***

“Hoooowweeee…” Penelope sighed… With character, as she poured her third cup of booze. “I’m so glad that Arty’s tastes still align with mine after all these years…”

Calypso had her hands in her own lap, watching this happen opposite to her mother. Watching this all unfold with her now-normal gaze and slightly cleaned-up pouty face.

It was strange… Calypso wasn’t at all a stranger nor blind to her mother’s drinking. But the pose, the method… It was completely different from what she was used to. Back at home, there was a slouch to it all. Festering in her bored, distant, and almost dead squalor.

Here? She was throwing her head back, she was leaned back with her folded arm against the head of the chair… And of course, those… Noises.

“Y’sure that you don’t want any, dear…?” Penelope asked, tracing her finger at the rim of the glass.

Calypso chuckled, waved her small hands about. “No, no—I-I don’t think I’d… Be into such things. Maybe wine, someday. And—and y’know, I still have three years left—"

Penelope made a sound from her lips… Before tightening up—

“N-not at you, but y’know… The idea that you’re still beholden to any laws at this point. What, with being a monster now and all. B-but fair! That’s fair, baby!”

It was so odd… Calypso hoped that her stony face hid how… Weird she found all this. The strangest thing she just now discovered was how her mother’s swagger reminded her of Artemis… Sure, they’re siblings, but it was so enlightening to see how seamless, how similar yet different they were.

She finally got what people saw, with Sal and herself.

“Also not to say—or-or just say rather, that you’re a monster… It’s just that I forgot the official term for it, I might’ve already hit my limit—”

“Consumed, Mother…”

Penelope giggled, earnestly. Staring at her glass as she was now gently swirling the contents inside.

“Aaah right. Gave off that air I only got from the old 80’s action figures back in the day… Magic Monsters of the Consumed Realms~!”

Complete with her mother waving her arms in a hammy fashion, before settling back down, snuggled in her laughter.

Calypso gave a half-smile at the sight. “There’s lore behind the meaning, but I guess this isn’t about me talking, this heart-to-heart…”

Penelope started to tense a tad, after adopting this relaxed posture for as long as she did. Calypso nearly cursed at herself, she knew that she could’ve let that naturally segway into the conversation…

But Calypso noticed, how her mother’s eyes stared deeply at the softly moving ice that floated in her glass. Maybe it was out of desperation, to avoid this topic as much as possible… But it was a look of somber reflection. Versus outright trauma.

“Right. How much as Artemis and Bradley told you both…?”

“What I assume to be the overview…” Calypso gently softened her tone. “You all were survivors of a Consumed attack that led her into killing everyone around you all. A person you invited into your group for your vacation, back then…”

After a very uncomfortable pause, Calypso watched as Penelope hung her head low with a comical, long groan…

…It was then that made Calypso wondered if she actually got it from her, after all this time.

“…I hate my neuroses,” Penelope complained… At herself. “On one hand, of course, Arty and Brad would just. Saddle me with explaining the entire personal side of all that. But on the other, I’d be absolutely livid at them just up and out telling you my darkest secrets and greatest shame without me there…”

The dowdy woman ruffled her wild, blonde hair. Followed by a deep sigh.

“…I better start with the framing of this little tale. Just to… Give you the best insight into all this. But I have to warn you, dear… It does tie heavily into your father.”

Calypso widened, at that.

“N-not to say that—he and the monster were dating or anything—” Penelope tried to assure her daughter. “Or she was family that we’ve never mentioned specifically for this reason… Just. This story ties into a lot more than… Y’know. ‘THIS is the exact reason you’ve become a monster!’”

“R-right…” Calypso proceeded to gulp after. Her turn to look down.

Fuck it.

Calypso looked back up. “You’re free to tell me anything.”

Penelope nodded. Tried her damnest to contain the odd trembling she did.

