Chapter Text
There was a wily deep down piece of Monster that wondered at her overprotective dad Jason being okay with this sleepover. Even her other dad seemed surprised and no one knows Jason better than Stick. However, in real time she was at this fancy house with her new best friend and that was that. Gawking at the huge decorations everywhere, the girls huddled together and whispered. Butterfly wasn"t very impressed. "Every year the decorations just get bigger and crazier." They passed a blank white hallway that projected old Christmas cartoons. Monster crinkled her nose. "I have known many rich adults that are awful people in private. I am not fooled by this stuff."
The fresh baked cookies made by servants dressed like Nutcrackers were quite good. Monster could have done without the screeching of the other girls and the mean comments about most of the townsfolk. Things didn"t get interesting until the girls all thundered upstairs away from the parents. The girls were all acting impressed with the huge bedroom and private bathroom. Not to mention, Suzie had her own balcony, covered in Christmas lights. The mean girl wasn"t very happy that two of her guests weren"t admiring everything the way she expected to see. After all, the Monster girl was new and truly should be impressed. It was almost like the girl was asking to be targeting.
Suzie had all the girls pull their air mattresses and sleeping bags in a circle before she launched her first attack. "Why is your name Monster? That"s even worse than Butterfly. We assume since her mother"s name is Raven that they just belonged to some kind of a cult. But what kind of hateful parents would call you Monster? Is that why you had to be adopted? Did your parents hate you like, a lot?" Giggles everywhere except for the angry gasp of Butterfly. "Don"t answer a mean question like that. Suzie, that was rude!" Suzie shrugged in her fuzzy designer hoodie blanket. "It"s my house, my sleepover. As my guest, it would be rude not to answer my question."
Monster gave a huge relaxed smile and to everyone"s surprise, she answered the question. "My parents didn"t like me and they called me Princess. When my Dads adopted me, they let me choose my own name. I thought Monster was a great name, still do. And I like Butterfly and Raven as names too." Suzie didn"t like how this was going and had no choice but to lean in, to accept the unspoken challenge to her authority. "Oh my god, her parents did hate her. Why would they call you Princess? Maybe you are a cultist too. How many are in this cult and why have they chosen our little happy village? To snatch little girls and give them bad names?"
Monster turned to Butterfly and started to give a tiny stunted bow. "They figured us out." Butterfly grinned and played along. "Yes, Sister. We should sacrifice them all and praise our Holy Three. The Farmer, The Son and the Holy Cow." Both girls burst out laughing while the rest of them whispered amongst themselves. Suzie turned red and decided it was time to pull out the big weapons. Turning to her best friend April, Suzie demanded the big book under her bed. The other girls all having been to every sleepover since they were toddlers all smirked. They have all been through this and feel only a little bad for what"s coming. The last girl to be humiliated by this book was Butterfly.
Butterfly winced and put out one hand as if to stop Suzie. "No! Suzie, please, you need to listen, don"t bring out your book. Not for Monster, its a bad idea, she"s not like us!" All eyes landed on Butterfly instead of Suzie and that couldn"t be abided. "You don"t make any demands or rules here, insect. Monster, you must take a few tests in my favorite sleepover book. Everyone goes through these tests to be here, it"s easy. First challenge, flip through this chapter where the bookmark is and find your shape, please." All the other girls were giddy with joy now, eyes cruel and ready to laugh at the newcomer"s expense just as Suzie wanted. Butterfly wrung her hands but this only made Monster more curious.
She raised her eyebrows at the fact that this large book was covered over in manila paper so the cover was hidden. Opening the book to the indicated page, Monster saw naked women, different shapes of body in cartoon. How childish but she could see how this prank would make a normal child upset. Monster flipped the pages until she found her shape then held the book up, pointing to her body shape. Suzie was seething and her friends were all uncomfortable. All guns blazing, Suzie"s eyes turned into slits and she fired. "You are the only girl to ever not react to this chapter. How many naked bodies have you seen in your life, Monster?"
Laughing, Monster assured them, "Way more than you want to know about. This is my first sleepover and what you guys do during one. Is it all just about teasing the new kid? I was hoping to learn so much more from you guys." If looks could kill, Monster would be dead but Suzie didn"t have such superpowers. Uneasy, the other girls started to stammer out other games they usually play during sleepovers. Suzie told them all to shut up. "We do play games. We will play games if you want to. I feel bad that you missed my Halloween sleepover, it was all candy and scares. Maybe since your name is Monster, we should skip the Christmas games and go back to the spooky ones. Make you feel more at home."
