Thanksgiving (Pt. 5): Cooling Off And Warming Back Up

--- Felicia Doe-Whitaker ---

“Doesn’t that hurt?” She found herself asking after they’d broken apart and each taken a minute to cooldown.

Jon -her (supposedly) goofy cousin- looked at his hands covered in burns from when he’d grabbed her Infernus, the sword not caring for anyone other than her touching it. (The fact that he swung it at all is insane.) “It stings a bit, but… I’ve had worse.”

“When?” She frowned, her eyes narrowing.

Her cousin was quiet for a moment -something that just put her even more on edge- before eventually answering, “I had a really bad summer.”

“Does Aunty M know?” She had to ask, despite being pretty sure the answer was-

“No.” Jon grimaced before waving a hand between them. “And I’m hoping we can both agree we don’t want her to know about any of this.”

She couldn’t help but grimace at that, because while her dad John knew she was a Malcontent, he didn’t actually know what that meant. (Something I don’t doubt Aunty M will know about…)

“Yeah… let’s not tell Aunt Minnie or Big John about this…” She agreed.

An awkward silence fell over them, during which she could not look away from Jon’s burned hands. “Fuck… Let me see those.”

Her cousin gave her a curious look as she bit her hand and let her fangs sink into her flesh, causing it to bleed a notable amount for anyone without a healing factor when she let it go.

“Why’d you do that?” Jon asked, his face twisted half way between concern and understanding that she had to have a reason for doing what she did.

“Blood has healing properties.” She explained, as she smeared her blood onto his burns, knowing that while it wouldn’t be as good as refined Malice it would still be a lot better than simply letting them sit there. “Just give it a second.”

Jon breathed through his teeth for a moment, before slowly letting out a growl.

(Danger. Kill. Burn the sinner! Murder. Destroy. Protect the innocent!)

She hissed through her own teeth as she fought down the voices in her head, actively avoiding the script beginning to write at the edge of her vision.

“You okay?”

She blinked, before shaking her head and squinting at her cousin whose teeth were a little too sharp and his eyes practically glowing. “Yeah, just… seeing things… I think…”

“Is it this place?” Jon frowned as he looked around the Otherworld. “I can tell it’s messing with me somehow but I don’t know how exactly.”

“Yeah, no… maybe?” She shook her head again. “I’m immune to it but… I don’t know…”

Another silence began to build as they said nothing before Jon broke it this time by asking, “So you’re a Malcontent?”

She let out a scoff. “And you’re an Arcane?”

“Practitioner.” Jon shrugged, before pulling out a necklace with a wooden totem that vaguely reminded her of the sun and moon at the same time. “Take this away and I lose my magic.”

“Sure you should be telling me that?” She wondered as she remembered the last fifteen minutes or so.

“You’re an idiot, not malicious.” Jon shrugged, seemingly uncaring of the fact that they’d been fighting and that she’d been trying to- (Fuck, I was trying to burn him alive…)

(Still should.)

“Ha, you sure about that?” She asked, flashing her eyes with only a touch of bitterness as she was once more reminded why she was the most dangerous member of her family. (They should all suffer for their sins…)

Jon tilted his head as he watched her, his face scrunching up in the way it did whenever he began to hyper fixate on something he didn’t get the way other people did. Only this time it seemed that something clicked inside his head that normally didn’t.

“You’re a Malcontent, so you have Malice in you, which is why you’re so aggressive all the time.” Her cousin slowly realized.

“That’s not how it works.” She frowned, more than aware of the fact that of the four Malcontent she knew she was the only one as aggressive as she was. “And where did you even learn about Malice?”

(He’d gut us without a second thought!)

“Back in Blackwell.” Jon answered as if that explained everything.

She took a deep breath -forcing down her frustrations both with herself and her cousin- before telling him to “Elaborate. I know absolutely nothing about Blackwell.”

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

Jon rubbed the back of his neck while looking deeply uncomfortable. “Uh, it’s where Miss Edna’s Camp is… and home to some supernatural stuff.”

“What kind of supernatural stuff?” She pressed.

“Um, fairies?” Jon offered.

She returned a dry look.

“And… a Dark Lord.”

(He still keeps secrets!)

“A dark lord?” She repeated, pointedly ignoring her other self.

“Yeah…” Jon trailed off. “He summoned Demons and stuff, so… I know what Malice looks like… Honestly, kind of reminds me of the way this place is making me feel.”

“Really?” She’d never noticed much of a difference between this place and the main world, (beyond my powers being stronger here at least.)

“Yeah, there’s a… heat to the air, makes it hard to breathe.” Jon nodded.

“Could be all the fire and lava?” She suggested, her own skin being immune to all but the hottest of flames.

“Maybe…” Jon frowned.

“Still, you spent your summer fighting a Dark Lord who summons Demons and running around with fairies?” She asked, before they could get off topic.

