Chapter Text
Something woke Nicky up.
He looked up, wriggled out of his mother’s hold. Went with the woman who beckoned to him in the woods.
Kissed his mother goodnight before he left.
He walked with the woman in silence, his head bobbing at her shoulder. She said nothing, so he said nothing.
Finally, after walking long enough he lost sense of time, they came to a bridge. She looked down at him, no hint of emotion on her face.
“Are you ready?” she asked him.
He considered. He felt alright. That sense of jitteriness that always lurked at his edges, that out-of-body sensation, every cough and bruise a reminder of the shakiness in his body. He felt calm, at peace, more than he’d remembered feeling in a long time.
“Where are you taking me?” he asked in reply.
She considered. “You know where.”
He nodded. “I think I remember you.”
It was impossible to tell, but perhaps her face softened.
He voiced his loudest fear. It had always just been the two of them, and now they were apart. “Am I going to be lonely?”
“Where I am taking you, there are many others,” she told him, which they both knew didn’t answer his question. “I will come visit,” she added, after a pause, “if you would like.”
“I would like that,” he said. He hesitated, then asked the other question on his mind. “When will you bring my mother?”
He startled, for his question had brought a blooming smile to her face. “I don’t know. That is up to her. She can be very stubborn, as you know.”
Nicky did know.
The woman tilted her head and gazed down at him. He had not been scared of her before, but now her smile made her beautiful and terrifying. “Would you like me to bring her to you soon?”
Part of him understood what would happen if he answered, but he was only a child, and it was late, and he’d been walking a long while, and he just missed his mother.
“Please,” he said. “I love her so much. I miss her already.”
The smile on the woman’s face didn’t change, yet it felt as though her face moved into shadow. “I understand,” she said, “completely. I’ll see what I can do.”
She asked him again, “Are you ready?”
He took a deep breath. “Can you hold my hand?” He held his hand out.
It only took her a moment of hesitation before she decided. Her hand was surprisingly warm and strong. It was comforting.
They walked on, hand in hand, until Nicky knew no more.