Chapter Text
I really don’t remember the last time I saw that light. So joyful and pure, it sickens me.
I had a revision of my future, but now it feels dreamy in a sense. I’d jumbled my words, thrown hands with a few fellows, and left town for a better one.
I gave up on trying to make him remember…
To remember the good times we had, the love we shared, that love is gone for him… almost like it never existed.
If only I had thought what life would be like if I had never made that wish, my love would still be here to rock me, to hold me close, kiss me tenderly, and cuddle me until dawn had shown over the horizon.
Instead, I’m stuck alone by my lonesome on my cold, bare, mattress, and whispers calling my name over and over in the wind.
I swear I would still hear him when the sun would show over a grassy hill, a sunrise would leave my heart yearning for you, after all this time.
I would have wished that, in that moment, it had only been a nightmare, something I could snap myself out of.
I still ponder my choices and how all this came to be, how my single selfish wish of becoming human had left me with nothing and no one.
It all started when Chase and I had agreed on a location we would meet up in to do the ritual.
Freckles was, in fact, the second one to find out I was actually a key, besides the kid which was the first... He kept my secret safe, guessing what would happen if Chase were to find out.
Chase was rather too excited to meet up with me, took half of the keys, and arrived first.
Meanwhile, Freckles snatched me, threw me in a bag, crowded with five other keys, then dropped me off at the desired location, along with the second half, before running along to deal with his work elsewhere.
Leaving me and Chase alone in the room
~flashback 3 months ago~
The eyes of mine blink open as I find myself on the hard wooden floors of an unfamiliar place.
I stared around the room with no memory of how I got here, trying to figure out where I had landed this time.
The room was lit with a dim, mellow glow from a soft, sage-green tassel lampshade.
My eyes were still restless, warm, and drowsy from whatever happened last night, or last week?
I felt too shagged to keep walking around on the rugged carpet, so I decided to climb up a floral duvet to the top of the unholstered canopy bed to hopefully rest my weary eyes.
Up top the fuzzy canopy, I spot my little idiot sleeping peacefully, his duvet covering half his lower body. His loose, messy frame lurches around in bed in some sort of discomfort.
I couldn’t help but let out a little sigh. I don’t know how he could ever be happy with me.
The way he smiles and laughs like he has no care in the world sometimes, the way he makes me smile, no matter how much I try to hide it, even just a smirk with him.
How fortunate I am to have stumbled upon such a person in my life, one who is so kind and considerate.
It felt like a good change from what I was used to. Scrawny beatings, stealing valuables, trying to keep myself well fed, and fighting for my life, left and right, to survive.
With Chase, he makes the impossible feel possible, his honey-like voice melting my knees, his sweet nothings he would whisper to me, his comedic way of talking, his smile grinning ear to ear when he sees sight of me.
I could write poems, sonnets, odes, or even essays about how much I love and adore that moron, but in that adoration, it won’t change the fact that he’s only noticed me as human.
His acceptance of the other keys was rather unusually quick, but if to me, he would be only in disbelief, his eyes would go into shock if he found his only lover was an inanimate object, noncontiguous to a human.
I lay down next to him, above the pink floral duvet. I turn to gaze at him as I place my right hand over my forehead, scooting closer to him, his body radiating heat like sunshine.
I then shuffle to look at the ceiling as phosphenes emerge with the ochre dim ray of light, seeping through the salmon mesh decor above the canopy.
The cool wind, whirling in through the open window, gently animated the pale pink curtains, and I felt the calm stillness of the eventide that settled in the chamber.
Here, my death lay for nothing as I think of us, both human and together, running free.
The wind flows through our hair, while surrounded by grass and lavender flowers, clinging to us. Maybe pluck a couple of forget-me-nots with me, till we grow old and have seen the world, my entire world with you.
As the night sky shines a thousand lifetimes, in ours, we are star-struck lovers.
Shooting stars falling from the sky, I could count every last one if it were to prove my love is true. My heart yearns to be yours, to dive deep into your pools of brown.
