The Goth Legacy: Chapter 6 - Part A
Content warning: This story contains mature themes and is not suitable for minors. For this chapter, sexual references, references to infertility and miscarriage, sim-eating cow plants, suicide, swearing, juice and bubbles (it is sim college after all) and sexuality.
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Tosha had noticed the light was on in the shed and had assumed Izzy must have forgotten to turn it off after feeding Phyllis. Having been roughly awoken from her dreams only moments earlier, her half muddled brain couldn’t even begin to comprehend why Izzy was awake and dressed, pacing the floor of the shed. She also wondered why the Cowplant was hungry when Izzy was supposed to have fed it that evening.
“Izzy, what are you doing? It’s three in the morning?” she asked.
So lost in her thoughts Izzy hadn’t even heard Tosha approach and as such was startled when her mother spoke. Panic set in as she tried to come up with something to say, her only thought being that it couldn’t be the truth.
“I know what I’m doing,” she said forcefully, trying to ignore her subconscious agreeing that yes, that certainly wasn’t the truth, “what are you doing?”
While it appeared their daughter had taken the news that she was adopted as well as could be expected, Tosha and Alexander still felt hesitant when it came to Izzy, especially when it came to discipline. They were just waiting for the words ‘you’re not even my real parents’ to come out of her mouth.
Tosha calmly replied that she asked first, but before Izzy could reply, they were distracted by the sound at the door.
Both women turned towards the young man who had just cleared his throat and was looking questioningly at the scene before him.
“Can I help you?” Tosha finally asked when the young man failed to offer a reason for his presence.
The young man scratched his head, “Um, I hope so. I was told to come to this address. I’m here to collect a package or something?”
Tosha turned to Izzy in the hope she had some sort of explanation to find her looking, well, pissed off.
“That wasn’t the deal,” Izzy seethed. “The email explicitly said that she needed to collect it in person. Why isn’t she here?”
Izzy was torn between screaming and crying. It wasn’t as if she had wanted to do this, but there just hadn’t been any other way. She had forced herself to see it as a trade, Dina Goth’s life for the chance for her parents to have the baby they wanted so much. Up until the last five minutes everything had happened so effortlessly she couldn’t help but wonder if it was part of some larger plan.
Googling Dina Goth had revealed that she either had the best plastic surgeon this side of Belladonna Cove or that she had been drinking the synthetic version of Cowplant’s milk her late husband, and Izzy’s grandfather, had been developing. Izzy had made a fake email account and emailed Dina saying she had discovered Mortimer’s research and recreated it, and that she would be willing to share it with Dina for §5000. Izzy hadn’t actually thought Dina would even reply, let alone ask Izzy to name the time and the place to collect the product.
Izzy reasoned that it was hardly murder if Dina just happened to be in the vicinity of Phyllis in the rare event she hadn’t been fed. All she had to do was make sure Dina was in the shed with the hungry Cowplant. She could work out how she would get her mother to drink it afterwards, all she knew was that that elixir was the only thing that could give her parents the extra time they need to conceive.
Izzy’s thoughts were drawn back to the present by the stranger’s petulant cries, “I’m her son not her secretary, why am I the only one who remembers this.”
Tosha, who was now well and truly awake and putting the pieces together at an alarming rate, calmly apologised, “I’m sorry, there has been a tremendous error of judgement here that I will be getting to the bottom of. I apologise for the inconvenience but whatever it is you came for, is not available.”
MJ shrugged, “it’s no skin off my nose,” he told her before turning around and heading off the property.
Once their unexpected guest was out of sight Tosha spoke very firmly, “you have a lot of explaining to do Isabella.”
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After hearing Izzy’s tearful confession, Tosha told her that they would talk in the morning. She then put on the kettle before waking her husband to tell him what had happened.
Several moments had passed after she finished repeating the events of night prompting her to ask her husband what he was thinking.
