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"So, do you know what our next domain is?" Martin asked, before sighing. "Who am I kidding? Of course you know."
"You're correct," Jon said, ignoring Martin's sarcasm. Martin could see his main two eyes glowing green, and the rest of them scattered across his face blinked. "It seems to be a Lonely domain."
The Lonely. Right. The cold, quiet fog that seemed to follow Martin around constantly these days. "Any other details…?"
As Jon and Martin walked over the top of the hill, Martin was surprised to see a service station on the bottom of the hill, the flickering electric sign visible through the thick fog surrounding it.
"A…rather odd domain," Jon muttered.
"Th-that's it?" Martin asked. "The…service station?"
"Sure is," Jon said, sighing. "…You hungry?"
Martin looked at Jon with mild confusion, and Jon sighed. "If there's still food there, that is. But I'm sure we could both use a rest stop."
"You're acting as if we're on a road trip." Martin chuckled slightly.
"It is, in a way," Jon said. "Except on foot. And in an apocalypse. And with the goal to stop said apocalypse."
"Sure." Martin nudged Jon playfully as they walked down the hill towards the foggy, sad-looking service station. "But it's not like either of us can even feel hunger anymore."
Soon enough, Jon and Martin were entering the store of the service station, which was, surprisingly, lit inside. There were no other people here—which was to be expected, this was a Lonely domain after all.
It still puzzled Martin, however, that there seemed to be no victims of fear here, or even an avatar overseeing the domain. But perhaps they were just unseen to him and Jon.
"Oh, there are snacks here," Martin heard Jon say. He looked up, and indeed, the shelves were stocked with candy and crisps, the fridges filled with sodas.
Jon looked towards Martin. "Would you like anything?"
Martin shrugged. "Some crisps sound good, I suppose."
Jon nodded and walked ahead to gather some snacks, and Martin shivered as he suddenly felt a wave of cold go through him. He looked down and saw fog curling at his feet again, and he noticed his glasses were fogging up too—it was now hard to see Jon, though he could still see the shelves of the store, strangely.
It was suddenly hard to breathe. Martin took a gasp of air as if he was coming out of water, and walked out of the store, hoping for the fog to dissipate once he got outside again.
That didn't work. The cold fog still surrounded Martin, and as he stepped outside, he realized he couldn't even see the hill he and Jon had walked down to get here. It was just fog, fog, fog, and the flickering electric sign next to the store and gas pumps.
Who was even going to fill their car with gas here? Martin absently wondered this as he wandered around the perimeter of the store. This place was in the middle of nowhere, unknown to anybody. Who would even end up here unless they were terribly lost?
At that point, they might as well be forgotten by the outside world.
Martin could feel the fog filling his body with cold—and yet, the chill was somewhat comforting. He realized he must be the only person here, stranded in the middle of nowhere, nobody else even stopping their long trip to visit him.
At least, that's what he assumed, until he saw a small child sitting against the store building. She seemed to be maybe nine or ten years old, and she was curled into a ball, tear stains on her face.
Martin walked up to the child. "What's wrong?" he asked.
The child looked up at Martin with wide eyes, shiny with tears threatening to fall. "Our car broke down on the road trip…" she said. "Mommy and Daddy said they're gonna call a tow truck…but it's been so long and we're still stranded."
"Where are your parents?" Martin muttered, looking around. It seemed like he and this child were the only two people here.
"I-I don't know…" the child said. "But…they said the tow truck would be here any second…and then we'd finally leave this place."
Martin sighed, stuffing his hands into his pockets. He glanced around again—no sign of anybody else here at all.
Looking at this child, stranded in this domain of the Forsaken, Martin felt something strange within him. A sense of…hunger. He gazed upon this child's loneliness, her fear…and he felt something akin to satisfaction.
"They're not coming back."
The child looked at Martin with confusion. "W-what?"
"Your parents," Martin continued. There was something strange within his voice, a sense of coldness. He felt like he was being controlled by something else as fog billowed from his mouth. "Face it, they left this place without you. You're stranded here forever."
Tears started to fall from the child's eyes. "Is…is that true?"
"Of course, why wouldn't they leave you behind? Such a burdensome child…they've been waiting to do this for a while."
"You're all alone now~"
A small smile appeared on Martin's face as he watched the child begin to sob, before she was obscured by fog.
"Martin!!"
Startled, Martin turned around to see Jon running towards him. In his arms were multiple bags of crisps and two sodas.
"J-Jon?!" Martin found he had forgotten that Jon was getting snacks for the two of them. He had forgotten that Jon was even here.
"What were you doing?" Jon exclaimed.
Martin looked back to where the crying child had been, but she was gone now. Nothing but fog in her place.
Jon looked at Martin with concern, and he realized that his hands were shaking. Tears welled in Martin's eyes, but he held them back as he took a bag of crisps from Jon's arms.
"M-Martin!" Jon said as Martin walked away. "Are you alright? Talk to me!!"
Martin opened the bag of crisps and began to eat. They didn't taste like anything.
"What were you doing out here?!" Jon demanded, his voice becoming more sharp.
He sounded angry. He was mad at Martin. Martin had done something terribly wrong.
"I'm…I'm sorry, okay?" Martin muttered.
"For what?!"
"For consuming the fear of a child!" Martin exclaimed, turning back towards Jon. His boyfriend stared at him in shock.
"Wh-what do you mean?" Jon muttered.
Martin sighed. "I-I found a child out here…she said she was 'stranded' at this service station. Her parents—who weren't there—said the tow truck would be here soon…but I told her that they had left without her, and she was all alone."
Tears came out of Martin's eyes. "W-why did I do that…?! I'm a monster, Jon!"
"You're not a monster," Jon said.
"I terrorized a child into loneliness—"
"You're not a monster, you're an avatar."
Martin looked up at Jon, and Jon placed a hand on his shoulder. His hand was warm, and it made the cold within Martin subside, just a bit.
"An…an avatar?"
"Yes." Jon smiled slightly. "Just like me. You're an avatar of the Lonely, most likely. And what you were doing…it sounded like feeding. You know I need to do it as well."
Martin frowned. "You're ignoring the moral aspect of this…I shouldn't be doing that to children."
"If you're a monster for doing what must be done—" Jon pressed a kiss on Martin's forehead— "then I'm a monster, too."
"I…I just feel so guilty—"
"And so do I. Every day."
Martin sighed, taking Jon's hand and squeezing it. "I suppose there's nothing that can be done about it now…"
"I mean, the child's probably been trapped here for ages, being tortured by whoever's in charge of this place," Jon said. "In the grand scheme of things, all you did is steal some fear from this domain's avatar."
Martin didn't say anything else as he and Jon began to walk. As they walked, Martin tossed his opened bag of crisps onto the ground—he found he didn't want them anymore.
Jon's presence and affirmations were comforting, but Martin couldn't ignore that feeling within himself—a feeling similiar to hunger.
The child's loneliness hadn't been enough for the Forsaken.