3:47 A.M.
Thaniel lay flat on his back, staring at the ceiling like it owed him rent.
Popcorn bumps. 1… 2… 3...
…35… 36… 37.
His mattress felt like a bag of gravel with depression issues, but he'd grown attached to its ability to make him constantly suffer in his sleep. It matched the mood.
Across the room, in the corner shrouded in gloom and old radiator hums, a pair of red eyes glowed like twin exit signs from hell.
They did not blink.
They did not sleep.
They watched.
"...You aren't asleep," his cute girlfriend said, voice a gravelled hush.
"Brilliant deduction," Thaniel muttered, continuing to count popcorn. "Ten points to... Demonclaw House."
"Humans need sleep," she continued, ignoring his comment. "Staying awake causes mental decay. Memory loss. Hormonal imbalance. Increased risk of heart disease. Delirium. Death."
Thaniel exhaled. "Thanks for the bedtime story, sweetie."
He turned on his side, eyes squeezed shut. "It's not for lack of trying. My brain's trying to kill me by overdosing on thoughts."
A cold hand touched his arm. Like a corpse apologizing for still being here. "Should I remove your brain?"
He cracked an eye open. "We'll keep that as plan C."
The mimic withdrew her hand, seemingly disappointed.
He turned to his side, forcing himself to shut his eyes, trying to think of nothing.
After a minute, he found himself slowly drifting into an ocean of darkness.
Finally… He was falling asleep…
"...Wait, I suddenly remembered something."
A voice grabbed him by the throat, pulling him out of the lake as he woke up, as he cracked an eye open towards the source of the sound.
His cute girlfriend now had four eyes open.
He groaned and buried his face in the pillow. "...What?"
Her voice came softer this time, less hollow. Curious. "What's a… 'date'?"
A key slowly turned in a lock, as the word hit him from the darkness.
Suddenly, an echo raced through his mind.
A memory raced through him. Two silhouettes walking side by side. The sun warm above a park. His hand wrapped around the shadowy outline of another, as the smell of petrichor filled the air.
He stayed silent for a second, the hum of the ceiling fan filling his mind.
"...You want to find out?"
A pause…
And then a nod. This time with less bones broken than usual.
Slowly… Thaniel let out a small smile. "Alright. It's too late right now. Let's wait until tomorrow."
He could vaguely see the outline of a frown on his girlfriend's face… But she didn't protest.
And so, he slowly closed his eyes once again, listening to the sound of the clock ticking in the distance… Before realizing.
There was something missing.
His heart ached.
"Hey."
His girlfriend tilted her head. "...Yes?"
"Want to sleep together?"
Silence.
"I can't sleep. It's not time yet." She stated, matter of factly.
He blinked. "You don't have to."
Time seemed to stretch, before his girlfriend slowly stood from the corner like something rising from beneath a lake.
Bones popped. Limbs adjusted. Her silhouette unfolded, casting long shadows as she approached the bed. Her head tilted with mild suspicion, like she expected this to be some kind of trap.
Thaniel shuffled to the edge of the mattress, patting the blanket beside him. "C'mon. I don't bite."
She blinked. All four eyes stared at him.
"Well, I don't. You do. But that's beside the point."
Another pause. Then, with the hesitation of a haunted marionette learning stage directions, she climbed onto the bed. Her weight dipped the mattress like a sinkhole forming in a graveyard. She laid beside him, stiff as a freshly laid corpse.
Thaniel felt his heart slowly warm itself the moment he felt the weight on the other side of the bed, as he gently closed his eyes.
He reached an arm towards her familiar frame…
And fell asleep instantly.
It was the first night in three years that he didn't have a nightmare.
…
Thaniel woke up in the most disorienting way possible: well-rested.
No gut-drop of dread. No cold sweat. Just the weird sensation of his spine not actively trying to escape his body.
The other side of the bed was empty.
The blanket was folded into a perfect square on the pillow. Not ruffled. Not tossed. Folded.
He groaned, rubbing his eyes, already regretting being awake.
There was a sound from the kitchen.
He poked his head out to find his cute girlfriend attempting to learn how to make breakfast.
Which mostly meant she was staring at the half-broken toaster that can only toast one slice of bread at a time with a surgical intensity that suggested she was considering dissecting it.
He yawned, brushing his hair off his face. "Morning."
His girlfriend didn't respond.
He waited a few seconds, before patting her on the shoulder. "Morning."
"Shhh. I'm about to figure out how this appliance works."
He stared at her blankly for a second, glancing at the half-broken toaster… Before slowly walking off to let her continue the lethally intense staring contest with the contraption.
He sneezed, opening the living room closet to reveal a single brown jacket that he hasn't washed since yesterday at exactly 4:03 pm. He put it on. There wasn't much of a choice.
After buttoning it up, he saw his cute girlfriend slowly shuffling towards him, defeated by the horrors of the budget toaster.
He couldn't help but feel the corners of a smile forming. "Well, are you ready for the date?"
Hearing the word 'date', her eyes immediately brightened, as she disappeared…
Before returning the next second, fully dressed, scarf wrapped and shades ready. "...Mhm. Let's go."
He nodded, before reluctantly grabbing half of his savings, and heading out, patting his pockets to make sure he brought the ID cards.
His cute girlfriend followed close, her eyes focused on the stairs. She already tripped and fell once, which is why there was a girlfriend-sized dent in the wall at the bottom.
After successfully managing to maneuver herself down the stairs, they walked off into the freshly repainted streets of Halgrave.
Thaniel sniffed the air… Sterile. Government cleaning supplies. Even though it made his soul rot, he was glad the rotting corpses were off the streets. It was awkward having to avoid splashes of blood as cars drove over them on their way to work. Not to mention the smell.