“19 or so years ago…God, I understand it sounds of a cliché, but we were truly different people back then. Your aunt was always the laidback, devil-may-care type—but she did care a lot back then. Not only a firecracker when you lit the fuse, but she fought to keep your hand in place, so you’re there for the explosion. We all went to the same college of course, and to this day, I consider her managing to romance the calm and sensible Bradley a total miracle. And he had a lot to prove back then—wanted the one thing and the one thing only: to make his farm life work. They didn’t fight a lot—at least whenever me and Dallas tagged along, but there was always this sense due to the opposing styles, maybe something would happen… But luckily, they managed.”

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

“I still find it so… Sitcom-lite, how you all met and became these paired-off couples…” Calypso interjected. “If only Father and Uncle Bradley were brothers—then we’d have such a confusing family tree—"

Penelope giggled. “Hey. We weren’t together yet, me and your father…”

“Well, you have a year or so left, given the math,” Calypso playfully snarked. “Come now. Maybe had back and forths, but underneath all that, you were basically a couple. I’m sure of it…”

Penelope quickly sucked in her breath due to her gritted teeth.

“I… Debated on how to phrase it—but there’s truly no way to get it across… I was a bitch, Calypso—”

Calypso simply blinked at that. The words not only hung in the air but swirled about in her mind.

“I-I just—there’s really no getting around it,” Penelope shook her head. “I was terrible… An insufferable mix of pretty and brainy. Won all sorts of awards and accolades because I wouldn’t let myself otherwise. The uptown girl that had her chin held so high, managing to look down on everyone at once…”

“Just… Wow…” Calypso translated her thoughts in real-time.

Penelope laughed. Low, wistfully… Yet clearly haunted.

“He told me what he saw—why he tried so hard… But there’s still no way, that I was remotely worth the squeeze for him. But he never gave up, that Dallas… Despite using all the tricks and logically putting him down, he somehow managed to become a part of our group. Nothing but banter and relationship-themed games of Chicken…”

Calypso had to hold it within her mind, but she legitimately could not believe that her and Alice managed to be healthier than what her own parents had as a dynamic.

“Anyways… I won’t go into more detail than that, I don’t want to scar my only daughter further after all. But no, that was our group—our dynamic. Always struggling and arguing… Any of us could tell you right now, about how we even remotely functioned. But we did, for better or worse.”

She then clutched at the glass, laughing wearily.

“So of course, I managed to be the one that fucked it all up…”

Calypso wanted to assure her mother. Hell, encourage her to drink so her nerves could be calmed… But as she took a series of deep breaths, Penelope regained her strength.

“... Beverley. Beverley Potts. Was her name…A Witch Consumed.”

Penelope leaned into her fist, as she tried to shake her head. “Don’t know where and when she became that… Thing, but to us, to me—she seemed like an outcast. She was a notable outcast… Always hunched over at her desk, near-mute unless you pressed the issue of speaking. Cloaked in black, to reveal such straggly and slender arms that always held a book against her chest. The poor thing seemed to be so fragile, that the wind could break her.”

Calypso gripped at her own dainty hands. More than aware of her own body shape at the moment.

Penelope lifted a finger and softly shook the entire hand back and forth. “Such a special case, that I took it upon myself to help her. I thought that if I managed to turn her… Man. Both a service and a display of my skill… My ‘greatness’. So she became both a friend and a project of mine. Worked dutifully to help her rehabilitation—which to me back then, I thought was great progress. I remember how the first time we all went into Dallas’ car to drive off campus to get snacks from the supermarket, I remember just… How wide-eyed and confused she was. How we readily trusted her so easily to just let her in… It was adorable, back then.”

“My god…” Calypso spoke up, interjected. “And she… Grew attached. Too attached.”

Her mother gulped. Her lips wavered before speaking again.

“Y-yeah. The reason she did all of that was because she had ‘plans’ before all this happened. To strike back at the world, to use that… Fucked-up tome, to gain power and-and make this world into her personal, disgusting fantasy. When we figured out that the ‘forest witch’ and she was one and the same, she took me away—explained everything. The difference between then and ‘now’ was that she finally had friends, so she fit us into it. Me, especially…”

The monster girl saw her mother well up once more.

