Coye Vol 3 Ch 1 (Patreon)

Coye walked alone in a haze-filled street of darkness. He had no aim, no guide, no direction. Nostalgia seeped out from the buildings clustering against him on every side of the cobblestone road, familiarity persisting in the back of his mind.

It was as if he knew this place down to its most intimate details, yet he was somehow treading through it for the first time. Every step he made was taken with an uncertain feeling of dread.

No matter where Coye looked, nothing stirred under his scrutiny, but he couldn't escape the feeling that he was anything other than alone. Rather, he was confident that whoever dwelled in this strange place watched his every move with intense dedication and care.

Not long after he began wandering, Coye heard his partner's voice. Far from the comfort it usually gave, what she had to say only filled Coye's already clouded mind with further anxiety.

'I'll use my magic to rip your clothes off right here in front of the whole town,' Shayla proclaimed, her voice echoing this way and that, just out of his reach.

These words brought with them memories. They churned inside him, and Coye remembered he'd heard them before- or at the very least something markedly similar. Soon, his heartbeat was louder than the deafening sound of his own footsteps.

Whispers crept from out of the numerous and unceasing shadows, muttering, mumbling, and repeating words Coye never wished to hear.

'Rip your clothes off.'

'The whole town.'

'Don't be such a baby.'

'Are you scared?'

'Let's prove it once and for all.'

They spoke. Still, Coye pushed on, even as it got worse the further he traversed. More words trickled out of the alleyways and behind closed doors until absolutely nowhere was safe from their creeping clutches.

'You are a boy, aren't you?'

'Maybe if we cut that hair of yours-'

'Put on the dress, or else.'

'If your dad is really so tough-'

'I bet your mom left because-'

Coye sank to his knees and cupped his hands around his ears. The voices didn't stop, and he shut his eyes in vain. When he reopened them, the world had changed.

The buildings all around him grew taller, and the road beneath his feet widened. Everything was now looming and menacing before him. Confused, Coye looked around until a thought came to him. He put his hands in front of his face, then understood everything.

His hands were those of a child's.

Coye stood up in a panic, and as he did, he felt another difference straight away. Behind him, long and flowing blond hair ran all the way down to his lower back and then some. He gasped and grabbed at his soft, silken locks to confirm it, even though he could already feel the truth for himself.

His hair hadn't been this long in over ten years, and for a good reason.

Coye's fearful mind cooked up explanations for what was happening to him, and although, at first, he assumed this situation to be a magical prank from Shayla, he knew she would never be so cruel to him. He hadn't even told her he used to have long hair, either.

Since that was out of the running, he continued thinking about what could possibly be behind all of this. Try as he might, terror prevented Coye from reaching the obvious conclusion.

Just as his mind started working overtime in the search for answers, the clanging sound of a window being opened rang out from over his shoulder. Coye looked back and saw only darkness behind the aperture. Darkness and an intense sensation that made him feel as if a pair of eyes were staring from within the black.

He was certain that there were.

There was nothing he could do about this, so Coye chose to ignore their hidden gaze and resumed treading down the path. His attempt at putting distance between his watcher failed. More and more windows began opening, followed by door after door.

Behind each were the same invisible eyes- staring, judging, condemning.

Coye started running to flee but found it was a struggle to get by. Returning to his weak body from before it was tempered through many years of training wasn't easy. His legs throbbed with searing pain, and his breathing grew ragged. It hurt to move. His chest burned.

What else was there to do but run, though?

Coye suddenly realized why this place was so familiar as he pushed himself forward. He ran straight past his dad's favorite flower shop, where Coye once dropped a glass vase and was so sorry about it that he cried for nearly an hour. Over there was the general store where they always picked up odds and ends. Coye always liked the old lady who ran the place, and he remembered crying nonstop after she passed on.

Just about every building in the surrounding area carried with it a memory. Many were embarrassing or somehow associated with the act of crying- so much crying.

These memories, compounded with the smell of fish and lake water wafting through the air, proved to Coye that he was back in the body of his youth and in his hometown of Roselake. This changed things. The invisible eyes that stared at him were no longer mysterious- they were people he knew- people he grew up with.

