I was normal. I had nothing in my life that stood out. I was an average twenty three year old woman. I have dirty blonde hair and honey brown eyes. I was normal. But then all this crazy shit happened to me. But even if I could, I wouldn’t change a single thing.
My name is Victoria Foster… and this is my story
Part 1
I was born in a small town in the middle of no-freakin’-name U.S.A. I was the youngest of five and the only girl. I was daddy’s little princess from the moment I was born to the rest of time. My older brothers were bratty and annoying, but from day one it was burned into their brains that they had to protect me. My mother taught me everything she knew about everything. From basics about what girls do, such a sewing, cooking, ballet, homemaking, and health and medical care, all the way to how to read a person by their eyes, being a good friend, how to trust others and how much their trust should mean to me, and how the world really worked.
When I was eighteen I had finished high school and was going into college. There was this amazing college for mathematically excelled and literarily gifted people and I was offered a full scholarship. I was thrilled, except it was in a whole other state that was miles from home. But my family told me to go for it and I was so thankful for their support.
When I moved on to campus, I was still a little nervous. But then I met some other students and made some friends and I settled in a lot better. And just three months after I had started taking classes, I had gotten really close to my one friend named Derek.
Derek Jackson was fun and adventurous and that was so amazing to me. By the fifth month of me attending college there, Derek and I were a legit couple. I felt like my life was just perfect. I was at the college of my dreams, I had a wonderful boyfriend, and my dream of being a writer was going great.
Then it just all went to hell. After only being in college for six months, I got pregnant.
The moment I found out I started crying. Then I called my mom and cried to her about how my life was ruined, that I screwed up so bad, and Derek would leave me and I had to raise a kid on my own. But she told me to calm down and breathe, so I did. Then she said she loved me and no matter what everything would be ok. So I told Derek that I was pregnant and if he didn’t want to stay he didn’t have to, but then he should just leave now and I would do this on my own. But he told me he loved me, and he was thrilled to have a baby with me.
Then he proposed. He got down on one knee, held my hand in both of his, and asked if I would be his wife… and I gladly said yes.
I didn’t want being pregnant to get in the way of college, but Derek had other ideas. He insisted I leave college and he would take care of me and the baby. I was very hesitant to give up such an amazing opportunity, but I gave in and dropped out after he swept me off my feet. We rented a house together and I still practiced my writing ethics in my new home. I thought that once the baby was born I would stay at home with it until it was old enough for a sitter or daycare or whatever, then I could start back up with a community college. It wasn’t as fancy as the one I had been going to but some of the greatest writers in history didn’t have traditional schooling.
Boy was I wrong as hell.
Once we were living together, Derek pulled a complete one eighty. He started getting possessive and he yelled at me. I was honest to god scared of him and scared for my unborn child. Then he started getting physically abusive. He beat me and grabbed me and gave me bruises. And even though I was pregnant, he still made me have sex with him and that hurt too. I was so confused by the fact he had changed so much I hadn’t noticed the obvious until five months of torture later.
I was being abused physically, verbally…… and sexually.
I wanted to leave. I wanted to get out. I wanted to call off the engagement. But I couldn’t… I was miles away from home and had no one to stay with here. I put up with Derek for nearly my entire pregnancy. I guess I still hoped deep down that once the baby was born he would go back to the way he was and we could still be that happy little family I dreamed of. I found out that I was having a girl. I was so happy. I get to have a little girl to love and teach just like my mom did with me. I was seven months when all hell broke loose. Derek went psycho at me again and this time he pushed me down the stairs. He just walked away and I crawled to the phone in pain and dialed nine one one for help.
I was taken to the hospital and Derek had just left the house, and me, alone. I didn’t know where he went, but I would have put money on it that he was drinking or cheating on me with some whore. The doctors said I was about to deliver and I was given some drugs or something to speed things up. It felt like an eternity of pain and sorrow and worry but I finally gave birth to my daughter. She didn’t cry though.
I gave birth to a daughter… who was a stillborn.
I cried myself to sleep that night in the hospital. Then I called my mom the next day and told her everything. From Derek’s sudden change to my daughter being dead. She cried too, but she said she was coming, and so was my dad, and together we were calling the cops.
When my parents got there I hugged them and didn’t want to let go. I cried and cried and we cried together for a long time about my poor baby girl. They were angry at Derek. It took near a half an hour to keep my dad from going out and finding him and ripping him in half for what he did to me and killing my dad’s granddaughter. Then we called the police. When the cops came they asked me about everything Derek did and I told them everything. They spoke to the doctors and the E.M.T.s that drove me there in the ambulance and they all confirmed what I was saying. The bruises and me falling down the stairs were all from Derek’s abuse.
