Shadows

[raspberryfluffe]

A more supernatural story. As always, any feedback is greatly appreciated!

--

It wasn’t always there, but when it finally did start showing up there were only very subtle hints as to what it was. I would come back to my room and the closet door would be ever so slightly ajar when I was sure I had closed it, or the piles of clothes around my bed had shifted. Sometimes, as I was falling asleep, in the early morning hours I would hear long, slow breathing, almost matching up with my own but a second or two behind.

I was never scared of the supernatural, just fascinated, though I was still uneasy not knowing what exactly was living in my room. It never left to stalk through the rest of my house. Maybe it knew the vulnerability of sleep. Although for weeks and months nothing ever happened directly to me, I would just catch glimpses of a moving shadow or sometimes the breathing was louder or one time I heard scraping on the walls but whatever it was it left me alone.

I got sick one winter, not especially sick but I was stuck in my room with tea and tissues for a few days and sneezing my head off until it eventually subsided and I was feeling better, ready to continue my normal routine the next day. I was dozing off in the night, still kind of stuffy but doing okay, when the breathing that had become a much more regular occurrence sounded…off. It sounded heavier, more ragged, growly. And snuffly. I decided to ignore it and try to sleep off whatever remained in my sinuses when the breathing suddenly quickened and whatever had been hiding in my room for months blew its cover in an incredibly un-subtle way.

“HHEURREEeesssttchooo!!” My fingers clenched my blanket as a wet and miserable sounding sniffle followed, the sound coming directly from under my bed. I was nervous, but somehow relieved, and also a little excited. There was something there, definitely! I smiled triumphantly in the dark.

“Well, bless you, whatever you are!” I said, sitting up flinging the blanket off and dropping to the ground with my phone flashlight to peer underneath. There was a hiss and a shuffling, more sniffing too.

“I know you’ve been here, so you should probably come out! And we should talk, too. I have a lot of questions.” Despite the light, nothing was showing up. Maybe it had the ability to shrink into the darkness. But even though I couldn’t see it, it responded in a raspy, stuffed voice, struggling not to sneeze again.

“Hahhh…you-hehh--…you have a lot of nerve,” it growled. I laughed loudly before dissolving into a small coughing fit, the residual tickle in my throat still apparent.

“Pfft, I have a lot of nerve? This is my house, you’re the intruder,” I said, powering through the scratchiness.

“For being so chipper when you’ve infected me with your awful disease, yes, nerve! I—hahh---I’m a shadow demon and all my work has been reduced to nothing be--hehh..haaHHH—because..HAHH…becuaaSSHHHOOO! Because of your terrible human immune system!”

“Aw, you caught my cold? Tough luck, I hope your nose tickles like crazy and you can’t stop sneezing for a minute. I can’t see you, do you even have a nose?”

“Of course I have a nose!! This wouldn’t be an issue if I didn’t!” It snorted.

“Well, you can come out into the light, right? If I turn on my room light will you come out so we can talk like civilized sick people?”

“Now why would I do that,” it grumbled. I thought for a moment and a wicked idea flitted across my mind.

“Because if you don’t, I’ll go down to my kitchen, get my pepper container and fling it everywhere in this room. I know you haven’t left it and I don’t have to sleep here if I don’t want to. But I’ll make your life a spicy, sneezy hell, since I know you have a nose and it’s extremely sensitive right now.” There was a congested, exasperated beyond belief sigh.

“Fine.” With that, I sat on my bed then turned on the light and a pool of darkness slid out from the bed before rippling and rising from the ground into the form of an androgynous dark grey demon, tall, toned, with arching black horns and oil-black hair. Its face was fascinating, high cheek bones with large yellow eyes, and its nose was long and sloping, tapered, with large nostrils and a twitching tip, all tinged slightly red and still dripping from the sneezes.

“Wow, you weren’t kidding about the nose, you look awful” It grimaced, showing some very sharp teeth, and slid a clawed hand up against its nose in a slurpy sniffle.

“So what do you want?”

“Well, what do you want?” I shot back. “Why are you in my room and being creepy and sneezing all over the place?”

“I’m here because I’m supposed to be here, it’s in my nature to attach to a mortal and torment them.”

“Well you didn’t do a very good job.” At that, it winced, and looked a little hurt. I felt slightly bad but not really. “I know you’ve been here, and I don’t get scared by opened closets and toppled over piles of clothes. Are you, like a beginner? Is there some sort of demon company that sends out demons on missions to annoy people and this is your first time on the job? Because you kind of suck at it.” Normally I wasn’t this mean to people I didn’t know but I wasn’t going to let myself be snarked at by some amateur.

“W-well there’s no, what did you call it, ‘agency,’ this is just what I…hah..what I am. A-and I don’t aaaah…appreciate your aaAASCHOOOO!! Your attitude! And I’m sneezing everywhere because you got me sick! Hehh..HHURESCHOO!! HESCHOO!!!” With that it grabbed a tissue from my dresser and blew messily into it, rubbing its nose every which way to try to absorb all the liquid snot pouring from it. Seeing an opportunity to mess with it, I grabbed the tissue box and stuffed it under my shirt. If looks could kill I would’ve been dead several times over.

