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Dinner after her parents' deaths was quiet, haunting, uncomfortable and uneasy.
The empty space that would usually be filled with her parents chatting and asking her about school or talking about homework and family was suddenly filled with silence. The only sounds that accompanied their dinner was the scraping of forks and spoons against plates and the soft sounds of chewing.
And of course, she could feel the judgemental glare of her aunt on her at all times.
Young An-an Lee knew the only reason she took her in was because she was her only living relative. The two barely talked throughout the day, both because her aunt refused to acknowledge her aside from feeding her, and because An-an was too afraid to speak.
"Why aren't you eating?".
An-an looked up at her aunt for the first time since dinner started. The small apartment light above them lit her face up in a menacing manner, her eyes dark and uncaring. Nothing at all like her mother's golden and caring eyes. She wondered if the two looked more alike when she was younger, or if all it took was for her mom to die for her to become so uncaring. Did she see her mother's same golden eyes in An-an's own?
She debated on whether she should stay silent or give her an answer, but she was sure she'd be mad at her either way. So An-an simply shovelled more rice into her mouth and kept her head down.
Her aunt let out a scoff. "Giving me the silent treatment huh?" she snarled at her, "Do you hate me that much that you won't talk to me? Want me to die just like your mom did?".
An-an attempted to swallow, but it felt like her throat suddenly clammed up, "I-I don't-".
"And for God's sake, girl! Swallow before you talk!! It's disgusting!!" her aunt suddenly shouted at her. An-an flinched a little, dropping her spoon on her plate as she nervously avoided her gaze.
"Didn't your mother teach you to have better manners?! Or are you such an ignorant, selfish child that you don't care about what she taught you?!?" her aunt screamed at her again, and An-an covered her ears to block out her words, "I knew she never should've given birth to you, you evil devil child!".
"Auntie, please.....".
"You had enough time to call the police and crawl into bed with them, but not enough time to save them?!".
"Auntie, please...".
"If she never gave birth to you, maybe your mother would still be alive!".
"Auntie, stop....".
"You should've died with her! In fact, you should've died instead of her!!".
"I SAID STOP!!!".
Everything went quiet, and all of a sudden, she wasn't at her aunt's dinner table anymore. The apartment light swung above the dinner table, but it wasn't the same lights in her aunt's place.
An-an looked around her. Boxes littered the floor, various newspaper articles were pinned up on the walls, and a singular cup of instant noodles sat in front of her.
Ah, right. This is An-an's apartment in Kowloon.
She let out a sigh before she sat down, picking up the plastic fork that came with her noodles. She often didn't have time to cook for herself during these days due to how busy and tired she'd often be from jobs, and she needed to be careful with her money. So instant food like this became her best friend during this time.
As she began to eat, she looked at the empty space at the end of the dinner table. It was clear this table was meant for large families and not lonely girls like her. She remembered her mother would usually sit on her left and her father on her right when she was younger. There were still chairs there, as if An-an was waiting for them to come back and sweep her away from this life she found herself in.
"An-an?"
She supposed a lonely life like this is what she deserved if she was truly a demon child and the reason why her parents died.
"An-an? Are you alright?"
This was fine, she told herself. She could handle being alone for the rest of her life. She didn't need anyone else, she didn't even need a family to buy a stupid family-sized table. She could just rely on herself and only herself and-
"An-an?"
She finally snapped back to reality as she looked up. Poltergeist was sitting next to her, a concerned look on her face as she gave her a smile, "Are you okay? You haven't eaten your cake yet".
"Oh- umm. Yeah. I just...". An-an's voice trailed off then as she looked back at the plate in front of her. It was a typical paper party plate, with a slice of chocolate cake on it. Her favourite kind of cake, in fact.
That's right. She wasn't at either her aunt's or her old apartment. She was in the Suitcase, having dinner with her friends and family. Because today was her birthday, and she was the birthday girl.
She looked around the dinner table at all the people around her. Tooth Fairy was recounting stories of her time taking care of the children at the SPDM with Cheng Heguang while he intently listened and shared some of his own stories. Really wasn't shocking, An-an realised quite quickly he had a soft spot for young kids, so the two made pretty good friends. Jiu Niangzi was excitedly talking to Jessica, she seemed to have a fascination with the changeling and tended to always ask her questions about her life.
