Normal parents hung up school awards or sports trophies. At least, that was what he had heard. His parents had decided to hang up the relics of every monster that he had murdered on the walls.

He hid his face in his hands. “Mom, can you… take those down? At least for tomorrow. My friends are going to be here and I don’t-”

She fixed him with a look that told him to look at her while she spoke, but his face was still hidden in his hands so he didn’t see it. So she had to interrupt him with words instead. “And hide how proud we are of you? How could you suggest a thing?”

He sighed. “I don’t really want to get into…” No, he couldn’t finish that sentence. He couldn’t tell his mother, a monster hunter, that his friends didn’t know that he killed monsters. That that is what his parents did too. “Oh, okay.”

Nope, he had to get his friends to want to go somewhere else instead. That was his only option to get out of this embarrassment-free. Or something.