“….I need that.”

“Should’ve thought of that before you haunted me.”

“This isn’t a haunting, this is an occupation.” Its voice was a little muffled as it kept the soaked tissue to its still-twitching nose.

“So do you have a name or whatever? You’ve been, uh, ‘occupying’ my room for months now and I don’t actually know what to call you.”

“…Give me another tissue first.” I narrowed my eyes before very carefully pulling out a single tissue and cautiously offering it. It snatched it and blew vigorously before responding.

“I have a name that would instantly strike fear into the hearts of all humans.”

“You didn’t really answer the question.”

“You can call me…" it said, pausing dramatically. "Nox.” It bared its teeth, eyes ever so slightly aglow, though the effect was ruined by the pouring snot coming from its nose, still looking ready to dissolve into a sneezing fit at any moment.

“That’s it? The Roman goddess of night, is that what you are?”

“N-no!! But are you saying the mere mention of an ancient, omnipotent deity doesn’t terrify you??” The eyes’ glow intensified, teeth sharpening.

“Absolutely not. Again, you’re pretty lame for a shadow demon. I expected more from you,” clicking my tongue in a semi-mocking way. In truth I was kind of enjoying being mean, in a kind of payback for the constant harassment for nearly a year. But the light in Nox’s eyes dimmed and its toothy grin wilted to a disappointed frown, eyebrows knit.

“You’re...being unnecessarily rude right now.” For a second its eyelids fluttered and unfocused, breath hitching. I couldn’t get a word in before Nox was heaving with deep breaths of air and its nostrils were flaring wildly. It sat down next to me on my bed to steady itself before exploding into a monstrous fit.

“HETSCHOO! HURESCHOOO! HESCHOOheschooheschooheschoo! Ahh…ehh..hehhehhh..HHEEYYESCHHHOOOO!” With both tissues completely wasted from before, Nox had no use but to sneeze wildly and violently into its clawed hands, rivers of saliva and mucous streaming into its palms and over its wrists, and smeared all around its nose and mouse. Its eyes were watering too, teary and red-rimmed from the fit.

“Wow, bless you again and again! You really are sick, huh?” I ripped a bunch of tissues out this time, stuffing them into its hands. “But you kinda brought it upon yourself, so I’m not gonna be too sympathetic here.”

I was met with another spiteful glare before Nox buried its nose into the pile and cleaned itself off. When it finished the task, after several minutes with no conversation between us besides several sniffles, Nox looked at me with narrowed eyes.

“You are, without a doubt, the worst human I’ve ever occupied.”

“Sucks to be you,” I said with a smile, wiping my own nose. Nox seemed disgusted by this, even more so after making its own mess.

“So…how long does this infernal illness take to go away?”

“Well, maybe a week or more? Depends. If you’ve never had a human cold before I imagine it’ll probably be longer.” Nox groaned and put its face in its hands. “So what are you going to do, just hang out and sneeze all over my room for two weeks?” Nox glared at me through open fingers.

“Do I have a choice? I’ve occupied this room and can’t leave unless I’ve completely and utterly terrified you…and I know that won’t ever happen now that you’ve seem me like this.” Its eyes were watering again, although not with sneeziness this time.

“I’m supposed to be frightening, and you are such an awfully abnormal human that you can’t even have the common sense to be scared of a shadow demon.” Tears were welling up now, some trickled down its sculpted jaw and dripped onto the ground. 

“I mean, your methods aren’t especially scary to me, and I get that you can’t help that. But also, look at your form right now, you just look like a normal person except grey, but with some pointy teeth and horns and glowy eyes. You’re just not very intimidating.” Nox pulled its face away from its hands and screwed up its nose in a massive wet sniffle.

“Wh...why would you say that? Don't you understand what I am?”

“Because you aren’t, really, and I don't want my time or yours to be wasted with this spooky nonsense” I said, tapping the warm-to-the-touch tip of its nose which immediately caused it to screw up again.

“Hehh..HESCHOO! Gah, please don’t do that…” it said, rubbing the tickle away and staring off in the corner of my room with an extraordinarily sad look. “I…I can’t leave unless you’re scared. Lords of Night, I’m going to be trapped here until you die…”

“Woahwoahwoah, until I die??”

“Calm down, I can’t kill you. Or force anything else to kill you for me.” It rubbed its palm against its nose. “I can only wait for external or internal forces.” For some reason, the thought of this hopelessly inadequate demon being trapped in my room didn’t frighten as much made me feel kind of sad.

“I’ve been trapped before, too, you know. You just gotta make it work with what you have since you don’t have any other choice.” I scooted over on the bed, so closely that the sides of our bodies were slightly touching, and I could feel the fever-warmth radiating off of Nox. It seemed a little surprised.

