The Man Who Swallows Nightmares

honeysuckle hypnosis | 07

Malachi

I WILL NEVER FALL ASLEEP again. She was real. I touched her clothing's string. The fabric was strong and soft, tied to my pinkie. I couldn't stop twirling the thread. There was a whiteness when I used all the cord to cut the blood flow to my finger. And there was her taste. When she fell down through her portrait, I breathed in the particles. Sweet honeysuckle and vanilla made my tongue salivate. I prayed that nothing dripped down my chin.

"Darlene," I spoke. With a tiny gulp, the particles swirled inside my stomach. My lungs were caught. My face became flushed. The magic glowed through my skin, sizzling in my bloodstream.

She landed on her behind on my bedchamber floor. Her brunette hair was wavy, the hair strands were sharp and defined features. Within each strand, colors changed from brunette to bright golden starting from root to tip. Her portrait kept the tone dull and muted withholding her vibrant colors and aroma. Those dove gray irises held light in them within her lens. Her nose softly angled downward similar to our head bust statues in our study. There was a tiny bump halfway down her nose's bridge.

I crouched to where she fell. I didn't know what to do with my hands. And I dared not speak another word. Being closer to her, I breathed in more of the particles. This magic was no snowflakes. The golden hue hovered around her. Minuscule pear-like shape seemed to contain liquid. The untrained eye would not notice the water-like droplet formation surrounding her being. I have never witnessed anything like this before. Particles were always snowflakes, light and floated downward from Gifted and Non-Gifted alike like dust that can hide underneath furniture, swirled on individuals, and for consumption. This. This golden liquid was suspended and remained around her. As if the particles had a mind of their own.

I took a small breath in. All the magic awaited by her side. All but one, the closest to me reluctantly touched my tongue. Vanilla, tonka bean, nutmeg, honeysuckle 𑁋 I despised overkill of sugar sweetness, but this sweetness flooded my tonsils and cheeks that caused sensitivity. Falling down myself on the wooden floor, I pushed myself away from her. My back hit the stone hearth's siding where the gray and blue granite. My dagger hidden beneath my military uniform clanged when I hit the hearth. The hearth's embers were no dragon tonight. Its belly seemed to dwindle. There was no breath in the fire. Just one spark that lived. And yet I felt that one spark, my skin grew hot.

I could not comprehend how this minuscule liquid paralyzed me. It took everything in me not to get closer to her. Another glow radiated the night time's atmosphere. I could not look at myself, but I knew it was coming somewhere from my face. It had to be. Everything around me seemed to be brighter even though I had only a few candles lit in my bedchamber. It was a new moon with no light from Thrive itself.

"How?" was her first word. Her hand held her writing utensil.

How indeed.

She turned her head quickly to the thought of my voice. My thoughts.

"This is impossible." Darlene stared at the back of her hands as if they shifted into something, transformed into something unrealistic. But those were her hands. The hands she had in her portrait.

"You are here," I spoke once again. The liquid particles touched my tongue. I grimaced, trying to not to guzzle her magic. It was unblemished. The quality of her magic was priceless. It held no competition with the strongest Gifted like the King. His Majesty's Reflection had no power to her water droplet. He could not see those tiny particles, he could only see what the Gifted presented. How alluring that thought was.