(Oct 21)

I took a long and nervous deep breath before saying:

“I’ve planted dragon essence bombs all over the city.”

“Huh?”

William wasn’t even able to process what I had just said.

“I used my dragon essence to create bombs which I have all over the city, if I lose consciousness in any way, they will detonate and explode, killing hundreds of people in the process.”

As those words left my mouth, William instantly raised his staff and several dozen ice spears appeared surrounding my neck.

“What’s the meaning of this Anthony…? Even if you did go a little psycho due to your dragon powers, you wouldn’t make a sick joke like this for no reason…”

“It’s not a joke, I’m serious.”

“Anthony… are you working for the Kenava kingdom…?”

William had misunderstood my actions as being a spy or being a double agent for the Kenava, which to William’s POV, seems like a reasonable assumption.

“Wait, what? Kenava? No. I’m not related to them.”

“Then why, why are you doing this. Why are you telling me this, why now? What are you trying to do?!”

His voice started to raise and shake, I could tell that he felt betrayed by my actions. I’m sorry William, I was panicking and didn’t know what to do. I didn’t have the usual leisure of spending hours thinking of what to do next.

I slowly gulped, making sure not to make any sudden movements that could provoke William.

“I did this because I needed to make sure things don’t go wrong. I’m desperate, there’s something… I need to tell you and I don’t know how you’ll react.”

He stayed silent, allowing me to continue speaking.

“My wife is The Grinch.”

More silence.

I mean, what is anyone suppose to say in this situation?

“Wait, you’re… serious?” William asked slowly.

I nodded.

“I just found out… when I got home, I found my wife. She’s sleeping, but I can feel it. Her body is oozing with The Grinch’s magic and mine as well. Not to mention the fur…”

William paused to think.

Now comes the important part, what will William decide to do?

I desperately need his help with covering up my wife’s true identity, but if he doesn’t agree, the situation would only get worse.

“You know me William, I won’t let my wife get hurt. I’m sure there’s a reason for this, I just need you to help me until my wife wakes up and we can some answers.”

“You’re a fucking hypocrite, you know that right? You were willing to kill The Grinch, but when it’s someone you know, you suddenly want to defend them?”

“Yes, I’m a fucking hypocrite, I know that… but it shows that I’m still partially human. A selfish human who wants to protect those that he loves.”

“…”

“…”

“I’m… honestly hurt by this. The fact you can’t even trust me. The fact that you had to come up with a dumb lie like planting bombs over the city. I know you wouldn’t do that; you think I would fall for that bluff?”

I looked down in shame.

It’s true, I never intended to actually blow up the city. I did plant a couple bombs in abandoned locations to create flashy booms, but they were in locations that wouldn’t hurt anyone.

“Was I wrong to think that we were… friends? Or at least at a level where we didn’t have to use threats on each other?”

“William… I’m sorry man, I was desperate. I wasn’t in my right mind. Look, it’s been a long fucking day. I’m tired. I literally got torn to shreds an hour ago, and my mind went through multiple breakdowns.”

I felt guilty. I completely backstabbed William. I should never have done this, what was I god damn thinking.

Even if I didn’t trust him, I should’ve never have pretended to do this.

William turned away from me, and I don’t blame him.

“Come to my lab in 30 minutes, bring your wife too and make sure she doesn’t wake up.”

After saying this, he simply walked away.

He’s giving me a chance.

Despite lying to him, he’s still giving me a chance.

I rushed home and grabbed my wife, put her on my shoulder, and was about to head out when I noticed Gabi in her room.

I didn’t want to leave her alone at home, so I grabbed her as well and carried them both straight to William’s lab.

William was already at the lab and was setting up his equipment.

He was alone and it seemed like he didn’t tell anyone.

“Put her on the table,” William instructed without even looking up at me.

And I did as he told.

William put on his lab coat and walked over to my wife still laying unconscious on the table.

“What are you going to do?” I asked quietly.

I was nervous and my throat was dry.

“Don’t worry, I won’t hurt her. It’ll be the same process that I did with you. I’ll take some of her blood and magic, and then analysis it. Once she wakes up, we can question her then.”

William briefly explained before getting straight to work.

I didn’t know what to do, so I just sat in the corner watching him, with Gabi sleeping on my lap.

Surprisingly, Gabi stayed asleep this entire time.

So now I’m just waiting.

It’s been several hours, and William sent out a letter canceling The Grinch hunt, and I stayed in the lab with him as he worked.

It soon became night, but I didn’t feel like sleeping with all that’s going on.

I’m just waiting for William to finish doing what he’s doing.

And most of all, I’m waiting for my wife to wake up so I can finally get some answers.

(Oct 22)

Yesterday was one of the worse days of my life.

By the end, I was extremely exhausted, and my fatigue was at it’s max.

However, I couldn’t sleep. I didn’t even bother trying.

I stayed up all night, staring at my unconscious wife and occasionally peaking over at William who was examining my wife’s blood.