“And, like, I can leave the room for awhile, like I said before I don’t need to stay in here. I can let you chill out while you get better at least and then we can figure out a way to make this work.”

“You would do that? Why? You just spent five minutes berating me and saying I'm terrible at my life's purpose” Nox’s claws tensed up.

“Well, yeah, you're not the best. But I don’t need to intentionally make it a whole lot worse. I could still get that pepper anytime though.” Nox rolled its eyes. “But I could go out and get more tissues so you’re not completely miserable, if you want.” Its claws tensed more but it nodded.

“You…you don’t have to but I would be grateful if you did.”

“Ok, so I’ll leave you alone for awhile, excepting tissues.” Nox gave a cautious pointy smile before the tickle in its nose roared back and Nox doubled over into another fit, but I was ready with a fistful of tissues for it to sneeze into.

“HEESXXCHOOO!! HHEYYASCHOOO! HESCHOOHESchoo..HESCHOO! HAHHH…ehhh.hheh…HHURREASSSCHOOO!” I could feel the force of the wet explosions through the tissues and the way Nox’s nostrils writhed and twisted. I gently massaged its nose, up and down, patting its back gently as it sniffled miserably.

“….Thanks.”

“No prob.”

--

[CeruleanBlue]

Awwww, the ending was adorable!! I love the narrator yelling at a demon.  I feel kinda bad for Nox. I'm excited to see where this goes!

[shadows45]

This is awesome, I love supernatural stories and this one is so fun. Hopefully you continue it.

[Balmora]

This was great!!! It's always so nice to see non-gendered entities and people in stories, too.

[Joona]

God I love this idea so much! Such an awesome concept...

Fantastically written to boot 

[Viktorie]

*_* Love it! Please more! Will you continue? Please?  

I really love Nox sneezing  He's so cute!  I can't help it but ....i smell yaoi  yayayaaay!  

CONTINUE! CONTINUE! 

 

[Pheonix_Mandrill]

Oh my god!!!! I love this!!! Pls pls pls write more!

[raspberryfluffe]

A short continuation, haven't had a lot of time to work on writing! Enjoy

--

I lived alone and didn’t have any close friends, which sounds sad but I enjoyed living by myself without any social obligations beyond limited work interactions. And while I knew Nox was holed up in my room, the isolation from being in the rest of the house was comforting. Except, now that we both knew the situation we were in, Nox became decidedly obvious of whatever it was feeling, namely, awful. I could be in the farthest corner of the house and still hear its crashing sneezes bouncing off the walls and roaring nose blows. Sometimes the moans emitted made it seem more like a haunting than an “occupation.” I ignored mostly, as I had ignored Nox for so long before, but it eventually got to a point where the creature was too uncomfortable to leave me alone. As in its nature, I supposed. Its hoarse, stuffy voice would echo through my rooms in desperate pleas for me to bring it more tissues daily, which I would oblige. But a couple weeks passed and Nox was showing no signs of improving.

If anything, its nose was even more stuffed and irritated, and Nox was sneezing up to fifteen times an hour pretty consistently, with fits becoming more and more frequent. It was after the thirtieth sneeze since I woke up on the couch that I finally went upstairs with a heavy duty medicated nose spray and a towel.

I pushed open the door to find Nox huddled on my bed, breath hitching and twisting its nose all over trying to quell the most recent tickle. The box of tissues from an hour before was already completely empty and the completely ruined remains were strewn across my bed and floor. Nox scrubbed at its nose desperately, frantically, but its nostrils flared and flexed wildly.

“Hehh..hhiihhh..HEEEYEESCHHOOO!” It wasn’t even bothering to cover its sneezes anymore, rivers of snot poured from both nostrils, over its mouth and chin and down its neck, and the messy spray from the most recent explosion splashed over its shadowy chest.

“Bless, Nox,” I said, walking over. Nox’s eyes were glazed over and narrowed, teary as well.

“*Snnuurrrkk*….this is your fault…” it groaned.

“Yeah, yeah, I know. Here.” I handed it the towel, which is grabbed and rubbed vigorously over its mouth, face, and chest, trying to absorb all the mess. The rubbing only added to the awful constant tickle.

“HURESCHOO! ASCHOO!” Nox sneezed, and sneezed again into the towel, pulling away with thick strands of snot attached to the towel and we both grimaced. It blew into the cloth before tossing it to the side and slamming its face into its hands like I’d seen it do so many times before. Nox was nothing if not constantly exasperated with its situation. 

“I don’t know what you’ve done to me but rest assured you will pay for it dearly. 

“How.”

“I’ll find a way. I have the capabilities to be terrifying.”

“It’s scaring me how determined you are.” At that, Nox brightened slightly, eyes the tiniest bit more luminous.

“Really? *Sniff*”

“No. Just teasing. You’re not scary.” Deflating, Nox scowled as I sat down next to it.

