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Prompt 3: In the dark of the night, evil will find you--and this is the worst kind. This is the kind you did to yourself. Before bed, between one tired, fluttering blink and the next, you see a figure in the darkest corner of your room--a ghastly silhouette hovering. You lock eyes with it--and then it hits you. A wave of regret, pulsing and unyielding. The combination of something embarrassing or horrible, or a regret nagging at you for an unfinished deed, or remembering a failure of yours--you are consumed with the thoughts of something you regret. It feels like an eternity passes as you're wracked with guilt and grief and regret; you don't remember falling asleep, but when you wake, the figure is gone. If you're lucky, the regret is too.
It had been a growing sense of danger that had drawn her attention from the sluggish, sleepy city outside the window to the corner of the room. Lilith and Raja had already passed out, and Realta had shut off the nature documentary that had been playing as they'd drifted off. Without the TV or attached computer running, it left the room in darkness. Only the lights spilling in from spots in the curtains where they didn't fully close offered any illumination. For the Mauvian, it was more than enough light. Perhaps that was why the sense of danger danger was so odd. She could see everything in the room. There wasn't anyone else there.
But that didn't keep her pulse from picking up as she began to scan the room.
The simple furniture of the bedroom was intentional to keep as much floorspace clear as possible. Most of Lilith's other things--a much larger TV (that she'd gotten mainly for others' enjoyment), surround sound system (mainly for herself), and other entertainment devices--were out in the living room area. It hadn't made any sense for her to keep anything like that in her room. The TV that was in here, was only since Realta moved in and could easily help hook up the laptop to the TV whenever they wanted to use it for nighttime ambiance. Or the random documentary for Lilith to listen to as she dozed off, and for Realta to watch.
But there wasn't stacks of clothing anywhere. No displays that could be mistaken for a creeping figure. Lilith kept her home too clean for that--she had to, for her own safety.
Which made the presence of a creeping figure in the far corner by the bedroom door all the more alarming. Realta stood up on the bed, the fur along her back bristling and tail puffing out as she yowled low at the intruder. Something was peering around the open door, hiding behind it and largely lost amongst the darkness in the corner. But she could see something with her far clearer night vision.
The Mauvian hopped down to the plush rug over the hardwood floor, still hissing and yowling low in the back of her throat. Warnings, warnings. How Lilith and Raja weren't awake already from the noise she was making, she wasn't sure. Had this thing done something?
Pale, pale eyes met pearlesque, and Realta froze on the rug. They looked... green. Pale. Cloudy. Not from blindness, but the sort of haze she'd seen on TV on a corpse.
The Mauvian sucked in a laboured breath. Her chest seized, body shaking as she felt sorrow crush her down to the ground. Her legs could no longer support her and she felt down onto the rug, tears overfilling her eyes. Guilt ate at her like acid, bile building at the back of her throat. Something possessed her to, in that moment, summon out the small keychain and flick the button. Like, perhaps, being in a human guise for the moment would help her better handle the swell of acrid emotions. The tall woman panted, a hand pressing hard to her chest as she wept. For what? She felt she'd lost someone important. A horrific sensation that she'd not done enough and their loss was her fault.
Something teased at the back of her mind. Something she'd not thought about in so, so long. But it refused to come forward. Refused to give her any peace by way of just explaining why.
So she stared at the dark figure, with its pale, dead green eyes. And she wept. Feeling for all the world that she'd made a horrible, horrible mistake, and another had paid the price for her failure.
It had been less than an hour at least, by the time the figure vanished, and Realta was able to push herself up off the floor. With shaky legs, she wobbled back the few steps to the bed, laying herself down beside Lilith who still didn't stir. She did, though, when the tall woman wrapped her arms around the smaller one, clinging to her as more tears continued to fall.
"Realta? Realta, what's going on? Why did you--what's wrong? Rail?"
The voice that went from abrupt, sleepy panic into gentle warmth and even the use of the little nickname only caused the human guised Mauvian to cry harder, holding tighter to Lilith as the other gently rubbed her back and murmured soft, soothing words for a wound she did not, could not understand. For not even Realta could comprehend why she felt so like an utterly, horrific, failure who was to blame for so, so much pain.
[WC: 824]
