ⒸⒽⒶⓅⓉⒺⓇ ⓍⓍⓋⒾⒾⒾ
"Mama," calls Maeve, she's holding her head in her hands. I kneel down.
"Yes?"
"My head hurts..." she tells me.
"Aw, okay well have you drank enough wa-" I pause when I see the top of her head.
Her horns grew bigger.
I bite my bottom lip from saying anything else.
Has anyone else seen this yet?
I think to myself.
"What, mama?"
"Uhh, I was going to say maybe you haven't drunk enough water." I suggested as I give her the glass jar of water. She drinks some and I stand up to tell Ray.
I shake his shoulder, we were still walking and following Hayato and Jin still.
"Hm?" he says.
"Ray, Maeve is growing horns." I tell him. His eyes widen.
"What?"
"Maeve is growing horns." I tell him as if I didn't already know she had really small ones to begin with.
Within minutes the whole group knows, besides Maeve that we may have a demon child on our hands.
"She has the same physique as Y/n though, and she hasn't been experimented on!" Emma whisper yells, Zazie was walking with Maeve and keeping an eye on her while the rest of us were trying to discuss what we should do.
"Well, actually..." Hayato scratches his head. "You'd be surprised what happens in some of the mass production farms."
We all look at him, concerningly.
"What does that mean?"
Sandy asks.
Hayato sighs. "Let's just say, some of the demons who run the mass production farms don't exactly treat some of the humans like slabs of meat..."
It immediately clicked in my head.
And I felt absolutely sick.
I covered my mouth upon piecing it together, the others looked disgusted beyond belief.
What a horrible thing to do!
And I thought the intelligent farms were bad at a point.
Jin perks up, "Usually if something like Maeve's case happens, they'll throw out the child, or sell it as regular meat with the horns butchered off"
I lean forward a little, "So, you're saying... Maeve is a half-demon who was born in a mass production site?" I ask.
Jin nods. "Based on the branding on her hand, she was going to be raised to sell off and cut off her horns when they fully grew."
Hayato chimes in, "She was lucky Minerva had set up thievery on that day!"
"Oh my," I clutch my heart.
That's a lot to take in.
Gillian beams, "No matter! Y/n found her and we saved her! And now we'll take her to Mr. Minerva where she and the rest of us can be safe!" she says with a happy and a wide cat-like smile.
"Well, should we still ruffle her hair over her horns to hide once we get to the hideout?"
Both Hayato and Jin think for a little bit.
"Once the boss sees her branding, he should understand!"
Jin claims. I let out a sigh of relief.
Hayato points to me, "Which means, you shouldn't hide yours either!"
I purse my lips and look away. "It's fine, I'll keep doing so."
He shrugs and looks ahead.
⇠⫷❖◈❖⫸⇢
It's hadn't been long at all before Ray and I agreed that we had to tell Maeve what she was, and how to use her regeneration.
For safety and to not lie to her, of course.
We were at a resting place when we both sat in front of Maeve, who was currently weaving some vines she found together with her fingers.
She looks up, "Hi mama! Hi papa!" she says joyfully.
It was at this moment, that I had no idea how we were going to tell her that she was related to demons.
I stuttered at first, but then quickly got myself together. "Hey Maeve, me and Ray need to tell you something." I start.
She stops weaving and looks at us both, we both take it in parts.
"You know how your head was hurting earlier? Well, we see that you're starting to grow some tiny horns, similar to mine. And it is now that we realize that..." I pause, looking for the right word.
"That you are indeed related to the monsters you were running from." Ray says.
Maeve widens her eyes and feels on top of her head at the f/c horns that are growing, she bounced back a little out of shock.
"But, it's okay because see, there are such things as nice monsters." That's a terrible way to phrase it, back it up a little, Y/n.
"Nice monsters?" Maeve asks.
I nod my head as Ray takes the lead, "Yes. Those nice monsters are also classified under the demon category, however, because of their looks and abilities. They are all called demons. But not all of them are mean and scary." he tells her.
Maeve looks at my head and points. "Is mama a nice demon?" she asks.
"Yes, she is." Ray nods, taking my hand to show. "And so are you, we can tell." he tries to make her feel better. Luckily it's working.
