Alastair’s amazing atrocities

*This story is under my folder “The Anstead family”. Gacha Club character designs are under this forum: https://www.writerfeed.com/topic/117842-my-character-designs-lt-33-3?start=360. Enjoy!*

Introduction 

Alastair Anstead, a werewolf who wished that he could admire the full moon like his older vampire sister, Adelaide, could. She always talked about how much she liked the moon and he wished that he could see for himself what was so great about it.

Samantha, the oldest demon clown sister of both Adelaide and Alastair, always tried to keep the mood bright, cheery and full of confetti. Alastair would always love Samantha’s cupcakes, but it wasn’t enough to soften the blow of being a monster, of leaving blood and gore in his wake.

But why were they monsters when their parents were human? Mom didn’t seem to know why and Dad wouldn’t even talk to any of them, but sometimes, Alastair wondered if life would be better, less stressful, if he were a human.

He tried to live his life as good as he could, though.

Chapter One

Alastair watched as Samantha squeezed purple glitter glue onto a blank sheet of paper. They were both sitting cross-legged on the floor, across from each other. Samantha had asked Alastair if he wanted to do arts and crafts with her and so, Alastair said yes, because he was beginning to feel the impending dread of loneliness when he was reading his book.

“Do you ever wonder what it’s like to have friends?” Samantha suddenly asked.

Alastair blinked, a little startled by the question. She had it said so casually, but there was something sour and sorrowful in her tone, something that told him that the question meant so much more to her.

Chapter Two 

“Yes, sometimes. I do wish that I had more friends a lot. Do you want friends?” Alastair asked.

He never imagined his older sisters wanting any friends of their own. Samantha always seemed happy and Adelaide just didn’t seem to care about what most thought, so how could it be that Samantha was asking about friends?

She put the purple glitter tube down on the ground, then sighed heavily.

Chapter Three

“Yes, I do. I know that Mom says we should be happy about ourselves but sometimes I wished that I weren’t a monster so that humans would like me more. I make crafts and try to be as nice as I can be yet still, humans do not talk to me. It hurts sometimes.” Samantha said, her voice low as if it were on the edge of crying.

He didn’t know how to answer that. Alastair was not sure if he should answer that. What was there to say to someone who felt like people didn’t like them for who they were?

“Adelaide doesn’t seem to care about friends, so it’s nice to know I’m not alone. Maybe we’ll find friends one day.” Samantha said with a smile, as if to push the topic further away.

Was that all Samantha wanted? A reassurance that she wasn’t alone? If that was enough to help her then he would be happy about it but still…why did she have to bring up friends at all?

Chapter Four

A few hours had passed since Samantha and Alastair were doing the glitter glue art, most of it just being Samantha doing all of the art and so, he was in the local woods that connected to their backyard, Adelaide walking ahead of him.

It was the weekend and a cloudy day at that. If it was sunny then Adelaide would either not go outside or only walk under the tree branches.

She wanted to show him something, so he followed, hoping that it wouldn’t take too long because he wanted to eat lunch soon but was still curious all the same.

Chapter Five

“Samantha forced me to build this fort with her before you were born. I didn’t want to do it at first but I think it’s rather beautiful now.” Adelaide said.

They had stopped in front of a castle-looking structure that seemed to be made of sticks and covered in sparkling silver tinsel, fabric scraps of many colors and patterns, and ribbons that hung from the top like flags. Some of the fabrics even had glitter on them. But while it was pretty impressive, Alastair wanted to know:

“How does it stay up? It’s so big!”

Chapter Six

“It’s just magic, Alastair. Magic that I use and some superglue that Samantha took from the kitchen. Anyway, I wanted to show you this because I thought you’d like it. It might be easier for you to be tied here while looking at the full moon.” Adelaide said.

She said the last part with clear heaviness in her voice, but that was what she was thinking? Having him turn more into a werewolf in there? But he wanted to hang out there, not turn!

Alastair wouldn’t ask about it, though. He would just appreciate the fort. Better to admire what he was looking at than worry too much.

Chapter Seven

FLASHBACK

Alastair felt that there was something clawing at his stomach, tearing it apart, as he stared at the full moon outside his window. He thought he needed to throw up at first but nothing came out, so he lay in bed, trying to ignore it.

His right ear twitched a bit, his tail curled around his left leg. Something was happening to him, but maybe it was something he ate, maybe-

Alastair could feel his teeth growing and twisting inside of him, could see more fur sprouting on his arms than normally and then, a loud, morose wail escaping his lips.

