As always, Daisy's house was mostly immaculate. A place for everything and everything in its place. Her mother didn't allow for anything less, and Daisy had a plethora of mental scars to prove it. A swarm of conflicting feelings rushed through her but she refused to allow any of them purchase. She couldn't afford to have another breakdown. That was a
very
deep hole and it took so much less effort to maintain this pseudo emotional... numbness, than it took to keep clawing her way out of it.
It probably wasn't the healthiest route, psychologically speaking. But in the end, it worked. And besides, she was going to die in a day or two anyway. What good was mental health at this point? She could afford the quick fix. All that mattered was Alex's end goal. The fact that she was able to pop this particularly large metaphorical pimple was just icing on the death cake. Everyone should have a bucket list, after all.
"Mom! I'm home!" Daisy called out. The fact that there was no verbal reply only made her excitement rise. This wasn't like her father. She didn't care when her mother snapped. If she was already broken, then Daisy would just be done with it and move on. Mission accomplished. It would just be more enjoyable if she could take part in it.
Going for another test, Daisy skipped through the den, casually knocking over vases and various breakable objects and reveling in the sound of the shattering glass. She could see why cats enjoy doing this so much. There was something so freeing about breaking shit with no consequences. Especially in a house where previously the slightest imperfections were so viciously punished.
Still nothing.
Maybe she was already dead. Daisy continued to make a very destructive path to her mother's room. She knocked over photos, punched holes in the walls, knocked over lamps, whatever struck her fancy. But eventually she found the door. It was like opening a present on Christmas morning. And she wasn't disappointed in what she found.
Rey Ridley was normally as immaculate as she liked her house. But as she sat up in the bed, her blonde hair was a complete chaotic mess and Daisy wasn't entirely sure this wasn't the first time she'd seen her without makeup. Her skin was unhealthily pale. Her eyes were looked sunken in. She was in bad shape. But as glorious as it was to see this woman in such a state of disrepair, it was her facial expression that truly sealed the deal. Eyes that had always looked on Daisy with the utmost ferocity and contempt were practically a blank slate.
There weren't words for how happy it made her to see her mother like this. But what she hadn't expected was the momentary jolt of fear. While Daisy's appearance had gone through quite a few changes, she knew what she used to look like. And as much as she hated to admit it, her and her mother shared quite a few features.
Looking at her mother this way was almost like seeing a visual representation of how she felt inside. Haunting. Empty. Ugly. The walking dead. Daisy felt the pull of her depression once again. She felt the agony of the realization that she would never achieve her mother's age. There were many painful thoughts. But she just had to remember that this was her
mother
. She just had to remember every fucked up thing she'd ever been told. Everything that the broken bitch in front of her had ever done. Mr. Pickles truly was just the tip of that particularly destructive iceberg.
"...not supposed to be here... ...quarantine... ...go away..." Rey murmured in nothing more than a raspy whisper.
Daisy unleashed a shrill giggle. She didn't even know where the sound came from. Daisy had spent a worrying amount of her life tormenting others, but she couldn't remember a time she'd felt so satisfied with the results. She was smiling so widely that it hurt. "Wow... Daddy's death really fucked you up, didn't it?"
Rey's eyes lit up at the taunt and even though her messy hair mostly covered her face, the contorted expression under it was more than clear. But the energy just couldn't match the intent. Rey tried to lunge at her daughter but only succeeded in falling on her face. If she wasn't on a bed, then she probably would have hurt herself.
Daisy let out another laugh. "See... this is why dehydration is a thing. When you don't give your body what it needs, this is what happens." Daisy gleefully raised her mother's practically limp body back into its previous sitting position. "There we go. Much better."
And like a firework, the light was gone as fast as it appeared and Rey was completely defeated again. She looked at her daughter with a dead expression in her eyes. "...go ahead... ...mock me... ...laugh... ...enjoy this... ...you'll... ...still always be... ...nothing but a useless... ...waste of Dexter's cum... ...a slut... ...a fuck up... ...I knew it... ...from the moment you popped out of me..."
This was normally the part of the conversation where Daisy would shout and scream, knowing there was nothing she could actually do about it. But that Daisy was dead. This one just smiled back. And it wasn't because of her mother's very weak delivery in those insults. Instead, Daisy gently tilted her mother's head from her chin and forced her to make eye contact as her own eyes glowed with magic.
"Did you?" Daisy asked, "Did you really know? Answer honestly."
If not for the compulsion, Rey might have assumed it to be a rhetorical question, but with it, she was surprised to hear herself say, "...no... I just... hate you... as much as I hate myself for letting Dexter convince me to give birth to you..."
Daisy continued to smile at the forced confession. "Too bad, Mom. It's actually kind of funny that you mentioned Daddy. I talked to him before he died." Daisy immediately noticed the change in Rey's gaze as Daisy had legitimately gained her attention.
"You want to know what he said? He said... that you were right about me. And it made me
so
... fucking mad... But you know why it made me so mad? Because he was right. Everything that you ever said about me was completely true. I
am
useless. I
am
a slut. And boy oh boy am I a fuck up. You have no idea. Unless I'm fucking them, I'd be a waste of anyone's cum, much less Daddy's. There is no one,
literally
no one who I've interacted with who was better for the experience. I even... I even disappointed Sir, and the bar he has for me is... it's so low... it's
so
goddamn
low
and... I still somehow fucked that up. I destroy everything I touch. I'm a plague. And that was before I became a
literal
plague.
"Did you know? On some level you must have. That the disease going through town was me? It was
all
me. Which of course means that... I killed Dad. And I did so gladly because... I knew this would happen. That when I took him from you that you would just... break."
Rey's expression became hard to read as she took in Daisy's words. Most of the activity was in her dark, sunken eyes. Daisy initially thought she was going to reject this reality and take everything that was happening as a dream as many other had before her, but eventually the expressions began to settle into one of emptiness again. "...if that's true... ...and you aren't just saying that to be a bitch... ...then you took him from yourself... ...as much as you did from me..."
Daisy threw back her head into a loud laugh. "Took him from myself? Really? Bitch, when the fuck was he
mine
to begin with? You forced Dad to make a choice and he
chose
! You won!"
"...I didn't win..." Rey murmured, dropping her head. "...if I won... ...you wouldn't be here to torment me..."
"You won a
fuck