Chapter Text
The infant beast was on the prowl. Tufts of apartment 33’s muddy green carpet assisted in this unauthorized action as nubby claws curled into it, the ungainly abomination dragging himself across the room. The hunt for the most precious thing was on.
Blame NOT the two adults he was currently left in the care of. As careful as Sam and Hellen were two years after the departure of the Visitor, some things had simply devolved away and no longer hit the senses as suspicious, even in the comfort of their own home. Perhaps especially not in their own home- the deep panting of gaping monster mouths and the slightest shuffle over the floor meant practically nothing anymore after so long of an endless stream of oddly built friends coming and going.
Anyone who would have immediately taken notice were elsewhere: Rat was scheduled to stay with neighbors during naptime after the umpteenth time it immediately let the baby out to play when he was supposed to be sleeping. Roaches was rather afraid of the baby and skittered off in his presence, ever since the incident where the baby accidentally used his beastly strength while reaching for one and vaporizing them under his fat palm. It didn’t help that the infant tried to eat the wisp of smoke that was left behind- that was probably the nail in the coffin of any friendship the insects would form with the grubby curse.
The obstacles the infant had to traverse were many and took time, so it was easy for the adults to fool themselves that, surely, THIS time the baby actually fell asleep? And yet he still inched through the newly-built doorway between Apartments 33 and 35. Since Sybil’s disappearance and the end of the world as they knew it, it was sad, but Sam’s massive community-friend-unit… thing, needed more space. So the hole punched through the outer wall was patched up, a door made through their living rooms where she once simply peeked through. It was left ajar and was easy for the tiny beast to breech between the two living spaces. Unlike the door of Sybil’s old bedroom that they had repurposed into multiple child bedrooms before the current nursery.
That door still confounded everyone how he was getting through. There was no sound. The small beast was just suddenly at their feet or crawling away from the still closed door when he was about to be checked on. Trying to catch him in the act proved futile- it seemed the first step of the captive’s escapes was pressing his many eyes against the crack under the door and eyeing the room beyond desperately. In turn, it was impossible to escape his gaze- all spies were spotted, and tactics were switched. He saw someone there, and would then simply beat against the plywood, baby-babbles loudly demanding for his release. Unintentionally, his methods were kept secret.
And of course, the first obstacle of them all- Hellen’s death swaddle. Entirely frustrated with his clingy antics, she wrapped him up so tight and encompassingly not a single of his many limbs were to be seen. Only a squished, uneven set of facial features were left uncovered before she abandoned him in his crib for naptime. All of it in vain for a simple, stubborn mind with a single, prized goal: Attention.
Everyone had to hang out with Neck Slitter, ALL of the time. It’s crazy how often the adults in his life forgot this and kept accidentally tying him up and locking him away in the dark. So silly.
With great effort, he rounded the couch. Though he was a lot more mobile in his beastly form than any infant his age had any right to be, there was still a real struggle in coordinating a radial range of limbs to get him anywhere. Especially with all the eyes- something shiny in the corner of the room and suddenly he’s just wiggling in place, arms trying to crawl him in two directions at once. But he finally made it. There was never a time where there wasn’t someone in this room to hang out with…
His beloved Mama was yet again nowhere to be seen. Or heard, for that matter- her pretty chuckles that followed her everywhere and showered Neck Slitter with love and admiration and praise of all the trouble they were going to get in together, one day. Not that the baby actually understood what any of that meant, but he missed her dearly all the same. But Neck Slitter was getting used to biding his loneliness in her absence- he wouldn’t even sniffle! There were other people to hang out with. Dad was here, but he was sooo far away, seeing the back of his head just over the kitchen island at the sink, on that cold cold floor that was basically impossible to traverse on his own. Once again, not to worry! One of his favorite secondary guardians was right here- she was here twice, in fact. Two Mommies. That’s awesome!
There was one Hellen that had her big square back to him, fiddling with the shaky bathroom door handle. Psh. Neck Slitter hated stupid doors, anyway. Always getting in his way… The other Hellen was on the couch in a way Neck Slitter had never seen before. It was just her face, lying right above one of the cushions. He could find her lying on the couch pretty often, but she usually had the rest of her body all those times…
He inched up to the furniture, pinching the cloth into his claws and straining his body up, like he often did when he crawled into the living room at night. She didn’t make the hard huff she usually greeted him with when they met like this… hmmm. Neck Slitter focused through his eyes facing the other Hellen, with her back to him. She still seemed unawares, so his assumption that she was going through the wall into the couch, somehow, might not be so true… Man, thankfully he was in his real body and not that stupid useless body with less of ALL the important stuff. When he was in that other body, people who walked behind him just stopped existing! It was really scary and inconvenient.
Now that Neck Slitter thought about it… her round grey eyes had always, always been there before… but now there were only the dark circles in the pale surface. Was… was this the first time he was seeing her sleep!? Oh! Neck Slitter knew what to do!! Oh, he loved to help his caretakers wake up, he was really good at it!!!
Just like he did with Mama and Ma and Dad and Daddy and[...] and Pops when he found them sleeping, he reared a chubby arm up over himself. His nails hit the plastic with a tak.
… The grey did not appear in the darkness like he expected them to. She did scoot a bit farther into the couch, but it didn’t seem to be on purpose. Did Neck Slitter do that? Huh? He strained all his muscles to reach around the couch cushion, hooking his farthest reaching finger into one of her dark mouth holes. She slid down over the side and into his grasp with an ease he did NOT know his Mommy for. Huh? Hellen was in his hand, and she wasn’t even that heavy. But at least he did hear her welcoming, terse huff he had sorely been missing.