What was going on with him? The thing couldn’t be happening…could it?

Chapter Eight

Some years had passed since Alastair was shown the fort and at the moment, he was in the hospital, with his Dad and older sisters, watching Mom give birth to a new baby.

Alastair deeply hoped that it was a boy, because while he loved his sisters, it would be nice to have a boy to play with, to talk to. He wouldn’t feel so alone.

At least, that was what he thought would happen. Movies showed girls being closer with girls and boys being closer with boys, some maybe that would be the same for him.

Most of all, it’d be nice if the sibling was a werewolf, because then they’d both change together and he’d have a werewolf friend!

He’d just wait and see.

Chapter Nine

The baby was a boy, but he had come out with orange hair, teal and scaled skin, yellow pupils in a sea of black sclera and sharpened teeth and claws. The doctors were not sure what he was, but Mom said that he looked like an extraterrestrial, like a creature who came from another planet.

In other words, an alien. Mom had given him the human name of “Aiden” and so, thus was born Alastair’s little brother.

Alastair was a little disappointed that Aiden wasn’t a werewolf, but he’d try not to be too upset about it.

After all, it wasn’t Aiden’s fault that he wasn’t born a werewolf.

Chapter Ten

It was another day and Mom had brought home raw, bleeding meat that she had just killed with her own bare hands. Alastair kept asking, but Mom always told him that she was born a human and stayed a human, that she was “only doing the best” for them all.

As Alastair ate the meat, he wondered if it was selfish of him to wonder if life would be easier as a human, if he’d have a better life because if it.

And then, he wondered what it would be like to taste human food.

Chapter Eleven

Alastair was in the living room with just his siblings. Mom was out doing…something. Going on errands? Going on her job? He didn’t even know what kind of job she had. He did know that Dad was in the basement, watching movies. As far as he was concerned, Dad didn’t have a job.

But since no one seemed to care, Alastair got up and walked over to the kitchen, which was across from the living room and to the refrigerator.

All he’d do was have one bite of human food and then, maybe he’d stop being miserable for a bit.

Chapter Twelve

Alastair ignored the packaged raw meat and instead grabbed some large yellow-greenish fruit that was sort of shaped like a melon, a cantaloupe, perhaps. Yes, that’s what it seemed to be.

He then closed the fridge door, staring at the strange fruit in his clawed hand, something that looked too fresh to exist and then, he bit into it.

Sweet, overpoweringly sweet, too much-

His throat hurt like it was being strangled by invisible hands!

Chapter Thirteen

Alastair doubled over, screaming internally as yellow, chunky puke came out with thin slivers of blue and black streaked blood, his eyes tearing up. All he did was eat human food, why did his mouth feel like it was on fire?

He could hear his family running to him, their voices ringing in a blurry haze, but as he stared at his own blood, in deep blues and blacks, he thought it looked like the night sky, like…like…

The first night he REALLY turned.

Chapter Fourteen 

FLASHBACK

But a scream-no, more of a howl-spilled out of his lips and into the open air, his bones crunched as his back arched in pain, his fingers had twisted into claws and-

Mom had warned him that on full moons, he would become more of a werewolf than he already was. More fur, more animal-like, more bloodlust. Chains would have kept him down, but Mom said she didn’t believe in chains and said that the house being locked was fine.

He was glad there were no chains, but what if he went outside and did something bad? What if he hurt people? Already, Alastair was starting that he could get one taste of blood and flesh, freshly killed.

Chapter Fifteen

“Eat this, it’ll stop you from dying! Do it quick!” Mom’s voice cried out.

But Alastair couldn’t really see anything in the blur that covered his eyes, only vague shapes. It looked like everyone but Dad was staring down at him, like he was on the floor and right in front of his face was a pale pink blob, like raw meat.

“Wh…what do you mean? How…how am I dying?” Alastair asked, surprised by how sluggish his voice sounded. He knew he felt all like mush, but why did his voice sound like that? Why did he even feel the way he did at all?

Chapter Sixteen

He ate the pink blob, hoping that it was raw meat and not something else and so, when his vision cleared, Alastair sighed in relief when he saw that it was meat. It looked like it was straight from the package of store bought meat that Mom got from the grocery store and it wasn’t as good as any of the meat that she killed, for it had a slightly sour taste, but it helped a little.

“You can’t eat human food, Alastair. Your body rejects it. We talked about this before, why didn’t you listen to me?” Mom asked, her eyebrows creased in concern.

Because I just wanted to try human foods. Because I didn’t want to feel like a monster. Alastair thought, but wasn’t certain if he should say.

