"T-thank you..", it squeezed out, drying its final tear.

"You're most welcome.. I'm so sorry about what happened.. It must be so difficult to deal with losing everyone.."

"It is.. But what can I do about it.. I tried to find a way back.. I went so far in this kingdom and yet I found nothing. No way back. No way home.."

As we stared into the blazing sunset, the grand concrete coffin dotting the horizon, a strange thought came to me.

"What if you came from the alleys?!"

"The what??"

"Before everything happened. Before.. Everyone disappeared, and you arrived, there was a weird conspiracy theory put up on an online message board. Uhh.. Do you know what 'online' means?"

"Of course I do!! Who do you think I am? Some tribal leader??"

"Oh.. Wow, I didn't expect you to come from a place that has it. So you know what the internet is?"

"The what?"

"Maybe you have another word for it.. What does 'online' mean to you?"

"It's the place stuff in the air goes, we access it with our linkers"

"Hmm, I guess a linker is like what we call a computer? Or a phone.."

I take out my phone. I had it turned off for.. Since the power went out. I bring it over and turn it on.

The glowing light illuminates the small figures features as it stares in awe at the brick with many faces.

"What in the Nyne is that?? I guess it's kind of like a linker but.. How on earth does light come from that rock slab thing??"

It pulls out a petite wristband from one of its many cape pockets. I hadn't noticed them before. How strange.. The inside of its cape was lined with pockets, top to bottom. Honestly, it was so novel of a sight. I wondered why we had never used such a thing. Well.. I guess we have trenchcoats for that kind of thing. How the hell do you get something easily from a pocket near your back..

"Look", it said with the face of a proud parent.

It placed its finger to the middle of the band, where an almost watch-like face laid, and pressed down with some force. Its face whinced slightly as blood flowed from its finger, laying to rest within carefully etched grooves, previously hidden on the watch-like face.

"You can't really see what happens next.. It also can't access the aether net.. However, after you've done this, your mind is supposed to connect to the internet, and you can do lots of stuff."

I stared in disbelief at its words.

"Are you telling me you came from a civilisation that had brain interfacing technology?"

Its head jolted back in surprise.

"Uhh.. I guess you mean the brain's meridians? Yeah, of course. That's why we gotta provide blood."

"Right, of course.. Meridians, blood, the usual.."

It flew up a bit and glared down toward me. In that moment, as the backdrop of crimson fire emminated from its sillhouette, and its face beamed with an intense brilliance, I thought to myself:

"This being is truly deserving of being a queen."

"I think you just said that out loud.."

I looked at the tiny statured queen in embarrassment.

"Listen here kid. Don't ever assume you can look down on others. Did you expect I'd walked in from some country bumpkin fairy tale and that I wouldn't know shit?"

A prolonged silence pierced my heart, as the needle of its words unraveled a stitch in my heart.

As the final stitch was torn from its socket, something raw and repressed flowed out from me.

I looked at its meager figure; overwhelmingly small and defenseless. And yet, it held such a powerful spirit. What had this being gone through..

"I want to apologise, from the bottom of my heart."

I kneeled down, prostrating myself before its eminence.

"You're right.. I thought you were some kind of fairy or nymph from our fairytales. In our stories, they always come from these medieval places where modern things are mindblowing to them. It creates a feeling of almost being better than them. That if we were to go there, and flex our knowledge, or technology, that we would blow their socks off, and be considered these amazing beings. It couldn't be further from the truth Fellabee."

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

The moment I spoke its name, it looked at me in shock. Everything I had said up to then seemed like an expectation. A play seen many times.

"You.. Remembered my name?"

"Fellabee, wasn't it?"

Fellabee stared at me with a gaze that could cut iron.

"What's the matter..?"

Fellabee flew right up to my face and stared me in the eyes.

"Do you know what it means to call my name?"

Before I could have a chance to reply, everything in my vision became stretched and blurred. As if a painter had scraped the paint of reality across the canvas of my eyes.

My mind blanked as my body went into shock. I could feel a disturbing sensation come from my eyes. It felt as if hundreds of tiny worms had begun wriggling and writhing beneath my eyelids. Before long, my eyes felt stamped shut with the queen's wax seal.

Drool began to seep from my mouth. I began to feel my pants grow wetter and wetter.

It felt like eternity compressed into a moment unraveling all at once, bombarding my mind with a visceral, primal pain. A fireless searing, a bee-less stinging, a fathomless sharpness, cutting through my consciousness like a drill through steel. The sparks igniting pain receptors so concentrated, it ushered madness into my mind.

My senses wished to flee, my mind wished to cease feeling. It was like an endless torrent of agony delivered ceaselessly; without mercy, without reprieve, without any moment of hesitation, of relief.

