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Chapter 2, Part 2: Greetings from the Shadow Monster
Glimmerbrook, 282 Years ago
Anastasia
Gwendolyn Adelaide Barrister bent over to stoke the fire. Rising to admire her handiwork, she wiped the soot off on her apron. “What about Susannah?”
“Llamas, mother, no.” Anastasia kept her focus on the needlepoint she was working on. She hated needlepoint, but she hated failing at things worse.
“Seymour?”
“Absolutely not.” The needle poked her fingertip. She licked off a droplet of plasma before continuing. “Have you ever even spoken with him? Riveting descriptions of cow milking procedures. Did you know that with the right kind of fruit, you can get strawberry milk?”
Her mother’s lips twitched as she sat down, “Strawberry milk sounds delightful.”
“You are not serious,” Anastasia finally looked up. “Seymour is a fool; you don’t suffer fools. Are you telling me you can’t see that?”
Her mother shrugged. “Well, last week you said Clara was boring, so I’m trying to come up with alternatives.”
Clara wasn’t boring so much as she was beautiful and vain. “Why does it have to be anyone?”
“Because you’re eighteen, and that’s what you do,” her sister said as she skipped into the room. Candace was still young enough to spend her days catching frogs and playing in the dirt with no demands on her person. Every time she saw her little sister, Anastasia had half a mind to shout, “Enjoy it while it lasts!”
“You don’t know anything about what I need to do,” she hissed as Candace plopped herself onto the couch, “You’re just a little baby.”
“I’m not a baby,” Candace growled, “I’m nearly double digits!”
Their mother was not amused. Skirts swishing, she bustled around the coffee table, snatching Candace up from her seat. “Do you mean to come into my house for supper without washing your hands? And didn’t I ask you to go get your father?”
The youngest Barrister dragged her feet, tiny sparks shooting from her hands. Word around the last solstice was that this generation of Barristers was destined to be powerful witches. Not that Anastasia would know, she was mortal and never invited to participate in the festivities at Magic HQ.
Her sister couldn’t know what a gift it was to have her future defined by power and not expectations of “domestic bliss.”
Intending to help her mother wrangle the little miscreant, Anastasia rose when something caught her eye. “I’ll do it!” she said suddenly.
A second glance confirmed that her mind wasn’t playing tricks on her. Somnus really was making his way over to the chicken coop. With effort, she purged the eagerness from her voice. “I don’t mind, really. Let me go fetch father.”
The Underworld
Alice
Vlad pointed, and she looked up. Right. The mausoleum was upside down, and the back was the one section not occupied by something that could come crashing down on their heads.
“What. Is. Happening.” he bit out.
Alice cringed, “I know. I’m being—”
“Absurd.”
“I was going to say, a little difficult,” she took in his scowl, “But absurd totally works too.”
“I am trying to help you.”
“I know! I know. It’s just…we haven’t even been here five minutes, and it’s already clear to everyone that I am a fraud.”
He ran a hand through his hair, opening his mouth before stopping short. Taking a deep breath, he closed his eyes. “Alice, you cannot be a fraud. You are a god. No one is disputing that fact.”
No, but they disputed her capabilities. Not that Vlad would know. He was Phobos; no one disputed a motherfucking thing about him. “I just need a win,” she said quietly.
“More of a win than ascending to godhood, saving Gwendolyn, and escaping Omar’s vicious attack?”
“That wasn’t me!” Alice protested, already feeling hot with shame about how narrow that escape was. “That was mostly Morgyn and Grim and a really alarming number of golems.” She wrung her hands, “I know the shadow beast is scared of you, and you could easily do it, but I just…I need to do this and get my confidence back.”
He stared at her blankly, “You want me to let the foul creature terrorizing your family run free?”
The man had a way with words. “Yes?”
“Even though I could easily rend the shadows from its bones and leave it whimpering under the weight of its own terror?”
“Okay, that’s a very specific threat,” Alice began, “But yeah.”
Vlad scrubbed a hand over his face and sighed, “And it is vitally important to you to have this win? That I sit back while you put yourself and the….” He didn’t finish his statement, and Alice was beyond grateful.
Reaching up, she smoothed out the crease between his brows, “Yes. And I will be a million times more careful with myself and…and the other thing.”
“Speaking of the other thing, what are you thinking? You said you wanted to wait until the Underworld; well, here we are.”
Alice looked away, “This does not feel like a good time to be making such a big decision.”
“Then when?”
“What?”
“When would be a good time? Because as far as I can tell, there is never a quiet moment to artfully consider big decisions, and if there were, you would not take it.”
He really did have her number. “I’m afraid I’ll be bad at it,” Alice confessed, “I don’t know how to be a parent.”
She expected Vlad to sound harsh or frustrated; instead, his voice was soft, teasing even. “Are you not already a parent? Or did I engage in the theft of Gwendolyn via magical battles and beheadings by myself?”
“First off, I did not behead anyone,” Alice said, trying not to laugh, “And secondly, yes, I am a parent, but that doesn’t mean that I’m ready for a second kid. I know this is easy for you because nothing scares you, but I’m not like that. I need more time.”
His jaw ticked, but he didn’t say anything, which was probably fair. Alice was delaying again. “Please. Just let me kill this monster and prove that I’m not a fuck up and I’ll be right as rain.”
“You are not a fuck up.”
Alice disagreed.
He kissed her, “So stop saying it.”
She would stop saying it—out loud at least. Wrapping her arms around his waist, she leaned against his chest, “You’re right, I know. And you’ve got a deal. Now, can you please fly us out of this nightmare room and back into the very crappy hell mansion that I’ve inherited?”