“Apart from trying to comprehend that our daughter fully intended to feed a living sim to her pet cowplant, mostly that I need something stronger than tea,” he replied.
“I couldn’t even be angry at her Alex, just listening to her broke my heart,” Tosha confessed. “And she was literally shaking as she was talking. I don’t think she could have gone through with it, I honestly think she frightened herself that she came so close.”
“I hope you’re right,” Alexander murmured, “but I can’t help but struggle to reconcile how she could even put such an immoral plan into motion.”
“Because Alex, she loves us,” Tosha replied slightly irritated at her husband’s seeming lack of understanding. “In our careers we are constantly being faced with ethical questions, but we’ve had the benefit of years of experience that have formed our moral compass. She’s seventeen. She saw that we were in pain because we wanted a baby and she saw giving me more time to conceive a way to ease that pain. Hearing all of the horrible things Dina put us through just happened at the exact moment of that thinking. She’s not immoral, she just decided that it was an acceptable price to pay.”
“I understand what you’re saying Tosha,” Alexander told her sincerely, “but rationally her actions were going to lead to a sim’s death. That scares me. We taught her right from wrong and what she was going to do was incredibly, incredibly wrong.”
“I know, and it scares me too. But I trust her, and I trust in our ability as parents,” Tosha said thoughtfully.
“Did you tell her?” he asked.
It took a moment for Tosha to realise what he was talking about. After years of struggling to fall pregnant, with and without medical assistance, she could scarcely believe she had conceived naturally at age forty-six.
“No. And I still don’t think we should. She’s leaving for Sim State in a little over a month, and I think it will be good for her to leave this behind. I’d prefer her to come home on the holidays and be pleasantly surprised than having to hear I’ve had another miscarriage when she’s miles away.”
Alexander nodded and slid his hand across the table which Tosha gratefully held. A part of her wanted to scream the news from the roof tops, that her and Alex had conceived a little miracle whilst on holiday at Three Lakes and that she couldn’t be happier. But the truth was she was also petrified. Conceiving was one thing, but carrying the baby to full term was another. At her age the risk of miscarriage was so much higher, and they hadn’t even discussed what they would do if there were any abnormalities. Tosha was determined to take it one day at a time, and certainly not to let her daughter be burdened anymore than she already had been.
As Alexander watched his wife lost in thought, once again he found himself completely lost as to what to say. Regretfully, he acknowledged to himself, he didn’t even have the unwavering optimism he’d once had to tell her it would all be okay.
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Alexander had taken Izzy Downtown for dinner which meant it was well after dark by the time Izzy brought up her final suitcase to her new room. Her dad had said that it was because she was facing a year of very ordinary cafeteria food, he had the experience of cooking it to know, but she suspected her dad was just postponing saying goodbye.
Not that she had admitted it, but she was pleased to put it off a little longer too. She had been disappointed her mum had been feeling too tired from work to make the trip with them to SSU.
Although she had never had any trouble making friends, Izzy had still been a little daunted at the prospect of starting anew at University. Despite not being on good terms with Dianne Broke, she had found herself relieved to see a familiar face when she ran into her in the dorm bathrooms.
Hearing her name, Dianne turned around to face Izzy, refusing to reveal her own gratitude for knowing someone outside of her family would be sharing her dorm. After all, Dianne hadn’t been the most popular girl in high school by betraying her emotions easily.
Putting on a brave face, Izzy spoke, “It’s really good to see you.” Dianne offered no reply. “Okay,” Izzy continued, “I know we’re not exactly on good terms, but I think it would be really nice to have someone I know and can talk to in my dorm. And I am sorry.”
“You mean for punching me in the face?” Dianne clarified.
“Yeah, although you did deserve it, it was wrong of me to do it,” Izzy replied.
Dianne finally cracked a smile, “yeah, that’s fair, and you’re right, it will be nice knowing someone. Although didn’t you know, Jeff’s here too.”
Izzy hadn’t actually.
