For a brief moment, we stood there, holding each other in a warm hug. I would have been content to just keep hugging her for hours as my arms sank into her velvety coat. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, Twilight ducked out of the hug, coming dangerously close to scraping my back.

I jumped as the sudden movement caused a quick burst of adrenaline to flow through me. “Whoa! Sheesh, Twilight! Calm down!”

“Sorry…” She smirked as her cheeks glowed a rosy red color. “It’s just that I want to get back home as soon as possible, which means I’m going to have to get to work on my magic. Speaking of which, is there anywhere nearby I could do that? Perhaps an empty room or some other isolated area?” An uncanny smile dominated her face. “I wouldn’t want to do it inside and potentially damage your home,” she added with a wavering chuckle.

I thought about it briefly before a place came to mind, a grim reminder of what had happened nearly a decade ago.

“Well… there is… my dad’s old office,” I offered softly. I found myself letting out a low sigh. “It should be empty.” For a moment, I remembered the good days when he was still alive.

“What happened to him?” she asked, apparently having picked up on my sigh. I looked at the soft, tan carpet below her, sighing once more.

“I was eighteen when it happened.” As I began, I let out a long, deep sigh. “I had just gotten home from my last day of high school, ready to move on to the next big part of my life. I was about to move on, alright.” I stared at the carpet as if I was trying to count each individual dust particle caught between the threads. “The years sure have gone by fast…”

“That must have been awful…”

I nodded. “It was.” I took in a deep breath as I moved my gaze back up at Twilight’s face. “Of course, that was nearly a decade ago.” I tried my best to fake a convincing smile. I could literally feel how fake it was – my teeth were even hurting! Twilight saw my ‘smile’ and raised me one frown, not even fooled in the slightest.

“I can tell you’re still upset about all of this…” she cooed. I could see the pity in her eyes.

“I don’t want to talk about it. Brings out too many negative emotions.” I looked back down at the carpet, wondering how nice and comfy it would be if I lay down. I almost wished I could, only to find my body being absorbed into the carpet, never to be seen again.

Twilight shook her head. “The only way you’ll ever feel better about all of this is if you are willing to discuss it. It’ll help you significantly if you release all of the feelings you’ve bottled up.” I sighed. She was right. I wasn’t going to feel better if I kept it in.

“You’re right… It’s just that…” My mouth felt like it was filled with peanut butter. Or maybe molasses. Something viscous. “Well, after it happened, my mom fell into a deep depression. It got so bad that I had to tie her down to her bed at night so she wouldn’t try to end it all when I was asleep.” My head hung like there was a massive ball of lead tied to it. I exhaled slowly and heavily.

“Of course, that didn’t help much. It did help her get some rest, sure. But after about a week of that, she had a heart attack in her sleep.” Just thinking about it made me feel like I had just smashed my head into a mailbox at 45 miles an hour. I put my palm to my head in a desperate attempt to hide the pain.

“That’s awful!” Twilight gasped. She moved as if she had put herself into a freezer in an attempt to become a block of ice but didn’t quite get the job done. Her pupils grew so large that if they had grown any larger, I’d have sworn they were going to eat me in my sleep. “She… she survived, right?”

“Yeah, she survived it,” I told her bleakly. Twilight’s face reverted to its false comfort as she heard this. “But the heart attacks didn’t stop. Over the years, she’s had several, each weakening her more than the last. It’s like her body wants to die.

“And the heart attacks are getting to her. I mean, she can’t even remember her own name now. It seems like the only ones there to comfort her when she’s alone are the darkness and the paranoia.”

A lake of tears obscured the purple color of her irises now. Her mouth was curled downward. The sight of it took an axe to my heart. “I… I’m sorry, Twilight. I’m not going to go on if it’s upsetting you this much.” She smiled weakly through the tears that were now rolling down her face.

“Thank you,” she sniffled. As she continued, her smile disappeared. “All of that pain must have been clawing at you from the inside! And to keep it bottled up for this long… Martin… I- I’m so sorry for you.” Twilight closed her eyes and wrapped her talons around my head, careful not to hurt me. Gently, she pulled me close, tucking my head underneath her arms. I slowly placed my head against her chest.

Immediately, I could feel her warm, soft coat tickle the entire left side of my face. Her heart beat softly inside of her. The sound of it echoed throughout my body, relaxing my muscles. “There, there. It’ll be okay.” As she spoke, she slowly scratched my back with her talons, making certain not to hurt me. Standing there in Twilight’s embrace, her heart pounding softly into my ear, I felt safe. I could have melted away then and there and I would’ve been happy.

“Thanks, Twilight.” I pulled out of her embrace, feeling the dark thoughts leave my mind. “I… I feel a lot better now.” I smiled.

She smiled back, her eyes still a bit puffy from her tears. “I’m happy to hear it.”

“Alright, let me show you to that office.” With my hand, I signaled for her to follow me down the hallway. As I shuffled across the carpet, I could feel it squeezing between my toes. I had always loved that about carpet.

When I reached the door, I threw my arm to the left, inviting her to enter the room. With a nod, she walked up to the door. After a few seconds of her fumbling around with the doorknob, I realized that I was going to have to open it.

“Allow me,” I chuckled. She backed away from the door to give me room to work my magic. Giggling, I twisted the doorknob and threw the door open. Without hesitation, dust exploded out of the room, covering the hallway’s carpet with a thick blanket. After getting a whiff of the air, I sneezed.

Her face lit up. “This is just what I was looking for! I mean, we’ll have to move all of these boxes, and those cobwebs will have to be cleared out, but aside from that, it’s perfect!”

“Wait, what boxes?” Puzzled, I took a look inside to see what she was talking about. Sure enough, the room was filled with stacks and stacks of cardboard boxes of varying sizes. “Huh, these must be all of Dad’s possessions.” I hadn’t entered the room since it happened, and it definitely showed. Each and every box looked like it had been collecting dust for years, which made sense, considering the fact that they had. As many as a few thousand cobwebs plastered the ceiling, walls, and floor.

“To be honest, I haven’t even looked at this room since it happened.” Twilight swiveled her head to look at me, bewildered.

“Really? Not even once?”

I shook my head. “No. I guess it brings up too many painful memories, being the room my dad died in.”

Twilight shut her eyes and nodded. “I guess I understand. Still, I think you owe it to him to at least look at the room once in a while.”

I shrugged at her. “I guess I just never found the time to. Nor did I find the courage to face my emotions. It wast just too challenging to enter this room and not be reminded of my father.”

Twilight shot a friendly smirk at me. “I accept your challenge.”

Scratching my head, I asked the obvious question. “What challenge?”

“Before I find a way to get home, I will help you face your emotions. That’s a promise.” A smile slowly spread across her face.

I couldn’t help but smile back at the gesture.

Author's Note

Once again, not the final draft.
I apologize for taking so long to actually put this up. It's not that it wasn't done or ready, I just didn't find the time to post it until now.
Next chapter will be looking at the events before Twilight and Martin met. There are some pretty big plot points introduced next chapter, too, so I'm excited for that!
As always, I'm open to criticism. I'm always striving to improve in my writing, so let me know what I'm doing wrong and how I can fix it!