It has been 3 days now, meaning it was almost 1 real world day out there.

After I met Ben and we saw what happened to Elizabeth, we went to a cemetery and I had bought her a tomb stone and burial place.

As we had a priest say a few goodbye words, Ben dropped everything and walked away, leaving me and Fiora behind. It was both understandable and a giant asshole thing to do, the poor child cried for half a day afterwards.

Well, nothing my a little “magic” could not solve.

Since then I have camped with her outside of the dungeon and waited for Elena, Calvin and of course Artjem to reappear, but they all must have decided to take a long sleep and take care of some issues.

The poor child slept on my lap and I as so often was bored out of my mind. Not that I think about it the last few weeks have been really a lot of fun. This is a thing I didn't expect to ever hear from myself.

I wonder if it has to do with Artjem...

The person that just came out of nowhere and began with a lame joke, making me truly laugh for the first time in ages. And ever since he has made every day a truly enjoyable experience.

I know he likes to joke about not trusting me that I never was flirted with and that such a.. cute girl as myself should have experience, but the truth is I really did not. I was always treated normally but never approached in such a way for reasons...

There was only one boy that has ever been very nice to me. Mother told me he had a crush on me, which made me very happy, but since we both were extremely shy, nothing became out of it.

And then comes he... The amount of attention I receive is dangerous. It makes you think about this person, makes you ask yourself if they really like you and in return makes you pay them much more attention. You start to see the good things in this person and feel warm inside because he or she chose you.

Right now I was bored and had nothing better to do then just open up an emulator and play a few games inside of Might and Magic. Pokemon, an older version since the newest became impossibly hard to beat (beating meaning collecting all pokemon) because catching 30k of them is not an easy task... At least all continents are interconnected now and you can travel between them...

Like that I spent my last few days here, just laying in a tent with Fiora and waiting. Ben also did not tell me anything over that time and seemed busy.

Then when I expected him to not come ever again, he spawned before the dungeon as it is the norm with players that lost their lives inside.

As soon as he appeared, Hannah also spawned right beside him. She looked around frightened and noticed Artjem standing in front of her. Her lips quivered and she started to cry and jumped in his arms.

“What's wrong little one?” He asked in a for him uncharacteristic quiet and melancholic voice.

“T-they got aunty Elizabeth.” She then urged him to follow her. She did not even know where they were but wanted him to help her. “We have to hurry!”

But as soon as she pulled on Artjem, the little Fiora walked towards her and embraced Hannah softly, shaking her head.

They both started to cry louder and seemed to lose their minds, Hannah began to lose her sanity as she denied reality and called out for her mother, brother and at last father.

All I could do at this point was to use my little “Magic”. It was something I cooked up specially for such occasions, a few pills that would calm the girls down in case of a break down. I mean, they are children that have lost everything and are being put into harsh conditions, what did you expect?

I made them swallow the pills and they shortly after went to sleep. All that matters for now is for them to calm down, to rest their mind and to accept everything that happened, to not allow all the shit hit them at once and to simply help them overcome it. This is all I can do sadly.

Fiora was still embracing the small Hannah and as such Artjem took the both of them and sat on the ground against a tree and put them to rest on his lap. I put a blanket above them and we sat there in a long silence.

“Where is Ben and the others?” he then asked out of nowhere after half an hour.

“Ben is.. dealing with that situation somehow. Calv and Elena, don't even know, should also return shortly.”

We then sat in silence again for 10 minutes and I could see Artjem lost in thoughts as he pat the girls heads.

“Haha... I can barely deal with my own shit and here I am playing father... What am I even doing here...” He smiled bitterly.

I could see that there was something wrong with him and wanted to ask what it was but did not have the courage for that. I wanted to start a normal conversation but then it overcame me that I did not actually know much about him. Hell, we did not even talk to each other privately other than our meeting.

He suddenly started to hum a melody. It sounded happy and felt strangely out of place.

“What.. song is it from?” I finally asked him.

He looked up and I could see a slight spark in his eye as he noticed my interest. “Come here, I will turn it on so you have to listen.” He mentioned for me to sit right beside him and I complied, even if shyly and afraid of physical contact for I am very shy, especially around men obviously.

After he chose the options for only me and him hear the song, it stared to play.

With a happy tune I listened to the lyrics: (Hollywood Undead- Bullet, for anyone interested, honestly one of my favorite songs and the pure irony of the happy sounding song about suicide is brilliant. For the lovers of dark humor and ones that can take a joke.)

“My legs are dangling off the edge

The bottom of the bottle is my only friend

I think I'll slit my wrist again and I'm

Gone, gone, gone, gone

My legs are dangling of the edge

A stomach full of pills didn't work again

I'll put a bulled in my head and I'm

Gone, gone, gone...”

I had a quiet and unbelievable laugh as I heard the words and could not believe it. “Ha ha what is that? That's horrible!” I complained about the dark themes of this happy sounding song that didn't necessarily deter me, no, I just never experience anything like that before.

He just laughed it off. “That's the beauty of dark humor..”

We continued to listen to the song.

“..when you were young, you never thought you'd die

Found out that you could but too scared to try

Looked in the mirror and you said goodbye

Climbed to the roof to see if you could fly

So if I survive then I'll see you tomorrow

Yeah, I'll see tomorrow...

My legs are dangling of the edge....”

We sat there and listened together to the song, somewhere while doing it I did not notice how I started to lean onto Artjem and lost myself in the atmosphere. The lyrics were dark, yes, but there was also so much truth in them...

“It's awesome, right?” He grinned at me.

I noticed whom my body was leaning at and shyly pulled away from him while my head was burning in embarrassment.

