Monster Creation I: Their Home

[darkhaert]

The child was cleaning the plates, as his mother had told him to do, and his father was cleaning the farm tools in the shed so he could use them tomorrow. The mother was ill so she got to bed earlier than they do. The child understood the circumstance, so he sacrificed most of his time doing the chores. There were no children to play with anyway.

The child went outside to the shed to help his father. On the way, she saw a woman with beautiful skin and long blue hair. He could see her clearly because of the moon beam. She headed directly to their home. There were no other paths left for her to use, other than the dirt path towards him. “Are you lost,” the child asked.

The woman with long blue hair walked past him and entered their home. She sat in front of their dinner table, and placed a bag on top of it. The child didn’t see a bag with her before. She looked like a doctor to him with her white coat and eyeglasses. He ran to the shed and grabbed his father back to their home. “Are you lost, ma’am,” the father whispered. The child smiled that he got the question to ask a stranger correct.

“I am a scientist, you see,” she said. “I believe I can help your wife.”

“I don’t think I’ve enough credits to pay you, ma’am,” he said. “I can’t pay you. I’m just a farmer,” he said.

“Oh, but you can. You can,” she said.

The child clung behind his father’s leg. He let him talk to the woman. It was his second time seeing another woman, other than his mother, the first was seeing her grandmother. The scientist was beautiful, too, he noticed. She had a clear complexion, and a shiny blue hair. “You can pay me with your life,” she said. He clung harder to his father. Both of them heard what she said.

 

[darkhaert]

“Is this a joke?” he said then glanced at the cupboard below the drawer. He pushed his son closer to the door.

“I know you heard me,” she said. “I know what you’re thinking. ‘I’ll grab a blaster, or a rifle, before she’s off that chair,’ is what you’re thinking. Correct?” She took out a lightsaber and laid it on the table. The father pushed his son farther to the door. The child shivered outside the cold. It was the woman that got the child shivering.

“Let’s see how fast you are,” she said. The father jumped and rolled and opened the cupboard. He grabbed the blaster pistol and stood up and fired at the woman. The laser disappeared on the woman’s left hand. She used the force and ripped the pistol off the man’s hand. The pistol landed on the table. “Run boy!” he cried out to his child.

The woman said, “No boy-o.” The child kept himself beside the door. The child moved his legs but it was heavy. The child cried. “What do you want?” he said. “I told you, I’m here to help your wife.” The wife opened the bedroom door and walked towards the table. “No. Don’t,” he whispered to his wife. She said she can’t walk away. She cried on the way to the table.

The dining room was quiet despite the number of people. It was never quiet in their home when two people were on the table. This woman was the one who made it awkward. Nobody talked. The child walked to his father. His cheeks were dried with tears. He clung to his father’s pants, again. The woman smiled at him. He closed his eyes, away from the woman’s gaze.

“Smart boy,” she said. The father didn’t respond. “I’m a civilized person,” she said. The mother burst in tears. The woman stared at her, and she cried some more. The child wanted to embrace his mother, but she was too close to the woman.

 

[darkhaert]

Something followed him during his stroll in the city. He bought tools that week and had stayed longer to find the machine parts. He noticed that in the third day something trailed him in each district he’d been. The feeling was familiar but he could never find it. It used the crowd against his perception. Everyone looked suspicious.

He skipped on buying the heavy parts and stuck to the lighter parts. He cautioned himself and considered he might be paranoid. But he never panicked before, unlike this. Each time he returned to inns he’d stayed strangers seem interested in him. They’d ask the managers about him. Some tried starting a conversation during his stay at one inn. He ignored them.

He never moved from one inn to another more than any other time. Usually he changed inns because farm tools were often found deep in the city. This week he moved because he was afraid. He felt his past mounted on his back. “Keep it up and you’ll lose sight,” he said after every morning. He went out shopping and still felt the same vague feeling.

Half a week passed and no one asked him about his past. But the feeling still persisted. Once he finds the small parts, he thought, he’d go back for the other ones next month. The small parts were hard to look for in the city. His farm machine was twenty years older than he was. He gave up after a day, and found a pub.

The pub was small, hardly noticeable, but he somehow knew it was one. No one was inside but he took a seat anyway. A woman Twi’lek came out of the room and towards the entrance. She changed the sign from open to close. “We’ve been closed for awhile, hon,” she said. He got up the bar stool but she said, “But we’ve got some left.”

 

[darkhaert]

The father said they should continue outside. His family was never part of any crimes, he said. The woman shrugged. She went outside but left the door open. He told his family to leave after the door closes. He picked up the lightsaber the woman left. He gave his son the blaster left on the table. He closed the door after leaving their home.

She pulled her son to the backdoor but he slipped off her hands. He opened the front door and found the woman on his father’s neck. The two were close to their home. The night gave a bright light. He aimed then fired the blaster. He had used it before. He and his father had shot cans when work was done. He was like his father, a natural marksman.

But she dodged the beam. His father dropped on the earth. The beam burned the wet grass on the field. She used the force to retrieve her lightsaber and the blaster. She wagged her finger at the child. A man appeared out of the tall grasses. He was thin like a skeleton, but he had a big sack with him. He used a cart to carry it.

“Put it in the shed,” she said. “After that, get him inside, too.” She pointed at the father, but the thin man understood her before she pointed.

The child picked up a wooden pole and ran forward. He swung the pole and struck the woman’s cheek. “Don’t worry,” she said. “You’ll get him back.” He felt an arm around his body. He was pulled from the outside. He landed inside their home, on the table. He lost consciousness. His mother attended to him. She kissed the pain away, but he was already asleep.

The woman went inside and looked at the mother and child. She watched the mother embrace the boy tight. She crouched and kept quiet. The mother stared away and closed her eyes. The woman whispered to the boy. “Don’t worry, you’ll grow with father.”

 

[darkhaert]

He hadn’t seen his father for a week. He had cooked food for the woman and his mother. The woman provided the ingredients for the food. Somehow she was wealthy compared to them. She’d bought plenty of rations and kept their household from dissolving. His mother’s illness was lessening each day too. It was because of the woman. It was because of her medicine and her magic.

He begged the woman twice to see his father. She said no. He poisoned her food three times. The woman hardly died. He gave up after the fourth time. His mother helped him with his chores after two weeks passed. She was healthier but quieter. He knew why she kept even a word from him. She kept the floods of tears and anguish from bursting.

In the third week he heard screams from the shed at night. He was afraid of something so he went to see. He tiptoed over the soil and managed to get to a tree beside the shed. The screams were louder up close. He found a slit of light leaving the shed wall. When he peeked he saw the woman hurt the pale skinny man.

The woman glared at the slit. She found his eye. He ran back to his bedroom to sleep off the nightmare. The skinny man’s arms and legs were not attached to him anymore. He was afraid and his heart pounded. A minute then the woman came to his room. She touched his cheek and kissed it. It was a cold sting but soothing at the same time.

She sang him an alien song that made him tired. “Don’t fret precious I’m here / Step away from the window / Go back to sleep / Lay your head down child / I won’t let the boogeyman come / I’ll be the one to protect you from / Your enemies and all your demons / A will to survive and a voice of reason…”

He feared it wasn’t his father screaming.