Shadows of the Night - Brahms Heelshire x Reader [The Boy 2016]

Chapter 5: Envy the Sun

Even the sun with its golden rays

Reaches out to you at the end of the day

To hold you in its warm embrace

And tenderly touch your beautiful face

It covers you in its shimmering glow

To caress you gently before it goes

Then falls at last upon your lips

As if to give you a good night kiss

So I tell you, I envy the sun

For all those things which it has done

While all there is for me to do

Is await the night so I can dream of you.

[Envy the Sun by Jason Silverthorne]

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It's been a few weeks since you 'struck a deal' with the Brahm's doll and you've fallen into a routine based on the rules. You love it. Everything works like clockwork, knowing exactly what you need to do every day and having the freedom to do it. It's heaven and has been very good for your art side hustle. When it comes to how it's going with the doll you haven't deviated from the rules at all meaning no other mysterious intervention. You've been cooking near daily and you've just finished the Percy Jackson series and you plan on reading Harry Potter next. You clean the house weekly and have settled in, the Heelshire estate feels something like home now.

Malcolm's deliveries are every Monday and it's something you've come to look forward to with an almost obsessive focus given it's the only human interaction you have. Sure you text friends sometimes but it's not the same. You think you would have gone completely stir-crazy by now without the Brahms doll for company, and your growing preoccupation with the delightful puzzle it seems to be weaving for you. You've noticed portions of the frozen food going missing, always from the food you remember being the real Brahms' favorite, and the doll has been subtly moving from where you place it.

You are always on alert trying to catch it in the act or for some sign of another person's presence to no avail. The food makes you think that perhaps there is someone hiding somewhere, a terrifying thought, but it's also so little going missing that you think you might be tripping. As for the doll's movement you know it's not you thanks to a handy piece of chalk. You've been taking extensive notes on its movement wanting to gather as much evidence as possible before alerting your brother as you don't feel like defending your sanity to him, plus a large part of you has grown what is probably concerningly attached to the doll now that you suspect it to be controlled by the real Brahms from the great beyond, or something similar. You don't want your brother to interfere, even though you know you're playing a potentially dangerous game.

Since you've more or less accepted that the doll is possessed by your dead childhood best friend you've really taken on the cool babysitter role with the doll. You drag him around everywhere with you keeping up a relatively constant stream of chatter oversharing about everything and discussing at length the plots of a myriad of modern media, having decided to undertake the duty of his pop culture education. You haven't heard anything from the Heelshires since they left but your pay shows up in the mailbox on time so you don't think anything of it.