#once again i'm simply highly overdramatizing absolutely normal events

[youphoriaot7]

The desert is quiet. The moon shines high in the sky above, dragging itself from one end to the other. It never seems to set these days; every cycle feeling longer and longer, as if it's being held back by some invisible force. Every minute of darkness extending into a moment of danger; every second that the moon stays arisen is a second that's easier to die.

You are alone.

When you came to the sands, you had allies. The fraud wrapped in tones of the forest at your side, leading you from landmark to landmark. The soldier the color of greenery on your communicator, his messages comforting yet not at the same time. Your long-lost sister, her hat and coat long since shredded to tatters, supposedly waiting for your arrival. Your beloved, promising to make his way over.

Your sister was the first to fall. You arrive at the location the fraud told you about, and you see his look of confusion as she doesn't appear as you crest the hill. Before you can advise against it, he is slipping over the dunes, heading down to check out the situation.

He is the next to go. Suddenly, you're completely alone, clutching a sword in one hand and a communicator in the other. There is nothing to do but wait for your other allies.

You shoot off a couple of messages, each one steadily more frantic than the last. The warrior replies with his time of arrival, and it feels too long for you to wait. Your beloved, on the other hand, never responds.

You have to leave. You know this. The demon that plagues these sands is not one anyone should encounter alone; you know this better than most. You've seen it happen to others many a time before. You refuse to let yourself become one of the many bodies you've seen lifelessly strewn across the battlefields as of late.

After a few more moments of stalling, there's nothing to be done. The fraud and the woman have vanished. The warrior and the man are late. The demon is nowhere to be seen. It's time to leave. You turn over your shoulder—

—and he is standing there, dark as the night sky behind him, the only color betraying his appearance being his eyes of pure star white and the smears of blood across his cloak. The blue stains that have seeped into his hood after weeks of oblivity are nothing more than faded spots, barely visible in the glow of the moonlight.

He smiles, and a chill runs down your spine.

He asks you how you've been. Tells you it's good to see your face, that it's been too long—though it's only been four days, by your count, maybe five. Who truly knows, when the days run into nights run into longer nights run into eternity?

It's the most tense conversation you've had throughout your whole time on the island. Both of you are itching just below the surface, fingers twitching at simply the thought of digging into the other. Your teammates have been preaching peace all day, but you remember the way the demon forsake your souls on the first day in this new location. He was merciless, and you can be the same.

Yet you both hold back. Why? You may never know.

To the demon, perhaps you simply weren't worth it. Perhaps it would've been too much effort, so close to the end of the day. Perhaps he was afraid of you, more than he cared to let on, although his posture didn't betray that fact. Perhaps he cared too much to kill you, although you highly doubted that. Perhaps he simply did not care.

For you? The time isn't right. You can't take him alone. You know that better than anyone. You simply grip your sword's hilt tighter and politely finish the conversation.

The demon's eyes follow you as he lets you leave, watching and cataloging every hill you climb. You studiously make sure to take the path away from your base. Just because he avoided moving quicker than a wink there doesn't mean he will in the future. Had he wanted to, his blade could have been impaled between your ribs faster than you could even take a breath. But he didn't. And he won't be so merciful again.

You leave, and you don't look back. Once upon a time, you knew this demon well, and he knew you better than you knew yourself. Now, you still don't know yourself, and you don't know him, either. It's too dangerous. Too risky.

No sense in throwing yourself into a fight you know you'll lose.