The Monsters Inside and Out (Scott Howl x Depressed Reader)

43. She Knows

All of a sudden, Scott's phone starts going off. He picks it up, saying, "Hello?" Without it even being on speaker, you can clearly hear Miranda's distressed voice saying, "YOU AND (Y/N) MUST GET HERE IMMEDIATELY! IT'S AN EMERGENCY!" Scott hangs up and the two of you quickly dart to his car. You get in and he quickly drives back to Vera's house. Along the way, you check your phone, seeing multiple unread texts and missed calls. Once you arrive, you both burst through the front door and see worried faces, as well as Vera waiting very impatiently on her phone. She suddenly says, "Finally! You need to get over to my place right now! You need to take my friend home! Yeah, you better be here in the next minute or so help me I will skin you alive and then turn you to stone!" She hangs up her phone, and immediately turns her attention to you. "Okay, listen. Does your aunt have a key under the doormat or something?" You nod your head, and she continues, "Good. When we get back to where we picked you up, you will enter the house through the front door. If anyone asks, you thought it was such a nice night, you wanted to take a walk outside. Any questions?" You ask, "What happened?" She sighs. "Your aunt went into your room. She didn't even knock. She went inside and we heard her voice ask where you were, then it sounded like she went through your stuff." Your heart sinks and your stomach churns. She's entered your room without permission once, why wouldn't she do it again? You turn to Scott, handing him the book he gave you. "Listen, I love this so much, thank you. But I need you to take it. If this happens again, I don't want this getting confiscated and burned or something." He nods and takes the book. You pull his face down and give him a peck on the lips. The Interdimensional Prince bursts through the door, saying, "Never fear! The man of your dreams is-" Vera grabs him by the collar and tells him, "Portal. Now." "Y-Yes, of course. M-My terrifying a-angel!" He steps outside and summons a portal. You walk through, and race down the street to get to your aunt's house. Once you get there, you loft up a fake rock in her garden, and pull out the key. You unlock the door as quietly as possible, put the key back and step inside.

You try your absolute hardest to stay quiet and sneak back into your room, but unfortunately, she was waiting for you. Your aunt turns on a lamp and you see her sitting in a chair with an impatient look on her face. "So. (Y/N). Where have you been?" Remembering what Vera told you, you reply with, "It's such a pretty night. I thought it would be really nice to take a walk." "It's so cold though, how did you not freeze to death?" "I uh.. Guess I just run hot." "Well, regardless, you must be freezing. Why don't I make you a nice cup of tea?" She gives you smile. An angry smile. It looks completely normal, but looking into her eyes, you can see the fire burning deep within her soul. You wordlessly nod your head as you follow her into the kitchen. She puts some water in a pot and starts heating it up. She continues her friendly voice, asking, "So how's school treating you?" Your suspicions grow thick. She's just as monsterphobic as your mother, so why does she care? You say, "It's treating me well. I'm learning things I never knew before." She diverts the conversation. "Do you have any friends?" You think carefully about what you need to say. You can't mention Scott, the mere thought of him makes you blush. You tell her, "A few." "Oh yeah? Like who?" You swallow, thinking of friends you can say very positive things about. "There's Vicky, who's the top ranking student in the whole school. And Vera, the most independent woman I know. And there's Calculester, who runs the gardening club at school." She is clearly disinterested in everything you're saying, so she asks, "Do you have any friends who, I don't know, play sports?" You don't know why, but you have a bad feeling in the back of your mind. "Umm.. Yeah.. His name is Scott. He plays a lot of sports.. But his favorite is uh.. Football." "Oh, I see. So anyway, where did you walk to?" "I don't know.. Just.. Around.." "Well, you see, here's the thing. My house, my rules. And my rules are, 'no leaving the house without my permission'." You try to weasel your way out of any trouble by saying, "I understand auntie, I promise I won't do it again." "Oh, I know you won't. Here's why." She pushes the pot of water, causing it to spill all over your arm. It's hurts so bad, you can't help but let out an ear-bloodening shriek, which ends up causing all the windows to break. Your aunt asks, "What the hell is wrong with you?" But you're in too much pain to answer. You hear footsteps stomping down the stairs, and your mother enters the kitchen in distress. "What was that? What happened?!" You try to reply, "Auntie, she-" you are unable to finish however, due to the intense pain. Your aunt chimes in, "I was trying to make some tea for (Y/N) and I, but (Y/N) spilled it all over themself, and then proceeded to break all the windows." Your mother looks at you with anger and worry, "Are you serious (Y/N)? What's wrong with you?" You try to tell her that that's not true, your aunt is lying, but you can't even say a word. You scream inside your head. No.. NO. "NO!!!"

