Merie Had Been Told To Come By Her Parents House Earlier In The Afternoon, And Despite The Fact That

Merie had been told to come by her parents house earlier in the afternoon, and despite the fact that she wanted to do anything but that, she knew she had to come. So, she could labor a few more hours at work to avoid the inevitable.

And so she did, working for as long as she could and ignoring any breaks to avoid even seeing her phone. This doubled to void her mind of Sumi, but it only worked so much as even the slightest thing would remind her of him.

Eventually though, she had to leave and once closing time came around, she got her things and began to walk to the bus stop. There she went to check her phone and saw several texts from her mother, all asking when she was going to be home.

She had to respond now, a general one, but one nonetheless. Right as she was going to send it, another message came in and she saw that it was Sumi texting her. Her eyes widened and her energy return with the simple message. Without a second thought, she scrapped the message for her mother and went to check Sumi’s.

He had asked if she were free to talk and of course she responded with a resounding yes!

And he called her.

“Hey, did you get home alright?” His voice seemed strained. His tone was much lower than she was used to and there wasn’t much life in his voice what-so-ever.

“No, I’m still out right now.” She responded, pulling at the strap of her bag.

“Oh, well hurry home, I don’t want you out for too long.”

She giggled. “Thanks for worrying about me.” She then let out a sigh.

“What’s wrong?”

“What… oh, it’s nothing really.” She stood at the bus stop alone for a long while before her thoughts flashed again to the idea that she and Sumi would be separated for their spring break.

She felt a throb in her head and now she was speaking without thinking. “I’m just really going to miss you.” There was silence on the other end and Merie’s rationality returned. “I’m sorry, I-I didn’t mean to… say that.”

“Merie?” He spoke up again. “Where are you right now?”

There was a change in his voice, one so evident that it caused Merie to tremble a bit. The husk in his words were electric even through the phone. “I’m… near the mall. I just got off work.”

“If you don’t have anything else to do tonight, I need to meet up with you.” He paused and Merie could hear the deep breath he took. “I wanted to tell you something really important.”

A boundless joy overcame Merie and she very nearly forgot about her mother.

Almost.

“Okay, I’ll wait for you then.”

“Alright, see you in a bit.”

“Yeah… later.”

She clung to every word and tried any excuse to stay on the phone, but after he hung up, she returned to reality and remembered her mother. Without hesitation, Merie quickly conjured up an excuse believable enough to warrant only a bit of concern from her mother.

She brushed off the concern and explained she’d be fine, but she couldn’t make it to the house. Merie then gave her regards to her siblings before locking the phone and looking out to the empty street in front of her.

A smile crept up on her face as Merie thought about seeing Sumi again. No matter what he wanted, Merie was just happy that they were going to be able to spend time together. She’d be able to see him one last time before he’d be out of her life for days.

Being unable to see him was one of the worst feelings she grew to know in their time together. The few months between their first meeting and now felt like an eternity, and one she was willing to live in forever. These urges were caused by him, she felt attached to him like her life couldn’t continue without him.

She would take him in any way.

Either time sped up or Merie was distracted enough to ignore the time, but it wasn’t long before Sumi showed up and Merie quickly got in the car.

With the car parked, they stared at each other in the dim light of the street lamps above them. Merie could barely see him, but the bit that she could looked different than she was used to.

Sumi’s appearance was usually well groomed, but now he appeared disheveled with clothes that looked as if he didn’t bother washing them, his hair was unkempt and his eyes had deep bags under them. He looked as if he had been sitting doing absolutely nothing for days.

“I’m so glad I got to see you today.” He got out.

Merie smiled. “Me too… but what’d you wanna tell me?” Merie’s grip on her bag tightened.

Sumi’s eyes were fixed on hers. “I was gonna ask if you wanted to stay with me for the break.”

Merie’s face held a strange expression. “You mean… like hanging out?”

“No.” He shook his head. “I mean like staying at my house.” Sumi’s words were deliberate as he spoke, not a word wasted as he spoke to her.