“You really are very cruel for such a small, lonely huu….huhhhSCHOO. Human.” Have to admit, that stung a little. But really, who was being inconvenienced here?

“Maybe I’m just tired of you hanging around and sneezing on all my stuff.”

“Do you think I’m NOT tired of that as well??” Seeing the spray in my hands, it snatched it up and pumped multiple streams into each nostril, sniffing horribly slurpily and gagging as it dripped down its throat. The naure of the spray also drastically increased sensitivity, and poor Nox exploded into another flurry of wet, spraying sneezes.

“HHEYYASCHOOO! HESCHOOHESchoo..HESCHOO! Hheeeeee…YYESSCHOOO!”

“Bless.”

“You do realize the implication of blessing a demon, do you not?”

“Force of habit.”

“Fine. Well. Goodbye, human. Please leave my presence.”

“This is my house!”

“It’s mine now too.”

As Nox melted into shadow and slid under the bed, I lamented to myself.

“There’s gotta be some way to end this.”

[Pheonix_Mandrill]

XD YES!!! YOU ADDED MORE! SO GOOOOOOOD!!!!!! I want more now!!! 

[lilysneeze]

Wow this is so interesting more please!

[Viktorie]

More!!!! More!!! <333 It's so good!!! I love these two! <3 

[Secret Sneezer]

This is absolutely adorable! I love how open it is, so that the reader can put in their own ideas!

[raspberryfluffe]

Hello! It's definitely been quite a year since I last updated but I'm excited to get back into this more frequently, please enjoy and I'd love to hear your feedback  

--

Mercifully, by some divine intervention that I’m sure even Nox must’ve been grateful for, the dreadful virus wracking its system eased up after nearly three and a half weeks of miserable, groaning despair and destruction. I’m not inclined to use destruction lightly, but the ragged sopping towels and rags that had been strewn across my bedroom floor in what looked like an after-tornado formation really called to mind the effects of a natural disaster, with Nox sitting, quite pathetically, smack in the middle of it. 

Even on its storm cloud-gray skin, charcoal scoops of exhaustion drooped under those lightbulb eyes, noticeably dimmer and quite out of focus as it tried to blink itself awake. It let out a weak sneeze—

“HYEschooo….hnngggg” and let its lids fall before slumping on the bed, horns knocking against the headboard with a clunk. Most symptoms had died down considerably but it was still racked with sneezes on top of rusty scrape in its throat and the post-peak awfulness sleepiness that takes even longer to disappear, which I was definitely looking forward to dealing with.

By this point I had gotten over my own symptoms and was feeling relatively normal, almost chipper even, and as Nox slid a cool damp washcloth over its eyes and forehead, I finished buttoning my shirt and pulled on my jacket to go to work.  Part-time office temp work, it didn’t lend itself to making many long-term connections but it certainly kept a roof over my—our, I realized, somewhat suddenly—heads. My phone buzzed on the bedside table and Nox sniffled gloomily.

“…who is it and why must they contact you at this wretchedly early morning hour.” 

“Selma. Work friend. She picks me up every morning but I’m kind of running late.”

“Are you friends?”

A strange question and it made me stop halfway through pulling on my shoes. We were friends, right? We’d ridden together every morning since before Nox had made itself known to me, that had to count for something. 

“Well..yes, I suppose so. I’d say we’re friends.”

“I don’t recall you ever mentioning this Ss..Sselma,” it rasped, the name sliding off with an air of intrigue. As I pulled on my other shoe I realized that I really had never mentioned her. Grabbing my bag, I leaned on the jamb, contemplating this while Nox massaged the cloth and sneezed messily into the air, jolting upwards.

“HHYEESCGGHOOOO!! Heschooheschoo! H’schoo! Guhhh….”

 “Bless,” I said absentmindedly, though still aware of the squinting glare I was missing out on, on account of the towel. “Well, in any event, we’re still friends, and I’m still late so...I’ll see you later, Nox, try not to die.”

“Would that I could.”

-

I thundered down the stairs and out the door to Selma’s used, rundown Camry where she sat in the driver’s seat, finishing applying her lipstick in the rearview mirror.  

“Hey, you,” she said airily, “you’re not usually late, you good?” I tossed my bag between my legs and nodded.

“Yeah..yes, I’m good. Doing alright, just some stuff on my mind this morning.” 

“Oh, okay.” She nodded briskly and sped off, and the rest of the trip was very quiet, almost silent except for when we parted ways to our separate desks. I couldn’t recall if it felt different from any other ride with Selma.

-

Feeling strangely deflated once home, I turned on the electric kettle, flumped on the couch, and tried to imagine what I thought I knew about the lives of my coworkers. What they knew about my life. On the surface it was nice, not particularly needing to be anywhere, the lack of clear social obligations. Limited work interactions seemed like a blessing. For some reason, having Nox ask outright, out of curiosity, if I was friends with Selma, struck some sort of long-abandoned nerve, some heartstring. I was content but had I actually, really thought about it?

