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“He is right, you know.,” Ruse cut in with his usual snarky voice. Even in the most tender of moments, it seemed I could rely on him to have at least a hint of snideness coasting alongside whatever he had to say. “I doubted you most of all. Thought you were just bartering for your own safety or something. You have proven me very,verywrong.”
He kneaded my thighs with his cat paws to make himself more comfortable on my lap. “I’m afraid I’ve become quite fond of your company, although I’d wager I made that quite obvious already.”
“Um,” Thorn cut in shyly. “I’ve liked you since the moment I saw you pull into the driveway, but more than anything, I just want to thank you for giving us a chance. Being with you is the first time I’ve felt like a creature worthy of love in my entire life, but especially since being stuck here with these two.”
“I don’t know what to say,” I started, trying to find the eloquence within myself to give them the response all three of them deserved after choosing to be so vulnerable with me. “I just know that the time I’ve spent here with you all trying to sever the magick that ties you to this place has made me feel like I have a purpose—a real purpose—for the first time. I have grown to love each of you in return, despite every part of my self-preservation telling me not to,” I added with a slightly teary giggled.
My nose began to run, and I wiped it on my sleeve, doing my best to make sure I didn’t look too terribly gross doing it.
“If this all works out, and you three get to go off and explore the dark corners of the world at your leisure, just promise you won’t forget me,” I requested, looking directly at each of them as I spoke.
“Wouldn’t be able to forget if I tried,” Nox said softly, and the others nodded in agreement.
I took a deep breath, exhaled sharply, and patted Nox’s thigh next to mine.
“Personally, I don’t want to mope up here the rest of the night, and I definitely don’t want to sit in that disgusting living room, either,” I said, doing my best to make the most of an emotionally charged day. “I know none of you particularly need or care for people-food, but if I get a bowl of fruit, would you all want to sit in the backyard with me and try to enjoy what will hopefully be your last night stuck in this old place?”
“I like that idea,” Thorn mused from behind me. “It will also give me the chance to dig up the treasures I buried back there.”
Ruse hopped off my lap and morphed quickly back into his regular human form, his face quirked with curiosity.
“Thorn,” he started, “You’re telling me you’ve got ‘treasure’ buried back there?”
“Of course I do,” the hulking creature responded, tapping his claws together. “I don’t know why I was compelled to take them and bury them, but I couldn’t let all the shinies get thrown away with the rest of… the others’ stuff from before.”
“Thorn, I swear you’d be better off as someone’s pet instead of this creature of death and decay you were born as,” Nox laughed.
Thorn sunk his head in embarrassment, so I turned around toward him and wrapped my hands around his antlers.
“I think he’s cute,” I said as I nuzzled his bony face with my own. “And I’m excited to see what sorts of things he’s been collecting.”
I swung my legs back around and gently pulled Thorn with me toward the ladder.
“I kind of don’t want to walk through the living room until I absolutely have to,” I confessed.
It wasn’t that the blood necessarily upset me. I just wanted to live as much of the day in ignorant bliss as possible. Part of me was still latched onto the understanding that my normal life with Blair and UPenn and my dad did not fit alongside what I imagined a monsters’ lifestyles looked like.
No matter how things shook out in the morning, I knew that my time with the monsters was coming to an end, or at the very least an extended pause. When I left this place, I hoped they would be able to find me.
“Come,” Thorn said from behind me. As I turned around to see what he meant, he extended an arm that I gladly took. “You don’t need to walk through the living room.” The beast pulled me into him and lifted me onto his back, where I clung to his mane with both hands. “We’ll take the scenic route.”
Once he realized I was secure, he pushed open the tall, skinny window that ran from the floor of the attic to the ceiling facing out the front of the mansion, and leapt out as I held on for dear life. He landed on the roof below with a slam, and I noticed Ruse had shifted into a fruit bat and glided down after us with Nox just behind him in a shadowy mist. Thorn used the opportunity to show off his athleticism, jumping from spire to spire, then gliding down the rain gutters like they were firefighter poles before launching himself back up to the higher points with incredible jumps, proving just how powerful he was.
It was exhilarating being so high in the air and feeling the wind whip through my hair on the back of a beast that most would assume only existed in nightmares and folklore, and I committed every moment to memory—especially when Thorn would look over his shoulder to check on me after every big leap. With one final bracing jump, we landed firmly on the ground in the backyard.
“Was that too much?” Thorn asked as he reached back and offered his clawed hand carefully for me to slip off his back onto.
“Not at all,” I said as I caught my breath. My heart was racing a thousand miles a minute, and I could tell my hair was tossed every which way, but I didn’t regret a thing. Ruse and Nox landed just after us with significantly more grace than the gangly creature I’d ridden down on.
The sun was just beginning to make its evening descent as I stepped into the kitchen to prepare myself something to eat. The monsters followed in behind me one by one, as if we were all keenly aware that our time together was coming to an end and wanted to soak up every remaining minute. I sliced fruit and threw it in a bowl with a bit of honey and lemon juice while we enjoyed each other’s company before heading out to the backyard. Ruse started a small fire in a cast iron pit off the patio for us to enjoy while Thorn milled about the yard digging and searching for his “treasures.” I wasn’t ready to acknowledge the inevitable, so I was glad that nobody brought it up. All of us were too focused on whatever object Thorn would dig up next as we made a game out of guessing what would come next—car keys, jewelry, or pocket change.
We sat out there for ages, until the sun had long set and the moon dominated the summer sky, surrounded by a multitude of stars shining boldly in the absence of city lights. We didn’t move until my eyes grew heavy and my t-shirt smelled like bonfire smoke. All three creatures followed me upstairs to my room, like loyal hounds, but I requested to sleep alone to commune with my thoughts and focus on the task at hand.
After each of them embraced me and offered their own unique goodnights, I slumped heavily into bed as I allowed all my weight to drop freely, then I pulled out my phone from my pocket. I considered calling Blair and my dad to tell them I love them, but ultimately decided against it. If I made moves now like I wasn’t expecting to make it out of this alive, then all I was doing was manifesting that possibility into reality.
Our plan was solid, and I had all three of them on my side against one man who didn’t even see it coming. I shot out of bed and pulled my weapon out of my side drawer to do a quick inspection and make sure everything looked ready to go. My dad’s voice rang out in my head as I went through the motions to assure the gun was properly loaded and ready to perform. Finally, I raised my arms and stared down the sight of my handgun at an imaginary Jonas Silver and muttered, “You’re the real monster.”
I was ready.
