Chapter Text
Malcolm Ryder was born with teeth and a head full of hair. The nurse shook her head at the sight of his dark curls and bared full set of white baby teeth. She couldn’t help but smile uneasily when she weighed and measured him. She’d been a nurse for 25 years and she’d never felt so strangely… seen by a baby. Little Malcolm never screamed once when she held him, he just stared at her in a way that made her wish to be somewhere else. Somewhere very far away.
When his grandfather got to hold him for the first time, he just nodded to himself and whispered “You will be a great man one day.” into the baby's ear. That’s when Malcolm cried for the first time. He didn’t cry like a normal baby, he cried in small, choked sobs and squeaky screams that sounded like a closing door on rusty hinges.
His sister Amelia Ryder was born thirty minutes after Malcolm. She had neither hair nor teeth, but there was a birthmark that looked like a star on her forehead and her stare was just as unsettling as Malcolms own.
Their grandfather held her for a long time, before he spoke to her: “You’ll be a smart and wise woman in the future.” When he was finished speaking, she looked at him and he could have sworn she smiled for just a second.
The babies never cried much- they just watched everyone and everything very carefully and very closely.
Malcolm in particular liked to observe the corner of his room that was… slightly darker than the others. The light from the window just didn’t quite reach there and when his parents tucked him in at night, they kept seeing… something there. Out of the corner of their eyes. But they’d warded his room very efficiently, so they were positive it was just a trick of the light. It wasn’t. But that’s beside the point.
Malcolms first word was “Hello”, though only Amelia heard him say it. His parents would always claim he’d said “Mum” or “Dad” first and they could never reach an agreement on which one of those words it had been. It really just seemed to depend on the circumstances.
“He said your name first. He likes you best. So you have to go clean him up.” his mom claimed one time. Just to turn around and state “I get to put him to bed. He said my name first, he definitely likes me best.” a few hours later.
“He clearly comes after his father, he said ‘dad’ first”, his father bragged among his friends. And then, soon after, back at home: “Elana. We both know he’s a mommy’s boy. You should have watched him when he ate that.”
Meanwhile, Amelias first word was “Grandpa” and she said it so loudly and openly during a family gathering that it was unfortunately quite impossible for her parents to deny whom she seemed to like best.
Malcolm and Amelia had a shared imaginary friend during their childhood. Their name was “Cloudwatcher” and in their adult years they’d remember their friend as someone who’d constantly change shapes and voices. Someone who liked draping themself in shadows and darkness. Someone who probably had just been a product of their overactive imaginations… probably.
When Amelia was six years old, she stopped playing with Malcolm and Cloudwatcher. She’d found a new friend in the woods close to their Grandfathers home but she’d never take Malcolm to meet them. At some point he stopped asking. He still had Cloudwatcher.
On one of their birthdays during their time in elementary school, they overheard something their mum told to one of her friends:
“...I don’t know how. The doctors told me I would have one child. A boy. I still have pictures of the ultrasound. There is only one baby in the pictures. But then I had twins. Honestly, the doctors were just as clueless as me.”
They were good at school and they were good at making friends, though not quite as good at keeping them close. Not that they minded much. They each had their own interests and at the end of the day, they always had each other.
At nine years of age, their grandfather showed Malcolm undeniable proof of the paranormal. It would leave him with fear of shadows and a hunger for more. His sister, of course knew the supernatural already. She’d never had enough of the stories and myths their parents would tell. Instead, she’d sought out creatures and befriended them.
To be fair, she’d had to run from more creatures than she had been able to befriend. But still, she’d walked to parallel worlds and through shadows and at the age of nine, she felt very mature and powerful because of this.
And there was something else, as well. Deep down she was worried that she’d been a changeling all along. And that one day her parents would not want her anymore and she’d have to live in the Worlds shadow.
She was a child and neither braver nor more curious than her brother- just scared in a different way.