The kettle clicked and I hauled myself from the couch to pour two mugs. Nox was partial to vanilla cinnamon tea, which seemed…uncharacteristically dainty of it but it did quell the grumbling for a time. Whatever it ate vanished to nowhere and was unnecessary for survival but Nox wouldn’t refuse something it knew it liked. As I brought up its mug, I realized the house had the same unusual quiet that the rides with Selma had. 

The light in my bedroom was off, Nox’s preferred position for multiple reasons. As I gently pushed open the door, the slowed, deep breathing, much different from Nox’s usual attempts at unnerving inhales and exhales, made me realize that it was…asleep.

Normally Nox retreated somewhere into a puddle of inky shadow while not in its lanky, “intimidating” form, and I didn’t know much about that state except that “it’s a place as similarly empty as your heart,” which had been hissed during the first week or so of this whole ordeal, and followed by four stifled sneezes. 

The dusky orange glow of a streetlight coming through the window illuminated Nox’s long, quite nearly elegant body draped over my bed, nose pointed to the air, mouth slightly agape. It was strangely peaceful, like a sigh after realizing you’ve been tense for several hours and you just let go for a moment. In puddle form, I still had the sensation that Nox was most definitely conscious and observing me, in constant irritation and exasperation. But this was different; it seemed like everything had finally caught up and even a shadow demon just needs to rest sometimes. 

I placed the mug on the table, along with a new pack of tissues I had taken from work and put in my pocket, and crept out quietly, with no sign of stirring from the bed. Nox was frustrating, for sure; dramatic to a fault and woefully whiny, but I couldn’t help but feel a twinge of pity and relief that it was finally getting a break from what seemed like literally endless torture. I didn’t feel bad at all for getting it sick in the first place, that whole business was not my problem, but there had to be compassion someplace, even if my heart was supposedly as empty as that lonely void. 

-

I fell asleep on the couch again, as I had done for weeks, but when I woke up I had a different feeling than normal. Another presence. I fumbled with my glasses and in a bewildering realization it came to my attention that Nox had manifested on the other end of the couch and was methodically and quietly clicking its claws on the blue ceramic, looking wearily down into it. I blinked a couple times. Huh. Another first, all in one day. Nox had never manifested outside my room before. It took me a moment to find my words.

“Uhh…hey, bud. Got tired of my bed in towel land?” Nox let out a slow, disgruntled sigh and peered at me.

“I simply wished to return the vessel and thank you for your courtesy,” it said sleepily. “I’m not sure why my form decided to lose consciousness as you..hhh…yours doesSCHOOO!..” It squinted harshly then relaxed. “…As yours does. Likely your inferior human disease doing obscure and terrible damage to my untarnished darkness.”

“Mmm,” I said. “But did it help?”

“Did what help, pray tell?...ugh, pray…”

“Sleeping, and you’re welcome for the tea, by the way” I said as it mumbled something akin to “…even picking up your turns of phrase, so like viruses themselves...”

“Oh.” Nox stared into the cup again, contemplating. “Perhaps. I have not tried assuming my void form yet but I am awake. And there is an improvement in the quality of this form.” It sniffed thoughtfully. “So yes. It did help.”

“Good, good, I’m glad.”

“A strange turn of events, you being glad over me.” 

“A lot of things have been strange lately. Since when could you leave my bedroom?” Nox seemed very offended.

“Since the very beginning of this hopeless plight! Did you think I was bound to only one room, a demon of my stature and power?” It was difficult not to cracked the smallest smile as it raved.

“I could have left at any time! However it seemed most sensible to occupy one area and focus on it, which as you know went so very well…” Nox looked equally disgusted with itself as well as me.

“And didn’t get better, I get it,” I said, patting its warm shoulder that gave a small twitch upon first contact. “But yes, weird as it is, I am glad over you. I’m glad you could, well, catch a break for a bit. I’m not the easiest person to occupy.” I plopped a nearby box of tissues in its lap as it rubbed its nose.

“More tea?”

[facet]

.

Edited December 1, 2019 by facet
Removed by user.

[raspberryfluffe]

Hello! It's been a very long time again but I've wanting to get back to these two for awhile and finally had the right mixture of time and inspiration. As always, enjoy and please let me know your feedback!   

-

Nox had manifested next to me when I woke up the next morning as well, and the next. Gradually the raspiness in its voice healed, and to my surprise its natural state was quiet, almost velvety. It was forceful when it complained, berated, whined, but strangely gentle when it did not, and used so rarely that when Nox was softspoken, I learned it was surely important. 

I was reading through my old journal entries to pass the time and saw its horned silhouette on the page, silently and suddenly there. Since recovering, unless Nox was making an effort to harass me, it was nearly impossible to try and figure out where it was in the apartment until it was suddenly right there. 

“Hey, how are you? Think of any new irritants you want to run by me?” I turned around to see Nox glaring, tight-lipped. It didn’t say anything but instead dissolved into stormy smoke and re-manifested on the chair across from the couch.

