Daily Life With A Lilim Chapter 30

~Park Bench Conversation~

Stanley ended the call with a blank expression and stared at the screen for a moment before putting away the phone. Then slowly but surely he rested his face into the palms of his hands releasing a strangled groan of embarrassment.

‘What the fuck was thaaat!?’

‘That’ was him exchanging dialogue with Ezraphel that was one part flirting and another part soliciting her for sex later that night all done through Natalie’s phone while on speaker.

“I’ll have you.”

His face contorted in disgust at remembering that line of cringe.

“Natalie has to go.”

He loved his sister but she needed to finish up her training with Ezraphel, get her shit together (preferably packed up) and get the fuck away from him because his dignity and sanity were obviously taking damage from her continued presence. He only did something like that was because he knew it would get under her skin as the freshly turned Wight was no doubt suffering severely from the female equivalent of blue balls. The fact that he could do that shit without his common sense warning him only served to prove the point that he was becoming more deranged.

Anyway his thoughts went back to the topic of that conversation. It would be a lie to say that Stanley expected Ezraphel to reject his offer to have her meet his mother right now. Quite the opposite really, he thought she would be ecstatic under normal circumstances except now he realized that this wasn’t exactly ‘normal’ circumstances for her. Being preoccupied with his own situation it momentarily escaped his attention that Ezraphel had her own thing going on.

In his defense she managed to hide most of the ill effects of maintaining her slavish devotion to working on this project of hers and seeing it completed in time for his birthday. The fact that he could actually tell something was wrong in the first place was a red flag that had him feeling disappointed in himself for not picking up on it.

In hindsight he’s glad Natalie went ahead and rejected the suggestion on Ezraphel’s behalf. Knowing his girlfriend she would likely accept it out of courtesy if nothing else despite being stressed from working on her project. He knew this intuitively which was actually a major part of the reason why he just blatantly told her he was up for sex after dinner tonight. Him rubbing it in Natalie’s face was just a coincidence, no really.

Though it does says something about the situation that they were both too caught up in their own issues to bother with sex for the last couple of days. In any case he made his way back to his mother who in the time since he left had managed to drain the rest of her boba.

“So, looks like we’ll have to put a pin on that visit. Sorry about that” he apologized as he took his seat.

She waved his apology “its better this way. I’d rather visit when you’re actually comfortable with me in your home.”

‘That’s…’

“I wouldn’t say I’m not comfortable with you visiting” he grumbled a little “it’s just…”

He stopped himself from mentioning Ezraphel as he really didn’t want to throw her under the bus. So rather than do that he simply gave up on an explanation halfway and took the fall.

“That obvious?” he finished lamely after a moment of hesitation.

In response she gave a wry indulgent smile that to him said “you should know better than to think you can hide such things from me Stanley.”

He didn’t know how to respond to that and he’s afraid if he said anything to address it he might give away that bit of misconception so instead he decided to occupy the time by finishing his own drink. This resulted in something of an awkward silence as she waited for him to be done. After draining the cup Stanley was faced with a realization that he hesitantly pointed out with his next words.

“So I guess this is it then?

His mother also appeared hesitant “unless there is something else you want to talk about.”

Stanley already said all he cared to. The only other untouched topic was Natalie and he already agreed to leave her out of the conversation. Then as thoughts of his neglecting Ezraphel fleeted through his mind he realized that they’ve only been talking about him throughout their conversations. It occurred to him that he had no idea what his mother had been up to this entire time.

In his defense there was a large part of him that held general apathy to the world at large. Even for the people he actually gave a damn about he wasn’t the guy to sit down and listen to their life stories unless it had some material benefit to him or was in regard to some physical manifestation of an ailment or injury. It is for this reason why he has to actively wrestle that part of him down and escort it to the far reaches of his consciousness for detainment.

In its place came curiosity which, like a particularly aggressive tapeworm, managed to infect his consciousness and grow its way forward to a point where he just could not ignore it.

Thus he expressed said curiosity in a single hesitant question “so what’s been going on with you?”

From the brief flicker of shock on her face she clearly did not expect the question which he understood. Hell he could even understand the follow up expression that seemed to question if he was being serious. Part of him would have been offended at that if not for the part of him that held a general disinterest in hearing about anyone’s problems. And make no mistake he could tell that whatever’s been going on with his mother consisted of nothing but problems.

Rather than spilling her heart out as he did when she asked the question she instead commented “we should leave if we want to talk some more.”

“Why?”

“I think we’re taking up seats.”

He begged to differ on the account that he paid for their drinks but then he saw that a line was forming at the counter. Taking a look at the clock he found that it was past midday which was typical time for lunch breaks at most businesses except the people in line didn’t look like they came from a corporate office. That is unless office workers changed their wardrobe to polo shirts, jeans and sneakers.

As employees from what he assumed to be the closest tech company filed in Stanley decided that he didn’t want to stay long enough to decide if buying a couple boba teas would exempt them from their place in the establishment. Also he didn’t want to mingle with a bunch of hipster tech bros anyway and left. Once they went outside Stanley made a b-line to his car only to be stopped by a tug on his arm.

Turning back to his mother he asked “what?”

“Where are you going?”

“To my car” he answered pointing vaguely in its direction “why?”

He just about stopped himself from finishing with “do you have somewhere else to be?”

Despite this he couldn’t help but feel as if she managed to puzzle out the unsaid part of his sentence with how her brows furrowed in the way that let him believe she knew what he meant to say.

“There’s a park I want to visit.”

“Where is it?”

“Not too far” she answered easily enough.

Stanley frowned “and we can’t just drive there because…?”

In response she rolled her eyes and pinned him with an unimpressed looking “walking won’t kill you Stanley.”

‘I beg to fucking differ.’

It might sound overly dramatic or paranoid of him but such is the mentality of a natural pessimist who doom scrolls on a semi regular basis. What you get is a guy who’s on the lookout for shit to go sideways every time he stepped foot out the door. Paranoia aside in this instance he actually had a reason not to want to stray too far from his car. If you watch Mark Rober’s glitter bomb series or that Channel 5 documentary on the Kia Boyz you wouldn’t want to leave your damn car unattended in unfamiliar places either.

But then one might ask about the magical protections Ezraphel layered on his vehicle and then Stanley would worry about what they would do to the poor idiot dumb enough to fuck with it.

‘…on second thought maybe it wouldn’t hurt leaving it for a bit.’

“Lead the way.”

And so she did.