The Hellen behind (“behind”) him dropped her head before looking over her shoulder. “Neck Wringer.” She addressed him darkly.
Her grey eyes were finally here, in the Hellen that he wasn’t holding- that was a lot of eyes. A lot-a lot of eyes. Looking at him through… a line of teeth?
“I’m going to lock Leigh’s brat in the safe. This is the final escape I warned you I would tolera-” Hellen turned and lifted a large leg toward the infant on the floor with her mask, speaking across the room to Sam-
A small gasp ran through the tiny beast as he skittered in on himself, whole body rounding and tightening.
Hellen’s foot planted to the floor abruptly. Her chin was tilted down to him, abundant eyes wide as if with a confused innocence, like when the characters in his cartoons looked to the camera after getting a mallet bonk to the head. The eyes clearly had no idea where to go- they spun around, lost in a swirl of nonsense. Neck Slitter may be young, but he was both familiar with monster faces and the… say, conventional human face. This looks like the former, if… if…
“Hh-hic- uuuw-”
His sight was starting to warble under saline tears, but he tried to focus on the pale disk in his grasp. This was NOT another Hellen. He understood that all at once. This?
This was GORE of Hellen.
“w-weuh- ah- aaaAH-”
His voice gasped and caught as the gravity of the situation tore at his heart. Ooooh, poor hurty Hellen! Somebody- somebody came in and ripped her face off!!! Hellen was all alone and hurt and scared!! Neck Slitter, he- he- HE HAD TO SAVE HER!
“ee-WWWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!!!!!”
Though everything was hazy, he saw the visage of Hellen lunge towards him. NO! You can’t fix it, Hellen! If she could, she would’ve by now! “NUH!” Neck Slitter whipped the rigid face behind him, continuing his yelps and screams of emergency. Neck Slitter had to- he had to- uh, UH-
Sam crossed the flooring of the kitchen and living room, first observing the outburst. His essentially-adopted son was squashing himself into the carpet, kicking his stubby limbs above him frantically as a barrier between him and Hellen’s large hands, screaming, “NUH-nuh… nu-nuh nuh-!!”
Hellen was mostly upright, but it looked like she had just stood from hunching over the child. As Sam neared, it seemed that prompted her to finish fixing her posture. Just a few moments too late of being caught.
Huh. It was a bit strange. Neck Slitter was clearly refusing to be picked up, which Sam had never really seen from him before. At least, not as the beast. Neck’s and Leigh’s physical forms were always opposites via some intangible, unexplainable force. Even from the distance they had now, as Leigh was running around the city on violent expeditions. But she kept to her promise of transforming into the Beast at the same time every day, to let him and the others take care of the other half of her baby’s being that they learned very quickly was capable of being neglected. Nobody hated that more than Neck Slitter himself. He HATED it. The sweet baby was gone once he was forced to have two stationary eyes and a torso.
But he was this upset in his preferred body… and he usually adored being held by Hellen? Maybe he finally clued in on the fact that she only grabbed him to chuck him back into his nursery. ‘Still wasn’t like him to refuse her rare attention, despite what it always resulted in.
Sam bent down to his knees. “D’aw…” He tutted sympathetically. The blob was an utter, sobbing mess, toothless mouths quivering and hiccuping. Fat salty tears plopped from the abomination’s overgrown, dark eyes- one of the few differences between the son and Leigh with her piercing bright, intense leer. The tears rolled down from everywhere, including the top of his body, falling through his randomly placed tufts of dark, wispy-thin infant hair and between the round fatty rolls of his monster arms.
In a few simultaneous gulps, Neck Slitter’s bleary gaze spotted his father who was here to make everything all better. Sam gave him a soft, warm grin, waggling his fingers in hopes to speed up the soothing process. To his slight dismay, the warding baby kicks were slowed and replaced by a cautious inching towards him, with the clear intent to be held. He dragged something wide and flat under him as he crawled. It looked like Hellen’s mask. Maybe he pulled it off her when she bent down?
Sam eyed Neck Slitter’s entirely wet, slick body that was already unruly to keep a grip on, but… sighed, conceding. He at least flicked his sleeve up over his palm to dry up what he could, peeking up under his own eyebrows at Hellen as he fruitlessly scrubbed up the baby’s tears. She barely moved since Sam inserted himself into their squabble.
“Alright… okay, upsie-daisi- hough-” The man grunted as he hoisted his son onto his stomach. His legs buckled for a moment before his only hand could properly hook around under the baby, thankfully finding a decent hold in the crook of an arm and not the lower jaw of one of his mouths. Yes, it was unfortunately common, and very hard to undo once done.
His son pressed flat into him, the mask he kept in his grip hanging down his side. A heavy, wet sob breathed through his sweater. “DAddyyy…”
Sam resisted the urge to squeeze him tight and swing him back and forth. Augh, he loved Rat to pieces, but its baby days went by so goddamn fast. It had been a blessing at the time, but now his paternal instincts rejoiced at this second opportunity to dote on a needy baby now that things weren’t nearly as dire. “OOooh, what happened? Huuuh? What’s wrong?” Sam cooed.
“sniff…” The infant pushed off him too quickly, wobbling him off-balance for a moment. He regained his composure in time to tuck his chin down to his chest and stare back into Neck Slitter’s waiting gaze. He clearly needed to be attentive for this serious business. “Daddy- mommy- mommy… mommy ouchie.” A short arm shot out to shove a round claw at said woman. Hellen stiffened at the accusation.
