Let the fake facades rot away

*This fanfic is underneath my folder titled “Shadow House fanfics”. This takes place when one of the characters, Poppy Caldwell, from the scholastic book series written by Dan Poblocki, “Shadow House”, is an adult. It’s an AU I made of her as an adult. She and Connie are characters from the Shadow House book series, Valerian is my OC. You can also get a “Shadow House” video game from the App Store if you want to connect it all more. Gacha Club character designs are under my forum titled “My character designs<33[2]”. Enjoy!*

Poppy drove the car into the starlit darkness, Valerian sitting next to her in the passenger seat. They were both talking about miscellaneous things in life and she suspected that he might have had a crush on her with how he kept looking at her, but she wouldn’t say anything on it. He seemed like there was more to him, so she was fine with talking to him more in her car.

In the streetlights, she caught how his teeth were pointed and glinted like that of a vampire’s.

But perhaps that was just how his teeth worked. People had their quirks, didn’t they? It wouldn’t be fair of her to judge him after how people had judged Poppy for her whole life. Even after meeting those other kids in that horrible Larkspur House at twelve years old, she still felt like her only real friend was Connie. Especially since she had become a somewhat-famous Broadway actress and everyone acted like they were her friend. Why, she just wanted to connect with someone who would understand her, someone who wasn’t a ghost, someone-

“Have you ever been abandoned before?” Valerian asked.

Poppy blinked, a little startled by how specific his question was. It was so sudden, she didn’t expect him to say anything like it.

But she’d talk about it. Some of it, at least. She didn’t want it to haunt her for the rest of her life, like a deranged demon.

“I was an orphan until I was twelve. I wasn’t abandoned. My Mom was just trying to protect me.” Poppy said.

She remembered watching her Mom wave her goodbye before a black car snatched her away. Six year old Poppy screamed and put up a fight with the nurses, begging them to let her go.

In her young eyes, her Mom was abandoning her. Leaving her behind to rot.

But when she got invited to Larkspur House at twelve years old, she found that her Mom was only trying to protect her from the sickness that was the Caldwell curse.

“Oh. I’m glad that you found family. My parents kicked me out when I was twelve.” Valerian said. Though there was no emotion to his voice, under the streetlights, she could see the tears in his eyes.

“I’m sorry to hear that.” Poppy said. Her heart felt like it was breaking on the inside, and though she had just met him, she felt that she wanted to hold him close and hug all his worries away.

“It’s alright. They’re missing out on me.” Valerian said. He didn’t sound completely convinced. More like he was trying to convince himself instead.

Poppy drove on, the streets becoming more familiar. She was going to make it home soon, and then she and Valerian would get to know each other more.

Though it was many years ago, the image of Larkspur House danced in her mind, a symphony of mistakes and regrets.