Death Cherry

[Ash]

The silent treatment, however, seemed to have worked as well as it did for her real mother. The creature that had tried to mock her from the depths of her memories has fallen silent for the time. If it was true to the nature of her mother, it would be back with some frail attempt to make up with her only to revert back to yelling and trying to guilt trip her into being a good little girl. Either her mother was a glutton for punishment or that's how all parenting was supposed to go when you had a bad daughter.

The problem was she was so close minded that it was impossible to talk to her in the first place, but then her mother always pushed off the truth and wouldn't look herself in the mirror. Maybe she was afraid she'd see Ash's horns if she did, or a darker hue to her skin.

Come to think of it, that wasn’t the only type of gluttony her mother indulged in. When most people thought of that sin a room full of sweets came to mind, more than likely with the person in the middle making a pig of themselves. However, even as stupid as she might seem taking on a Marine paid by Coruscant, she was in fact intelligent enough to know that gluttony is defined as ‘habitual greed’. While food is the most common habit that fits this description, it could easily be twisted to say that her mother’s life being disturbed by her little devil’s insistence on disrupting the pattern would fit the bill.

After all, what are habits but behaviors done in a pattern? It’s no different than when a chain-smoker has to step outside after fucking a girl’s brains out just to light up a cigarette. Like brushing your teeth every night. Like popping a mint before you leave the restaurant. Like washing your hands after every use of the bathroom, or buckling the seat belt in as soon as you sit inside a car seat. Her mother had a set way of doing things, and honestly it made The Storm Demon wonder why she even had children if she couldn’t handle a drastic change in her life.

Her oldest daughter - by a few minutes actually - had fed into this admirable and pristine life. Ash couldn’t even remember her sister ever running away when she broke something as a mere child. She always admitted her faults and strived to be better. She apologized and prepared to be punished, but punishment never came her way. Isabelle rarely got punished because she owned up to it, and she was conditioned to believe that’s how things worked. And it did. For her.

Where Isabella was a much appreciated summer rain which filled the shrinking pond that was their mother, Emma was a large stone someone threw in to see how shallow it really was. Very, for those who were curious. In fact, the very idea that her mother could be defined in any way as ‘deep’ was laughable. She was short-sighted, close minded, stubborn in her views, opinionated, and super judgmental. Apparently she also had a problem with anyone who challenged her mentally. She refused to change anything about her life despite the two new additions to her life.

It was almost a crime how little she changed for her daughters. As a mother you were expected to sacrifice some part of your life, and generally motherhood changed you. Or so they say. Except, Vivian Shutter demanded that her daughters conform to her way of life or be shunned.

Where Bella shared in most of mom’s ideas, Ash got the stubborn genes. It was said by a scientist once that when two equal forces acted upon each other there would be a stop in progress unless acted upon by another force. He was either very intelligent or he watched in on one of their infamous fights. Which tended to end as soon as she began to lose control over the volume of her voice enough for the neighbors to hear. To avoid awkward conversations with those on either side of their living unit, her mother would always bow down when things got too loud.

Nothing was more important than that false image of a perfect life and her mother’s attempts to maintain the image Emma threatened to tear apart every time she came home with Detective Grayson.

In a way, Ash was a victim of habit as well. If only by how it looked on the outside. She’d always go do something she wasn’t supposed to, eventually get caught by either Grayson or someone under him, and after a dance between her and the good detective, he’d bring her home. It got to the point that they didn’t even read her her rights. She even heard them once on the radio: ‘Come in Grayson. Yeah, its her again.’ The were on a first name basis, she would blatantly flirt with him despite the age difference. In fact, they talked in circles and had their own code by the end of it. Practically best friends.

She never got to ask him why he never told her mother that part? Actually, he bailed her out of a lot of shit. Not that she deserved it with all the disrespectful shit that came out of her mouth. He was just a good guy.

The fucking loser.

"He was too good to you.. Too good for you. You should have been locked up a long time ago." The voice returned, apparently seemingly able to read her mind. It was still borrowing her mother's voice.

Silence followed just the same. 

Ash did wonder if this was her subconscious trying to tell her something, but that was impossible because she was much more savage than that. Still, she couldn't see her mother growing the balls to actually stand up for herself and talk to her in such a modern fashion. So instead, she turned her attention back to Grayson.. She wondered whatever happened to that guy. Now he had bad habits!