Misunderstood Monsters

Chapter 18: Edmund

"Dr. Collingwood? Can I talk to you?" John hissed.

"How about during lunch break?"

"Sure. I'll be in the supply closet."

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Dr. Collingwood closed the closet door behind her. John was standing at the other end of the room.

"What did you want to talk to me about?"

"Well..." John scratched the back of his head. "You know how I've been really... protective of you all the time, yet I also stay away from everyone?"

"Yeah?"

"Well, you see... there's a reason for that. You don't mind long and drawn out?"

She checked her phone. "As long as we have time."

John drew in a deep breath. "Well, it all started a few years after a massive epidemic in Europe, better known as the Black Death. I was roaming around a forest - this was before I started attacking people who saw my face - when I met a little boy, around seven or eight years old. The poor kid ran up a tree when he saw me and it took a lot to get him back down. So after convincing him that I was friendly and wouldn't hurt him, I helped him down from the tree and we started talking."

"You really like kids, don't you?" Dr. Collingwood remarked.

John nodded. "The boy's name was Edmund and he was mute, blind in one eye, and was a survivor of a disease that would later be known as polio, but very bright. He would carry around a writing slate in order to communicate to people and one of the sweetest people I've ever met. So you can imagine how I felt when I learned what he endured at home. His parents would often use leeches to try and 'cure' whatever was wrong with him. The church thought that he was cursed and priests regularly came to his house to try and exorcise him.

She shuddered. "That must've scarred him. The leeches, I mean."

John winced. "He hated them. Other children would make fun of him and he was, all in all, a social pariah. Me? I thought that there was nothing really wrong with him and that his parents should be proud of his character. After all," John chuckled bitterly and gestured to himself, "when you've been treated like a monster and less than nothing your whole life, it's easy to relate to the ostracized."

His face turned sorrowful. "I loved that little boy like a brother. He was my only confidant during that time and the first friend I ever had. A year later I met a strange plague doctor on a seldom-used forest road."

"That was SCP-049, right?"

"Yeah, although he went by a different name at the time, which I've long forgotten. So we talked for a while, and I ended up asking him to take his mask off."

"And you were surprised when he said he couldn't."

"Yes. That was a bit of a shock, but the thought that there were other friendly anomalies like me in the world was... comforting, honestly. For a while, at least. He told me about his quest to cure the so-called 'Pestilence'. So I wished him well and we went our separate ways. A few days later Edmund told me that people were going missing from the village and I thought to ask 049 about that, hoping that because of his more inconspicuous appearance that he would be better informed than I was. We came to some... let's just say, heated words. It took all my self-control to not throw him off a cliff, although I probably should have."

John sat down on the floor, breathing heavily.

Dr. Collingwood gulped. I know where this is going.

John's voice dropped to a low growl. "Sure enough, Edmund disappeared a few days later. I looked all over for him, even through the windows of his home, but it was no use. Soon I overheard his parents talking about a tall, thin, pale ghoul who supposedly took their son. Apparently someone had spotted me talking to Edmund the day before he went missing and jumped to that conclusion."

"They were talking about you, right?"

John nodded and his voice began to break.

"Yes, even though it wasn't me. I ran into 049 again, who said that he had 'cured' Edmund and all the other people who had disappeared, and showed me one of the people he'd kidnapped. That's how I learned that he turns them into zombies. It didn't help that all the townspeople thought that I was responsible. I say 049 walking out in public one day. I was so, so, angry that I couldn't control myself and attacked him. The whole town came after me with pitchforks and torches, screaming and cursing. He got away in the chaos. I ran through the woods trying to escape them, leading to the whole forest burning down. The people... the light of their torches and their expressions made them look like demons from the darkest pits of Hell. Back when I attacked people who saw my face, that was the image that flashed through my head right before I lost control. It gives me nightmares to this day."

The two were silent for a moment, Dr. Collingwood still trying to process everything that he just told her and John simply curled up into a ball, his head on his knees, trying to hold back sobs, sitting on the floor. It took a moment for her to hear it.

"If only I'd been more careful... i-if only I was less blind If only I told Edmund to stop seeing me it's my fault, it's my fault, it's my fault, it's my fault, it's my fault it's my fault it's my fault it's my fault it's my fault it's my fault it's my fault it's my fault it's my fault it's my fault it's my fault it's my fault-"

"John." Dr. Collingwood gripped his shoulders. "John, look at me."

His pale, milky eyes glanced upwards.

"It's not your fault," she said, her voice gentle, yet firm. "Considering that 049 is possibly delusional, there was no way you could have known what he was actually doing or what the 'Pestilence' is. I don't know what it is. Billy doesn't know what it is. No one knows what it is."

John didn't reply. Instead he just wrapped his arms around her and pulled her to his chest, burying his face in her shoulder.

"Ever since then... I-I'm so afraid to make new friends, especially human ones," he whispered, sobbing. "I... I don't want to see you get hurt. Y-You're so nice... too nice, e-especially t-to a horrible monster like me. I wouldn't be able to bear it..."

She managed to wrest her arms free from his grasp and hugged him back.

"If you ever need to talk to someone or just vent, I'll always be there," she promised.

If John ever needed a shoulder to cry on, she'd gladly offer hers.