The Ballad of a Buried Beast

Chapter 8.

I didn't sleep much that night. With Malo learning to talk independently--or, as independently as it could manage through my phone--the door to easier answers had been reopened. Sleep could wait.

"Alright, Malo," I rubbed my hands together as I took my seat back at the head of my bed, the bed creaking with my added weight, "You think you're gettin' the hang of it? Talking?"

Malo nodded as it turned to face me at the foot of the bed, looking away from the mirror it constantly glanced at. "Malo's getting-... Hang of it. Yes!"

"Alright, awesome..." I moved the phone from in front of me and sat it closer to it on the bed. Softly, a short grin crept across my face; from morning to evening, it'd gone from terrifying and incomprehensible to grabbing at its own tail and humming. It grew incredibly fond of its own voice, and--to be honest--I did, too. Its voice had a delicate edge to it, almost feminal.

"Alrighty," I clasped my hands together in a quiet clap and took a breath, While you were doing your thing and stuff--like, looking in the mirror and humming--I thought of some questions."

"Quest-ions?"

"Yeah-, like this morning. When we were doing that back-and-forth stuff in the chairs?"

Malo nodded, "Yes, Malo remembers; Malo likes questions!"

"Alright, great. Awesome," I threw my hands up a bit and placed them in my lap, "That makes to'a us--you can even ask me any too, if you want. That sound fair?"

"Yes, sounds fair."

"Great. You wanna go first then, or should I?"

It stared at me for a second, so I just nodded and ended up going first anyways.

"Alright, so-..." I glanced at the mirror, "My first question is--I guess--is-uhh, is this the first time you've ever seen yourself?"

Malo tapped its thigh and glanced down at itself, "Yes."

I made a wordless 'Oh' and glanced away. What a realization that must've been.

"So," I continued, "Does that mean you were invisible to yourself, too?"

One of its large ears twitched, "Invisible?"

"-Yeah, like... You weren't able to see yaself before, right? Why? Were you-uhh," I waved my hands in the air as I thought for a bit, "Were you hiding from something? -O-Or is that just natural, or-?"

Its ears perked up.

"Oh! No! Malo doesn't hide."

"You don't?"

It shook its head. "No, not hiding. Malo didn't..." it seemed to struggle for a bit as it finally understood what I was asking, "Malo is not-... Was not... Here."

"You weren't here?"

"Was not here," it repeated, a little excited, "Yes."

I blinked a few times; that just made more questions.

"So, if you weren't here then... Where were you?" I glanced at the phone in front of it, " -Were you inside the phone?"

"Phone? No," it shook its head, "Phone led Malo here, but Malo wasn't inside. Too small; Malo was deeper, nowhere." It thought on its response for a moment and then double-downed, "Malo was nowhere."

"You were... Nowhere?"

It saw I wasn't getting the picture.

"Nowhere. -Dark!" it lifted its claws and spread them out, forming an imaginary bubble around it, "Malo was inside dark nowhere, yes--trapped!--inside dark nowhere."