Love and Pain || Enid Sinclair

To Be A Monster

Wednesday watched as Daniel chanted and the ritual circle began to glow blue. She yanked at her chains uselessly. They needed to do something, but what? "Enid," she whispered so Hades and Hermes wouldn't hear. "How much longer till the full moon?"

Enid groaned. "Not soon enough."

They continued watching in trepidation as the ritual continued. Daniel's chanting grew louder and the light grew brighter forcing them to look away. Then, after another minute, the light diminished and everything was quiet. Did it work? Nothing was happening.

Then Kali's (?) eyes shot open as she gasped and her back arched. She panted for air as her eyes darted around the room in confusion. She shakily pushed herself to her feet and stumbled when she did, barely catching her balance. "What...?" She seemed confused. She turned to Daniel and her head tilted to the side as her eyes furrowed together. "Dad?"

Wednesday and Enid felt their hearts drop in their chest. The ritual had worked. Maeve had overtaken Kali's body.

Daniel smiled with watery eyes and stepped forward. "It worked." He pulled her into a hug, but Maeve didn't hug back.

She was confused and disoriented. How was she here? She was vibing in the afterlife a minute ago. And her head hurt? Why did it hurt? Then she began getting flashes of a life that wasn't hers. She saw the experiments, the fights, felt the pain, the fear, saw family that wasn't hers, felt love for people she didn't know. Her eyes glanced to the side where two girls from her memories were being chained to the ceiling, watching her with wide and teary eyes. The flashes continued. She saw the organization and heard their plans. She saw dates she'd never been on, felt safe with people who were strangers to her. Why did she know these things?

Daniel finally let go of her and stepped back to see her face, but Maeve was looking at him in horror. "What did you do?"

"Why I brought you back." He cupped her cheeks. "And now you can live your life."

Maeve stepped away from him and looked down at her hands which had gloves on them. She took them off and saw a skin color that wasn't hers, and scars she didn't have. It all cemented in what was happening. This wasn't her body. She looked back up at her father. "I already lived my life."

"You died of cancer at 18. That's not living." He gestured to her. "But now you can. You're the same age, and healthy now. You can live the life you always deserved to have."

Maeve shook her head. "But it's not my life." She looked down at 'her' body. "This girl...Kali..." she heard the name in a new memory of a blonde girl professing her love "...you've just taken hers." She looked back up at him in disgust. "This is so wrong. How could you do this?"

"I did it for you." He stepped forward but she took one back.

"No, you did it for you. I didn't ask for this. I was happy with the life I had. I told you that before I died." She took a few more steps back. "My life may have been short, but it was mine and I had no regrets about it."

Daniel clenched his jaw. "So what if it was for me! You have no idea what it was like losing you after your mother. Seeing all these other happy families. They all got to have their daughters, but where was mine? Six feet underground!"

"So you started taking other people's daughters?" Maeve pointed at Kali's body. "What about her family?"

"She doesn't have one. None of them do. We took those who wouldn't be missed."

"Oh really?" She pointed up at the two girls. "Because her family's right there!" She saw the girl with braids—Wednesday, her mind told her—helping Kali try on clothes and teaching her to read and write. She saw the blonde—Enid—lifting Kali up and spinning her around as they laughed. "And you chained them up to watch their sister and girlfriend basically die! How do you not see what's wrong with that?"