Home, in three acts.
July 2nd, 2026, afternoon.
1075 words
Coded by Melissa BlakeACT ONE: DEAD MOM.There's no place like home, they said. Yesterday, I arrived too tired to talk to my dad and fell asleep on the car, despite the fact that I had already slept on the train for most of the journey. It was night already when we got home, and all I remember was going upstairs and falling into my bed.
I reacted the next day, today, still in the same position I fell on the bed and with the same clothes. At least dad put me a blanket on.
The routine was automatic. I took a shower, changed my clothes, washed my hair as usual. Dad made pancakes for breakfast. We talked about the last week's at Hogwarts, and dad seemed to be proud of my academic development.
After noon, he told me I could go visit Me. Weatherby if I wanted to, while he did the dinner. So I spent the next two hours at my favorite library with my favorite old man, telling him all about my... Boarding school in Scotland. Apparently, that's the version dad gave to everyone, so why change it?
The real thing came after that. When I got back home, the first thing I noticed was the unknown car parked at the porch. Well, it was maybe from one of his work friends. He used to invite them for dinner, and I knew already almost all of them. I leaned my bycicle against the wall and opened the door.
I expected to hear laughs. Maybe even some murmurs. Dad doesn't like to talk about business at home.
What I didn't expect was to walk into the kitchen and see a woman kissing my dad.
I froze for a second. The exact time for them to split apart and notice me. And the three of us just stared into each other for ten seconds straight.
Dad had lipstick stained over his cheeks. The woman blushed.
Blonde, tall, red lips, blue eyes... Beautiful. And kissing my dad.
She was the first one to break the silence.
"... You must be Mikaela. John won't shut up about you."
Saints, even her voice was beautiful.
I took a step back. Then another. I was still in shock.
"Mika..." Dad tried to reach out to me. I yanked my arm backwards when he tried to touch me.
And I did what I always did: I ran away.
I sprinted through the hallway and opened the door and, without even bothering on closing it, I took the bike and left.
I couldn't breathe. Couldn't even think. The picture kept repeating all over my head.
She was kissing him. He was kissing her.
I recalled the voice of my dad, just a few months after mom was gone.
"M, you know I'll never love anyone as much as I loved your mom. As much as I love you."
Liar. A filthy liar. He loved her. Why, if not, was he kissing her?
Who was she? Where did he find her? In a magazine? Was she a model? What the hell?
I didn't notice I was crying until the tears blurred my vision. And then I realized where I ended up.
At the cementery. A few graves away from mom.
I lost control of the bike. I fell right in front of her own. And I didn't even care that the palms of my hands were scratched from the fall. Because now, I am crawling back to her, my face covered with tears, my bike a few steps away, a wheel still spinning, and feeling like my heart is too small for my chest.
"H-Hey, mom..." I start when I finally find the words. I don't even care about the stutter. She's the only person I can stutter with. "I may need a little help here."
Somehow, I manage to sit and talk like a proper human.
"Dad- he's crazy. He forgot about you, he-he-he has someone else. And I just found out, mom, I-"
Breathe.
"Mom, he's in denial, he doesn't want to feel! He- he lost his mind! For real, this time! Ma, you won't believe the mess we're in right now." I cry out.
"... You were my home, mom. Even when you were not around, you were there. I felt you. You held my hand and life came easy, and now I'm empty. I'm broken. And he is with someone else. He's moving forward."
It is dark already. I know my dad. I know he knows where I am. I know he's giving me time, but he'll come sooner than later and take her off me once again.
"Mom, please, I beg you, send me a sign. I'm out of hope, running out of time..."
And then I realized something. Mom loved him.
She would've wanted him to be happy. I just didn't notice it also meant he can be happy with someone else.
" I won't let him forget you, mom."
I had stopped crying a few seconds ago. What was left now was pure, heavy silence. And the thing that always happened after a good cry, happened: I felt sleepy.
I wasted energy. I needed to rest.
So I lay down over the ground, six feet away from her, and close my eyes.
If I stick my ear to the dirt, I can hear it. The echo of her voice. The sound of her laugh. It was all that mattered.
I don't care if she lied. I don't care if she was a spy. She was my mom.
In my dream, mom walks over to me and lifts me up in her arms, as she used to do when I was a kid and fell asleep watching TV on the living room.
I open my eyes and I'm at the backseat of the car. Dad drives.
But in my dream, it's mom driving. There's no smell of another woman. It's just her usual fragrance. Oranges.
And I fall asleep, once again, between soft whispers and the smell of home.Stamina: 6 | Evasion: 6 | Strength: 4 | Wisdom: 7 | Arc Power: 6 | Accuracy: 6
Last edited by Mikaela Hendricks on 8 Jul 2026, 05:29, edited 1 time in total.
Home, in three acts.
July 3rd, 2026, morning.
1083 words
Coded by Melissa BlakeACT TWO: DEAD MOM (REPRISE).I was dreaming again. Dreaming of her.
