^ are used like " but are for thoughts, not speech.
-
_Ch. 5.0 - The Nightmare_
Couldn't begin to describe my happiness
It suddenly came to me from the shadows
Why did it come here, I ask
^To take me away from reality^
The boy was walking through a rather narrow alleyway, long but illuminated by the light of day.
I floated along nonchalantly, skipping lazily across the ground, effortlessly bounding through the air.
^I love it when I move like this.^
I neared the opening of the alley, and briefly saw an apparition of colour race past the opening.
Curious as to what that could possibly have been (it looked small), I ascended towards the top of the old buildings that formed the alleyway and hovered in the air, looking for something interesting. From my vantage point, I saw a blurry streak moving along the lonely sidewalk.
I smiled, viewing this as an interesting discovery of something phenomenal.
Thus, I moved, flying through the air at the side of the streak of paint. Here, moving parallel to the apparition and at the same speed, I could make out the girl who was running superbly fast. When she noticed me, her eyes widened, and seemed to run faster in surprise. Though, it was impossible to escape from me.
With a smile on my face and a scheme in mind, I asked, "Oh my, what are you running from?"
Instead of responding, the girl only sped up. I caught up to her after letting her overtake me. Hovering at her side and lying on my own side in mid-air, head propped up by my arm, I again attempted to interact with her.
"Now, come on, what is a loli like you running from? Or perhaps I should ask whither do you run?"
The short, little lady shot me a venomous glance but continued silently.
"Aaaa, stop ignoring me, Ctlomoc. You might hurt my feelings!" I said, putting on a pouting face.
The girl slowed down to a slightly more normal pace for her (faster than you still), letting out a groan.
"Now, there is really no need to moan in pleasure; we are all just friends here, right?"
Her response: "You're a half-baked boy with the mind of a perverted old man."
I couldn't help but laugh in amusement. She gritted her teeth, and whilst on fire with wroth for me, she said, "By the way, you're the worst master at naming anything ever."
I doubled over laughing, speeding alongside with my familiar through the deserted town. She didn't look very amused.
"Ufufufu, you're so cute when you're annoyed, Ctlomoc."
She accelerated forward stupendously, whilst I followed along lazily, sitting comfortably suspended in mid-air.
"You grin like an idiot," she mumbled, when I caught up.
"Is that so? I guess I shouldn't grin so much then, am I right?"
But for the sound of the wind, there was silence.
"Well, anyway, where are you headed, Ctlomoc?"
"My name is Alice!" she shouted back, undignified.
"Yea, yea," I said dismissively. "Anyway, where to, my most favouritest loli?"
A fantastic reaction: "YOU SUCK!"
I laughed aloud joyously.
[End of the page.]
-
_Ch. 5.1 - The Nightmare_
"Exquisite taste in architecture, Ctlomoc," I said, as I ran my hand over the sharply defined edges of the Gothic-looking cathedral. That's what I wanted to call it, anyway. Presently, Ctlomoc and I were examining the outside of the Gothic cathedral (or so I called it).
"Shut up," commanded my familiar, not even bothering to turn around and face me; or so she tried. I sighed and shook my head.
"Now, now, that is not the appropriate way to address one's superiors." I conjured forth a metal folding fan with which I concealed my grin. "Or, perhaps, you would like me to educate you?"
Ctlomoc stopped in her tracks - I swear I could see her visibly quiver in absolute fright!
She whipped around, head down, glaring up at me from under her bangs.
"I'll beat you to a pulp if you keep mouthing off." Apparently, the shiver was not fear.
"Fufufu... Is that so?"
She coiled herself like a string and lunged at me, eyes filled with deadly intent, hands outstretched like claws - she was positively livid. I deflected her utterly and pointed her toward the ground, her inertia about to carry her into a puddle of mud near my feet.
Admittedly, I wasn't aware of the mud, and I really would not have liked to see my familiar in such a dirty state. Thus, the moment I noticed it, I slid myself underneath her smoothly, managing to catch her before she fell face-first into the mud. She tumbled over me, and though she was spared from the messy fate, I was not.
Both of us were disoriented, lying on the ground (the mud, in my case). She turned to look at me and she caught my eye. We stared at each other for a few moments, after which I blurted out a curt apology.
"Uh... thanks... I guess," said my familiar.
"I guess I deserved this then?" There was a slight pause; I prompted her to answer by raising an eyebrow.
"Um... I guess so. Well, I suppose I'm sorry too, because..."
"Because you're my familiar but you still attacked me?"
Ctlomoc gave me a flat look. "Never mind. You definitely deserve this and I'm not sorry in the slightest."
Regrettable. I got up and easily removed the mud from myself with the flick of my fan, then pat myself down while Ctlomoc recovered likewise.
"In any case, what brings us here, familiar?" I asked.
"It was just a whim. I wanted to visit here for the sake of seeing the church."
I toyed with my war fan as I walked after Ctlomoc, who was opening the doors of the church; that is, the place where I met her. It was also where I bounded her servitude to myself.
Curious, curious, morbid curiosity, indeed...