“It is not in good practice for a demon to admit even the most pitiful of fears, though I have…a semblance of an anxiety that your ruthless ahh….ASCHoOO!!..affliction may have permanently affected how I manifest,” Nox said with a grimace. It glanced over at the blue mug in the sink, softened, then leaned in closely. “I am unsure I will ever be free of this. It seems to have made this form’s nose enduringly overly sensitive, despite the passage of time.” Its luminous eyes flickered for just a second, a brief flash of doubt in a long, stern face. 

I considered this admittance. It was somewhat concerning, for Nox kept up an aura of bravado, of pompousness, but was vulnerable in a way that was different from being weak with illness and spiteful of it. Nox may have been composed in the moment, serious, but for it to hint at fear in the first place betrayed how worried it really was about it, especially considering how openly it whined about everything under the sun, including the sun. (A shadow demon being sensitive to photic sneeze was cruel if not somewhat expected, and when it first occurred, Nox wasted no time in lamenting it very loudly.) 

“Well, I would hope that’s not the case. You’ve tried being a puddle?”

“Puddle…” it scoffed. “I have attempted my void form as well and there is no difference.”  

“Oof…I’m sorry, that must be…really weird.”

“Weird!! My very essence is damaged by weakness!” It hissed, tense, tail-lashing. Nox leaned in closer, and got quiet again. “I am unfamiliar with…this sort of weakness. I have been damaged in my time before, but…”

“You don’t want to feel vulnerable,” I said. “You’re not supposed to be like this, fundamentally, and you don’t like it.” Nox’s eyes glowed brighter than I’d ever seen them.

“Precisely!”

“Hmm…it’s very human of you.”

“Sneeeee…eeSCHOO!!-- sneezing incessantly is human of me..?”

“NO, you mess, feeling vulnerable! Feeling wrong, or like you’re not supposed to be a certain way. I…I get it.” In paging through my journal, I had found most entries were about general dissatisfaction but acceptance of how things were, or later, reflections on not noticing how isolated I was. How I hadn’t truly considered if Selma was a friend or just someone I drove to work with. Alone in my apartment and in general besides a melancholy demon bound to me against my will. I had been okay with it because I hadn’t noticed it and now it felt like I needed to be different somehow. Pursue more, but unsure of how to. 

It was a bit of a heavy realization to be tied to Nox complaining about sneezing a lot on the daily but hey, the basis was there and it’s not like I had anyone else to relay this revelation to. 

“Oh…yes, I especially do not like this now. My purpose, it’s to take advantage of yourfears. Anything extra is just so distraahh..ahhhHYESCHOO! Distracting. ‘Being human’ is woefully distracting.” It grabbed tissues from the side table and blew wetly, angrily. 

“You bet it is,” I said, and for some reason I felt the compulsion to stand up and hug it tightly around the shoulders. Nox didn’t move at first, still as a stone, but then relaxed and very slowly brought its arms up around my torso, face pressed into my stomach. The ribbed horns arched and gently bumped my chest a few times, which was when I noticed Nox’s muffled hitching.

“Hhhh…ahhh…HHCHHMPPSTFFF!!” With the release it pressed its face harder against me and its arms clamped around tighter, then shuddered and let go. Its face was a mess and so was my sweater which unfortunately I had just cleaned. Nox frantically grabbed more tissues and buried its face in them. I took some as well to start cleaning off the majority of the mess. 

“…I am sorry for that,” it said, muffled as the hitching had been. “I do not recall this particular item of clothing affecting me before.”

“Bless, Nox. Me neither. And it’s fine, I suppose, I’ll keep it in mind going forward that you’re allergic to wool now apparently. And you also apparently apologize now as well!” Nox flinched behind the tissues and then straightened, very determined to ignore another clearly too-human quality and get back to being a nuisance.

“As I’m seemingly trapped here forever and permanently plagued, I request that you utilize your excessive free time and dust under your bed,” said Nox matter-of-factly. “As it’s where I spend most of my time attempting to torment you and it’s really quite inconsiderate that you let it get to that state in my condition. I would like to try my void form and return to it unencumbered with dust.” I rolled my eyes and tried stifle a smile. “What’s so humorous?”

“I’m allergic to dust, too, it wouldn’t go well at all.”

“Ah. So you would let terrible situation stagnate as opposed to confronting it directly for fear of consequences.” 

 Well. It wasn’t inaccurate but it didn’t mean such an extrapolation didn’t sting, on top of my earlier reflections. Nox sniffed deeply.

“Does forcing your host to come to terms with their internal flaws count towards truly scaring them..?” I asked. Nox considered this, rubbing its nose, with the tip of its tail, draped over the chair arm, flicking gently. 

“Perhaps, if they truly did not know how understand themselves and were terrified of accepting it. It leans into the abstract too slightly though, for my purposes.” 

“Hm, drat. Guess that would be too easy, huh?”

“Extraordinarily.” 

