Fourteen: Rules
1050 Words
Author’s POV
“Like this,” she said. She sat cross-legged across from him in a small clearing. Morning again. This time there was sun. “In for four. Hold. Out for four.”
Drayk copied her. In. Hold. Out.
It felt stupid.
“you look stupid,” Draygon said. “and hungry.”
“shut up,” Drayk thought back.
She heard him shift. “Is he talking?”
“Yeah.”
“What did he say?”
“That I look stupid.”
She smiled. “He’s not wrong.” Then her face went serious. “Okay. Rule one: you tell me the second it starts. Not when it’s bad. The second.”
Drayk nodded. “The second.”
“Rule two: we name it. The hunger. Giving it a name makes it smaller.”
Drayk stared at her. “You want me to name the thing that wants to eat people?”
“I named mine,” she said quietly. “In the camps. The voice that told me to hurt people to survive. I called her Whisper.”
Drayk was quiet. “...Hunger.”
“Good. Hi Hunger,” she said to him, deadpan. “We don’t listen to you today.”
A laugh escaped him before he could stop it. “You’re insane.”
“Probably.” She bumped her knee against his. “Rule three: distraction. When it gets bad, we do something with our hands. Or we run. Or we talk. Anything but—” She didn’t finish.
“Anything but feeding,” Drayk finished for her.
“Yeah.”
For three days, it worked.
Kind of.
Every time Draygon whispered _there_, Drayk would say it out loud. “It’s starting.”
And she’d stop whatever she was doing. She’d take his hand. She’d make him count. Breathe. Name five things he could see. Four things he could hear.
“Grounding,” she called it. “It pulls you back.”
“you’re doing good,” Draygon admitted on day two. Grudging. “annoying. but good.”
Drayk was starting to believe it too.
Until day four.
They were near water again. A bigger stream this time. She was washing her face. Drayk was sitting on a rock, watching her, trying to memorize the way the sun hit her wet eyelashes.
Human. She looked human.
Then he smelled it.
Blood. Not hers. A rabbit, caught in a trap a few feet away. Still alive. Eye wide. Leg caught.
The hunger hit like a fist.
“It’s starting,” Drayk said immediately. Too late. His voice was already wrong.
She turned. “Okay. Breathe with me. In for—”
“Four,” Drayk finished. But his eyes were on the rabbit. “I see it. I hear it. I smell it.”
“Don’t look,” she said. She moved to block his view. “Look at me.”
Drayk looked at her. Her face. Her mouth. The pulse in her throat.
“Oh,” he said softly.
“drayk,” Draygon said. Not playful. Warning.
“Hey,” she said, cupping his face with both hands. Her palms were cool. “Stay with me. Name five things.”
“Your hands,” he whispered. “Your eyes. The water. The sun. You.”
“Good. Good. Now four things you hear.”
“My heart,” he said. “Yours. The water. Hunger.”
Her hands tightened on his face. “No. Not him. Me.”
Drayk squeezed his eyes shut. “It hurts.”
“I know.” She pulled him forward until his forehead was against hers. “I’m here. You’re not alone in this.”
He was shaking. Bad.
“please,” he said. He didn’t know if he was asking her or Draygon or himself.
“i’m trying,” Draygon said quietly. For once, no jokes. “fight with me, drayk.”
Drayk made a sound. Half sob, half growl.
And then it passed.
Like a wave receding. Leaving him empty and shaking on the rock.
He opened his eyes. She was still there. Still holding him.
“I almost—” he started.
“But you didn’t,” she said quickly. “You told me. You breathed. You stayed.”
Drayk looked down at his hands. Clean. “I could smell you.”
“I know.”
“I thought—”
“You didn’t,” she repeated. Firmer. “That’s what matters.”
They sat like that for a long time. Until his shaking stopped.
That night she taught him another trick.
“Pain,” she said. “Not to hurt you. Just... to pull you back. Snap a twig. Pinch yourself. Something sharp.”
Drayk didn’t like it. “I don’t want to hurt myself.”
“Then let me,” she said. She held out her hand. “I’ll do it. So you don’t have to.”
Drayk grabbed her wrist before she could. “No.”
“Then we find something else.”
They did. They found a lot of things. Cold water on the back of his neck. Her name, said over and over. Running until his lungs burned.
It was working.
On day six, he went a whole day without saying “it’s starting.”
On day seven, he kissed her knuckles instead of biting.
“you’re getting soft,” Draygon teased. But he sounded proud.
“maybe,” Drayk thought back.
That night they sat close. Closer than before.
“I’m proud of you,” she said. Her head was on his shoulder.
Drayk closed his eyes. “Don’t be. Not yet.”
“Why not?”
“Because it’s too easy right now.” He said it into her hair. “Because the second something real happens, I’m going to fail you.”
She didn’t answer right away.
“Then we’ll fail together,” she said finally. “And we’ll get up. And try again.”
Drayk didn’t know what to say to that.
So he didn’t say anything. He just held her hand tighter.
Draygon was quiet.
For the first time in weeks, Drayk thought: maybe we can do this.
Maybe the monster could be human again.
He should have known it was too soon to hope.
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