The walk towards the park was a silent one something that Stanley was secretly thankfully for. He already demonstrated that he had nothing else to talk about having said everything he needed to say. Plus with their path being occupied by a steadily flowing throng of people Stanley would uncomfortable talking. Ezraphel could reluctantly pull a conversation out of him hesitantly because she’s Ezraphel and the rules normally don’t apply to her. Plus the silence allowed him to remain vigilant just in case Murphy decided to throw a curveball at what was a mostly good meeting.

Eventually they arrived at the park and his mother guided them along a wide paved path to an empty bench sitting in front of a tree. The two sat there for a few minutes basking in the ambiance.

“This isn’t the first time I’ve been here.”

‘I figured’

“The truth is I’ve known where you lived for quite some time now.”

He gave her a side eyed glance “Natalie?”

In response his mother’s smile turned wry for a moment “she was hell bent on wanting us to meet with each other. I suppose she wanted me to surprise you with a visit.”

‘Why didn’t you?’ he wanted to ask but kept his silence.

“I couldn’t do it though” she continued coincidentally answering his unasked question “who knows what would have happened if I suddenly showed up at your house out of the blue.”

‘Me neither.’

Stanley thought about that and not even he was sure of what his reaction would be though he concluded that it wouldn’t be anything good overall.

“It was a near thing though” his mother continued with a sigh “I was so close to just throwing caution to the wind but I never did. I couldn’t even make it past this place, could never bring myself to just…do it.”

“…” Stanley didn’t say anything, couldn’t say anything really.

“Instead I ended up just wandering around. I discovered that little café and here among other places…” she trailed off for a bit seeming to gather herself before continuing.

As she spoke everything seemed to pour out. Stanley listened without a word of interruption allowing his mother to speak, to express and even to vent in some instances. It turned out to be not as easy as he thought it would be a there were many times where he wanted to ask questions or just say something to interrupt, derail or verbally critique what she was saying. He held his tongue however and let her finish after which the two lapsed into silence.

His mother was clearly recovering from the physical and emotional toll of speaking for so long recounting what was perhaps the most difficult moments of her life. Stanley on the other hand was deep in his thoughts and the consensus was that he felt equal parts surprised and frustrated with what he’s heard.

Surprised by the fact that things happened in his mother’s life outside of the divorce which he really shouldn’t have but such was the way when he deliberately shut out anything that didn’t directly affect him and almost anything that had to do with his family in general after he left. His frustration came from the fact that his mother despite everything she went through with her asshole of an ex-husband was still not completely over him.

It was a subtle thing, the kind he could only pick up on due to his empathic abilities and something he desperately resisted the urge to speak up on because he had opinions about it. He could at least take solace in the fact that the relationship was well and truly dead with no chance of resurrection. His mother also understood this even if she still felt something for the bastard. If nothing else the divorce proceedings and how that turned out ensured any rekindling of romance, no matter how unlikely, will never happen.

It was just that brutal of an experience.

Speaking of which…

“Thank you, by the way” his mother interrupted his thoughts.

“For what?”

“For what you did, with the divorce” she continued looking directly at him.

“Oh” he hesitated, caught off guard by the gesture “you’re welcome?”

“I know you didn’t have to-”

“I’m going to stop you right there mom” Stanley suddenly interrupted.

The divorce was the only event he went out of his way to be kept appraised of in regards to his family outside of Natalie. There were three reasons for this: his animosity towards the asshole and his genuine care for his mother which culminated in the third reason which was him literally funding his mother’s lawyer fees while using Natalie as a proxy.

Which was why when he addressed his mother it was with the utmost seriousness.

“With all due respect I consider what I did to be a fucking service.”

Her response was to scowl “language.”

That cut through his seriousness but he forced himself through and stuttered out “y-yeah well sorry not sorry.”

She still maintained a frown even if her eyes softened a bit at his response “be that as it may I appreciate your help.”

“You should thank Natalie. She’s the one who did all the leg work.”

Said leg work included getting him involved. In fact Natalie could be considered the driving force behind the divorce itself. She was the one who pointed out the asshole’s infidelity in the first place. After a prominent dating website marketed towards married couples and encouraged cheating got hacked the information of around three thousand of its users was posted on a website for all to see.

Natalie used the website to search for the asshole via his e-mail address on a whim because surely she figured she wouldn’t actually see it. For all that he was an asshole he’s the guy who always talked a big game about being a real man and real men wouldn’t cheat on their wives, right? Even then what were the chances that he would be on the list which wasn’t exactly big to begin with given the scope of the websites total global user base?

Well it turned out to be pretty fucking high and in what seemed uncomfortably fitting for the borderline dramatic fiction his life has become the asshole was on the list. He used his personal e-mail too instead of creating a new one. A classic Gen X blunder but one that wouldn’t have really mattered since his e-mail was the least damning piece of information about him released. Among the released information was chat logs, geo locations and credit card transactions.

The type of shit you really don’t want readily available to the public.

In Stanley’s opinion the worst was probably the chat logs which Stanley perused out of morbid curiosity and he regretted ever since. Reading the guy’s attempt at being flirtatious ranked among the top three worst kinds of cringe he’s ever experienced in his life and he watched cringe compilations.

Fucking Johnny Bravo had better game than-

‘Nope, not dwelling on that shit again.’

So Natalie, she hated her father more than Stanley did and after exposing his infidelity made it her personal mission to ensure that he paid for it. As such she was with their mother every step of the way during the divorce proceedings. Thank God she was because their mother was ill equipped for it in more ways than one. When their mother married him he made her quit her job and give up her aspirations to be a stay at home housewife. Meanwhile he made it so that she was dependent on him for damn near everything.

He controlled the family finances which he managed to convince her to deposit a number of her own personal assets into. Without him she wouldn’t be starting from scratch but she wouldn’t be able to afford a quality standard of living. Luckily with Natalie by her side she was convinced to sue for additional compensation and after a lengthy court battle they eventually settled for a substantial amount enough for their mother to stay on her feet.

She even ended up with a bit more in the bank from an ‘anonymous’ wire transfer some weeks later which was a lucky coincidence in his book.

“Speaking of your sister, have you spoken to her recently?” his mother questioned interrupting his thoughts.

For a moment he hesitated before answering “yeah.”

“How is she?”

“She might be going through some stuff.”

“What do you mean?”

“Not really sure but from what little she told me I think she’s going through some personal stuff.”

“Is it bad?”

