Morons and Monarchs

Chapter Sixty-three: Phobos 🎼

Drytsan thrashes and shakes again, but I stay put across the room.

Pain. Terror. This is what I rule over. This is what I love. Then why does it hurt so darn much? I have gotten too attached to her, it seems.

I narrow my eyes as she tries to scream, the threads holding her lips together pulling taunt.

But I stay put. I do not move a muscle. I should relish in this. I should be proud my minions have found her.

She thrashes again and I wince, blowing out a slow breath.

Fuck it.

I lunge at her, grabbing her sweat soaked shoulder and shaking her.

"DRYSTAN!" I yell myself, shaking her again and again until finally she takes a shuddering breath. She stops thrashing, and I calm again, tucking my wings back behind me. "What the hell was that?" I yell at her again, lifting up from her body of which I straddled just a few moments ago.

Her eyes flutter open, and she trembles. "Pho-" Her shaking overtakes her for a moment, and then she continues in her mind. "Phobos." Drystan thinks it so softly, making me look back up at her and fixate my gaze on how her body is convulsing in terror and pain.

"What the hell was that?" I demand again, my gaze cold and distant as it slides across her as she spasms.

"I-" She turns a bright red. "Nothing you need to know," She looks down at her comforter, still shaking but not as violently. She lays back down, cuddling into her duvet.

"Drystan," I order, walking a few steps towards her and placing my fingers under her chin, making her glance up at me shyly. Through her lashes. I frown. She is embarrassed.

Poor girl.

"Hey, Little Nightmare, did your own clan take over you?" When she was young, she had these horrible nightmares that would shock her into a stupor for days on end, I started called her My Little Nightmare, I do not know why, I just did. And I would ask her- whenever she woke up- if her own clan of nightmares tried to take her over. She would nod, or she would shake her head. It all depended.

Now, she nods. Her bottom lip quivering slightly. I sit down on the edge of her bed, my arms open wide, but she just stares at me.

"Come here, my Little Nightmare. I will rule with you," They will never take her crown. They will never take over.

In her eyes hold wary, and it shoves a dagger into my chest, but she still crawls into my lap, resting her head onto my chest.

And I wrap my arms around her as she wraps her own around mine, her arms barely reaching completely around my broad stomach. She still shudders, but they turn contained. I start playing with her hair, my nimble fingers catching on some of the ties. My wings involuntarily wraps around her, holding her even closer.

I finger-curl one of her silky strands, letting it slip off of my vein-y finger before grabbing another strand.

Drystan shakes her head no, and I freeze.

"Hm?"

Drystan just shakes her head again, and I pull my wings back, but she grabs a hold of one again, snuggling it back around her and holding it hostage. I shiver.

I touch her temple, the soft skin beneath my coarse finger tips making me tremble just thinking about how breakable she is.

"What?" I ask inside her mind. I see her smile in real life.

"That's a bad idea." Is all she says.

"What is?" I ask again, shaking my own head at her inquisitive ominousness.

"You are going to make me fall in love," She replies. "If you keep doing that."

I withdrawal my hand and she whimpers in real life. I smile as I lean back, my wings now pressed against Drystan's back. She snuggles deeper into my chest.

"What did you dream of?" I ask, putting my hand back onto her temple to hear her answer.

"My father."

My heart stops, and I have the urge to take my hand away, but I refuse. "Hm."

"He had come back," I feel a tear soak my shirt in real life, and I swipe at her face urgently. "He was there. When my lips were being sewn back together." Another tear. "He just watched, Phobos." A few more. "He didn't care."

"I know," I smooth her hair back from her face. "I know."

"He just left." Her sobs increase.

"One day, my Little Nightmare," I try to soothe. "One day, it will all get better."

"Hm." She repeats my earlier sentiment.

"Do you want to hear a story?" I ask her.

She smiles, the threads pulling taut again. She nods her head, and I smile.

"Hark my darling, here is a tale." She snuggles closer to me as my voice rumbles out. Dark, soothing yet scary.

"Where hope and despair-" I smooth back her hair. "Are made equally fair."

And she drifts from consciousness as I mention the coward death.