i’m gonna eat the couch pt2

"He's honestly cocky as hell. He really thinks highly of himself. He's also really jealous."

I complained, "Do you know he broke Javier's nose just before coming here? Over touching me."

Sera's mouth was dropped wide.

"But he's also really kind to me, he takes care of me and doesn't push boundaries. And oh my gods, Sera, his muscles. His body is beautiful. And he kisses better than any of these little palace boys here."

"Really? Javier? Rion… I expected better from you." Sera teased me.

"Listen, sometimes I make questionable decisions, it happens. But is that all you comment on with everything I just said?"

"How big's his dick?" Sera asked flat out.

"Oh my gods Sera! You can't just ask things like that!" I laughed shocked by her bluntness.

"What? It's a valid question." Sera was very serious.

"Big enough."

Dinner was nice. Normal all things considered. After finishing dinner Sera hugs me and says, "I have classes all day tomorrow, the season of the hunt begins soon, and unlike you I haven't been marked," she continued "so with you gone, that leaves me a lot more prospects and how does my mother put it? Oh 'an educated lady lives a fulling life' or something like that" Sera mocking her mother using a proper accent. "Goodnight darling" she says keeping up the accent. We

kiss cheek to cheek and then she departs.

I get up to leave the table when Theo approaches me "I still have some things to talk about with my companions." Kissing me on my forehead "goodnight little bunny"

"I'll walk you to your room" my mother says as she wraps her arm in mine and leads me out of the dining hall and up the stairs to my room.

Stopping at my door she says "My darling baby, the last two days have been very rough and you've experienced many changes and faced many firsts." She paused brushing my hair from my face. "Your hair has always been a mess, just like you, can't be tamed" I see moisture in her eyes, she tries to smile, "we have much to discuss come tomorrow, so get some rest tonight. I love you my dearest"

embracing me and kissing my forehead she leaves me at my door.

I go inside my room and change into a long comfy baggy white night gown and crawl into bed. I closed my eyes and in seconds sleep found me.

***

The trench stalkers where staring me in the face charging me and Theo, I had to do something, I needed shadows a lot of them. Closing my eyes I focus. Summon the shadows, you can do this. I they came when I called, I send them on the beast closing in on me and watch my shadows drag the beast into oblivion. I notice Theo is under attack and he's running out or arrows. But I exhausted all of my mana. I don't think I can hold out much longer. But. I have to protect him. I need him! I split my shadows and then darkness.

I'm surrounded by nothingness. Everything quiet and still. Emptiness. I felt like I was falling through blackness. And then I was here. Where is here? It had felt familiar but there was something terrifying about it; it had a foreboding beauty. The colors made of different shades and tints, Violent purples, the darkest of blacks and fiery red. The sky if there was one, was cast in a perpetual twilight. The trees had no leaves. Glowing purple bioluminescent streams of energy flowered through the landscape. Jagged obsidian mountains. Crystal formations jetting from the ground, casting its own inner glow. Magical mist and fog made the air thick and heavy. Bridges and rocks suspended in mid air. The stark scenic view had an enchanting and horrifying beauty.

How did I get here?

How do I get back?

Wandering for what feels like hours. I'm completely lost. Where is the exit sign?

And then I see it, a monster crawl up from behind a rock formation. It's got a million arms and a mouth with, like, 10,000 teeth! What the fuck is that?? I run back in the direction I came. And then it notices me. And it launches full speed.

Shit I don't know where to go.

Running. Running. Running. I just kept running until I ran almost off a cliff. Cornered the beast catches up to me, it goes to stand.

Fuck where are my weapons? I don't have any. Panic filling my whole body. I start vibrating the energy in the air around me begins to crackle and in my hands appears a bolt of glowing purple, feeling like static in between my fingers, something tells me to throw it. So, I do I chuck the bolt like I would a normal dagger. Hitting it. The beast screams and shakes its head. Now it's clearly pissed off. Charging me, I go to take a step back forgetting I was standing on the edge of the cliff and there I go, right over the edge. Landing hard on the ground I look up and the beast looks over the edge and then looks out to the horizon and turns away.

Thank the gods.

But why isn't it coming after me? I'm ripe for the picking now.

I just wanted to go home…

What if I never find my way home.

THEO!

He's still at the lake, oh gods.

I start freaking out and pacing he's got to be okay, I feel like if he wasn't okay I would feel it, I would know.

Pacing for I don't know how long, but I hear an echo of a scream, I can't even begin to describe because I've never heard anything like it. It was almost like silence that pierced into your ears. Disorienting me, distorting my hearing and vision. Covering them didn't help, it was painful. After several minutes of the scream it stops. The scream was painful and heartbreaking.

Is that why that beast left? I can't imagine what could scare something like that off.

Theo please find me. Bring me home.

I'm scared. I'm cold. And utterly alone.

"Orion"

Was that my name?

"Come back" where is that coming from.

"Little bunny come back"

And I'm yanked out of the netherworld and into total darkness.

***

I open my eyes.

Theo

He's here.

"Orion, hey Orion wake up"

I blink my eyes and reach up and touch his face.

"You found me" I say with a smile.

"I'll always find you little bunny". He whispered

"Can you stay with me tonight?" I ask quietly

"I can stay with you forever" Theo said smiling sweetly.

I scoot over and let him in under the covers with me. I fold into his body like I was meant to be here like he was made to incase himself around me. We just fit. Our hearts were beating in sync. I've never felt more at home than in this moment.

He kisses my forehead, "you are nothing like I expected."

"I aim to exceed expectations" I smiled at him.

"Sleep little bunny, there's plenty of time to talk more in the morning"

I quickly drifted off to sleep.