“You’re my what?!”

“Jesus Christ, Gabe, you could have been a bit more tactful.” Hecate leaned her face in her hands.

“I wanted to get it out of the way first, Cate.”

“You haven’t changed a bit.”

Gabrielle looked dejected. “You have.”

“I’ve been a mother for eighteen years, Gabe. Parenting does that to a person.”

“Hold up,” Scarlett interjected. “Can we rewind, please? Mom, what’s going on?”

Hecate shot Gabrielle a withering glance. 

“I’m your mother, sweetie. Always have been. Gabrielle here just… is too.”

Scarlett frowned. 

“How does that…”

“I’m not human, Scarlett,” Gabrielle said. “I’m from…” she paused. “Upstairs.”

“Are you an angel?” Allyssa asked. If the situation had been less serious or intense, Scarlett would have made a pod-racing joke. Instead, Gabrielle simply nodded.

“Our physiology is a bit different. We can… I’m trying not to make things too weird for you here… we can induce immaculate conception.”

Hecate shot Gabrielle another glance. Softer, with eyes filled with memories.

“It’s an involved process but… your mother and I really wanted a child.”

“Then…”

Scarlett had a lot going on. She’d only come to herself yesterday. Where was this coming from? Why now?

“Where were you? If you’re… my other mom… mom never talked about you…”

Gabrielle sighed. Despite her imposing presence, she looked small. Her hand on the table inched slightly towards Hecate who, through a feat of titanic willpower, reached out and squeezed it.

“Around the time you were born I was… summoned. To do work, upstairs. I was told it might take… centuries, even. And you’d been born all pink and human, with no traits of me or your mother, we feared you might be human. We decided not to tell you. We didn’t want to give you a parent and then take them away.”

“But then… why now?” Scarlett was confused, but Allyssa’s grip on her hand gave her something to hold on to.

“I… was more capable than they estimated. The work that was going to take centuries I managed to whittle down. Considerably. Two years ago, when you first started transforming we… we hoped you’d be in one camp or the other. But what if you stabilized as a human? I couldn’t take that chance. I didn’t tell your mother but I moved and shook where I could. The past two years I’ve forced decades of work to be done. When she called me yesterday, and you’d found yourself... “

She sighed.

“A lot’s happened. But your mother and I have never… lost touch.”

“So… now what?” Scarlett looked confused. She’d never really had negative feelings towards her unnamed other parent. Her mother had ensured her she hadn’t been run out on. She felt a pang of resentment but, well, Hecate had been an amazing mom. 

“I would like to be a part of your life, Scarlett, if that’s okay. Now that I know I won’t lose you to time, that I know I’ll get to spend time down here... “

Scarlett slumped in her chair.

“This is a lot to take in.”

“I understand. Of course. I just… I’ve missed the past eighteen years. And your mother tells me you have… some of my traits.”

Scarlett looked confused. Gabrielle scratched the back of her neck.

“It took me a long time to realize I was a… let’s just say I’m grateful you found out who you were as early as you did.”

“Oh! I… Oh!”

Hecate smiled again. “There’s also the more obvious genetic thing.”

“What’s that, mom?”

“Demon’s wings don’t ordinarily have feathers, hun.” Hecate smiled softly. “You get yours from her.”

Scarlett blinked. She just thought that they were like… like hair colour. Something slightly different for each person. She’d never considered it was hereditary. 

“So I’m… part angel?”

Gabrielle made a non-committal hand gesture.

“Ehhh, yes and no. Think of it like… mostly Demon, some human, and a little bit of Angel. You take after your mom, for the most part, and immaculate children are usually mostly human. That you’re more comfortable in your infernal form is proof that you’re more your mother than human, though.”

Scarlett nodded slowly. “I think I understand. So… you’re moving in here? I just… met you. I’m not… I’m not sure I’m…”

Gabrielle held up a hand.

“Nothing that fast or drastic, Scarlett. Your mother and I have a lot of catching up to do. I’ve rented an apartment in the area, and I’d like to visit, often, to get to know you and your girlfriend, and… reconnect with your mother. Turns out there was no rush to begin with.”

Hecate and Gabrielle, for the first time, smiled at each other. 

Scarlett was happy for them. She was also still confused at all of the revelations. 

“We…”

She paused. Allyssa took over.

“We should probably eat before dinner gets cold?”

“Excellent idea… Allyssa, was it?” 

“Yeah! Alli is fine too. Only my mom calls me Lissie.”

“Nice to meet you, Alli.”

“You too, miss Gabrielle.”

“Just Gabrielle is fine, dear.”

“I have a question,” Scarlett said, chewing thoughtfully.

“Are you that Gabriel?”

Gabrielle steepled her fingers together.