He shrugged in response “dunno, it’s been a while since we last talked” he lied so convincingly he surprised himself.

His answer caused her brows to furrow “oh, I’ll make sure to call her later then.”

And just like that they seemingly ran out of things to talk about. Or it would have been however his mother’s recollection of the past several years as well as briefly touching upon the topic of Natalie made him realize that wasn’t necessarily the case. So after a moment of pondering he broached the topic with a single question.

“How’s Wendy doing these days?”

~The ‘Forgotten’ Sheep~

His mother looked at him for a long moment with an expression of shock which he expected. Dana Berkowitz had three children, two through birth and one through adoption. Stanley was the latter and as for the former, Natalie was the eldest and Wendy was the youngest.

“You want to know about Wendy?”

“Yes” he replied.

Of all his family Stanley could say without a shadow of a doubt that he and Wendy had the least complicated relationship…because they didn’t really have much of one. He loved his sister Natalie, he cared very much for his mother and he loathed his mother’s ex-husband but when it came to Wendy however their relationship wasn’t so easily defined. She never did anything to earn his animosity but at the same time didn’t do enough to earn his affection leading her to fall somewhere in the middle between those spectrums.

It wasn’t always like this, he could remember a time in their youth when she had a larger presence in his life. The reason for them drifting apart the way they did was almost completely out of her hands. Wendy was always her father’s favorite and he was protective of her. It wasn’t farfetched to say that the man saw Stanley as a bad influence and actively worked to keep them apart. His efforts only became noticeable to Stanley after Natalie left and even then he could see it before then with the benefit of hindsight.

Not that Stanley didn’t shoulder any blame in this as he delved more into internet culture he became more reclusive and eventually stopped hanging out with her. Stanley could vividly remember a few times where he actually neglected Wendy while she made attempts to hang out with him, choosing instead to sit at his computer and immerse himself in the internet.

It also didn’t help that he had a growing resentment towards Wendy since she was treated much better than him by her father. Back then Stanley actually thought of the man as his father figure, cared about his opinion and wanted validation. Stanley would eventually learn about his adoption after which all his anger and resentment turned towards the man whom he would forever refer to as that guy or he/him but mostly he just called him asshole.

Unfortunately the revelation and subsequent pivot of his emotions came too late as by that point the distance between him and his little sister grew to the point where they were essentially strangers sharing a living space. In public they don’t hang out and in fact avoid each other unless it couldn’t be helped. In private their interaction kept to customary greetings or relaying messages. On the rare occasions that they find themselves alone together there’s this awkward silence that permeates until one of them leaves the vicinity and he’s usually the one who caved first.

Their relationship was seemingly unsalvageable not that he (or Wendy for that matter) was in a mental or emotional position to even attempt to fix it. Their mother on the other hand being aware of this actively kept trying to mend that burnt bridge. She was actually responsible for a few of the aforementioned rare instances that the two were left alone together and/or forced to interact with each other more than strictly necessary. She didn’t stop trying even up until he left for college but it never worked.

Not even Natalie bothered to give him updates about Wendy when she deigned to inform him about the family. Or maybe she did but Wendy’s presence was so minimal in his mind he might have actually blanked on whatever information was told about her. He knew for a fact that barely if any thought was spared for Wendy that wasn’t prompted by a mention from someone else in the years since he left home.

He assumed at this point his mother might have given up on salvaging that relationship since even in her recollection Wendy was hardly mentioned. Or maybe she was merely biding her time until she was ready to broach the subject again. It hadn’t escaped him that his mother was walking on eggshells around him, afraid that saying the wrong thing might set him off.

She could never have expected him to be the one to inquire about Wendy but all the same she was all too eager to speak about his estranged younger sister after getting over her shock. From what she already explained his presence or lack thereof didn’t really change the status quo all that much which was expected. Though having two of their kids cutting ties with the family did cause some underlying tension.

The asshole was willing to write off Stanley and Natalie and pretend they didn’t exist, his mother naturally didn’t. This as well as how he handled the situation with them to begin with was the source of many arguments between them. He seemed to put all his attention on Wendy who miraculously turned out seemingly better off than Stanley and Natalie. She maintained a 4.0 GPA at minimum, did chess and volleyball as extracurricular activities, had friends who weren’t a ‘bad’ influence and didn’t resist his orders or directives. By all accounts she was the model daughter and student that was set to become someone who would go on to achieve great things.

So you could imagine how surprised they were when they found out Wendy smoked weed. Stanley was surprised too, it was a little hard to reconcile the memories of the little girl he knew doing something like that but he knew next to nothing about the ‘stranger’ she became. Then he thought about it logically and it started to make a lot of sense. For all that she seemed like a well adjusted person he could imagine her needing an outlet for all the pressure of meeting the high expectations of her parents, teachers and peers.

So how did they find out?

Wendy got ratted out by a classmate to one of the teachers who searched through her bag and found a couple grams of hash. Teacher told the principal who reported it to the police and contacted her parents. Amusingly the asshole seemed less concerned with his daughter doing drugs (for a definition of marijuana) and more vexed by the manner in which she was found out.

As much as he hated to admit it Stanley agreed and he could only imagine that whoever the classmate was that rat her out had to be a dickhead who was jealous of her. Who else would be lame enough to rat out a classmate for smoking weed? Stanley hated the smell of weed and not even he would be that joyless.

His mother adamantly disagreed but this was expected since she’s one of those parents who thought violent videogames acted as a primer for kids becoming criminals. His mother hated drugs of any kind and did not differentiate one from the other. To her weed was just as bad as heroin which unfortunately made her recollection of events and impassioned admonishment of Wendy sound worse than it probably was.

Personally Stanley thought marijuana was one of the least damaging options she could have gone with. Marijuana is not a gateway drug and imbibing won’t necessarily lead to Wendy’s downfall which makes it better than alcohol and actual hardcore drugs in that sense. The fact that she was able to maintain her model student image proved that point and says more about her than what his mother was willing to believe let alone admit.

Also Stanley knew plenty of people both online and personally who did recreational weed smoking and still turned out to be productive members of society. In his unprofessional and totally subjective opinion smoking weed only becomes a problem when the person doing it is stuck in a situation where they feel it’s the only way to help them cope. Take them out of said situation and at worst they might do it every once in a while.

It shouldn’t be a coincidence that this came out around the time that her parents were going through a rather heated divorce. When life is shit you need a means to cope with the shittiness. It’s a concept that Stanley was very familiar with, the only difference is he went with videogames and junk food. He supposed it’s a good thing his idiosyncrasies didn’t make him brazen enough to even try drugs and alcohol.