“Oh no!” Sam clucked his tongue, lifting his eyes up at her with none of the pressing attitude the child might have been expecting. Sam bounced him lightly in his arm, trying to turn him out of her sight and dissuade him from pouting at her more. Sam genuinely wanted to spare Hellen’s feelings as much as he could, because he truly did feel for her, despite how harsh his next words would sound out of context in any other circumstance. “Did you accidentally step on him again?” He whispered.
He heard her fingers curl.
“… No. This is the first time he’s seen my face.”
Ah. That would explain the mask in his tiny death grip. The same one now being swatted towards Sam’s eye socket at mach speed. Sam turned his face up in time to avoid it- at least, this time. The hard plastic would be coming his way for the duration of this, it would seem.
“Daddy!” Neck Slitter yelled. “Daddy!? Mommy- m- mommy boo-boo!”
“It’s hurting him. My face.” Hellen stated her interpretation of his outburst. Might as well be written in stone, as far as Sam was concerned.
WACK
Neck Slitter smacked him between the eyebrows with the edge of the mask through random sobbing strings of ‘mommy’ ‘ouchie’ ‘boo-boo’ and ‘DADDY!’.
Take a deep breath. Neck’s understanding of language was difficult to parse- his monster form he was usually stuck in boosted his development in strange ways despite only being a few months old- or at least SEEMED to. It was worth attempting to soothe this issue at the root.
Sam bent forward to cup the baby in his torso, blocking out his gaze of the giant woman. “Neck… it’s okay! I know you’re scared, but y-”
Neck, despite quieting down, was clearly not paying attention. He was scratching laboriously at the front of Sam’s sweater, clawing his way up. Popping a few eyes over Sam’s shoulder, he paused. “…. a-hehn… a-hehn a-hehn…” His eyes and gummy mouths slowly scrunched up in renewed cries.
“Dude… what’s wrong with you…?” Sam couldn’t help but whisper his exasperation. Well, as long as Neck Slitter was propping himself up, Sam brought the base of his palm to thump a featureless patch of skin on the baby’s back. Why on Earth was he insisting on staring at something that was scaring him so goddamn much? Come to think of it, Neck’s cries would gain a frustrated growl whenever Hellen tried to turn her head away.
“Sam. It’s obvious what he wants.” Hellen voiced behind him blandly. Sam, already accepting her as the authority on the baby’s fit, peeked at her in relief. “He clearly wants you to kill me.”
“Hellen!” Sam snapped. “Neck Slitter loves you!” Her brash words set him off too quickly, chiding her with a statement that he tried to avoid with the maniac. He’d normally try very hard to keep the cutesy domestic family talk to a minimum when it came to Hellen, he really would. It wasn’t fair to her that she was in this situation, much less the inflammatory title his stubborn baby bestowed upon her (Sam blamed Leigh for that… she almost kicked Sam out the window when Neck tried to call him ‘Mama’ as his first word. Titles became unnecessarily important to his baby brain after watching that squabble).
“Sure.” Woah. Wait, what? “He used to. He knows better now.” Ah. Of course.
Sam wearily sighed. It was the most Hellen would probably ever admit to that fact, now that she had enough reason to see it in a way that made more sense to her.
“This is how it is, Sam.”
He watched the baby pathetically tugging at his collar, cries and screams growing exhausted and furious. Did he actually hate Hellen now? The same kid that would cry and cry after she accidentally booted him over, only to abruptly stop with pleased cooing when she had to cave and bitterly squish him to her clavicle? Hopefully it was just shock. He’d probably blow up the whole apartment if Papineau ever shaved his beard.
His sight was all at once flashed with Hellen’s large hand shooting out at the two of them. Sam only felt his heart drop into his stomach. His instincts stumbled over the barriers between his domestic home and survival and protection. The image of her hand at the end of a sharpened pair of blades sunk into purple, dripping flesh invaded his mind’s eye making him feel stupid for stuffing it anywhere that wasn’t the forefront of his mind-
“NUUUHHHH!!!!!” Neck Slitter, as besides himself as he was, was braver and quicker than Sam in this moment. The claw clutching the mask whipped up and back, nearly toppling the baby out of Sam’s arm. Sam took a step to catch his weight when it came back down, wobbling before he had him steadied back on his stomach.
Hellen pulled her arm back to her side like nothing had happened.
“HELLEN!” Sam shouted at her. Then screwed his heavy eyelids shut. Ooh he hadn’t meant to do that. He forced himself to catch his runaway breath, just accepting how pathetic he had to look at her to get his regret across.
“I just. Want. My mask. Back.” Hellen stated.
“Right. Right… I’m sorry about this, Hellen. He’s just a baby.” Sam shifted towards the couch, for the moment no longer sure if that was a fact he had to remind her of or not. Guilt and suspicion flooded his body at once, crashing against each other and leaving him only able to try finding the right decision to keep him afloat.
Neck Slitter had devolved into loud crying, forgoing his limited vocabulary. He yelped when he felt Sam was trying to deposit him on the cushions, latching to the front of his sweater with all his spare claws. “ahhh-! AH- AH- AAAAAAAHHH!!!!!! AAAAAAUUUUGH!!!!!!!”
Clearly Hellen had finally had it. She swiveled in place and got two quick, silent stomps in towards the bathroom before Neck Slitter absolutely shrieked at her back, a pointed and direct wail.
