Chapter Text
The world had come to accept the various supernatural creatures that walked on it.
Humanity—not so much.
Though there were more vampires, werewolves, fairies, zombies, ghosts, witches, et cetera, compared to humans, the world was still mostly prejudiced and racist.
To protect themselves, most creatures formed packs, like werewolves did instinctively. Vampires grouped together according to lineage, fairies grouping with others of their elemental type. Humans formed factions, which usually consisted of various families and strangers taken in. Human factions tended to revolve around a common interest, sometimes hunting a specific supernatural species or just minding their own business. Witches were like normal humans, except for the magic in their blood, so they mostly hid in human factions. Zombies only came out on full moons and ghosts haunted at night, so they never really had to worry about humanity being after them.
Zombies and ghosts had it good, they were just like annoying animals that sometimes trampled the garden or knocked things over in the house. Fairies weren’t exactly Public Enemy Number One, but they were sometimes illegally hunted for fairy dust and were sometimes kept as slaves. Werewolves and vampires got a lot of hack, despite not really doing anything. They all tried to coexist peacefully, but humans just couldn’t seem to look past the excessive meat intake or blood drinking, respectively.
It’s not like vampires drank straight from humans, they had self control most of the time. But sometimes one just snaps and then there’s a body drained of blood in an alleyway and no one to convict but the entire vampiric population. But humans still kill more humans and supernaturals than any other species of intelligent being on the planet Earth. Still they refuse to see.
Werewolves only hunted in permitted areas and only during hunting season, just like humans. The only difference being they don’t use guns like humans.
Werewolves often drained the blood from their catches and donated it to Vampiric Blood Banks, a chain of blood banks set up for humans and supernaturals to donate blood—be it from their bodies or from game—for vampires to take and drink at very little cost. It was a great idea but humans still looked at vampires and werewolves as murderous. They always got a bad rap but it was slowly changing. Just in the last half century alone, supernaturals have been given more rights and freedom.
The world was slowly changing.
***
It wasn’t long after Mikey was born when Linda, a Wanderer who was adopted into the Masters Faction, brought home a bundle of screeching blankets covered in mud.
The Masters Faction was a group of people who formed as a peaceful group trying to bring peace to the world. It consisted of many Wanderers who just wanted to live in harmony with supernaturals, families who had been in the faction for generations, and a few supernaturals who wanted to break away and join humanity. Those supernaturals included two werewolves who were mated for life, a fairy who fell in love with a human, and a ghost who couldn’t pass into the afterlife due to a witch’s curse and was now doomed to an eternity of floating around the Masters Faction like a house ghost from the Harry Potter Books.
One of the families in the Masters Faction was the Ways, consisting of Donna and Donald and their two sons, Gerard and Mikey. They’d been there for three generations, Donald being born into the Masters Faction mansion. He met Donna and it was love at first sight. They married and Donna drug her widowed mother with her into the Masters Faction.
When Gerard was three, Mikey was born, and that was it for new arrivals until the werewolves decided to have pups (but that wouldn’t happen until Gerard was seven). Or at least that was the assumption. The Halloween after Mikey turned one, when Linda Iero came into the mansion dripping wet with a bundle of muddy blankets wiggling in her arms.
She was quick to run through every room, searching for Donna, her best friend, and ask for help. By the time she found her, the whole faction knew about the baby she’d found.
“The poor thing is probably only a day old,” Donna ponders, running to grab a towel from the linen closet to bring back to Linda, who was bathing the baby in the sink.
“What are we going to do?” Linda asked, holding the now quiet baby against her chest. She’d swaddled him in clean towels.
“I don’t know, Linda. Why would anyone abandon a perfectly healthy child?”
“Maybe they just didn’t want it. Hoped someone would take ‘em back to a faction or something.”
That’s when little Gerard poked his head into the kitchen and input his thoughts. “Maybe it’s a monster baby!”
Both women went quiet, looking at Gerard and then at each other. “Gerard, please don’t call supernaturals monsters, it’s rude,” Donna scolds him calmly, just trying to fill in the silence, really.
“Sorry, Mommy.” And with that, Gerard turned around and went back to the playroom to try and teach Mikey more words.
“Maybe he’s right, Donna. What if it’s a werewolf pup, a runt, ya know? Or a witch? I don’t know how you’d tell.” Linda turns to look out the kitchen doorway to the living room, where some faction members are huddled around the television watching the weather. The rain wouldn’t let up for a few days, draining supernaturals of the moonlight.
She adjusts the baby in her arms and starts walking into the living room, going over to the werewolf couple. Patricia and David looked up at her, both jumping up to see the baby. “Um,” Linda didn’t know how to start, “I think, maybe this baby was abandoned because it might be a supernatural. I don’t know how to tell, but is he a werewolf, maybe?”
Patricia and David both sniff the air then look at one another. “Not a werewolf. Definitely supernatural, though. I can sense the power.”
“Power?” Linda almost laughs.
“Oh, definitely,” Patricia responds. “He’s possibly a witch or fairy. Maybe even a vampire. Most supernatural babies appear human, except ghosts, and zombies can’t have kids.”
“Okay, thank you,” Linda nods, then heads off to find the only adult fairy in the house.
She was sitting in her room, reading a book to her son Ray. He was a little younger than Gerard, they were good friends.
Ray looked up when Linda walked in, interested in whatever she was carrying in her arms. “Hi, Miss Linda! What do you have?” He asked, voice all squeaky.
Linda laughed a bit, before squatting down so Ray can see the baby in her arms. Ray’s mom stood up and walked over then, eyes wide.
“Linda, that baby—” She stopped, getting down to Ray’s height to peer at the infant. She swallowed and started to talk again. “Linda, that baby isn’t human, you know that, right?”
Linda sighed. “That’s why I came to you, actually. The Stumphs said he wasn’t human. They said they could ‘feel the power’ coming off of him. But they said he wasn’t a wolf. They suggested fairy, or possibly vampire or witch. So I came to you to see if he was fae.”
Mrs. Toro just shook her head. “Oh, no. He’s not fae. Fairies have a specific power that gives off a different feeling than this, you know? The power that supernaturals give off all have a specific feeling. This is very strong. Through process of elimination, he’s either a very powerful witch or a very powerful vampire.”
Linda just thought for a moment as Ray looked at the baby. She sighed, standing up again. “Thank you. I’m keeping him, just a heads up, but…” She trails off. “What do I do if he’s a witch or vampire? Don’t vampire babies need blood?”
Mrs. Toro just laughed. “Baby vampires don’t necessarily need blood, just sustenance. Perhaps just feed him normal baby food and if he turns sickly, we’ll try blood.”
It wasn’t exactly fool-proof, but Linda was desperate. She wanted to keep the infant, desperately, since she couldn’t have children of her own.
***
She returned to the kitchen, finding Donna preparing dinner already.
“I’m going to keep him,” Linda announced.
Donna turned to her. “Okay. What are you going to name him?”
Linda paused and thought for a moment, before she made up her mind. “Frank.”