Most people, teenagers especially wouldn’t be able to handle the exposure but Wendy was clearly an exception. Wendy had always been an oddly well adjusted individual and very amicable by the standards of teenagers in her position. Said position was being her father’s favorite where she got special treatment and was coddled. With him being more agreeable to her demands technically she could get away with things neither Stanley nor Natalie could back in the day.

Surprisingly she never became a spoiled brat or entitled despite the situation leaning towards that. He chalked it up to their mother’s influence because say what you want about Dana Berkowitz but she did not tolerate certain things in her household and curb stomped any budding entitlement issues before they could take root. Even the asshole knew to stay in his lane when it came to the domestic stuff.

You’d think the discovery of her ‘unsavory’ hobby would induce some kind of major fallout but overall it seemingly didn’t change much. Or maybe his mother was an unreliable narrator because she was going through a lengthy divorce proceeding at the time and only got custody of Wendy every other week for a little bit before she was sent off to University.

And that’s where Wendy was by the end of the retelling, at University studying for a degree. There was a lull of silence then that was interrupted by Stanley.

“I had no idea…”

“Why is that?” his mother questioned “didn’t Natalie tell you?”

“In her defense I specifically told her not to tell me anything about you guys.”

“O-oh…”

It didn’t stop Natalie from giving him updates but not consistently since her talking about them would immediately set him off and their interaction would be forcefully cut short.

“Sorry about that” he apologized.

“It’s alright.”

It wasn’t but he wouldn’t comment any further.

“Since we’re on the topic of your sister could you find it in yourself to talk to her again?”

Stanley blinked before his expression turned uncomfortable “I mean, it’s not like I was ever mad at her or anything.”

“Then you wouldn’t mind if I bring her along when I eventually visit your home?”

Stanley gave a long drawn out “uh…”

Finally after nearly a minute of this his mother decided to give him a break “you don’t need to give an answer right now just think about it.”

“Yes!”

His mother giggled in response before looking to sky “well I’d say today has been very productive don’t you think?”

Stanley blinked then looked at his phone seeing that another hour and a half has passed ‘damn.’

“Yeah” he replied then stood up and stretched with a grunt “so where are we going?”

“We?” his mother asked while getting to her feet.

“I need to know where I should drop you off.”

She blinked at him before speaking “that’s not-”

“Mom, I’m not letting you take the bus” he interrupted with a deadpan stare to which she raised a disapproving brow that he wilted under “s-sorry.”

“Stanley, I have a car” the woman responded with a huff.

That threw him for a loop “since when?”

“Since I had reasons to travel frequently” she paused “didn’t I mention that?”

“You didn’t” he shook his head.

“Are you sure you didn’t just forget?”

“Not this time.”

He was actually locked in during their entire conversation.

She hummed in thought at that before smiling at him “well now you know and I appreciate the thought.”

For some reason Stanley felt his cheeks heat up and he forced down while looking away from her. The short giggling did not help at all and he once again cursed himself for getting flustered.

His mom just had that kind of effect on him.

The two left not long afterwards with Stanley ‘escorting’ her to her car which was only a couple dozen feet from where he parked. He received a hug in return that yet again flustered him as she went and did it in front of passing pedestrians. Luckily no one really cared about the PDA of a mother and son so he was spared the discomfort of their attention.

Once he saw her off Stanley returned to his own car and drove home with much to think about. After what he went through today it felt like he experienced a freaking episode of a drama series so he was prepared for the rest of the day to be relatively smooth sailing. He’d go home, take a bath, eat some delicious food and cap the night off going balls deep inside Ezraphel.

Easy, clear cut and simple right?

Unfortunately for him the world wasn’t done with him yet.

To preface the regular route he would usually take to get out the neighborhood had been under construction forcing him to take a path he’d never really been to before. It wasn’t hard to navigate but it was definitely a more scenic and roundabout route. It was a minor inconvenience at best but as he turned a particular corner he almost did a break check but managed to smoothly turn the corner and park inconspicuously near the curb.

“What the fuck?” he whispered to himself in disbelief.

It shouldn’t be possible what he was witnessing right now yet seeing was believing and the more he saw the more he believed.

*Twitch*

Shock turned into anger as Stanley gripped the steering wheel tightly as his enhanced eyesight saw everything clearly despite the distance.

And what did he see to elicit such a reaction?

Why, it was that one Golem that Ezraphel made last Easter walking hand in hand with some random dude and they were clearly acting like a couple.

“Oh Ezraphel” he seethed with gritted teeth “you have some explaining to do.”

~The Golem Is Out Of The Bag~

Stanley’s eyes twitched as the more he watched them the more he felt confusion give way to anger before…

‘Breathe’

He inhaled through the nose and exhaled through his mouth.

‘Alright Stan, let’s not freak out just yet. There has to be a reasonable explanation for this. Maybe that’s not actually the Golem in the first place.’

He really hoped that was the case that his eyes were deceiving him and he had mistaken the identity of that woman. Unfortunately he had superior eyesight compared to the average human and despite looking as innocuous as any other random person hers was a familiar face. Not familiar in the vague sense that she could be someone whose face he might have seen somewhere but familiar in the sense that he knew her.

Willfully ignorant he may have been the people he didn’t actually have that bad a memory in the first place and it has only gotten better after he became an incubus. And while he met her before he became an incubus and barely interacted with her it’s hard to forget that body especially when he remembered her doing provocative poses with it. And if there was anything that could stick in the memory of an Incubus then it would be a woman’s body

There was the other thing too. Stanley had made great strides in detecting Demonic Energy especially in the ‘vacuum’ that was outside his house. Right now there were three sources of it: himself, the lady and…the guy she’s currently walking hand-in-hand with albeit not nearly enough to be a ‘problem’ like with Amelia after the milk incident.

‘They already had sex’ he realized in disbelief.

That guy was still a long way from being an Incubus Stanley could tell that both of them have imprinted on each other in a way that only a Mamono and her Husband can.

“Jesus Tap Dancing Christ EZRAPHEL!!”

His head hit the steering wheel careful to avoid honking the horn by accident and he pinched the bridge of his nose. fter a long moment he looked up just in time to be vindicated as the two stood in front of a house sharing a rather passionate embrace and kiss. After far too long the guy reluctantly pulled away while the disguised Golem very reluctantly let him go. He walked up to the door of the house which Stanley will take a guess as to say that it’s his family’s house, paused to look back and waved. The girl waved too and it was all Stanley could endure not to gag at the fucking highschool romance bullshit playing out before him.

