Shadow's Kiss (Monstrous Hearts: Fleur's Story)

Chapter Two

Both Fleur and her mother were completely silent by the time they made it home. Their combined frustration turned the atmosphere into something heavy and oppressive, but Fleur's mood brightened at the sight of packages of all sizes waiting on the table in the hallway. Her order had arrived earlier than expected.

"Graduation presents?" said her mother, sounding hopeful.

"Just some computer stuff." Then she grabbed an armful and headed for her room.

It was easier to ignore the feelings roiling in her chest while she unpacked all the components for her new PC. Both monitors were undamaged and all the parts were what she had ordered, so she was able to relax and sink into building her new rig.

She was glad to have picked a tank of a computer case; her hands had plenty of room to screw the motherboard in place, and the rest of the components fit in just as smoothly. Her biggest mistake was not putting the PC on its rolling stand before she installed all its parts. The thing must have weighed over 40 pounds, and even though Fleur was tall enough to loom over most other girls, she wasn't strong.

The noise of a steel computer case scraping and wobbling its way onto its stand woke up Prosy, who had been sleeping on the bed. The cat glared and began licking her striped fur, pretending disinterest while Fleur connected the mouse, keyboard, and other accessories. By the time she had gotten the monitors set up, Prosy was sitting in the computer chair beside her own, bright yellow eyes watching her every movement.

"Let's see how badly I did," muttered Fleur, half to herself and half to Prosy. Then she booted up her new PC.

It worked, but her apprehension melted into excitement only once she had finished installing the operating system and successfully logged into her Steam account. By the time she heard a knock on the bedroom door, she was two levels deep into Doom 2016. It looked fucking gorgeous on the new monitors, and the frame rate maintained itself at twice the amount of her old PC.

Her mother's voice drifted through the door, sounding apologetic. "Fleur? Can I come in?"

"Sure." Then she switched games, picking one where enemies exploded into shards instead of body parts to avoid yet another lecture on the dangers of growing desensitized to violence.

She watched from the corner of her eye when her mom picked up Prosy to sit in the other chair. After the cat slithered out of her grip, she surreptitiously brushed cat hair off the fabric and then shook her head.

Fleur went through five more enemies before her mother said anything. "All right, Fleur. Since it's your final summer before college starts, I won't make any more suggestions about how you could spend it."

Fleur nodded, keeping her gaze on the screen.

"But since we're going to be gone for some time, and since you didn't want anything for a graduation present... we're ready to help you buy a car."

When Fleur didn't reply, too wrapped up in staying alive through a bullshit walkway trap, her mother kept talking. "We mean it. This isn't an attempt to wheedle you into doing something in return. It's just like we told you in the beginning—if you showed you could save at least ten percent of the car's cost, we'd cover the rest."

Fleur sighed and paused the game, seeing no reason to put this off. "I spent it."

Her mother's tone radically changed. "What?"

"I spent my savings," repeated Fleur. "Pretty much all of them, in fact."

"On what?"

Fleur gestured at the crystal clear monitors and then the mammoth black case by her feet. "My new computer."