Alice Martin Cerberus is a good dog Gwendolyn steals every scene Mikel is Here! Miss Hell Shadow Beast Time Storytelling in space Vladislaus Straud
Comments
4 responses to “Chapter 2, Part 2: Greetings from the Shadow Monster”
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Apologies if this comment is all over the place, my brain is just X_X fried RN.
‘rowing up is all about understanding exactly how little we’re all worth.’ Yikes, such a good way to put it. ;-; The thought of hearing the sound of your body fixing itself is just… XC That’s actually a good point concerning immortality that I never thought about. In a dark way, at least if you’re mortal a horrible, horrible injury won’t hurt ever. Not the case if you’re immortal I guess. Owch. Hey, Alice, even gods make errors sometimes! You’ll get there!
So if I’m understanding this right, when Ben gave up his godhood that the God of Agriculture died as well? And the place in poor repair that was left to Alice, was thrown together by Ben? The shadow dog is cool but freaky. Of course Gwen wants to keep the pet shadow dog. I’m sure Vlad is ecstatic. XD the ending though…Vlad playing off unravelling deep fears and his past as just being hungry. I’m wondering just what it will take to get rid of the shadow beast though. Soon Alice will properly get used to her powers, though! -
Apologies if this comment is all over the place, my brain is just X_X fried RN.
Also apologies if this comment comes up twice, it didn’t work the first time for some reason?
‘rowing up is all about understanding exactly how little we’re all worth.’ Yikes, such a good way to put it. ;-; The thought of hearing the sound of your body fixing itself is just… XC That’s actually a good point concerning immortality that I never thought about. In a dark way, at least if you’re mortal a horrible, horrible injury won’t hurt ever. Not the case if you’re immortal I guess. Owch. Hey, Alice, even gods make errors sometimes! You’ll get there!
So if I’m understanding this right, when Ben gave up his godhood that the God of Agriculture died as well? And the place in poor repair that was left to Alice, was thrown together by Ben? The shadow dog is cool but freaky. Of course Gwen wants to keep the pet shadow dog. I’m sure Vlad is ecstatic. XD the ending though…Vlad playing off unravelling deep fears and his past as just being hungry. I’m wondering just what it will take to get rid of the shadow beast though. Soon Alice will properly get used to her powers, though!-
Haha, my brain is either all over the place or a pile of mush at the moment, so I can relate! The comment did come up twice but WordPress has been acting wonky lately, so I don’t think it’s you.
Oh Mikel, what a sad dude you are!!! Hahaha, he is a lil bit angsty, but every once in a while he lets some observation slip that makes you do a double-take.
Alice is learning so much! Painfully! Terribly! I have confidence in her ability to land on her feet, but she is sort of going through a rough patch at the moment. I’m glad that immortal injuries sounded horrible. I’m doing all I can to make sure I don’t overpower my characters too much. Yes, you can heal, but at what cost?
Yes, when Ben was forced to give up his godhood, he still needed more time to get things ready. Alice wasn’t going to be born for like a few more centuries. His brother, the God of Agriculture, gave up his godhood to try and buy Ben some more time. In fact, Ben’s whole family did this, which is why Alice is technically the God of Death, Agriculture, Nectar, Fertility, and Resurrection. Ben built the Underworld but he was in the midst of a complete breakdown on account of losing his whole family, so…you know…it’s not the best construction job.
LOL Vlad is like, so not interested in keeping this dog. I think he’s a bit overwhelmed because he’s dealing with Gwendolyn and all of his..er…issues.
So interesting that you said deep fears.
SO INTERESTING.
Anyways, I think Alice is gonna get a handle on her power too! And I think they are stuck with that shadow beast dog so long as Gwendolyn wants it…which is probably forever….to Vlad’s chagrin.
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The first character up is supernatural healing logistics. I have so many questions. Do immortals go through strength and flexibility training faster because their muscles rebuild faster? Does telomerase—wait, cancer doesn’t exist in the Sims universe—I mean does p53—wait, cancer doesn’t exist in the Sims universe—I mean, wow, cancer not existing in the Sims universe removes a whole lot of snags for the immortals. Though I would also read a story where, after 300 years, the vampires have a bunch of benign growths everywhere and much of their odd behavior could be explained by a brain scan. My point is, is Jimmy’s thesis work going to involve immortal cell samples? I’d say Valeria should look into it but that’s not her field.
Welp! That’s all the insightful stuff (? arguable) out of the way, and the rest of the comment is just random garbage. For example, the Anastasia/Gwendolyn connection was by far the most important part of this chapter, but “ooooh, let’s watch how this plays out” isn’t much of a take to read. Though now we know why she was trying to steal the child.
B’Unsenburneron—you’re still calling it ‘copulation’? After the shit you pulled? That said, I assume “once I found him shaping the same blade of grass for a decade” is not a personal attack, and yet it SURE FEELS LIKE ONE. God of Agriculture? So that’s where the extended Persephone joke comes in. Lol.
Poor Vlad, getting caretaker fatigue. And roped into getting a dog, too. I’ll be honest, I SHRIEKED at the prospect of Vlad braiding Gwendolyn’s hair. It was only after the chapter ended that I realized how hard that would be in the medium. As for the dog, do shadow dogs eat bunnies? 🙁 🙁 🙁 🙁
Hey, Kpop Hunger is back! Unless I’m forgetting things, which is quite likely: is that starvation reference a clue as to what Vlad’s mother did?
Grim’s getting some character development—I wonder if he’s always been this flirty, or it’s a coping mechanism for having to witness the origin of death, or whatever. Should we chant ‘flashback’ together? Let’s all chant ‘flashback’ together.
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