Kyle & Lucy — Chapter 4 [Rewrite] 🐱😈 · 9:31pm Feb 18th, 2023
“Nice to meet you, Mr. Milton!”
“Begone, ye unsavory serpent! Bugger off!”
“Oh, hush,” Gram smirked, nuzzling the girl close. “She is a lovely houseguest. Don’t be so high-strung, silly mole.”
The frazzled basement dweller batted his shoveled claws. “Nonsense! No spawn of evil has ever been sighted in this town, so something big is being concocted. Look at her, you can see the glimmer of insanity sparkling behind those snake eyes!”
“Aww, thank you!” the demon blushed. “By the way, is this… Bliss Bay?”
“It is indeed.” The pug stated.
“Fantastic! I was worried I messed up my assignment on the first day.”
“Assignment?”
Lucy finished her tea as she slid off the couch to salute, showing a detailed card with her face on it. “Children of the H.O.R.N division—that’s Hoodlums of Rancid Nightmares—Scar Trooper #665. Assigned torture zone: Bliss Bay. It’s like school where a few of us lucky kids are sent up here to work on our evildoing. I’m happy that father thought I was ready for this. I would be honored to be the first to terrorize such a delightful place… if that’s okay.”
Gram snuck me a quick mischievous wink. “Of course, sweetheart. You can stay here with us if you like.”
“Really?!”
“By all means.”
“Are you mental?!” Milton exclaimed. “Priscilla, this is a very regretful idea!”
“Dear friend, we have nothing to worry about here.”
“We have everything to worry about here!”
“Lucy, hon, do we have to worry about you?”
“Maybe!” the girl shrugged playfully.
“Good enough, she’s staying.”
“Stiffen the wombats! This is a dangerous decision!”
“Oh, please! Your chemistry junk is more of a danger! You need more sun in your life.”
“When her home freezes over, I will! Leave my experiments out of it!”
Lucy and I sat by on the couch, sipping another round of tea and watching those two argue like a married couple. That was fun.
“She’s staying,” Gram huffed sternly. “End of discussion. Now back to your hidey-hole with you.”
“Augh, don’t call it a ‘hidey-hole’, Priscilla,” Milton groaned. “It is a highly fortified—”
“BACK TO YOUR HIDEY-HOLE! RUFF, RUFF!”
“Ah! Yes, ma’am!”
The mole waddled back toward his corner of the room, slamming the hatch shut as the roaches scurried after him between the cracks. I set my drink to the side to stroke the pug’s wobbly jowls, her frumpy barks easing into low grumbles.
“Sorry you had to see that, darling,” she sighed, shaking the spit off her jaws. “I just don’t tolerate foolishness; it really jitters my chops.”
“I like him,” Lucy giggled. “He’s funny.”
“So, you have everything you need with you.”
“Oh yes. I’ll unpack right away!” The girl plucked a miniature lilac box from the locks of her hair. The sounds of wailing screams flooded free as she dug deep to retrieve a spiked, silvery hairbrush. “Always be prepared!”
While that day was… interesting, to say the least, I felt the lateness of the hours and wanted to crash. Gram had me set her bed up in the attic—my room. There were plenty of nice rooms on the second floor, but I found the most comfort there; a rounded window holding a gorgeous view of the open sea, old birch wardrobes by the stairs stuffed with ugly sweaters knitted by Gram, and small piles of dusty antiques in the back corners of the attic. At night, I’d stare up at the slanted oak walls as the crashing waves below lulled me to sleep. I took great pride in it all, although Lucy only seemed to dig the wood-burning stove across from my one-mammal bed. I didn’t mind sharing, but…
SCREECH! SCREECH!
I just wanted to live to see another day.
In the middle of prepping the bulky iron stove, Lucy fluttered upstairs brushing her sharp teeth with a sturdy grill brush. She had on some black one-piece pajamas with moldy white skulls tattooed all over them.
“Can’t have dull teeth!” she muffled, scrubbing away bits of soot with deafening screeches. “Is that where I’ll be sleeping?”
I nodded, slapping a pair of flimsy sticks together against the cold pile of ashes.
“Ooh, let me take care of that.”
The demon spat on the sticks and snapped the tips of her fingers over them, springing the stove to life as I flung them further inside.
“Thank you.” I signed, closing the vented doors.
“Pfft-pfft.” Cliff said, sitting on the indigo covers of my bed.
Lucy smiled. “Oh, who’s this little guy?”
“Pfft.”
“It’s nice to meet you, Cliff! I’m Lucy.”
So, she spoke rock. I didn’t even know it was a language to begin with, but I shouldn’t have been surprised. Demons are unpredictable after all.
“Here, I meant to give this to you.” Lucy took out my hoodie, hugging it tight until a mist of steam spewed from the garment.
She tossed it over, the toasty warmth of it sending pleasing chills down my spine.
“I wanted to thank you properly,” she said, her crimson eyes sparkling. “For bringing me here, I mean. I honestly don’t think today was the walk in the swamp that I was hoping for, but… this is a promising start.”
“You’re welcome,” I grinned, moving to kick my brown shoes at my bedside. “Always here to help.”
“Maybe we could be partners in crime? I’m sure you’d be quite expendable, whatever that means.”
Expendable. I didn’t know what it meant either, but I liked the sound of it. Not so much the “crime” part, but what was the worst she could do?
“Mwah!”
See? Unpredictable.
Lucy opened the stove’s doors and threw herself inside. I leaned against the bed, watching her happily tumble and bathe in the contained fireball. My face suddenly felt hot, and I wasn’t sure if it was just the speck of ember she left to fester on my cheek. Snuffing it out, I slid Cliff to the side to sort the bed.
“One more thing?” the demon waved.
“Yes?”
“I know I'm late in mentioning this, but you look fabulous in that wig.”
Lucy slammed the door behind her, curling cutely on her bed of ash.
“Pfft.” Cliff uttered, now on my fluffy pillow.
“Hush, you.” I pouted.
“Sweet nightmares!”
Awww, seems like they get along great!
Awww, Lucy is just hilarious, So is Gram. You had tons of fun writing them both didn't you? You've set up some decent tribulation in the characters, it's really fun reading this.
Lucy is still 🔥
5714676
I'll put up chapter 5 tomorrow now that you've given me a tad more confidence :3
5714677
Awesome, can't wait.
Lucy is soooo random and sweet.
5718748
I imagine her having that adorkable randomness of anime cuties UwU
She will have da noodle arms petting Kyle's head 🤣
5718749
You've given her such a sweet, dorky personality. ❤️
Such an adorable little story, you have a good sense for building up the characters. This feels like a Slice of life, and a decent fantasy. Each character brings something different to the tale, I'm interested to see this pick up steam and explain the overall story. As for now, it feels like Diary of a wimpy kid in its story so far. This could even work as a graphic novel.
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UwU
Very sweet chapter and a wonderful dynamic.
With a little more darker humor this could be sorta like Billy and Mandy.
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Pretty much, XD
5725965
Could be fun with some wild dark humor.