When I got out of the hospital the police had Derek in their custody. I was able to go back to that house that I no longer called home and my parents helped me pack up my stuff. Derek got four to six years for domestic violence and twenty five years to life for Infanticide. I hope he burns in hell. Before I left I got my daughter’s certificate of stillbirth. I was outraged. There was no place for a name and no way to name her. I had the certificate made but I would choose a name for my daughter. This was not some object that went missing or something broken. This was my daughter and she existed, so she gets to have a name. I moved back home and in with my parents after Derek’s trial. My brothers came to see me a lot and we all cried for my lost daughter together. I told them I still wanted to name her and we tossed around a few names.
Susan? No. Mary? To played out. Alicia? Sorry but no. Elliot? She was a girl! Lupe? Come on!
Then my mother suggested Erica. I honestly liked that one. I had smiled and said that my baby’s name was Erica. That night I made a silent prayer to my daughter up in heaven. I prayed to her that her name was Erica… and that I loved her.
I lived with my parents for months. I started drinking more after Erica’s death but my parents let it go on for a month before they said enough. They said I needed to stop the grieving and get back on my feet. I told them I would cry and drink all the god damn I wanted and they needed to get the fuck off my back. Finally they said they were going to cut me off unless I got help. I didn’t want to lose my family, so I went to this support group my parents looked up for abused women. There I met my best friend, Carol.
Carol Hall was a fellow survivor of abuse and she became my best friend. She had been married for five years and her husband abused her constantly for most of the marriage. I told her Derek had proposed to me when I got pregnant, then just changed completely and he ended up killing our daughter. She said I was lucky enough to get out alive and before the actual wedding.
I moved out of my parents’ house at age twenty for a fresher start. My house is small and would have fit a three person family if it wasn’t for the extra room being filled with crap. There was one and a half bath and a small kitchen with a room that is supposed to be called a dining room but couldn’t even fit five people in it with all the kitchen stuff. My bedroom is constantly disorganized and I rarely ever clean unless I have nothing else to do. I work as a waitress at a local diner. The outfit is so short and I might as well be a stripper but I have some morals left. I’ve lived this way for three years now. I make enough to get by with a little in savings for a rainy day.
Speaking of rainy days, I was walking home from work on a bloody Saturday and it was pouring. I might as well have had someone constantly spraying a hose over my head. I pulled the hood of my raincoat down and over my face and tried walking through the bad weather and just get to my house as soon as possible. I heard thunder, which meant lightning since I knew thunder was actually the sound of lightning but the lightning travels so fast it reaches our sight before the thunder reached our hearing. True story bros. I came around the corner and made it to my lonely street with no other houses except mine. Right along the edge of the forest and still a bit rickety, there was my ‘home’. Can you guess why I got it cheap enough to afford?
I made it to the front porch where my rickety old two person swing swung from the roof of the porch back and forth from the stronger than average winds. I dug down in my big and worn out purse to try and find my keys. When I pulled them out after five whole minutes of searching I climb the stairs of the porch and reach my door. And there was a box at my door. A cardboard box is just sitting at my doorstep. I groaned angrily at whatever shit some ass was trying to pull and reach down to the box and open the top.
And let me just say… Shit. Got. UN-real.
PREVIOUSLY...
I groaned angrily at whatever shit some ass was trying to pull and reach down to the box and open the top.
And let me just say… Shit. Got. UN-real.
Part 2
There was something inside of it. Something alive that was curled up in a little ball and trying to block out the noise of the storm with mix-matched little arms of a whole god damn bunch of animals. I just stared at it. Honestly I was adamant I would snap awake in my bed or even in someone else’s bed about to be raped or killed. But as the seconds ticked by and the creature looked up at me, I realized that this was either a very long dream, or I was god-damn-fuckin’ awake. The little ‘thing’ inside the box was absolutely crazy. It had like one talon of a bird but it was working like an arm, a lion’s paw that was also like an arm, a shagg-ish brown body, a lizard’s leg, a goat’s leg or maybe a deer leg, A long and very real red tail with a white fur tuft at the end, a gray… equine head maybe or something like that, a small shag of white hair on its head, a blue feathered wing, a dark blackish-purple bat wing, a donkey like mane on the back of the neck, a blue goats horn still growing, an antler still budding, two pointed gray ears that were just going up and down against its head due to mood, and its eyes… two seas of yellow with two different sized dots of red for pupils.
I must be out of my wacked and abused bitch of a mind…. but I wasn't going to leave it out in the storm.
I set down my bag and got down on my knees and took off my hood to look less intimidating to whatever it was. It seemed to cower at the huge advantage I had in size. “It’s ok little one,” I tried sounding as sweetly as I could.