“When we took the book, searched how to kill her… Dallas, of course… He didn’t hesitate. He defended us for as long as we… I was safe. It gave me the… M-motivation, to dig so deep to find it in me, to kill her. We were only battered and bruised, but turns out, there were wounds that were much deeper than we realized.”

Penelope pointed at her gray eyes. A trait shared with not only Calypso, but Artemis… Sally…

“Turns out, due to the voodoo logic that the underworld runs on… Women and the children they bear, they develop gray eyes. And thus, become more susceptible to the supernatural more than others…”

Calypso’s eyes widened. Absentmindedly reached up for her own with her left hand.

“I-I killed Alice, then--?”

“No, it isn’t your fault—” Penelope urged, nearly slamming her hand onto the table. “Don’t ever blame yourself for something so out of your control… That honor belongs to me…”

Calypso watched as her mother started to twitch with sadness. Her tears falling out of her flushed, red eyes.

“B-because of the fight… Your father… His soul was basically shredded, in a sense. B-because of Beverly directly attacked it with her abilities. Th-that’s why he… Died like he did! He was sick and they couldn’t figure out what was wrong because it was beyond what they could’ve known… And he still tried to act like nothing was wrong…!”

As Penelope slapped her two hands against her sobbing face… Calypso couldn’t help but stare out. Right into the ether, versus anything at all.

She thought back, of course. Remembered how her father never once pushed her away, if she never gained the courage to actually talk to him. How he had genuine laughter, genuine—wide smiles whenever she rushed over to him. Unwavering… Despite being torn from the inside out. Dying in the darkness.

Yet he was both their light.

Calypso was aware that these could be selective memories. Which degrades regardless of how hard she manages to hold on to them. There could’ve been multiple times where her father wasn’t the best, or reacted the best way.

Regardless.

“Mother…” Calypso reached out. “Mother, please… You asked me not to cry, not to blame yourself for something out of your control… The same can be said for you.”

Penelope shook her head, and lowered her hands. “I brought her into my life. I was the one that indirectly kill the only person—aside from family—that could stand—stand me…”

“No. Bringing her into your fold is one thing—but Beverley killed those people. Killed my father. None of that was you. Ego and vanity should be punished, and shouldn’t be above consequences—but this was just as much as out of your control as me becoming a monster was for me…”

Calypso touched her chest, aimed at her heart.

“I… Saw the monsters that would eventually tear us all apart, that night. I should’ve called everything off—weathered Alice’s anger like I always had. She was partially responsible for another aspect of that night as well… But there’s no way we could’ve ever known. Or believed that it could happen. So. Please…”

She balled her fist against her chest. “Let’s become the people… The people that are worthy of the bonds we managed to grasp.”

Penelope sat there. Sat there… And slowly began to laugh. But not so wearily anymore.

“You’re so like him. More than you know…”

Calypso smiled, waveringly before it finally straightened. “Yeah… Maybe. Maybe this is the start of finally becoming something… Finally becoming me.”

Penelope smiled back. Doing the same journey. “I’ll be looking forward to it. Monster or girl… I love you, Cally. So much. I’ll always root for you, baby… Even if I’m not here with you.”

“Of course,” Calypso said. More choked up than she cared to admit.

Sensing that, Penelope closed her eyes and swayed her glass. “Maybe you can turn into a you that’ll finally love al-c-hol~”

Calypso sputtered, at least in amusement. “Again. I’ll think about it in 3 years and it's most likely wine…”

Penelope laughed, almost impishly. “So… I’ve rambled on and on… What are you going to do about all of this? I can’t barely imagine what any of this new life’s like. It’s an actual curse… Either way. What do you think you’re going to do now?”

Thankfully, Calypso didn’t have to think too hard about what she was going to say.