A Father’s Day like no other!

*This story is under my folder titled “Daire the icicle creature”. Gacha Club character designs are under my forum titled “My character designs<33[2]”. Enjoy!*

Introduction

Katelyn stared at the card in her hand. Dad would like it, she spent hours coloring the card!

A knock came on Katelyn’s door. Or was it Princess, the cat, scratching her paws? Only one way to find out.

Katelyn opened it and…

“Mom?” Katelyn asked, surprised. She would have thought that it was Princess scratching her paws against the bedroom door, but it was Mom.

“We’re getting your Dad’s soul back for Father’s Day.” Mom said, certainty in her eyes.

Chapter One

It had been a few hours since Mom said they were getting Dad’s soul back. Katelyn was in the car seat, wondering how on Earth they would help him out.

Last year, Katelyn got her soul back after she and Dad killed the man who spoke strangely to her at the ride.

But who would Dad truly hate? Was it even possible to help him?

If Mom was doing it, then it was possible.

Right?

Chapter Two

“Where are we going?” Katelyn asked. They were in the middle of nowhere, nothing but vast pine trees.

Mom briefly pointed to a modern-styled house painted white, with all-too clear windows in the distance, before placing that hand on the steering wheel again.

“There.” Mom said.

Chapter Three

“Who lives there?” Katelyn asked once Mom stopped the car.

“The one person who vowed to ruin your father’s life, even with all the trouble he was already experiencing. The one person who promised to take his essence, all for himself.” Mom said.

She got out of the car and walked up to Katelyn’s window, but all the while, Katelyn wondered:

Why?

Chapter Four

Mom punched open the window, still holding onto Katelyn’s wrist. They were in close proximity to the house.

All in a flash, memories that did not belong to her surfaced in Katelyn’s brain.

Chapter Five

FLASHBACK

Daire was covered in ice, walking down the halls of school. Thorin grinned at Daire with teeth all too sharp to be human.

“Look at that! Icicle man!” Thorin laughed, pointing at him.

The crescendo of adolescents joined in, but all the while, Daire could see the demon glare in Thorin’s eyes.

Katelyn saw it, too.

Chapter Six

“Thorin? Thorin? Oh Thorin, where are you now?” Mom asked.

Katelyn blinked herself back into the present. Mom was standing in the hallway, hunched over. Though Katelyn was no longer a demon, residue of sinful powers stayed, such as the ability to sniff out demons.

She could smell the sweating, palpitating fear from upstairs.

Chapter Seven

Katelyn ran ahead of Mom, up the stairs, to where the fear was getting stronger and stronger.

To be a demon is to be different.

At the tip of the fear was boiling anger. Thorin wouldn’t go down without a fight.

To be a demon is to be despised.

Katelyn didn’t know where the thoughts were coming from. Perhaps they belonged to Thorin and they were surfacing to her mind?

Chapter Eight

Katelyn burst open the door. After much running, they had made it.

A young, pale man stared back at them with bugged-out eyes and sharp, pointed teeth dripping with blood.

“Stay away!” He screeched, backing into a corner.

Chapter Nine

“No.” Katelyn seethed, walking closer to him. At the man’s feet was a shriveled squirrel, marred by teeth and blood. Quite possibly his food. 

“Thorin, why?” Katelyn asked, grabbing the man by the throat. Only a small bit, though. She didn’t have the claws to lift cars up anymore.

If she was to ask questions, she might as well drag him away. There was no use with standing around.

Dad might get worried if they were gone for too long, so she and Mom both had to make it quick.

Chapter Ten

Thorin’s throat gurgled with blood as he tried to speak. They had all gone outside, Mom following them both. Once they got to the car, Katelyn threw the demon roughly in the backseat.

“Be more gentle with him, sweetie. We don’t want him to die. Not yet.” Mom said.

Katelyn nodded. Of course. That was for later.

Chapter Eleven

“You don’t know what it’s like to be a demon. To eat flesh. To be living sin. I knew what he was.” Thorin said, breaking through the fuzzy silence of the car on the road.