Eventually the guy went back inside and the Golem put a finger to her lips and while he couldn’t see it from this angle he could imagine the small almost shy smile she could have sported. As she turned to walk away with a literal skip in her step Stanley decided it was the perfect time to pull a Kool-Aid Man and bust through the metaphorical wall of euphoria and disrupt her moment.

And so as she crossed the street Stanley drove up beside her at a casually slow pace. She didn’t seem to notice him still riding the high off of that kiss. There’s also the fact that the driver’s seat was on the other side of sidewalk. As he made it beside her he wound down the passenger window causing her to finally take notice. As her eyes drifted towards him he leaned across the seat a bit for her to get a better look at her face and vice versa.

“Sup?” he casually greeted with a small glare.

And as if to drive the final nail in the coffin of whether or not he might be mistaken about her identity he saw her eyes widen in alarm. It was as if a bucket cold of water had dropped on her head freezing the warm fuzziness of her previous experience. It even caused her to freeze mid stride her however he noticed her eyes shifting from him to the path before her in a certain direction while her body subtly tensed.

‘She’s deciding whether or not to make a run for it’ a voice told him.

At this realization his eyes narrowed dangerously before he spoke “don’t even think about it, we both know where you’re headed anyway.”

She tensed at his words and hesitated seeming unsure before ultimately sagging in resignation.

Rolling his eyes Stanley straightened up in the seat and unlocked the door before grunting out “get in.”

The disguised Golem did as she was told and entered the passenger seat and shut the door. Then she secured the seatbelt unprompted which was a mild surprise considering the difficulty Ezraphel had with it the first time around. All it did was just remind him that this Golem was out and about for the better part of a year now. Now that she was close Stanley was able to pick up on details he didn’t bother considering before.

The Golem in disguise took the appearance of an olive skinned beauty on the darker skin tone with luxurious shoulder length brown hair and dark eyes. She wore a surprisingly modest ensemble of brown capri pants, tennis shoes a sleeveless blouse and jean jacket. Her age was a bit ambiguous but she seemed around the latter end of the teens. At best he’d estimate her to be about twenty years old.

He knew for certain that the guy she was with looked younger than him and that brought another headache, the ambiguity of the age of her…partner. Mamono don’t care for things like ‘age of consent’ and it wasn’t because such a concept didn’t exist on Eos. As long as a man was biologically capable of producing semen they’ll go for him and even then some will just literally groom kids until they reach the appropriate age.

And so with the thought of Mamono and their questionable tactics for acquiring partners in mind he could not in good conscience leave the question unanswered.

“How old was that guy you were with?”

“…”

She didn’t speak yet he could ‘hear’ her causing him to scowl “stop!”

And with that he stopped hearing the string of ‘words’ entering his mind. It was some kind of magic that probably conveyed intent without spoken words.

“Don’t do that.”

He already personified two ‘voices’ in his head and didn’t need a third but with that in mind.

“Please tell me that’s not how you’ve been communicating with that guy.”

Reluctantly she nodded but also added some hand movements he could recognize as sign language even if he didn’t know sign language.

“Is that actual sign language?” She nodded in affirmation causing him to grunt in approval.

‘Nice save’ he thought but didn’t say out loud.

He gave her a side eye as he asked “you can talk can’t you?”

“…” she said nothing but gave a very reluctant nod.

“Then use your words and answer the question.”

For some reason the woman cringed as if he’d just asked her to do something horrible.

“…nineteen.”

Stanley’s frown became more pronounced as he heard her voice come out in a near whisper, as if she was afraid of speaking. Not a fear of him but of the action itself which caused him to shake his head as he disregarded her apparent discomfort to ponder her answer. And while he didn’t show it said answer gave him relief.

‘That’s one problem I don’t have to worry about.’

“Tell me everything that happened since I last saw you.”

Meanwhile…

After the phone call with Stanley ended and seeing as there was nothing else for her to do until he came back Ezraphel decided it was best to get some well deserved rest. It would also curb the temptation of attempting to spy on him during his meeting with his mother. And thus Ezraphel slept however she laid down an alarm system that would alert her to Stanley’s presence in the area and wake her up.

When she did wake up it was with a jolt as the words “Jesus Tap Dancing Christ EZRAPHEL!!” echoing in her mind’s eye.

“Oh, that is not good.”

With that Ezraphel teleported and arrived in the living room.

“I sensed a disturbance.”

Ezraphel’s sudden comment earned a blink from Natalie who had been lounging on the couch.

“In the force?” the Wight questioned sarcastically.

This earned a finger point from the Lilim “I understand that reference and yes” she hesitated.

“Wait really?”

Ezraphel nodded “I can’t help but feel that something has happened with Stanley.”

“Something bad?”

Ezraphel scrunched up her face “not to him.”

“What does that mean?”

“I’m not sure but I feel a great amount of anger from him.”

“You think the meeting with mom fell through?”

Ezraphel shook her head “no, if he were crossed with her then I would have felt it sooner. This is recent.”

“Then what is he so pissed about?”

“I’m trying to find out but he is preventing me from doing so.”

“He can do that?”

“Unfortunately” was the muttered reply.

“I’m surprised you’d teach him how to be honest.”

“I in fact did not. Stanley figured out how to do that on his own and I am still at a loss as to how he managed to do such a thing.”

“My guess would be true stubborn force of will” Natalie commented before shaking her head “so where is he now?”

“Close, he should be here any moment now actually.”

“Can’t you use magic to-I dunno- scry him or something?”

“First, scrying is a lot a harder than it seems. Second, even if I try he’ll know and I’d get in even more trouble.”

“So?”

“So, I would very much like to have sex tonight Natalie.”

‘Though with how angry he seems that might not be in the cards tonight’ she thought to herself with a wince while biting her thumb nail in worry.

“Ugh, don’t remind me” the Wight groaned as she remembered the bit of cringe that was exchanged between the couple over her phone earlier that day “I did not need to know you two were going to boink tonight.”

“Sex is rather great, you should try it some time.”

Natalie stared at the Lilim for a moment in disbelief at the audacity before her ghostly red eyes narrowed in a way that was all too familiar to the Lilim.

“Oh, so we gonna do it like that huh?”

“I’m sorry that was a bit much.”

“No-no you said what you meant and meant what you said right?”

