Nightmares

The Crooked Forest

They looked to Reagan with pleading eyes, and the boy even whispered, "Brother."

Reagan gave a sideways glance.

He asked his sister, "Who are they?"

Alvina said, word for word, "The people who belittled you in the past."

The cold violence and the ostracism that the Morgans had inflicted on Reagan had all been found out by Alvina. Coupled with the fact that they were Reagan's blood relatives, involving secrets of their origins, and Alvina having cleared the Monster side of those who had seen him, the butcher's knife was aimed at the humans now.

"Reagan, kill them."

Cut the ties with those humans and untie the knots of your past.

At the words, Morgan's family were frozen as if they were wooden chickens, staring in horror at the green-eyed witch.

Alvina, however, did not even give them a second glance.

She only looked at Reagan.

In a whisper, he said, "Are they my relatives from the past?"

Alvina nodded and pointed to the horrified looking woman, "That woman had your mother killed, she kept asking your mother for money to pay her debts and threatened to expose her collection of human flesh if she didn't. Your mother died as a result of the debt."

Mrs Morgan dropped to the floor in dismay, her body shaking.

Was Morgans poor?

Actually, they were not.

They have a small, three-storey detached house, that can provide for their son's schooling, even if he was addicted to gaming and spent a lot of money in school.

Yet she passes on her debts to Mosheyev, who is struggling to make ends meet, and bullied Reagan's mother.

The boy snapped to look at his mother, "Mum?!"

Mrs Morgan sobbed, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry ...... I didn't know my sister wouldn't be able to cope, she could have told me if she didn't have the money, I thought her husband had it ......"

Her husband also shivered slightly, the first time he had heard of such a thing.

Suddenly, Mrs Morgan's sobs stopped and footsteps were heard walking gently up to her.

She was too frightened to even lift her head.

Pure white slippers.

The shadow of a young boy fell before her eyes, slim and thin.

She wrapped her arms around her own arms, which had blossomed over the years, and her sluggish sense of crisis erupted as she said pleadingly, "I'm your aunt, Reagan, I've raised you for five years, you can't deny my kindness to you because of this accident. Without me, where would you be now!"

His voice made one think of the snow falling in winter, soft and serene.

"What are you to me?"

Mrs Morgan swallowed and repeated, "I am your aunt."

Reagan asked again, "What did you give me?"

Mrs Morgan said impatiently, "I raised you for five years!"

Nodding, Reagan turned back to his somewhat displeased sister and said, "Let her live another five years." 

Under Mrs Morgan's frozen gaze, he raised a gentle smile as if he were the Reagan Mosheyev who used to live in the Morgan household.

"After five years, I want you to suffer from overwork. Until the end of your time."