That made it worse to an unfathomable degree.

Coye began to tremble, not only from fear but from a fit of mild anger. It shouldn't be like this- he wasn't a child anymore- he was so much stronger now. A real man. In the years since his departure, Coye had become an adventurer who killed evil monsters for a living like it was no big deal. He even lost his virginity and started having sex recently, too, and with beautiful women, at that.

So why was he here, as weak and helpless as he'd ever been?

It was like nothing had changed. Like all of Coye's hard work had eroded like a castle made of sand facing down a tidal wave of futility. His only hope for safety now was to run to his dad's side, just like he used to do when he was young.

Running harder and pushing through the pain, he navigated the hostile streets of Roselake but at every turn was met with dead-ends he'd never encountered before. Coye knew this city and its shortcuts and hiding spots like the back of his hand, yet somehow, they were all lost to him.

Nothing was as it was supposed to be.

Roselake itself was turning against him, although Coye felt the city was always like that from the start.

He needed to hurry. His dad would be taking care of his prized garden this time of day, indeed, or maybe he was looking after the animals. It didn't matter. Once he was there, Coye would be safe from the revenants encroaching on him from behind.

That was the plan, at least. It turned out his escape strategy wasn't working.

Every turn he made took him in unexpected directions, and after what felt like an hour of nonstop running, Coye was no closer to his home than he was beforehand.

Thick sweat covered his reddened, exhausted face. Coye turned out of an alleyway, only to trip and scream as he scraped his delicate knee against the rough stone. It bled, tainting the perfect beauty of his flawless Half-Elven skin.

He had to get up, had to keep running. They were getting closer by the second. He could feel them.

Coye tried to stand, but his knee gave out on him, and he fell onto the road flat on his face. He was on the verge of tears.

"Daddy..." he whimpered and regressed, "Daddy, where are you...? Please...! Help me!"

The wrong person heard Coye's plea, drawn to it like a sailor to a lighthouse during a storm.

"Coye?" A young girl's voice shot through the confusion of this unfair world and echoed throughout his being. It brought along with it a malevolent series of giggles as it said, "There you are, you little twink."

No.

No, no, no.

Coye's heart sank as he recognized the voice. He hadn't heard in eight long, long years, and it was one he never wanted to hear again. He stood straight up despite the overwhelming pain in his leg, and he ran like hell into the distance. As long as he could help it, he had no intention of seeing the owner of that voice ever again.

Her laughter spread throughout the city upon his feeble attempt to outrun her. "You can't escape me," she stated plainly, like pointing out the sky was blue. "You never could- not even when I wore heels!"

Coye heard the telltale sound of her shoes clicking against the cobblestone as she gave chase. She was always much too young for shoes like those, but she never let it stop her. From the windows and the doors that he ran straight past, dark and shadowy hands extended outwards, flying toward him and trying to catch hold of him.

No matter where he went, everything was a terror. Not even the Gnarled Woods was filled with as much horror as this phantom shadow of Roselake. This couldn't be real- it didn't make sense.

Coye stopped running. That's right, it didn't make sense...

The hands continued to reach for him and attempted to grab hold, but none of them went made it close enough. Coye didn't want them to, so they didn't.

That settled that.

"This... this is a dream," Coye spoke, his younger voice confident yet still somewhat fearful even in spite of his realization. "You're not real!"

"I'm real enough," she said, causing him to shriek from her steamy breath that exhaled straight onto his sensitive ear. His pursuer's voice was close enough now that they were almost neck and neck. "Besides, just look at you! Even if I am a dream, you're still too much of a coward to look me in the eyes! Hah! Talk about a complete and utter pussy."

Coye felt the sting of these words and recoiled. He gritted his teeth as the specter of his past continued breathing down his neck. She had a point. He wasn't a child anymore, and it had been eight years. That was more than enough time for him to grow a pair, and he was ready to prove that he had.

With a muddled mind consisting of equal parts conviction and lingering anxiety, Coye turned around.

"I-I'm not afraid of you anymore! I haven't been for a long time!" Coye insisted, fully intending to look his tormenter straight on only to find that there was no one standing behind him.