“No that is not what I meant!”

“Then what the fuck did you mean!?”

Ezraphel blinked at the aggressive tone as somewhere along the line the dialogue became a lot more serious than it was meant to be for a harmless joke. After a moment where no words were shared Natalie seemed to realize this and pinched the bridge of her nose.

“This perpetual horniness is fucking horseshit” she grumbled.

Ezraphel sat beside her on the sofa as she patted her shoulder “there, there. Look on the bright side.”

Natalie took her face from her hand to glance at the Lilim “what?”

Ezraphel grinned “at least you won’t have any issues attracting a partner for a casual romp.”

Natalie smiled at that and hummed “I guess there is that.”

Casual sex or rather having a partner (but usually multiple) without committing to marriage was a thing that existed in Mamono culture. It was a matter of personal preference and a bit of a contentious topic for some but it existed. Ezraphel personally didn’t care for it, she was a one man kind of woman but she knew a lot of Mamono who practiced it and didn’t think any less of them for it. She even understood why they’d do it and in the case of Natalie clearly the frustration was getting to her if such banter could get such a reaction out of her.

Ezraphel has seen it before many times in recently turned single mamono. It’s the reason why Ezraphel and her sisters are advised to turn women who either have a lover or someone with whom they are in love with to pursue after the transformation.

*Click*

While she had been consoling Natalie the door opened signaling Stanley’s return. She hadn’t even noticed his approach which was all kinds of concerning but not as concerning as the second person entering the house with him, someone who was very familiar to her senses.

“I believe I realize why Stanley is so angry” Ezraphel spoke as a pit formed in her stomach.

“Oh yeah? What is it?”

Just then Stanley entered the room with a casual smile that would send alarm bells ringing for anyone that knew him.

“Hey guess who I met on my way back?”

He then stepped aside to allow the Golem A to come into view. She then dropped her human disguise as she did so looking equal parts apologetic and anxious.

“That” a now pale faced Ezraphel answered Natalie’s question in a hollow tone.

“Yeah that’d do it” Natalie sighed.

“You know I thought I’d be angrier” Stanley began as he walked in closer “what with you BLATANTLY LYING TO ME!” he ended in a loud forceful tone before continuing in a calmer one “or maybe I am just so unbelievably pissed off right now that I’ve come full circle.”

“I didn’t lie-”

“Lying through omission” he interrupted smoothly with a raised finger interrupting her rebuttal then pointed said raised finger to the Golem who flinched “why the hell is she walking around in broad daylight with her fucking boyfriend of all people?”

“I-”

“That was a rhetorical question!” he hissed rapidly “She already told me everything!”

There was a lull as Stanley took a deep “you know I’m not even mad about her being out there so much as I’m mad you didn’t say anything. Didn’t run it by me that you ‘accidentally’ created a ‘sentient’ Golem” he air quoted “didn’t discuss with me that you were using her to run errands out in public, didn’t inform me she found a guy and started a relationship. You know the kind of shit that I need to know? Not because we’re trying to keep your existence a secret but because we’re supposed to be in this together!”

Stanley pinched the bridge of his nose taking in several breaths. The silence went uninterrupted as he did so before he finally calmed down enough to glare at his girlfriend.

“You know, I’ve thought about this before but I didn’t bother say anything because I didn’t want to come off as a special kind of dickhead but I’m gonna be real Ez. If you were human and this was a normal relationship I would have jumped ship a long time ago.”

With his piece said he turned around and left. A moment later the door to his office slammed loudly and clearly in the silent living room. Both Natalie and A paid no mind to this as their attention was settled on Ezraphel who sat still as a statue with her ears drooped, tail limp and a dazed expression on her face betraying her attempts at holding back her storm of emotions.

“Ezraphel?”

“I-I-I…I’m f-fine.”

She wasn’t and Natalie reached out with her hand tentatively while A moved her side both of them had expressions of concern.

The moment she felt the hand on her shoulder the Lilim reacted as if someone had thrown a bucket of cold water on her head, gasping as tears ran down her eyes while hyperventilating. As she broke down into sobs and incoherent mutterings Natalie urgently yet gently pulled her into a hug.

“It’s okay, it’s okay just breathe. Everything’s going to be alright.”

“N-no it’s not…it’s really not!” she sobbed.

Natalie sighed as she shared a glance with the Golem who looked just as helpless and guilty about the whole situation.

The Wight sighed looking to the ceiling “god dammit.”

~We Interrupt This Drama To Touch Grass~

Natalie found herself at a crossroads, between a rock and a hard place and whatever other appropriate metaphor there was to describe a situation where she was caught in an awkward situation and had to make a choice but neither choices were particularly ‘good’ or ‘right’ per se.

So what happened?

Well her brother found out about the sentient Golem girl Ezraphel was hiding from him and naturally the two had a fight which wasn’t great by any means but they had that fight right in front of her and now she had a Lilim clinging onto her for emotional support. Luckily unlike Stan she wasn’t a socially awkward mess and could actually console the woman. No the real problem came afterwards when Ezraphel finally calmed down enough to teleport away in looked to be embarrassment.

Where she ended up was the bedroom and unfortunately she locked the door and wasn’t exactly receptive to Natalie’s calls.

“Go away!” came the muffled cry from the other side of the door.

Clearly she wasn’t going to be getting through the distraught Lilim anytime soon if at all. Her next bright idea was the get Stan to somehow fix this but that went about as well as she’d expect if not worse. The moment she went to knock on the door her newly tuned magical senses picked up the foreboding mana of some dark eldritch beast on the other side of the door visually represented by dark miasma seeping through the cracks underneath the door.

‘…that’s one way to convey you’re not in the mood to talk’ a suddenly nervous Natalie thought before backing away before poked the sleeping bear.

It’s one thing dealing with a pissed of Stan back in the day because he’s still 5ft tall and she could use his head for an arm rest if she wanted. This though, well she didn’t want to find out what bullshit a magically augmented Stan could do while pissed off and clearly not in his right mind. At that point Natalie was kinda stumped with the only solution coming to mind being to let them cool off and try again tomorrow.

Then she caught sight of the catalyst for this latest debacle still seated on the couch looking sad and guilty. Natalie sighed as she brushed a hand through her hair before making her way over to sit beside the desponded Golem. She didn’t say anything at first, didn’t even look at her and neither did the Golem as both sets of gazes were pinned to the TV showing some inconsequential program.

