nosleep

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The original was posted on /r/nosleep by /u/Contrantier on 2024-11-27 04:57:56+00:00.

I don't know how big a problem this is going to be in the long run, really, because it started out so uncertain, and it still is. We're both terrified, and we don't know how to get out of this.

I'm Kelar, 22, live in a nice two bedroom apartment in a lovely area of town. The neighborhood has a woodsy feel to it; the buildings are dark brown, there's a lot of tall pine trees everywhere, and the streetlamps are warm and orange in the evening.

Something about this neighborhood makes me think of Alice, I guess. I mean, this is where I met her. I'm a sales associate at NidoMax Electronics, looking for a promotion in the future, and she's a florist, expert on anything about flowers.

She's just so in love with plants and nature in general, and as there's a lot of miniature wildlife hiding in the trees, she's right at home here. Y'know, besides the fact that she lives here and stuff.

I met her outside picking up a baby squirrel from the grass at the edge of the woods, and my heart just went out to her right away. Anyone who would rescue an abandoned baby squirrel is all right in my book. I asked her if she needed help.

Long story short, I think we both fell in love that day. Less than a year later, she was already moving in with me. Well, we both switched from our studio apartments to the big two bedroom, that is. She's only two years older than me, and it felt so perfect.

Alice has always had this wonderful, soft personality. Children seem to gravitate toward her. Dogs and cats are super calm around her. Ever rubbed a cat's stomach? You know how they like it for about four seconds, and then suddenly you turn into a freakish gremlin whose sole purpose is clearly to disembowel the feline and it defends itself suchly?

Yeah, that doesn't happen with her. I swear, she could do that cat massage ASMR for a living if she wanted.

I think part of it comes from her past. She'd been abused a lot as a kid, beaten by both of her parents. Somehow, she views everything that can't defend itself as worthy of a lifetime's worth of love and compassion. I know she doesn't like to talk about it, but she's opened up to me occasionally. I understand her way better than most people.

Well, we've both always had our careers and our hobbies. She likes walking through those woods and finding little animals to help, like lifting a fallen baby bird back into its nest, that sort of thing. I mean, that's no surprise----she actually rescued a little girl from a creep at the local park once. She'll help anyone who needs it.

I think that's what started this trouble for her.

She came home one evening after a little walk around in the trees (I'd been pretty worn out from work and went right for a shower, so unlike most times I didn't join her). She looked so happy that she seemed to be glowing.

"Alice?" I called to her with a half smile. She looked as though she'd just donated a palace to a family of raccoons. She looked up at me, her eyes lighting up, and walked to me quickly and purposefully without answering. I almost said her name a second time, but she practically collided with me, rustling the towel around my waist and knocking me back against the wall, threw her arms around me and kissed me.

I went instantly rigid. She was very touchy and liked to put her hands on me a lot, but I couldn't remember the last time she'd just come and gotten me like that. I don't know what else to call it. I was in complete bliss as she kissed me, and her mouth tasted different than ever before. Usually she just had that normal, generic taste (no, not strawberries or something else cliche), but this time, her lips and tongue tasted like sugar. Like she'd just drank a glass of liquid sugar or something, the flavor was just like eating a pinch of the stuff right out of the bowl.

I don't think I need to be descriptive about the rest of the evening. She just seemed to get more and more lovey over the next few minutes, and it ended with us both falling asleep very happily in her bed.

Just before she nodded off with her head on my chest, she finally spoke. She said just one thing. "Kel?" she murmured.

"Yeah, babe?" came my reply. It was a struggle to keep my voice from trembling; part of me wanted to still try to ask her what amazing thing had come over her, as I'd tried a few times over the past couple hours, but been either cut off with something lovely or ignored as though she couldn't hear me.

"I wish you'd sleep in my bed more often." And then I felt her settle deeper into me, that sign that she'd signed off for the night.

It sounded perfectly harmless and sweet, but to be honest, our two bedroom thing wasn't just because we thought we could use the extra space.

