Art by James Fenner (@JMFenner91 on Twitter)

He was close and he was reaching out, letting me know that he was ready to talk. I didn't stop and kept on walking.

I could feel the confusion that he was feeling, a collateral effect of his mind connection. I could see his thoughts in my head as clear as the full moon on a cloudless sky, but now I could also get glimpses of what he was feeling too, like cobwebs that stick on you when you walk past them. These webs could sometimes be an emotion or a certain mood or inclination, other times were like a hint of some desire, and even a hidden intention.

He'd been following me ever since I entered the trail and he was confused because he didn't know why I hadn't stopped to talk to him yet.

"Not here," I said while I kept walking ahead on the trail. "This conversation needs to be done in the same place where we used to talk, at the boulder's narrow passage. That's where I'm heading."

It was where our story had started. It was where it should end too.

The tingling in my head subdued as his mind's presence retreated into the woods. I glanced to the side and spotted a dark shadow moving in the forest, passing behind the trees, walking alongside me.

There were a few Red Drops scattered along the forest's border, scarce, bright specks of red tinting the dark green grass. Red Drops seemed to be the only flower capable of growing in the thick shades of the Redwood trees.

They weren't showing much on this part of the trail, but I knew they would come out a lot more halfway down this path, and by the time I reached the boulder's narrow passage, they would be at their peak in glorious numbers.

'They are the forest's crimson tears, these, what you call red drops.' I felt the prickling at the back of my neck again as his voice commented in my head. 'The center of the forest is bursting with them. A sea of red as far as the eyes can reach, waves of them moving in sync with the brushing wind, like a living pulse, visible for the eyes to see, the forest's beating heart. It is quite a sight to behold.'

I frowned, not understanding the point of him telling me this. My thoughts felt sluggish and muddled and I noticed that it was getting harder and harder for me to think. Exhaustion had a ferocious grip on my body, and my mind as well, it seemed.

'You always look for them. Every time you walk down this trail, you look for the flowers. I thought you might like to know that they beat the hardest at the heart of the forest.' He answered my unspoken question.

It truly must be a vision made only for dreams, I thought to myself, entertaining the idea in my head. I wondered if any human must have ever witnessed such a sight and what it would be like to be me who got to see that in person...

I shook my head, coming down to my senses.

I had almost fallen for this seemingly innocent remark, but I snapped out of it and saw past his disguise. He was trying to bribe me with promises of beauty and awe to lure me into the forest again. It was just another one of his tricks. Just another trap.

'You have always doubted my every intention. As if I can be nothing else but deceitful to you.' he prickled back into my head, sounding irritated.

'It seems to be the founding base of our relationship if we stop to think about it', I mused inside my head, because I knew he could hear my thoughts. 'Whatever it is, this thing that we have, it was born out of deceit. It was why and how we first met, was it not? And no matter how far we've come since then, we keep falling back to it. Back into tricks and lies... back at unspoken things hidden at the edge of shadows.'

My thoughts swirled inside my head, making me dizzy, and the ground shifted beneath my feet, making me so disoriented that I almost lost my balance. I stopped to take a few breaths, rubbing at my temples while I tried to gather my bearings.

'But it is what you are, isn't it? An unspoken thing hidden in shadow?' I continued thinking to myself. 'It is the nature of shadows to be deceitful, I suppose. To play tricks with our eyes and our minds... I understand that it must be a vicious urge that you cannot stop or resist, an insatiable need to play tricks and make me doubt, at every turn and in every way, what is real and what is not...'

'Oh, but it is very real, my dearest Aydan. The forest's heart beats with crimson tears, I promise you that.' He replied inside my head. 'I can show you a glimpse of it if you wish. A fragment of my memory, if you will take it as proof.'

I shook my head again, rejecting his offer, or maybe I was only trying to shake his presence off my mind. 'How would I know if it's really your memory? What if it is just an illusion of yours planted in my head? Would I even be able to tell the difference?'

'You call me deceitful, but you do not want to come see it for yourself, and you will not let me show it to you, to prove myself. You leave me with no choice but to take your offense with tied hands.' he bristled sharply. 'I wonder who is really the cruelly unjust here?'

I let out a heavy sigh and continued dragging my feet ahead. 'Deceit is not just about lying. It's about hiding and distorting the truth.' I retorted very tiredly inside my head. 'And you are very good with the hiding, Erebus. I can sense it, though... The hidden things inside you. It's buried too deep, too dark for me to see. But I know it's there. Even though you're not showing, I can feel it there. I can feel the deceit in you. That is why I'm always wary.'