Right across from An-an, Blonney was discussing filmmaking techniques and a potential collaboration with Noire, who seemed particularly thrilled with Blonney's interest in horror movies. Horropedia happily chimed in on occasion, offering support with plot ideas, good scares and such. Knowing the two directors' different views on method-acting though, An-an knew a potential collaboration would certainly be interesting.
Rhiannon seemed to have taken a liking to Getian as well, as she was admiring his feathers and gently combing them, talking to him about her own birds. Getian nodded to her as he listened, and seemed quite relaxed the entire time. Meanwhile, Charon and Paper Heron seemed to be in a deep discussion on the fragility and beauty of mortal life. An-an never expected she'd see that duo together, but thinking about it, she guessed it made sense.
Sentinel and Click weren't sitting at the dinner table, instead conversing while Click floated about and made sure to capture good photos of the dinner. All the while Marsha and Liang Yue were running about after Lisa and Louise, who had insisted on starting a game of tag with them.
She invited them all, she remembers now. They had given her her gifts earlier, and they were having her birthday dinner now. And afterwards, An-an had planned a whole movie marathon and a competition to see who could stay awake the longest and react the least to the scares. She had already placed bets on herself staying awake the longest, but there wasn't even a reward for winning. The reward was just bragging rights, she supposes.
They had all come..... for her.
"An-an?" Poltergeist's voice piped up again, and An-an looked back towards her. Her girlfriend had a look of concern in her face, "Are you feeling alright? You weren't talking for the past few minutes...".
"O-Oh. Yeah, I'm alright, Polte" An-an replied, looking back towards her cake slice on her plate. This wasn't store-bought, she could tell. Somebody actually baked this for her, spent their time and the ingredients making something for her. And it tasted absolutely wonderful too.
For some reason, she felt her throat clam up a little, making it hard to speak or even utter out a sound. She wasn't sure why her heart suddenly felt like this, or why her sight was beginning to blur. But this feeling inside her chest, she actually quite liked it, "I-I just-".
Her sentence was suddenly cut off when a slice of cake was suddenly thrown straight at her face. Everyone in the dining room suddenly went quiet as she sat there in shock, face still covered in chocolate frosting.
"An-an!! Are you alright??" Poltergeist yelped, bringing up a corner of her blanket to wipe at her face.
Horropedia turned in the direction where the slice came from, locking eyes with a pair of guilty-looking twins, "Lisa, Louise, did you throw it at her?".
"W-We didn't mean to!! It was meant to be a funny prank, like in the horror movie!!" the twins replied back, avoiding eye contact with him or anyone else in the room, "We're sorry.....".
As Poltergeist cleaned An-an's face up, still scrunched in shock and confusion, Click lifted up his camera to capture a picture of An-an, a small smile on his face, "Do you want this photo once I develop it, An-an? Consider it another birthday gift".
She finally opened her eyes, blinking a little confusedly as she stared at everyone in the room with her. And then all of a sudden she began to giggle, before she let out a loud laugh.
"哦我嘅神！This is the best birthday party ever!!" she cackled, wiping the chocolate cake off her face with a grin, "And hey, at least its my favourite cake flavour!".
That seemed to have eased the tension in the room a little, especially for the twins who looked quite surprised, "You're not mad at us??".
"Nah, I've had worse happen on my birthdays, trust me," she chuckled to them, waving them off.
And soon, the room returned to it's prior mood, everyone talking as normal while An-an properly dug into the cake slice on her plate. She doesn't even remember the last time she had proper freshly baked chocolate cake that wasn't bought from some grocery store down the street.
Actually, when was the last time she had such a huge dinner like this?
She looked back up at everyone around her. The smiling faces, the bright lights, the diverse conversations people were having. She had sworn the last time she had something like this was before her parents died, when she'd have dinner with them and chat excitedly with them.
Surrounded by her friends and family, the mood cheerful and bright again just like it used to be, this is what a proper family dinner was supposed to be like, wasn't it?
And with a smile on her face, An-an continued to dig into her cake, the taste of warmth and a sense of contentment with her life on her tongue.