That color of the tree trunks, that tree bark, soil, fallen leaves, rocks, fur, and feathers.
Perhaps it would be a gem that is as fierce as its name, tiger eye stones. The resemblance of those shiny gemstones to your eyes alone, I would say they are undeniable.
The thing that would remind me of freedom is the color of your eyes, which is brown.
You can turn away your mesmerizing gaze, for which I crave is that of your hair; its texture is a light, airy halo, as fluffy and radiant as the clouds in the sky.
He made me feel at home in his company…so welcoming.
I reach closer to his face to feel its reality and warmth, though what I needed was to wake him up for our discussions, I cannot wait for the end of the world to talk.
I go to grab his cheek, no response.
I travel to his ear to whisper about our whereabouts, but all he does is tumble to the opposite end, his back turned to me.
How deep is this idiot’s slumber?
I grab a hold of his shirt to leap to the other side, where his face rests. I land, the comforters slip my position, almost pushing me off the bed.
Stabilizing myself, I turn to face him, his drool rolling off his lips. I tap on his cheeks softly, to wake him up—not so aggressively.
My attempt at it has been successful as I see him frog blinking sleepily, before gaining consciousness.
“Wha.. What time is it?” Chase utters, raising his head, sitting upright. I stumbled backwards from the sudden moment.
Was this actually the right time to wake him up? He hasn’t seen the human me since that pirate book yesterday.
He also hasn’t seen the real me, but I have to admit, my key form isn’t exactly what he’s hoping for, in the slightest.
He looks around to try to find where that tiny hand that gave him pats had gone. He looks down at me, and I start shaking uncontrollably.
I don’t know why I’m shaking, but in those big brown eyes, I know for sure he wasn’t expecting me.
“Oh, oops! Did you need something from me, little guy?” Chase yawns, rubbing his eyes.
I stand frozen, and he reaches to scoop me up and lifts me off the bed with his two hands, a foot away from his face.
“I don’t think I remember bringing you here, either buddy or deacon brought you, huh?” He chuckled, smiling wholeheartedly, his lips curling ever so slightly.
He looked around the room.
Chase’s eyebrows then furrowed, sad, pouting all the same. “Wait a second, where is Buddy anyway?”
He sighed and slightly shook his head while he gently smiled. “The guy really likes to be fashionably late I guess…”
He then pats my head with his index finger before I grab onto it, “U-um, well, I-“ I felt a lump forming in my throat.
Am I really sure to tell him? Is this really the right time for anything at all? I needed to let it out, anyhow.
“I-I know buddy personally myself-” I blurted. What a dumb sentence, knowing I am the man he proclaims as “buddy”.
“He was always a timely person, otherwise I’m sure something delayed him.”
I could feel my cheeks “burning” from embarrassment, my face showing a rather dumbfounded look or one of those pouting puppies.
Oh, what a fool I have become, the original moron infecting me with his curse.
“Oh, well, that's a relief!” Chase exhales.
Yeah, because I’m really close to him alright…
He placed me on his lap, still had me scooped in his hands. “Buddy, truly is unpredictable...” I hear him muttering under his breath.
Unpredictable? How vulgar—I am in routine all the time; he just never had the time to really observe my being.
Though I did hide most of myself, in security no less, that is one of the major reasons why I did it to begin with. I wanted to reveal myself, every part of me, my soul, my mind, my brain, and all of what remains of me when I wither.
Although my swearing in secrecy was my only rule with Violet, which was to never let anything arise, any detail about us was not to be discussed.
But, violet, this time is different; this is for the sake of one who holds all of us; he wishes to set us free.
Violet never approved of Chase when I first mentioned word of him, helping me out of the waterlogged book that one day.
Though she was the one who had taken me in when I had no one and gave everyone a fright.
Even when all is said and done, her words of secret had been imprinted in my brain, limiting towards Chase when I first ever met him.
I took a deep breath and let my words flow out of my mouth, “Well, hypothetically speaking…would it shock you—if I’d said I was buddy?