Her pain slid away, joined by a weight of worry she hadn’t noticed and she knew what caused it, A fluffy yellow cloud with small curled white horns sat atop its shifting shape. A single black eye sat in the middle of its round form. As unnatural and inexplicable as all the other monsters, she didn’t see the harm.

It was nothing like the Red, wasn’t trying to kill her. It simply floated, radiating its tune and meeting her gaze, and. She brought her gaze to meet Mensha’s, her love was here, as over-composed and caring as always. A smile lit her face, bright and sure, not a painful outburst of relief, or edged with worry or tension.

A smile she’d forgotten, she cupped his face and pulled his lips down to meet her in a quiet embrace. The taste of salt was about him, blood flavored hers trying to drown her in a press of nausea. Yet it all slipped away save for the familiar warmth of his touch.

She pulled back, meeting his baffled expression with calm. The creature floating near his head provided the perfect music.

He said something, what, her drifting thoughts couldn’t grasp. Too struck, by the emotions swinging through his eyes. Was this what he felt when he smiled, perfectly content to watch her solve a problem, worrying about something? When he kissed her cheek, offer a cup of coffee look all too pleased. She felt she understood him better now. After all why panic when everything would be alright?

The fluffy cloud brushed the side of his head and he jolted to the side, eyes flitting to what surprised him. Giggle burled free from her as the surprise on his face melted to a familiar curious refrain. He slumped to the ground tension forgotten and She smiled because he knew it’d be okay too.

She dragged herself to sit with him. She relaxed into his offered embrace, nestling her cheek against his she let her fingers roam to familiar places. She returned her gaze to the humming ball. Its yellow woolly coat glinted under her glow, sparkling like gold as it approached.

This close its sublime peace, became all she could imagine. She thought of the smiling dead, she hoped they met their end, peaceful and happy. In the arms of someone loved. Nothing hurt, and she scarcely recalled worry, it was wonderful.

She rubbed the metal ring on her finger. She wished it could’ve been perfect. Tears came to her from a place she couldn’t find. They must be happy.

Mensha lifted him, offering his palm for the horned cloud to rest. It did, soundlessly filling his palm with its fluffy bulk., and she saw them reflect in that great black eye.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

Their forms, slumped against the wall, coated in dust, and covered in blood. Mensha in old burgundy paste and Summer drenched in vibrant red fluid that hid her bruises. Yet he wore a light smile and his eyes were lit with a light she’d feared smothered. His features shone with the same innocent abandon as when he looted the stores at the start of it.

Happy, despite it all. More tears joined into a cascade down her cheeks. Her partner turned to kiss her cheek and along her head. She laughed at the smiling lovers reflected in its eyes.

Mensha caressed the creature as he brought in near them, its nearness forcing the last errant thoughts from her head. Her breath slowed, and she found herself forgetting to blink. Yet the smile never left her face.

Her loves thumb curiously touched the creature’s eye as he stopped it before their faces. Its hum filled her ears, and her thoughts drifted to lazy days in bed, and quiet conversations with friends. Caught between sleep and her attachment to this moment.

His finger dug into its eye and it trembled, Summer blinked. The digit pierced the orb, and it leaked burbles of clear fluid laced with thin red threads. The cloud lurched back but Mensha held its fur tight. Its deflating eye mirrored his curiosity and wonder.

Curios herself she watched. what did its insides look like? She smiled and leaned into her partner as he set to find out.

His other hand rose his questing fingers dug under the ruptured orb. He wrenched it free from the struggling cloud with a wet squelch. It was gross, she supposed but nausea couldn’t reach her. All she saw was the way the light bounced beautifully off the midnight orb and its bronze cord. As it dripped mixed red and clear drops, to wet her partner’s hand.

The hum died, and in its place, silence screamed for the voiceless thing that struggled and writhed in Mensha’s hand. Its yellow, stained bronze by the stream formed in its empty oddly yellow socket She laughed, why was it so afraid when everything would be alright?

Mensha continued his examination, setting the eyes down to part the creature’s fur. It revealed more hairs. A floating hair, she smiled the world had so many wonders. He tugged a hair and it came loose. He roe a yellow tuft and came free with bronzed ends

He pulled, and tore, with all the methodical destructiveness of an over-curious child. Absent worry, she smiled at his antics. A horn came loose, its white shape marred with a bloody stump. It slowly unspooled a single thread at a time. Revealing threads that bloodied if pulled too fast. She came no closer to understanding, but her wonder found no end to its growth.

None of it made sense, there was no sense to its shape and only its incessant shaking as it ruffled against the floor confirmed its continued life. She pulled her hand from Mensha’s clothes and poked it and twitched on the floor from where Mensha had left when it stopped trying to float away.

It held the same shape, a fluffy rough sphere. Yet, now it was much bronze as gold. She glanced at Mensha, he smiled and pulled back his bloodied fingers. Her veins thrummed with excitement as she pushed her hand into the warm depths of its empty socket.

Something broke and her hand found a warm wit center. She pulled back and beheld cloud gone still.

Feelings poured in as the haze emptied. She looked at her hand coated in a web of bloodied threads up o her wrist.

Her thoughts died again as reality consumed her.