nothing else but my heart's desire [COLLECTION] | FINISHED

Monsters Next Door - Horror/Comedy (SHORT STORY)

It was a regular day in her small, tightly-knit cul-de-sac community for Daisy Winston, who walked up from the small house she shared with her elderly grandmother, over to her car on her way to work at the local elementary school where her nephew Freddie attended. Her brother lived not too far away, with his wife of ten years, living in a house much larger and more put together than that of his sister's. He couldn't resist an opportunity to make Daisy feel less than, to win a competition he had been playing against his younger sister since they were children for their parents' affection. This time though, Daisy was determined to ensure she got the best of him, as she had convinced her parents to come over for dinner that evening. Daisy glanced up at the early morning sky, as the sun rose to greet her. It was a beautiful day, and she was going to make it a good day for her, as she had spent much of the last few weeks making her home as pleasant looking as she could make it. She was also looking at a promotion and a potential raise at work, which she had worked hard for over the last few months. It all looked as though things were looking up for her, she had even managed to get Jayden, her neighbour and potential boyfriend, to make some improvements in his own life, so she felt as though she could introduce him to her family. She hadn't had much luck in the dating market for a long time, and time had not been kind to her as she found more and more guys had ignored her for women younger than her, with less baggage and weren't as stubborn or inflexible in their values as she. It also didn't help that she had become her grandmother's sole provider, as she hadn't wanted the older woman to rot away in the home, forgotten about as her parents had little time or energy to provide for her in her time of need. That seemed to be the one area which she had beaten her brother, where he fell short in the family's eyes, as she had offered to take in her grandmother purely out of the goodness of her heart, as she loved the old woman like she had loved no other. Jayden, as much as he wouldn't have been her first choice in partners, had taken to her grandmother like a fish to water, he had gotten on well with the older woman and she responded in kind. It seemed so obvious to Elena, her grandmother, of Jayden's magical origins, as with his other housemates, but Daisy had simply chalked up much of their characteristics and personality traits to their quirky, odd nature, as they all bonded together over the fact that they remained on the outside, an other to the rest of the world. Of course it would be the woman no one noticed, the woman lost to time and ignored in her later years that noticed such things, getting up to all kinds of antics with the goblin dating her granddaughter, the vain, entitled witch he hooked up with on the side, the fairy always stealing and always getting caught, and the hedonist vampire who often binges on those who snoop too much, too often, too closely to the goings-on in that small, run-down home beside their own. Daisy had told Jayden her parents would be stopping by tomorrow evening, and as she risked a glance at the house right beside her own, she sighed and drove off to her job, as Jayden slipped from the bed of his housemate Angie, heading towards the bathroom. Angie sat in front of her vanity, admiring herself in the mirror, a seed of guilt growing day by day in the pit of her stomach as she had allowed herself to slip back into old habits. She was back at the very start of a new cycle of self-hatred, as much as she couldn't stand the sight of the goblin come morning, she had found herself back in his arms while he indulged further and further in meaningless relationships and flings; as hideous as most found him, with his long nose and ears, warty features and frizzy, unkempt red hair, his confidence and total disregard for them, as well as much else in his life, meant women flocked to him, regretting it as she did once they saw him in the morning light. Her friend Vanessa, sat at the foot of her bed as she hugged her stomach, blood dripping from her mouth from her latest kills, often suffered from the same fate, also finding she could not stop herself once the blood-lust overcame her. It was a difficult balance to strike, for it meant allowing herself to eat as any vampire would, not killing upon first sight or indulging beyond the point of satisfaction. Crystal was the most dysfunctional of them all, for her actions often put them in most danger, for she often found that, when she caught sight of something shiny and sparkly, she had to have it, only stopping to consider the consequences of her actions after she had been caught red-handed, requiring the assistance of her witch and vampire friends to keep them off the radar of the authorities, to keep their secrets from being discovered. It was another day, just like any other, for these magical creatures, when Crystal returned from her nightly excursions, to the sight of Vanessa pushing Jayden away from the bathroom to throw up what remained of her meal the night before. She should have been resting then, and the four were careful to ensure all windows were secure to protect their friend, but it had been a particularly heavy binge and she found that, as she had grown older, she could no longer handle the amount of blood she normally would have consumed, leaving her sickly, uneasy and the bathroom smelling quite strongly and closely to a butcher's. Jayden wrinkled his long nose, before greeting his fairy friend, who held a small collection of necklaces, rings and other jewellery in her hands, smiling a wide, devilish grin at the goblin. "Look at this find." She uttered, as he took a ring, gold, lined with small, yet beautiful diamonds along the metal, between his thumb and pointer finger, eyeing it with glee. "Thank you kindly, this'll make a great gift for Daisy."
Angie scoffed then, mildly, low enough that she thought he hadn't heard over the sounds of Vanessa's groans of discomfort, but hear it he did. He glanced over at the witch, through the hallway, past her open bedroom door, one eyebrow raised, a questioning look crossing the goblin's face.