Constant, unending pain. The kind of pain you would cease to remember yet know forever.

The kind of pain that ages your senses and matures your mind.

The kind of pain that shows you your limits then breaks them again and again, over and over, until you are reforged as tempered steel.

Broken, cracked, changed forever.

As your mind begins to shatter, as your words begin to melt, as your thoughts begin to frantically dance a chaotic tone of red, white and blue, sharp yellows bursting out like searing molten spikes laced in a vicious poison of writhing agony, you wonder, when will it end?

The very thought of it being over brings peace to my mind.

The very thought of it ceasing, the concept of finality, the only reprieve my mind could possibly muster. Thank god for finality one must say. In this moment, one praises in thanks for mortality, for the end of this pain.

This kind of pain brings the mind to its knees, it brings intellectual thought to the ground and stomps on it. There is no mercy.

How can one not succumb to the torment, to the ceaseless agony it brings.

How can I not ceaselessly dream for a time when this pain is but a distant memory, but an etching upon the skin of my soul. But a bitter fondness to look upon when a pain once thought unbearable becomes a pain incomparable to what was felt in this moment.

And then it was gone.

It was a sudden, uncompassionate end. The build up of pain had crescendo'd long ago. It had droned on, and on, for an eternity.

And then, there was silence.

An Indeterminate amount of time later

Putting my shaking fingers to my eyes, I felt a dry crusty substance stuck to my eyelashes, gluing my eyelids shut.

"Hey! Hey!! Can you hear me?"

"F-Fellabee..?", I mumbled. My voice barely audible.

"That's right!"

"Fellabee.. Where are we.. What's going on, I can't see anything"

"I-"

My whole body is shaking. I feel extremely thirsty. My lips are dry. I feel like I'm choking on so much stress. What the fuck, what the fuck.

"I don't know.. It uhh.. It looks like we're in some kind of walled place. It's really dark.."

"Walled place.. Dark? Oh my god are we in an alleyway??"

"Wait I can see something."

"Something what?? Is it dangerous?"

"Something's approaching us.. I don't know what it is, just.. Stay back! Don't move!"

"What the hell is it?! Are we gonna die Fellabee?! Fellabee!"

A distant rumbling began to approach us. I suddenly felt Fellabee cling to my shoulder as the rumbling escalated into a crushing wave.

"I-it's coming right toward us.."

"What-"

Before I could finish my sentence, an intense gust of wind tore through every feeling I had. I could feel my skin begin to vibrate, oscillating like a glass about to shatter from a voice singing at the perfect pitch. My ears resonated with a thunderous boom. And then, everything went incredibly silent.

The cold air that was biting my skin moments earlier had been replaced with a warm, comforting radiance. I felt myself being flooded with a sudden calmness.

In that brief moment of serenity that seemed to stretch out into a restful abyss, I felt at peace.

In this well of tranquility, I saw Sam, and Fellabee. Sam was by my side, helping me walk. I was limping. And Fellabee was riding on my shoulder, making me laugh with their characteristic quips. It was a bright day. The summer warmth brushed over our skin. The sound of cicadas rhythmically called to nostalgia. It felt beautiful.

"Wh-what just happened?!"

The fairy stared at what I could not see in astonishment.

"G-gone.. It's.. Gone"

"What's gone?!", I asked.

"Don't.. Don't move, it's dangerous"

"Why?? What happened??"

My senses began flooding back slowly.

The gentle warmth began to become more vivid.

"Hey bud. It's really cold outside tonight. You feelin' alright? The heater's have been down for a while."

My arm began to lift up toward Sam.

"Sam..?"

"DON'T MOVE EVEN AN INCH FURTHER"

The crashing wave of Fellabee's voice slammed me into a wall of lucidity.

A small, unassuming body pressed desperately against my hand.

What had felt warm, suddenly gushed into my skin as an intense heat. A scorching, radiating heat. The smell of boiled tar, and rubber, mixed with the smell of ash, and smoke made me feel nauseous as it assaulted my senses.

I hurried to retract my hand, finding Fallabee heavily breathing upon my palm.

"Wh-what the hell happened Fellabee?"

The fairy held my hand, concern seeping through its gestures.

"You were right. It was an alleyway. Not anymore though.."

The tiny fairy coughed heavily.

"What do you mean not anym-"

Before I could finish my sentence, an intense cough swept over me too. Too much smoke had entered my lungs.

"We have to-"

The coughing intensified. A dizzying sensation taking over me.

"-get out of here"

"You idiot! Don't pass out on me! How the hell can I get you out of here, you're massive!!"