It got closer to me by one little step it took on all four of its limbs. I held out a hand to the edge of the box and let it sniff me. It seemed less scared by how I wouldn’t make a single move without making it very aware of it first. Then another bolt of lightning hit and the sky both lit up and it sounded as if God had just bowled a perfect strike. The little creature whimpered and sprung out of the box and into my lap and dug its face into my shirt and put its little paws on my chest as if trying to hug me.
Unsure of what else I could possibly do since I was likely just going crazy and seeing weird animals on my porch, I put one hand over its little back and the other underneath its feet and hugged it gently to my stomach and let it hide in my embrace. It clearly was a sentient enough being to have fears and understand basics if it knew what hugging was. I realized if I ever wanted to get it to stop being scared, it would have to get out of the storm. And that meant it had to come with me inside my house.
I unwrapped one arm around it and picked up my purse back on my shoulder. Then, I slowly got to my feet and picked my keys back up into my hand before looking down at the little creature in my arm and saw it scared once more.
“Hey, it’s ok. I’m not gonna hurt you. But we need to get out of the storm.” It seemed to stare at me, questioning if it should trust me. Then another bolt of lightning hit and thunder crashed and it cried out and hid its self into my waist and clutched my arm again.
Ok, I’ll admit that was adorable and heart melting.
I unlocked the door and flicked on the light to see my living room light up. Now what? I have a strange creature in my arms and no idea what to do with it. Well it must be cold, I should wrap it in a blanket first then see if it’s hungry. That’s plan A… and plan B is still in the work shop. I dropped my purse and keys on the coffee table and set the little animal on the couch.
“Do you want a blanket?” I asked it.
It blinked its yellow and red eyes at me and tilted its head. “Eh, I’ll take that as a yes.”
I went around the corner to the closet and picked out a very smooth and soft pink blanket I had. Don’t you dare judge me because it’s pink, it is like sleeping on a cloud!
Heading back I saw the little thing still on the couch and starring at all its new surroundings. I just sighed and walked over to it and wrapped it in the blanket with a gentle tuck.
“There, is that better?” I asked.
I didn’t get a verbal response, but it did smile at me. And that’s when I saw it had one giant fang and all other regular teeth.
Dafuq is wrong with my life?
“You know… I feel like I’ve seen something like you before,” I told it “but where? What? And I’m talking out loud to an animal on my couch. Yep, I’ve lost it.” My only response was a blink and a head tilt.
I sighed. Where have I seen something like this before? It’s a mix of different animal parts. And something made-up of different animal parts is like a chimera, right? Yeah, I always loved mythology… or what was mythology to me. Now it’s reality… I think. “Ok, I’m going to try and find out what you are ok?” I asked it. It just stared at me. I don’t think it can talk yet if it can talk at all. It does seem rather young.
I grabbed my laptop from my desk and sat down on the couch next to the animal wrapped in my blanket. I typed in my search engine ‘what is a creature made-up of different animal parts called?’ and I got the results of a chimera and monster. I glanced down at the little innocent looking creature cuddled up in my pink blanket and was now leaning up against my side and snuggling me with a smile. That is not a monster. So it’s a chimera. That’s a start. I then looked up chimeras and got tons of thousands of different legends and stories from different past cultures about chimeras. “Oh boy, looks like I’ll be researching you all night,” I sighed again for the twentieth time that night and pet the little creature on the back of its head.
“It’s a good thing I have Sundays off at work then.”
I spent an hour and a half looking up what this chimera was. “Ok, come on god. I’m trying to do something nice here for a poor little thing and I would love and appreciate just a little bit of help. Please?!” I clicked a file link about some TV show character that people said was a chimera too and then… I gasped. There was something just like this little creature that was now asleep at my side, except it was much bigger and older. I mean it had a beard and a long snake body. Seriously. I felt my eyes widen and I immediately scrolled to read the caption. It depicted this creature as ‘Discord’ the ‘God of Chaos’ from the children’s television show ‘My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic’.
Holy crap on a cracker…
I glanced at the little animal snuggled into my embrace at my side. He was from My Little Pony? Really? ‘God, if you’re fucking with me- STOP!’
“D-Discord?” His ears flicked to the sound of my voice. He looked at me and I looked at him. Was this really a TV show character? And why the hell did it have to be My Little Pony?!
"Ok, I really hope that you're real or else I'm officially going crazy."
He just stared at me, he blinked, then he snuggled his little face into the blanket and my side and made some sort of happy sighing sound.
I couldn't stop the small smile that formed on my face.
I rubbed the spot behind his ear and he purred some more like a cat. "You may be odd and impossible but you sure are cute."
Then there was a little rumble. Discord looked up from my side and then down at his little, fuzzy stomach and there was another rumble that came from his tummy. He was hungry.