Hellen halted in front of the bathroom door, turning back reluctantly. The baby’s shriek lessened back to his heavy sobs, staring into her scary, ghostly and gory face. “d- d- daaaaddy….”
“… He’s punishing me the only way he can.” Hellen lifted her hand blindly for the rattle-ly broken doorknob.
“God, Hellen, you think he’s trying to make you feel bad about your face? Come on-”
“AHH- A-AHH- AHH-” Neck Slitter knew he was running out of time. What did his dad just NOT understand!?!? His mommy was just trying to hide! No! Fix her! FIX HER!!! WHY WASN’T HE FIXING HER!?
In his final act of desperation, Neck Slitter reared his mommy’s face toward Sam, then flung it back to the front door.
The white mask, which, of course, IS his beloved and very injured mommy in it’s own way, hit against the wall and ricocheted sharply to the floor, disappearing behind the back of the couch.
It was…
far too much to witness, at this point.
“uh- u-
E̶̛͇̠̿̀̿͋̈́̒̉́̚͝ Ë̷͍̼̻̭̠̲̲͎͕̳́̀̄
Ẻ̴͎͕̖̍́̇̔̒̃̽͌͆̆͛̀̚͠ͅȨ̷̡̢̺̠̙̜͍̟̩̬̾̎͐̈́͋͆̅̃̄̌̽͗̄̕͜͝
E̶͇̒̑͂̋̅͐̋̉͊̆̊̒͐͝͠_̸͇̲̫̬̉̉̀̽̅͐ͅ ̸̗̼͕̖̠̓̈́̉͐̉̇̎̐̈̃̇͆͘W̵͉͓̭̼̫͔̩̖̪̟̩̞͝Á̸̦̖̜̞̟̐
Å̵̛̺͚͖̝͚̬͚͚͙͆́̈́Ą̵̨̺̩͎̟̭͉͓̺͇̝̝̙̆̂̓̍̈͒́̈͘͝͝ͅ A̵̧̙̥̞͖͉͙̟̙͆́̂̇̀̒͘ͅA̶̢͚̼̪̮̘̭̙̬̟̘͂
Ạ̴̧̧̢̻̖̻̞͕̘̩͎̼̄̾̓͐͛̾͛͆͒̕̚Ḫ̶̛̭̻͚̻͙͍̠͓̑̔̓̑͆͌̆̕̚͜͝͠͝͝͝
H̵̫̙̮̩̐̈́̽̾̚ͅ
Ḩ̵̢̗͓̙͕͉̟̘̘̎̿̆́̃͐̀͝H̶̨̥̻̯̤̫́Ḫ̵̡̛̮͉̤̱͇͌̎̾͋̅̔̓͐̓̚
Ḩ̸̧̝͈̙̺̮͉̻̺͉̜͖̩̮̅̊̾́̿͌́̎̅̾̽͐̿̕̚Ḫ̸̹̣̣͕̙̹̮̆̉́͂͌̂͆̾͂̓̚ !̴̨̞̤͕͓̙͉̹̏̃̈́̅͗̕!̶̨̱͔͍̺̲̌̽̒̏͗͘͠ !̵̧̢̼̤͉̹̻͗̋̿͘̚͜͝
!̷̡̭͈͈̦͙̟͉̿͑͑̓̇͂̅̌͘̚
After the wall-shaking shriek at the end of his limit, the baby deflated in exhausted whimpers and silent streams of blubbering tears.
Welp. This was reason to remember how blessed Sam was that the little monster baby in his arm almost never resorted to his monster wail. Fuck. He’d have to ask the Shadow later to perform invasive ear surgery on him again.
Hellen seemed stunned for the moment, but that wouldn’t last. She’d hole herself up in the bathroom, to whatever dismay that would give the baby. It would be okay. Babies forget. It would be rough at first, but babies get over it-
Joel bobbed into sight from the built door to apartment 35. Goddamn it. Sam had vaguely noticed during the fiasco that he was hovering around there. Joel was another he took great care to not shove the baby on. The poor kid- he had so much sibling and baby trauma already. He took the pregnancy so poorly, and it wasn’t his fault. Even Leigh understood and felt for the boy, trying to give him space even though she wanted to force everyone else to take part in her joy. Sure, he had taken to Rat so easily when everything was new and chaotic, but now that the horrors had time to sink in, he had trouble accepting things that hit too close to home.
Even then, Joel was still a sweet boy that was better with kids than any adult Sam knew (save maybe Audrey and David), and didn’t take his traumas out on Neck. As he stepped into the apartment, Sam was prepared to be screamed at by the boy, shaken and enraged to endure yet another monstrous infant tantrum that briefly overtook the apartment.
He ducked under the view of the couch, then quickly shuffled around it with Hellen’s mask in his hands. “N- Neck Slitter? Hhh…” He spoke softly to the baby, his dental abyss about level to him in Sam’s arm. “Do you think, uh… that this is your m- Hellen’s face?” He lifted it up between them, and Sam was beyond grateful that Neck didn’t reach out for it again.
The baby panted, exhausted, in response. “hh- hhh- heb… hebb….” He gasped and whimpered when Joel started to put it over his own ‘face,’ and Joel lowered it quickly.
“And uh- hhh- thh- that…” He limply pointed at Hellen’s head, scared to mention her so rudely. Hellen looked shut down anyway, eyes scrolling through her face dully and lifeless. “Do you think thaaat’s… a boo-boo?”
