Blessed by Night

Aubrey returned to the base in a daze.

The large wooden box with her parents' souls. inside remained in her trembling hands as she walked towards she and Aisha's quarters on pure muscle memory alone.

It was a miracle that she never bumped into anything or anyone.

How could her mother possibly have kept this from her?

The longer she thought about it, the more she began to feel taken advantage of.

All of the intimate and tender moments that she had shared with Nyx were all coming back to her mind, one after the other like a rainstorm.

Everything she thought she knew about her mother now felt like one big ploy to get her to stay by her side and allow her access to the most intimate parts of her.

Even...

*Bang*

Aubrey unconsciously walked smack into her front door and started the process of giving herself a concussion.

As she rubbed her temples to ease the pain, she finally opened her front door the right way and stepped inside.

"Oh? She's back."

"Baby! Save me! Shes insatiable!!"

Aubrey took a moment to blink away the surprise in her vision.

In her living room, both Aisha and Thea were seated on their couch in the dark.

Aisha was dressed only in her white bathrobe and looked as if she had just gotten out of the shower a short time ago.

Thea was still fully clothed, but Aubrey couldn't help but feel that if she had walked in even a moment later then maybe she wouldn't be.

Oddly enough, this was how Aubrey knew that she was really depressed, as she couldn't even divest energy into fantasizing about what kind of paradise might be beneath that mini skirt.

'Well now I'm thinking about it...'

Aisha held up her hands from underneath Thea as she tried to process her innocence. "T-This isn't what it looks like, babe ! She's trying to rob me of my-"

"I know, Aisha. I'm not mad."

"Y-You're not?"

"I can see the pillow barricade that you tried to put up to protect yourself."

Aisha looked down at the stack of pillows that she had strategically placed between herself and Thea.

But of course, the tyrannical princess had just crawled right over them as if they were mere building blocks; inadvertently showing her an unhealthy amount of cleavage in the process.

Thea turned to Aubrey and flashed her an impossibly wide and beautiful smile. "I'm back, my dear. Did ya miss me?"

"It's only been a day." Aubrey laughed dryly.

"For you two maybe. But it's been just a little bit longer for me, so I may have reacted a little aggressive when I saw sweet Aisha here." She shrugged.

"A-Aggressive is an understatement! G-Get off me you damned succubus!"

"How'd you know?"

"Eh?"

Aubrey knew that she maybe should have been more upset in this situation, but if there was one thing she knew it was that Aisha wouldn't cheat on her.

Besides... she didn't have the energy to fight with anyone else for the next sixty years of her life.

"Well, you guys have fun. I think I'm going to turn in early for the night..." she waived.

"What?"

"But It's only nine??"

"Yea.. sorry guys."

Without explaining anything further, Aubrey started walking back towards her bedroom so that she could somehow piece together the remnants of her night.

But at the moment she started to leave, Thea appeared in front of her like magic.

The concerned expression she wore on her already beautiful face was almost too divine a sight for mortals to bear.

"Hey... What's wrong with you, sweet heart?"

The heavenly softness in Thea's voice proved to be the straw that broke the camel's back.

What started as a small trickle devolved into a full on deluge as Aubrey began crying so hard that her voice went out.

"M-My mom has been lying to me..!!"

Collapsing to her knees, Aubrey sobbed as she clutched the wooden box in her hands like it was the single most precious thing she owned in this cold world.

Thea and Aisha were more shocked than words could express, and they could do nothing but hold onto the young girl as she cried her heart out.

For upwards of ten minutes, none of them budged and simply tried to get her to stop crying.

Only when she was no longer outright sobbing could they finally get some sort of explanation.

Aisha was understandably more surprised and had a bigger reactions than Thea, who just sat and listened without really making a face one way or the other.

When her story was over, Aubey wiped her face of tears while trying to regain her composure.

"S-So... Auntie and Uncle are in here?" Aisha asked reverently.

She wasn't nearly as surprised by the fact that her girlfriend's family came from a line of snake monsters as she was with the fact that her in-laws were sitting in a box in Nyx's closet.

"Yes! And she's had them all this time! How could she do that to me!?" Aubrey was about to start bawling all over again.

"Maybe... she wasn't necessarily trying to do anything to hurt you." Thea said quietly.

"W-What..?"

At that moment, Thea almost looked like she'd regretted saying anything at all.

"Y'know... I understand what she did was inexcusable, but I think... it was only coming from a place of fear, not malice."

"I know that already, but that doesn't make it right! After everything that we've already gone through together she doesn't know that I love her enough to…"

Aubrey's words trailed off as she began crying again, this time too exhausted to let any whimpers out.

Thea could only rub her back silently and act as support.

To her, this situation wasn't as black and white as it seemed.

She knew just how much Nyx loved her kids, and she could easily see how she would have kept the truth from them in a misguided attempt to keep her children in her life.

It wasn't right, but it was a very human thing to do.

But the fact was, Nyx had made a huge mistake.

Seeing how much Aubrey still loved her, Thea couldn't imagine how anything could drive a wedge between them.

Meaning Nyx's fears were completely unfounded.

But Thea knew better than anyone else what it was like to live in constant fear of rejection from family because you didn't have the blood relation.

"Are you… going to open it?" Aisha eventually asked.

Aubrey stared down at the box that was now slick with her tears and went over a few possible decisions in her head.

Thea started to stand up and slowly backed away from the two girls.

"Maybe I should just-"

"No… I would like it if you stayed." Aubrey said quietly.

The corners of Thea's lips twitched.

Aisha: "Someone's happy."

"I-I am not happy! I'm totally normal! Totally! Yep!" Thea held up her thumbs to really sell the act.

"Sure babe."

"Babe~?"

"It's just an expression! An expression! Stay away from me and keep your shirt on! AUBREYYY!!!"

While Aisha was about to be assaulted, Aubrey paid no real mind to the pair of them and instead placed the wooden box gently on the floor.

Inhaling deeply, she slid her nimble fingers over the metal clasps and pressed them to release the lock.

The box opened with a click sound and the lid swung open on it's own.

Among the mementos inside, two bright green whisps the size of pennys floated out of their confinement.

Aubrey covered her eyes and shrank back underneath the sudden flash of light that filled the room.

When her vision returned to normal, she let out a yelp at the sight of the room's large new occupant.

In front of her, all she could see was a large array of pointy, recurved teeth, and a mouth that was big enough to swallow her whole but still had room for three more of her.

*Yawn* "…Whats the matter, big momma? What'd the kids do this time?"

Slowly, the large mouth closed up and Aubrey was finally able to get a better look at what was actually in front of her.

But even if she couldn't, she still would have recognized that voice anywhere.

Wrapped around Aubrey's entire room was the absolute largest snake that she had ever seen in her life.

Even with it's ethereal green body, it had two glowing violet eyes that were as large as tires and incredibly unnerving.

It's eyelid caps fluttered a few times as it adjusted to the light within the room and eventually it focused on Aubrey who was right in front of it's face.

"Huff, huff.. it's cramped in here."

Suddenly, Aubrey saw a much more familiar ghost crawl on top of the serpent's head from behind.

Aubrey would have started crying if she had any tears left to shed, but her earlier antics ensured that she was all dry.

Nevertheless, she collapsed to her knees while staring in disbelief.

"Mom… d-dad…?"

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