For a moment, there was silence, but as much as he wished it would, the silence was not to last.

"Really, now? Huh. Well, if that was the case... why'd you leave Roselake the second you finished your training and got your adventurer's license, hm? Funny, that. It almost makes it look like you were too scared to stand up to me once and for all before fucking off forever." The voice called out to him as Coye felt a sharp fingernail scratching across his cheek from behind him.

He didn't turn around this time, and he held his tongue back from the accusation. It wasn't like Coye could tell her she was right.

No matter what he said in defiance, he remained afraid.

"A real man wouldn't have just up and left like that. You didn't have the balls, did you? No? Yeah, that's what I thought."

Coye closed his eyes and clenched his fists, nails digging into his flesh. This isn't real, he reminded himself. This isn't real, this isn't real, this isn't real...!

"Y'know, I think it's hilarious how you found a whole new group of bullies to harass you, even after you ran away from me. Just goes to show you, doesn't it? You'll always be like this- a whiny little crybaby bitch- and no one will ever take you seriously."

His tormentor's words brought to mind brief visions of the girls in question- Britni, Tiphanie, Coco, and Marlie. It was true that the four of them did give Coye quite a lot of trouble, but even so, nothing they did held a candle to the kind of things he went through during his childhood.

The Baddest Bitches were a nuisance- something he could live with, even if he didn't necessarily like them.

She was traumatic- her influence on Coye's life was profound, and she made his early days a living hell.

The very thought of comparing the two was laughable.

"You don't know what the hell you're even talking about," Coye spat, finding the courage to talk back loudly in defiance. "They're... they're nowhere near as bad as you! Britni and the others just tease me really hard! You? You ruined my life!"

Coye's voice hurt from raising it. Even in a dream, he still couldn't escape the drawbacks of being meek.

An unnerving silence took hold of the world as his anger lingered in the air. Coye's tormentor hadn't expected such sass from him and was taken aback.

"Where was this courage when you left Roselake?" She mocked, playing it off to the best of her ability. "I'll give you some credit... but... we both know if I was actually there, then there's no way you'd be able to stand up to me."

Coye almost shrank back as he considered the thought, but he maintained his position. He wasn't going to let her get in his head, even though, strictly speaking, she already was by nature of the encounter being a dream.

"I don't care," he said, ignoring the taunt for what it was.

"You will," was all she said, laughing again and again.

Darkness fell upon the Roselake of Coye's dreamscape, and the cobblestone road started to rumble, shake, and morph. Brick by brick, a platform was erected beneath his feet. Coye rose up into the air as it did, and the area around him widened until it seemed like the entire town could look up and see him in all his shame.

The precarious view made him think of a man gazing down from the gallows.

Hundreds of shadowy figures stepped out from their houses and stores, marching and congregating in front of Coye's platform. Their piercing eyes trained on him, studying him head to toe.

"I think you need to be reminded of just how bad I can be," his tormentor proclaimed, hissing once again into his ear.

"W-Wait, don't you dare!" Coye fought back but found that his body rebelled against his every action. It wasn't listening, and it wouldn't move no matter how much he struggled. This couldn't be happening.

Not like this- not again.

A set of pink-skinned hands even smaller than his own with beautiful black nails wrapped around Coye's tiny waist, seeking out and clasping around his belt buckle.

"Don't," he begged, helpless and locked in place. "Don't, please, please not again...!"

"Why shouldn't I? After all, this is just a dream... unless, of course, you really are still afraid of me? Even though I'm not real?"

"Stop!!" Coye tried to escape, but it would happen again, and there was nothing he could do to stop it. As she fiddled with his belt, his hopes sunk to an all-time low.

In his despair, Coye deigned to think that maybe- just maybe- she was right.

Maybe he couldn't change.

Maybe no matter how many monsters he killed and how many girls he slept with, he would always be a sad little excuse for a boy who one would ever see as a man.

In front of the whole town.

Click.

Coye gasped.

He startled awake, staring into the darkness of the night as his hand grasped at his forehead only to discover a nasty surprise, finding it covered in a grimy layer of sweat. Behind him, his pillow was drenched, too- utterly ruined. As if the night couldn't possibly get any worse.

