Page 9 of These Eternal Bones

I wring my hands in my lap, studying them intently.

Embarrassment flushing my neck. “About that, thank you…for letting me stay in the cottage. For helping me, I don’t have any coin to repay you.

I’m actually trying to leave-” My head snaps up as the sound of ripping fabric fills the coach from the direction of his seat, but I’m caught again by his eyes.

Such a dark shade of black that I can’t identify a pupil at all.

“I do not require coin, but if you’re concerned about repayment…we could start with a name.”

“A name?” I breathe, his odd eyes darting to my neck before grazing everything in its path back to my eyes.

“Yours, yes.”

“Oh, uh- Molly.”

“ Molly .” My name sounds almost lewd in the way he whispers it, making my stomach feel strange. Giddy. My hands slam there, my cloak tugged tight, it's only then that I remember the state of me. How…disgusting I appear surrounded by rich velvet and silk around him.

“Elric.” He offers, tugging his black leather glove off almost eagerly as he offers me his hand.

My cheeks must be a horrid shade of red as I place mine in his.

His skin is hard, cold, and…soft, welcoming in a way it shouldn’t be.

My mind blanks as he lifts it to his lips, pressing a lingering kiss there, but all I can focus on is the dirt underneath my nails, the blisters on my hands, and the scuffed state of my knuckles.

“It’s a pleasure, Molly, to meet you properly.

” His eyes lift to mine, his lips still grazing my hand, soaking it in.

The past few weeks play like a horrific slideshow in my mind, reality settling in like a lead weight in my gut now that he’s here, truly here.

“In the woods that night, what–” the words slip past my lips before I can call them back.

He sighs, releasing my hand and righting himself, looking every bit the affluent, gothic lord I’ve spent the last few weeks painting him to be. “You simply caught me off guard.”

My breath shudders out of me, the memory of the cold, wet ground pressing into me. The way my body–

Suddenly, I feel sick; the movement of the coach is too much. “Are you a demon?”

His lips quirk at that. “I have been called as much, a time or two.”

My eyes dip again to the black veins on his neck, the walls of the coach tightening in on me.

Monsters are real.

The stories were… real .

My hand snaps out to the handle on the door, readying to fling myself out.

I don’t even get a grasp on it before I’m pushed back into my seat.

His movements are so fast that I’m hit with a wave of vertigo.

Fast but…gentle. Even the grip he still holds on my wrist is featherlight as he hovers over me. “You are like the others then, Molly?”

“Others?” I breathe out, my heart pounding in my ear as he shifts closer, eating up all the air between us.

“Humans who hate beings like me. ”

His thumb moves over the scar on my ring finger, tracing the outline as if he’s determined to memorize it. “I did not know there were beings like…you.”

All at once, his hold on me releases, reclining back to his bench in a swift movement. All the breath in my lungs releases at once, leaving me lightheaded and my heart fluttering. “Then perhaps things have changed a great deal more than I had thought.”

I watch him, trying and no doubt failing to hide the horror on my face. “I-I oh god–”

“Molly…”

Panic brackets in my chest, my eyes darting wildly as my stomach churns. Monsters are real, he … he wasn’t lying, the tales that shaped my childhood… the things he taught us to fear. And I’m trapped, being cared for by-

“Molly, it’s been over a month, yes?”

My eyes snap back to his, black and consuming, but for a moment, his question stills the rapid working of my lungs. I simply nod, words failing me.

“In all that time, you have felt safe, yes?”

My brows furrow, my knuckles white with their grip on the bodice of my dress as I weigh his words. The reality of them hitting me with an assuredness I hadn’t expected. “Yes.”

The man- er, the being, cannot hide his approval of my answer, his attention ripping from me to gaze at the passing trees through the window. “I admit, I know little of the world outside of Port Clyde, how times and people have changed, but you will come to no harm when I’m near.”

The clopping of hooves on rock and the jostling of the coach are the only sounds that follow his statement, the sudden lack of sound only adding to the strange way my stomach swirls, only this time it’s not nausea, but butterflies.

What an alluring concept…to be safe with something I was taught to fear.

I suppose that’s the biggest joke of all, mind bending, world shattering, panic aside…

I have felt safe, if not…cared for this past month.

I was taught to trust, to adore, to love him …

taught that there was no one better to love or admire…

but I knew years before it was my time to be scared.

The being in front of me allows me to sit in silence, my mind spinning as I lean back, watching the trees with him.

Monsters are real.

I’ve escaped two of them.

Please Elric, don’t be the third.