More specifically, the day of her funeral. I remember wearing a black dress and black gloves. We were early. I stared at the coffin as everyone gathered around.
The only thing in my mind was her laugh. Her last words. "I'll be back before you even notice I'm gone, Kiki. This will be the last time, I promise."
Kiki. What a stupid nickname. I remember I used to hate it when she called me like that. Now it's the only thing I want.
Dad took the lead after the priest was gone.
"You're headed for heaven, the sweet old hereafter..." He sang.
Saints, my dad was singing.
My dad, the man who used to dance with her in the kitchen. The one who, just a few weeks away, was chasing her through the whole house, asking for a kiss, was now singing at her funeral.
And I was still frozen.
The minutes passed. The people cried. I remember seeing some familiar faces. Friends. Neighbors. A man and a woman watching from the trees nearby, the woman covering her face with her hands. The man hugged her as she cried, pressing her face against his chest. I don't even remember if my mom's family was there.
But I do remember my uncle and aunts were there. Aunt Prim left a bouquet of flowers at the grave. Aunt Lenore and her wife hugged dad. My uncle Coryo and my cousin, Nic, just watched from afar.
We never saw them again after that.
When he finished, mom was finally buried. It was then when it started raining, as if the Saints mourned her, too.
Dad tried to grab my hand to go. I finally reacted, yanking my hand backwards and dropping to my knees, not caring about the mud that was beginning to form under our feet. I crawled to the grave and began scratch the ground where, just seconds before, my mom was.
"No! No, come back! Be here! Ma!"
My nails got dirty. The rain fell harder. I felt something cut one of my fingers, but I didn't care. My hands kept digging, as if a ten year old could get six feet under the ground out of pure rage.
Dad had to lift me up the ground against my will. I kept kicking and punching until he locked me into the car.
"No! Don't take her off me again! Ma! Ma! Ma!"
The dream shifted. Again.
This time, she was here, in my room. She was curling a strand of my hair between her fingers, humming a familiar melody.
"Don't worry about me, Kiki. He deserves it." Her voice was calm. Too calm for someone whose husband was moving on.
"But mom-"
"But nothing. I want him to be happy. And he is. With her."
And well... Rage was one thing, but being scolded by the vision you were having of your dead mom was another level.
I blinked. She was gone. And I was awake.
I looked at my clock. Eight in the morning.
She was right. He deserves this. And being angry about it only made me selfish and immature.
I had to talk to him. Apologize.
And I knew exactly where to look for him. If there's something I know about John Hendricks is how lazy he can be. He always leaves the dinner's dishes to wash them the next morning. So right now, he must be in the kitchen, washing last night's dishes.
I walked downstairs in silence. Summer's sun was leaking through the windows. I found him exactly where I thought: In the kitchen.
"Pa."
He almost jumped out of his skin, dropping the plastic cup he was cleaning.
"For God's sake, Mikaela! I told you not to do that!"
I smiled. Well, at least he wasn't mad. I cleared my throat.
"... I think we need to talk."
The water stopped running. He took a clean towel and dried out his hands, turning around to face me.
"Yeah." He said. "I think we should."
I was the first to break the awkward silence that came afterward.
"I'm sorry. For how I ran away last night and... Yeah, everything."
He gave me a tired smile.
"Yeah, well... I don't blame you. I'd react the same if I walked into my dad with a stranger."
I narrowed.
"I'm not mad. I mean, yeah, I am, but because this is how I found out. I know you're in the right to move on and be happy and all of that, but-"
"But we know this is for the best. M, I know you're upset, and I feel... Weird, too. In a good sense, I mean."
There was another moment of silence.
"... I talked to her, you know? To your mom. Before dating her, I talked to her. And I know-"
" This is what she would've wanted." We both said at the same time. We laughed.
My gaze softened.
"So you are dating her. Good to know."
He pouted at me.
"... So you're not mad about it? You're not, I don't know, try to poison her or whatever your generation does to get rid of the person their parents are dating?"
I looked at him, offended.
"No? It's just... So sudden. I feel like I'm losing you."
My voice broke. He inmediately took a step forward and buried my face into his chest into a protective hug.
"Hey. Look at me, M."
I lifted my head.
"I love her. But I'll never love her as much as I loved your mother. Or as much as I love you. I need you to understand it."
My lip twitched.
"Dad..."
"I'm here, M. Not going anywhere."
It took me a few minutes to finally calm down.
We finally made breakfast together. And I made up my mind.
"... Tell me about her. Your girlfriend."
He grinned.
"I got a better idea. How about a dinner tonight?"
I stared at him in horror. He laughed.
"I'll call her, then."Stamina: 8 | Evasion: 7 | Strength: 4 | Wisdom: 7 | Arc Power: 6 | Accuracy: 8
Home, in three acts.
July 3rd, 2026, night.
1163 words
Coded by Melissa BlakeACT THREE: HOME.That same night, dad took me to mom's favorite Italian restaurant. Turns out it also happens to be her favorite restaurant, too.
