Faust had finally arrived. The house he had personally built with his own hands. There was nothing left of its former state, but he had at least expected it to look better. Just because it was built in a bit of haste and speed didn't mean it was meaningless… but of course, it was.
What did it matter to him if that a wooden house he built in mere minutes had already worn down? If he wished, he could build thousands more within minutes. He simply couldn't care as always
He stood in front of the house and examined it for a moment; from the outside, it looked like a complete disappointment. Not that he was saddened by it, but… he wasn't without hope that the inside might be better. He actually came here often, but his memory was always foggy, forgetful enough to search for the glass he was holding in his hand, so no matter how frequently he came, he could never fully remember the state of the house.
He frowned as he thought to himself...
I just wish that the inside is better than... whatever this is.
He glanced around, trying to make sure no one was there. He always did this, yet there was never anyone—but it had become part of his routine. Whenever he went to visit Maria, he repeated the same useless cycle every single time.
He felt a sharp pain in his throat all of a sudden that made him cough hard.
Kh-Kh!...Kh-Kh!
"What's with the sudden coughs now ? It's been happening since the morning. Anyways..."
He stood in front of the wooden door once again.
Knock knock!...
"You in there, Maria?"
Sometimess he felt like a robot... a system, repeating a cycle every single time, knowing how it ends.
Even though I know she's always inside, I can't stop myself from asking every single time. Weird.
No answer came...of course it didn't. Faust never got an answer. Maria only spoke once he was inside. But judging people wasn't his place… at least not her.
Creeeak…
He pushed the door open gently with his right hand. It was never locked, there wasn't even any handles but there was no need to. If someone could already breach the barrier, a lock wouldn't be able to do anything.
As soon as he stepped in, Maria's voice came from the far right corner of the room.
"Ah… Faust, welcome. How are you?"
Instant response, yet her voice was flat, no life in it, calm and quiet as always yet it was somehow... soft?
Faust looked around. Surely inside wasn't bad as the outside of the house.
I'm glad. Not that I care tho...
Her eyes widened when she saw Faust coming in. Even though no one had ever came through that door other than Faust
Maria. Always calm, always quiet. Nobody's forcing her to be cheerful. She can talk or act however she wants, like most of us… even if not all. She helps me enough…
"So? Tell me, I'm curious—how are you today?"
She's like old relatives on their deathbed. She doesn't have anything to say about herself; there's only one person who cares, and she doesn't seem bothered by it. She listens to troubles. Shares them. Gives advice. Listens. Never argues. Tells me exactly what I want to hear…
Faust kept talking as he sat down on the chair right by Maria's bed.
The chair had no arms, you couldn't rest your hands on anything. Dead simple but Faust didn't care, he never did. He was just there to talk as always.
"I'm… I'm okay, I guess. It's been a weird day, but I thought your help might do me some good."
"Hmm… I'm curious what's bothering you, but how about starting with telling me about your day first?"
"Uh… I mean… why not."
"…"
He started talking about what happened yesterday...About the nightmare...About his condition...
"So last night, in the middle of the goddamn night, Klint shows up at my door. Says I've gotta go to Winter City. He woke me up just for that, and honestly, it—it....just drove me crazy I guess.
The anger must've messed with my sleep too, because… I had a bad nightmare. But I'll get to that later."
As Faust paused briefly to catch his breath mid-sentence, Maria cut him off.
"Aah? A bad nightmare, you say. I don't remember you ever being scared of nightmares before. So my guess is… it wasn't scary-bad. More like a dream you just didn't want to see I suppose?"
Faust scratched his head slightly, as if he had forgotten what they were talking about and couldn't understand it.
"Heh. Umm... Yeah, probably? But like I said, I'll come back to that. Right now I wanna talk about something else."
Since he didn't really remember too much about that nightmare of his, he couldn't really say something certain about it.
Maria continued with her calm, soft voice
"Faust~ You know I always agree with you, right? So much that you pretty much only hear what you want to hear?"
He couldn't understand where Maria was trying to go with this conversation.
He nodded while not understanding a thing happening
"Yeah…yeah. Hmhp... I mean, yeah, that's true I guess."
"So I think you need a tiny little change of perspective. Because you're here....you want to tell me something, ask something. To put it simply; Whatever you're about to say is tied to that cute little nightmare of yours. I am absolutely certain about that. So I think we both know where you should start."
The atmosphere of the room had changes as soon as Maria finishes her sentence.
Faust's heartbeat starts to race.
Dadada Dum!—Dadada Dum!—....