But based on how the stores were closed, there's a high chance of another rebellion happening soon.
She made a clicking sound from beneath the scarf, her voice muffled. "...Where are we going for this… 'Date'?"
Thaniel's memory cut to a falling leaf, and sighed. "...To the park."
The gates of Halgrave Park Conservatory loomed like a rusting jawline, half-swallowed by scaffolding and electronic warnings that buzzed overhead like a sermon.
A peeling banner fluttered weakly above the entrance:
"EXPERIENCE THE LAST GREEN HAVENS OF EARTH!"
Which was really optimistic, considering the "green haven" inside looked like it was held together by duct tape and the will of capitalism.
Thaniel stepped forward and slid his ID into the scanner, as well as the rest of the money in his pocket, watching sadly as the machine devoured his hard earned cash.
It beeped twice, then coughed out a paper stub that smelled vaguely of printer ink and regret. His cute girlfriend mimicked his movements almost perfectly—except she tried to eat the stub immediately after receiving it.
"...No," Thaniel said, tugging it away from her mouth. "That's not food."
"It feels edible."
"So does Styrofoam. I'm not letting you test that either."
They passed through the turnstile, which squealed like it was in pain, and into the dome.
Inside, it was…
Well, it was trying.
Patches of real grass stretched between dying artificial turf. Trees loomed, genetically resuscitated and twitchy with hidden monitoring devices. A pond bubbled quietly in the center, watched over by a statue of a child holding a butterfly—probably installed back when people still thought statues could be uplifting instead of deeply cursed.
But the sunlight filtering through the dome's cracked panels was real. And for a moment, just a flicker, it actually felt like the world wasn't a chemical afterthought.
Thaniel breathed in. Then coughed, because the air still tasted like recycled rainwater and filtered moss.
It felt like a memory dying. His mind flashed as he looked around. Green trees, blue sky, and even wildlife.
Now it was just the color grey manifested into an echo of nature.
"This is… peaceful," his girlfriend said. Slowly. Like trying out the word for the first time.
"Yeah. It's almost like nothing horrible ever happened here."
"Did something horrible happen here?"
"Statistically? Yes. Not that I witnessed it for myself."
They walked.
At first, she darted from side to side, sniffing strange flowers, touching trees like she expected them to whisper back. She crouched beside a patch of dirt and poked it with both hands.
"This is where the ground lives," she said reverently.
Thaniel blinked. "That's… technically true."
She turned. Grinned. "I'm learning."
"You're horrifyingly good at it."
They wandered past a group of schoolchildren being led by a disinterested drone. A teacher droned on about biodiversity collapse while the kids threw biodegradable snack wrappers into the bio-stream.
But suddenly, a child ran around, chasing a fly, running towards them…
And before Thaniel could open his mouth…
Time slowed.
Her head snapped to the child. All four eyes dilated. Claws twitched.
Bam.
The kid bumped into Thaniel's girlfriend. Hard.
The child fell, looking up at the uniquely dressed lady.
Thaniel's brain slumped, as he looked at his girlfriend, about to stop her from eating the kid alive…
But to his shock, there was no hostility. Only a slight acknowledgement.
"I'm sorry," she said. "I wasn't looking."
Thaniel's eyes widened, as the kid scanned her outfit… Before deciding it wasn't worth arguing with a crazy lady, as he walked around her. "...Yeah. Okay."
There was a pause as Thaniel looked at her as if she fell from Mars.
"...You didn't growl this time."
His cute girlfriend flashed him a smile that he couldn't see. "I told you. I'm learning."
A second passed… Before Thaniel slowly smiled, and patted her on the head. "Good job. That's progress."
It almost looked as if she was turning into a weird shade of red, as Thaniel wondered if creatures like her could change the color of their skin freely. "...Thank you."
They walked silently through the paths once again, this time, his girlfriend was inching closer.
They reached the pond. A bench overlooked the murky water. Ducks paddled across its surface with the determination of tired mall cops. Thaniel sat on the bench with white paint peeling off. It ground under his weight. She stood beside him for a long time, then sat too. Stiffly. Like she expected it to explode.
They watched the pond in silence.
And then, without thinking—without deciding—Thaniel reached out.
His hand slid into hers.
She didn't flinch. Didn't recoil. Just slowly turned her head, watching their fingers interlace like it was some ancient rite.
Something about this seemed awfully familiar to Thaniel.
The same trees… The same lake, and the bench… Holding hands with a fuzzy memory…
And that's when it happened.
The lock clicked, as the key turned, bringing Thaniel into the abyss once again.
The memory. Kagami's laughter. Her hand in his. That dumb scarf she used to wear, the one she claimed smelled like sunshine. The way she always squeezed his hand twice when she was happy. Her smile that had always warmed his heart as they watched the lake.
The grief hit… and then faded, as he glanced at the person by his side.
Because beside him-
His mimic girlfriend was smiling.
And it had the exact same smile.
Thaniel smiled back, quietly, painfully, like someone rediscovering a word they'd forgotten they loved, as he sighed. "...I'm sorry. The park changed way more than I thought it would. It was probably really depressing."
His cute girlfriend blinked, before letting out a smile as warm as his heart when she grasped his hand. "It's fine. It was nice… Because I was with you."
Thaniel's heart raced. For the first time, it wasn't out of anger, from another worker falling down from the 4th floor and splattering into the spot he just cleaned. It wasn't stress, for when his rent was due in a day.
It was out of love.
A feeling that he had forgotten three years ago, where it was buried along with Kagami.
But now… It seemed to have dug itself out of the grave.
Both metaphorically and literally.