Letting out a sigh, Coye reached over to his nightstand and lifted up his hat in the hopes of finding some love and comfort to offset the pain ravaging his heart and mind.

Instead of what he sought, Coye found nobody sleeping underneath it.

Coye's heart sank, and he assumed the worst in his heightened state of emotions. Maybe she was a dream, too. Perhaps he didn't actually get lucky, and Shayla was a figment of his imagination brought about by his desire to change himself.

This additional dread didn't last long, as he soon found where his partner had relocated.

Coye experienced a monumental relief once he noticed an excess bit of weight and warmness hanging from the pocket on his left breast. He rushed to undo the clasp, and when he did, he saw his precious Pixie curled up in a ball, sleeping against him.

Shayla must have wiggled her way in there sometime during the night. That made him happy. It wasn't enough to make everything all better, but it helped a whole hell of a lot.

Shayla stirred, awakened by his sudden movement. She yawned, rubbed her eyes, and stretched out inside his pocket before asking him, "Nh... hey, what's the matter, baby? Need to go to the bathroom? If that's the case, you can leave me here for a minute. I'll wait."

Coye took a moment to respond, weary and panicked as he was. "N-No, it's not that..."

Odd, Coye sounded very worried. Now that Shayla was becoming slightly more awake, her sensors lit up like a fire, and she sensed the emotional turmoil coursing through him.

"Woah. Are you doing okay there, big guy?" Shayla asked.

He shook his head and then saved her the effort of asking the obvious follow-up question. "Bad dream..."

"Yeesh. Musta been a real bad one, huh...?"

Coye nodded.

"Poor baby..." Shayla wiggled out of his pocket and saw him in full- afraid, nearly trembling, and sweaty. Coye had never had a bad dream since they met, so this was new territory for her. It was a new opportunity to take care of this cute boy of hers, and Shayla wouldn't pass that chance up for the world.

"One sec," she flew away from the bed, fetching a handkerchief from his chest. Shayla handed it off to him upon her return, and then she flipped over his pillow with her magic. Luckily Coye hadn't sweated through his blanket or shirt, so nothing else needed to be changed. "Clean yourself up and lay back down, okay? It's gonna be alright."

"Do you promise?" Coye asked, feeling more vulnerable than he had in a long time. That was okay. He was with Shayla right now, and he didn't mind showing off this side of himself to her.

"Of course I do," she scoffed. "You think I'm gonna let anything bad happen to my partner? Hell no. Not even in your dreams, baby." Shayla put her hands on her hips and made her position known, bringing a slight smile of reassurance to Coye's face.

"Thank you, Shayla..." he said, wiping his brow clean and tossing the handkerchief away before laying back down. While he didn't magically feel better, not entirely, Coye now felt calm enough to give sleep another go.

"There you go," Shayla nodded approvingly as he reclined onto the fresh pillow, sinking back into his mattress. "Is there anything else I can do to help you out?" She asked, hovering in front of his face.

Coye gave it some thought and reached down to open up the flap of his pocket. "Could you come back to where you were sleeping? It, um... having you so close to me feels really nice..."

Shayla momentarily froze out of pure happiness, her cheeks turning bright red. It was dark, and Coye was sleepy, so she saw no need to take measures to hide her embarrassment and thus smiled ear to ear.

"I mean, yeah, I guess I could do that for you..." she said half-heartedly.

"Thank you," Coye smiled profoundly and shut his eyes as soon as Shayla dove straight back into his pocket where she belonged.

"Don't mention it, baby. Get some rest. You got a hot date tomorrow!" She reminded him and locked up her unconventional sleeping bag.

"Uh-huh," he nodded absentmindedly. Coye didn't even remember what she was talking about in this state but figured whatever it was, Shayla would help him through it.

Although Coye remained afraid of what might be waiting for him once he drifted off, his growing sense of sleepiness won out before too long.

All it took to ease his nerves was to focus on the feeling of Shayla on his chest. She nuzzled her head against him and yawned sweetly, and even though they stopped talking as their drowsiness increased, he knew she was there for him. That she would always be there for him. With this comforting thought in mind, Coye returned to the embrace of dreamless sleep.