The car drove on. Katelyn felt herself fading back into a memory, her vision going blurry.

If Thorin knew, then why did he do it? Katelyn thought.

Chapter Twelve

“He had friends, he had people who cared about him. But me? I had no one.” Thorin said.

Katelyn’s vision was getting blurrier…blurrier…

She was gone.

Chapter Thirteen

FLASHBACK

Thorin stood in the middle of the woods, mouth covered in blood, a dead girl’s body lying underneath him.

He warned her. He told her that he was a monster.

Yet she chose to stay. She believed that he could change.

A tear slipped from his eye.

The one person who ever loved him was gone and he was to blame.

Chapter Fourteen

“You loved someone? Someone dearly?” Katelyn asked when she woke up from the vision, curiosity sparkling in her. Mom drove on, saying nothing.

Thorin’s eyes went wide with surprise, as though he couldn’t believe her question, but then he said:

“Yes. I did. Her name was Elspeth.”

Chapter Fifteen

FLASHBACK

Thorin sat alone in the lunchroom, eating away at a meat sandwich, dripping with red liquid.

A young girl with sparkling green eyes and tumbling black hair sat next to him.

“What’s your name?” She asked kindly.

“Thorin.” He said through the food in his mouth.

“I’m Elspeth.” She said with a smile.

Chapter Sixteen

Katelyn had waken up into the real world. She recognized the road they were on. They were closer to home.

Elspeth was Thorin’s light. Just like how Mom was Dad’s. That one simple interaction may have been the start of a world of heart. 

Why didn’t Thorin try to escape from his darkness? Did he give up? Was he officially done with life?

Just like Dad? Katelyn thought worriedly.

Chapter Seventeen

The house was coming. Thorin stayed in the backseat. Dad was waiting, his eyes alight with joy when he saw that Katelyn and Mom were home.

And so, the deed was done. They’d let Dad kill Thorin, just so he could get his soul back, because that was the right thing to do. Right? Right.

Chapter Eighteen

“I’m ready. Take me to him.” Thorin said.

“You’re ready? What does that mean?” Katelyn asked. He should have been afraid. He should have been shaking in his pants. Sure, he had dealt with his own problems, but he still wanted Dad to feel miserable just for having friends in his life, Katelyn didn’t want to forget that.

But he wasn’t. Instead, he was prepared.

Chapter Nineteen 

Katelyn and Thorin got out of the backseat, Mom got out of the front. They walked over to Katelyn’s house, Dad unlocked the door, eyes wide with confusion and fear.

Thorin grinned at him with pointy monster teeth. Still, he stayed, not running away.

“Are you guys okay? Where were you? I-“

Dad’s words were lost when he saw Thorin. His eyes took on a ghostly, demonic essence, that of a primal creature.

It brought chills to Katelyn’s spine how quickly someone could change in a second.

“I’m just like you, except I don’t have friends. I snapped on the only girl who cared and now I’m going to pay the price. I’m sorry for everything, Daire.” Thorin said, standing tall, unafraid.

Yet that did nothing to stop Dad from pouncing on Thorin, tearing him limb from limb, acting completely inhuman.

Epilogue

Dad had gained his soul back from getting rid of the person who hurt him and still, he and Katelyn still could smell out demons and had a strength that should not have been possible for humans. Over time, their demon sides began to fade, but all the while, Katelyn wondered why they were cursed, if they truly were free from the curse and if she’d one day snap like Thorin did to Elspeth and Dad did to Thorin.

Mom loved them both, which was something Katelyn didn’t quite understand, for why would a human ever love monsters like them, but it was something that she was very grateful for. Her Grandparents on her Dad’s side seemed normal enough, but Dad had told her that they were demons once and that one day, they decided to get rid of those who hurt them and gained their humanity back. He said it was because of them that they had been changed.

Katelyn was glad that she could make Dad happy, especially on Father’s Day and she was happy that everyone had gotten their humanity back, but still, why them?

Would she ever truly recover from what her eyes had witnessed?