Chapter Seventeen 

It was yet another day at home. Alastair was fine, he had eaten the meat.

But something else was lurking in his mind and it was about the brown dirt powder in front of the basement door. It wasn’t always there and when it came a few days after he ate the human food, Alastair was starting to wonder why it would need to be there in the first place.

Maybe his other siblings wondered too.

Chapter Eighteen

Alastair saw Adelaide walking down the hall from her room, so he turned towards her and asked:

“Why is there brown powder around the basement door?”

Perhaps she would know, since she was older and knew more things than him. Adelaide always seemed smart to him, yet still, she frowned and looked like she didn’t know how to answer.

“I’m not sure. Maybe Dad forgot to clean it up?”  Adelaide asked after a while.

Chapter Nineteen 

The two of them stared at the powder a bit, wondering why it was there and what could possibly be its purpose, until Adelaide reached out to touch it, Alastair watching her pale claw extend out and-

His eyes widened when he watched smoke curl out of her hand, her hand that was burning from the powder, right into her flesh. How could a powder do that? Why was it in front of the basement door at all?

Alastair reached out towards the powder to see if it would do the same to him, but Adelaide had swatted his hand away from it he could touch even a particle of the powder.

Chapter Twenty 

In that moment, it had really settled into Alastair’s veins that the powder could have been something far more evil than he could imagine, something sinister if it burned Adelaide’s hand and so, he cried out:

“Mom!”

Adelaide sat next to him, staring at her hand, her eyes studying it closely. Alastair knew that Mom was busy feeding Aiden, but maybe she’d come down when hearing Alastair call out for her, because she wanted them to ask for help when they needed it.

“I’m gonna go get Mom.” Alastair said as he got up, because if she wasn’t coming down, then maybe talking to her had to be his next course of action.

Chapter Twenty-One

Alastair walked up the steps towards the room Mom and Dad shared, gently opening the door so as not to anger Mom, because she didn’t like it when the door was slammed open too loudly.

“Mom, can you please come downstairs for a second? I want to show you something.” Alastair said.

She was in the middle of feeding Aiden a bloody corpse of a squirrel that she killed and she didn’t look too happy that she was bothered, but then she asked:

“Is it serious?”

Alastair nodded, his heart pounding, thinking of how good he looked at keeping his composure and hoping that it would stay that way, that he looked on the outside wouldn’t reflect what he felt on the inside and that Mom wouldn’t get too worried, because his heart would twist even more upon seeing her stress out and-

She told Aiden to stay where he was, then she got up from the chair she was previously sitting on and joined Alastair at the door.

Chapter Twenty-Two

“Why is there powder around the door that burns Adelaide’s hand?” Alastair asked once he and Mom had made it to the door. 

“What do you mean?” Mom asked, confusion scrawled on her face.

All she was seeing was powder, so Adelaide knelt down towards the powder and touched it, as did Alastair, because she had to see how bad the powder was, even if it burned his hand.

“Dylan, what is this?!” Mom cried out once they removed their clawed hands away from the powder. Alastair noticed that Dad was standing at the top of the stairs, the basement door wide open.

“There’s no need to worry, it’s just to keep the bugs out. Maybe they had an allergic reaction to it in their own way. See?” Dad said, gesturing to the powder.

“Dylan, come upstairs. We need to talk.” Mom snarled, her eyes simmering with deep, deep anger that made Alastair’s blood run cold.

“But-“

“Now.”

Dad sighed as though he were annoyed and walked away with Mom, leaving Alastair and Adelaide to wonder what the powder could have meant and why Dad would even have it in the first place.

Chapter Twenty-Three

HOSPITAL

Months had passed since the incident with the powder. Alastair didn’t get an answer from Mom or Dad and at the moment, he was in the hospital, watching the birth of someone who was going to be his last sibling, a boy who Mom had named “David”.

He looked human enough, but Alastair was not sure if he was, since he and his other siblings were monsters.

It sounded slightly absurd, but he wondered if Dad was secretly afraid of them, so much so that he stayed in the basement and made powder that burned his and Adelaide’s hands.

It was a strange thought, but was Dad trying to kill them?

Chapter Twenty-Four

Alastair sat on the front porch, watching David play with his toys. It had been a few months since his birth, so David could crawl a bit, just like Alastair and the others, just like any ordinary baby.

As Alastair watched him, he noticed that every time David kept dropping a toy, his claws would come out and he’d rake the grass as though he wanted to dig up all of time’s skeletons, so Alastair would bring the toy back to him, and David would smile and giggle a bit, the claws disappearing.