Monster and Butterfly clapped their hands. The other girls began to grin, it was impossible for Suzie to get over on these two. Understanding how fickle her followers were, Suzie stood tall. "Excellent. Let"s get out my Tarot cards..no wait, let"s go for the scary stories first. Fortunes first, then tingly stories. Instead of regular make up we can use my special effects make up and be Christmas zombies to show Monster that we understand the cult world that she comes from. That we don"t hate her as much as her parents did." Butterfly pulled Monster up and said with honesty, "No one does Halloween as good as Suzie"s family. They suck at the other holidays compared to their Halloween."
Insulted and ego stroked all in one, Suzie chose not to respond to that zing. Monster looked excited and asked if she could tell scary stories too. The girls all gave begging looks to her and she smirked again. "I doubt you can be as scary as I can but sure. You can even go first." Everyone knew that Suzie said this because she needed her best friend to secretly get out the props needed to scare the daylights out of Monster, hopefully. There might be a chance that she will just applaud when Suzie brought out the fake chainsaw, smoking and rattling. For all they knew, Monster had one of her own back home, maybe even a real one. Monster sat crisscross in her skull heads pajamas and began.
She told the girls that when they hit their twenties and beyond they will be hit by a very real phenomenon. "It"s called Sleep Paralysis and it"s brought on by stress and lack of appropriate sleep. Imagine being awake but unable to move and hallucinating your little heads off. Most report being unable to move while demons climbed on them and tormented them. Some even report feeling sexually assaulted by these demons. These adults become terrified to sleep because it"s very traumatic and way past just scary. And this is something we can all look forward to in just a handful of years. You can google this and find out more details. I just told you some of the worst details."
The questions came hard and furious while some girls whipped out their phones, researching in worsening horror. Butterfly asked first, "This is a real thing, that is terrifying and I kind of hate that kind of scary." Suzie gritted her teeth and considered sending both of them home. Suzie abandoned her story and decided revenge must come later when the girls were caught off guard. "You know what? I just realized I don"t care if you fit in that much. Let"s go back to our original games, girls. Time to have a late night snowball fight then make a snow man. Everyone get their snowsuits on over your pajamas!" Suzie led a snowball fight of the girls vs. Butterfly and Monster.
The two were overwhelmed after a while but they could only laugh at it along with the other girls. Suzie gave up while the servants came out with hot chocolate and sang a few Christmas Carols to the girls while they were clearly frozen. Suzie looked very bored by her parents traditions and shooed them away so the girls could make snowmen. Monster and Butterfly worked together to make an igloo instead. After making snowmen, the girls all went inside the igloo to get warm. Suzie enjoyed herself by destroying the igloo and ordering all the girls back inside. The girls were rewarded with gingerbread cookies and apple cider. The cavernous house was dimly lit and empty.
Suzie looked sad but resigned as the maid told her that her parents have gone to bed. She led the girls back upstairs and with clear wrath, Suzie announced their next late night game. No one was shocked when she announced it was time for Truth and Dare. This was her home and her favorite game to destroy everyone around her and so she did. Sort of. She managed to uncover one girl"s fear of her abusive father coming back, another girl admitted her mom drank too much and threw up on her lawn. Suzie happily destroyed some girls through dares they couldn"t fulfill and humiliated them for the truth. Then she finally got to ask Monster, truth or dare and she was never deflated so fast.
"Dare." Suzie was so happy that tears came into her eyes. "Cut your hair. At least a fistful"s worth." Holding out her hand, Monster demanded a pair of scissors. All of them included Suzie gasped when Monster pulled off her latest wig and just casually cut a small chunk of her dyed hair off. It looked appalling but the girls all laughed. Suzie was annoyed that the girls all looked impressed and she began to call the girl a retarded moron for doing such a stupid thing. To her ultimate horror, every face turned stony. Bethany frowned and said, "That"s not right. You know my brother is special needs. Is that what you think of him?" Another girl said not cool. This was becoming a nightmare.
"That"s not what I meant to say. You know I don"t think of your brother that way, Bet, I swear it. I just couldn"t believe she would do such a thing to her own head. I think it"s clear that Monster is crazy, like might be dangerous crazy. If we told her to jump off the balcony, she probably would." Butterfly tilted her head. "Why would anyone try to make her kill herself that way? Especially if we thought she was crazy suicidal." Suzie glared at Butterfly and wished both of them would jump off the balcony. "Remember your manners, bug or I"ll stop inviting you. All the parents will come down so hard on your goth cult mom. Admit the only reason you join us is to please your sad mom."
