Monsters' Reunion

“Rowena, I’m done. I am not going back to that little monster’s house.”

“You, too, Zodd?”

“No monster can frighten him. There’s something unnatural about him.”

“He’s just a kid.”

“More like a demon in a kid’s body. He almost trapped me under his bed.”

“Fine, I’ll reassign you to someone else.”

That was the third monster scared away by the same child, Joshua. I couldn’t comprehend how a mere nine-year-old could strike fear in the hearts of actual monsters. Giving the matter much thought, I decided to take matters to my own hands. That night, I appeared under Joshua’s bed and bided my time. When the time came to scare him, he grabbed a baseball bat and looked under the bed; and to my surprise, it was my twin brother, Cormag.

“Rowena? You’re the monster this time?”

“Cormag, how are you alive? It has been centuries.”

He told me he’d explain and asked me to come out from under the bed. We hugged each other, and then he told me what had happened all those years ago.

“Back when I drowned, I couldn’t move on. The more I saw you and mom suffer, the longer I found myself clinging to the Veil. Then you and mom left this town behind. I wanted to follow you, but my refusal to move on had inadvertently bound me to this town. There was no escape,” Cormag said.  “And so, I lingered here for centuries as families came and went, growing up and growing old together before my eyes. What I wanted more than anything was to return and have the life that was stolen from me, and I was finally able to do that just nine years ago. The couple were having trouble trying to conceive, so I decided to plant myself in the woman and be reborn. Somehow, I retained my memories of you and mom.” He was sobbing by then.

Cormag’s story brought me to tears. We hugged each other and talked for hours that night. He asked me about my life, and how I came to be a Commander of Monsters. I told him how I lost mom only three years later to disease, and how, in my loneliness, I made a deal with a demon to take my pain away in exchange for my soul. Centuries after my death, I reached the position where I am today. Our lives were a cruel experience, but we were glad to have finally been reunited.

“I promise, I’ll be the monster under your bed from now on.”

Cormag laughed. “I’d love that.”

We hugged each other once more before I returned to the Monster Realm.