Chapter Text
The worn country roads are slick with rain and mud, and every step comes with the risk of a twisted ankle- but still the girl presses on. Her tears mix with the rain, trickling down her chin as footsteps pound across the wet gravel, cursing her rotten luck.
Because of-fucking-course, tonight was when her mother had to be even more of an asshole than usual. When it’s near-storming outside, when lightning is striking and when thunder is… uh, thundering.
Her mother really had to pick tonight to kick her onto the streets, of all nights. Susie bared her teeth in a smile, jagged rows glinting under the streetlights. She was living like the homeless again then tonight, huh?
Well, she would be until her mother called her in the morning, demanding she tell her where the hell she is and why she’s not at school- like that even matters. In this stupid, sleepy town, no one would notice if she missed a few days of school. And even if they did, no one would care.
They’d probably like it better if she never showed up at all, period.
Susie scowled, slowing to a walk and shoving her hands in the pockets of her hoodie, which was properly soaked now. She paused beneath a bus stop for shelter (namely, THE bus stop- basically the only one in their town, smack-bang in the centre) and angled her head towards the sky, watching rain fall in sheets across the ground.
She was screwed for tonight, that was for sure. She had no friends to stay with… even if she knocked on their doors and asked, through virtue of everyone-knowing-everyone in this sleepy town, she’d probably be turned away.
Not because they’d be unwilling to house a near-stranger, but because it’s Susie. And everyone knows what Susie’s like. That dangerous, rebel girl, who kicks rocks along the street and is always falling asleep in calculus… and with those scary sharp teeth of hers, who knows what she gets up to in her private time?
Susie grimaced, sitting down on the bench of the bus stop. It’s almost like all those humans think she eats babies, or something.
(Granted, Susie has threatened to eat a classmate's face once or twice or four times but damn it- they had it coming, the jerks! It wasn’t like anyone would ever believe her, though.)
Still, it’s obvious no one in town has ever met a monster like her before… they’ve probably just seen the cute bunny ones performing on TV, or serious-looking fuzzy guys reporting on monster news.
Chuck a real monster in front of them, warts and all, and they’re too busy clutching their pearls to know what to do with themselves. No monster who looks like her would ever show up on TV, all purple skin and messy hair and beady yellow eyes… and if they do, it’s not normally for a good reason. The only reason they respect Susie’s mother in the least is because of the work she does.
And hey, maybe they’re similar to me in that regard, Susie snorted to herself. Her mom may be a fucked-up mess who’s a jerk at every opportunity, but she does good work. Susie can admit that much.
After all, when you live in the middle of nowhere, doctors can be life-saving. And often are.
Jeez, the rain was really coming down now. A shiver ran down Susie’s spine, and she pulled the strings of her hoodie tight. Her bed may be scratched-up and stained, and her pillow may be lumpy, but she was starting to really miss it right now. Anything to get out of this goddamn storm.
Susie pushed herself up from the cold metal bench, jeans unpleasantly damp. Alright, time to find a bed for the night. In the past, it’s been alleyways, parks, and under bridges- and in this rain, the bridge was starting to sound tempting.
Reluctantly, she began to speedwalk down the road, wet hair sticking to her forehead (even with her hood on, the water had still somehow made its way in.)
She hummed to herself, trying to forget the true reason she was out so late in such a storm, pretending she had a different mom who was lenient, and nice, and all “of course sweetie, you can go on a walk if you’d like! Be safe, and make sure you jump in a puddle for me!”
As Susie paused, digging her hands in her pockets and watching the water flow in little streams on the side of the road, she wondered if it was normal to fantasize like that. About having a different mother entirely.
She was on the outskirts of town, now, close to one of her favourite bridges- it wasn’t the prettiest, being all worn-and-torn stone, but it was really old.
Apparently it’d been around for about a hundred and sixty years, give or take, as it was built when the town here was first founded. Susie had copped many an earful about this town’s rich history, given how much her teacher had yammered on about it. Humans really seemed to love history, for some reason.
Susie made her way across the grass to the old bridge, shoes squelching with every step. God, it was getting bitterly cold now. She huffed, knowing tonight wasn’t going to be fun- not that it was, ever, when you’re sleeping under newspapers.
She shouldn’t have pushed mom tonight. She really shouldn’t have. Her mother had been stressed out enough as it was, with all the people she’d seen today (a kid had knocked a beehive out of a tree, and promptly been chased by a hoard of enraged honeybees. The kid’s natural response was to run straight back into town, where the bees had gotten very confused and just started stinging anything that moved. Great move, kid!)
But no, of course Susie just had to lose her temper. She was so sick of her mother acting like nothing was wrong, like their life was just perfect- people who pretend like everything's fine when it's clearly not have always particularly pissed her off.