Jeff Pleasant, who was actually Dianne’s uncle, and if rumours were to be believed, half brother, had been Izzy’s first love. Their chemistry had been undeniable and he had been, amongst other things, her first kiss. But between everything that had happened towards the end of high school for Izzy, and the fact that both of them weren’t looking for a steady relationship, they had amicably drifted apart.
Besides, it wasn’t as if Izzy hadn’t dated since then, she’d even told her career advisor that her aim in life was to have fifty first dates much to the woman’s horror.
Back in her dorm room for her first night at college, Izzy decided it now seemed a whole lot less daunting. All that was left now was to enjoy it.
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Pinenut Plaza Dorms was the smallest residence at SSU so it wasn’t surprising she ran into Jeff the very next evening. After awkwardly greeting each other they fell into silence until Jeff spoke, “Surely we know each other too well to let this be weird.”
Izzy smiled, “definitely,” she agreed. The last year of high school had been so hectic with her mum’s miscarriage, and learning she was adopted, and the whole coming-close-to-killing-someone thing, she hadn’t really given any thought to where her relationship with Jeff might have ended up had things been different.
“So, tell me everything?” she asked enthusiastically. “I thought your mother was pushing for Académie?”
“She was, but Sim State was my first choice. They were pretty keen to have another Pleasant on the football team, it’s good for my ego you know,” Jeff laughed. Both his uncle Daniel and cousin Lillith had played for SSU before going on to become household names.
“Besides,” he added, “have you seen how hot the women are here?”
“You better be referring to me,” Izzy told him jokingly.
Jeff smiled, “of course I am. We didn’t stop seeing each other because we weren’t attracted to each other.”
Izzy gave him a half smile and a shrug which she hoped said something along the lines of c'est la vie. She was too busy trying to ignore the butterflies in her stomach from him saying he was attracted to her to think of some witty comeback.
Jeff took hold of her hand, “I am sorry,” he said gently, “no matter what was going on with us, I could have been a better friend.”
Jeff was a player, which he was honest about, which he figured must pardon him for some of it, but he and Izzy had been friends before they were anything else. And while he didn’t know all the details, he knew things had been really rough for her. Even he felt like a jerk for being too busy chasing tail to be there for her.
Izzy knew such a statement was hard for Jeff who pretty much lived by the motto of ‘this is who I am, like it or lump it’. She also knew he couldn’t fake sincerity if his life depended on it.
Fuelled by the butterflies in her stomach, and the very real attraction Jeff had spoken about, Izzy grabbed his other hand. “Make it up to me now then,” she told him boldly.
For the first time in his life Jeff didn’t have an answer.
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Izzy chose to keep the details of her rekindled relationship with Jeff out of her updates to her parents. Both Izzy and Jeff had no desire to close themselves off to the many dating opportunities available at College, and she didn’t want her parents to get the wrong idea, especially as this dorm was the very place they had begun their relationship.
Instead she told them about the new friends she was making and her classes, once again assuring her father that she would choose a major before the registrar did for her.
Izzy had mentioned to John Albee, who shared her dorm and had quickly become a good friend, that she was considering declaring art as her major. He had offered to take her with him next time he visited his older siblings so she could talk to his half-sister Willow who was now in her second year of the subject. As they sat on the worn couches in the backyard Izzy thanked Willow for taking the time to talk to her.
She didn’t like to admit it, but she couldn’t help but find Willow kind of intimidating. It didn’t help that the older woman responded by declaring that she didn’t really know what she could say to help.
“I guess you could tell me if there are any reasons I shouldn’t take art,” she said lightly.
Willow was protective of her family, after all, they were all each other had. They had all lost their mothers but shared the same dark and mysterious father who had given his name as Jon Smith to his smitten conquests. She knew John wouldn’t have come up with this pretence of her providing academic advice unless it was important to him that the family meet her, which meant he must like her. Willow figured that made it her responsibility to test what she was made of.
