Page 49 of Hot Monster Summer

Oren appears from the opposite edge of the clearing, his moss-covered form seeming to materialize from the trees themselves. Small flowers glow faintly in the gathering dusk.

They approach the fire in three directions, forming a triangle with me at the center. None speaks, all watching me with varying degrees of caution and intensity.

“Sit,” I say, gesturing to the ground around the fire. “Please.”

To my surprise, they obey without question. Kaelen settles to my right, cross-legged but still massive. Caspian chooses a spot to my left, and Oren sits directly across the fire, his bulk making the ground tremble slightly.

“I’ve been thinking,” I begin, suddenly nervous despite my determination. “About this… situation. About all of you. About what I want.”

Three pairs of eyes fix on me with unnerving focus.

“The past few weeks have been wonderful, but the other morning was… a lot. Too much, too fast. But the thing is…” I take a deep breath, gathering my courage. “The thing is, I don’t want you to go away. Any of you.”

A tension I hadn’t fully registered begins to dissolve from their postures.

“I came here to heal from a pretty significant betrayal. To be alone. To figure out who I am without… him.” I twist my hands in my lap. “But instead I found the three of you, and you’ve each shown me something different, something I didn’t know I needed.”

I turn to Kaelen. “You show me protection, strength, the exhilaration one feels when you let go and let yourself be free.”

To Caspian, “You show me depths I never knew existed, beauty in the unknown, adventure beyond safe shores.”

To Oren, “You show me patience, wisdom, the value of roots and slow growth and steady presence.”

The fire crackles in the following silence, sparks rising toward the emerging stars.

“I don’t know what this is,” I continue, my voice steadier now. “I don’t know what we are or could be. But I do know I don’t want to fight. I don’t want to pretend anymore. I’m drawn to all of you. I’m tired of applying human relationship rules to something that’s clearly… not human.”

I reach for the bag of marshmallows, a deliberately light gesture to break the intensity of the moment. “So I’m proposing a truce. No more fighting over me. No more jealous standoffs. We figure this out, all of us, whatever ‘this’ is, at a pace I can handle.”

I look around at the three of them, these impossible beings who’ve crashed into my life and turned it upside down. “Can you do that? Can you share? Can you respect my boundaries while we… explore this?”

The silence stretches, filled only with the popping of the fire and the distant lapping of water against the shore. Then, Oren speaks first.

“Worth sharing,” he rumbles, his deep voice resonating around us.

Caspian’s tentacles shift, curling and uncurling in what I recognize as thoughtful consideration. “It goes against our nature,” he admits. “But you are worth the effort of… cooperation.”

Kaelen’s response is less forthcoming. “I’m yours,” he says, amber eyes reflecting the firelight. “I cannot let you go. Even if it means sharing something I never thought I would.”

Relief and something warmer flood through me. I hadn’t realized how tense I’d been until that moment, afraid of rejection or refusal.

“Good,” I say, trying to hide how my voice catches. “That’s… good. Now, who wants marshmallows?”

And that’s how I find myself teaching three monsters how to make s'mores and roast the perfect marshmallow over an open fire, laughing as Kaelen burns his to a crisp, as Caspian uses a tentacle with surgical precision to rotate his to golden perfection, and as Oren watches the process with fascinated attention to detail.

It’s not normal. It’s not sensible. But as the night deepens and the conversation flows more easily, their rigid boundaries begin to soften. Even Kaelen and Caspian seem less hostile towards each other. Maybe there’s still potential for these two.

I realize I’ve made my choice.

I’ve chosen all of them.

I’ve chosen this strange, impossible situation. I’ve chosen to surrender not to one monster, but to the chaotic, beautiful possibility of what we might become together.

17

Caspian

Sharing is not in a kraken’s nature. We’re territorial to our core, possessive of our treasures, and I’ve decided Lily is the most precious gem in my collection.

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