Eventually Natalie ended up breaking the silence after a few minutes “how are you holding up?”

“…my fault…”

It took a moment for Natalie to grasp that the words were said out loud and it was a testament to how emotionally drained she was that the only reaction she exhibited was a mild startle and widening of her eyes followed by a slow turn of the head towards

“What the hell, you can talk now?”

The Golem had the nerve to raise a questioning eyebrow “I did not say I could not.”

“You did not say anything at all” the Wight huffed “so what changed?”

“Your brother does not appreciate my usual method of communication.”

“Huh” Natalie pondered that for a moment “so is this going to be regular thing now?”

“Only until he calms down.”

“Well you’re going to be waiting a while then.”

“So it seems” A paused “is there nothing you can do?”

“Well Ezraphel locked herself in their bedroom and reinforced it with a barrier and Stan…” she looked in the direction of his office and visibly cringed “I don’t know what the fuck is going on behind that door but I ain’t gonna be the one to find out.”

A also glanced in that direction before immediately looking away while quickly nodding “agreed.”

“Right so my plan is to wait for things to blow over. I don’t know about Ez but Stan isn’t going to stay cooped up in his office indefinitely. He still has to eat and use the bathroom.”

“…”

“Right?”

She made a so-so gesture with an uncertain expression on her face and Natalie sighed.

The Next Day…

Natalie could admit that there was definitely a better time she could have picked as her debut back into society. But things at the house were depressing as all hell with neither Ezraphel nor Stan ready to budge from their rooms. Or if they did then they circumvented the means of opening the door since both A and Natalie stood vigil the entire night just in case so they could corner one or both of them. Thankfully by both their natures neither mamono needed sleep as much so they didn’t lose anything from the failed stakeout other than time.

Natalie decided to cut her losses because she did not see going out of her way to aid in their pseudo marital issues to be a good time. Especially when she knew that their relationship was not in any real danger of ending. Stan will eventually calm down enough to broach the issue like an adult and forgive Ezraphel while the Lilim in question will see this as a valuable lesson about keeping secrets from her partner.

Will things go to back to normal?

Natalie believed so for whatever counted as normal nowadays.

Will they ever be the same?

Probably not but that might not be such a bad thing. If the last hiccup in their relationship, the so-called ‘milk incident,’ made Stan actually put effort in their relationship instead of being a passive participant offloading the responsibility onto Ezraphel then she would like to believe that this will further strengthen their relationship.

All they needed was space and time to get their shit together. Eventually cooler heads will prevail but until then she didn’t want to stay in that awkward suffocating atmosphere so she decided to take the opportunity to go outside for the first time in weeks and touch some actual non magical grass. Natalie would have liked it if Ezraphel went with her but that wasn’t in the cards. That’s fine though because Natalie had the next best thing in the form of A.

The Golem opted to accompany her on this impromptu road trip for a few reasons. First being that for as much as she was loyal to Ezraphel and willing stick by her Stan genuinely scared her. Natalie noticed the woman’s stoic façade break ever so slightly whenever the man was so much as mentioned. She practically kept the farthest distance away from his office and hasn’t crossed it since.

Her behavior towards her brother made Natalie curious about what exactly happened when he picked her up but clearly A didn’t want to talk about it so she let her be, for now. She was also smart enough to realize how ill advised it was to stay in the vicinity of the couple especially given her unwitting involvement in the matter.

On that note Natalie wished the only feelings affecting A was the fear of Stan but she also recognize another emotion, guilt. It was frustrating seeing the Golem silently lamenting the fiction that she’s the one responsible for Ezraphel and Stan’s current falling out. Natalie strongly disagreed with this take because if anything really it was Ezraphel’s fault for not telling Stan about her existence in the first place.

He was bound to find out sooner or later and their relationship was in a good enough spot that the fallout from the deception would have been minimal if she properly explained herself. Natalie would have definitely had her back providing yet another avenue for mitigating the fallout of the information. Alas Ezraphel never revealed A’s existence and Natalie never got an explanation for this frankly baffling move when she asked only receiving a non committal answer.

To her it seemed as if the Lilim was procrastinating which was a shame because this whole thing was totally avoidable. It was also the main source of frustration Natalie felt towards the situation and a major reason why she wasn’t invested in immediately trying to fix the problem. Magically locked doors and Stan being super pissed off enough for the feeling to be tangible to her senses could only hold her back for so long if she was putting her best foot forward to helping those two.

Unfortunately she just could not put her best foot forward, not when the root cause of all of this was something as basic as ‘lack of communication.’ Considering what they went through to get to this point in their relationship they or at least Ezraphel should be above such things.

You know it’s ironic that the situation invoked memories of Stan mentioning how his life has effectively become like a TV show. He actually said ‘anime’ but the point still stands and in this instance Natalie couldn’t help but see it. The more she thought about the situation the more it dredged up memories of the numerous CW melodramas she used to watch as a teenager. That’s bad, you don’t ever want to compare your relationship to something seen in a poorly written teen melodrama but Natalie did and now a part of her just couldn’t take the situation as seriously as she should.

If it wasn’t mentioned before Natalie needed to get out of that place before she did or say something she would regret.

Having A with her served a purpose outside of just having someone to share the moment with. The Golem was also taught a few spells and among them was the illusion spell giving her the appearance of a human. With her there she’d not only have someone to monitor her use of the spell but a safety net just in the unlikely situation her spell fails her.

Of course she couldn’t leave without the appropriate clothing to match her new sensibilities and luckily Ezraphel had completed some of her new wardrobe before all this so Natalie had decent clothes worthy of her new appearance. Though her clothing of choice wasn’t anything special design wise just her general appearance and supernatural allure (muted as it was) turned heads.

The attention worked like a balm for her magically inflated ego and self worth. Not that she had low self esteem or anything beforehand. Natalie actually had a decent opinion of herself and after a transitional phase in her life developed the habit of not comparing herself to other women for her own peace of mind if nothing else. Due to this even despite preening under the attention she garnered it actually took a while for her to get used to both the idea that she could literally get any man (and some women) she wanted with minimal effort but also the feeling it invoked with her mamono sensibilities.

She could literally feel the attention from their gaze in a way that was hard to describe and it made the ever present cravings flare up. Luckily for Natalie as both an individual and a Wight she had enough willpower and pride not to allow herself to devolve into some sexually wanton woman. It helped that she wasn’t looking for a hookup in the first place which was for the best as she wasn’t exactly in the right frame of mind to capitalize on her popularity at the moment.

