Nameless Ghoul

Dreams

Itzal stripped off his clothes, switched on the shower, and stepped under the spray. The water was freezing at first, but he didn’t care. He let the shock of the cold water douse his anger and his frustrations. He should have gone back to his own room, but he wasn’t thinking straight and had trapped himself in Sunshine’s bathroom instead.

He needed something to distract him, as he couldn’t face seeing her right now. Thankfully, she hadn’t come after him and he berated himself for running off and leaving her like that. Would she know it wasn’t her that was the problem? He berated himself again because what if she thought it was her? And he’d just run away like a fucking coward and left her to deal with it.

He balled his hands into fists and had to stop himself from punching the tiled wall. He had no idea how to handle this at all. Obviously he had never had this problem before because the previous partners he’d had were mostly not of his choosing, and he hadn't cared what the fuck they thought of him, anyway.

He found himself sitting on the floor of the cubicle, eyes closed, with his face to the spray. There was no clue how long he'd sat there for other than the fact he was shivering. Eventually, he came to his senses enough to actually clean himself and get out of the shower. He towelled off and put his jeans back on, grabbing his shirt off the floor. He took a deep breath and went back out into the room to face the music.

Sunshine wasn’t there, and he didn’t know if that was a relief or not. Itzal felt sad that he’d upset her yet again. He quietly slipped out of the door, only to be met with the stern faces of Cumulus and Cirrus, who must have been waiting for him all this time.

He looked around for backup, but there were no ghouls to be seen anywhere and he cursed under his breath. Cirrus raised an eyebrow at him.

“Nobody else here, bud. Just us ghulehs.”

He looked over to Cumulus, who had her arms folded across her chest and a mock frown on her face.

“Is she upset?” he asked.

The ghulehs looked at each other, and Cumulus smiled sadly.

“A little. She didn’t say what had happened, but please go speak to her. We don’t like it when Sunshine is sad and there’s nothing we can do to help her. You ghouls are so problematic! Our lives would be much more straightforward without you,” she teased. “She’s gone to the rehearsal room, in case you wanted to, you know, go and talk this through?”

He nodded his thanks and headed down the corridor.

“Umm, Itzal?” He stopped and turned at the sound of Cirrus’s voice. “You might want to put a shirt on. We don’t want to be dealing with mass hysteria when all those Siblings of Sin get a load of all that naked male flesh!”

Cumulus started cackling as he looked down and realised he was only wearing his jeans. He headed back to his room to find a clean top and he could still hear the ghulehs laughing to themselves as they pottered around the kitchen.

As he approached the rehearsal room, he could hear the notes and the words of a song he recognised being played on the piano. The door to the space was slightly propped open, and he stood in the doorway, looking inside.

Sunshine sat at the grand piano, dwarfed by its size, and played a perfect rendition of what he realised was Dreams by Fleetwood Mac. Goosebumps broke out all over his body as he watched her play. Her crystal clear voice spoke to his soul like nothing else he’d ever experienced. Her eyes were closed and she had her head tilted back as her killed fingers drifted over the keys expertly. A beam of light from the ceiling rig illuminated her features as he watched, and she utterly bewitched him as she made the song her own.

As she played the last notes, he walked silently into the room towards her. She spun around when she realised someone else was there with her and he could see the tears shimmering in her eyes as she looked up at him. She was uncertain of what his reaction was going to be.

He came to a stop between her legs as she sat on the piano stool and he put his arms around her shoulders. She turned her head to the side and rested her cheek on his stomach as he carefully ran his hands over her hair. He hugged her to him, and her arms snaked around his back. His eyes closed and he smelled the salty tang of her tears. Itzal's heart was breaking at the realisation that he had done this to her, his actions and his fucked up past.

“I’m so sorry, Sunshine,” he whispered, and he felt her hold on him tighten.