Hazel - One Bed (Patreon)

The roar shredded from beneath the floor, ripping up through the ground and tearing into the dark. The shadows were torn apart, screaming into the abyss as one by one they were attacked by the unseen. A glowing sickly green brightened the room, magic cracking like a whip and splitting the air.  Hazel floated several feet off the ground, her arms outstretched as poison dripped from her fingers.

I rolled out of the way as another creature came lunging towards me. It was made of faint outlines and forgotten moments.  Barely able to solidify until the final second when the creature pounced upon me, snarling into my skin.  It slammed onto the ground with a hard shake, roaring in an anger that rivaled the Guards own.  But Hazel’s words persisted, spewing across the room until they gathered like smoke on the ground.  She couldn’t hear me. I didn’t think she could even see me. But she was protecting me.  Somehow, in ways I didn’t understand, she was making sure that I lived to see another moment. Another day.  I was terrified it meant that she would not.

A loud bang shot off like a pulse, the rocky surroundings crumbling in a slide of debris and foul smelling rot.  The creatures that prowled were veering back, looking up towards the darkened ceiling with newly discovered fear. And then there was nothing. Just the soft cavern we had entered. The one that was nothing more than a garden to someone's home.

When the wind died down, Hazel dropped. I yelled, scrambling towards her to break her fall. I caught her in my arms, feeling how limp she was in my embrace. Her head was tilted back, hair stuck to her forehead, lips bloodless.

“Hazel,” I whispered. “Hazel.” The shadows were flat. The world quiet. And Hazel was barely breathing.

On unsteady feet, I lifted her, bringing her with me as I stumbled through the dark. There was a small cabin nearby. We were supposed to be making a delivery here but when we arrived, the door opened and the world had exploded around us. I didn’t think I could take her all the way back. The journey itself was six hours. Seven if you counted the amount of times we took a wrong turn. I didn’t trust myself in taking the two of us home.

The cabin door was still splintered open when I reached it.  It was no more than a small room with a makeshift kitchenette and a small bed shoved in the corner.  I laid her down on it, brushing her hair from her face. She looked at peace. Which was more than I could say when she was floating mid air with holes for eyes, magic bursting from her skin in a crackling heat that made my thoughts boil in confusion.

As she slept, I did what I could to make a new front door. I didn’t know if there were still creatures out there. They had unraveled with her last burst of power. But I didn’t want to take any sort of chance.  When I was done with that, I went to look for extra blankets, piling them on the bed.  Whoever had lived here, I think had burst from the doors. I didn’t know if this had been a setup, or if something terrible had happened.  Milo normally made this trip for Hazel. He had just not been around this last month.

A moan came from the bed over an hour later.  I rushed to Hazel’s side, just as her eyes fluttered open. They were that soft green brown once more. The exact color of moss edged deep beneath a log.

“Hey,” I whispered to her. “Try not to move too much. You fell pretty far.”

She shifted, the blankets rustling beneath her. “You caught me,” she said softly.

“I’ll always catch you.”

When she looked around the room, a dawning realization crossed her face. “We were too late,” she said sadly.

“What do you mean?”

With effort, she sat up in bed, leaning back against the headboard. “The tonics we were delivering. They were supposed to keep the monsters at bay.  The client was infected with a parasite. What we were giving him was keeping the parasite asleep.”

The cabin was ravaged but I could see how at some point, it had been lived in. There had been love her. A home. Whatever had burst from the man had taken his life along with it.

“How were we late?” I asked. “The books were pretty clear. They should have still had another week's worth of their dose.”

Hazel shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe they had to double up one night. Maybe something happened.” I could see the weight of this action settling on her shoulder. Her eyes traveled around, trying to find an answer.

Crawling into bed next to her, I wrapped my arms around her. “It’s not your fault.”

“It feels like it.”

“But it’s not.”  How could she have even known? The man had been a client of hers for years.  She had never missed a delivery before.  She had braved the market herself to get the tonics here on time because Milo could not.  “Bad things sometimes happen,” I told her sadly.

She leaned her head on my shoulder. “I hate that.”

I let her sit in silence for a long moment, letting her come to terms with what had happened. She scooted closer to me, urging me to pull the blankets up and over the two of us.

“We’re going to have to stay here tonight,” I told her. “You need to rest a little.”

She tensed. “Oh. Are you alright? Seeing all that… was it too much?”

“It was a little different,” I told her. I knew Hazel had power, but I didn’t often get faced with it.  “You saved us, though.” I wouldn’t have even been able to fight those creatures on my own.

I shifted, moving over slightly to allow her more room. She wrapped herself fully around me, however, practically scooting onto my lap. I looked down at her, my hand splayed across her lower back.

“Don’t go,” she said. “I know we haven’t really shared a bed too much but I would like for you to stay here. Keep me warm.” She was clinging to me. Not wanting me to move even an inch.

“Are you sure?”

She nodded against my chest. “Taking it slow is important,” she said. “But, getting to cling to you completely and make sure that we become one is equally as important to me.”

I laughed a little. Because that was Hazel. Zero to a thousand with a snap of a finger.

“That’s not scaring you, is it?” She bent her head to look upwards a bit more. Her eyes were soft and round and all her own again. I knew what she was really asking me though. Does she herself scare me?

“You could never scare me,” I said. I scooted down, bringing her with me until we were both bundled beneath the blankets. Her thigh cinched between my own, half of her laying across my chest.

“I scare me,” she confessed.

I held her tighter, trying my best to mold her to my body. “I think you’re beautiful,” I whispered, placing a kiss on the crown of her head. I could feel her blush as her cheeks warmed against me.

“Thank you,” she whispered, burying her face into the crook of my neck.

I laughed a little, feeling myself grow drowsy now that the danger had passed. It had been a long day.

“Get some sleep,” Hazel whispered to me, her own voice sounding riddled with exhaustion. I pulled the blankets up higher on us. “Just stay with me,” she murmured.

“Forever.”