(Oct 21)

After grabbing all my stuff and saying goodbye to William, I headed straight home to get some rest.

I was tired. So very tired and didn’t want to think about anything anymore.

I just wanted to get home, see my family, and get a good rest. That’s all I fucking wanted.

However, on my way home, I noticed a trail of magic… more specially, The Grinch’s magic…

And it was headed in the same direction as my house.

“This…. can’t be a coincidence, right?”

What are the chances of The Grinch running away in the same direction and route to my house…?

I quickened my pace as I slowly become more worried.

There were scratch marks on the walls, and the stone road had small holes that were probably created from The Grinch running past.

The closer I got to my house; the more Grinch tracks I noticed.

And then I arrived.

My house.

Its door was busted open.

Oh no.

I rushed in, calling out for my wife and Gabi but there was no response.

‘Shit, what happened?!?! FUCK! I swear if anything happens to them….’

I ran into Gabi room and found that she was sleeping soundly on her bed.

Okay, Gabi is safe. What about my wife?

After confirming Gabi was still okay, I bolted straight for my bedroom.

As I slowly opened the door, that’s when I saw it.

My wife was unconscious, slumped on the side of our bed…

However, that wasn’t what surprised me….

It was the fact that her entire body was oozing with dragon essence, my dragon essence that I used during the battle against The Grinch…

Her cloths were torn apart, and there were small bits of green fur growing out of her skin.

I could still sense it, the same vile magic…. The Grinch’s magic.

Why… is my wife like this?

Why was my wife beaten up…?

And why… did she have The Grinch’s magic…?

I wanted to deny it and pretend to be oblivious… but I couldn’t. I knew. At that very moment, I knew.

My wife was The Grinch.

What. The. FUCK.

WHAT IN THE ACTUAL FUCK IS GOING ON???

WHY IS MY WIFE THE GRINCH!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

This can’t be…

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

No…

FUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCK

WHAT IS ACTUALLY GOING ON TODAY??????

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHGHHHHHHHHH

WHY?! HOW!?! WHAT!?!?! WHEN!?! WHERE!?!! WHO!?!?!

...

Fuck.

Well.

Dragonification happened.

Something inside of me disappeared again.

I don’t even know what emotion I lost.

I was experiencing so many complex emotions at one time, I’m not quite sure what emotion I just lost, but I felt it.

The feeling of a fire disappearing inside of me.

Haha… I’m not even surprised.

I accidently destroyed half the house in my little emotional rampage and almost tore apart my journal too.

Just what in the actual hell is happening…?

I’m just… sitting here, alone in the dark, writing in my journal, not knowing what the fuck to do.

My wife is still alive and breathing well, despite not being conscious which left me alone to wonder what’s going on.

I want to just scream, I want to just deny it all, I want to destroy everything, but nothing I can do will change the truth. The truth is my wife is The Grinch.

How is this possible though? How long has she been The Grinch for? How did I not notice all this time?

Thinking back on it… there were many hints that pointed to this fact:

Before she moved to the city with me, she was strangely supportive of the fact that I was going to live away from her. Yes, she’s loving and caring, but she should still be reluctant and saddened when we don’t get to see each other… however, in the letters we sent each other, she almost seemed glad that I was going to be away from home for longer.

The Grinch attacks only started after my wife moved to the city.

My wife was acting weird during certain days when The Grinch attacked.

When I first saw The Grinch outside my window, it was around the same time as I was cleaning my house from my dragon essence and told my wife to go outside.

She also appeared moments after a Grinch attack, and she claimed to have seen The Grinch.

The Grinch attacks never happened when I was with my wife.

So many subtle hints… how I did I not notice? I mean, even if I did notice, it would be absurd to think that she was The Grinch! They could easily have been ruled off as minor coincidences.

But now, there’s undeniable evidence. She has The Grinch’s magic.

The real question now is…. How long has she been The Grinch for? We’ve been together for over a decade, and I am certain she wasn’t… a “Grinch” back then…

So many questions.

Still, there are also some things that don’t add up like how is she able to hide her magic when I literally live with her? Or how she was able to avoid detection from every single A ranker in the city.

Does she… even love me?

I… don’t even know anymore.

She hasn’t done a single thing to harm me, if she wanted to, she could’ve easily killed me when I’m not looking. The only reason we fought today, was because we cornered The Grinch.

She clearly didn’t recognize me when we fought and neither did I.

I can only assume that she doesn’t want to hurt me.

So, what now? What do I do now? There’s not much I can do.

I’ll have to wait until my wife wakes up, then I’ll be able to get some answers…

But if they find out that my wife is The Grinch, they’ll capture her… or worse, they might kill her…

And I won’t allow that. No matter what.

William said that we were going to hunt down The Grinch later, so I don’t have a lot of time before the soldiers arrive at our house.

I need to stop them before that happens…. How though…?

If possible, I’d like to avoid any conflict or fighting.

Should I…. tell William?

If it’s him, he’d be able to help us. He’d be able to do some research and figure out why my wife is like this, and he’d be able to provide support to keep us safe.

However, can I trust him?

William is a friend, and I do believe in him, but… William is the kind of guy who weigh the life of my wife against the lives of many civilians…

Will I be able to convince him to help us without capturing my wife?

Do I tell him, or not?

At this point, I have no choice. If I do nothing, my wife will be captured, and I cannot allow that. I would fight the entire city if that’s what I had to do to protect my wife and Gabi.

Obviously, I don’t want to do that though since I used to be on their side and wanted to capture The Grinch, so the only choice I have is to tell William.

In the worst-case scenario, I’ll need a backup plan…

Hm.

Okay…. I have an idea, it’s risky though, really fucking risky… but I’ll have to try it.

It’s not a good idea by any means, but it’s the only idea I can think of.

Alright, I’m going to talk to William, and I’m going to try my idea… hopefully it’ll go well…. Or else things will get bad…

-

After figuring out what I was going to do, I left my house and prepared my plan.

Next, I needed to find William.

Focusing my senses, I was able to spread my magic across the city, searching for William’s presence.

Once located, I quickly ran to him.

William was walking back to his lab alone, perfect for me to talk to him.

Upon seeing me, he greeted me.

“Oh, hey Anthony. I thought you went home.”

He was acting normal as usual, being completely clueless about what I just discovered, and I felt guilty about what I was going to say next.

“We need to talk…. I have something important I need to tell you…”

“Yea? What is it?”

I took a long and nervous deep breath before saying:

“I’ve planted dragon essence bombs all over the city.”