Monster leaned forward. "My turn, Suzie, I pick you. Truth or dare." Growling, Suzie leaned forward. "Dare, you bitch." The others all began to breathe harder. This was getting dangerous, they could feel it. Both girls were in challenge mode and there wasn"t anything the other girls to could do to end this ritual once it"s begun. Even Butterfly was apprehensive but didn"t feel that it was her place to try to referee this insane battle. With an evil look, Monster lived up to her name. "Suzie, tell the truth. Was your headspace as sad as your face looked when your parents didn"t even bother to say goodnight to you? Or a dare?" Chin up in the air, Monster decided to live up to her name.
"Sure. I dare you to spend the next thirty minutes out on the balcony. You can bring as many blankets and clothing that you might need for the cold. But you have to spend all that time not knowing what we are saying as we stare at you, ignore. Why are we laughing, why does someone looked embarrassed and does it have to do with you? Still want the dare, new friend?" The girl paled, struggled and sniffed in dispersion afterwards. "No problem." Monster made sure that the girl was wrapped in her bathrobe, winter coat, several blankets and the comforter. The girl didn"t look cold, she looked like she was pretending not to be worried. All these girls living under the rule of this one mean girl couldn"t resist the opportunity.
They all started to say terrible things but never saying it about the girl, just saying it in general. The other girls that dared to clearly let Suzie read their lips were Butterfly and Monster. "She"s way braver than I thought she was to take on my dare. This might hurt more than the truth of her parents." Butterfly shook her head. "No, the story of her parents wanting to be seen as the best parents but being assholes for real is no real secret. Just painful and humiliating to speak of such a thing in front of others. She got that from her parents. She would have taken any kind of dare you"d offered rather than let anyone see her in a weakened position."
Shrugging, Monster watched Suzie staring hard at her so called friends. "It doesn"t give her the right to bully and hurt others. This is going to be a really long ten minutes for her." By the time Monster opened the door, Suzie correctly read her friends calling her awful names, taunting her in the same way that she would taunt them. She wasn"t cold but she was unsteady on her feet and gritting her teeth. "You all just..suck! I should make you all go home. I know the crap you all said about me." With shit eating grins, every girl except for Butterfly and Monster denied that they ever said those words were about her. Monster raised her hand, "Everything my friend and I said, it was about you."
***
Beast was shivering in his sweat drenched blanket as he hunched outside the medical room"s open bars. The doctor was back and he was giving CPR to Bitch. He wasn"t worried about the woman. He was worried about being alone forever in this hell, he was worried that he would get as sick as her and need his own life saving treatment. He worried that the doctor would be able to save him. Beast started to feel jealous of Bitch, she might escape Master forever, leaving him to suffer for it. The Master wasn"t wearing his mask and that wasn"t normal, that was serious, a bad thing. The fever riding him made everything wave a little and he suddenly understood he needed water.
He was having a terrible time going between freezing and burning but he can"t leave yet. He was too tired and achy plus he needed to know if Bitch would survive or not. Master was pumping oxygen into Bitch"s mouth while the doctor massaged her chest. A wretched scream filled the air from the female creature then silence. Was she dead or alive? Beast had no idea as the men were talking too soft for him to hear but then he heard a soft but clogged crying. He had no idea that he started to cackle while pointing towards the door. "Bitch, haha, no escape from hell for you! My sister in shit, they won"t let you die! We will never get to die, how dare you try to leave me here all alone!"
This brought attention from the doctor and the Master. The doctor gave a hearty laugh, needing such twisted humor after such a tense moment. Jason gave a huge relaxed smile to Beast. He crooked a finger. "You are right, almost. You only get to die when I say so but Bitch doesn"t get to die until a little Monster says it"s okay. Now you look like shit and we certainly don"t want to see you get a weak heart like Bitch. So get in here, so the doctor can set you up for tonight. Get that nasty blanket off of you. God, you smell like shit. Look at your greasy gaunt body. I want a hale and hearty pet, you know that." A flash of guilt went through Beast but how is this his fault?
Master was inconvenienced by his pets and that was of course, a problem. What if Master was angry and will punish them for getting sick once they are well? This made Beast become flustered and his fever turned his worry into full blown panic. He sobbed while cringing and inching forward, discarding his soggy blanket along the way, leaving a small trail of urine behind him. He kept babbling as he moved closer to his very unimpressed Master. "Please, I"m sorry, I didn"t mean to get sick. Don"t hurt me, please, don"t. I am a good Beast, I try so hard to be good." He was squirming along the floor, covering the floor with saliva, snot and a little more urine.