I take one of her hands, "Now, there are some things that you can do, as a demon. That I feel like is important to teach you. Do you think you can try to listen and practice with me?" I ask her.
She nods her head.
I breathe a sigh of relief.
That went smoother than I thought.
I thought.
For the remainder of our rest and before we slept, I was teaching her how to regenerate, which she got the hang of after a few tries.
I didn't want to hurt her too badly, so I just took my nail and scratched her with it. By this time, Ray came back from talking with Emma and was watching us practice.
'Now, remember. Where do you have to absolutely make sure you don't get hit at?"
"The middle eye," she points to her forehead, right above the middle of her eyebrows. "Our middle eye is right here," she added.
I nodded, "Good job!" I say, still scratching her arm while she keeps healing the little cuts that shed very minimal blood.
Maeve looks at me blankly.
"I wanna try to heal a big wound."
Ray and I's eyes bug out of our heads.
"No, Maeve I'm worried-"
She interrupts me.
"I wanna try it, if I don't practice I won't know how to do it if I get a big injury." she pauses.
"Let me try it, please." she gives me puppy eyes.
"No."
"Pretty please?"
"Maeve-"
"Mama-"
She just won't give up.
Dear god.
This is going to hurt me more than it hurts you.
I look at Ray, he's also hesitating.
I sigh heavily and sharpen my nails. "Fine. But only one time." I told her.
She laid on her back and I, with much hesitation peeled a piece of skin off. I threw the skin into the thick brush and waited for her to try and regenerate.
Both Ray and I were very anxious, but both of us let out a huff of relief when she starts to regenerate.
She fully regenerates her wound. I look at her with much shock.
She didn't even make a peep of noise. No hesitation.
She did it perfectly.
"Again!" she tells me, in full seriousness.
Ray gets her up from the ground and I shake my head very fast.
"Nope, that's enough for tonight!" I tell her, swooping her into my lap. "And never practice alone without us, something very bad could happen if you do, and we will not risk that." I tell her, receiving a "yes mama" in return.
I was rummaging through my bag for a jar of water and had come across my stuffed bear, at the bottom of my bag.
"Hm," I hum, digging him out of the abyss that is my bag.
He still looks as clean as he always has. I always had made sure to clean Cuddles often.
Maeve sees my bear and pets the head. "Ooh! What's this thing?"
I look back at her. "Oh, this is mama's old teddy bear named Cuddles. She forgot about him for a little while it seems..." I talk in third person as I look back into my bear's beady eyes.
I smile as I let Maeve hold him. "Would you like to keep him?"
Her eyes glowed wide and her expression grew happier. "Oh, but he's yours! Isn't Mr. Cuddles important to you??"
I chuckle, "Yeah, but... Mama's too old for stuffed animals now..."
I didn't like to admit it, but over the past year and months of Ray sometimes embracing me when we sleep, It had led to me casting my sentimental bear from Mujika aside.
Maeve thought. "Well, I still don't want to take him from you, but I'd love to hold onto him for you!" she beams.
I laugh in a low tone and ruffle her hair, "Alright, hun."
Ray leans up against a tree trunk and I lean back on him. All three of us getting rest before going to hike again, and Maeve now hugging Cuddles.
⇠⫷❖◈❖⫸⇢
Two days have passed.
Everyone marvels and looks around them.
"THESE TREES ARE HUUUUUUUUUUUGE!!!"
They all yell.
"This is still a forest, right?" I ask. "It's way bigger than any forest I've seen."
Jin points up. "The base is a little further ahead!" he tells us.
By this point, I had educated Maeve on the wild demons and the weapons we used to protect ourselves. So she wasn't startled at all by the big footprints or our guns being cautiously drawn.
"If you stick by Ray or me, you'll be safe, If you are in an emergency situation, use your nails I taught you how to sharpen," I told her, she nodded and followed suit with Cuddles still in her arms.
I don't think I saw her once let go of that bear during our entire trip.
Ray had his gun drawn, seeing all the large wild demon footprints.
Hayato perks up. "I'll go tell the boss that you all are coming! Jin, Zazie. Make sure they all make it safe!" he rushes forward.
"We're here!" says Jin as we enter.
Oh
My
Seven
Holy
GODS.
