***
As Calypso looked on within this backroom, all made sense.
“Thaaaaaankie, Jensen~” Gale purred in a hush, standing before the door that was slightly ajar. Even while her tone was earnest, there was such a playful edge to it all. Like a cat toying with her toy.
“O-of course, of course,” who Calypso assumed to be Jensen tried to whisper back, basically signaling to his past flame to keep her voice down. “Just tell me when y’all are done so I can sneak ya’ out.”
It was a rather weird turn of events, after escaping from the hospital. Their collective rush of victory was immediately undercut by the realization that the Sun was still out. Not only rendering their cloaks gone the moment direct sunlight hits them, but they shifted back to their normal states. Calypso pouted in that moment, she figured at least nearing dying that day with Cassie would’ve illicit pity points from Fate, to allow them to keep their transformations going.
But what made that moment somehow weirder was Gale instantly taking charge, signaling Calypso to follow despite the extra weight on her back. Hopping from shade to little shade, as the spots were shrinking away as they hurled themselves to “the Main Vein”, stores upon stores lined up with one another. The town being on high alert provided a helpful boon of having most of these stores closed, therefore shut down, therefore provider of shadow.
So, the most unbelievable thing, in this scenario of stark girls in shadow cloaks carrying a murder victim from the dead, proceeded to happen. Gale helped the girls into the back of this clothing store, cracked it open in wait, and cheerily reconnected with this Jensen that she used to date and convinced him to act like any of this was normal behavior. He helped them to get clothes, clothes he has to take inventory of and take the tags off of, with trepidation but had no other thoughts against it after a short but colorful talk with Gale. Leaving Calypso to just shake her head in disbelief and pride, a genuine smirk on her face.
As Gale tugged down her plain, black shirt, her head craned seamlessly at the person that slowly came towards her.
“G… Gale, was it?”
Melissa, of course, wore the same exact outfit as the other two: a black shirt, khaki pants, and the most nondescript sneakers. But of course, it didn’t suddenly erase the dried blood, grime, and stress that was baked into her skin. It was like an uneven, leather tan that one had to urge to pick at with their fingers.
Gale instantly stepped to her, lowering her head, meeting the poor girl’s gaze with her hands outstretched in a gesture of goodwill.
Then the girl looked at the… Horrible state of Melissa’s hands. Holes in the middle of the palms that bore so deeply, the flesh had to heal in a certain fashion. Leaving pale pink meat that connected with the lesions that defined the ruinous nature of them now.
And despite all that, Gale didn’t miss another beat after that.
“Yeah, that’s me. Gale Pratchett. I’m so happy that you’re still alive, Melissa. I, like, don’t know you personally of course, but what happened to you was so heartbreaking. Don’t you worry, I and Cal are gonna get you out of here, you just have to hang around us for a bit longer, okay~?”
Melissa nodded. Her blue eyes, still somehow shined with innocence, were caked with her sclera being bloodshot. “Y-yeah… Thank you, yeah, but… Need…”
When her words slowly left her and failed her, Melissa pointed at her bandaged throat, pitifully. Calypso shuddered at what a state that wound could be like, and wondered how any infection hasn’t taken this poor girl yet.
“Oh, right!” Gale gave herself a dope slap on her forehead, raising her head, before chuckling sweetly, meeting Melissa’s eyes again. “Being locked up for all that time—I’d be starving too-!”
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
Melissa immediately and viscerally recoiled. Calypso flashed back to the various wrappers that didn’t just litter the floor of that terrible room, but acted as a carpet.
It was very understandable, Melissa’s mindset.
“Nononono, my fault, my fault…” Gale cooed. “So… Water? Is water what you want…?”
Melissa nodded, with such hopeful weariness. “Yuuus… So… Thirsty…”
***
Gale carefully funneled the first water bottle of many into Melissa’s mouth. The latter unintentionally using her ruined hands to reach for it herself, force of habit. But she was grateful, due to her pained whimpers.
Calypso had her arms crossed, glancing at the multiple bottles at her feet. “I cannot believe that he went to the store for you and got 7 bottles… Just because you asked.”
