"Mom? Mommy?" you shout into the darkness. It's midnight, the moon shining through the cracks in the blinds. You'd gone to bed hours ago, but woke up uneasy.

Agatha jumps when she feels you shake her arm. She turns on the nightlight and picks you up. Rio wakes up too, his sleep never having been light.

"Little girl?" Rio murmurs, seeing you in his wife's arms. Small tears run down your cheeks as you look up at them.

"Am I a freak?" you whisper.

The two women look at each other in surprise. Rio brushes your hair away from your face, wiping your tears away, while Agatha gently rocks you.

"No, baby, no," Agatha says, rubbing your back. "Why do you think that?"

"The girls at school... they say I am one because of my looks."

Your gaze shifts to Rio, who immediately understands. You look every bit like Agatha: wavy brown hair, sky-blue eyes… except for one detail. You still can't control your transformation. Bones appear without warning. Of all things, Rio wishes you hadn't inherited that.

"They say I'm disgusting. That I shouldn't be alive."

The words hurt. You cling to your mom's chest, seeking comfort.

"Baby, you're not disgusting or a freak. You're beautiful," Agatha says, looking at Rio, who is silently tormented. They always feared this. That's why they enrolled you in a school for witches, hoping you'd fit in. But it wasn't working.

"Do you think Mommy is a freak?" Agatha asks.

"No! Of course not," you answer quickly, touching Rio's hand. "Mummy is pretty."

Rio's heart melts. Agatha smiles.

"Show her," Agatha says.

Rio hesitates, but takes a deep breath and lets his face change. The lower part of his face turns to bone.

"Do you still think Mommy is pretty?" he asks, his heart in his throat.

Without hesitation, you reach up and touch the bone.

"Yes."

Rio takes your small hand in his before returning to his normal form and kissing it.

"If Mommy is beautiful, so are you. My little skeletons."