"Mommy! Look! A pretty flower!" A young boy ran back to a older woman as she smiled with delight to see him. "Oh my, winter. Did you pick these for me?" With a enthusiastic nod. The small cute boy gave his mother the wilted pretty daisy's. Beth giggled as she couldn't help admiring the cute little boy as the son she never got to have.
"Are you not hungry winter? Let's go inside to eat done stew I cooked for us." Winter quickly ran in as his shiny midnight blue hair glisten in the sun. His white skin had a pink hue as he was out in the sun all morning. She ruffled his hair as she saw his pass by her in the doorway to get the table ready.
As she was about to go inside she noticed her neighbor next door yell in distress as two men came out of her house. Fear installed inside her as she quickly looked back at her son. She had no time to say anything as she turned back to see the two men infront of her now. "Ma'am have you seen of a small child around the ages of 3-4 around here?" The men looked past her suspecting why she has two bowls on the dinning table when she is a widow.
"No I have not! It's just me and my son who live in this house."
"Oh? Your son? May we see him then? I'm sure you have heard about the rumors of a illness that make people look like demons.." Beth flinched knowing full well that it's not such simple 'illness' that savage beast killed her husband.
As she was about to reply, winter came inbetween her and the men as he scowled at them like a animal. Making Beth feel taken a back. The sight she saw was her little boy who possessed a nasty glare and tight fist that turned the pink of his palm white. She quickly got him as she hid him at her side with her summer dress.
"Ma'am, is that your 'son'?.." Beth with fear barked at him with the same attitude her boy had given the men to try passing off his behavior as something heritable. "Yes! And what's wrong with that!! If anything I should be chasing you out of this house that my husband died because of your shady business!! I should have called the cops that night I saw you all run through the village killing those men!!!" The men frightened more of her backed off as they said nothing more. But returned straight to their hive to report on what they encountered.
Beth knew now.
She can't stay in her village that she grew up in anymore if she wanted to protect 'winter'..
She pulled the door shut now as she grabbed winter by his hand as she quickly packed a suitcase with necessities for both of them. She looked at a mirror infront of her as she saw half of her reflection and the reflection of her little boy winter. Her blood went cold as she saw he now had two elongated fangs and his hands turned a dark color of blue with claw at the end of each finger. His eyes filled up with tears as he looked at his hands in fear of what he had become.
Beth quickly turned as she embraced her son as she cried with him. She has grown too close with the boy, and was not capable of pushing him away for being the 'thing' that killed her husband that night. With a shaky grip. She heard winter finally speak. "Mom-mie… am I a monster?.. are the mean guys going to hurt mommy for protecting me?.." Beth pulled away from winter as she saw he had reverted back to his normal self with the tearful pink cheeks and cute face. She kissed his eyes as she wiped her tears away.
"No.. winter you are not a monster.. you are my son, my baby, and we will runaway so that those evil men don't take you away from me ever. Understand?"
With a weak nod, she made up her mind as she stood up and finished packing. She was 41 this year, she had to find a way to stay healthy and strong until winter was old enough to defend or runaway on his own. What cruel curse came to chase this little boy she loved so much? One thing for sure, she was not going to lose her son this time like she lost her husband to those who harmed.
With that, she and winter departed the home soon after leaving the cold stew that was made that day. She and winter arrived at the city as she managed to find a place to stay with a new identity for her and winter.
"I will give Winter the normal childhood he deserves.. nothing shall hurt him till the day I breathe my last breath."
•••
21 years have passed since then as the city grew bigger with new people and faces from everywhere.
A young woman walked the streets as she sang a tone through her lips. She was very pretty and full of energy as she walked her way to work.
She arrived at a coffee shop as she drummed the counter with her fingers and made a smooth transition to the back rooms passing her coworkers. "Morning Jovie!" Frank her friend called out as he smiled while he shook his head at her silly performance. "Morning' ya Frank! I'll be out soon to help you."
"Ah, you don't have too-" cut off, he sighed as he failed to warn her that their friend and Boss Tina was back their waiting for Jovie to arrive. He giggled as he predicted she did something wrong again..
~~
Jovie began to put her things in her locker as she took out her apron on. Tina ticked off watched her arrogant friend tie her hair back as she still had her earphones on.
"Seems like your in a good mood, Jovie…"
Jovie flinched as she heard her friends voice as soon as she took off her earphones as she turned back to see her. Arms folded and foot tapping. Yep, she was in trouble…
"Ahh! Tina! I didn't see you there~ what's up??" Sweatdrop, Jovie walked out with Tina as they both began helping frank out with the drinks. "Jovie! Did you know I had another person quit today?"
"Hm? Why?"
"What do you mean why???!? It was because of you!!!" Tina enraged scolded her friend as she huffed air out of her nose like a mad bull. "Ah… well.. to be fair, I promise I didn't do anything this time.."
"This time???? What about the other 5 times I hired someone and they told me that it was 'impossible' to work with such a 'carefree, workaholic, snotty brat, and arrogant coworker' HMMM???" Tina listed each one of Jovie's personalities on her fingers as jovie felt the gravity on her guilt. Sure jovie had a good reason to chase out these workers. And that was because they were the snotty brats, and arrogant assholes. She was just giving a back what she received. But this time, it was a jerk trying to hit on her. Juvie didn't have the heart to tell Tina the truth so she just nodded her head in a apologetic manner.
*sigh* "Juvie, you can't keep doing this to me and you. I know you like working here alone on your work days. But you can't risk your safety when literally weirdos can walk in any minute." Tina spoke from a good point as well. If she counted the employees. She did say it was only 3 employees here. Frank was the only exception since he was a childhood friend they both got along with. But frank has a family, so of course he can't stay late like how juvie does overtime. It was a requirement to have at least a male employee working the same hours with juvie. And that was starting to look impossible.
"Fine! Tina, choose the next employee and… I'll try getting along with them.."Juvie threw a rasberry as Tina hugged her from behind. "Thank you JuJu ♥️ I'm just watching out for you. You know that right?" Juvie cracked a smile as she turned to hug her best friend back. "Yeah yeah, you love me and I love ya.. now let's finish up here so you can get going."
With that Juvie helped Tina finish up as Frank bid farewell to the ladies as sunset began to shine through their coffee windows.