MonsterVille

Seven Monsters sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G. Or rather, seven monsters sitting around Mellie’s living room looking as if they had just had the best, and worst, night of their lives. There was no shortage of blood, gore, ooze, scraps, scratches, bites, near-eviscerations, and grime.

Dust, and dirt caked to their bodies in torrents of blood—their own and their enemies. The moment they had walked into the living room Mellie had known she was going to have to replace everything in there—not that she cared. They were alive.

River was tending to Aura, bandaging her missing strips of flesh. The two of them were conspicuously quiet. Mellie wondered if Aura had mentioned just how brief a mermaid pregnancy was, he would be a father in a matter of weeks.

The Big Berserker was outside cooking up meat slabs on his improvised BBQ, Mellie didn’t want to ask where he had gotten the meat from. She suspected she was happier not knowing. Danny had joined him outside as awkward silence pervaded the living room.

Katie-Cam was sitting demurely on the couch, which scared Mellie a little. Katie-Cam was a lot of things, but she wasn’t demure.

Which left Analyn and Mellie standing by the fireplace.

“I—”

“I don’t care.” Mellie cut Analyn off. “I don’t care why you didn’t tell me, or if you were part of their game—”

“I wasn’t.”

“—I only have one question for you, after all the shit that’s happened tonight, and everything Indreas did, I just need to know one thing—” she flashed back to what Nicodemus had told her, his interpretation of Analyn’s actions. Mellie could see the pain, the fear, in Analyn’s eyes. Analyn had spent her life serving the Apex, bending to their will, and now her own daughter had become something Analyn could never hope to grasp. “I just need to know one thing,” Mellie repeated, “are you staying for dinner?”

The following days were tense as Mellie waited for the fallout from the Feast. A week past and she was cautiously optimistic. Analyn, her mother, had apparently moved in which made for a few awkward moments—but she was trying, and every time resentment or anger began to boil up Mellie remembered what Nicodemus had said. Mellie tried to see her mother in that light, tried to look at her actions as Analyn’s bizarre version of love. Mostly Mellie stayed in her studio, she had a lot to think about and working her frustrations out on the canvas was cathartic.

The Berserker’s had begun to build a log house at the back of Mellie’s property, complete with fire pit and a smoke house. Apparently they were also there to stay, not that she minded. She liked having the Big Berserker around—not that she needed the safety blanket either, she and River had killed two of the Apex, it would be a long time before any monster’s got up the nerve to trouble them.

River.

He wasn’t talking much. At least not to Mellie. He spent most of his time with Aura, trying to wrap his head around the fact he was about to be a daddy.

“It’s beautiful,” the voice intruded on Mellie’s thoughts, but she didn’t so much as twitch her brush and the delicate lines she was streaking across her canvas were unmarred. “An interesting choice,” Katie-Cam added.

Mellie frowned and paused, her canvas was still in charcoals, it was more of an impression of a painting than an actual painting.

“It’s meant to be dark,” Mellie said, “primal, monstrous.”

“It is.” Katie-Cam agreed, “But monstrous and primal aren’t necessarily ugly, it’s usually quite the opposite. Monsters are at their worst when they look their prettiest, the most dangerous when they look the most human.”

Mellie glanced back at Katie, hovering in the doorway, one hand resting on her stomach. She was arched back against the frame and Mellie was struck by the pose, struck by the desire to turn her paints to a new task. To recapture the glorious, ravenous, hunger of her oldest friend.

“Do you think our River will be a good father?” Katie-Cam asked.

Mellie started. “That’s an odd question to ask.”

“It takes the right kind of monster to raise a child, with love, with compassion. He has barely begun his journey into our world and now he is trapped amongst us, a child will soon be born and the mierin spend most of their lives beneath the water—who can say if a half mer child will be able to survive that?”

“You’ve been eavesdropping.” Mellie said with a smile.

Katie-Cam nodded, “I hear everything that is said within these walls.”

“But why do you care?”

“I have always had a soft spot for children,” Katie-Cam said, “as you might remember from your own childhood.”

“And?” Mellie prompted, making a small alteration to the lines on her canvas.

“Your father,” Katie-Cam changed the subject, “has sent an invitation for you to dine with him this night. As he has done every night this week, how long do you intend to put him off?”

“Why do you care what kind of Father River will be?” Mellie stayed on point.

“There is a huldra downstairs claiming that she too is pregnant with his seed.”

Mellie put down the brush and turned around. “Are you kidding me? Does he know?”

The pounding of footsteps on stairs was followed by River bursting into the room behind Katie-Cam. She thought he had looked pale when he found out about Aura, in retrospect he had looked positively vibrant back then.

“Mellie,” he squeaked, “I uh, I think I need your help.”

“Oh, so now you’re talking to me again?” Mellie asked.

“Hey,” River shot back, “you ate me. You literally ate me, killed me and turned me into a monster. I think I’m allowed a little time to get over that.”

“And now that you appear to have knocked up two monsters…” Mellie stated, “You’re over it?”

“Ah yep, definitely, one hundred percent, help?”

“Would it help if I were to tell you a secret?” Katie-Cam offered, she quirked her head to the side as she spoke and River looked like he was about to receive his saving grace.

“This is all a dream and I’m really still asleep in the back of my frat brother’s car?” River asked hopefully.

Katie-Cam stepped forward, and every shadow in the room bent away from her. She stepped well into River’s personal space, until a soft breath would have brought their lips together. Mellie heard River’s breath catch as Katie-Cam took River’s hand and smiled reassuringly, as reassuringly as a predator could smile, she held his soft warm hand and gently guided it to her stomach. Pressed it to her bare skin as she spoke,

“I too am with childe.”

Mellie just laughed.