-
_Ch. 5.2 - The Nightmare_
Ctlomoc softly pushed open the doors to the cathedral and entered the welcoming darkness, whilst I followed. Inside, the shafts of light from the morning sun were blessed with colours by the stained glass windows, each window depicting strange scenery and objects. There was path in the middle of a field to a sun on the horizon; a girl in a blue skirt picking her way through an emerald forest; a sky filled with robed and winged figures; a dull and violently coloured rose; a sea of clouds frothing with lightning; a white cross upon a background diagonally divided into red and black halves...
^A morbid curiosity indeed.^
At our sides were obsidian pews with feet that made it look as though it had grown from the stone floor of the cathedral. The pews themselves were carved in perfect curves, having dark, stone leaves with tapering edges that looked like they could cut flesh.
^Those that sat on these pews must have been truly devoted to their faith,^ I thought. I waded through the incredible cathedral, caught in its splendour, while Ctlomoc strode through the main aisle ahead of me.
"You know, Ctlomoc, we should visit this place more often," I suggest absent-mindedly.
"You're the one that decides these kinds of things, not me. Silly master doesn't even recognize himself as master!" replied Ctlomoc in a saccharine tone. Then, she mumbled, "Silly master doesn't even recognize himself as the master, so why should I?..."
"Sorry, what? I can't hear you over the cathedral's architecture." I got the feeling that my familiar was rolling her eyes when I glanced at her.
We stopped in front of a small set of low stairs leading up to a stout pedestal more than two arm lengths across, upon which a large mirror stood, its frame also carved out what appeared to be obsidian. The mirror's surface rippled like water, and it did not seem to reflect a light whatsoever. Somewhat perversely, the mirror's surface seemed to be completely black, but tiny hair-like strands of violet occasionally pulsed and glowed, like luminous veins.
I shook my head fondly at the sight of the mirror. "Hoho, the memories that this mirror brings back, eh Ctlomoc?"
"Memories of a time when I was called Alice by those I knew well, and not Ctlomoc by some half-baked boy," she replied smoothly.
I fanned myself as I retorted in an insulted manner. "Half-baked? My dear Ctlomoc, I can assure you that I am fully baked, and also very delicious. I invite you to have a taste of me!"
"W-What? What are saying!" she cried, clearly ruffled. I decided she still wasn't ruffled enough though, so I abused my height advantage and ruffled her hair. I tried to do so endearingly.
I complimented her, "Oh you Ctlomoc, you're such a fighter."
Silence but for the sound of rustling hair. Ctlomoc was staring at her feet. Huzzah.
"W-Why did you stop?" said a delicate voice - oh, right, my familiar.
Wait.
It was then that I realized that I had turned around in order to rejoice the situation.
When I pivoted to face Ctlomoc, the sight that met me almost caused me to spin up into the ceiling of the cathedral, through the roof, into the sky, pass the ozone layer, and then escape Earth's orbit. It also made me want to break my own nose. The sight was, simply, "adorable" as a physical manifestation.
Instead, I immediately knelt and embraced Ctlomoc, clamping on to her tightly. I checked to make sure I didn't have a nosebleed or any streaming tears while I held her to close to my heart. Surprisingly, she wasn't struggling.
I hastily released her after a few seconds. Or, rather, that's what I tried to do. Strangely, Ctlomoc was holding on to me, and very tightly at that.
I noticed that she was trembling. "C-... Ctlomoc?" I asked hesitantly.
I got a muffled noise in response.
"P-Pardon?" I asked of myself, ^Did I go too far?^ The thought set my emotions running.
Another muffled cry - Ctlomoc then seemed to latch on even tighter, if that were possible. Though I was tall, I was not particularly strapping nor physically fit, and Ctlomoc's grip was beginning to cross into the realm of "painful."
I managed to choke out, "Alice, I can't breathe - help!" Immediately, my familiar's grip broke. I caught my breath, and when I looked down, I saw something inconceivable, preposterous, unimaginable, impossible...!
That is, the tear-stricken face of my familiar.
The breath I had caught then caught in me, and an unfamiliar pain welled in my throat. My skin felt like it was being perforated by burning needles, and suddenly, I was frozen stiff, yet shaking from the stiffness.
My familiar, tremulous, terrified, was possessed by trepidation. And... I... I couldn't think. The only thing that was present in my mind was the very fact that it was my fault. But, then, my familiar's... Ctlomoc's... Alice's! words vindicated me.
Sobbing wholeheartedly now, Alice cried, "Don't let go of me!" and she restored her arms around my stunned, selfish self, a selfish self that managed to break the soul in front of me, the selfish self that thought to poke "harmless" fun at the one hugging me now, the selfish self that sought to amuse itself but depress another person in doing so.
She cried vigorously into my sweater, sheltered underneath my open coat. She repeated a mantra, "Don't let go!", faster and faster and louder and louder and faster and louder and faster and louder...With each passing moment, faster and louder and louder and faster, but I was stunned, but I couldn't help it, but I could, but with each passing moment, but I was stunned, but I couldn't help it, but I could, but I couldn't, but, and, since I could help it! Slowly, ever so slowly, sluggishly, yet softly, surely, reassuringly, my arms enveloped that which cried so sincerely, that which poured its heart, into me. She then stopped her mantra, yet Alice cried harder, still.
I whispered to her: "I won't let go."
Post has been edited 2 time(s), last time on Nov 27 2010, 12:53 am by Sand Wraith. Reason: Spacing.
