(Rose)
I'm following the large road heading south. The weather is getting cold and all the trees are losing their leaves. The dead leaves rapidly melt, in a matter of a day or so once they've hit the ground. They don't accumulate much therefore along the roads.
Blume follows the Autumn changes claiming it's getting too cold to keep flowers outside. She's getting closer to my skin, and eventually will burry herself underneath and spend winter inside the warmth of my torso, sheltered within me.
R - Come on, you're not that frail truly.
B - My flowers are. It's too cold for them outside... more comfy here...
Her voice is muffled as it comes from underneath my clothes, for now.
The sky is leaden grey. It did rain a lot recently and there might be a storm coming soon.
I'm looking for a shelter this afternoon. Along the road there isn't much, but along the paths on the smaller roads, in the distance are small buildings here and there. Houses, farms. They're old and collapsing.
I exit the road and reach a small town by the evening. Houses and buildings, deserted. I chose a commercial building and enter. I climb the stairway to the last levels. There is an odd place. There are tiles everywhere.
I find restrooms and changing rooms. Then, a pool. Beneath the sky, as the ceiling above it collapsed everywhere.
Well, it's a swamp now, but it was a pool once, on top of a building with various shops and retails below it. That's funny how everything was clustered together. Maybe there was a school and an hospital there too, on another floor.
I'm about to go one level below for the night, when I hear bubbling. Might there be something inside the pool? I take a very cautious look. There are old corpses I think. I recognise some bones, shapes, and the smell...
An old perfume of death.
B - There is something moving there, alive and probably voracious.
R - Let's not bother it then. Let's go.
We leave to spend the night far from this pool.
An abandoned shop of cookware. For once, I can recognise what it once used to sell, as most of the time I don't. I can't tell apart electrical tools and computers. Not that it matters much now, but had humanity remained, I might be just as lost in this time.
I lie down between some rates and doze off.
~
I have nightmares again. Screams. That young man who became monster, running at me in that stream bed. The way he banged my head against the rocks. The pain in my severed fingers. The flesh...
I wake up in a gasp and cold sweat. I sit in the dark, trying to catch my breath. Why now?
Some ghosts will never let me go...
Blume is a soft scarf around me, whispering me that I'll be alright. I'll be alright.
B - A bad dream?
R - Yes... I just recalled... What was his name again? Alan I think. The time when we fought to the death and I almost didn't make it... Fear made me...
B - It's alright Rose. It's long over... They're gone.
R - I need some air... Come with me please?
B - ... Sure. Of course.
I stand up, still barely lucid. Blume does too and comes with me. I dressed lightly.
I go back to the pool for some reason. I remember now why. The corpse. The skull I saw.
My memories are as fucked-up as reality itself was at the time. I just feel nauseous about that time, when I swam in an awaken nightmare.
And it was partially because of you... Blume. Though I don't feel any anger about it now.
R - Why do I spend more time reminiscing about those bad times than they actually lasted?
B - Because they were traumatic for you... They wounded you. The scars will remain itchy and sensitive for a long time... I'm sorry Rose.
I go and sit on a bench close to the pool without replying. I wonder if she could brainwash me and erase those memories? She probably could... I'm not sure this would be such a good idea though...
B - I know what you're thinking about, Rose...
R - ... I think I'll keep these mental scars for ever, so please, keep comforting me every time they hurt me again, okay?
B - I will, my dear Rose. I will, always.
She cuddles me and I relax a little.
~
We're leaving on the next morning. I relieved myself behind the building, but before we go, I want to take a last look at the pool. The pieces of corpses floating inside... I don't like them.
R - Blume, what's the living being inside this swamp?
B - Something like me, but younger. It has no definite form yet. It's swimming inside, trying to build a body and to eat what it can.
R - I see... Help me, would you? I want to pull the skeleton out. I don't want it to build a modern Prometheus...
B - I see... You'd rather not encounter humanoid monsters anymore.
R - I'd rather not see my kin turned into such things anymore. In exchange, I'm willing to give it a finger or two if it wants.
B - I don't think you need to go to such lengths. It's barely aware, we can just snatch the bones.
R - I'd feel bad if we didn't give it something else in exchange.
B - Some of your blood would be more than enough to make it happy. I can't guarantee that it wouldn't want to eat you either way.
R - That's fine. I still feel sick from my bad night so let's do this and leave.
Blume plunges her ribbons inside the sludge, grabs the human remains and pulls them away. She throws them away while igniting them. They burn aside the pool, and even the bones turn into dust.
I notice the water bubbling in anger. The living thing inside is annoyed.
I raise my arm but Blume asks for my leg rather. I raise a leg above the water. I feel my muscle obey to Blume and my flesh moving oddly.
A blood vessel pops out from my skin above my sock and blood begins beading and pearling down from it.
The pool seems to like it and gets nervous. It has something like algae gathering around where the droplets of blood are falling.
After a minute, Blume pulls the blood vessel back into my leg, and my leg back onto the ground. It was more than enough she says. I thank her and we leave it at that. I've fed something in exchange of one less chance to suffer from bad memories.
As we leave, the pool is still bubbling. It will become alive very soon, thanks to me Blume tells me.
R - It won't look like the monsters I faced at least.
B - It might be grateful for your help even... What would you like it to look like however?
R - I don't know... Something peaceful?
Blume laughs at this as we hit the road again.
B - Peaceful like a rose?
R - Oh, come on... You know what I wish to be. Someone between Licht and my mother. I just hope it turns out nett...
B - I think it will.
She repeats that I gave it a lot. An incredible gift. My living blood infused with her energy is a strong mixture of chemical, biological and... magical (?) energy.
It carries many metabolic patterns, and some tips to structure biology as well as the use of their kind of energy.
A huge amount of useful information is carried by a drop of blood, for those able to read them.
In exchange of some peace of mind for me, I helped create something I poorly understand or care about.
I just hope it will turn out right.
Meanwhile, we keep going. Once we find some nice city to settle camp in, we'll chose where to go next.
Maybe we'll just keep going south as winter approaches? We'll see.
~