 --

To be continued as soon as I edit the next section..

[SuperWhoWolfImmortals]

Ahhh! This is one of the best stories I’ve read in a while. I can’t wait for the next part! How did I miss this?? They’re such a wonderful duo, I love how cute and funny they are together. Well done! 😄

[raspberryfluffe]

Part 5/?

I'm really glad everyone who's commented really likes this one, kind of hard to believe these two have been kicking around in my head for over two years, haha! Please enjoy ❤️ 

--

I certainly did not want to prove Nox right in this instance. Maybe it was a specific situation but now that I was uncomfortably aware of how alone I really was, I didn’t want to have my dusty bedroom be an example of some larger character flaw. That would just be too much to be reminded of.

Unfortunately, all I had was an ancient, decrepit feather duster and clunky vacuum cleaner but it was going to have to do. The vacuum didn’t fit under my bed so sweeping and stirring it all up to get it onto the carpet was my only real option and I was not looking forward to it. 

As I swiped under the bed, the effect was almost immediate. The awful cloud of dust came out in a large puff and the tingling was instantaneous. It felt like it was at once behind my eyes and in my throat and the urge to sneeze was overpowering but I resisted. 

I held my breath as I tried to fling as much into the rest of the room as possible, disturbing a layer that had rarely, if ever been touched or breathed by humans in several months. I felt slightly bad for Nox, having spent many months moping under here tortured by its cold. 

“Hhhhahh…” I scrunched my nose up and down, trying desperately not to breathe in but was getting to be impossible. I sweeped harder and tried to very slowly inhale, nose covered by shirt. But in my frantic dusting I had pulled my shirt up too much and swept a wave directly onto my stomach and into my flaring, tingling nostrils. 

“HnnXCHt! AHChnXT!! AhhHH…” I stifled because I didn’t want to deal with the mess but breathing in only made it worse. “AhhChmmpff!! Eschoo! EehhhESCHOO!!” Liquid snot was streaming down over my lips and my eyes were watering as well. 

“Not so nice, is it?” said Nox, suddenly hovering above me and looking smug, above the low-hanging clouds of heathen dust and I looked up miserably at it. I sneezed twice more and then swished the duster at it, propelling the dust upwards and some loose feathers into its nose. 

“Ack!! Hhhh, you monster, you--Heh..hhihhh..HEEYEESCHHOOOoo!” It sneezes forcefully its hands and recoiled. I laughed and sniffled.

“Try not to mock me while I’m doing you ahhASCHOO! A favor.” Nox dissolved into the floor, caught in a terrible fit and flitted away across the walls and out of the room. 

-

“Hey, I finished,” I announced. Nox was looking frumpy on the chair and holding the blue mug. 

“Thank you for doing so despite your…weakness,” it said quietly. “I would not have been surprised if you had decided to ignore me.” 

“I feel like I. needed to address it,” I said, shrugging. “And that I need to address a lot of things in general that I’ve been ignoring. But that’s uh, not super relevant right now. Do you want to come see if it’s okay for you now?” Nox seemed touched and nodded, immediately turning to smoke and rushing up. I sighed and walked all the way back upstairs. By the time I got there, Nox had slipped out of puddle form and back into lanky pest form and was waiting. 

“It’s…it’s good, thank you.” I nodded and turned to look at the space underneath. In that moment Nox came up behind me and hugged around my shoulders, as I had done earlier. They were dark magic incarnate but still had a heavy weight to them, a strangely comforting pressure. Its face was resting on my shoulder and I could see its slender nose in my peripheral vision. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome. What is it like, being a puddle sometimes?” I asked. Nox thought for a moment before answering. 

“Being in endless darkness is at once freedom and imprisonment. I can stretch my terrible, awful power into infinity yet be contained. It’s the vast portal between human and spirit realms and it’s where I regain myself while also being stretched beyond measure.”

“Wow, that’s intense. And you’re still sneezing in all that?”

“You have no sense of how much,” it huffed. 

“Try me,” I laughed. “I think I have a sense of how much given how you’ve been carrying on here.” 

“You wish to enter my void form with me?”

I paused. I hadn’t actually been asking but my long-held curiosity of the supernatural was tempted by this.

“Uhhh, sure?? Would I be okay?”

“It’s not recommended for mortals to exist within it, though you wouldn’t be the first to. However, it will certainly deeply disturb you, truly scare you even!” Nox squeezed around me with newfound excitement. “Maybe it could break this damned bond!”

My hands had found their way to Nox’s wrists and I realized I was holding onto them. 

“Well, why didn’t you try it before??”

“Most would go certifiably insane to exist in a shadow demon’s void form so we try not to use it! But you’re an extraordinarily stubborn and intriguingly frustrating human so likely you’ll only experience mortal terror.” Nox was nearly giddy at the possibility.

“Great, sounds doable,” I said, slightly unnerved, slightly relieved. 

“Ha! Away, then,” it said, and I was enveloped in the inky smoke and descended into the floor, into nothing.