"Wow!" says Maeve, she wanders around and I have to pull her back from exploring too much.
"A whole city... INSIDE OF A TREE?!" I say, looking around.
Ray puts his gun in the sheathe as Chris is brought to an infirmary.
We all follow Hayato up the large stairs, passing a large kitchen that makes my mouth water.
I hold onto the back of Maeve's dress to keep her from running away, and it works.
There's a large library that catches Ray's attention, a very nice armory that has me glancing at all the nice medieval weaponry on the wall.
I look at all the passing children, Emma leans over to me.
"All the children are smiling here too." she tells me.
"I know, this place is way over and beyond my expectations..." I mutter back.
"Welcome!" says a kid with hot cocoa in his hands.
Maeve smiles and waves.
"Emma! Y/n! The boss says he wants to meet the leaders!"
Emma and I look at each other.
"Maybe you should go, you're the real leader-"
"No, you should, you help and lead us beyond my capabilities-"
"You both can go." Ray prompts.
Maeve tugs on my skirt/pant leg. "Mama, can I go play with the other kids here?" she asks.
I sigh, "Okay."
I look at Ray, "Please make sure she doesn't leave or get lost, this is a very big place..."
He sends a smirk my way, "Of course, now go." he told me while ruffling my hair.
Emma and I walk up some more stairs, following Hayato.
Emma sucks in a breath and I let one out. She fumbles with the pen and seems fidgety.
I take her hand and send a beaming smile.
"We're going to meet Mr. Minerva," we both say in unison. Excitement and nervousness are written all over both of our faces.
Hayato knocks, we hear a muffled "come in."
He burst open the door.
"Boss! I brought them!"
We take one glance in the boss's direction...
Hayato leaves. He speaks.
"It took a while, but we finally meet," he speaks.
A tear slide down Emma's cheek, and my heart stops at the very sight.
"N-N-N-" I can't even say his name. I'm too in shock.
I choke before speaking again, feeling a tear run down my eye.
...
...
...
"Norman?"
I'm barely breathing.
Just barely.
Just enough to keep me from passing out.
I knew Norman was smart, but I never expected he would live.
The only way he could have survived was...
If he was sent to Lambda.
"Is-" Emma chokes on her words.
"Is it really you, Norman?" she asks for us.
He smiles.
"Emma. Y/n." he says.
Emma and I burst into tears, she drops the pen and runs to him.
I stumble on my steps but make it slowly there. She gives him a power hug, enough to knock him over if he wasn't prepared for it.
I am behind them, still soaking everything in.
"I missed you both. It's been so long. I'm so glad you both are okay. Emma, Y/n."
"Is it... Really you?" I ask.
"You're not a lookalike, right?? Not a ghost??" Emma asks. "How are you alive???"
Norman smiles again.
"I was sent to a different farm. And I was kept by demons there."
I knew it.
I grit my teeth.
Angry he worried us so bad.
Glad and relieved he's alive.
But also angry.
He puts a hand near Emma's left side of her face and gets shocked when he doesn't feel anything there.
"Oh, my left ear? I left it at the house."
"But we were able to escape! Y/n shed the toxic chemicals and she moves better than ever now!"
Everyone walks in from behind us.
"This is our new family!" she says happily.
Everyone from Gracefield eventually soaks in Norman's appearance and runs to him as well.
"I'm glad everyone's okay!" Norman says.
Ray walks up next to me, I sense his energy.
Angry.
"Oh, Ray-"
Ray slapped Norman so hard he fell to the floor.
I unconsciously smirk but quickly wipe it off when he looks up from the floor.
"Oh my. Not even a proper hello before my punishment." Norman chuckles. "Did you all see great things?"
Ray pauses, and tears stream down his face.
"Yeah. Thanks to you." he clenches his teeth.
Norman stands up and looks at me.
"Y/n, you've looked absolutely petrified this whole time, are you okay?"
I take Norman by his tie and hug him.
After the hug, I also slap him.
Not so hard that he falls to the ground, I didn't want to hurt him that bad.
But I slapped him hard enough for him to understand my anger.
I didn't realize my eyes were glowing a feverish red before he points it out.
"Oh my, double punishment. Hehe." he scratches the back of his head.
