Belladonna - Homecoming

A/N: The theme this month is Homecoming. The MC coming back to an RO after a long time apart. From here forward, in short stories, MC will be referred to as Night with they pronouns. Just so we can encompass everything.

“Unacceptable.” The blood pooling on the floor was nowhere near congealing. It sat in a slick red puddle, leading towards a rust-colored smear. Belladonna sighed, rivulets of life dripping from her skin as she stood surrounded by four intruders, all in various states of death. One man still gasped for life, his throat making small bubbling noises as he gurgled for air.  He was the most annoying out of all of them.  The audacity to still live.  At least the second one died quickly.  

Most of the time, Belladonna relished in the kill, but today she didn’t have time for it. Her dear heart was coming home after so very long away, and Belladonna had planned to greet them with open arms and a night of passion. Now, she had to clean up this mess. Kicking the body closest to her, she growled in frustration.

“You just had to attack today,” she hissed. “You couldn’t have done this yesterday? The day before? Today is the day you chose to take vengeance.” Leaning down, she pulled the body up by the back of the skull, a clump of hair catching in one of her rings. “When you inevitably come back, you remember one thing and one thing only. Timing is everything. Work on that before I kill you again.”

Dropping the man, she stepped over his prone form, hearing the last dying gurgles from behind her. She rolled her eyes at the dramatics of it all. It was pathetic.

Heading towards her room, she went to go get cleaned up.  Maybe she could divert her dear heart's attention. This was simply the study, after all. Belladonna could possibly just lead them up to the bedroom. Or perhaps the parlor. Dear heart loved the parlor.

But the day was not going the way that it should have, and the doorbell rang with a prismatic chime, catching Belladonna in her tracks. 

“Fuck,” she whispered.

Her lace dress was soaked, blood drying to her skin in intricate patterns.  There was no way she would be able to hide this. Unless….

Shucking off her clothes, she kicked them to the side, looking around frantically for one of the silks that she had around her house.  Snagging a black robe, she cinched it around her waist, rubbing the blood into her skin.  Then, she took the ends of her hair, twisting it up to the back of her head and slicking the rest back into a sleek bun.

The door rang again.

With a deep breath, she closed her eyes, gaining her composure.  Then, she took three steps towards the door and opened it. Her heart skipped at the sight of her love.  So many months had gone by without them by her side. So many sleepless nights where Belladonna reached out for them. Of course, she would never say that. Needing someone was not what Belladonna Malady did.

“Dear heart,” she sighed. Stepping forward, she reached out with her blood-red nails, trailing a finger down the side of their face. “You look lovely. How was the trip back?”

Stepping into the room, Night was all smiles. There was a look in their eyes that was filled with excitement. Curiosity. Traveling the cosmos had brought a new sense of joy to them that Belladonna had severely missed. And while the time apart was always hard, it did wonders to bring Night into the present.

“I’ve missed you,” they said. “I know I’m a little early, but I couldn’t wait and…” their eyes caught on Belladonna’s hair. “Is that…?”

Bella tipped her head to the side, feigning innocence. “Is that what, my heart?”

“Is that blood?”

Belladonna frowned, looking down at her body as if to look for the drops Night was referring to. As if Bella couldn’t feel a bit of viscera just dripping down her face.  Then, she allowed a look of amusement to come over her face as she reached up and touching her temple. 

“Hair dye,” she laughed. “Hair dye, my heart. Blood. Really? My darling, you know I never take kills around you. I was simply a bit late in freshening up. I was going to take a shower, in fact. You should put your things in the room and join me.” She put on her best sultry smile.

“I was hoping you would ask that,” Night grinned. They took a step towards the study, their bag in their hand. “I’m just going to put this in the study. I got you some new books and–”

“No!”

Night stopped, back tensing as they slowly turned towards me.  Bella couldn’t remember the last time she had spoken to them with unwanted panic. 

“I mean,” Bella stepped forward. “I missed you. Put your bag right there and come up with me.”

There was a silence in the room. One that coursed upwards towards the vaulted ceilings and consumed the room.

“That is definitely blood.”

“It is not.”

“It is.”

“Why would I lie to you?”

“I don’t know. But I can smell the buckets of blood from here and since you don’t want me to go into the parlor I’d say that there are a couple of dead bodies in there.”

Bella was never one to play a game for long. So instead, she sighed, stomping across the room and flinging open the door. It was a poor choice since most of them still looked towards the door with glazed, wide open eyes.

“They attacked me,” she told Night.

Immediately, Night was by her side, running their hands over her. “Are you okay? What happened?”

Bella sighed, more irritated than anything else. “A few months ago I overheard two men in the market making lewd comments about you. So I followed them down an alley and killed them. Apparently, they rose from their grave with a vengeance and brought some friends with them this time around to try and finish the job. Idiots.”

Night looked into the study and then back at Bella. Slowly, they shut the door, blocking the bodies from view.  “So are they going to rise again?”

“Probably. I look forward to knowing how stupid they are the next time around. I didn’t even break a sweat today. I was simply irritated because it has marred your homecoming.”

“Right,” they said slowly.

Then, the scent of blood disappeared. There was a slight shaking within the room and then it was just gone. Belladonna frowned and looked back at the shut door before slowly pushing it open. The study was clean. The displaced books back in place, and there was nothing more than a few skull trophies now lining the wall.

A slow curl of a smile came over Belladonna’s face. “I like the new wall art,” she said.

“I thought you might. Now, what was that about a shower?”

Taking her dear heart's hand, Belladonna leaned forward, pressing her lips to theirs and kissing them with a ferocity unmatched. Night grinned against her. And the two of them headed upstairs, together, while the souls of the attackers dissipated into nothing.