Chapter 25: Reveal

"I mean-Ugh!"

It takes a second for Anne to react appropriately, dropping to her knees and shaking. Although the delayed reaction to her stabbing is strange, Mary puts it all behind in the face of Anne being "wounded."

She rushes to the slime girl's side and holds her shoulders, gently resting her on the ground. "Anne! Love, just try to breathe! Daniel, call 911!"

The slime girl breathes fast, but mainly because she's panicking. 'W-what do I do!? She's going to find out I'm not human! There's no way Daniel can call for an ambulance either!'

Lying on her back, Mary has some knowledge of what to do in case of a stab wound. The first is not to remove the knife, as doing that would allow more blood to flow out. Secondly, apply pressure on the flat sides of the blade to reduce bleeding. After lifting the slime's ripped shirt a little, she does precisely that.

Except… there's no blood at all. With the knife clearly lodged in, this is strange. "It looks like the bleeding is already limited by the knife...maybe?"

Regardless, Mary is a little relieved; however, Anne takes her confusion the wrong way. Her eyes swirl as she tries to devise a way to bleed as an average human would to delay suspicion.

'Aah! B-but how do I bleed?! Wait…Can I can produce color and milk at the same time?'

Anne has no idea, but she tries anyways. Sure enough, "blood" starts leaking out of the cut and quickly drips down Mary's hand.

The female artist screams and pushes more inward, trying to apply more pressure on both sides of her stomach. She turns her head towards her ex. "Oh god, she's actually bleeding! Daniel, is someone on the way?!"

Daniel is currently faking himself on the phone, trying to devise a solution to this debacle. But hearing Mary's claim of bleeding, his eyes lock back to his disabled mother.

He nearly drops his phone in horror. 'She can bleed!?'

Even Daniel is fooled, wondering if he really does need to call the ambulance. However, while Mary's horrified eyes return back to the slime's abdomen, Anne takes a chance to look at her son, quickly shifting her eyes between him and Mary.

Seeing her behavior, he relaxes a bit. 'So, she's not not really bleeding, huh. Still, is there anything that can be done?'

…

There isn't.

Although he'd have to ask Anne how she's generating "blood", this facade only delays the inevitable. After all, his ex is pressing for an ambulance, and there's no good way to convince her that Anne doesn't need it. Not with a literal knife in the stomach, anyways.

He sighs, lowering the phone to his side. "Anne, let's stop this act. It's no use, we have to tell her."

At this, Anne widens her eyes with concern but stops her shaking and bleeding. Mary listens to her ex-boyfriend's words incredulously.

"Tell me what? Have you called the fucking ambulance or not?!"

To the female artist's surprise, Anne lifts her hand and places it over her darker, stained hand. "Mary, I'm sorry. Please look at my stomach. Don't be alarmed."

Mary is shocked that Anne can speak comfortably all of a sudden. "L-love? What are y-"

Words halt in her throat as she catches the knife being pushed out and the wound resealing. The blade eventually falls away from Anne's skin like nothing and clatters to her side.

Mary stares blankly, jaw unhinged. Eventually, her knees collapse as she drops further to the floor, still locked onto Anne's healed abdomen.

The slime mother's eyes narrow with guilt as Mary's quivering eyes reflect back; however, she knows this is not the time to be scared. She stands up, brushing herself like nothing happened. More blood should've been spilled with such movement, yet only the remaining red milk drips down her legs.

As the female artist watches with disbelief, Anne leans forward, offering a hand. "Mary…please."

No matter how warm of a voice, Mary shrinks back, her breath uneven. Quickly, Daniel joins his distraught ex-girlfriend's side and kneels down with an arm around her shoulders. "Mary, it's okay! Let's talk on the couch about all of this, okay?"

After getting settled, Mary manages to suppress her disbelief long enough as she listens to Daniel's story. Her eyes look between her ex and the slime before she finally speaks.

"A slime girl? For real?"

Daniel and Anne look at each other. They did float the prospect of continuing a lie to Mary. After all, the creative artist witnessed the slime girl's wound sealing itself. This could've been explained by Anne being super-human; however, trying to come up with an origin story would be unnecessarily complicated and hard to prove. Speaking of, they also avoided any mention of Anne being his new mother after absorbing his astronomer-mother's corpse. Reasons of which shouldn't need to be said.

"Yes, although we're not sure what she's made out of," Daniel confirms.

Mary swallows before laughing dryly. "Wh-what is this joke? Daniel, have you been watching too much hentai or some shit?"

Daniel smiles bitterly, expecting her skepticism, given how Anne looks human. That said...