'I have told you since the very beginning, Aydan, that I am The Dark, and the dark is all that I am. What you feel buried deep in me is just that.' He countered, sounding all too tired as well. 'But you have it too, dark things hidden and out of sight. I can feel it within you, just as much as you feel it in me.' He left a soft sigh of defeat. 'But you will still be wary of me, no matter what I say. I understand that nothing I do will ever change that. You won't ever trust me.' His tone shifted then, turning accusatory. 'I have saved your life, but you still believe I do not care. I gave you a piece of me, and yet, you still think that it means nothing.'

Reacting to him, I accused back. 'Sometimes people do good things but deep down, they do it with bad intentions. Sometimes what might seem good at first, ends up being hell in the end. Sometimes the promise of care is a clever disguise for evil misdeeds.' I quipped at him. 'And sometimes people just... lie. So that they can hurt you a little bit more, for a little while longer.'

'You can be hurtful too, my love,' he said, sounding wounded. 'You hand out delicacy and fury in fierce amounts, there is nothing mild in or about you. But when you fear, or when you desire, you do not hold back. You strike with force. It cuts deep. Hurts deep too. But it is a good kind of hurting. A lovely agony, I must confess. I quite like it.'

I glanced at the forest, feeling uncomfortable about where this conversation was going. I didn't remember ever hurting him, but... images of me and him in the dark of my room flashed in my mind like lightning striking multiple times at the same place... nails scratching, talons digging, blood-soaked and battered bruises, exquisite pain with despairing pleasure...

'You left me battered too, you know, after the night I had spent in your room. My lips are still bruised from your kisses.' He told me with a pleased hum. 'It is not the only thing you have hurt in me that night, Aydan.'

"I d-didn't... y-you..." I stammered, ashamed. "That was just a dream! It didn't even happen, okay?"

'Why? You think it didn't happen only because it happened in your mind?' He asked, amused. 'Your mind is as real a place as any for things to happen, love. But if you want them to happen outside your mind, that can be arranged as well.'

"I-I... that's not what I meant!" I choked out, flustered. I could almost picture a knowing smile showing on his lips, teasing me, even though I could not see him.

'Are you sure it isn't?' he asked, his voice filled with truth-hidden lies as the prickling at the base of my neck intensified. More images flashed inside my head, flickering too fast for me to discern them, but I knew the content they were showing. If he was putting things from himself or taking them out of my own head, I could not tell.

I grabbed my head by the temples and shut my eyes tight to make them stop, but that only made the images clearer and increasingly more aggressive. "Stop! You're doing the mind-twisting thing again! Just... stop! Stop doing that. I don't want you in my head anymore. Get out! Get the fuck out of my head!!" I shouted in agony.

"We can do this outside your head too, if that is how you prefer." He proposed with his actual voice this time as he showed himself by the edge of the forest.

"I prefer to be left alone until I reach the boulder's passage. I prefer if you wouldn't speak at all until then." I glared furiously in his direction and then turned around and walked ahead without waiting for an answer. I didn't even feel the heaviness clinging to my steps anymore, or the stabbing pain in my chest, only this infuriating shame burning through my whole body.

He followed me along, seeming unbothered by my angry outburst.

There was a slight tingle at the back of my head as he reached out to me again.

'Aydan... I am sorry. I did not mean to upset you.'

"Bullshit! You love riling me up, I can feel how much you enjoy it, okay? Stop lying to me." I snapped at him.

'Your anger... is very arousing, that is true. You feel things very intensely when you are angry. I can taste it, all over your mind. It's exhilarating.' He conceded. 'Nevertheless, you do not like to be upset. I speak the truth when I say that I did not mean to upset you now, Aydan. I like when you are content too. I enjoy giving you pleasure the most. You know I do.'

I knew he did. I remembered him doing it. Vividly.

Blushing slightly, I walked ahead as the simmering heat of shame slowly ebbed away. He followed me along the forest's edge for a while before he tried to apologize again, but I cut him in.

"I need some privacy now, Erebus. I have thoughts that are only meant for me. Please leave me be." I didn't ask for it, this time I demanded it. "Stop tricking me into talking to you this way. I told you, this isn't the time or place. You know when and where. I'll meet you there soon."

After a moment of pause, he abided in quiet resignation, and so did the prickle in my head which quickly faded away.

Walking without him in my head was a relief, I was finally able to calm down and center myself. All the pain, exhaustion, shame, and anger I was feeling was left aside and I could finally have a moment of peace to think without any distractions.

Soon, the boulder's passage silhouette appeared ahead on the trail.

It was the time to finally face Erebus, one last time, and decide my fate.

...