Endosymbiosis

34. Fear

"If the story's purpose is to scare, this one actually failed a little..." Plumala tried.

"See?! He couldn't even scare the little dove!"

And the discussion continued loud into the night.

"Being alone like that..." Doxy whispered, close enough to me that she didn't have to yell over the mess for me to hear her. "It must have been a nightmare..."

I turned to her face, framed by the glow of the stars on the horizon, and I whispered:

"And I didn't even had to close my eyes to see it."

In her eyes I realized she wasn't trying to guess whether my story was true or not, because she could already see the answer. She wanted me to know that she understood me from the inside out... That she understood the focus of the story.

I got lost in her for a moment... She had the face of something I wanted to protect, the body of something I wanted to devour and the eyes of something I should fear... She challenged me on every spectrum and I wondered why I hadn't run away still... I wondered why I had the feeling she would eat me up more than the worms on my dead body when I decided to leave, but I wanted to stay and watch, as if addicted to my own destruction. I needed to go on, for one more dose of what she had to say, one more glimpse of the honey in her eyes and the pepper soaked in them, one more touch from her when I was hurt for her to save me...

She would be my ruin.

And maybe my salvation too.

"I don't think they understand..." She whispered, as we watched the mess. "I don't think they would ever understand, even if they tried... Some nightmares only those who lived are capable of fearing..."

I opened my mouth to ask what nightmares she was battling when a question interrupted our conversation:

"After all, was that story real or not?"

"It was."

"I said it!" Lupan celebrated. "One more point for me!"

Then Deinos attacked him with claws and fangs, in a jumble of beasts.

"But what about you, sapiens? "Korrok said and everyone went silent to hear him. "I bet you must have some scary stories... Besides the ones we're in, obviously." He let out a venomous chuckle and then everyone turned to Doxy, alert and full of anticipation.

She passed her eyes over all those who awaited and the silence urged her to tell a story in a whisper, as her voice came from the very stars plunged in darkness:

"I closed my eyes once and I saw something I shouldn't have..." She began softly, as if she were telling a secret. "Pores tearing from the mesh of space like hungry mouths to devour the entire universe, the sound of death and chaos screaming through the dark beyond and echoing to the edges of the Milky Way in an incomprehensible cacophony..." The crackle of fire and the murmurs of insects were the soundtrack to her words. "I realized that Earth was just a grain of sand... While an entire ocean was hidden behind the pore. And, in the depths of its abysses, swam unspeakable sea beasts, hungry in the scarcity of its barren lands and thirsting to cross to our side..." Her eyes were empty with beasts crossing the darkness within, prophecies trickling from her lips as if the universe had whispered its nightmares to her. "I saw them cross to our skies... I saw darkness engulf our worlds... And then I saw the end..." She blinked, as if waking up after a millennium to see everyone's eyes on her, confused, silent now that the game no longer seemed to matter. No one dared make any bets, until she felt she should reveal: "It's a lie." She opened a shy smile. "It was just an illusion..."