Neck Slitter coughed wetly. After a tired pause, nodded one bulging eye awkwardly at Joel.
“No… Hellen isn’t hurt, Neck!” Joel’s cheery tone cut through the dreary room. “She- umm…”
Was that really it?? God, fuck, Hellen… siiigh. Despite how much Sam was just dying to have this all solved already, he dared not rush Joel as he stumbled over his wording and slowly gasped between them.
“This is a mask- well, you wouldn’t know what a mask is, -hhh- would you? Uh… it’s like… Hellen has TWO faces!”
Yes! Yes Joel, yes! Sam finally felt a sense of relief. There’s so much that couldn’t be explained to an infant, but this infant- being TWO of something at once was practically his birthright. Good job, Joel! Sam was going to find a way to get this kid a dang ice cream after a save like this, no matter WHAT it took.
“Yeah, and THIS mask- I mean, face- this one comes off. And the other one -hhh- doesn’t. It stays. You’ve just never seen it before now.”
There was a palpable silence. After a few moments, the little monster wiggled in his grasp, wobbling to calmly witness Hellen. The giant woman lowered her chin just a bit. “It’s true.” She said, thankfully sounding her-normal.
Neck Slitter let it all sink in. He reached his now-empty hands over the space between him and her.
It was Hellen’s turn to let the silence hang. Without flair, she raised her palms. Sam tried to pass him off easily, but Neck rolled all his tear-slicked mass over at once and slid straight down her forearms into her stomach.
“…” She folded her hands into a surface under him to hold with an ease that would always fill Sam with awe and a jealousy he would never vocalize. In turn, Neck Slitter pinched her shirt above him and craned up so he had a view of her true face. Or, ‘the one she couldn’t remove.’ They stared at each other for a bit.
He pointed at her once more. “Ouchie?”
“Nope. It’s not an injury. It doesn’t hurt-”
SMACK
“Ow.”
Neck Slitter made a startled, stuttering gasp, reeling down into her palms and shoving the claw he just whacked her exposed teeth with into one of his big mouths, tiny blue hands coming out to hold it in one of his strange displays of self-soothing. He watched her with wide, horrified eyes.
“…It hurts if you hit it. Like any face.”
SMACK
“Ow. Yep. Like that.”
“…”
She caught his arm mid-swing and flattened it to his fat, round body. “Enough.”
Sam’s shoulders screamed in relief- free of both the most unruly infant body to keep hold of and the weight of the world, as the assault to his stress receptors would have him believe. He watched over the scene in front of him silently. Joel chattered through how he had figured it out, recounting the event from his point of view with much more levity than Sam could imagine. Sam’s now cramped as hell hand drifted up to rub the back of Joel’s hair, tousling it affectionately.
Hellen and Neck Slitter had settled from the tension of their misunderstanding at a speed that… kind of pissed Sam off, if he was being honest. His sweater was soaked with briny tears and sputtered drool. His muscles ached and he kinda wanted to cry a bit himself. Looking at Hellen blandly letting his baby nuzzle into her palms after he nearly tore Sam apart if it meant Hellen was… ‘helped,’ in some way the infant found acceptable, was raising his temper in a way he couldn’t…
Well, he could explain his ‘inexplicable’ anger as coming from many sources. Hellen was as hard on Sam as anyone else for his failures in his impossibly stressful and chaotic life, and yet this was all her fault for not showing the baby her face sooner, under controlled circumstances. Hellen could have done anything but make the situation worse by assuming such horribly violent and cruel thoughts in a literal infant. After all that, Hellen had the audacity to have a dejected gleam in her eye that Sam would dAaAare assume she, the crazed bloodthirsty maniac that thought a baby wanted to kill her, MIGHT have violence in her own mind and making sudden movements towards his child. Not for the first t-
But no. None of that was fair.
At least not at this point. Sam was too far deep in his decisions that lead them all here to hold them against her, now. It all caught up to him for a moment, and that was all it should be.
Not that it was that easy to settle his vibrating nerves, but what can you do.
Take another breath. “I owe you one, Joel. I’ll give you anything you want- do you want my house? I’ll give you my house, Joel.”
“Hee hee- hhh- noo. I already live here!”
“I owe you an ice cream, big time. Don’t let me forget.” Sam promised now so he did not, in fact, forget without the person he owed reminding him later.
“Okay! Where!?”
“I am…! Not sure yet. But I won’t stop until I find you some- for saving me. Neck Slitter was about to start biting, I think.”
“Hee hee… okay. Maybe- hhhh- Sophie’s mom knows.”
Sam nodded with a warm smile. He crossed around Joel to today’s two trouble makers. Neck Slitter was trouble by nature, but he was always so sweet. And also literally a baby. He wanted to save someone he loved and thought was horrifically injured, and pulled the strongest action in his arsenal… screaming and crying about it. To his credit, he wouldn’t let Sam off easy. Coddling this away had NOT been allowed.
Hellen, on the other hand… deep down inside, Sam knew he was lucky to have her behave as well as she did with Neck. But it would seem another part deep down, perhaps twins with the former truth, that was still bitter at that whole infanticide she committed and made him partake in and made him watch. It was the exhaustion talking, he knew… like, he did NOT take it all that seriously at the time, it was too late to act all victimized by it now. But couldn’t deny… she deserved a little pay back for triggering that. And also making everything about Neck’s tantrum infinitely worse.