As for what the two got up to Natalie didn’t exactly have a plan beyond exploration. They went to the city spending the entire day simply wandering around enjoying the sights, sounds, smell and feel of the outside world. They went to a park, hung out at a café, visited clothing stores, perused some novelty shops and even watched a movie.

It was as she exited the theater with A carrying a mostly eaten bucket of popcorn that Natalie spoke “that was the worst thing I’ve ever seen in a long time.”

She said this all the while laughing because even though she felt cheated out of her time and money she enjoyed the experience nonetheless.

“…”

Even A enjoyed herself with her boyfriend apparently liking bad movies in an ironic sense and the Golem adapting to his tastes. This was her first time watching one in theaters though, but not the first time she went to a theater having gone twice in just as much dates. From how A tells it the guy she’s dating sounds like a nice person which is unfortunate because at some point he’s going to have to meet Ezraphel and Stan.

‘Godspeed man.’

Fishing out her phone which she put on silent Natalie found several missed calls but they weren’t from Stan but instead they were from her mother.

“Crap”

“…?”

A paused to glance at her questioningly to which she answered “mom was calling” her lips pursed “think I can put off calling her back?”

The Golem gave a shrug before finishing her popcorn and throwing the cup in the nearest garbage.

Natalie clicked her tongue and hit the call back button before putting the phone to her ear. It rang two times before being picked up.

“Hello?”

“Hey mom.”

 “Natalie?”

“I saw your missed calls” she spoke “sorry I was in the middle of something, had to put my phone on silent.”

“Oh”

“Yea, so what’s up?”

“I just wanted to tell you that I met with your brother yesterday.”

“You did?” Natalie feigned surprise “so he finally decided to call huh?”

She could have also decided to surprise him with a visit but they both know she wouldn’t do that.

“He did” she confirmed “that surprised me.”

“Well, what happened? What did you two talk about? Tell me everything!”

She didn’t even have to fake her eagerness for this with Stan’s current mood she wouldn’t be able to get anything out of him for a while yet.

“We talked about a lot” she began only to be interrupted by the sound of a truck blowing its horn from the road nearby Natalie.

The disguised Wight glared in the direction of the vehicle ‘fucking asshole.’

“Natalie?” she heard her mother’s voice “where are you right now?”

“Hold on a sec mom” she spoke as she made it back to the car along with A.

Once inside she placed the phone on a holder mounted on the dashboard before switching to speaker “sorry about that.”

“I guess you’re still in the middle of something then?”

“Yeah, call you back later?”

“Alright, love you.”

“Love you too mom.”

Once the line disconnected the Wight shared a look with the usually silent Golem who raised a brow to which Natalie looked at the time displayed on her phone’s screensaver. It showed that it was well into the evening approaching 5pm.

“Yeah, it’s about time we went home” she paused with a frown as her eyes went to a particular place on the dashboard “but first some gas.”

“…”

“You think he’s not going to bitch about that? I guarantee you it’s the first thing he talks about when he leaves his little man cave.”

With that Natalie starts the car and leaves the theater parking lot only to hit the evening traffic.

“Ugh~”

They were going to be here a while.

Later…

An hour later and Natalie pulls into the garage managing to open the automatic doors with remote attached to the key ring which includes the car’s keyfob. As the garage door fully closed both Natalie and A dropped their disguises with the former getting out of the vehicle to stretch.

“Remind me never to stick around that part of town so late next time” the Wight grumbled pressing the button on the keyfob to lock the doors and set the alarm.

“…”

A noticed something which caused Natalie to sniff the air.

“I smell it too.”

It smelled delicious and while Natalie ate several times during her outings they were all pastries and junk food. She hadn’t had a proper meal all day and scent coming from beyond the garage made her stomach rumble. Yes she had a working digestive system despite technically being a corpse which was just one of those things she just rolls with. Once they made it through the garage side door into the house proper A who was a bit in front of her froze. Walking into the room Natalie looked at the Golem to find her expression akin to someone who just encountered a dangerous wild animal and didn’t want to make any sudden moves that could potentially set it off.

Taking her eyes off her Natalie found the ‘dangerous wild animal’ in this case to be Stan sitting on the couch playing a videogame on the TV. A moment later and he glanced over at them to which even Natalie tensed a bit however he said nothing and went back to playing. The Wight and Golem shared a look before the former shrugged and walked away before dropping herself next to him with a sigh.

“Yo bro” Natalie greeted “borrowed your car for a bit, hope you don’t mind.”

Still not taking his eyes off the TV he spoke “the needle on the gas gauge better be where it was when I came back home yesterday.”

Natalie snorted dumping the keys on his lap “check it yourself.”

He grunted but said nothing his gaze focused on the game which was Mario Kart.

“Where’s the other controller? I want in.”

He handed her the controller and exited his game waiting for her to join.

“So…”

“Yeah?”

“You and Ezraphel patched things up while we were gone?”

“Yeah.”

“Just like that?”

“Just like that.”

“Huh.”

“What?”

“Nothing just…feels kind of underwhelming with how much hoopla you caused yesterday.”

For the first time since their conversation started he looked to her his head turning slowly to give her a look.

“Hoopla?”

Natalie shrugged “fuss seemed childish and bitching is just inappropriate.”

“I didn’t think you’d care that much.”

“You had a point. Could have been less apoplectic about it but you had a point.”

“…thanks.”

“Hm, so are you going to tell me how you managed to patch things up with Ez?”

“No, I don’t think I will.”

As the race started Natalie looked to him but he kept his gaze on the TV.

With a deadpan expression she turned away and spoke “you guys fucked didn’t you?”

“Yep.”

.

.

.

“You should try it sometime” he added while his character took the lead in the race.

“I hate you so much right now you have no idea” she replied with a calm façade and the same deadpan.

“Don’t hate the player, hate the game” he replied with a somewhat smug expression.

Natalie took a deep breath as her character drove into the item box and received a Blue Shell which she promptly used to hit his character wiping the vaguely smug expression off his face. As her character raced past his he gave her a side eyed glare but she kept her eyes on the screen, her expression neutral.

“Fuck you Stan.”

~To Be Continued~

Author’s Notes: Hey there everyone, going to be honest a lot of things happened IRL that I don’t want to get into but just know that I’m back with your regularly scheduled updates. Next chapter is going to be an extra long one because I wrote it during my unwitting hiatus from the story so look forward to that. Of course it’s already posted on my Patreon for those interested.

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