Monsters & Fairytales (11 page)

“Okay, Sebastian Boogeyman, Maracore, Shape-Shifter.” I rolled my eyes.

“Maracore!
This is simply camouflage.” He snapped.

“Camouflage?
What do you need to blend in for if you only come at night?” I raised my eyebrow.

“Coming at night does not mean leaving at night.” He raised his eyebrow back at me.

“Then why not just come only during the day and do whatever it is you do?” I snorted.

“Because eventually you would catch on.
I told you we need the night to keep the balance.”

“Right, to scare us.”
I made air quotations and rolled my eyes.

“I told you, we don’t really like scaring you. And well, sometimes it’s more soothing for the humans when we look like them. It helps them carry on in their natural ways easier and thus we learn more. You must admit that you do seem calmer now.”

He was picking up a weird valley girl attitude. Was he copying me? I watched him shift his weight and cross his arms, it was comical.

“Well, you should have done your research more. First of all, that outfit is completely out of date. Second of all, I like you better as a
boog
-Maracore.” I corrected myself.

“This is not what you humans wear?” He looked down at his clothing.

“Not anymore.” I smirked.

“Carlyle! That rat!” Sebastian huffed.

“Carlyle?”

“Yeah, my brother back in Aegyssus.”

“I guess it’s
… ?”
I asked when he trailed off.

“Yes, Aegyssus.”
Sebastian said again.

“You guess what?” I asked. Was he losing it again?

“What?” He asked.

“You said, ‘I guess it’s’? So I’m trying to figure out what you’re guessing.”

“Oh! No, no, no. I’m not saying a
phrase,
I’m saying the name of our world. It’s called,
Ae-gys-sus
.” Sebastian enunciated it for me.

“Oh!”

I laughed; my face went a tad bit red. How embarrassing. Sebastian smiled and looked away. Was he embarrassed, too?

“So, you guys study us? Your brother, is he a...like you?”

I somehow couldn’t ever get his breed right. I was still a bit unsure of what it all meant to be honest.

“My brother is a Myrian like me, yes.” He filled in the blanks for me.

“Right.”

I sighed. We stared at each other blankly again.

“What’s a Maracore then?” I said after a few moments. How come he wouldn’t have just said that earlier? And then I remembered the whole soothing part.

“Well, it’s my job title.”

“And what’s the job description?”

I sucked my lips in and raised my voice a little.

“Learning and protecting the human race.”

“Ugh. So are any of you more so the guardian angels?” I asked again.

I didn’t know why I was so obsessed with finding out. I think it may’ve had something to do with him mentioning he was with my mother. Maybe a guardian angel could bring me to her, as well, or her to me.

“Yes, it would be us. I told you this. I wish you would listen to me rather than try to misconstrue my words to suit what you believe something is.”

“Fine.
I guess it just doesn’t make sense why that was the first thing you said to me, but now you’re telling me you’re some sort of a peddler. It seems if you wanted to calm me you wouldn’t have made it seem like you there for a greater cause.”

“I was there for a greater cause. Your kind primarily refers to us as guardian angels or
boogeymen
. It’s not my fault. I didn’t know it would erupt into what it did.”

“But what’s with the protecting thing, then?”

“Can’t learn much from you if you aren’t alive.”
He laughed morbidly.

“I suppose.”

“Why are you still angry?” He sighed.

“I still don’t understand why you couldn’t tell me all this the first time.”

“I guess I didn’t know you then.”

He wasn’t looking in my eyes.

“You know me now?”

“I trust you.” He said.

I felt my arms loosen up. I was completely taken off guard.

“Unlike you, I cannot deny what is right in front of my face.” He whispered, briefly making eye contact.

“Sorry.” I nodded.

I didn’t know what my problem was. He was right. He had been trying everything he could to help me understand, but I only wanted to believe what I thought was right. Maybe I just wanted a reason to hate him. I didn’t want to have to accept that all of this was for my own good from him selflessly.
             

So now I had to like him. Not only that, but I had to trust him too. I wasn’t entirely sure how to react to that. It made me feel very awkward; I didn’t want to trust him. Trusting strangers always ended up with me getting hurt. I couldn’t deny that something was different about him. Maybe it sort of helped with the fact that he wasn’t human.
             

Whatever it was, he was here now and I was stuck with him until tomorrow night. I may as well make the best of it than annoy him with all my pointless, useless questions. I was fairly certain this would be our last encounter. And even it wasn’t, every time he left, I forgot him. All the information I wanted was just a temporary fix to a problem I wouldn’t remember tomorrow.
Today is now.

I’ll make it up to you.

((
a
moment is a lifetime to those who cherish it
))

Sebastian and I had been sitting there in silence for a while. Both of us were fidgeting and trying to think of something to break the awkward silence, but no words came out. I was biting my bottom lip nearly raw. It was really getting to me, the way he was making me feel. I watched him twirl his fingers, but both of us made sure to avoid eye contact. It was as if we were a couple that had just broken up when neither of us had really wanted to.
             

I let out a breath of annoyance and he sighed even louder. This was ridiculous. It was getting insanely late and there was so much stuff I needed to be doing. He was apparently going to be here all night and all day; I could use him to get the heavy stuff done. When I re-pinned my bangs out of my eyes, I noticed the clock. Instantly I jumped up. It was nearly 11:00, how was that even possible?
             

