Seventy two hours, thirty three minutes, and fifty five seconds had passed since The Girl had said the magic word. Since she uttered the place he thought he would end up. The halcyon. A place of utter calm, peace. She believed. So if she believed, it was a sign. She wasn't his hell. She was his heaven. With her blue-green eyes and dark hair and give no fucks attitude, she was heaven. When he came to her, he felt more human. He felt...... right. It didn't feel like he was her ghostly protector, her fallen guardian angel trying to erase his past sins, scrubbing literal blood from his palms.
But in those seventy two hours, thirty three minutes, and fifty three seconds, she hadn't mentioned him once. She had gone to classes, work, treatments, nights with friends, and she met a guy. At first, it drove him crazy, but it had to be another test, surely? The gods- god- someone was testing him to see if he had changed. So he comforted himself, did his job, telling himself that he was changed. It would be okay because it had to be. Still. He hated seeing them together. Under any other circumstances, they would be a perfectly beautiful couple. Ugh, it made him gag, even though he didn't want it to. He hated watching them cuddled up on her couch playing board games and laughing at jokes they thought only they knew. No. He knew them too, and they weren't that funny. But still he watched over her because although this guy was nice enough, he wasn't nearly enough.
This guy- this interloper- did not feel the way that they felt. He was able to see the things humans couldn't, the small details and things they often disregarded. He saw the way The Girl frowned when the guy expressed he hadn't read any of her favorite books, that he hated swimming, but the worst of all was his dislike of the cat. Which, as he took as a sign of solidarity, the cat made sure to jump on him as much as possible. One male protector in her life had to make his presence known, and it sadly couldn't be him. So his new cat ally would do.
He sat there and watched The Girl get ready for night out. She looked beautiful. Her legs brushed by him and he wanted to reach out. He didn't. He couldn't. She turned to the cat on his lap, "Don't worry. It's just some friends coming over," she smiled. He smiled back at her, though she couldn't see him. Maybe this feeling he had was right for once. He watched as she opened the door to a girl with hair that was too shiny and a dress that was too much. He had seen that friend before. The Girl had terrible taste in friends and this one was the worst.
"So darling," she cooed, "I brought the cards. We are going to find that mystery man who you say saved you a while back." She shook a shopping bag at The Girl and smiled, baring her teeth. The cards? The tarot cards? Was this bitch going to ? Oh fuck.
To be continued