“Thook-thook. Thook-thook. Thook-thook.”

I mouth out the sounds that I hear. My ear is pressed against her chest as she runs up the staircase. Hearts are a weird thing, you know? I pull my head away from her body and hold Madison to my other ear and listen to her body sounds instead.

Nothing.

Hmm. I hold the book out at an arm’s length and spin her around, inspecting her to figure out where her heart is.

  “Do you mind?” says the book and snaps shut on my fingers. SNAP SHUT. SNAP SHUT. I flinch and pull my fingers back out of her tightly pressing down pages. She lets out a ‘hmpf’ and turns around to face the other way, but doesn’t fly off, opting to stay here instead. I’m carrying her, but the monk is carrying me. So. It’s complicated. I shake my hand out, bending my now sore fingers.

“We’re going to the miller’s, Madison.”

“What…? The miller is down the other way, what are you talking about? Why would we even go there?”

Wait…

  I narrow my eyes. Is that true? Aren’t we going to the miller’s? Have you been lying to me, guy? I look up to the face of the monk who is bounding us up the long staircase. I think the dungeon-master is out of traps, as there haven’t been any others since the first wave of them during my initial ‘escape’.

“Thook thook?” I ask her. Her fingers clench tighter into my left upper arm and thigh, more bruises. I must look like I have the pox at this point. She doesn’t respond to my question, which I’m getting used to honestly. It kind of hurts. I decide to reformulate. Maybe she can’t speak heart.

“Where are we going?”

  She doesn’t say anything, her fingers press tighter and I sigh, leaning my head against her, as I look up the staircase as we climb. It’s nice being carried, you know? I usually have to walk all of these myself. I wish I had had more time to look around the village but… well, next time. For now, it’s enough that I know the truth.

I close my eyes and hum.

I miss the thief.

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One of my hands rubs my stomach, in the spot where she stabbed me so many times. Remember that? Those were happier days. I still feel the metal against my insides. Is that wrong of me? To think of someone else while I’m literally in someone’s arms?

I guess I really am a jerk. I like you a lot too though, BMMMM.

I look down to Madison’s back. I also like her though, but in a different way.

It’s complicated. I sigh and open my eyes. I wonder if the hero has these kinds of problems? He doesn’t ever seem to talk much. Maybe that’s the smart thing to do in a life like this? Just do the job, keep walking straight forward. Don’t get involved. Stay professional.

Maybe…

Ugh…

  My noses crinkles and my face shifts just as the smell hits me, us. An absolutely vile, sour odor comes down against us as we reach the end of the staircase. Opening my eyes I look at what lies ahead. But then I remember. I was here before, after all. I twitch, feeling somewhat antsy about coming back to this floor. Even if it has been cleared. It was gross.

Squish.

  Her boot leaves the stone staircase and squishes the wet, meaty floor below. She stops to catch her breath, which I wouldn’t have done here, personally. But she’s made out of tougher stuff than I am. Smiling at my friend, I let the white-magic flow through my hand and press it against her body.

“Thook-thook.”

“Thanks…” she mumbles and looks around awkwardly. I laugh at her funny expression. It makes her eyes look funny. She doesn’t know what to do with her feelings. I guess being human is weird for her too.

  Voices ring out from behind us, from down below us. She looks forward and then turns left, running through a ripped open, meaty orifice that once made up a door. ‘Water’ splashes up from the ‘ground’ as she runs, her boots making a series of wet, sucking noises as the soft meat below us sloshes and squirts. Meat floor, meat floor! I cover Madison with one of my long sleeves, so that her pages don’t stain. She’s not made out of meat, so getting wet would be bad for her complexion.

  But it really does stink in here, guy, I’m doing my best to only breathe through my nose and as little as I can. But… ugh. Talk about unhygienic. As she runs, bounding down another tight corner, I look at the ribbed walls of the tight, wet tunnels. There are holes in some of them, small holes that line the sides of the meat. But nothing stirs out of them anymore. They’re all dead. We killed them all when we came down. Which is good, because they’re disgusting. I hate worms. I bet if I had to look for the secret staircase, it’d be hidden inside one of the wormholes. Ugh. Gross.

  We round another corner and she’s picking up the pace. It’s a pretty small floor, but the intestines wind around in tight bends, making the place feel a lot larger than it is. It takes a long time to go through. The walls pulsate, in and out, in and out, like there was a heartbeat behind them, pushing them against us. It’s like a digestive tract, but we’re going up it instead of down it this time. Which is unhealthy, but also something I won’t judge you for, if you’re into it guy. You do you.

Where are we going? Stones thud out again and I look forward as we bound up the next staircase, going up to the next floor. I guess we’re going higher. Further. That was easy. An entire floor cleared, ‘for free’.

I hold Madison up to my face as we exit the gooie, wet meat-floor and go up the next staircase.

“You think the dungeon-master is going to be mad?” I ask her.

“Yeah. They already are.”

“Aren’t you going to get in trouble?”

The monk’s looking at us again. I look back up to her and smile, feeling my face become warm for some reason as she looks back down at me. I wonder what she wants.

“You’re speaking book,” says a voice from my hands. Huh?

I look back to Madison. “You’re speaking book, when you’re talking to me. So to her you’re just making a bunch of flapping noises. She probably thinks you’ve lost it.”

  “Oh.” I realize. I had no idea I was bilingual. I really am talented. Looking back up to her again, I lift a hand and tap her nose with a finger, once to every shifting tone as I hum again. But something is ruining the moment. It’s ruining it. Can you feel it too?! It’s ruining it! I can feel them, I can feel the eyes, the eyes watching me. Watching us.

I turn my head back to face the ceiling above us and stick my tongue out to the dungeon-master, as I hold my two favorite people closer to myself.

"Thook-thook," I say, feeling the strange thing move inside of my chest.