Love Is Never Ugly

After the night Charlotte saw Alastor's true face, everything between them changed. The tension that followed was thicker than silence, heavier than fear. She never left her room anymore—she was too terrified to try. The door remained locked at all times. Her meals were left outside and collected only after she was certain he was gone. If Alastor ever attempted to speak to her through the door, she gave no reply. Not a word.

She was haunted by what she had seen that night when she dared to enter his room. No matter how hard she tried, she could not unsee it. The horror clung to her thoughts, vivid and relentless, and she could not bring herself to look again at the creature now forever linked to that memory.

This was exactly what Alastor had feared. He had known it would happen the moment she saw his face. And so, he made no effort to bridge the distance that had formed between them. There was no point pretending things could return to how they were. Yet it wasn't truly his appearance that had shattered her so completely.

Yes, she had found it grotesque—but what truly broke her was the sight of him feeding. The memory of Alastor devouring a human corpse was what trapped her in terror. That gut-wrenching image had mortified her so deeply that she no longer held hope of ever escaping this place alive.

"She's not coming down to dinner again, is she?" Husk muttered as he cracked open a bottle of wine.

"No." Niffty answered quietly. "She'll be eating in her room. Again."

"Whatever. Less work for us."

"This isn't healthy." Vagatha said flatly. "She can't stay locked away forever."

"I know." Niffty sighed. "But the poor thing is still scared to death."

"Maybe Cherri could scare her out by slipping a few snakes into her room." Anthony suggested casually.

"Anthony!" Vagatha snapped.

"What? They're garden snakes, completely harmless. But Miss Charlotte doesn't need to know that."

"We are not forcing her out." Vagatha said. "No tricks. No pressure."

"But you just said—"

"I know what I said. She needs to come out, but it has to be her choice."

Anthony scoffed.

"I think she's overreacting. We see Alastor eat humans all the time, and it doesn't mess us up like this."

"We're animals, Anthony." Vagatha replied. "We eat what we catch to survive—that's our nature. But humans like Charlotte have morals about that kind of thing. To her, it's evil. And frankly, I'm not too fond of it myself. Though that may be because I'm a vegetarian by nature."

"Well, I'm not. And neither are Husk, Niffty, Cherri, or Alastor. We eat other creatures to live."

"Still." Vagatha said quietly. "Sometimes compromises can be made."

"No, they can't. You can't fight nature, and you can't blame someone for following their own nature."

"Oh really? Then what about the time Cherri ate a spider in the garden and you almost bit her head off?"

"That was different."

"How?"

"I thought the spider was my sister, Molly. I forgave Cherri once I realized it was just a regular garden spider."

"But you still didn't talk to her for a week."

Husk frowned. "Hold up—since when do you have a sister?"

"Technically, I've got a thousand brothers and sisters." Anthony said. "But Arackniss, Molly, and I were the runts of the litter, so we stuck together. After I was changed, I brought Arackniss and Molly here. They mostly stay in my room. They don't really understand what's going on, but family sticks together."