She turned her head. “…My parents wanted me to come and visit them. My whole family might be there, but-” Her gaze turned back to him and her expression held a twisted look of excitement.

She then spoke. “I’d feel much better with you.”

At those words, Sumi leaned over the armrest and gently grabbed her face. Merie gasped softly, but feeling his hands on her calmed her down.

“Merie… you're coming with me.”

Soulmates as a horror concept.

You WILL love this person. It doesn't matter who you loved before; any feelings you had, any promises you made, they will become inconsequential as soon as you lock eyes with the stranger Fate has picked for you.

There's no way to stop it.

There's no way to say "no."

You will meet someone and with a single glance, both of you will become someone new, someone who's now bound to this stranger whether you like it or not, want it or not.

Trapped in a dance together until the day you die.

I wish I saw this sooner because it would have made my day! And without very much follow up to the design, I think you did wonderfully on picturing this creature! I especially love the detail of it being connected at the bottom and splitting there, that light blue cross stitch is my favorite part of this design. I didn't imagine that, but now I want make that apart of it's actual concept!

Thank you so much for giving my creation a beautifully inspired artwork! I really look forward to any other work you do and I wish you luck on your journey getting back into art! @krowfaced

Second raffle prize for @the-missann, featuring a Silph! I’m not so used to drawing after written descriptions, so it was definitely a challenge, but that’s just the secret ingredient to growth! I thought of two serpents conjoined by the lower mandible, where it also splits to the two halves. Thanks for your patience, and I hope you like it!

I promise to show this as much love as I possibly could, so here's the scene where this creature makes it debut!

Artwork by @krowfaced

The snowfield before them held a quiet they had never heard before. This silence stilled the air around them, seeming as though the land ran on it's own time. If they were unaware of this land's essence, they'd easily assume this to be a world of its own.

This quiet was broken when the mounds of snow beside them started to collapse to their sides. Each falling one by one until the field was viable in its entirety. Not so far in front of them, they saw the ground moving and before they had time to react they all flinched when the land erupted, with snow that covered it flying into the air.

"Is that it?" Lazarus said trying to clear his snowcapped vision.

As the snow fell, they saw into the clear blue sky and spotted a pair of fangs cutting into the sun. A coiling beast circled until the sun beamed behind it and there they saw drips of crystal blue leaking from the creature's underbelly.

"It has to be, but is that a wound of survival or freedom?" Cassie said.

"Or maybe that's the pain of losing itself." Tachi spoke softly.

As they watched the sky, they waited for the scales of judgement to answer their fears....

Don't know if I shared this or not, but I did a redraw of my cover because my mom told me it looked like a nonfiction science book.

So I re-drew it to look more like sci-fi fantasy!

I honestly didn't think people hated 1st person perspective so much. So, as I always do, I'm going to defend it in this post.

I can understand some reasons as to why people don't like it.

"I went home today and I say how my mom wasn't finished with dinner. I made my way to my room and I decided to call my friend."

Like, God. I've never hated one letter so much before.

However, the way I write first person may help this overuse and plain writing.

"Things almost never felt right almost as if there was something wrong with me every time I tried anything. Perhaps this was the way things were, after all my parents made it well known this is how life is. Just can't believe how true it was."

When I write in the 1st person, I simply just write how my thoughts are. I don't think "I" all the time, I simply have thoughts that are specific to me.

Another reason I can see is because it's difficult to put yourself in the shoes of the 1st person, because you wouldn't do that specific thing or you can't understand that specific thing. However, I believe that's more bad writing then the 1st person being bad.

We're suppose to believe and even somewhat live through the life of our protagonist. Unless the protag is made to be a character that isn't relatable, we are suppose to feel like like the protag. Feel a sense of camaraderie through them and their actions.

So, if you're 1st person protag can't be lived through, that may be more of an issue of bad writing compared to the 1st person being bad to write in.

At this point my only social life is talking to my plushies and scrolling through social media.