MONSTER OF THE UNKNOWN

A STORY FROM THE PAST

Three days after the stalker's attack on Mathéo and Laura, Mathéo regains consciousness at last, and not too long after, so does Laura. Based on the medical examinations performed on them after waking up, they don't appear to have sustained any physiological nor psychological damage from the ordeal. Nevertheless, the doctors insist on keeping them in the hospital for a few more days in order to properly monitor them before discharging them.

The days that follow are quite monotonous for the two teenagers. Since everything they need (such as food, water and change of clothes) is brought to their rooms for them, they spend everyday barely moving an inch. Due to this, Mathéo always sneaks his way out of his room to Laura's for some company whenever he gets bored, but not in a salacious way like your dirty mind is most certainly thinking.

"Hey, Laura. I'm back again," Mathéo waves at her cheerfully as he casually walks into her room. "Looks like you missed me."

"Don't you think it was a bad idea coming here? The nurse got really pissed the last time she caught you here," Laura asks him, clearly worried they might get in trouble for breaking the rules by entering each other's rooms. She isn't a 'taking risks' kind of person after all.

"I'm sure it'll be just fine. It's not like we're fucking or anything like that, we're just relaxing in the same room together like normal friends do. There's nothing wrong with that," he justifies his action as he lies down beside her on the bed which isn't so big. There isn't a lot of free space on it, so Mathéo has to cuddle up very close to Laura, and the feeling of his body against her gives her a little tingle. "I hope you're okay with me staying here. I can move somewhere else if it makes you uncomfortable."

"No, it's not a problem at all," the brunette answers clumsily, still flustered by the thought of the boy's earlier words, 'fucking'. The 'sharing a bed with him' part doesn't really weird her out anymore. They've been doing it a lot for some reason ever since they both regained consciousness and she's gotten kind of used to it.

A moment later and an awkward silence fills the room's ambiance. With absolutely nothing to discuss, the two just lie there without uttering a word.

"I saw your family the other day they came to visit you," Laura starts in an attempt to start a conversation. The quiet has gotten too sickening for her to handle. "I didn't realize you were adopted when we first met."

"Yeah, I am. What gave it away? I didn't think it was that obvious," Mathéo jokes before letting out a little laugh.

"Have you ever met your real parents?" she asks the question a bit bashfully, not wanting to come off as rude and insensitive.

"You want me to talk about my biological family?" Mathéo's mood seems to fall a little when he says this.

"You don't have to answer it, I'm sorry. It was dumb of me to ask you such a personal question," Laura apologizes, immediately regretting bringing up the matter in the first place. What was she even thinking? "Just pretend like I didn't say anything."

"It's okay if you're curious about it, it's just not a story I like telling people. I don't think you should feel sorry for asking. You've already told me some personal stuff from your past, so it's kind of fair if you want to know some of mine," Mathéo assures her as he pulls away from her and takes a sitting position on the bed. "I guess we're close enough now for me to tell you, but I have to warn you. It's some messed up shit."

"I'm not sure if you've heard of these two Argentine musicians- Alejandro and Juliana Molfese," Mathéo starts. "They were apparently really popular in like the 90s and early 2000s for some reason. They're the ones who gave birth to me."

"I know them. My mom used to play me their songs a lot when I was younger anytime I couldn't sleep at night," Laura reveals. "Weren't they imprisoned here in Belgium in 2015 or so after the authorities found their child chained up and almost dead in their hotel room while they were busy playing a show in Brussels."

"Yeah, that's them."

"I'm so sorry you had to go through that. Why did they do that to you?"

"'Cause I was born a normal. It turns out having two zegen parents doesn't totally guarantee that the offspring will inherit the gene, which is what happened in my case. By the time I turned 5 and I hadn't shown any signs of possessing any zegen ability, my parents went ballistic. They didn't believe I could ever have a successful career as a normal since I wasn't white, and my mom experienced an early menopause which prevented her from having another baby, so they concluded that their only option was to make their dysfunctional child useful."

"Their so-called treatment wasn't that bad at first. It started off with my mom and dad just putting me on special meds and diets that they believed could stimulate the production of whatever hormone that gives zegens their powers, but nothing changed even several months later. I was still a plain old normal. Then, they decided to go... um..." Mathéo pauses as the pain from his memories gets heavier. "They decided to go bigger and more brutal, which meant resorting to torture. They would confine me in a dark room for days straight without anything to eat nor drink, whip me, chain me up, all sorts of fucked up shit. For some sadistic reason, they were convinced all that was necessary in order to unlock my inner zegen."

"The cycle went on like that until I was nine. My parents didn't feel comfortable leaving me at home whenever they had to travel for their tours and stuff like that 'cause they thought I would try to escape, so they'd carry me along and make sure I didn't make a scene in public to expose them. Fortunately, one night while they were out performing during one of our trips to Brussels, a maid working in the hotel we were staying in disobeyed the 'Do Not Disturb' sign and came into our suite to clean. In the process of doing that, she accidentally found where my parents chained me up after their regular whip therapy and called the police. It didn't take long before cops swooped in to rescue me and arrested my dad and mom for child abuse, assault and attempted murder. Due to some legal reasons I never really understood, I was put in an orphanage here instead of sending me back to my home country, and that's where I met Aaron."

"After all that trauma, I wasn't exactly the most stable child in the home, but so was Aaron. He was that one kid that was on the brink of insanity 'cause his ability was causing him to hear the whispers of every shadow he passed, and we easily became good friends. I guess you could say trainwrecks make the best duos." Mathéo laughs faintly before continuing, "luckily for him, he got adopted by Rob about a year after I got there."

"Anyway, the Badi family eventually adopted me when I was eleven. It was during one of the monthly visiting day events for aspiring foster parents. I didn't understand at the time, even now I don't truly understand, why a zegen couple with a perfectly healthy zegen son wanted to have the antisocial normal kid that was hiding in the corner as part of their family. I honestly believed they were psycho cannibals that were looking for untraceable normal children to eat. They tried their best to make me feel at home. They treated me as their own, gave me my own room, even took me to regular therapy sessions, even though that didn't really stop me from being the world's most erratic and frustrating preteen. After what my biological parents did to me, I wasn't capable of trusting anyone that wanted to be a parental figure in my life, especially not one that was zegen."

"But something in your life changed, didn't it?" Laura asks her friend warmly. "You just don't seem like the frightened and untrusting person you said you were in the past."

"Yeah, I guess you could say that I found a way to let out all the hate and anger," Mathéo affirms. "It was something Lyam introduced me to. One weekend, he forced me to come with him to his 'secret' martial arts class, which was actually just Krav Maga. It isn't really legal to teach minors Krav Maga, hence the whole clandestine nature behind it. It turned out violence was exactly what I needed to let out all that pain and negativity I was harboring. Sure, I didn't just punch and kick my way into getting better, but it was a good start towards slowly accepting the love and affection of the new family I found myself in. My real family."

"They must really love you," Laura says to him.

"Yeah, they really do," Mathéo responds with a genuine smile. "I might not know why they decided to adopt me, but I'm glad they did."

Laura can tell Mathéo is holding back his tears and gently hugs him, whispering in his ear, "thank you for trusting me with that story." His smile brightens as he reciprocates the friendly embrace.

"Thank you for listening. It means a lot."