Tidal Florette - A Painted Soul I

Yumi - 13

A chilling rush of the sea breeze awakens Yumi in a dizzy haze of blood loss on her side in the glassy sand. Her lavender robe, deeply darkened by bloodstains, is still damp and reeks of saltwater. The edge of the tide rolls up to her knees, but she doesn't bother moving. Her chest is burning with a deep pain through to her shoulder from the stab wound. She hasn't checked if the bleeding has stopped, assuming if she's not dead already then she was lucky enough for the wound to not be fatal. Maybe unlucky... just dying in the ocean would have been better than laying here until I starve...

"My dear, that's hardly a proper bed."

Yumi's startled into turning towards the voice, wincing as her chest screams in response. Crouched down in the sand right by her is the same strange man that spoke with her on the beach yesterday. Another hallucination? Or is he actually real?

The man chuckles with a humorous warmth. "You absolutely must tell me what you were drinking last night."

A harsh annoyance flashes on Yumi's face before she throws herself back down into the sand, the man lets out a small gasp. "Don't be so rough, if you start the bleeding again you might run out. That really is no way to dye your robe."

"Just go away, it'd be better if it did start up again..."

Suddenly the man appears lying next to her on the side she's facing. Instantly, in a blink of her eyes he was behind her and now he's right there. Lounging back with his arms holding his head looking up at the sky. "I'm afraid I must disagree, love, we have yet to solve the mystery of your celebrity status. And then there's so many more to explore."

Hallucination it is then... great... laying here until you die with a broken heart and a broken mind... A wave of pain from her chest flows through her. Broken body too...

The man clicks his tongue, "Broken? This is nothing, a little chip in the brim maybe." He looks over at her with his muted purple eyes, a predatory thirst burning through to her soul that gives her an unsettling chill. "Why not slide off the ledge and see how it feels to really shatter, little teacup?"

Yumi laughs nervously, "Really? My own mind trying to convince me to lose it?"

He grins as though she's given him the greatest gift he's ever received. "Your own mind? Oh bloody hell, that's far too intriguing to care at all what the people think. What tells you I'm not my own man?"

"How else do I explain you vanishing from one place to another?"

"Any god can do that. Then again if I'm just in your imagination I would appear wherever you think of me."

Any god? Is he saying I've dreamt up a god?

"Precisely, in the not-so mortal flesh."

Yumi tries to sit-up, but the pain and exhaustion overcome her and she falls back again. "How about that then? Hearing my thoughts?"

He sits up, leaning back with his palms in the sand. "You have many thoughts worth hearing, why shouldn't I listen?"

I'm not sure how my mind would have come up with that smooth, pompous accent. He chortles a laugh, apparently overhearing. That's going to take getting used to... "If you're not just in my head and you're an actual god... what do you want with me? Why now?"

He watches the waves for a few seconds. "You weren't ready for me, darling, but now we'll explore such wonderful mysteries. At least you're going to on your own out there. I'm very busy as a god you see. Our kind must work far quieter than the days before Nightfall, yet the moon still rises and our duties must be fulfilled."