One thing that never changed about David was his eyes. When he was born, he had hot pink eyes with long, black snake pupils. It was one detail that the doctors didn’t notice, one thing that the rest of his family didn’t realize until after a few days, too wrapped up in their own thoughts.

But Alastair wondered how hard it would be for David, to be what he was, a creature in a world of humans, at such a young, confusingly fuzzy age.

Chapter Twenty-Five

After a day of watching over David and hanging out with his other siblings, Alastair lay in bed alone.

Well, he wasn’t quite alone. David and Aiden were in the same room as him, but in the quiet of the night, it felt like the only being that existed was him, and with the glare of the moon, Alastair felt as though the world had wanted to pain him, from how his back twisted, from how he tried so hard to keep his cries down, from-

The door creaked open.

Chapter Twenty-Six

“Mom and Dad were having an argument downstairs about us and Mom was defending and then, Dad just killed Mom! We have to kill him right now!” Samantha’s voice said.

Alastair knew that Dad might have been a bit uneasy about them, but to kill their Mom for it? Why would he do such a thing? Wasn’t that something irrational?

But then, Dad did put a strange powder that hurt when he and Adelaide touched it. He didn’t need to put the powder there, he just did.

Did he really hate them?

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Alastair sat up from bed, about to tell his brothers what Samantha said, but he found that they were awake and alert already.

His whole body felt like it was going to tear itself inside out with the glare of the full moon, but also, it could be used to his advantage. Samantha wasn’t one to lie and it did make sense for Dad to hate them all…

It wasn’t like he was there for them anyway.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

As Alastair walked down the hallway, Samantha and Adelaide in front, Aiden and David behind him, he felt his body twitching with every step he took and his mind pummel to all the thoughts of Dad not being there, of Dad always being in the basement, of-

Samantha was right. Mom was lying on the kitchen floor, blood spewing around her head, a huge, jagged glass shard in her left eye.

She, someone who loved and cared for them, who was always there for them…gored as if she were nothing but a piece of meat.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

And as Dad’s footsteps got closer, Alastair let the light of the moon course through his veins, cloud through his senses, take control of him.

For he may be ruled by something wild, something that he would not quite understand, but his body would know who to kill at that moment and then, justice would be served from his own fanged teeth, tearing through flesh.

Just like how the glass shard lodged deep into Mom’s eye, how pieces of glass pierced unforgivingly in her body.

Chapter Thirty

Alastair didn’t hesitate to run towards Dad and rip him apart with his claws, joining in with the rest of his siblings, relishing in his screams.

He was never there at all and in that moment, he wouldn’t forget them. Not even in death would they let him rest in peace, because deep down, they all knew that he wanted them dead.

Alastair could see it from the hatred in his eyes, he just didn’t want to believe it until then.

Chapter Thirty-One

FLASHBACK-ELEMENTARY SCHOOL-BEFORE AIDEN AND DAVID.

Alastair pretended like he didn’t notice the other kids at school staring at his ears and his tail. He focused on either walking to his class, going to the bathroom or doing his work.

Though the stares got under his skin and he understood why they would be staring at him, it still made Alastair feel a bit uneasy.

He didn’t say anything about it, though, because he’d get angry with them all and then, he’d do something he would regret. Alastair could feel the fury bubbling underneath the surface of his sadness, just like how he felt about Dad spending all his time in the basement, not speaking to him or to his sisters, as if he didn’t care at all.

Mom said he was just difficult. It didn’t quite feel like that.

Chapter Thirty-Two

Some days had passed since they had killed Dad. Alastair and the others had hid his body in their shed and let it rot there. Samantha had decided to take them away to live in the woods, not in the fort that Samantha and Adelaide made years ago, in an abandoned cabin in the woods.

Alastair did not know why the abandoned cabin was there or why they couldn’t just stay in the fort, but there they were in the cabin, away from Dad, sometimes visited by Mom’s spirit…

And Alastair didn’t feel quite human at all, even after that night of the full moon.

Epilogue 

Alastair did not go to school anymore. Nobody did. Samantha had just decided that she was going to school everyone, that the world was much too dangerous to go out and that humans were a bit hard to trust. Not that they were evil, but that they were tricky.

Sometimes Alastair wondered what it would be like to be normal, for all of his family to be together, and for both of his parents to love them, just like many other kids in their neighborhood.

But being normal was never an option for them and Alastair just had to live with that, it seemed.