Tinderbox

Seolf’s right there. Waking up from a dream always feels the same. The high fever.. The dry airways. Had it been any other night, she wouldn’t have cared the slightest. But now, she’s waking up next to a beauty watching over her. It’s been.. two eternity, but also just about three hours. Weird sleep schedules entwine with profound dehydration and she feels sick. She jolts up. Nothing seems real anymore and yet..? She doesn't want to wake up.

But she’s already awake. And Seolf’s working beside her. She’s slowly engraving a piece of metal — likely some kind of reinforcement plate attached to the base of a helmet — with some ungodly precision and the utmost care.

She’s beautiful. She shines like the last embers of a roaring fire that burnt a city to the ground.

She’s bristling with energy. She’s full of passion.. She’s devouring. She perfects everything she touches… And she makes Charlotte quite dizzy.

She doesn’t feel herself at all near Seolf.

It’s like a fever that never stops growing. Higher, and hotter and higher and hotter and even more hot again.

She’s been awake the better part of an hour and she still feels a bit sluggish. Like something’s holding back in the dream realm. Seolf witnesses her for the first time and smiles. She gets up and gets closer. Her hand draws near Charlotte’s forehead. Her hand feels almost cold in contrast, even though her skin would melt metal and engrave the shape of her, of her soul onto anything like in fresh snow.

“ You shouldn’t move. ” Her voice was raspy, ashy. Like small lines of ashes separated by a thick sword with the utmost care. “ Whatever you caught could be more dangerous.

— Wha.. Uh? What did I catch?

— Some kind of summer flu? I don’t know, but it’s serious enough. You’ve been talking to yourself in your sleep. ” Charlotte doesn’t even want to know what she could have said while feeling so feverish she completely lost contact with reality. Seolf keeps close. She doesn’t let go of Charlotte’s forehead. The sleepyhead feels a pull towards her… Her heartbeat accelerates suddenly and her vision starts to blur. “ It may be contagious, who knows. ” Why is she so close then? Is she immune?

She wants to kiss her.

That’d be unbecoming though.. right?

What is this strange attraction? She feels like a magnet.

She drifts back to sleep once again.

But when she wakes up this time, she’s all alone in the soot covered room. She coughs a little and feels.. liberated? She doesn't feel the weird pressure filling her chest, the strange nausea, the insane attraction…

Is it the proximity with Seolf…? Is she the source of her illness? Will the sickness get back whenever she comes home again..? Charlotte bites her own lips..

Oh.. what to do now? Leave..? Maybe.. maybe she still is infectious. She shouldn't leave.. right?