"Anne, show her please."

The slime girl nods and lifts her hand. Before Mary's eyes, she lets the skin on her arm dissolve in seconds, revealing her blue gel innards. After leaving it out for Mary to process in a daze, she regrows her skin easily before any of her mass can loosen.

"Does...that prove it?" she asks hesitantly.

Mary stays frozen, her eyes wide as she stares at the slime girl's arm. It looks like the artist will break any second...that is until she suddenly leans in closer to his slime mother with no warning. The slime can't react in time, and before she knows it, the dark artist has her cheeks firmly pinched between her fingers.

"Uwa?!"

"Holy shit..." Mary breathes, trying to stretch Anne's cheeks.

"P-pwease stob!"

"You feel so firm though! Are you really a slime?!"

"I can contwol my denswity!"

Mary lets go, allowing the slime girl's face to snap into place. With a sharp inhale, she leans back on the couch and stares at the ceiling. "So…my ex-boyfriend got in contact with a slime girl, huh?"

It seems Mary can't entirely dispel her disbelief over the situation. That aside, she's taking Anne's true nature much better than he ever did. Although to be fair, the slime girl looked much more outlandish when she first appeared to him in his closet.

After giving Mary more time to process Anne's nature, she straightens and glares at the couple. "Well, that was a shitty play from before. I actually thought Anne was going to die!"

Seeing the female artist more acknowledging, Anne looks down, relieved and ashamed. "I'm sorry, Mary. I didn't know what else to do."

Mary's eyes soften towards the human-like girl. Shutting her eyes for a moment, she takes another breath. "Look, I get it. You wanted to keep this a secret. That aside, are you two actually in a relationship?"

At this, Daniel coughs. "As weird as it seems, yeah."

"Why?" Mary invites, frowning. "You decide to take in a slime girl and think it's good to be chummy with her?!"

Daniel sidesteps the question. "Look,you don't need to know everything. Just believe me when I say she doesn't mean any harm and I'm just trying not to attract bad attention to her."

The dark-skinned artist's eyes unexpectedly fill with hurt, causing Daniel to flinch. "How...how can you even say that? Love, I'm more worried about you! How do you know that nothing bad will ever happen to you?!"

Daniel blinks before rubbing his neck. "I'm not sure how I can even answer that. Is there uncertainty? Probably."

"What do you mean probably? Have you not considered that you might've stepped into some dangerous shit? Like, how do you know that Anne will remain good or if there aren't already people who are looking out for her and whom might get you killed!?"

"Mary, please!" Anne pleads. "If this is about me, I won't ever harm him, I swear!"

Mary sucks in and shakes her head, her eyes watering. "N-no, how can I believe that? Like, you seem really nice, but how can I trust you with him? You, who happens to appear out of nowhere? Daniel and I might've split, but I still-"

"Because I'm his mother!" Anne cuts, unable to withstand such doubts about herself.

Mary flinches again, her eyes wide. As she enters another round of shock, Daniel groans and places his face in his hands.

However, Anne no longer cares, grabbing Mary's frozen hands pleadingly. "And how could a mother hurt her own son, Mary? How could I not protect…!"

'I couldn't protect him.'

A voice not of her own echoes in her head. It forces her to halt everything as she stares past the female artist.

This abrupt pause juggles Mary. Even more confused than before, she snaps her head at Daniel, who slides his hands down his face with growing wear.

Daniel is about to question Anne first, but his slime mother stands up from the couch, turning away. Coming back to reality, sadness fills her that she can't explain.

"I... I'm sorry, I need to think."

With no further explanation, Anne swiftly leaves the room, leaving the two artists alone.

Daniel sweats as Mary throws her arms up, only growing more perplexed by the second. "Okay, what the hell is going on!?"

Daniel has no idea, but he's forced to put Anne's problems aside. More importantly, he owes his friend a full explanation now.

He closes his eyes and sighs. "I'm sorry, Mary. There's…something else too."

After a lengthy discussion, Mary and Daniel end up near the front door. While gripping her mosaic artwork, the female artist takes a deep breath.

"Love, I...had no idea you'd be one slimy motherfucker."

Daniel groans, wincing. "You just couldn't resist leading into that, could you?"

Mary snorts and lowers her gaze. She's still disturbed learning that Anne somehow represented his ex's mother after absorbing a corpse. It took a while for her to trust Daniel that she meant no further harm.

"As strange as this is though, she's not exactly your real mother, right? Otherwise, that would be..."

Daniel hurriedly nods. "Y-yes, of course! Please understand, Mary. She's way different despite having my mom's memories! How should I say, it's like she's an incarnation of sorts."