“Art is about expressing emotion,” Willow told her. “It’s about love and pain, agony and ecstasy. If you’ve lived a sheltered, privileged existence with no exposure to the miserable reality of existence and choices that entails, then no, you shouldn’t take art because what can you possibly have to say?”
John groaned, in irritation at his sister’s seeming insistence on being a victim, but mostly in embarrassment that he had been naive enough to think his sister could possibly behave like a normal person for once. “Is it really impossible for you to give someone a chance unless they prove their life has somehow sucked like ours has?” he asked.
“It’s not about being willing to give someone a chance or not,” Willow replied. “It is, however, about being honest about the different challenges people have faced, and recognising that such challenges change a way an individual will view things in life.”
Before John could try and speak in her defence Izzy spoke.
“Oh, I couldn’t agree more,” she said sharply. “If one had, for example, discovered they had been born simply to be a pawn in the game of their gold-digging step grandmother. Or perhaps that their parents were in fact their uncle and aunt because their mother had committed suicide and no one knew who their biological father actually was. Of course that would change the way they saw the world. It doesn’t mean they would feel so self entitled as to believe that their emotions were the only ones worthy of expression though.”
A moment of silence passed before Willow turned to face John, “I like her. And I admit freely that I misjudged her.”
“That’s an understatement,” John replied, still trying to grasp everything Izzy had revealed about herself.
“Well, now that we’ve established we’re all fucked up, I say it’s time to unwind a little,” Willow replied.
“You mean get the bubble blower started,” John corrected.
“Started?” Willow laughed, “hardly. The others have been at it for the better part of an hour. I’ll see you both inside soon. Oh, and you should invite Izzy to join us on Saturday.”
After the back door slammed shut, Izzy asked John what it was exactly that was happening on Saturday.
“All of us are heading Downtown for the Paranormal Expo. The Cordial Sisters are going to be there, I’m not sure if you know who they are, but they’re considered the best psychics in Sim City. We all have the same father, who died when we were all really young, and we know nothing about him. I guess we’re hoping for some answers, or closure, or something,” John tried to explain.
“Count me in,” Izzy responded.
“You mean you’re willingly going to spend time with my family after that?”
Izzy placed her hand over her heart and spoke in the most serious voice she could muster, “do you really think so little of me that that little effort by your sister could stop me from being your friend?”
“It would send me running,” John shrugged.
“Well clearly I’m just made of stronger stuff than you,” she told him in mock seriousness.
“I really don’t think I’ll ever understand your breed,” John laughed.
“Women?” Izzy clarified.
John nodded.
“Well, no, probably not. It’s best just to do as we say,” she told him with a grin.
“I’ll take that on board,” John told her sincerely, “shall we go inside?”
“Absolutely. But only because I was about to tell you we were doing that anyway,” Izzy joked.
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Izzy wasn’t exactly sure when it happened, but at some point she and John had moved into the bedroom off the main living space. “Private party for two?” she asked.
“I hope you don’t mind,” John replied, “I felt it was kind of crowded out there.”
“Maybe I like crowded spaces,” she told him, moving herself further into his arms, “seems like a good excuse to dance that tiny bit closer.”
To his credit, despite his nerves, he didn’t pause before responding, “who said you needed an excuse?”
Before the moment could continue, they were interrupted by John’s other sister, Lila, clearing her throat.
“What could you possibly want?” John replied, not even taking his eyes off Izzy.
“Believe me, I wouldn’t be here unless it was urgent,” Lila told him. “But we really need to get Colby home.”
John sighed, which his sister understood to be his reluctant agreement to drag their wasted brother back to the dorms.
John rested his forehead against Izzy’s, “I am so sorry.”
“It’s okay,” she assured him. “I know all too well what sacrifices you’ll make for your family.”
“Consider this a very short-term one,” he promised, before following Lila out of the room.
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Continued in Part B.