This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

He chuckled silently. “Yes, music has that wonderful characteristic of bringing people together.. I have just noticed that we actually haven't talked to each other a lot, no, we barely know of each other.” He smiled softly, a smile that I never saw of him, well maybe a few times with Hannah when he thought nobody was looking.

My face was burning even more now and I gulped down. Who would have thought he could be like this... “Well... I do not even know where to start...Ahm, my favorite color is black--”

He interrupted me. “I do not mean any of that meaningless shit, I am talking about things that matter. What is something I definitely do not know about you but something which defies you as a person?”

I raised a finger and told him with a very serious manner that would not tolerate any leaks of this private information. “ Ahm, Did you know that I like creepy things that most others would find weird?”

He chuckled. “This was very cute.” He patted my head and touched my long red hair. I looked him shyly and fearfully in the eyes as he seemed to enjoy himself.

“Can you actually feel the animal ears? And do you also have human ears? Can you hear with all of them or are the ones on your head for decoration only?” He bombarded me with questions and started to delicately play with my fox ears on the top of my head.

A long moan escaped me and I had to forcefully pull his hands away from me. “They are very sensitive...” I complained and pouted. “Mostly decoration otherwise.”

He had an amazed expression. “Wow, that was so... dangerous.” he reached with his hand for my head again, but I hid it under my hands and gave him a pleading look. This was just too embarrassing. “You are a very dangerous woman Daisy Ledger. How could any man restrain himself after a show of such overbearing cuteness? Simple, they could not.”

I started to fidget with my fingers and asked in a whisper. “you really think I am cute?”

“But of course I do.” He playfully fist bumped my shoulder. “You really sound like a sheltered princess that never had contact to the opposite gender.”

I had to look away in shame. “Well, this is because it is kind of true... I mostly only had contact with my mother and other women or adults that already had their families, soo...”

Artjem looked at me for a few seconds before continuing. “Well, you dense woman, to answer your question from before, of course I think you are very adorable and cute, in fact so cute that it is hard for me not to jump right at you since... You just have that nature about you that wants me to take you for myself and to protect you from all the horrible things and people out there, to protect that adorable innocents of yours.” He looked far off into distance. “It is funny actually because long ago it was me that was the cute and innocent dense guy and I had a strong woman that wanted to protect that in me.” He gave me a big smile. “I guess people like us attract each other, we complete ourselves together... Yin and yang or whatever this cliche is called, but in that case it is more the innocent young girl and the brute asshole that will more then likely corrupt her rather then actually protect.”

I looked at him with my mouth agape from the sudden seriousness he gave of. Then I frowned. “I am not as innocent as you might think of me...”

“Really? Then give me examples.”

“I am not who you think I am.. I have a lot of dark thoughts about many things. I am probably, no, most likely a horrible person...” I admitted with my head down.

“Want to hear a joke?” He asked me and I looked at him accusingly as if he did not take my words seriously at all. “A priest asks a convicted murderer at the electric chair, “Do you have any last wish, my son?”

“Yes, replied the murderer. “Can you hold my hand?” “

I had to contain my laughter as the joke hit with me for some reason.

“ A husband and a wife are in the hospital because the wife gives birth. She suffers horrible pain so the husband says, “I' m so sorry honey that you have to endure this...”

The woman looks at him and tells him with a smile, “Don't worry Steve, it's not your fault anyway..” “

We both laughed over that and had to hold our hands in front of our mouth as to not wake the girls up. They would sleep for another 4 hours at minimum, but still...

“Everyone has those dark thoughts, we all want to do things that are not moral or want to simply hurt others. Humans are fucked up by nature and the best way about it is with humor, dark humor to be precise. It.. helps to deal with that, I have trouble to put that into words. It is healthy to laugh about those horrible things because later when they happen to you, you can laugh them off and not give a shit.

This is why I do not tend to judge people as much as others.”

On that I had to disagree. “But you--” I was interrupted.

“Because I hate all of them equally.”

I could not believe my ears and we shared another laugh together.

He suddenly leaned against me. “I have not slept tonight at all, maybe a few hours at most, be a darling and let me calm my eyes for few hours.” Artjem put his head on my lap with the kids still leaning against his lap.

My tail, that was behind me the whole time was then picked up by him and I shrieked in surprise. But Artjem just kept on touching it and gently stroked the fluffy tail of mine. He then gave me a half dirty and half just happy grin. “Also very sensitive?”

I nodded and he stopped and put the tail under his head as a pillow. That guy, really...

“Hey Daisy. Soon I will return to being me, is it okay with you?”

Looking down on him I smiled slightly. “I would not have expected anything else.”

“Good. I have a giant urge to call someone a faggot right now. Can almost not restrain myself.”

We laughed slightly and he dozed off.

…..................................................

It was later that I noticed that I must have also fallen asleep. Looking down, I saw everyone still sleeping and Artjem drooling slightly on my clothes.

With a finger I wiped it away and just watched him sleep.

It was then that I noticed that I received a voicemail from my mother. Having nothing better to do anyway I listened to it: “Hello darling, there are rumors going around that you are active again, I am honestly so glad about it. You can not imagine how hard it was to see you in that state and not being able to help... Anyway, I will visit soon. Do not bother with declining, I already know where you are and where you are going so I will be coming soon hehe. Love you darling and of course see you soon.”

Sigh... Well, not like I am not happy to see her again. I just hope she won't treat everyone to harshly, she can be overprotective after all.

AN: Did I overdo it with Artjem being all not dickish all of a sudden for a sweet moment? Maybe he should be more cynical as alway hmm...