“Park,” I pleaded weakly of the wind. I knew he’d hear. He was likely watching all along. It was probably hard not to if he’s become one with the land. Whatever that meant. Pompous douche.


    I felt touch of apprehension when his form emerged somewhere close by, but didn’t flail to look. My attention was affixed onto the man twitching in death throes.


    “Can you heal him?”


    “Of course,” whisper replied smugly and refused to elaborate.


    Will you? I didn’t ask. That would be answered in negative. I knew him that much. This was no wandering philanthropist.


    Making deals has never worked before but this was for something he might have actually want, “Fix him and I won’t touch another. Just you. I’ll be all yours.” Trading in my body again made me feel as cheap as I was. How could I even dare to bargain with something so worthless? But he wanted this pound of flesh, so maybe…


    Footsteps crunched toward me and figure towered, even though hornless form wasn’t that much taller than me. Normally. I must have been slouching, crushed under the weight of all my mistakes because he looked absolutely colossal.


    “You don’t have the choice anymore,” monster’s speech thundered ominously from way too close. Of course the alien intelligence wouldn’t overlook I didn’t even have anything to bargain with. He was the only one I would not immediately poison to death. My pretend-voluntary submission meant nothing to it either. Was there anything else this transcendent life-form could desire?


    “I’ll promise to stop trying to off myself,” I spouted out the only other thing I could offer.


    He would have scoffed, had he been human. Instead, shape in the dark hissed its utter disbelief. Primordial being seemed not to be in the mood to be manipulated with nonsense. After all, the creature too knew me enough not to trust my word. Unnatural pressure rose and I had an urge to watch the shadows beyond crooked sheds and small firs.


    When palm of his hand landed onto side of my head which was still covered by fleshy bandaid, I thought monster would bring up all the unconventional ways at his disposal to keep me cognisant and operational. He did not. Perhaps it was enough just to imply. To remind me.


    As though I could ever forget. Not while drowning under this unnatural heaviness oozing from the dark.


    Instead of veiled threats, omnipotent being deigned to spell it out, “You want me to rip piece of myself out and put it within an existence I do not care to preserve.”Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators!


    I looked for clues on his face but even if it wasn’t dark I shouldn’t rely on the inhuman expressions. It made sense, really. He wasn’t being petty or vindictive. Saving a life was easy for him, but it wasn’t an obligation. Just because everyone else had food didn’t mean I was entitled to it, no matter how much I craved it. I had to work hard to rip it out of their hands. I wouldn’t be simply exchanging an arm for someone’s life either. Surely not for a random passer-by, even if I was the undisputed cause of his death. It was unfair of me to ask for someone else to do it.


    I covered the face with my freezing fingers and remembered that digging beneath skin to remove the problems would never be a solution again. Fucking outstanding. But even now I had to keep on thinking about future, even when I wanted to have no part in it. The others still needed to have options.


    “Can you hide the body?”


    Turned out that he could, and even without arguing. Tendrils twined and cut into the thick wintery getup like lard, then dragged pieces underneath. Snow would soon hide rest of the evidence. I felt nasty beyond words. Sure, I’ve killed before – but never like this, without meaning to. Until this unfortunate guy.


    I fell backwards into a drift and waited to be buried beneath the beautiful cold too. Snow falling on my face was cutting and generally unpleasant. Biting frost never was.


    Eyes wide open caught an occasional snowflake meandering through the splayed fingers atop. To think just yesterday I briefly let myself hope the things would potentially be okay! What a mistake that has been. Mere assumption brought on a swift reality check. I shouldn’t have relaxed. Shouldn’t have expected better.


    I was homeless and the only people I called family would never be welcoming again.


    I was a whore whose services were impossible to render.


    I was a pet of an enormous being who could crush this entire world.


    I was but a sentient plague on two legs.


    All my solutions only caused grander, more intricate problems.


    This was truly the end of the road. Inaction and despair kept me firmly locked up in place.


    The thin sliver of monster’s skin guarding my wounds was expelling heat at an alarming rate. I wouldn’t be permitted to freeze to death and abandon my woes that way. I wanted to leave. To never see anyone again. I wanted to cry and wallow in misery and discomfort. At very least until morning.


    But I also knew that was a meaningless waste of time, especially when I could be spending it in a warm bed instead. I had a lot of perspective that way.


    Stuffed capricious child back into his box and dusted myself off. Smiled at the dark shape still looming nearby.


    Monster expected me to dance for it. Cause some great waves in my futile resistance against impossible odds. Burn brightest right before my fire goes out. Coincidently, exactly that was plausible just now and would not be ever again in the future. I could bleed, forcing him to eat all that poison in his weakened state. I could die, taking him with me if he tried to salvage me like he claimed.


    Didn’t feel like it.


    Reached deep but found no anger aimed at it. Monster wasn’t at fault here. If anything, the creature tried its best to be helpful.


    I didn’t want my abominable life to end where it started, either. I still gullibly expected for things to look up. There had to be more than just this, over and over and over again.


    I should just cease reacting to outside stimuli, become utterly uninteresting. Force him to abandon this boring toy. My greatest act of defiance.


    I didn’t want him to leave. He was all I had now. All I would ever have, the monster that I have become.


    Would he kill me once I become boring and reliant on him? It was how these unlikely sponsorships usually went, once the novelty wore off. There was nobody to bail my dumb ass out of that hysterical situation again. I suppose it was an acceptable outcome.


    “When you kill me, do it in a way I wouldn’t notice. Like the girl at the beginning.”


    “Kill you? After everything I’ve done to have this small piece of you?” darkness all but boomed at me.


    “You know what I mean.”


    “No. And to begin with, wasn’t your worst fear I’d keep you forever?”


    “I wasn’t being realistic. There’s no way you’d keep a pet ant that long.”


    “You’re not an ant, little monster. And your initial guess was correct. I don’t let go of things I like.”


    I wanted to shrug his words off and insist on my request, but they rung true. This mammoth was dead set in his ways. My grimace of forced pleasantness relaxed.