Chapter Text
Lilly insisted she had seen her papa again. Mama looked at her with worry and sadness whenever she said so.
"We've talked about this my darling," she said. "Papa is gone."
Lilly hears people around the village whisper about it. That papa had gone missing while visiting a foreign aristocrat. She didn't know what those words meant.
But she had seen papa again. In the woods. He looked scary to Lilly. Wild eyes, unshaven, in a tattered, raggedy suit, bugs in his teeth. She stared at him from the edge of the treeline, but he didn't see her. He was picking beetles off of leaves and eating them. Crunch, crunch, crunch. Saying to himself in a strange sing song voice:
"Where's my Silly Lilly bug, my baby Lilly girl, little Lilly sweetie love..."
He turned and instead of the comforting soft blue from her memories, his eyes were an unearthly gold. Lilly hid behind a tree, heart pounding. The vague not quite there look in his face frightened her. She yearned so hard it hurt her chest for a hug from him. Being thrown up into his arms. But he looked like a ghoul from a scary story. Like he would eat her if she came near.
"It's just her way of grieving," the baker's daughter Miss Jellico told mama. She was mama's very good friend. She slept in mama's bed sometimes but mama said Lilly wasn't allowed to tell people she did.
A bad rotten feeling in her stomach. Churning, making her feel sick. She went into the bathroom took Miss Jellico's toothbrush and dropped it in the toilet. Then went into mama's room where she was still asleep despite it being midday. Pulled down all of mama's clothes from the wardrobe dragged them across the floor. Then went outside and climbed up a tree, throwing conkers at anyone who walked by the house. Mama didn't come out to scold her though. No one did. No one cared.
Mama didn't mention the trampled clothes or toothbrush in the toilet. Didn't say a word to her. Lilly fishes out her bunny plush that papa had given her before he went away never to return. Cries herself to sleep, hugging it to her chest. That night she has a nightmare, so vivid she wonders if it's real.
"Will you let me in my darling?" a dark odd sounding voice whispered to her in her dreams. She stirred, half awake.
"Come in..." she mumbled. Saw through half lidded eyes dark smoke seeping through the window. Then a presence by her bed.
Lilly felt herself being picked up. She mumbled sleepily. There was a scent in her nose, like roses mixed with something that reminded her of when she'd scraped her knee and bent down curiously to smell the blood. It was comfortable in the embrace, soft velvet against her cheek. Her eyes fluttered open. Two bright red lights shone down at her.
"Are you the Harris cat?" she murmured curiously. "You took papa away? Are you coming to take him again?"
"Yes, child," the dark voice replied all slithery and cold. "He belongs to me."
"Can I come too? And mama? I miss papa when he's gone."
"No," said the voice. "I have no use for you two."
She made a small whining sound.
"Master...?" another voice, that sounded like papa...but not the proper papa who gave her a bunny and read her stories. The ghoul version of papa from the woods. He's scrambling through the window all dirty haired bleeding nails, drooling mouth. Crawling across the floor on his hands and knees. She buries her face away into the comforting velvet whimpering in fright. Feels a long fingered hand stroking her hair.
"Please don't hurt my Lilly...please..."
"Not even a hello?" the Harris cat sneered. "I must say I'm hurt Servant. I've been watching you stumble around the woods like a buffoon since your escape from the asylum. Yes, sometimes you call for me. Search for me in your own helpless idiotic way. Only half the time though. The other half of the time...you call for her. For this wretched little creature."
She's being rocked gently in the velvet arms. Feels sleepy. Doesn't want to take her face away to look at the ghoul papa. Hates to hear the creaky crusty voice of him.
"You promised me you're complete and utter devotion," said the Harris cat. "Looks like I have to remove the source of your distraction..."
"Please no..."
"You'd rather go back to her then? Do you choose her over me? If you truly do then I will concede defeat. You'll be allowed to return to her. I'll never darken your doorstep again."
A low drawn out moan of utter agony. Then a cruel, mocking laugh. Both making her teeth ache, her spine tremble.
"You've gorged yourself on bugs Renfield I can see it in your eyes. If you really loved the child you'd be fighting me to protect her. You'd put your life on the line for her. You're inaction tells me everything."
"Please...can I at least...hold her for one last time...?"
She dared to look at him and the sight made her stomach drop in horror. On his knees, reaching for her with his filthy hands and wild eyes and beetle legs in his beard. She burst into tears, shrinking away. The look on his face, of utter devastation made her feel ill.
"She doesn't want you," the Harris cat said. "Why would she want you when you chose me over her not once but twice? She knows what you really are. A disgusting worm, not a true father. I'm the only one who cares for you anymore. You don't have any other family. You only have me now."
The ghoul papa's sobs were like knives in her chest. The Harris cat gently put her back to bed, tucked her blanket up to her chin, placing the bunny plush in her arms. She felt cold dry lips brush her forehead, a goodnight kiss.
She watched as the Harris cat grabbed the ghoul papa by the scruff of his neck. Floated up and dragged him out of the open window. The ghoul papa was still reaching helplessly out to her as sleep overtook her again.
She never did see him in the forest again.
Soon he was just a painful memory.
From a better time.