Holly snorted. “Mal the monster? Nice.”
Mal rolled his eyes and made a shooing motion to Holly. “Keep moving, asshole. You can question me until we’re out of the airport. Then we part ways, and we pretend like this never happened.”
“Really?” The faint shimmer in Holly’s hopeful eyes all but confirmed Mal’s suspicions about Holly’s ancestry.
“Don’t make it weird,” Mal warned.
“I won’t! Zero weirdness. This is amazing, by the way. None of the other folks like you will even talk to me. I’m so happy I got harassed by those nuns. This is the best day ever.” Holly bounced as they returned to making their way through the space Mal was at least fifty percent certain was a creation of Holly’s that they weren’t aware of.
“It’s certainly a day, all right,” Mal sighed.
“Okay. Questions… questions… Oh! I’ve got one. What does being a monster feel like?”
“I don’t know. What does the color blue feel like?” Mal reflected the question because it was inane as fuck.
He could keep it up all day. It would be good practice for when he finally met up with Clayton again. He was going to rile Clayton up as much as monsterly possible before he ate him. It could be dinner and a show.
Holly was unfazed and changed tactics. “My social worker told me that my inability to bond with any of my foster families or make friends is due to my antisocial personality disorder. My shrink says I have emotions, but I don’t have them about people. Do you have emotions about people?”
Mal’s mind immediately went to an incredibly vexing redhead. “Sometimes.”
“What kind of emotions?”
Hmmm… What kind indeed?
“Confusing ones.”
“How so?”
Well, in for a penny, in for a pound. It wasn’t like Mal cared if he traumatized Holly with the truth. He was never going to see them again, so why not? “There’s a person I know who I want to eat…” Mal stopped, unsure of what he was trying to say. It was a complicated situation.
Holly nodded encouragingly. “Go on. I listen, and I don’t judge.”
Pfft. What was judgment? Could Mal eat it? No. Then why should he care about such petty concepts?
“I want to eat him, but I also want to piss him off.”
“That sounds like you don’t like him. I mean, that’s an emotion, I guess, but it doesn’t sound confusing.”
“…I want him to like it when I do it.” Mal stopped himself. He was getting too real for comfort, and he didn’t owe Holly anything real.
“Kinky,” Holly said with a smirk. “Now we’re talking. Have you felt that way before?”
Mal shrugged. No, he hadn’t, but it was none of Holly’s business.
“Suit yourself. I’ve never felt anything like that. I don’t feel anything for anyone at all. I don’t like or dislike people. I don’t find myself gravitating toward anyone in particular, but I do have people I avoid because they’re unpleasant to be around. People are just… people.”
“Do you want to hurt them if they upset you?” Mal certainly did.
“No.”
“Why not?” Mal already knew why, but he wanted to hear Holly say it anyway.
“Because they don’t matter. They aren’t a part of my life. It’s just better for people to stay away from each other if they don’t get along.”
“What if theyarea part of your life?”
“I… I don’t know. No one has ever been a part of it. It’s always just been me dealing with everyone else.”