We had decided to wait for my wife to naturally wake up instead of forcefully waking her up because we didn’t know what effects it might have on my wife. She usually sleeps around 6 – 8 hours a night, so my wife didn’t wake up until early morning.

Since I was sitting next to my wife and watching her all night, I was the first to notice her slowly waking up.

My wife gradually opened her eyes and looked around the room, staring at me, then turning to stare at William and then at Gabi who was still asleep in the corner.

The color drained from my wife's face as she slowly realized what was going on.

“Good morning, dear… did you sleep well?”

She looked down, avoiding my face.

This was a situation I had never expected I would ever be in, and so it was difficult to interrogate my wife.

Neither of us spoke for a while.

I’ve been waiting for this all night, but now that I finally get the chance, I don’t know what to say.

William tried to step in, but I stopped him.

“William, please. Let me handle this.”

He nodded and said, “Alright, I’ll interfere if I have to though.”

I turned back to my wife and after gathering the words in my head, I started to speak.

“So… yesterday, I left you a note saying that I was going to be gone for a while due to an urgent matter. That urgent matter was… confronting The Grinch. We set up a trap and fought it, however it narrowly escaped. And… that Grinch… is you, isn’t it?”

I spoke slowly, letting my words sink deep.

My wife didn’t look up, she just nodded her head.

“Then it’s true after all… as you can probably already tell, I have lots and lots of questions. But I’ll refrain from bombarding you with them… instead, can you tell us? Explain yourself…? Why? What’s going on? You clearly didn’t seem to want to hurt me, and yet…. I’m sorry, I said I wasn’t going to ask too many questions, yet here I am doing exactly that. But please, tell us anything you know.”

She stayed quiet for a moment to gather her thoughts before she began speaking.

“I don’t even know where to start… it… uh… I’m… hmmmm… uh… I guess… I should start off by stating that… um… I have… I first transformed into The Grinch roughly half a year ago… a couple days after you went to the city for the first time after you discovered your dragon powers…”

My wife had a hard time explaining everything on the spot. I was patient with her though and listened closely to her.

“That’s very recent. What happened?”

“It was… a man. He visited our house a few days after you left with the soldiers. And he’s the one who… caused me to become this…”

Her voice started to quiver, ever so slightly.

“Who… who was that man?”

“It was… Gin.”

Gin…

At first, my mind blanked out, but then the memories slowly flooded in.

Gin… Gin?

The man who saved my life.

The guy who defeated the dragon that nearly killed me, before I even gained my dragon powers.

He was my savior.

And my wife is now claiming that man, is the same person who caused my wife to transform into a green mass murdering furry.

“Gin?”

She nodded.

“A few days after you left, Gin visited again. Since he was your savior, I welcomed him and told him that you were away and that he should return another time. He did leave, but he left us some food as a gift, which I had gladly accepted at the time, not realizing what it was.

However, when I ate it… my entire body felt weird… I… my entire body was in pain… my body slowly transformed into a green beast… fur grew out of me… I… turned into a monster.”

My wife’s voice was visibly trembling now… she was recalling a traumatic experience…

She went through all this, and was able to hide it? Without me even realizing? What kind of shit has she gone through???

I didn’t want her to continue speaking. Like before, I wanted her to just stop. Stop talking. But I knew, she needed to continue. We need to know the full story.

Even though it makes me sick in the stomach, I had to continue allowing my wife to recall these memories.

“Luckily, Gabi was playing outside so she was safe… safe…. safe from me… I felt my mind slipping, so I ran into a forest, away. My body continue to morph… and I was about to completely lose consciousness when suddenly… I saw Gin.

By then, I was bloodthirsty… I lunged at Gin and tried to attack him. He managed to subdue me with ease though and injected something into me… which reverted me back to normal and calmed me down.

From that day on, I became dependant on Gin. Every couple days, I could feel myself become more and more aggressive… before I could fully transform, Gin would visit and inject me with something that would stop it and then leave again. With this, I was able to continue living as a human… at least, partially…”

What the hell.

The same man who saved my life is the same twisted fucker who transformed my wife into a beast?

I was extremely angry and clenched my fist so hard that my veins burst.

I needed to calm myself, but how could any sane person after hearing this??

“Why…. Do you know why he did that? Did he extort money from you? Threaten you?? Do experiments on you???”

To my surprise, she shook her head.

“Gin did nothing. He didn’t say anything, whenever he visited, he came and left as quickly as possible. He never said a word. He consistently visited though, making sure that I never fully transformed.

However, once you came home Anthony… he stopped visiting. And I haven’t seen him since I moved to the city and thus haven’t been able to control myself… I tried sending him a letter before leaving, desperate to get him to help again… but he never responded.”

I was at a lost of words.

Assuming everything she said is true, then it explains everything about The Grinch, but it also adds a ton of new questions…. Like, who is Gin?

Gin, the goofy friendly dude who saved my life.

Gin, my savior.

Gin, the man who defeated a dragon that nearly killed me.

And Gin, the one who ruined my wife’s life and turned her into The Grinch.