“Hey there buddy… all better?” He softly curled his index finger under one of Neck Slitter’s exhausted eyelids. “You were so scared for Hellen… but be careful! Worry about her too much, and you might become her favorite.” He smirked up at her.
Hellen’s vertically curling mouth tightened in a suspicious squint. But she wasn’t the one to huff at Sam when a “HMPH!” was let out into the air. He looked down to see dark, tired eyes glaring up at him from the crook of Hellen’s arm. Neck Slitter wiggled and squirmed to move the side of himself facing his father all the way around, tucking into the corner of her arm and torso.
… When Neck Slitter realized he was still looking at Sam’s smug grin with the other side of his body, his skin flushed with a small gasp. His eyes darted around, desperate to be visually cold to his dad. “HMPH!” He finally settled on jamming his eyes shut.
“Heh.” Sam looked back up at Hellen, thinking she would share in the humor of his clumsy display of fussiness.
She stared at him.
Without leaving the spot she was standing in, she slowly turned in place, closing Sam out with her broad shoulder. Neck, apparently having peeked at the movement, made a soft cheer that they were icing Sam out, together.
“Whu- you’re mad at me, too!? I didn’t even do anything!”
“Hhh- yeah! You didn’t do anything wrong, Mr. Sam… you, like, kinda didn’t do anything at all!”
“YEA- uh, yeah. Thanks, Joel.”
“Nothing to- hhhh- make things better OR worse!”
“Yeah.” Sam stated as Hellen brought her free hand up, supposedly making a pleasant gesture to the baby to make him giggle in delight, as she usually never did such things. Rubbing it in was apparently a valid reason to start.
----
The clock hands continued their endless scrawl in the darkened living room. Hellen would consider it relatable, but her eyes weren’t nearly as damn loud.
She sat on the couch for now, a few hours into the night. Her palms rested on her bent knees. It had been a strange day.
Usually she tried to be out, but roving hundred god gangs on a wet evening had even her wary of the streets. Tending to her gardens or silently mapping out her eventual departure would have to wait for another day.
She tried to fix the door handle of the only momentary sanctuary she could get around here. That creature Leigh turned down Hellen’s offer to remove over a year ago now was obnoxiously persistent in his pursuits. Sam bashfully excused the knob being off its screws to the thing smacking the door open relentlessly while he was in there. Hellen had witnessed it plenty of times the child ignored her in his nighttime escapades to bother Sam instead- slapping hard at the base of the door until it bounced from its frame for the child nonchalantly wiggle towards Sam’s exhausted groans. Didn’t seem to be whatever silent tactic he used while escaping his nursery.
bzzt bzzt
Leigh still hadn’t given up on the phone. At least it was obvious where the child got his attachment issues from. Hellen was the only one posted up at night to even hear it in these dark hours, and yet she never once responded back to whatever inane thing Leigh was trying to get across from the other side of town.
Usually it’s main purpose was to warn the ones currently actually raising her child if she had to transform outside her designated time. It didn’t matter what the message said- usually a quickly beaten string of characters when things got dicey out there. The buzzing against the surface of the table got Sam and the others scrambling to position the baby in a way that wouldn’t severely injure or kill him when he shifted into his much less durable state.
Despite that she never answered and usually forgot to tell Sam there was a message overnight (that often got her a mild scolding from the head of the house), Hellen reached over for the phone. Maybe one day Leigh would slip something urgent in there, who knows with her.
It was almost thrilling how impossibly irresponsible the set up was- Sam had the gall to look at her warily, but if this kid didn’t survive a year under this system Sam and Leigh had agreed on, it wouldn’t have a single thing to do with Hellen. Unless, of course, she continued to fail to notice when the thing was underfoot and he was shifted at just the wrong time… but he liked to scream in abject rage when that happened. She’d notice.
…
Anyway,
‘what hapn to baby i trned beast and DIED’
Hhm hhm. Yes. Feeling the bullshit of Leigh’s curse struggle in panic to form some semblance of biology with it on to her gestating child had been pretty fun to sit by and sense. It tripped all over itself until this nonsense was its result. Sometimes if she breathed hard enough, Hellen could make out the faint spirit force of their connection. Her brat’s fit seemed to transcend it all the way over to her, waiting by the door until her transformation let it in.
‘he saw my face and [’
Hellen didn’t realize she had typed anything until her lack a storytelling skills stopped her dead in her subconscious tracks. The text line waited for her blinkingly.
He saw her face for the first time and… what? She didn’t have to tell Leigh this.
But she did already slowly type that out. It’d be as much trouble to delete it as it would be to send, and Sam picking it up in the morning to her half-written message didn’t conjure up any further results Hellen could imagine turning out well for her.
She deleted the suggestion there was more to say. She paused at the thought of capitalizing the sentence proper- but shook her head and sent it as is. Hellen hated to be seen as illiterate in any sense from a long, sordid struggle with her reading class school days, but her message was leagues more accurate than anything Leigh ever wrote.
She pressed the send button right as a mass caught her attention. Like suddenly seeing the fat roach that was crawling on the wall by your head.
“How.”
Neck Slitter stopped in his ungainly tracks, most of the way to Sam’s closed bedroom door. He was going to give it the same treatment as the bathroom door, Hellen was certain. For a moment, Hellen assumed the infant had finally had his fill of her presence after the whole affair, but after stumbling his fat faces into the carpet a few times, finally found the limbs he had to switch to in order to pull towards her, instead.
“Bwwae… abbahhagguabobah.” He babbled in response.
