I wake alone on the last night of the year. Our apartment is quiet, empty. Nye has already woken and left, gone somewhere I don’t know. He’s much older than me, and can rise at twilight, while I’m still young enough that I do not wake until night has fully settled upon the city. Still, usually he waits for me. I’ve grown accustomed to waking to his warmth in bed. There’s a sharp ache beneath my breast to find myself alone now.
I rise and dress. He’s left no indication of where he’s gone or when I might expect his return. I shouldn’t be surprised. In the first months of our relationship, before I learned what he truly was, it was not uncommon for him to disappear for hours at a stretch. I would go walk through the city, or buy a pastry at a patisserie and sit at a table for a while to eat it, watching the people who passed me by.
I cannot go out, now. The day is forbidden to me, and I fear to go out alone at night.
I don’t fear monsters in the dark. Not anymore. I am the monster that lurks in the shadows, now, and what I fear is what might happen if I do not have Nye to watch over me, and keep the hunger from taking control.
Psyche, by Aislinn Kerry
All that Glitters, by Aislinn Kerry