“Not anymore, Scarlett. I’m not the person I was. Besides, being a girl fits me much better, don’t you think?”

“I’ll say.” Allyssa said. “Woof.” Allyssa had tried to mumble under her breath, but she was just loud enough for Hecate to hear while she was drinking. Water came out her nose as she snorted.

Gabrielle laughed and Scarlett simply looked flustered between the two of them.

“Impressive, Hecate. Not many people can make you do that,” Gabrielle grinned. 

“She’s very… quick-witted for her age, Gabe. I was just taken by surprise.”

“I’m very sorry, Ms. H!” Allyssa said quickly. 

“You’re fine, Allyssa,” Hecate said as she cleaned her face with a napkin. “I’m glad you’re here too. I figured it would help Scarlett if you were here.”

Scarlett smiled gratefully. “Thanks mom.”

Gabrielle turned to Allyssa again.

“So you… know? All of it?”

Allyssa shrugged. “I doubt it. But I know Scarlett is Scarlett, I know she’s got horns and hooves and wings.”

“And that doesn’t bother you?”

“It’s like finding out one of your friends has like… a birthmark? It’s not a personality trait, doesn’t change who she is, right?”

“I mean, there’s… theological implications.”

Alli took a bit of food and happily spoke with her mouth full.

“I was raised agnostic.” She swallowed her food and took a sip of water.

“You’re literally the only human being at the table, Alli,” Scarlett said. “How can you be agnostic now?”

“Well…” she paused to collect her thoughts. “Clearly nobody who ever wrote anything down about this stuff had any idea what they were talking about, and I still don’t really know anything. But I know Hecate is a good mom and a good person, Scarlett is an amazing girl, and you seem cool. It looks like my soul is still mine, I haven’t really been corrupted, and there’s no smiting going on. So yeah, still agnostic. I have no idea what to believe, so I’m definitely not going to start worshipping shit.” Oops. “No offense.”

“None taken, Allyssa,” Gabrielle said. “It’s a healthy attitude, honestly. It’s been a while now but… nobody really cares anymore, up there. There’s too many of you and too many moral and ethical questions that can’t be answered. Nobody wants to do the math anymore.”

“What do you mean?”

Gabrielle looked over to Hecate, who shrugged. “Go for it.”

“Hell’s been, uh, cancelled.”

“Excuse me?” Allyssa and Scarlett said with various added expletives.

“Yeah. Look, the world as it’s been going on… there’s no way to make things, eh… ethically justified.”

“What do you mean?” Allyssa asked.

“Up until about, uh, twenty years ago, everyone was going… down.”

“What?!”

“Yeah, look, like I said, it’s an ethical quagmire. Your entire civilization is built upon the backs of other people, on unethically sourced food and resources. If you consume any of it, media, food, you name it, you’re a willing participant. And you lose your spot up there. So people downstairs started getting overworked…”

“Ugh, you can say that again,” Hecate interjected.

“... and people upstairs were getting upset. Humanity was supposed deserve rest after the toil of life.”

“So…”

“Hell’s been cancelled.”

“Where do people go, then?”

“Mostly where they believe they’re going to go, really.”

“So like, what? Nazis? Serial killers? Everyone gets to go to heaven?”

“Sort of? Everyone gets their own slice. It’s not like we’re going to run out of space. But there’s a lot of management, and we try to make things ethically sound up there at least. Think of it like… for most people it’s a very happy retirement home, and for the, uh…”

“Dickheads,” Hecate offered.

“Less savoury characters,” Gabrielle disagreed, “it’s more of a rehabilitation center. Sort of.”

“So the whole merger thing you mentioned...” Scarlett thought out loud.

“Yeah. I’ve been putting people to work in getting the whole thing set up. Did you know there over a hundred billion people up there?”

“Oof.”

“Yeah. Oof. But happy people don’t need as much work as they do downstairs. So a lot of Hecate’s people moved upstairs for a cushier job. Not everyone was happy with the merger, and a lot of people on both sides retired and moved here.”

“Like, this neighbourhood?” Scarlett suddenly wondered how many people she knew were angels or demons.

“No, like, the earthly plane. The mortal realm, whatever you want to call it.”

“So Hell is over, everyone goes to heaven?”

“Pretty much.”

“Neat.” Allyssa said. 

“It’s pretty neat. But it’s been a lot of work. But we just about did it.”

“So… God is real too, then, right?” Scarlett interjected.

“I mean… yeah. But they’re not really, eh... “

“They’ve been busy with other projects,” Hecate helped Gabrielle out. “Still full of infinite love for all creatures, great and small and all that jazz, just not very actively these days. The last time they even looked this way was to approve the merger.”

