Monster Month: Halloween MCYT Oneshots

Day 20- Half-Monster

552 words, connected to day 16, modern au. Warning for violence. I'm so torn between hating this and cackling like a maniac.

Grian was haunting the apartment of an absolute idiot. For instance, Mumbo was convinced that Grian wasn't a poltergeist, but just some mage who was overcommitted to constantly inconveniencing him. But probably the biggest stupid mistake that Mumbo had made, was the fact that he thought he was human.

Grian could see Mumbo using his powers pretty regularly. When something would be close to falling off of a surface- at least, when it wasn't directly Grian's fault- a small inky tendril would materialize out of nowhere to keep it in place, and then disappear. Mumbo never even noticed! The tendrils would appear and do random other little things, too.

Of course, that alone wouldn't have convinced Grian that Mumbo had anything to do with it. There might've been some other monster around. However, there were also things that couldn't've been anything but Mumbo unknowingly using his powers.

Mumbo had been cooking. He was waiting for a pot of water to boil, while chopping carrots. The counter he was chopping the carrots at was across the kitchen from the stove. Mumbo's cat, Benji, was walking around on the counter near the stove. Grian wasn't paying very much attention, since he was trying to plan a very startling way of throwing around dishes, but noticed around the same time as Mumbo did when Benji was about to step on the hot stove. In an instant, Mumbo made his way across the kitchen to scoop up Benji and get him away from the danger. As Mumbo moved, he almost dissolved into smoke. After that day, and a few other similar incidents, Grian became convinced that Mumbo was some kind of eldritch being. Upon inquiry, he didn't react so well.

"What do you mean?! I'm a regular human being! Just like you're just some mage who's still pretending to be a ghost, for some reason!"

"No, seriously," Grian said. "You're doing weird stuff. And I'm very much dead."

"So are you implying that one of my parents was a monster?"

"Probably! I don't know! But you're being very eldritch."

"If I knew where you were, I'd throw something at you."

"Rude."

"What's rude is all the lying you're doing. I bet you're trying to gaslight me!"

"Gaslight you? Why would I- okay never mind, I'm clearly not winning this argument." Grian sighed, rubbing his hands on his face, and drifted towards the doorway to the kitchen. "Just so you know, I'm floating away from this conversation now."

"Hey!" Mumbo protested. "Don't just walk away! That's n- oh, what on earth?"

Mumbo's utter confusion was nearly unheard by Grian. A tendril had appeared, wrapping tightly around Grian's throat, as though he was physically there. If he'd needed to breathe, he would be struggling to. And it hurt, like nothing had since before his death. He tried to phase through it, he tried to get away, but he couldn't, he was stuck there, he was trapped he was trapped he was trapped- he needed to calm down. "P-please stop," Grian choked on the words. "That... that hurts."

"I... did I- I don't know how to make it go away?" Mumbo's voice climbed an octave. "I'm so so sorry!"

"It's- it's okay. It'll probably... disappear eventually. But do you believe me now?"

"...Yeah. Um, yeah. I believe you now."