I rushed out towards the living room not even thinking to say anything to Sebastian. Either way, he should be able to catch a hint and thus follow me. When I stepped into the living room I stopped abruptly. I found myself instantly wishing Sebastian would get a different hint and stay on the futon. He, of course, bumped right into me instead. He let out a grunt and brushed his clothes down. I didn’t want to acknowledge him in any way. I was completely embarrassed. I forgot that I had destroyed this place earlier.
             

Sebastian stepped beside me and fixed his bow tie. I knew he was taking in the view. I didn’t want to see his expression, but I looked at him anyway. He was sort of sucking his lips in and forcing a smile. The despair on my face went unnoticed to him.

“Nice place you have here.” He said through his clenched teeth and fake smile.

Through all the sarcasm, he actually sounded a bit unsure. I imagined he hadn’t gone inside many humans' houses to be able tell what the norm was, but I was certain he had some idea of what proper etiquette meant. Sadly the scene before him was most certainly nowhere near proper. The layers of feathers over broken glass and broken furniture scattered all about the room was something out of a horror movie. All that was missing was the blood splatters everywhere and wait, why am I thinking of this?

“I, well, I had a bit of a problem earlier. It’s nothing...no big deal.”

I shook my head. I needed all thoughts out. Aside from the images of a murder scene, I didn’t want to think of what was going through his head. I was terrified of how he must be judging me. However, right now, my focus needed to be on cleaning and packing as efficiently as possible.
             

There didn’t seem be to an easy way to clean everything. There were probably quite a few pieces of broken glass under the feathers and I didn’t feel like getting hurt in front of Sebastian. Where was Spike? I looked around for him. He was sitting behind me. I needed to get the feathers up first to expose the glass. Maybe a vacuum would work? There were so many feathers. Yes, they’d probably clog the vacuum or blow glass everywhere. The best bet was going to be doing it by hand.
             

Sebastian was still standing there in complete silence. I hoped he wasn’t trying to understand what happened. I didn’t want to talk about it. Cleaning; I needed to focus on cleaning. I wiped my hands and pushed my
glasses up on my nose. Then I rushed up to the back of the couch and started collecting feathers. My bangs fell loose and started tickling my nose. I looked at my feather filled hands and instead of setting the pile back down, or using my forearm, I tried to shake the hair away. It tickled some more and I sneezed. The feathers went everywhere. Sebastian tried to cover his laughter, but failed.

“
Drats
.”
I mumbled, ignoring him.

I got some more bobby pins from the bathroom then walked back out. Sebastian and Spike hadn’t moved. I didn’t acknowledge either of them and went back to collecting the feathers.
             

My hands were full in no time. I looked around for something to empty them into. I should have thought about this before attempting to pick up the feathers again. Suddenly Sebastian was standing in front of me. He had his hands held out. Was he trying to help me? I was impressed.

“Under the sink are some plastic bags, we can put this in one of those.” I said nodding towards the kitchen.

“Sink?” Sebastian asked. He raised his left eyebrow.

“Right.”

I realized I was going to have to hand the feathers over. Carefully exchanging what I had, I darted to the kitchen. The millions of plastic bags my mom saved to avoid polluting landfills ((even though she could have just recycled)) were finally coming in handy. I had used them so much during this move. I shook one open and Sebastian dumped his hands into it.

“You finish up
here,
I’ll go start at the other corner.” Sebastian said.

“Careful, there’s broken glass over there.” I said handing him a bag. “You do know what glass is right?”

“Yes.” He laughed.

“Well, you didn’t know what a sink was.” I mumbled and went back to cleaning up the couch.

He walked off and started doing his own cleaning. We were in silence for the most part. It made me feel good that he didn’t ask for an explanation of the mess. He just kept quiet and helped me pick everything up. He was turning out to be a really good guy.
             

I watched him, crouched down and picking up my mess, and found myself wishing he were in his beast form. I mean, I understood why he was in human form, but still. He was less intimidating that way. Suddenly his eyes were lined up with mine. I had been staring at him. I quickly looked away and started shoving feathers in my bag. After a few seconds, I peeked back up at him.
             

The coffee table was cleared off. He was staring at it with a quizzical look. I tried to watch him without it being obvious. I couldn’t help my heart, though. I felt myself wanting him more and more. It was a funny feeling. As hard as I tried, my thoughts just wouldn’t stop. Having this man in my house gave me a feeling that I had to be better than I was. He was too perfect this way. He flashed into his natural form and I jumped a little. Luckily, I did it right on cue so he didn’t notice. My lips curled into a small smile. He was sweet. He was smiling, too.
Focus, Mira.

I closed my eyes. When I opened them he was holding the broken table leg where it was supposed to be. A few seconds later it seemed the leg and table were fusing together. I watched the line that signified it was broken slowly erase, as if a giant invisible pencil was being used. When everything blended, he wiggled the leg. It didn’t budge. Then he flipped the table over and placed it where it belonged. I was highly impressed with him. He admired his work then turned his back to me and went for the feathers by the sliding glass door. Unfortunately he was in human form again. Maybe what he just did would only work in his natural state? That meant he hadn’t done it for me.