"Are you hungry little guy?" I asked sweetly and only got a head tilt in return. "How about some food. I'm sure I've got something that you'll eat."
I picked him up in the blanket and carried him to my dinning table. I set him down on a chair and made sure the blanket was still nice and snug around him.
Turning away to get something from the fridge, I spied a few things I thought might work.
I was never a brony, or really a pegasister actually since I'm a girl, but when I was still a kid I saw an episode here and there and played with the little pony toys. But really when I was still expecting Erica I had done a little looking into shows to have a hold on my future daughter's entertainment.
.....god I wish she was here.....
I grabbed lunch meat, pickles, milk, pink lemonade, applesauce, some apples and oranges, cheese, jelly, and some fruit salad. In the pantry and on the counters I grabbed bread, bananas, cereal, some chips, and a bag of marshmallows.
I brought everything back to the table and set it all out in front of Discord. He seemed intrigued by what I was doing as I set up all the food in front of him for him to select from.
"Choose what you like sweetie."
He sniffed at the buffet before him. His little nose crinkling and smelling what it all was. He devoured the applesauce and apples and oranges first. Then he finished the bread, bananas, he tore open the cereal, ripped open the bag of marshmallows, crunched the chips, and finished off the fruit salad.
Surprisingly, he did seem to eat meat. He ate half the ham lunch meat and half the turkey lunch meat I had and then finished up with the pickles and jelly before he drank the pink lemonade and then switched to the milk which I had poured into a small plastic cup for him.
"Oh wow, when was the last time you ate?" I asked as I picked him up and set him in the parallel seat across the table. I then went on to grab a washcloth and start cleaning off the mess and trash from the table he had left behind.
While I cleaned, I saw Discord watching me. His ears kept switching from up and down in sync with one another from time to time, as if he were thinking while observing me. 'Now what could he be thinking about?' I wondered to myself.
Finishing up, I put the rag in the sink and the trash in the garbage-can and picked up Discord in my arms. Ok, now where does he sleep? Well, the couch is pretty good. It ain't no king sized bed but it's better than out in the storm. Just then another loud crack of thunder followed a flash of lightning and Discord gave another tiny scream and squirmed his way deeper into my chest for safety.
Damn I am getting way too comfortable with this.
I got him back to the couch and set him down, spreading out the pink blanket over him this time, and propping his head up with some couch pillows and a normal bed pillow I keep for when I want to nap and I'm too tired to make it to bed.
"All set?" There was still no verbal response, but he seemed to snuggle into the pillows and couch while tightening the blanket around him. And once again I found myself smiling from this. "I'll be right down the hall if you need me. I'll even leave the door open."
And with that said I turned on the small reading lamp next to the couch, turned out the lights in all the rooms, and walked down the hall to my bedroom on the first floor. I saw my bed there, staring at me, calling to me. I was so, so tired. I wasn't even sure if when I woke up Discord would still be there on the couch. But I could worry about my sanity in the morning. Now was the time for sleep, for relaxing.
I didn't even bother fully undressing. I just exchanged my jeans for sweatpants and kicked off my shoes. Then I tiredly slipped under my lilac, color and flower, sheets and dropped my head dead center of the white pillows and cuddled into the safe embrace of my bed.
Soon I started drifting between the states of reality and dreams. But then another bolt of lightning struck and I heard the all of thunder that accompanied it.
I heard a whimper from my living room. Discord. Well... my door is open. I rolled away from the open door and towards the wall. I could hear little feet hit the ground, the scamper of tiny limbs going from one room to another, the crossing over from the hall to my room from feet hitting wood to feet hitting carpet. I knew Discord was there in my room, hoping I would comfort him and tell him I wouldn't let anything hurt him. And the weird part, I kinda wanted to.
I felt the covers shift, a little nudge at my back, and I sighed. I turned back over and was met with Discord, his head and body covered in my sheets like a cloak and tears in the corners of his eyes accompanying his whimpers of fear. Oh god he's cute, WHY did he have to be CUTE?
"Come here baby," I cooed. I wrapped him in my arms, his face digging into my chest again as he wrapped his little arms around me as far as he could get them. He snuggled into my embrace, suddenly sighing happily from my comforting him. Until more lightning and thunder came through, and another little scream came from my little house guest. I put my arms around his back and head, pulling him closer, like he were a baby... my baby.
He started calming down, I think he listened to my heart beating in my chest, and his eyes drifted off and closed with a tiny smile on his face. I felt a grin on my lips from the fact that I had caused this bliss and peace to another soul. It was incredible. To be a care taker for another. The best feeling in the world.
I closed my eyes, pulling Discord close to me like a teddy bear, and slowly fell asleep... for the first time in a long time... with a smile.
