Bewitching the Demon ✓ (GxG)

Eight

(Trigger warning for child abuse.)
------

"She did what?" Mrs. Thao's voice echoed from the dining room of the home where she, Kara, and Dylan were currently discussing Aubrie's past actions and behaviors.

    It would appear to be that Mrs. Thao was having a hard time accepting the information that was just bestowed upon her as fact.

     Mrs. Thao blinked a few times in disbelief at everything that was just said.

    Kara was still cradling a sleepy Greyson in her arms. She nodded. "Yeah… Aubrie did…"

    Mrs. Thao exhaled heavily, trying to mask her anger towards her own daughter. She blinked her eyes closed for a bit as if she was trying to calm down. She inhaled, held it for a few moments, and then let it out. She opened her eyes once more. "So that's really how Greyson was conceived then?"

     Both Kara and Dylan nodded at that question as rain continued to pour outside.

     Mrs. Thao made her way over to Kara, holding her arms out to the young demon. "Come here. I'm not taking no for an answer."

    Kara accepted the hug, soon being swooped up into Mrs. Thao's tight embrace.

    "Aubrie should've never hurt you like that," Mrs. Thao said, shaking her head, rocking back and forth a little while hugging Kara. "She should've never hurt you… or Greyson."

     "I swear though," Dylan began to say. "I'm gonna kill Aubrie the next time I see her. She dead." He angrily exhaled.

     Mrs. Thao pulled backwards out of embrace with Kara and then looked to the documents on the table that both Aubrie and Kara had signed earlier. She tapped her finger on the papers as she continued to look at it. "I'm glad Aubrie's giving Greyson to you… Now I won't have to worry about that little boy's safety… or even fear for his life anymore."

     Kara continued to listen to what Aubrie, Dylan, and Delta's mother had to say.

     Mrs. Thao looked over to Kara once more. "I can trust you with Greyson… But I can't trust Aubrie." She sighed. "What a world we live in today where a mother can't trust her own daughter to take care of a child and partner without hurting them…" She rubbed her forehead. "I need a moment." She stepped out of the room.

     Dylan and Kara exchanged a glance as thunder rumbled over head.

     Dylan adjusted his glasses. "...Man… My mom's really disappointed in Aubrie." Then, he exhaled. "...which is very justified because of Aubrie's track record." He shook his head, mumbling something under his breath that Kara couldn't quite make out.

    Delta slipped down the hallway from her bedroom, coming to rest by the doorway into the dining room. "So, Aubrie's really giving Kara the custody of Greyson, huh?"

     Dylan nodded. "Yeah. She handed over some legal shit… and once Kara signed it, that became official…"

     Delta then pushed forward a little bit more into the dining room, closer to Dylan, Kara, and Greyson. "Good. I couldn't stand seeing what that bitch was doing to Grey…"

     "Grey, huh?" Kara responded. She seemed a little uneasy around Delta in days prior—-despite the fact that Dylan was her best friend and Aubrie was her ex, Kara had never overly interacted with Delta a ton, so when she was around Dylan and Aubrie's younger sister, it was always awkward.

     Dylan nodded to what Kara said. "Yep. Grey. That's what we call him… Little Grey."

     Kara smiled faintly at the nickname they had for her son.

     Delta then gripped onto the back of one of the chairs at the table, tapping her fingers on it to a non-existent rhythm—-it was almost accidentally in sync with the rain falling to the earth outside of the home. "Dylan told you how Aubrie would hit Grey, right?" She asked Kara.

    Kara nodded, biting her lip a little. "Yeah. It's terrible." She shuddered a little just at the thought of that.

    Delta then added, "Well… that's not all she did to him." She looked down to Greyson, who was half asleep, before looking back up at Kara once more.

   "What do you mean?" Kara began to question. "She often refused to feed him, right?"

    Delta nodded. "Yeah…" She shook her head a little. "She used to shake him a lot too when he was a baby to quiet him down. She said he was annoying."

     "Wait, what?" Kara began, stiffening a little as she continued to listen to Delta speak.

      "She'd say she 'forgot' to feed him," Delta begins to explain, with a somewhat disgusted look on her face. "...then, he'd get hungry and start bawling… She got annoyed and shook him."

     Dylan continued to grumble under his breath, his eyes hostilely locked with the ground beneath him.

    "What the hell…?" Kara began to exclaim, becoming furious at Aubrie once more. "Of fucking course he's gonna cry! He was just a fucking baby who she didn't feed! What the hell is wrong with Aubrie?"

     "Everything," Dylan and Delta said in unison as an explanation for their sister's behavior towards her own son.

     "This is fucking disgusting," Kara growled. She began shaking her head. "And unacceptable." She bit down on her lip, hard before saying anything more on the topic. "The Aubrie I knew in middle school would've never done something like this…"

    Dylan cringed at that comment. "I wouldn't be so sure of that, Kara… As someone who had to live with her all the time… She could be very cruel and vicious in middle school. I mean, don't you remember when she made fun of you for wearing makeup back then?"

     Kara's heart sank when that memory was mentioned and thus called forward from the depths of her mind where it had been hidden away from years. She sighed. "You're right."

     "Point being," Delta began to say. "Aubrie's never been a good person."

     For the next thirty or so minutes, Kara, Delta, and Dylan discussed Aubrie's past errors.

     Kara sighed upon seeing it being far past two in the morning. "I should get home."

     "Oh!" Dylan began. "Before you do…" He ran over to the sofa, picking up an white blanket with little elephants and giraffes. "This is Greyson's favorite blanket… Aubrie left it here for you."

     Kara took the blanket from Dylan and wrapped Greyson up in it. "Come on, bud," she whispered to the boy as she approached the door, opening it as thunder continued to echo. Then, Kara and Greyson headed out into the storm.