I Feel Like A Monster

Chapter 3 PT3

-Nine Years Ago, Central Park-

It had already been nine weeks since Bigby had decided to take Shadow in. For the first week, it wasn't going well. Shadow had felt depressed the entire three weeks, at the fact that no matter how much he tried, nothing came to mind. He soon fell into depression knowing that he will never remember if he ever had a family to begin with.

During the few weeks he has been with Bigby he had managed to buy some clothes for him to wear, as he had sat wearing a winter grey coat with white mittens navy blue pants and red and black boots.

He sat alone on the swing with Bigby not to far from where he was, and ate a bag of vanilla bean chocolate cookies that Bigby bought for him for a snack. Bigby hold told him that they're were going to see Snow, the woman that he met when he had awoken.

When the child had asked why he had to go with him, Bigby said it was just a little surprise.

He continued to eat the cookies as he watched other children play, and he couldn't help but feel very lonesome , as he watched the other children play their games. He hated to think this but he felt a little jealous towards the other kids, since he didn't exactly have a friend.

However before he could get up from the swing, he had felt someone loom over him, and then came a voice.

"Hello there!" The voice said.

The young boy looked up to see a girl, at the same age he was. She had short blonde hair and blue eyes and a blue ribbon she wore was like a headband for her. She wore a winter ocean blue jacket and a sky blue dress under it; with the jacket she wore navy blue mittens. She wore green blue stockings and indigo snow boots. She looked at him with a smile on her face, and Shadow only gave an unsure look to her.

She soon noticed the bag of cookies. "Oh, that looks delicious!" She said, with her eyes brightening.

Shadow took out a cookie from the bag and held it in front of her, "Do you want one?"

"Sure!" She said, taking the cookie from his hand.then then sat on the swing that was next to him, not that he minded anyway. She took a a bite from the cookie and she said, "Whoa, this is yummy!"

"It's vanilla bean chocolate." Shadow had told the young girl, "Not many people like the flavor of it."

"Why?" The girl asked, "I don't see anything wrong with it."

"I guess it's the name of it." Shadow replied, "That or they're allergic."

"Maybe." She said.

"I'm sorry for asking this suddenly, but, do I know you from somewhere?"

"Well, no."

"Does that mean you're a stranger?"

"Nope. I'm just a friend that you haven't met yet. At least that what mom says."

Shadow tilted his head to her, "Your mom?"

"Yeah, mommy is just over there." She said as she pointed to the bench where Bigby was sitting. But not only did he see Bigby, he had seen the woman he saw when he awoke, Snow White.

"THAT'S your mom?" Shadow had asked the girl.

The girl nodded her head until she realized that she had missed something, "Oh, I almost forgot! My name Maria."

"Maria..." Shadow had repeated, before he said with a smile, "Nice to meet you. I'm Shadow."

After their introductions with one another, they had begun to play games with one another, like hide-and-go-seek, building snowman, making snow angels, and both than cops and robbers, where Shadow was the cop and Maria was the robber.

Time had gone by so fast and the sun had already began to set. Shadow and Maria were both giggling at their impressions of other people. But what made Bigby crack a smile was the fact that Shadow had looked like an actual kid, just having fun with another.

"I see that smile Bigby." Snow said to Bigby.

"I'm not smiling." Bigby immediately said going back to his original look.

"You are Bigby. I can see it." Snow said, "You're happy that this worked, am I right?"

Bigby said nothing, but gave a small smile and nodded his head to her. "I'm happy too." Snow said, "That he is just being a little kid. It's really nice, just to see him smile like one too."

"Yeah." Bigby said to her, "Seems like yesterday he just looked like a corpse."

Snow checked her watch, "Well it's starting to get late, we're going to go on ahead."

Snow then called out to Maria, "Maria! It's time to go home!"

"Kay!" Maria called out, before getting up.

Most of Shadow's positive energy went away. "Wait!" Shadow said. Maria turned to him, "Sorry, mommy is calling me."

Shadow gave a sad look to this but had immediately disappeared when he heard Maria ask, "You live in the Woodlands with Mr. Wolf?"

"Ye-yeah." Shadow said while he stammered.

"I see." Maria said before saying, "Than we can play again while mom and Mr. Wolf are at work."

"Really?" Shadow asked.

Maria nodded her head, "I'm sure mommy won't mind if I go to play games with you."

Shadow's smile came back and he said, "Yeah, I'll see you tomorrow than!"

Maria smiled and waved as she went over to Snow.

After her and Maria left, Bigby had took Shadow to a local diner where they ate dinner. The only thing Bigby had was a cup of coffee since by that time he wasn't necessarily hungry, while Shadow had chicken tenders with a side of fries.

"I see that you had a good time with Maria." Bigby said as he took a sip from his coffee.

"Yeah!" Shadow said with a smile, "I'm really glad that you took me today."

"I'm glad too." He replied to him.

Shadow than looked as his plate unsure of something.

"Alright, what is it?" Bigby had asked while taking another sip from his coffee.

"I know what I'm about to ask is sudden but... Is it okay if I call you dad for now?"

Bigby almost choked on his coffee when he heard him ask that. "I'm s-sorry?" The Sheriff stammered.

"Is it okay, if I call you dad?" Shadow had repeated.

Bigby wiped some of the coffee that was on his mouth and he asked, "Why would you want to know that?"

"Well I heard about it from Maria." Shadow said, "If there's someone is kind to you and cares for you, than he or she can be a parent."

"You think of me as a father?"

"Why wouldn't I think that? I mean I've known you for a while now, and you are really caring so..."

Bigby put his coffee down, and put his head back in the chair. Him... As a father? He didn't think a little boy like him would even think of him as father material, hell HE didn't think of himself as father material.

But he couldn't help but think what Snow had said to him. That he needs someone to look up to. However he couldn't help but think of a second thing. "Out of all the people why him?"

Bigby had eventually said, "Yeah... I guess it's okay."