 

[starpollen]

Love this story. 🥰

[Akahana]

Wow I love this story!!  I didn’t realize you were continuing it, so glad you are ❤️

[raspberryfluffe]

Part 6/?

Back at it again with another update with these two, as always, feedback is greatly appreciated! I'm working on the next part as well so hopefully there will not be too much time in between segments... 😄

--

Fever-warm, vastly empty yet horribly stifling. Held too close, squeezed too hard, and yet so, so lonely. My face felt flushed with summer but my fingertips were chilled. Under immense pressure, yet free-floating. It was profoundly, fundamentally uncomfortable. And yet. There was still the feeling of the blanket-like weight of Nox wrapped around my shoulders, though when I reached past my neck, feeling like I was fighting to push through air made of honey, its face was no longer there.

I am here, it responded to nothing I said aloud.

Nox’s voice was smooth and rich like dark chocolate, sleepy — such contrast from before — and seemed to be reverbing around me, whispered in my ears, and humming gently in my brain like my own thoughts, all at once. Too loud, too quiet. Straining to hear but wincing from the volume. I shivered in the darkness and felt the sensation of larger hands squeezing around mine but could see nothing.

This type of darkness, it isn’t meant for you.

Maybe not, but it still feels familiar. Much worse, but not entirely new, either. That sure did scare me. Not enough to break anything, but there were still too many realizations occurring in too short a span. The inside of my mind felt like those spinning carnival rides, the ones that plaster you against the inside of a massive wheel. The weight of the world presses as you fruitlessly try to lift your arms against the force. It all felt so strange and unnatural and yet comparable to innumerable physical experiences.

I felt the sensation of knowing I was lacing my icy fingers together and somehow not feeling my own sense of touch.

“This sucks,” I said, out loud. I felt the words vibrate in my throat but didn’t hear my voice.

Are you frightened? Viciously unnerved? Terrified? The intensity of the reverb in my chest, behind my eyes and all around me grew, with a prick of excited panic in the upturn of each question. Aahhh..are youuhuh huhhhh…

I hoped that the experience of being held within Nox’s void while it sneezed wasn’t the soul-wrenching fear I needed to weather to break the bond, that would be insufferably too much.

You are insuuhuhhfff…insufferably too much..hhehheASCHOOOOO!! Nox’s invisible weight clenched around my shoulders, squeezing claws into my upper arms as the rush of the sneeze echoed out and out and out like a cry over a canyon. There was no great gust of wind or anything like that but it boomed throughout my head, throughout my body, a great and temporary loss of control. The void itself seemed to ripple and shiver, enunciating every wet syllable and minuscule sniff as Nox’s sneezing permeated it all.

Hehhh..HHHURRESCHOO! HESCHooOO!! Heschooheschoo! The fit was a riotous storm, thundering and all-encompassing. Being in the void for it, it seemed like I should have been existentially terrified. I had no idea anything could be so, so big, and so crushingly lonely, fearing that as an individual I was just so small and insignificant that nothing mattered. That no one I spoke to or interacted with mattered, what did Selma matter, or my boss, or my other coworkers I never talked with.

This was fear, but…as I had felt just moments after arriving, familiar fear. It was more but it wasn’t new. What was new was this sense of profound, immense pity for Nox. This irreverent demon sharing my small, trivial life. Even if this void wasn’t meant for me, Nox was still a fundamental part of this emptiness and I was in it. Its mind in my mind, my entire body completely enveloped by what, who it was. I felt so contained and yet separated that it took me more than a few of its sneezes to realize that my nose was tingling and flaring as well. I rubbed at it, taking a long time to slog through the not-air and somehow, relaxed. This wasn’t working.

“Nox, I’m ready to leave now.” Still no voice.

It’s an interesting feeling, having someone else’s immense disappointment wrinkle through you.

I…no, please, please…there has to be something…

I felt the fear of an abyssal ocean course through me, fear of spiders, of heights, of heights, of lizards and snakes, of tight spaces, of hospitals, of flying in airplanes. Common fears, ones I didn’t have, ones that at once overwhelmed me yet were disingenuous. I placed a hand where I could still feel the pressure of Nox’s clawed hand on my arm, shaking slightly. I couldn’t feel its hand but I could feel the grip loosen.

“Let’s stop this.”

What else can we do…?

Let’s. We. Suddenly the vast emptiness of Nox didn’t feel quite so lonely.

Hheschoo..! This was supposed to work, I, I…I am broken, somehow.

“No, no, that’s not it, Nox, it can’t be—"

It must be. Let’s go

[Plant]

This story is amaaaaazing! I love it, would love to see it continued

[funbusej]

This is seriously one of THE best stories I have read on this forum.  I wish it had continued, but even as it is, I am still totally enchanted!  And what a unique idea!!!

[ID2006]

Normally I'm not one for non human characters, but I'm really enjoying this. It's a fun story to be sucked into.