Chapter 648: No More, No Less
Chirp.
The first sound I heard-chirp. Caught it midway, mid-tune, like my ears had only just started learning how to hear. Sweet, sultry smooth chirping from a songstress perched on a branch nearby.
So kind of morning lody from so kind of swallow-mockingjay birdie or another that made its life aspiration to make alarm clocks redundant, I guess. And I was just there-all nice and comfy with a pillow on my head, unconsciously conscious, my mind flicked onto autopilot.
That’s when it all ca crashing down on , in that next second, that autopilot disengaging on without my input.
Like a proverbial hundred feet tsunami crashing down to kingdom co-mories. I rembered seeing them, dreaming them, feeling them, living them. That Birdie Ellish outside chirped again... and I swallowed the teeming flood in a big, heavy gulp of air.
“Oh, fuck ...” was all I managed to whimper to summarize my entire predicant.
Y’know, I thought maybe after Ria, waking up sharing another’s lifelong mories alongside yours would be sothing I could sowhat get used to it, but hell no, you don’t... you never do. And in this case, it was far too much. It’s to the point where waking up as myself, being myself, and waking to reality... didn’t feel like reality.
.....
I felt like I really did just live a whole entire lifeti and then so. I couldn’t make heads or tails of it, it was all just a ss... a big heavy lump of feelings and emotions weighing down on my chest and threatening to suffocate if I didn’t get a grip on myself.
But then I see those faces, I hear those voices-strangers. So prick called Wilvur, that good samaritan Terra, the frighteningly devout Knight Tilina. Lenora’s haunting visage won’t stop flashing in my head. And this stinging in my heart, this almost overwhelming grief... Eshwlyn’s... and I just... I don’t know, I just...
“Ash...”
I knew it was irrational, I knew it didn’t make a damn lick of common sense, but when I turned my head, flicked my gaze over beside , I almost expected to find myself sleeping alone... that she wasn’t there anymore... like she was also a re fignt of a long, long dream lost to waking reality.
But there she was. Yeah, of course she was. So just calm down, .
Her soft breathing on my shoulder, cheeks faintly flushed with the red of winter fever, looking so peaceful, so calm... a far cry from the Elf I was with all night, honestly I don’t think I was fully prepared to have seen what I saw. Ash fast asleep, close as close can be, and the first thing I did was embrace her. After everything I saw, knowing everything I know, it was the only thing I wanted to do; until she wakes, until my arms go numb, until the end of the world-I didn’t care how long for.
She stirred a bit in my arms, her narrow ears twitching like a cat’s, and doubling down on the cat-thing, she even gave a purr-like moan as if subconsciously taking delight in my warmth. Always content over the simplest things... after a lifeti starved of it... now I know why that was, and really it just made my heart ache even more for her.
I ant every word of bear-hugging her until either I die or the world ended, that was until I took into account that we weren’t the only two people in the bedroom.
An all too familiar glint of gold was peering at from the foot of the bed. Thanks in no part to more recent mories, I actually very nearly did die when I finally noticed it spying every mont of my existence, but thankfully it was no crimson-haired Elf with a warped sense of fidelity, but instead, it was a young Grim Reaper who probably took a look at the last color of the rainbow and really said, ‘Mine now’.
Seeing Sera again before was like seeing an old friend who you haven’t talked to in eight or nine years, or instead of years, it was like eight or nine hours... albeit very long hours at that.
So for once, in that instance seeing her scowl lurking behind her hood and veil was like having a hearty handshake with that imaginary old friend of mine...
“Hey, good morning,” I said, adding so more spice to our already very engaging interaction. “You don’t look like you’re having a good morning...”
And indeed there was more life in cardboard than there was in her eyes at that particular mont. Though I suppose that’s what proactively using your magic overnight would do to you... if anything, I’m surprised she’s even still standing.
She responded with a low hum which I’m sure would have had very profound insight for if I only spoke humidifier as proficient as her, but since I don’t, I gave the usual default nod.
Honestly, I wasn’t up for much conversation myself... not after what I’ve seen... still, just because I was a little moody doesn’t an I’ve lost all sense of compassion, and seeing Sera standing there that diligent, weary figure she was, had my softer side springing forth-letting go of Ash, and throwing my legs over the bed.
“Won’t an much coming from , but seriously, thank you,” I said, forcing a small smile through my dampened spirits. “Again, ans very little coming from , so-what will it be? I’ll treat you. Must be starving, right? You got a favorite? Just say the word.”
Her sleeves wiggled a little, to which in all my ingenuity, I manage to interpret as, ‘I can’t speak, stupid’, and so I was forced to improvise a bit there.
“Cookies?” I suggested, and her eyes gave a rousing flicker-bullseye. “See, I knew you’d go for that. Listen I’m piling you a mountain’s worth, alright? It’s more than what you deserve for putting up with all my shit. It should be no problem... the cafe always has a surplus in stock freshly made, once I head on to work I’ll... I’ll...” I looked out the gap in the curtain windows, the sun brighter than the usual early morning I was accustod to. I blinked. “Oh my God, I’m fired, aren’t I?”
I pulled my phone out of my pocket, and in a lapse of early morning stupidity, I flash-banged my poor eyes with the brightness of the display, then wincing, squinting, I had a look at the ti, affirming what I already knew-yep, it appears to be half past late o’clock.
Was late yesterday, and I got a thirty-minute lecture and a shift full of snark and snides to show for it. I show up today and Nick’s going to freaking piledrive on the countertop and into the center of the earth, I just know it.
Then, ah! Speak of the devil-a text ssage from the giant-man himself sent two hours ago.
I braced myself, tapping the death sentence open, and instead, defying all odds, I have received a blessing from God himself, saying thus in the gospel of Nick,
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