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Its easy.
Its easy to slip out of her bedroom,the door letting her out with a creak.Looking around the hallway to make sure no one else was awake,
Layla made her way down the hall,carefully weightening her steps.Afterall,she wouldn't want to alert the people in the room next to hers that she left it in the middle of the night,now did she?
she had been living here for a month now,in this old castle that,had she not lived in,she would have thought was haunted.And yet,even tho she hasn't been around for long,her teammates,blue and lust,already showed their worry for her well-being.Layla didn't understand them at all.Why would they show apprehension for a stranger?a stranger who had done nothing but answer them with brief,emotion-lacking replies,who looked bored while talking to them?Perhaps they were just pitying her,since she had lost her memory.
She slowly tip-toed past the library,it's lights were on,meaning that nightmare must be awake.She learned that her new boss didn't sleep,since he was immortal,he didn't need to as much as mortals.
Yes,pity,thats what it must be,because layla was in a pitiful state:She had lost her memory,had a broken leg,and was stripped of her identity.She barely remembered her name when she first woke up in the infirmary,she remembered the look lust shared with blue,remembered them slowly encouraging her to work with her memory to remember at least her name.
It had taken days,but she did remember it at the end.
her name was layla,and she was eighteen years old.
That all she remembered about herself,tho.
Layla slowly made her way up the stairs,to the terrace at the last floor.She enjoyed sitting there and look up at the night sky,especially in nights like these,where she couldn't sleep.
It was..familiar,nostalgic.
tho she didn’t know why,because she couldn’t remember.
slowly,in favour of her still healing leg,Layla reached the last floor and opened the glass door that lead outside,letting the fresh night air hit her face.She walked out,towards the deckchair in the center of the platform,and laid down.
The black-haired girl gazed up at the night sky,her eyes scanning the calming scene before her eyes.
She loved the stars,the moon,the tranquility of this scenery
and she knew there was a reason
she had enjoyed it before,she knew she did,she just.. didn't remember when.
Often,her memories felt like burnt candles,the wax slowly melting between her fingers,as she covered uselessly the fainting light of it,hoping for the sparkle not to fade
But it always did,in the end.And she couldn't stop those memories from leaving her mind.
Nightsky..stars..stargazing..
“i wish ___ would let me learn about them more..”
“When I grow up,I'll bring my kids to watch them with me!”
that voice..who was speaking? this person..they were important,weren’t they?
stargazing..nightsky..
“you can come along,too,of course!”
the moon..the stars..
“tonight the sky is breathtaking,isn’t it?”
layla turned her head,snapping her attention towards who just interrupted her thinking.The air around her now felt slightly darker,more suffocating.After all,the guardian tried to keep his negative aura at bay,but he couldn't block it out completely.She knew the other monsters had gotten used to it,blue told her so,when she once mentioned it
“i know it can feel..suffocating.But boss doesn't do it on purpose,he can't control it.I know what it's like for someone to use their aura on you to change your emotions”
he said with a slight shiver.
“and trust me,boss isn't trying to do that”
“.. yes,it is” she replied quietly,as always the soft-spoken.Layla shook the memory away
“i do understand why you keep coming here to watch it.Even so,eight hours of sleep every night are necessary for you mortals,so you should be resting.”
layla looked blankly at her boss,his figure not shaking her up one bit.Usually, humans break out in sounds of fear at the presence of the king of negativity,or so she has been told.But Layla couldn't feel.
“I'm sorry,sir.I just..could not sleep.”
“is something disturbing your slumber?”
“..no sir.Im just not tired yet”
“mhh..then i suppose i'll give you company until you feel like going to sleep.Is that alright?”
“yes sir.”
she turned her head towards the sky,admiring the moon light.
“What is it about the sky that you enjoy so deeply?”
“..i suppose it reminds me of someone..or something.My memory fails me to remember what is so nostalgic about it,though”
“That is okay.Afterall,you just suffered a head injury.Lust warned me your memory was going to be poor for now.We are going to help you re-stabilize it.”
“..its not just that.I also like the calming scenery.Even if i can’t feel,and so im never upset,i still enjoy the quiet”
“on that,i agree.In the daylight,this castle is usually filled with chaos and sounds.But by night,when everyone rests.. well,almost everyone-
layla hummed.
-I like to enjoy the peace I can get and read a good book.”
nightmare slowly approached her,looking at the younger one in thought
“You are a strange human.” he said, half amused-sounding
“Is that the reason you choose to let me recover here?”
“Well,we didn't have a choice,since you can't remember where your home resides,we can't take you back..but no,that's not all.”
layla moved her gaze towards the guardian
“When I rescued you,you were visibly shaken by..something.You were limping,and covered in dirt,and yet..i could not sense a single negative emotion off you.Not fear,not even when you faced me.”
layla looked away.