“You’d be surprised at how easy it is to do~” Gale chirped at her friend, before focusing on Melissa. “Okay, I feel like me and Cal are gonna talk for a bit, don’t hesitate to ask me to pass you a bottle and help, okay~?”
Melissa grunted, in agreement. She was way too wrapped up in softly crushing the plastic bottle between her hands, weeping in relief. The imagery itself felt very nostalgic to Calypso…
“I’m… Kind of curious, I guess…” Calypso proceeded to squint in thought. Or well, at what she’s about to ask. “How… Close—were you two, for this be so…? Never mind, I hate this, I hate what I’m doing—”
“It’s fine, Cal!” Gale giggled. “Like I said… Many of my relationships ended on pretty great terms. I guess that’s my superpower~ You’re the master actor, and I have the power of… Having mostly good exes! Haha…”
Calypso smiled, effortlessly and without a second thought which normally makes her painfully aware that she can’t.
“It’s deceptively useful, as today proved. But I think it’s more than that… You have… Well, this aura about you. One just lets their guard down around you, even men with freaky scarecrow masks.”
Gale was bent over, giving Melissa her fourth bottle which the latter took with zeal. “I guess so~ It just pays to be nice to people, man…”
Calypso leaned against the wall, looking up at the ceiling of the storage room. Then away, knowingly, from Gale.
“So. Is telling me secrets you might’ve known not nice?”
It was funny. Calypso only subscribes and hears out Gale’s talk of auras and feelings just to make her feel better. But the skeletal monster girl felt the warmth be instantly sucked away in the room.
“Cal, look…”
“She’s either leaving town or worse, getting to that bookstore first and already made off with what Mrs. Moses wanted us to learn. We have to be prepared for the worst, Gale.”
“You don’t understand!” Gale rose to her feet, trying to face Calypso. The skeletal monster girl couldn’t look her in the eyes. At the judgment and shame. “I’ve said it before, she had a very good reason—a-and, like, she was just as much of a victim of Cassie than us, y’know? I can’t just… Even if it wasn’t enough, man, what she admitted was like… ‘I’m joking but clearly, help me’ energy…”
“Being a victim doesn’t grant you automatic innocence,” Calypso had the courage to look directly at Gale. “Look at me. At what I did back there. I joked about how it’d be hard to write me off as a monster due to how pathetic I am, but it doesn’t change the fact that I am a monster. The same goes for the gnat.”
Gale took a great, long look at her friend. Then took a deep breath from her nose, and let it escape from her lips. Closing her eyes with a hint of frustration that always disarmed Calypso, despite practically begging for this girl’s darker nature to emerge.
Even Melissa’s drinking and crunching went eerily into this pregnant silence.
“Yeah. She fucked us, ran and maybe it all was for personal gain. And we’re dealing with such, like… Extremely fucked up things. Those monsters don’t deserve mercy, and I think at the end of the day, we gotta get rid of Cassie, permanently. But we can’t just let this darkness just—swallow us up. We survived in the first place because we refused to be monsters—right? Then what’s the point of becoming the thing we hate so much, we have to eat, Cal? That. That’s what you’re doing.”
“…Damn it.”
Calypso clutched her fists. Once again, her nails grew so violently that they bore into her palms, causing them to start bleeding.
“…Fine,” Calypso relented. “You tell me what you know, I’ll consider the information, and when we get to the bookstore and assess the situation… We’ll see when we get there. Is that fair?”
“Much fairer,” Gale smiled her smile. “Thanks, Cal. Even if you’re a monster, you’re a smart one.”
Calypso was going to comment against that, but what happened next not only changed the subject but changed the nature of the plan she just defined.
“God… Oh god!”
Melissa was practically trying to force her last bottle to drop the remaining liquid, despite it being in a ball. She suddenly had the strength to stand up, but still staggered forward. With such a lost, afraid… And shocked look on her face.
Melissa rose her hands to the two monster girls, to see the holes in them slowly but surely seal themselves on their own.
And what Melissa said next… Calypso and Gale knew that they were kin.
“G-guys… I’m still thirsty…”