𝗙𝘂𝗹𝗹 𝗗𝗶𝘀𝗰𝗹𝗼𝘀𝘂𝗿𝗲 ⦿ 𝙈𝙚𝙜𝙪𝙢𝙞 𝙁𝙪𝙨𝙝𝙞𝙜𝙪𝙧𝙤 ⦿

Chapter 12 - Mom / Dad

"I'm not drunk." Aaran pleads. "Please that's worse than if you fucking were." Elaine says, crossing her legs and furrowing her brow upward at him. "Look, I had no intentions on saying anything because I never thought that it would pose an issue... but she has it." Aaran says. "The fuck do you mean? You keep saying 'she has it' 'she has it' she has what nigga? The plague?" Elaine asks. "You're being funny." He says. "You're being crazy." She says pulling his face close to her own. Her voice, once filled with hate, now soft and innocent as she takes her husband's brown skin, melting it into her own. "You scare me when you talk like that." Elaine says.

Aaran's spirit fell out of his body. It always did when she touched him. "I'm sorry." He says pressing his forehead onto hers, deepening her hold as he curls his face under her lips. Kissing them gently and slowly taking more and more of her mouth. Elaine doesn't pull away, but she giggles. Aaran loved when she laughed. Her smile, her warmth, her. "Not too much. I just popped one out. You're gonna wind me up all over again!" She says. "That wouldn't be terrible. How bout it y/n? You want a little brother?" Aaran asks to the baby, fast asleep, on the other side of the bed. "Now who says it'll be a boy?" Elaine asks. "Oh I know." He says.

-

The day she was born Aaran knew. He knew he'd made a special girl. She didn't cry when she came from her mother. She just slept, quietly and comfortably. The doctors thought she was a stillborn, but she was just a sleepy girl. When she woke up, around an hour or so later she cried and cried and cried. Just like a baby does. It was the oddest thing. But that wasn't what made her special. It was that night. The doctors had emptied the hospital room, and Elaine had fallen asleep long before. He hadn't touched his own child yet.

The moment he placed a finger on her soft skin Y/n's body was lit ablaze. A hue of pink, almost as beautiful as her. It encased her little body and Aaran watched in awe. Her eyes opened, only to grab at the flames that roared around her. Her lips and nose were just like her mothers, the exact shape and proportions. But looking into her eyes was like looking in a mirror. There it was, right there. His eyes, on another human being. How terrifying.

He let go of Y/n, It took a moment, but the fire subsided. She didn't go back to sleep, instead she looked at her father, long and hard, and smiled. Aaran couldn't help but smile back. Reaching out for Y/n again. This time her body did not change. Aaran was able to lift his daughter into the air with ease, rocketing her around the room and smiling at her so genuinely. He never knew he could be so utterly in love with something. It was different from the love he had for his mother, or his wife. This love was so much different. It was so untainted. He wished to have it forever.

That night he fell asleep on the couch of the hospital room, with his daughter wound close in his arms.

Aaran remembered this day so vividly, and ever since he had been trying to explain curses, and energy, and sorcery to his wife... but she won't have any of it. A god-fearing woman, she is. It all sounds devilish to her. Each time he brings it up she deflects from her husband foul talk with love. Each and every time.

-

"Y/n's first birthday is coming up soon. What do you think we should do?" Elaine asks. "I mean... she is one. I don't think she'd care." Aaran jokes. He feels a small foot in his back. "Owwch!" He yells tugging the little foot forward. "See, my baby wants a party." Elaine says. "Fine, fine we'll have the damn party." He says rubbing the sore spot in his back.

Aaran enjoyed day's like this. The simple days. The days where he could smile, the day he forgot about the actuality of his life. The days he slept with ease. With the two people he loved more than the world curled underneath him. Those nights he felt like the king of utopia itself. Elaine was such a heavy sleeper, that's where Y/n got it he presumed. He loved bringing them breakfast the next morning. Kissing them awake. What more was there to life.

Then there were the days. The days that only existed to remind him what he truly was. The days that only existed to remind him that he would never run from what he was. No amount of normality would break him from himself. He could sense 'them' nearby. He heard them creak at his floorboards, bang at his doors, rustle in his trees. On nights like that Aaran would cry. He would cry quietly as to not wake his sleeping wife and child.

In the boiling heat of his own body he would sweat a puddle and cry. Looking over to the two beautiful sleeping faces next to him. "I'm so sorry." He would mouth. What had he done. Two innocent lives, he had tainted with his own. 

But Elaine was not as heavy of a sleeper as she led on. Actually quite the opposite. She sat awake, pained, each of these nights. Where her husband would weep and mumble. Often times she would wonder if he was unhappy with her, unhappy with the child she gave him, unhappy with the life they'd built. That's why he would spout such nonsense. He couldn't honestly tell her he didn't want to be together so instead he lied and created these fantasy stories of curses and sorcery to have a reason to flee.

That has to be.

Listening to him cry and whisper apologies so soft his shadows could not hear. It only solidified this fact in her head. She had failed. As a wife, as a mother. Elaine had failed.