[private] I love my family

[Velkan]

It takes a moment for my eyes and my brain to catch up with what I am seeing come thundering towards me, fracturing the peaceful night. I recognize the voice, though, and while I’m still on a delay for everything clicking into place I call out a cheerful “Lilian!” overjoyed at the idea of seeing my dear friend again. But that’s when it all falls into place and my smile falls away with it.  “Get behind me.” I am moving forward to meet the monster as I say this, eyes not on Lilian but what is on behind her and I can feel myself begin to crumble away as I realize what is happening. My family has caught up with me - and not the perfect one waiting for me in Ischia. I don’t run, though I won’t deny that there is part of me that wants to. It’s instinct that has me moving forward instead of away, placing myself between Lilian and my brother. I’m about as much of a barrier as I am a meal - which is to say not much. And although I know it is pointless, I cannot help but call out to the creature before we can clash. “Stalag! You will not touch her.” My eyes blaze with fire that I do not feel and I am trying very, very hard not to tremble. My older brother may not be as cruel as our mothers (or, at least, not all the time) but he is close. The sight of the wings threatens to chill me to my very core. They are new and they do nothing to temper the monster before me. I am in danger of falling apart but it is not for myself that I take a step forward, brandishing first my dark antlers and then my gleaming black teeth as I hiss out a warning in a voice that is not my own - it is the voice of the abomination our mother wished for me to be. I move like them,  like our family, my head low and teeth snarling. Though it does not take much to notice I am outmatched. It is not hard to keep focused ahead, because I do not wish to look back to Lilian now. Do not want to see her reaction to my predator’s teeth, do not want to witness the realization that I am as much of a monster as the one that had been chasing her.

artwork by space1993

@[lilian]