who is very observant and has the ability to read people and understand their problems well (even when they don't themselves), so he would certainly do the same with Anya here. I hope the chapter is good enough, because I'm afraid I'll get a lot of things wrong.