"Goddamn knobhead. I practically died inside saying goodbye all those years ago." I say angrily, my eyes flaring.
"Well, I'm glad you both are doing well," Norman says.
Ray pulls us in for a hug. "I'm glad I'm alive," he says.
"And don't ever try to die again, stupid Norman..." Ray says.
"I won't, stupid Ray." Norman responds back.
I let go of him and sigh, I hear some small footsteps. I turn to see Gilda holding Maeve, who still had the bear I gave her on lock to her chest.
Even for being (what we assumed) 4 years old, she was still small for her age and extremely light. Which made her easy to pick up.
"Hiii!" she says as I take her from Gilda.
"Oh my, who do we have here?" asks Norman with a smile.
"Mama! Papa! Why are you both crying?" Maeve asks, lightly tugging on Ray's sleeve while holding Cuddles with the other. He wiped them off and smiled widely at her.
Norman hears her call us mom and dad and slightly widens his eyes with his lips pursed.
He looks at Ray, then me, then Maeve.
"Huh?"
Norman says before shaking his head and taking a closer look at Maeve.
Even when I brushed Maeve's bangs back, they would still fall over her left eye. it was pitch black hair as well like Ray's. She had my eyes, e/c eyes. And she was still growing her f/c horns.
Norman widens his eyes with a very appalled expression and looks at Ray.
"Ray, don't tell me... While I wasn't there you-"
"Wait no we didn't-" Ray widens his eyes and starts to shake his head, but Norman went on.
"I mean I knew you liked Y/n a lot but I didn't know you two would hit it off that well-"
"Norman no-"
"And to think your daughter already looks so grown! She's like a female version of you! It's astounding!"
Before Ray can even try to interject, Norman bends over to look Maeve in the eyes.
"Hi little one, what's your name?" he asks with a smile.
"My name's Maeve! My mama gave me that name!" she said with a bright and wide grin.
"Aw, what a lovely name!" he said joyfully whilst clasping his hands together.
"Norman she isn't our kid," Ray finally gets a word in. "At least, biologically." he corrected himself.
Norman stands back up and raises an eyebrow. "Oh. I almost got my hopes up for a minute." he jokes with a chuckle.
Ray turns red and Maeve giggles at his flustered expression.
"Maeve calls us mom and dad because we saved her from a farm she escaped from." I told him, he has a questionable look until I show him her farm tattoo.
Norman points to the top of her head, her horns only looking like little stumps sticking out from her hair. "But she-"
"We'll explain later," I interrupted.
"Oh, alright,"
Is all he can say as he leans back on his desk.
"So, I want to tell you about what happened to me, and about the-" he pauses and glances at Maeve. Then back at us. "The monsters."
"Do you mean the demons, mister?" Maeve corrects.
Norman's shocked state only grows, though, I don't know why he is acting as such, since he saw and pointed out her horns.
I sigh and set Maeve down.
"Alright hun, I'll be talking with the boss and the others. So could you go play with the other kids, please?" I ask her. "Please don't go so far that you get lost or that you somehow leave, alright?"
Maeve nods and gives a thumbs up while running out of the room. I stand back up, listening to Norman talk about his Lambda experience, which then strives into what the demons are.
Started as a bacteria that evolved into eating humans for intelligence. Though, Norman seems to not be confident in the last bit of his explanation. Always referring to me.
Norman went back to referring to Lambda, describing how and why Zazie looks the way he does, even though he is only five.
"Repeated drugging, experiments, and breeding. During that process, individuals started to show unexpected abnormal development and irregular muscle growth and a heightened nervous system."
That explains why my experiments were so side effect heavy.
Damn Sarah, sending in those scientists from Lambda because of Andrew's stupid recommendation.
I think to myself as he continues.
One thing catches my attention.
"We'll exterminate all the demons and make them go extinct, that way, we can live in peace and harmony forever."
My heart suddenly starts beating faster in a very unpleasant and patternless way.
What?
The younger kids are pleased, smiling.
But I'm not smiling.
"Let's do it. We'll all change the world. The demons will go extinct. I'll get rid of them all, the demons, this neverland, and the Ratri clan." he pauses. "The demons who had ripped apart others will get to finally feel what it's like."