Mary hums. "So she's possibly your mother in a spiritual sense...and you're fucking her."

There's no judging in her eyes, but Daniel sweats a little as he feels pressure to devise an excuse. Ultimately though, he has to be straight with his feelings about his relationship with Anne.

"I did try to resist her advances in the beginning with the same thought, but...yes."

Mary sighs. "Adding to the fact that you haven't been together that long, this all validates my concern! Look, I won't judge your trust in her but do rely on me more. If it were any normal relationship, I'd never butt in, except...this is not normal! I'm not talking about whether or not she's your mother, I'm talking about her existence as a real slime girl!"

Daniel raises his hands. "I get it. I know it's crazy especially since it's all happened so fast, and I know I'm being a irrational here, but...I want believe in her and I want to see where we can go together."

"Then, let me help where I can," Mary urges, forcing a smile.

Daniel's eyes tighten. "The only thing is that you're right about the risk. She's a different creature and I can't predict if things will go wrong. It doesn't make sense for you to be involved if something bad happens."

Mary harrumphs. "Well, that is my choice, love. If the accident today didn't happen, I'd be happily ignorant, but it didn't. So now, I can only sleep knowing the person I spent three years with is safe."

Daniel is a little sheepish by his ex's words. He coughs. "Thank you, Mary."

The female artist smiles warmly, then similarly clears her throat. "On a different note, you mentioned how troubling it is that Anne is basically unregistered, right?"

"Yeah...?"

"I might know someone who can create some sort of identification for her."

Daniel furrows his brows slowly.

"Mary..." he speaks slowly, "Are you saying you have some shady connections?"

This time, it's Mary's turn to raise her hands up. "Hold on there, love. First, I immigrated into the U.S. legally and through the same long process as anyone else. That said, I had a particularly...interesting client. That client may also turn out useful for giving Anne some clearer identity going out."

"I don't want anyone to know about her."

"Yes, I understand that, but if you'll trust me and send me some plain photos, I can come up with a cover story. Worst case, Anne might have to change her standard appearance."

Daniel sighs. "I'll think about it."

That's good enough for Mary as she opens the front door, turning slightly. "Let me know if anything happens. If possible, I need to get to know her more. I probably hurt her in my frantic worry, so please tell her I'm sorry. Maybe we can do some more painting together."

Daniel rolls his eyes. "Is that really it? Honestly Mary, you saw her. She can probably learn whatever she wants just by seeing an example!"

Mary bites her lips, then shuts her eyes tightly. "Okay, fine! I actually want to see her transform! What you told me sounds amazing!"

Daniel's shoulder slumps. With a snort, he reluctantly nods. He pretty much told her everything except her recent ability to produce milk. If revealed, he might die of embarrassment if she learned that his slime mother also started nursing him.

The female artist giggles. "Then, I'll hold you to that promise. That is if Anne is willing, of course! Keep me updated, okay?"

Daniel smiles wryly. "Yes. Have a good night, Mary."

"You too, love."

Daniel closes the door behind her as she exits and leans against it with a heavy breath.

'What a fucking blunder.'

"Daniel?"

The artist jerks and sees Anne peaking from the corner of the hallway. He inhales again and smiles reassuringly. "Mom, are you okay?"

Anne nods, a little ashamed. "I'm sorry that I left so suddenly. I..."

As she hesitates, Daniel closes in and wraps his arms around her. "It's alright, I've told Mary nearly everything. Somehow, she understood and this will be kept a secret."

The slime girl hums, her gaze lowering as she nestles into her shoulders and hand grip at his back. "But what if Mary's concerns are right? I mean, we still don't know much about how I came into this world! What if...mama causes more trouble to you than it's worth?"

'What if I hurt you?'

Daniel snorts. "Mom, we can't predict anything. Who is to say I won't die of a heart attack or get robbed one day? Rather than speculate and worry, let's learn as much as we can."

Anne smiles weakly, then pulls away but holds onto her son's hands. "There's another thing. I'm not sure, but...I think I'm remembering bits outside of Amy?"

The artist widens his eyes. "You mean before you absorbed my mother?"

The slime girl hums. "That's what I'm thinking. Actually, when I froze after you started your Stonehenge drawing, I thought it was just my imagination but I heard a voice and an image of a…cloaked man surrounded by green fire within the ring. He spoke a name: Viviane, I think."

Daniel breathes in. "W-why didn't you tell me?"

"I thought it was just my imagination! Then with Mary, I heard a different voice."

"Which is?"

Anne bites her lips.

'I couldn't protect him.'

"I'm…not so sure."