“O-kay. That’s… Um…”

“Yeah. We know,” Gabrielle said. “We’re doing the best we can. And uh… don’t tell anyone?”

“I’d like to see how that conversation would go,” Allyssa said with a grin. “Do I start with ‘my girlfriend is a demon’ and work my way up to ‘hell is cancelled’, or work backwards?”

“Fair point,” Gabrielle smiled back. “By the way, Cate, the food is delicious.”

“Thank you!” Hecate said. “Nobody said anything, I was beginning to worry.”

“Mom, you know you’re a good cook. When you’re not stabbing yourself.”

“When you’re not what?!” Gabrielle’s head snapped to face Hecate.

“Hoo boy,” Hecate laughed with exasperation. 

As she told the story, the table laughed. Slowly, the metaphorical temperature in the room went up. The lights seemed to get a little bit brighter, a little warmer. The four people at the table started to relax around each other, and found common ground where it wasn’t expected, and found love where it was feared lost.

Gabrielle found herself welcome in their home. After living nearby for six months, she eventually moved in. After another six months, Scarlett called her mom. She and Hecate renewed their vows, promised to never grow old, together. They both cried but Hecate was better at pretending she hadn’t. When Scarlett eventually moved out, Hecate and Gabrielle moved to the countryside. They had a little cottage that was slightly larger on the inside, and grew their own vegetables. Over time, they had acquired a reputation as lesbian witches, and adopted two cats. The orange one was really stupid. It was perfect.

Scarlett and Allyssa had gone upstairs that night, to give Scarlett’s two moms the time and space to reconnect, not considering the consequences. The two teenagers had found themselves sitting on Scarlett’s bed, looking awkwardly at the wall, until they’d turned towards each other and Allyssa had tackled Scarlett backwards. She’d requested, sweetly, with a sing-song voice that could convince varnish to strip, that Scarlett grew her horns back. Scarlett had happily obliged, and with more than just her hands, Allyssa had made Scarlett squirm all sorts of ways that night. 

When they’d woken up together the next morning, they’d looked into each other’s eyes and told each other how they truly felt, for the first of many more times to come. After a few years, Scarlett had moved out, and moved in with Allyssa. They had bought a small penthouse apartment in town, and found themselves with more happiness than they knew what to do with. 

There had only been one snag.

“Scarlett?” The call came from the bathroom.

“Yeah, babe?”

“I’ve got another gray hair.”

“I love your gray hairs, baby, they give you character.”

“That’s… not what I meant.”

Scarlett joined Allyssa in the bathroom and wrapped her arms around her, kissed her neck, as she looked at her girlfriend in the mirror.

“You look beautiful.”

“I look older.”

“I… I mean…”

“I look older than you. By a few years.”

“I’m… I’m sorry.”

Allyssa had been aging more rapidly than Scarlett who, in a few years, would simply stop getting older. It was something they’d spent days talking over, a horrifying possibility that they didn’t want to think about, but had to. After a particularly long conversation with her mother, Scarlett had sat down Alli opposite her in the couch. 

“So… My mom and I… I think we have a solution.”

“I… oh? I don’t see…”

“There’s a way to these things but apparently some of the… old rules… they still go.”

“What do you mean?”

Scarlett reached under the couch and put a musical case in front of her. From it, she retrieved a golden violin.

“Play you for it,” she said with a devilish grin. “But if you lose, I get your soul.” Recognition dawned on Allyssa’s face.

“Forever?”

“For all eternity, Alli.”

“Gosh, if only I knew how to play the fiddle.”

“I’ve always wanted a demon servant.”

Allyssa reached over and stroked Scarlett’s face.

“Sweetie, we both know you’re a bottom.”

“I’m going to hit you with this fiddle.”

“No, you’re not,” Allyssa grinned, and kissed her. Twenty minutes later, after a lot of noise from two terrible fiddle-players, they unanimously agreed that Allyssa had lost her soul, which now belonged to Scarlett, to do with as she pleased.

Allyssa had still grown old. Allyssa had still died. And when she did, Hecate had helped Scarlett file a request for a body, to very detailed specifications, for one (1) soul that had gone overlooked during the great merger. 

Allyssa, now plus one order of short, cute, stubby horns, and Scarlett, horny as ever, now had all the time in the world.

And you can bet they made it worth their while.

Elamimax

This is the end of Part-Time Monster. It was a delight to tell this gay little story, and it's been a delight to see everyone's overwhelming support, and I hope to see you again soon. I'd also like to thank Trismegistus Shandy for finding the mistakes I didn't, and to my useless bottom friends for giving me the inspiration to write useless bottoms.

 

Thank you all so much for reading. I've got stuff lined up that I hope y'all will like.