TW: mention of bl00d and dr0w!ng! About three hours after Beatrice fell asleep, she suddenly woke up in the middle of the night, only to hear faint sounds. She quietly got up and peeked her head to the living room, leaning against her bedroom door. There, she saw Mabel restlessly sitting down on the couch thinking about what happened in the forest; the same one Kelby swore wouldn't h=rt her daughter. Micheal noticed his wife's distressed expression from across the room and put down his phone on the counter that he was previously holding. He sat down next to her and asked if she wanted to talk about it while giving her a gentle rub on the shoulder. Beatrice saw her mother slowly nod and rest her head on her husband's shoulder. Immediately, he held his distressed wife’s head to his chest to comfort her. Mabel started to tear up slightly as she was obviously devastated that her daughter almost dr0wn3d and she couldn't bear the thought of her dying in that seemingly endless, dark lake. Of course, she would've been sad if Vanessa was in Beatrice’s place, but she wasn't her daughter after all. Micheal felt scared at the thought as well, as saying goodbye to her unexpectedly as he watched them leave without a thought and never seeing Beatrice come back with her mother was very startling. The pure thought of a likely reality made a few tears fall from his eyes. Beatrice felt bad to see both her parents upset but she felt like it wasn’t the best thing to make herself known so she stayed behind her door. Michael held Mabel’s head, reassuring her it was okay to cry as it was a normal reaction to an unsettling event. Their daughter leaned slightly closer against her door, observing them with a solemn expression. After about ten minutes of her mother’s silent sobs, he gently wiped the tears away with his thumb. Mabel smiled slightly, feeling relieved from the affection. A buzz chimed from her phone; it was Kelby spamming texts making excuses in a p@+hetic way. She huffed in annoyance before asking her husband his opinion on what was the best thing to do about the whole situation. Micheal expressed that she should avoid her friend for maybe a month to give her space from the desperate Jaggers to think before making a permanent decision about their relationship and their daughters’ relationship. Mabel nodded, agreeing with his thoughts. She felt like scr3@ming at the top of her lungs Kelby for putting both kids in d but she finally agreed with Michael's suggestion. What good would going off the deep end do? It'd only make things worse for everyone involved. She picked up her phone from the coffee table and sent a text to Kelby calmly explaining she was going to wait to talk to her for a while before addressing the situation properly. Despite the angry texts that soon followed her text, she blocked her number momentarily and put her phone on do not disturb mode. They both sighed in both relief and exhaustion from no longer having to hear constant notifications from Kelby as they both sat down on their comfy couch. The pair slowly started to break the tension, bringing up random things, even causing them both to laugh as they momentarily weren’t thinking about the situation.
(Continue from here) Meanwhile, Beatrice's hand started to grip the side of her white door; she started to feel an extremely strong mix of anger and disappointment in her mom’s best friend. She always had expected that behavior from Vanessa but not Vanessa’s mom who was like a second mother to her. Hearing her parents’ small footsteps, she quickly ran back to her bedroom and quietly got into the bed, her body temperature getting warmer by the second. She faced the wall, feeling small veins pop on her face as her bl00d boiled. She didn't ask for this fight. She didn't say she wanted to become something she can't quite call human and she certainly didn't want to lose her second family that betrayed her and her family. After a while, Beatrice's temperature finally started to cool down as she drifted to a more peaceful sleep. Her eyes started to close and she shifted in her sleep, her body relaxed without tension, essentially putting her own brain into do not disturb mode as she finally fell back asleep. The next morning, Beatrice woke up unhurried, her eyes opening as she took in the usual sight of her room. She sighed to herself as she got up making her way to the kitchen for a glass of water. She was still angry at the betrayal but she simply buried the weight like she always did when bad things happened. She took a glass bottle from the cabinets and filled it with water from the sink, her grip unintentionally tight on it to the point it broke. Beatrice’s eyes widened and she winced as her hands got cu+ from the shards, bl00d sipping from them just a little. She had never gripped something so tight it broke but this time was an expectation apparently. Her parents quickly popped out of their bed, rushing to the source of the unbearable sound. Micheal immediately yet carefully cleaned up the mess while Mabel cleaned her daughter's hand. Not much time passed as the aftermath happened, her father threw away the trash without slipping this time and Beatrice’s wound was cleaned and bandaged. Micheal started making breakfast as usual as Mabel explained the decision she made last night, unaware her daughter already knew but didn’t speak up. Beatrice forced a smile after her mother was finished trying to hold in her anger. Mabel’s gaze slightly stiffened, knowing something wasn’t right. However, she was interrupted by the sight of Micheal placing waffles on the table which made Beatrice quickly change the subject into random facts about sugar due to nervousness and tension. Mabel put a mental pin in the previous conversation before engaging the current one, cutting her waffles in half as she spoke. Despite the conversation being happier than the ones before, Beatrice really wondered in the back of her head; “Why did Vanessa do this? And why did Kelby help her?”