My soft and very quiet breathing becomes a little bit unstable and has to come through my mouth now.
(graphic in and out flashbacks, skip the text that's in Italics with the !!! on them, if you're uncomfortable)
!!! I latch my teeth and wrap my whole mouth around his neck with a loud roaring growl sound accompanying, ripping out chunks of his flesh at a time. !!!
Norman keeps talking about his plan to wipe out all the demons, while I think back to when I first snapped.
!!! He screams like I never heard, but it eventually is clouded with a gurgling sound while he chokes on his own blood. !!!
Emma didn't seem to like the plan either, she glances over to me to find me in a slightly distraught state.
!!! By now he's long dead as my twitchy body and arched back eat even more of his mangled corpse. !!!
Ray seems to notice my anxious presence. But he keeps listening to Norman with pursed lips.
!!! I whip my head around with the bone like a wild dog, chew at it for any leftover meat, and throw it to the side as I eat the remaining parts of his neck, sucking out some blood from the stump of the head to feed my ravishing hunger. !!!
Once Norman's speech finishes, everyone except for Emma, Ray and I erupt into cheers.
Ray takes side glances at me, I take a few steps back from Norman as he smiles devilishly.
I wonder if he means a total extinction...
I nervously think, keeping as best of a poker face right now as Emma.
Gilda turns to us. "This way, you wouldn't have to carry such a burden, Emma!"
Norman keeps looking at me funny, glancing at me every so now and then to see my reaction after he says something. At one point, after I backed up, he smirked.
Maybe that's my anxiety.
But I think I have a reason or two to be anxious now.
"Alright, we can discuss this more another time! I made beds and rooms for you all!" Norman leads the way, but I lag behind a little bit.
The other kids are marveled to see him down here, he tells them it's alright and that he's just showing us our rooms.
There were more separate rooms upstairs.
Ray and I were left as we followed Norman to the last room.
"This is both of your rooms." he smiled mischievously.
I looked in as he did too.
One large king bed that is specifically made for more than one person.
Amazing.
"There's only one bed in here," calls Ray.
Norman holds back a laugh, walking away.
"Oh yeah, I kinda did that on purpose." he chuckles as Ray chases after him, I stifle a small laugh and go to find Maeve.
⇠⫷❖◈❖⫸⇢
"Thank you for the food!" we all said whilst ending our prayers.
Alright, a little dinner conversation will clear my cluttered mind from that first meeting.
I thought hopefully.
Cracking jokes and swapping stories was nice, Norman kept looking at the top of my head to my horns and over at Maeve, which unsettled me a tiny bit.
To distract him from that, I told him a joke I heard from Violet that I'd know would make him laugh.
And to my relief, it worked very well.
⇠⫷❖◈❖⫸⇢
"Ah! I'm having so much fun!" says Emma, leaning back on one of the beds, she pulls out the chessboard.
"Let's go another round! This time with Ray and Y/n!"
I rub my eyes. "Go to SLEEP!" I told them as I smacked Emma with a pillow in the face.
Even though I ended up joining in anyway.
And I won, like the superior champion at chess I am.
We ended up falling into a light sleep, at least, I did. Ray and Emma used Norman's shoulder as a pillow, and he and I were back to back.
Emma had completely fallen asleep, I had my eyes closed, pretending to be asleep to listen out, and I assumed Ray was awake.
Zack had ended up carrying Emma back to bed since she just wouldn't wake up, then I felt him hover over me.
"Is she knocked out too?" Zack asks, with Emma in his arms.
"Yeah, but just worry about Emma. I'll take her." Ray tells him.
I feel him pick me up bridal style, I cracked open my eyes in the slightest.
He brought me back to the room Norman assigned to us earlier, and he slithered in the giant bed as well.
Ray was now hovering over me, I stayed pretending to be asleep, waiting to see if he was going to do anything.
"Damn..." he whispered ever so quietly while twirling a lock of my hair around his finger.
"I'm kinda glad Norman did this on purpose."
It takes every muscle in my face to not smile as he falls to his side of the bed, one of our hands intertwined as we lay resting on our backs.
What I would give for this to happen every night.
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fun fact: a spice called "Capsaicin" is what makes hot peppers hot.