“Oh. I should have figured.”
“Bboah dabahbah- hhhnnnnng-!”
Hellen watched silently as the baby struggled at her feet, grabbing the front of her sweatpants and trying to climb up her shins. She was thankful she wasn’t wearing shorts this time- the one time she did, every snag in the brat’s thick claws tore off her leg hair religiously.
After letting him give it the ole’ preschool try, she decided to lean over and lift him on to her lap. He had earned her favor tonight. That much was true.
His bulbous eyes blinked in surprise after plopping on her lap. Unfamiliar territory.
“Though you really should keep your secrets to yourself. I’m not your mom.” Despite what he calls her. Well- hold on, earlier he did seem to... “Wait.” She tilted her chin down. “What’s my name?”
He kind of… drooped. In general. He squirmed under her gaze, lips gaping open a few times silently and making the adult worry he was going to start crying again. “Haah… hee… heb-” And then he heavily rolled forward, eyelids all falling heavy. “Hebben.” He whimpered guiltily.
It was obvious what weighed on his small mind. Perhaps if he had just used the name she had argued with him to call her all that time ago when he started speaking, it could have made all the difference in that fiasco earlier. Of course that wasn’t the case, but Joel tripping over his words while explaining things must have added to this conclusion.
“Yes. That’s good- very good.” Hellen folded her hands in near him to pet him affectionately. The pads of her fingers dragged his eyelids harshly from his eyes and his facial features shot open in surprise, hands grasping at her sweatpants for stability. Oops. The last thing she needed after EVERYTHING that happened today was for the baby to think he was attacking him all of the sudden. She cupped her hand over the top of him and jiggled his body in a slow circle, hoping to at least bewilder him into keeping quiet. “It’s important to call people by their proper names and titles, Neck Wringer. You’ll land yourself in deep shit if you just call people whatever you feel like.”
Bzzt bzzt
Bzzt bzzt
Hellen reached with her free hand to the relatively tiny phone. Two rapid texts were waiting for her.
‘lol’ and ‘You’re lucky to be alive’
Not the case at all. Not that it mattered if Leigh knew or not. But the aghastment Leigh would erupt with when- if she learned that her little brat nearly shook the apartment apart in Hellen’s honor… damn these small buttons that gave too much away.
Hellen, as bizarre as it was for her, decided to compromise with one button.
Leigh answered the call before it could even ring fully once, but didn’t speak out. Yet there was clearly distortion in the speaker as the grinner breathed into it with bewilderment and anticipation. Though the phone was to the side of her mask, Hellen spoke down to the child in her lap under her palm. “Here. Tell your mom how you almost killed Sam to ‘save’ me.”
Hellen heard Leigh shrilly say something as she pulled the phone down, which was perfect to clue in the baby to what was happening. For a moment, Hellen considered how strange it was that more sentimental caretakers of the baby hadn’t done this before- as far as Hellen was aware. He gasped softly, grasping Hellen’s outstretched hand closer. “… mama…”
“WH- HIIII BABYYYY!!!” Hellen could hear her coo. There were a few abrupt noises, assumedly other members of her expedition party admonishing her for screaming so late at night, and her screaming back at them. Even in the dark, it was obvious how Neck’s pupils blew in excitement. Hellen tightened her fingers' grip around the phone just in time, blue miniature hands shooting out of his closest mouth and trying to swallow the phone if it meant getting any closer to his mother somehow.
Neck Slitter babbled energetically, and garbled noise in Leigh’s tones met him back through the cheap speaker. Hellen did her part by tugging the device out of his mouths when needed… until she got impatient.
“Ahem.”
His eyes popped up to her in earnest surprise, before getting to business. “Ohb yea. Aschhksh… ‘n Hebben- ‘n Hebben, ouchie!? Mmmmm no ouchie-siiighhh buh DADA- UUuugh!”
“oooOOoo yeah, what’s up with that!?”
Neck Slitter threw a random claw through the air in vindication. “DUNNO!”
“Alright. Say bye.” Hellen tugged the phone away. She collected the claws that tried to put up a fight between her own fingers and thumb, looking at him pointedly. “You’ve already been caught misbehaving. Don’t push it.” He pouted down, flopping his short arms against her thighs.
“So as you can see, you had it all wrong.” Eat shit, Leigh.
“Heh heh… a little older, and Sam would be dead… how wonderful… my son already knows the true worth of strength! Of POWER!”
“Sure.” Hellen hung up the phone. It buzzed fitfully afterwards, but Hellen didn’t bother with her anymore now that the important things had been settled.
The baby wistfully watched the phone throw its muted fit on the table. At least it kept him occupied for a moment- Hellen didn’t actually know what to do with him, and now that she thought about it, he conked out after the whole fiasco earlier. He wasn’t going to fall asleep on his own any time soon.
Hours ago Morton had trundled in at the allotted shifting time, muttering how he had heard the beastly cry from two floors down and figured he’d ‘assist.’ He was excellent at tending to the child’s physical needs when he was around, mellowly debating back the infant’s tantrums about being in his human body. Morton was simply abysmal at being consistent with the care of a living creature than he would ever allow himself to be with his trinkets. Hellen would usually look down on somebody for that, but Morton’s pre-Visitor origins made it hard to hold these kind of things against him.