All of a sudden, the world around you starts changing. It seems as though time is.. reversing? It goes back to just a minute prior, you can see yourself and your aunt talking, but you don't hear anything. You watch your aunt as she dumps the water on you, clearly intentional. You collapse to the ground, and scream in pain, causing the windows to break. In an instant, you come back to reality...

...to see your mom and your aunt looking at eachother. Your mom's face turns from confusion, to anger. "You.. Poored nearly boiling water... On my child.." Your aunt quizzically glances at you, then your mom, and back to you. Your aunt tries giving a rebuttal, saying, "You don't understand! (Y/N)-" but she is cut off by your mom, "No, you don't understand. My child is my child. If they do something bad, I punish them for it. But never, in a million years, would I ever think to physically abuse them. I don't care what the reason is, my baby is covered in scalding water, because of you." The entire time your mom speaks, she's helping you up and directing you to the bathroom to take care of you. She runs water under it for a while, covers it up, and gives you some painkillers. After making sure you're okay, she tells you, "Please start packing your things. We're leaving tomorrow. I'm so sorry this had to happen sweetheart." She kisses you on the forehead, and leaves you alone.

You go back to your room and start packing up most of your things. As you get most of it done, you decide it's time to sleep and finish tomorrow. Not top long ago, Scott texted you asking if everything worked out fine. After an exhausting and painful night, you decide to call him and see if he picks up. The phone doesn't even completely ring once before Scott answers. It's very late at night, so he sounds adorably drowsy. "Hey (Y/N).. How'd everything go?" You nervously scratch at your arm. "Not too good.." "Why? What happened? Are you okay?" "Yeah, yeah. I'm fine. But she did poor scalding water on my arm." "What?! So you're hurt? What do you need? I can get it for you!!" You try your best to calm him down, telling him, "I'm packing up my things right now, and I'm leaving tomorrow." "That's great! Will I be able to see you?" "Fingers crossed." You continue talking for a few minutes as you pack things away. Once you decide you've done enough, you lay down in the bed and keep talking. Scott asks, "Do you know why your aunt did that to you?" You answer as you look for the sweat band Scott gave you. "I guess it's just that I snuck out, which is against the rules. She usually hurts me when I break them." You grumble, trying to find the wrist band. He replies, "Yeah.. When I was bad Scott growing up, Mawmaw spanked me sometimes." You chuckle, imagining Scott's grandma spanking him. You ask him, "So how did the rest of the night go?" Your searching becomes more frantic. "Eh, it died down a bit after you left. It just wasn't the same." You begin to become distressed, and completely miss the subtle compliment he just gave you. You start taking things out of your suitcase, trying to find the sweat band. You lose focus on your conversation with Scott. Suddenly, something crosses your mind. You say, "Hey Scott.. Didn't Vera say my aunt went through my things?" "Yeah, I think so." You cover your mouth in surprise, and begin to tear up. She must have found it. She must have went through your things and found the wrist band. Maybe that's why she was suddenly so interested in your friendships. Maybe she found the wrist band and wanted to know where it came from. Maybe that's why she burned you so bad. Maybe she knows what Scott is to you. Choking back your tears, you lift the phone up to your face, "Scott, I think my aunt stole your wrist band. I think she knows.. About us."