Heartstoppers

•ONE•

Another miserable day passed as I watched the sunset on the horizon. The illustrious rays of the sun paled as the sea swallowed the star whole. Birds flying in the distance appeared as blotched black dots. The whole atmosphere had an orange tint to it.

Sometimes, it felt like I was the one consumed by the sea– Drowning, my terrified screams engulfed by the relentless waters. I splashed and thrashed and almost made it ashore, but the currents were more powerful. They dragged me deeper and deeper until no matter how hard I struggled, my efforts went in vain. Nobody paid me any attention. Nobody cared for me. I might have spotted blurry outlines at the shore and even called out, but they only cared about their own problems. Why bother yourself with an illiterate orphan? Probably just another one of those frauds, just too lazy to earn, the tourists would say. Good for nothing, can't even read! They'd exclaim.

But the townsfolk knew better. Those guys knew that I wasn't any orphan– Daughter of Samirah, for devil's sake! The Samirah– The most celebrated figure in the field of dark arts. Rumour has it that she could string a casual conversation with the dead. She could call onto sprits whenever necessary– sprits who would do her bidding. With one right mantra, she could flood the whole town in the middle of the sweltering summer months.

Yet they kept their distance from me– A sort of payback for being unable to read. Without the ability to write and deliver hymns, I was another burden for the town. They may have their excuses– "Oh, the position's already full!" "Sorry, I don't have my house keys, or else I would have gotten it." and all sorts of rubbish, but why would they treat me like that? Criticized as a disgrace, yet occasionally providing me a false string of hope, that maybe, just maybe, not everyone hated me.

I groaned– Enough about the past. I curled up into a human ball and snuggled into a mottled blanket brutally clawed and teethed, but it was mine from the compassion of the spirits, and I wasn't going to reject a handy gift. But I wondered if the previous owner had the habit of nestling with a pack of wolves or overly caffeinated poodles.

The overcast sky showed the signs of a heavy downpour, though with me huddled in the Loner, I wouldn't mind some exhilarating change in weather and invigorating chilly winds as long as I was with my blanket and Messiah.

"Who's a good doggy? Who's a good doggy?" I said, my tone thick with slavering. The guard dog wagged its tail enthusiastically. "Well, you aren't." Messiah's face fell.

"You're my best friend." I completed my sentence and stroked the area behind Messiah's ears. He seemed to love that, and it was a better scratching spot than his dorsal, so it was a win-win situation.

Messiah, a pet? Please, pets aren't your only connection with the other world– To think of him as an animal was like imagining an Orangutan as a sea mammal. This guard dog had shown me empathy where the rest of the world had failed, and after years of his sage companionship, he was more like my only family.

As I watched, rain-splattered down onto the pavement, its incessant pitter-platter the closest association I've had to a lullaby sung to me. Not long after, the water fell from the sky with unrelenting force, accompanied by white flashes of lightning and booming thunder.

Despite everything that'd happened to me, I felt grateful. There were beggars in a worse condition out there cowering in the rain with no company, while I was snug with the best person in the world. And I was in the Loner, a haven I'd created for myself when I'd realized that no prince charming was going to rescue me. Damsel in distress? I was a warrior who'd survived the harsh reality and so intended to continue.

Messiah's breathing had stilled, and he was snoring in my arms. I smiled inwardly– This dog would never cease to charm me– and felt the strings of exhaust drag my eyelids lower and lower till they were so heavy that the next thing I remembered was waking up in the morn.