This morning, I accepted dad's new relationship with Alysson Beckett. But I can call her Alys. Turns out they've been dating since January, and didn't want to tell me because they didn't want me to overreact. So now I'm sitting in the passenger seat as dad parks the car at the restaurant's lot. I still don't know if I'm ready for this. In just two days, I had to see my dad take a new step of his life.
And I'm just supposed to accept it?
We walked out of the car as dad rambled about how he needed to take a day with me to update me with the latest WWE tea. In summary, Vaquer was out (what a Big loss), the JD was being as boring as usual and... Well, at least the Intercontinental Championship was safe with Penta... For now.
Still. He said there were a lot of storylines he wanted to show me. We got into the restaurant and I immediately got nervous.
Not because of the people. Hogwarts had forcibly taught me that I couldn't keep getting nervous with people. No, it was because I was just seconds away from meeting mom's replacement.
... Yeah, no, maybe that was a little hard. I take it back. I'm seconds away from meeting dad's new step.
He placed a hand on my shoulder, squeezing it to comfort me. At least he was trying to make this look normal.
And in one of the tables...
There she was. Alysson. With her red lips and straight blonde hair, marked cheekbones and, now that I noticed, beautiful smile. She stood up when we arrived, and her dress was just... Gorgeous.
She was gorgeous. I almost felt bad for hating her in the beginning. Almost.
She hugged dad and moved a chair for me in the table.
"I fear we were not... Properly introduced. I'm Alysson. But you can call me Alys." She smiled.
I just stared at her a few seconds before giving her my default smile and sitting down. Dad looked at me like he wanted me to disappear and I immediately felt bad. I only had seen dad that disappointed on me once, and it was when he decided to homeschool me. I swore I'd never see that look in his eyes again.
Yet, there it was.
Alys gave us an awkward smile before ordering.
And the next hour was...
Not what I expected at all.
In the next hour, I found out Alysson Beckett was a lawyer. She had graduated from Harvard with honors and was looking forward to founding her own Law firm one day. A noble target, if you ask me.
Turns out that my dad, indeed, told her everything about me.
Somehow, she knew about my "Scotland Boarding school" (obviously) and about my... Condition. She said she admired me. Dad squeezed her hand as he cleared his throat, pretending to almost choke in his pasta. She never mentioned the subject again. Good.
I only participated once or twice. It felt like, for the first time in my life, I was making the questions of the interview. And, unlike me, Alys loved answering them.
At one moment, right before dessert, dad got a call in the middle of a joke.
He looked at his phone and his face went pale. That was the first reaction I got the whole night. My hand shot to his arm.
"Pa?"
"It's okay, just... Something from work. You girls will love without me for five minutes, right?"
Without even waiting for a reply, dad walked out of the restaurant to answer the call. Alys and I fell into an awkward silence for a few seconds.
And someone had to break it.
"I-"
"You know-" We both did. At the same time. My face went red.
"You first." I cleared my throat. She sighed.
"I just wanted you to know I'm serious with John. And that I don't intend... To be a villain for you. I love him and everything that involves him and that, of course, includes you. I was excited to know you because you were the last piece of the puzzle. And now that I know that side of him too, I can't feel anything else than happiness. You're smart and brave and amazing. You don't even need to talk to be noticed because people notice you just from the beginning."
Oh. That was... Cute. Her hand grabbed mine over the table, and the glint on my eyes had nothing to do with the emotions I was experiencing right now.
"I... Also wanted you to know that, right after John and I started dating, I talked to her. Mariah. I don't want you to feel like I'm her replacement and I'm not looking for you to look at me like your mother. I just want to be there for you, even when you don't want to. I'm proud of you, Mikaela. You're John's hero, you knew that? He talks of you and the way his voice softens... You're an angel to him."
I was still staring at her hand on mine. It felt... Warm. And for some reason, I didn't pull away instantly. Instead, it stayed there. I finally talked.
"I hope you'll understand how hard this is for me right now. And you're totally right. I won't call you 'mom', and won't treat you as one. My mom is in my heart now, and you'll never fill her space. But it'll work out. I just need... Some time, that's all."
She sighed again, and it looked like a weight just had disappeared from her shoulders. Alys nodded.
"Thanks." She whispered with ver broken voice. I nodded too.
"Thank you for making him smile again."
We just stared at each other for a few more seconds and then, the weirdest thing happened.
We laughed. At the same time. It was silly and stupid, but we laughed. We laughed so hard the tears disappeared from our eyes. We laughed so hard the tables nearby looked at us weirdly.
Dad decided to come back in that exact same moment.
"Wow, are you friends now? So fast? Should I be afraid?"
We laughed harder. And for that night, it felt like it could work.
Maybe she wasn't bad. Maybe she was just in love. Maybe I was just being petty.
Maybe all I had to do... Was give her a chance.Stamina: 8 | Evasion: 7 | Strength: 4 | Wisdom: 7 | Arc Power: 6 | Accuracy: 8