The doctor was the one who couldn"t stand it any longer. No longer laughing he stiffly spoke to Jason. "You might be enjoying this show but remember I want this room sterile? You will have to clean up any messes your creature is making. Notice that his pee is thick and green? He hasn"t been drinking and you didn"t notice this. He needs immediate fluids and I want his antibiotics to come intravenously for a few days. Bitch will stay in the medical cot with a catheter so I can reach her easily. Set up a padded mat for Beast unless you would feel better with him in a cage?" Jason sighed playfully and scooped his gruesome guy over to the dental chair and hoisted him into the seat.
Smiling with dominance and the pride of a good trainer, Jason winked at Beast"s haggard face. "Nah, Beast is my good boy. He wouldn"t dare misbehave if I was a kind master who let him sleep on his own comfy mat. He knows to enjoy his master"s mercy. I forgive you for causing me inconvenience this time, Beast. You just have to listen to the doctor and your master on how to get well. I want you to become a healthy creature for me. Then you will get to hunt with us, get to stalk, scare and maybe kill some victims of your own. Won"t that be fun to hurt others instead of getting hurt? All you have to do is obey me and you can make your hell become for others instead."
While Jason talked he dried Beast"s sweat away with a wet cloth then covered him in a clean towel. The voice sounded softer, sweeter and more persuasive than ever before. Beast watched as his master used the mat with the thickest padding and covered it in faded yellow sheets. Patting the nicely made up bed, Jason called out, "Here we go, sweet boy. Yes, all for you to get comfy on. You have Master"s permission to relax and rest until the doctor says you are better. Look, I even have fluffy blankets for you. Take them off when you are too hot and put them back on when you are cold, okay?" Jason covered the shivering male and stroked his pet"s ice cold bald head.
"Stick is making good broth for you, it"s a great soup. He worked hard to make the soup to heal you. You won"t hurt his feelings, will you? He"s my wife after all and it would be like being rude to me. You would never be rude to me, would you, sweet boy?" In spite of feeling his worst, Beast burst into tears again. "No Master, never! I would never do that, be rude, please!" Jason soothed his creature as the doctor snapped, "Stop tormenting him. He"s too sick for it and this is a sadist telling you that. You must go easier on your pets or you might not have any left soon. First give your loyal puppy a heart attack, now these two have an infection."
Jason perked his ears up and finally looked away from Beast. "What are you saying? I thought they just caught a cold from it being a little chilly in here?" Feeling a bit of that old time guilt and shame kick up from what he did to Stick, he hated that. He moved so that the doctor could treat the pet and was shocked at the grim seriousness on the doctor"s face. "This infection is from improper diet, improper temperatures, and improper exercise. Not telling you that you are slipping but you need to get a grip on how you want to treat your pets and what you want from them. If you want hale hearty creatures to attack our victims, this isn"t the way to do it. Go back to how you trained Charlie up here."
Jason growled, "Charlie rebelled and I had to kill him! I won"t repeat the past. I will do whatever is needed to get them hale and healthy again. But don"t ask me to use past techniques because it was clear they didn"t work. Just give me what the menu is, what the temperature should be and whatever else they need. But don"t tell me how to train them." Dr. Stone shrugged. "This is all on your dime, this is your fifth bill since you"ve captured them. And Stick was in a terrible state every time I saw him. If you want Monster to have two parents and one secret pet, you need to change your ways. But no, I won"t tell you how to train. But you need to stop tormenting them like this."
But Jason thought of how he created his loyal pet. There was no way that Jason was sticking his penis in either of these disgusting creatures. But he will use their fever fueled torments to further cement himself into their thoughts. He won"t continue to tease Beast, that was kind of cruel, wasn"t it? As soon as his pet sobs and pleads, he rewards him with praise and care. Whispering new ideas into his pet"s psyche, trying to hurry that lovely Stockholm Syndrome. He was truly angry at Bitch, he felt the same as his Beast and that had made him a little upset. He took that out on Beast because he couldn"t take it out on Bitch yet. She was still too weak but at least she was alive.
When Jason went downstairs to retrieve the broth that Stick made, he heard from his wifey how all the girls were sent home. That Raven had Monster and Butterfly who were somehow to blame for the fiasco. Jason went to take that out on his sick creatures too even as he tenderly fed them broth.