..... Consciousness comes steadily. You feel yourself awake even with your eyes close. You hear your heart beating, blood flowing, and muscles engaging as you squirm deeper into your soft bed.
Sadly whatever previous joy you had in those mundane rituals is shattered by the feeling of being watched. The still groggy part of you unable to remember yesterday, as your eyes snap open to look at who is watching you. Pitch black eyes stare down at you, a pale emotionless face housing the 2 orbs of the abyss.
"M-morning." You mumble out, memories returning from last night. You are being stared at by your new significant other: Maria Montoya. A poor lady who now houses the soul of an undead zombie lich driven insane called a Revenant. You do feel bad for her but the selfish part of you argues that it's better her than letting the monster stay free or condemning the country side to some sort of magical death plague.
You shut that thought down with a blink as you get out of bed. Her eyes follow as you go about your morning ritual. The motions of your activity calm your beating heart and bring you solace from the new normal.
"...morning." You jolt still as you here her voice call out. The smooth almost whisper like quality made her statement hard to hear. You look back at her, nothing magical occurred as you stare into her eyes. The abyss seems almost tamed.
"I'll cook heat up some food for us. Do you like convenience store food?" She blinks a few times processing your statement before nodding. You head to the kitchen and begin to heat up some frozen foods you still had left over in the plastic bag. You notice a eye burning pink journal in the bag with a sticky note that reads 'read this when you are alone ;3 -Nani the coolest witch ever!!!!'. You put the journal away and bring the hot food to the nearby table where Maria begins to sit while watching you.
"It's not much but it's food." She nods before eating her share of the meal. You both eat in silence, the food is full of grease and has a 'fake' quality to it. You feel embarrassed at such poverty even though you loved and thrived in such a state for the last few years.
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"Did you enjoy it?" She nods at your question, making the feeling of embarrassment shrink. You gather the trash left over by the meal for the trash can. You note that you have another couple of hours before work. You would normally work out and read before heading out but with your new partner you don't know what she would like to do.
"Wait, when did you die?" The question pops into your mind at the idea of trying to find an activity for her, she might not even know modern things like phones!
"...what year is it?" She asks for clarification.
"20XX"
"...hmmm, last I remember was 20XX." You sigh a little that she wasn't over 50 years. She will have understanding to modern technology.
"Well I was about to workout then read so I have no idea what you would want to do." You state with a tinge of nervousness at the answer.
"...okay. I'll read some books." You sigh with a small part of joy. You walk her to your small collection of stories and let her pick some. She follows you to the small living room and sits on your couch while you start up your video workout.
The feeling of someone watching you while working out causes you to push yourself and take less breaks. You feel a pit of embarrassment, as if you need to push harder to not seem weak. Your workout finishes and your muscles scream more than normal.
"..." Her stares seem to dig into you, yet there was no sense of disgust from them. They felt questioning, a feeling better than disgust or hate.
"I'm going to read with you, I'll be right back." You head to to your room and pick up a novel you have been reading for days now, with your book in hand you head back to the couch and read along side Maria. The silence feels peaceful as you read a few more chapters into the horror book you are reading. You check your phone for the time.
"Oh damn it's time for me to make work lunch and head to work. Do you think you can handle being alone till I come back home?" She nods and you hurry to make yourself a work lunch and even snacks for the breaks you get. You pack your lunch into a backpack and slide the eye blinding pink journal in.
"Alright I'm going to head o-" Maria grabs your collar and presses you against the wall.
"..no cheating." "O-oka-" "..you will not cheating." She stares at you with barely retained madness in her eyes, they seem to threaten your sanity, almost fighting to escape her eyes.
With threadbare courage you nod at her and watch as she releases her grip. Her eyes lighten and feel normal now, less like a world ending curse.
"...have a good day." She whisper talks. You walk out the house in a robotic manner. You feel like work should help you somehow. Maybe the braincell killing pink journal will have some answers.