“Not quite…” Her cousin grimaced, causing her to narrow her eyes at him as she for once didn’t bother holding back her eyes when they wanted to flash red. “There were zombies too…”

“Zombies? Like Deadmen?” She’d only ever met a wandering one once, given how Malice and Ectoplasm apparently didn’t get along for too long.

“Not quite.” Jon answered again. “They were more… magic lovecraftian zombies.”

She opened her mouth before closing it, taking another deep breath, and once more telling him to, “Elaborate.”

“Okay, so, um,” Jon ran his hands through his hair, looking increasingly stressed. “There was this Demon tree thing, that was making this black water stuff that turned people, animals, and pretty much anything that drank it into monsters.”

(The blood of hell drips through the realms…)

Felica nodded, processing what she could from all of… that. (So a tree was spitting out… Black Malice? Or something like it I guess…)

She was fully aware that she was probably missing something in there -(a lot of somethings)- especially since out of everyone in the fam, she was the one with the least ‘book’ smarts when it came to all of this stuff. (Perk of not growing up a science experiment I guess…)

A part of her wanted to keep pressing, but another part of her could tell that Jon was reaching his ‘limits’ on all of this. Her cousin always having a lower social stress threshold because of… how he was. (Then again, I’m just as bad for completely different reasons…)

So instead of asking the hundred and one questions that she had, she put a sword in them for another day and instead asked, “How are your hands doing?”

Jon flexed his fingers, turning them into fists before pushing them against each other and stretching them out. “Better, but I’ll probably have Pix fix the burns since they’re still a little noticeable.”

“Pix?” She frowned, figuring that if he was involved in the masquerade he’d probably made a few friends in it.

“She’s a fairy that I… sort of… snuck into my house…” Jon explained, a bit of red creeping across his face that she was pretty sure had nothing to do with the heat she couldn’t really feel.

“You snuck a fairy into your house.” She huffed. “Does Aunty M know about your little pet?”

Jon’s eyes went wide as he shook his head. “No. No. Ma doesn’t know about any of this magic stuff.”

She stared at her cousin for a moment. Her goody-two-shoes, snitch to the adults, does whatever he can to help, easily manipulated, and constantly taken advantage of cousin.

“Holy shit, you’re finally going through your rebellious phase!” She laughed.

“What? No. I’m not. What?” Jon stuttered out looking equal parts confused and embarrassed.

“Oh, are you also sneaking out to hang out with girls at night?” She teased, unable to help herself.

Jon winced.

She froze, before looking her cousin in the eye. “Wait… Do you have a girlfriend?” (Because there is no way he got a girlfriend before I got a boyfriend damn it!)

“No. I mean, I have friends who are girls, who I hang out with, but… that’s more monster hunting stuff or… experimenting on Demon parts. Not… that!” Jon tried (and failed) to explain.

She stabbed another sword into that ‘experimenting on Demon parts bit’ for later as she remembered this was Jon, and he was literally born without a social manual. (Meaning even if a girl was interested in him he’d have no way of telling unless they did something so blatant I’d have to burn them alive.)

(Yeah, thinking about it like that…) “How many friends have you made?” She wondered, before adding that, “I mean, you never really made friends outside of the family.”

“Um… Because of magic stuff?” Jon checked, before coughing into his hand. “There’s, uh, Pix and Ying, of course… My summons… Wolf, Noctis, and Melon... Then there’s Samantha, Artemis, Audrey, and Val, and I think those are the only ones I’ve hung out with more than once. Oh, though I do have a magic cooking club with Daisy, Travis, and Miss Edna’s sister…”

She couldn’t help but let out a snort as her cousin rambled on. (And of course he joined a magic cooking club…)

Jon let out a cough. “But, uh, I’m not actually sure if she counts as a friend or an adoptive aunt or what. And I guess Guy and I sort of get each other?”

“And that is more friends than you have ever mentioned before.” She noted, not sure if she should be glad that he’s getting out of his shell or jealous because (he’s got more friends than me at the very least…)

“It is isn’t it…” Jon coughed again, interrupting whatever revelation he was in the middle of.

“You alright?” She frowned, when his coughing didn’t stop.

Jon nodded. “Yeah, just… I think the air is getting worse or something…”

She couldn’t help but grimace at the reminder that this place was apparently toxic to anyone that wasn’t her. “Right, sorry, forgot about- Let’s get out of here.”

Not bothering to wait for his answer, she grabbed her blade and, upon feeling the way her blood immediately began to boil, tore open another realm rift. Her absolute proprioception allowing her to easily recall exactly where Jon’s room was even after several months and more than a few dimensional hops since her last visit.

“Come on. This’ll take us back to your room.” She told him, offering her hand to help him off the ground.

Jon took it without hesitation, before stepping through the portal without another question.

Now alone she stood there for a moment, a part of her glad that Jon was willing to trust her so readily, and another thinking, (If he’s this trusting, the masquerade is going to eat him alive…)

She was going to have to do something about that. (Can’t let anyone hurt family after all.)

(We’ll drag them all to hell if they try~)