Chapter Text
It's a young ereldeja. Barely mature enough to keep its form steady, but it manages.
It's made up of smoke and nightmares, its eyes a haunting red. The eyes change shades, shifting from crimson to blood to maroon, never staying the same. Not unless it concentrates really hard at least.
It's not long before it's assigned a human to haunt.
Jarod.
That's kind of a weird name, but it sounds human enough, whatever… That means.
It doesn't really know.
Euyrdice doesn't say anything about the human, really. So it has no idea what it's doing, or what it's meant to be doing going in. She just tells it, "He is easy to terrify. Do what you will with him."
So it does.
It crawls out from under its new home beneath the bed, the second it is able to appear in the human's bedroom, and it sits on the edge of the bed.
…
'Cause…
How does an ereldeja terrify a human?
It's… Not really sure.
Maybe, it's just scary to look at. Eurydice always gave the impression humans would be afraid just of seeing one.
It looks at the human. He's sleeping fully underneath the blankets—to hide, Eurydice had said. He's scared of her.
It doesn't really blame him.
She can be really scary sometimes.
It sits there.
It watches the human.
The human isn't running yet.
Does he know it's here?
Eventually, the human stirs. Maybe he does know it's here! Maybe he sensed it.
Two small eyes peer out from above the blanket. Green, but not blindingly. Not like them.
The eyes widen. He sees it.
The human lets out a scream, the sound LOUD, and he dives back under the covers, and the ereldeja blinks.
…That's the reaction it's supposed to be reaching for?
That's dumb!
'Cause that was pretty unfun and like! The opposite of fulfilling!
Is it supposed to be fulfilling?
It just felt kinda…
…
Well.
It can't place the feeling.
It's still getting used to placing feelings and their names.
And, the human—Jarod, it reminds itself, doesn't even really seem all that interesting anyway. He's just kinda there. And it was extra weird, because Eurydice had been haunting him up until it was its time to haunt him. So!
Why does it have to be here?
It doesn't understand, really. Maybe it's not meant to.
It disappears back under the bed, leaving the human alone once more.
*
This is just boring!
It can't even talk to him, not really, and that's super annoying.
Even when it talks to Eurydice when Jarod is fast asleep, it's still boring and it's Eurydice and she doesn't really count anyway.
It doesn't even leave from under the bed one night, when Jarod is going to bed, because what's the point if it's just going to scare him and it's boring and it can't talk to him?
It pouts for this very reason.
And definitely DOESN'T jump when a face suddenly peers down at it from on top of the bed, his red hair falling into his face.
"Are y'a monster?" the human asks, with big, big eyes, and the ereldeja stares back.
Ummmmmm
"You're not chasin' me," Jarod says. "Are y'sposed to?"
…
It nods, because it's nothing if not honest.
"Oh," Jarod says. "'kay."
. . .
He wrinkles his nose at it. "Canya talk?" It nods again. "Oh. Why aren'tya?" His words slur together and it wonders if it's because he can't talk. Humans are weird like that.
And he is weird, 'cause he should be running away right now and not talking to him even if it kinda wanted to talk to him.
It pauses. Eurydice said not to talk to him directly, or any human for that matter, but…
S̵c̵a̵r̵y̷,̸ it says. Its voice is dark and echo-y and weird and otherwordly, and it doesn't really think a human would be okay hearing it, so it's also kind of a test.
The human falls off the bed.
The ereldeja's eyes widen, and it crawls forward a bit, because that might have hurt and it isn't sure if the human is dead or not.
But then Jarod is moving, and he moves to his hands and knees, similar to the position it's in, and stares, stares at it.
Its permanent smile doesn't break.
"That's your voice?" he asks.
It nods, because its voice is too scary to talk, and if it talks more now then he'll definitely run.
And, it kind of wants him to stay.
"That's 'kay," Jarod says. It blinks. "'s not that scary. Y'can talk if ya wanna."
Oh.
…
Still.
It hesitates, before asking, A̴r̷e̷ ̶y̵o̷u̴ ̷o̸k̶a̶y̴?̶ ̸Y̶o̵u̶ ̷a̸l̴m̵o̴s̸t̸ ̴d̵i̷e̴d̷.̴ It tries not to shy away at the sound of its own voice.
The human doesn't seem to mind. He looks confused, if anything—before his eyes widen a bit in understanding. "'m'kay," he nods, "didn' hurt a lot."
Oh.
"Areya happy?"
What?
"You're smilin'," he explains.
Oh.
It shakes its head.
"Oh," Jarod says. "'kay."
…
"Wanna see my drawin's?"
His what?
But then the human's already across the room and grabbing some sheets of paper, and he returns and drops the papers in front of it.
It looks down at them.
They're just scribbles of color. Maybe there's two humans in there too.
It makes a questioning noise, looking back at him, and he says, "I drew it. Drawin' things is happy."
Oh.
It nods, because he's probably right. The colors are very bright. It doesn't like the green very much, but the red's nice.
"'m gonna go to bed now," Jarod says, pushing himself off the ground to stand. "But y'can keep 'em t'look at if y'wanna."
Before it can say thank you, he's climbing back up out of sight, bed creaking above him.
…
It brushes its "hand" out, smokey tendrils gently brushing over the paper. The paper crinkles in response. The sound is too loud, and happy.
It decides it's happy too.