“i lost my identity years ago,along with it,my emotions.And the head injury is just making it all worst”
“And maybe that's what brought me to let you stay,helping you find it once again.Im curious to see who you really are,Layla,because this empty shell is not it,is it?”
the human sighed
“i wish to remember,too.I wish to know what has brought me to this place.But im not sure i'll be able to remember who i once was,let alone be her again..”
Layla didn't feel the need to hide.She was pretty straight forward with it,stating what she thought out loud.Maybe it was because of the comfort the guardian's presence brought to her,like the night sky? Layla didn't know anything about herself anymore,anyway.She needed the help of these people to find herself again.She needed his help.
e̶v̶e̶n̶ ̶s̶o̶,̶a̶ ̶m̶i̶n̶u̶s̶c̶u̶l̶e̶,̶d̶i̶s̶t̶a̶n̶t̶ ̶p̶a̶r̶t̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶l̶a̶y̶l̶a̶'̶s̶ ̶s̶o̶u̶l̶ ̶s̶h̶o̶o̶k̶ ̶w̶i̶t̶h̶ ̶f̶e̶a̶r̶,̶a̶s̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶m̶o̶n̶s̶t̶e̶r̶ ̶i̶n̶f̶r̶o̶n̶t̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶h̶e̶r̶ ̶r̶e̶m̶i̶n̶d̶e̶d̶ ̶h̶e̶r̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶s̶o̶m̶e̶o̶n̶e̶.̶.̶s̶o̶m̶e̶o̶n̶e̶ ̶f̶r̶o̶m̶ ̶a̶ ̶t̶i̶m̶e̶ ̶o̶n̶c̶e̶ ̶i̶n̶ ̶h̶e̶r̶ ̶l̶i̶f̶e̶,̶w̶h̶o̶ ̶h̶u̶r̶t̶ ̶h̶e̶r̶ ̶i̶n̶ ̶w̶a̶y̶s̶ ̶s̶h̶e̶ ̶c̶o̶u̶l̶d̶n̶t̶ ̶d̶e̶s̶c̶r̶i̶b̶e̶.̶W̶h̶o̶ ̶w̶e̶r̶e̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶y̶?̶ ̶w̶a̶s̶ ̶n̶i̶g̶h̶t̶m̶a̶r̶e̶ ̶g̶o̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶b̶e̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶s̶a̶m̶e̶?̶ ̶w̶a̶s̶ ̶h̶e̶ ̶g̶o̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶t̶r̶i̶c̶k̶ ̶h̶e̶r̶?̶
a tentacle gently wrapped around her waist,bringing her close in a side hug.Layla was startled, but didn't make a move to pull away.
“it will be..difficult.The path to healing will sure be filled with road blocks and holes,but we will be here for you.The moment i saw you,i knew you were like my employees when i first met them.Lost,and in need of a hand to get up.You seem more straight forward with asking for help,though.” the guardian chuckled.
“you do not need to go back to be who you were before you fell in the underground.Afterall,experiences change us,and we can never truly be the same.But you can be in peace again,and not in the way you are now,with your feelings and memories numb and forgotten,but with those memories and feelings restored,so you can learn to live with them again." the monster slightly squeezed layla's waist,bringing her back to the present.Layla blinked up at him,then sighed
“You will be tired in the morning if you don't sleep,and while you do not have missions to do in the morning like the others do,you still need to have a healthy sleep schedule,especially since you have to see lust in the infirmary tomorrow afternoon,do you not?”
“..yes,i do..to monitor my progress”
“So rest,Layla.I'll bring you to bed later,but for now,enjoy the night sky.”
the young girl slowly gazed up at the sky once more,eyes softly fluttering shut once again.
What was it that made nightmare feel like such a calming presence,even familiar,she might say,and yet so dangerous at the same time? layla did not know
s̶h̶e̶ f̶e̶l̶t̶ s̶o̶m̶e̶ d̶e̶j̶a̶-̶v̶u̶ a̶s̶ a̶n̶o̶t̶h̶e̶r̶ t̶e̶n̶t̶a̶c̶l̶e̶ s̶l̶o̶w̶l̶y̶ w̶e̶n̶t̶ t̶o̶ b̶r̶u̶s̶h̶ h̶e̶r̶ h̶a̶i̶r̶.H̶a̶d̶.s̶o̶m̶e̶o̶n̶e̶ b̶r̶u̶s̶h̶e̶d̶ t̶h̶e̶m̶ t̶h̶e̶ s̶a̶m̶e̶ w̶a̶y̶ b̶e̶f̶o̶r̶e̶?̶
and that's okay, she'll have time to think about that.
But for now,she will try to rest like by him instructed.After all, She was comfortable here,in the presence of the dark guardian..
and so she drifted off to sleep.