Love-Hate

Caritas was being her bitchy self, even while her tooth was grasped tightly by my hoof. “I refuthe!” I pulled harder, attempting to rip it out from the root.

“Bitch! If you don’t talk now, I will rip this fucker out and stab you in the fuckdamn EYE!” I started to twist, seeing Caritas’ eyes well up with tears, and heard a loud crack. If that wasn’t the tooth, then I hurt something bad.

“A-ah! Okay, okay, just stop! Ow!”

“Good call.” I said, ripping the fucker out and tossing it aside, Caritas shouting in what I imagined was pretty bad pain. What a nasty boo-boo!

“SHIT! Ack!” I grabbed her by the throat and forced her onto my couch, and I lay on top of her, pinning her. “Tell me now, or else.” I threatened. In my current position, she was a prime easy target; however I didn’t exactly want to go that far.

“Okay! Flux, the thing… The wendigo spirit I captured, it was for you, I meant to kill you with it. But when I saw Ghostly, and knew that you loved her, I thought I would kill two birds with one stone.”

Enraged further, I leaned in closely and put a tooth to her jugular. “Oh yeah?”

“Ah! You, you don’t deserve anyone, Flux. You never did. And if I couldn’t have her, nobody could, especially you. But then the mare managed to survive…”

A chain rattled in the distance, Ghostly must have shifted in her sleep. Remembering that I wasn’t there to solve me and Caritas’ differences, I eased up, and simply stared at Caritas. “Next time… Fucking do your research. Because now you have an all-powerful hate-fuelled monster against you, and a wendigo.”

Caritas looked up at me, and spat in my face. From my body heat, the spit evaporated near-instantly. “You have ten seconds to get out of my house, and disappear forever.” I spoke as I hopped off of her, glaring at her.

“Ten. Nine. Eight…”

And with that, Caritas ran away in a puff of smoke, most likely to hatch another hair-brained scheme to try to punish me for whatever the hell. I lay back down on the couch, and brushed my hair back with a hoof.

“Damn… How am I supposed to deal with this now…?”

I slept, but not as peacefully as I would have liked. The nightmares, they were… Horrid. As if Ghostly’s possessor was inside my head, trying to use my fear and hatred to fuel itself. Caritas had killed Ghostly successfully in it. I broke down crying, right before that bitch of a queen, and she stood over me. My dream self’s anger was so great, that I became a flame being, so powerful that one punch turned Caritas into a pile of ash, and the resulting shockwave woke me up.

It must have started thundering not too long ago, because otherwise I would have woken up at the first boom. Outside the sliding glass window of my apartment, little pitter-patters of raindrops hit my ears, and I turned my head to stare at a forming puddle on my balcony. Now, I loved weather like this, but, I really wanted a sunny day today. Just because yesterday was a lot to handle.

Alas, today was not gonna be one of those days. I simply went into the kitchen, and decided to cook up some bacon.

Thought maybe a cannibalistic hate demon thing would like some, considering I haven’t been eating much as of late.

The strips sizzled on the pan, plenty of hot oil jumping from the heated metal, and onto my skin. Suuuuure did hurt.

After a time of sarcastic ow noises, I put the strips on a plate, and walked over to the storage room, where Ghostly was being held. I felt awful about hitting her last night, but also, sort of, not. I mean, considering what she was saying and trying to do, I suppose it was a better idea to snap her back into reality.

Opening the door, I looked to my right and saw her lying there, sleeping soundly. After the hit I gave her, she was probably still groggy and in pain. I laid her food down in front of her, and sat down, staring at her. My eyes couldn’t adjust to the light. I turned it off, as it had been left on last night. The grey blue sky light poured in through the window, shining on the sleeping mare on my floor.

“Hey…” I called to her. “Ghostly, baby? Wake up. I got something for you.”

Wait, why did I call her ‘baby’?

“H-hmm…?” She responded quietly. She rubbed her eyes, and sat up. Her eyes were aimed at the floor, rather than at me, and she refused to look up at me. “Oh… I-I’m not hungry…”

I sat there for a while, staring at her. She cupped her face in her hooves, and I kept staring. “You’ve been crying.” I said that a bit more coldly than I had wanted, and I think I might have scared her. Also, no shit she’s been crying.

I got up, and left the room, to give her some alone time to eat. Going back into the kitchen, I went to clean up the pan. The grease was hard to get out, especially when the steel wool would slip out of my hooves. It took an hour, but I cleaned it out fully, and went back into the storage room.

“You didn’t eat?” I said as I noticed the full plate of bacon in front of her. Her face was still covered by her hooves, and I sat in front of her. She shook her head.

I sat there for a while, silently studying her to check and see if she was what she was last night. It appeared that she was cured, like a delicious ham. Haaaaaam.

Anyway! She looked up, thinking I had left from the silence, and looked surprised to see me sitting in front of her with my hooves crossed. “Are you… You, now?” I asked cautiously, in case my voice triggered it to come back.

Ghostly simply nodded at me, looking up at me whilst shivering. I moved her plate to the side, and inched up closer. “You cold, Ghost?” I asked.

“I don’t think I can ever be anything else anymore…”

I moved up a little closer, to her chains, and undid one of them. “Well, lemme get you out of here, and I’ll help you with that.” And with that, I undid the second one, and placed her on my lap as I sat on my ass.

“C’mere, can’t have ya freezing.” Wrapping my arms around her and looking up at her bloodied face, I had hoped I was making her slightly warmer. Just to help in any way I could. I took hold of a lock of hair and messed around with it, noticing its slight curls and very silky texture.

Her sighs of relaxation let me know that she was less tense, and more comfortable. I nuzzled into her chest, and kissed it lightly. Now, that might have been pervy, but it was what I thought was the right thing to do that moment.

After a time of cuddling and being sweet, she broke the silence. “U-uhm… you know I didn’t mean any of that bad stuff I said, right?”

Ouch, she just reminded me of that. I thought for a while, about how much it hurt, and thought perhaps that was what she really thought. But, I also remembered what she turned into, and how little control she had over it. I… Decided I’d be the bigger man.

“It wasn’t you, Ghostly, I know that. So I forgive you for all of it. Okay?”

“… Okay.” She responded, and nuzzled into my neck, and I swear I felt an icy tear melt into my cheek.

“Now come on, let’s get you all cleaned up.” I said, picking her up as one would their wife at a wedding, and kissed her forehead. I took her into the bathroom and laid her down in the bathtub, and sat inside with her. Turning on the faucet, at a nice and hot temperature, I looked at her with a hearty smile.

I found a washcloth, wet it, and held it up to her face, wiping away some of the dried blood slowly and tenderly. The bath had filled up by then, and I stopped the faucet, and continued on with cleaning up Ghost’s face.

“Lucky.” She said, out of the blue.

“Excuse me?” I replied in turn, smiling.

“Oh, uh, nothing. Just, you have a showerhead in your bathtub. It’s, just that you’re real lucky to have one.”

Looking up at the showerhead, and back down at her, I cracked a wide smile. Who didn’t have one of those in their tubs? I started to laugh pretty hard, for some unknown reason I found that funny, and I hugged her close, using a hoof to embrace her.

“I love you.”

Oh shit.