A homecooked meal felt like the stuff of daydreams, at this point. Most of the time, she kinda had to forage food for herself- and it didn’t help that no matter what she ate, the hunger never really went away. The only thing that tended to satisfy her stomach was meat, which was crazy expensive.
So, Susie ended up with weird-ass afternoon snacks like chalk and pinecones. (Hey, it wasn’t her fault the chalk at school kept disappearing. Blame good ol’ Dr. Miller for not fucking feeding her own daughter. And then blaming her for it.)
“Susanne, you fainted at school again?! I get it if you don’t have any friends, alright, but that doesn’t mean you can just fake being sick just for attention.”
Shit like that was why she was moving out of this town next year, soon as she turns eighteen. Even Mom won’t be able to stop her then.
Susie ducked under the bridge, shaking off her dismal thoughts. The grass was wet, the mud all slippery, but when you lean against the stone, it’s not so bad. And at least she’s fully out-of-sight this way, at the very outskirts of town.
She also really happens to like this specific bridge, mainly because of the rusty metal plaque on the side. “Unable are the loved to die, for love is immortality.”
According to her teacher, it was placed by some rich guy who lived next to the bridge- apparently it was his youngest daughter’s favourite reading spot, so he got one of her favourite book quotes engraved on it. Susie doesn’t really like reading, but she still thinks it’s sweet.
Feels like something her dad would’ve done for her.
She casted her gaze up and to the left, to the thick forest surrounding this side of town. If you follow that winding path leading from the bridge and through the trees, you’ll eventually reach an old, Victorian house, all fancy and antique-looking; where that guy with the plaque originally lived. And if you squint, you can see the tip of the roof pointing out from the trees, an ornate window overlooking the town.
Rumour has it that a hundred years ago, a terrible murder took place there. She’s heard inklings about it from people around town, who shudder and make the sign of the cross when you so much as mention it- cowards.
As the haunting story supposedly goes, a prestigious, wealthy family once resided there. The kind who goes hunting in the woods on horses, who attend fancy tea parties, who casually get plaques engraved on bridges, and all that.
Then one day, after a particularly violent argument with her mother, their eldest daughter went missing, completely out of the blue. Apparently the townsfolk had overheard plates smashing and everything, and so some residents believed she’d run away entirely of her own volition.
But then, a few weeks later, the mother and father were found murdered in their own home. Killed in cold blood, which spilled across their mahogany floors, and that very same day... their other daughter went missing, just like the first.
The killer was never found. And neither were the daughters.
Funnily enough, strange bite marks were apparently found on the mother and father’s necks, their bodies half-drained of blood- but back then most people put that up to wolves feeding on the corpses post-mortem.
There was a lot of theorizing about the incident, but no justice was ever actually found. Some believe the youngest was kidnapped by the same dangerous killer who murdered her parents, others think the eldest daughter did it, etc.
…And majority of people believe a monster killed them. All due to those strange bite marks.
That’s part of the reason she’s not very well liked in this town, and why every time she tries for a smile, people instantly freeze and slowly back away.
Anyway, as for her two cents on all the theories- Susie reckons the parents were abusive as hell and that the daughters probably banded together, killing them and hatching an escape plan. She hopes they made it out together, and lived happily in some other town- going to fancy balls, or whatever it is rich people did in the 1850s.
Susie gazed up at that Victorian house (or what little she can see poking out from the trees), wondering if life was any easier back then. Her gaze lingers on that ornate window, almost reminding her of Rapunzel’s tower in how it presides over the trees, like a fairytale tower.
Wait.
Wait, what was that? Did that curtain just twitch?
Susie squinted, staring at the window with unprecedented focus. Yep, that curtain definitely just moved again- and there’s a figure standing at the window! What the-
But then, as soon as the figure appeared, it vanished. Susie blinked, trying to figure out if it was just a trick of the shadows; it was a full moon tonight, and the stars were bright, so she honestly doubted it.
What the hell… maybe she just hadn’t gotten enough sleep last night, or something?
But somehow, Susie knew that wasn’t it. A sort of ancient fear had been instilled inside her as soon as she’d seen that curtain twitch. There- there was something off with that strange figure, she could just feel it.
Maybe… maybe it was how for a second, it’d almost looked like the shadow had horns? Or how as soon as it had looked outside, it had disappeared, as if it knew someone was watching.
Either way, Susie needed to move. She had to investigate- had to be 100% sure that it was just a trick of the light. And also, she didn’t really have anything better to do, considering how she didn’t really feel like sleeping under a bridge.
She tucked her hair back underneath her hood, pleasantly surprised by how the pelting rain had reduced to a light shower. That would certainly make things easier for her.
And so, Susie walked onward through the woods, picking her way through the very path that had been forged by a young girl a hundred-and-fifty years ago. And the entire time, an unfamiliar gaze prickled at her back.
What had she gotten herself into now?