She felt a lower set of gums on Neck Slitter that she couldn’t see start gnawing on her sweatpants. It’s not like she hated him or anything, despite what Sam seemed to assume every once in awhile. Hellen didn’t know why- she didn’t have history of harming his dependents. And it’s not like she enjoyed stomping on babies, god damn it. The little brat was just always on the floor somewhere and wasn’t nearly as nimble as the rat to jump out of her way when she didn’t notice.
“Hebben.” Neck Slitter reached towards her, hoisting himself higher by harshly jabbing his stubby limbs into the rolls of fat on her torso, craning himself up. He had one chubby hand outstretched towards her head that he kept for a moment. Then that arm relaxed, and he batted his palm towards himself.
“………”
She reached behind her head and unfastened the strap of her mask. Is this what he was asking for…? She slowly lowered it, watching the child flinch involuntarily all the same. Joel once said it was like “someone with bad breath turning to you but there is no smell” and Hellen was having a hard time forgetting that imagery since.
Neck Slitter watched her eyes closely. He wobbled to the side, getting dizzy from trying to keep up with them. He nudged her hands that were holding the mask. When she didn’t move fast enough for him, he pushed them harder.
Guess he already had enough. They couldn’t all take as well as Rat. Hellen flattened the disk back over her curse and went to fasten the strap once more. The little creature made a sound of intrigue, flitting to the side to watch as it covered over her face.
“Ah, ah!” He vocalized, reaching back up.
“…” Hellen held her fingers framing her jaw. She turned her chin and let him see the strap, turning back with the mask in her upright palms. She supposed he hadn’t actually seen her take it on or off before. Earlier where he was screaming she had forgotten she had removed the straps to soak, letting an off comment from the pretentious janitor have a point, for once. They had gotten really crusty, and from what... she could make a list.
Such a strange event that had taken place between them hours ago. All she wanted in that moment was to shut herself away, as if all the screams she had ever endured for her face had all concentrated into one moment, in one child that had previously adored her to the point of being one of her biggest nuisances. It was so silly now, but it made too much sense at the time: that all that care she had taken to keep her violence away from these people had been for nothing. It was always broadcasted right from her own face the second she let her guard down. The child losing all his love for her the second he bore witness to it made too much sense- it was the truth of things, and he was much too young and innocent to pretend like all the others had.
But that hadn’t turned out to be true. At least not yet.
Neck swiped the mask from her hands, eyeing it with renewed innocence and curiosity.
It didn’t ever have to come to fruition. She would be gone be then. Not that she wanted to leave to "run away" from this place and its people. Hellen was overdue that truest feeling of freedom. No one to scare too hard. No network of friends and neighbors she had to take in to such oh-so-careful account.
Neck Slitter clearly got squeamish if the cup of the mask got too close to himself, as if it could or would eat him. But he peeked up at her, and bravely turned it around as he hoisted it above awkwardly, other limbs digging in to her thighs. With a grunt of effort, he sent it into the air towards her face. It landed on the top of her breast. It stuck there for a moment before sliding down and bopping the baby on the top of his head-body.
“……”
Hellen gently twisted her mask so that the exterior was facing him, then grabbed him firmly between his limbs, lifting him up to eye level. “You’re trying to put it back on for me, right? Try again.”
“…!” Taking a moment to get his bearings, he squinted seriously. The cup of the mask was shoved into her face, mostly containing it. When he let go, it fell through the space between them into her lap with a sad whine from the baby.
“It was never going to work- you don’t have enough dexterity yet.” Or reach, for that matter.
She set him back down, letting him turn the mask over in his claws for a bit longer, peeking up in to her ‘new’ face he was going to have to get used to. As far as he knew. A few times he lightly bit the edge, then darted his eyes around in surprised sadness when his soft gums suddenly got a stinging shock sent through them, not understanding the source. This kid really didn’t know what was good for him, hurting himself chewing on sharp plastic in the lap of a serial killer.
… Also, was he teething already, or what? Hellen scrubbed a bottom row of gums with her thumb. Neck sputtered with a different mouth and lightly glared at her. Hmm… she didn’t feel anything yet, but maybe he did, somewhere deep down. With how her solo scouting missions were going, she bitterly knew she was going to be around to see the first few teeth, at least. The Hundred Gods didn’t make anything easy.
Her mask tumbled over the side of her leg to couch cushions as the tiny beast yawned. He caught himself, shaking his body like a cross between a wet dog and a bowl of gelatin. Neck puttered in place, trying to keep conscious in his never-ending pursuit to be annoying and in everyone’s business. He clawed to her knees, silently pleading to be let down. Finally had enough of her, huh? He was definitely going straight to Sam after this. Maybe she would do him one final kindness and toss him into Sam’s bed herself. Neck Slitter not only cared for her despite her curse, he thought of her as some sort of innocent damsel about it. Hellen had a hard time imagining that would ever happen to her again, so she may as well allow herself to be flattered.
He was still young. He would never remember this day, or how he managed to yank her heartstrings in two wildly different directions without trying. Hopefully she’d leave before he’d remember this face he just met, or even her name he just finally acquiesced to using. It was a bit bittersweet. Neck Slitter was needy and obnoxious, but he was sort of a friend who saw more in her than there was. So it would really benefit him more to severe that bond sooner, to be honest.
That said, Hellen realized she was being a fool about just one thing.
She spread her fingers out and caged the infant under her palm, clawing him away from the bone of her knee and to the middle of her lap. She squashed him firmly. His limbs thrashed between her digits. “It’s bedtime. That means sleep. I could do this all night.” His whines of resistance were muffled under her grasp.
Escape out of this one, you little shit.