They had spent the afternoon around the house, Midas patiently explained to Dubhra all the new things they had seen there and they had been taking notes on paper.

That night she skipped the party, as was predicted by her friends. Dubhra curled up in the bathtub again and this time without complaining much.

***

The next morning, Midas wakes up to the soft glow of her phone screen and the quiet hum of a notification. She squints at the message, barely awake and reading through it with a slight irritation.

She reads through the new group name.

Saturday plans

Laura: "Midas, I'm talking to you... are you bringing your new pet or are you keeping them locked in your tower?"

Midas: "...what are you talking about?"

Thomas: "You know exactly what we're talking about"

Ceit: "Jorge told us about your little trip to the mall. Said the poor guy burned their clothes??? LMAO"

Midas: "That's ridiculous"

Thomas: "We are curious! You didn't even come yesterday to stay with them! So you're going to sacrifice them to us this Sunday👀 and well, we just want to check if they're still alive. You know? For safety reasons☺️"

Midas sighs, why do they think she stayed at home because of them? She didn't want to go to that party anyway, Dubhra had just been a good excuse.

Ceit: "You haven't killed them yet, right?"

She knows they're just joking, yet she can't help but feel slightly frustrated. She can't keep thinking about it.

Midas: "You're all idiots"

She turns off her phone again and falls lazily on the pillow.

Of course they were talking, they always did, she had seen it happen a lot of times already, like that time at the mall. It's extremely annoying, yes, but there's also a certain satisfaction in it. A reminder that, at the end of the day, she still has control.

She checks the archived chat, the name reads "Ezra" but there are no new texts from the previous night.

Midas thinks about it, types a "Good morning, have you missed me this weekend?" Only to delete it soon after.

She reluctantly decides to get up from bed and go downstairs, she would have breakfast before Dubhra wakes up.

She passes by the bathroom door, it's still closed and she tries to fight against the urge to peek through the keyhole to see if the creature is really still asleep or just lurking in the room.

Once in the kitchen she starts toasting her bread and peeling an avocado.

The thoughts from that night begin to flood her brain once again, the guilt and the embarrassment of it all, she didn’t know if to be grateful she didn’t manage to miss her task or if to feel humiliated by something in her head telling her she lacked a backbone.

And that archived conversation.

She turns around once her breakfast is ready only to see Dubhra in their long, white nightgown, all hunched over in the hallway, peeking in her bedroom.

"Good morning, what's so interesting in my room?" She says with an inquisitive look on her face.

"Oh—" They turn around and slightly straighten up. "I just got caught with curiosity! I wanted to see what it looks like when you aren't using me as target practice." Their voice is slightly more hoarse this morning.

Midas shakes her head. "Are you trying to make me feel guilty?"

The creature goes down the stairs to the kitchen and lifts their arms with defeat. "Never."

They sit down at the table and almost fall forward in the process. They had spent most of the night scouring their mind for a sign, a dream, anything that could feel like the comfortable guidance of a premonition, some clear sensation that would point them in the right direction. But nothing came, just an endless, murky silence.

Now that morning has arrived, faint black streaks still cling to their face, a silent evidence.

Midas notices and decides to not say anything at first. "It’s not my business." But they don't touch their breakfast, they just keep staring at it, they simply sit there, quiet and distant, as if they're still stuck somewhere.

Eventually she gives in to the uncomfortable silence. "Your tears are black? That's really something."

It's a tactless way to start the conversation, yet Dubhra doesn't seem to mind, instead they come out suddenly from their trance and try to wipe at their swollen eyes. "It's clear that you don't know me yet, I cry a lot of no reason at all."

Half a truth, they sure cried a lot, but it was not for no reason. Still the feelings their heart hides always feel far too heavy and obscure to be brought to the light, impossible to express.

"Well, it doesn't seem to me that it's for no reason," she insists, "you ended up in a completely different world where nothing makes sense to you. If I was in your place, I'd probably be crying too."

Her words echo in their mind. For a fleeting moment it feels as if she can actually grasp the weight of what they've been carrying. Like a faint thread of understanding connecting them.

"Really?" They answer, a slight spark in their eyes.

"How can I know? I'm not you." Here it is, this is surely more in her fashion. "But even if you're a supernatural creature, you still have to eat. Or is it that you don't like what I cook?"

Dubhra's faint smile is back. "You’re really kind, thank you." They forget in a moment anything she had asked them and turn back to stare into the void.

"Do you feel like telling me how it happened that you ended up here?" She sighs.

"I already told you, I was trying to practice a ritual and something went wrong with it." That's not a lie, but not the full story either. Still they can't tell her, it's something that leaves them too heartbroken, too vulnerable.

They watch Midas calmly tapping on her screen and the numerous notifications appear, that group Saturday plans.

She seems thoughtful for a moment, then she looks at Dubhra like she is waiting for them to tell her more, but ultimately she doesn't say anything about it. Instead she says, "do you feel like going out would help you feel better?"

They give it a little thought. "To be fully honest, I never went out often. When I'm not feeling well I simply lock myself up somewhere. A bit like the fairytale princesses locked in towers."

She looks slightly relieved. "That's good. Me too."

Dubhra has yet to finish their full sentence. "But yesterday it was so fun and exciting to go out, it felt really nice, it was like— bonding? Yes? So maybe if you had something in mind, we could try some crazy thing"

She sighs in response and tries not to look them in the eye. "No crazy thing. Some friends of friends have invited me out today, but I had no intention to go."

The creature lets out a faint laugh. "Like that party last night? Don't be too offended, but I feel like you simply lied to me when you said you're very socially busy. How can you keep your friends when they always send pigeon messengers you never answer to?"

She seems deep in her thoughts again, like she's pondering a decision.

At last Dubhra pushes their chair with a soft scrape, they get up and walk over to her, standing behind her as she scrolls through her phone. She doesn't look up, but Dubhra's eyes fall on the messages in the chat

Laura: "We'll be at the bar behind the university, the one with the tables already outside. Just think about it"

Thomas: "Bring your new foreign friend, Midas. Unless you're scared😁"

They pause, their eyes scanning the screen, until they hear Midas imitating the faint sound of a cough. "Sorry? What did I say about reading my chats?"

"Oh— that's right, I'm so sorry." They have such a sorry face that's impossible to ignore and those faint black lines still staining their hollow cheeks down to their jawline. "I don't know why it matters for me to come with you, but I feel it may be important. It feels important to them at least, maybe it's the right thing. I want to observe how you act when it happens that people go... places?"

She looks up at them, her lips widening into a small smile. She watches them with sharp eyes, their awkward words tumbling out in that peculiar, disjointed way. She looks entertained, less than a mockery and more like a genuine interest with the way Dubhra tries to make sense of things.

"Mh, fine," she says with a playful shrug, "I'll tell them I'll go and you can come to observe me."

Dubhra tilts their head. "Isn't this last thing mildly inappropriate to the context?"

"No, what makes you think that?" A soft hint at teasing. "I'm just repeating what you said."

Dubhra wants to reply that they're probably not to take as an example, that they say a lot of seemingly inappropriate things, that they hadn't slept well and didn't want to put her in an uncomfortable situation by risking falling asleep in front of her friends, but she has already got up from the chair and now is going upstairs.

"Just please wear something decent and take a shower," she says, "you're pretty stained.”