I toss and turn. A LOT.

So I didn't really think she'd come to stand by those words if I took them seriously. I just chalked it up to her swimming in the aftershocks of our wonderful time, and fell into dreamland with her.

Strangely, when I woke up, I found myself not flipped over, not laying on the opposite end of the bed, not up on top of a skyscraper balancing a stack of plates on my head or whatever else overactive sleepers do. I was exactly as I had been.

Alice wasn't there; I could hear soft clattering sounds in the kitchen, her making breakfast.

I started to get up, but then I felt something soft and silky slide off my shoulder, like a small cloth.

I looked down at the bed next to me and frowned. A small dusting of white powder. I reached down to it and pinched a bit between my fingers, raising it to my face. It felt like powdered sugar, and it even smelled like it. I wondered if Alice had gotten up in the middle of the night for a snack, then fallen asleep on me again.

I looked down at my shoulder, and I could suddenly see a faint indent, like a nail had dug into the skin. I remembered her hand being on that shoulder last night; she must have squeezed a bit at some point. I dunno.

I swept the stuff into my hand----it was only like two or three pinches----and dumped it into the bedside can before going out to join her.

She'd made pancakes and waffles. I was pleasantly surprised; Alice wasn't usually one for such a sweet tooth. She enjoyed robust foods like rare steak, eggs and sausage (but of course she'd never tell the forest critters that).

I saw that her brown hair looked a bit lighter than before. Her skin had taken on a slight pale, almost glowing sheen that caught her in the sunlight from the window above the kitchen sink. She turned and smiled at me, and it felt like I was looking at an angel in heaven.

During breakfast, she finally explained.

She'd met someone the previous night while out in the woods. An angel, she claimed, pretty ironic since she looked like one herself right at that moment. She said the lovely woman had put some kind of a spell over her, and told her that it was a reward for simply being the kind of person she was, always looking out for the weak, always caring for those who would have died without her. Alice thought the woman might very well have been some kind of nature spirit.

But then it got weird.

Alice said the spell----the reward----had been a claim of custody. Custody over her soul, and that of the one she loved most.

She took my hands as she spoke. "Don't you see what this means, Kel?" she whispered as her eyes filled with tears. "We don't have to stay here anymore. We can leave this all behind. There's a better place for us out there. A better world. All of this can just be over. We can go somewhere where all of the children and animals are safe and looked after, where no one ever gets hurt, where----"

"Alice, whoa," I said, standing up suddenly. "Where is this coming from? You sound like someone told you some kind of fairy tale and convinced you it was true."

She looked at me for a few seconds, her expression wavering. Then slowly, she began to smile, and a knowing, sympathetic look came into her eyes. "She said you might be doubtful," Alice said softly. "That you wouldn't believe, that you wouldn't understand."

She stood up and walked toward me, raising her hands. "But she said that there's a simple fact of life that solves the problem of disbelief."

I noticed that there was something white under her fingernails. On both hands. "Alice...?"

"Sometimes, when you truly know better than the one you love," she whispered softly, "it's easier to do what's best for them, and then earn their forgiveness later, than let them suffer."

She turned her hands over, palms up, and opened and closed them rapidly, tapping her fingertips into her palms. As she did, white dust sprinkled out from under her fingernails. Fine, pure white. And the smell drifted toward me as she did, along with a gentle gust of warm wind that smelled like sweet bread, combining with the sugary scent.

I felt as though I might fall asleep, but I struggled to keep my eyes open. She raised her hands over my head and fluttered her fingers. I could feel the dust sprinkling into my hair. I felt mesmerized; what on earth was she doing? What did she mean? What was going on? Was this some kind of romantic roleplay?

She lowered her hands to my face and very gently began to rub the white powder into my eyes. I reflexively reached up to push her hands away, but my arms only got about halfway. Then they kind of just drooped.

That feeling when a drop of water gets in your eyes, that sting----I was feeling the opposite. It was like a dehydrated person gulping down ice water. The ...

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