Isabelle Donna
went from “in a relationship” to “single.”
about 36 minutes
ago – Comment – Like
Dominic stared at
the screen in shock, reading the line over and over again praying
desperately that he'd missed a word or confused the name or that it
would link back to some kind of game or prank app. It didn't.
Pools blurred his
vision as he pounded Ctrl + R again and again and again. Every time
the little green bar took longer to fill up, and his heart clung to
his uvula. There would be a brief moment where the screen was empty
except for the borders of the web browser and the inactive Tubeit
tab. After that his news feed would blink into life and the update
would appear again, seeming less and less real every time.
“No no no
nonononoooo.” Dominic's head fell onto the keyboard. He felt
one of the keys flit past his uncombed hair, but he didn't care. It
clattered to the floor, staring hopelessly up at the keypad which had
cast it out.
Click her
profile. It's not real if it's not in her profile.
Trembling
fingers rolled the mouse across its pad. The green bar stopped
midway, and refused to budge despite the browser's promise that the
page was loading. Even refreshing didn't seem to make a difference.
It was as though the whole of the internet was pushing against the
bar, trying with all the might of the global network to stop Dominic
from seeing the page. But even the internet cannot ignore functioning
forever.
Isabella Donna
added 12 new photos to the album “College Freshman Year.”
about 24 minutes
ago – Comment – Like
The first thumbnail was of her sitting in someone's lap, framed by a
mashup of beers, backwards baseball caps, and pingpong rackets.
Isabella Donna
single now hmu
<3
about 36 minutes
ago – Comment – Like
The cursor hovered in the space between “View Info” and
“Top Friends” where “In a relationship with...”
used to be before veering towards the red “X” and
disappearing off screen as the room echoed with a thud. Dominic
stared at the side of his monitor, feeling a little cheated that he'd
missed slamming into the can of pens and pencils that sat nearby.
“What was that?” His father's voice rumbled up the
stairs, reminding Dominic that his door was still open.
“nothing.”
He cleared his throat. “Nothing.”
Images of Isabella trapsed through his mind. She laughed
and rubbed up against a line of other girls, all wearing skirts to
short to be clothes. A shot later and she was on her knees, smiling
up at the man who got more than a tease. Another man appeared,
petting her hair heavily. She gleefully took hold of him, moving her
hand with the beat of the driving dubstep that reverbed from deep in
the dark frathouse.
The taste of salt drove the tormenting dreams away.
Dominic could feel his left eye beginning to swell against the desk,
taking on a texture like a cat's paw pad. He brushed it with a finger
and winced.
He lolled on the desk uncomfortably, eventually
sauntering into bed and blinding himself in the darkness of
comforters. On most days he would have found solace beneath these
quilts, but far too many memories had seeped between the stitches.
One blanket in particular brought him a great deal of discomfort. He
crpled its slightly unfurled trim in his tightly clenched fist and
remembered the day she gave it to him.
“Did you honestly believe it would last forever?”
Dominic bolted up, causing tears to leap from his
cheeks. He looked the room over carefully, but saw nobody. The hairs
on the back of his neck stood on end, and something tingled behind
his ears, but he shrugged it off and assumed the voice had been one
of his own disturbed thoughts.
“To teenagers does true love not come.”
That time he was certain the voice was not his. He leapt
from the bed, tossing the covers across the floor. His heels hit the
floor with a thud, but he was immediately tossed to the ground as his
room began to shake.
The computer desk cracked against the floor, spilling
discs off every side. The laptop seemed to commit suicide, cracking
its monitor against the upturned chair and bleeding purple crystal
across the floor.
The blanket rose like a python, sitting off the ground
at level with the scrambling Dominic. He fell back against the bed,
breathing out air that hadn't reached his lungs. It lunged at him, a
blinding, writhing sheet of red and yellow yarn. It curled around him
tightly, constricting him. One of the corners reared up above his
head, prepared to strike. The squeeze tightened, yarn filled his
mouth and blocked his nose. He could feel his eyes beginning to dry
and bulge.
And then there was air.
The room stopped shaking. Dominic's lungs burned as they
swelled with air. He brought a tentative hand to his throat, just to
be sure the blanket had really gone.
The blanket floated in the center of the room. It
dangled in the air almost sorrowfully, like the cloak of a weeping
invisible man. Then it became ash amidst a burst of green flame.
“Oh, Dommy. Where's what you owe me?” The
chiding voice sent shivers down his spine. It sounded as though both
a man and woman were speaking at once. Or singing, rather, into a
metal pipe.
A cockroach crawled across the desk top as Dominic
pulled himself off the floor. It flicked its antennae from side to
side, dragging them across the wooden surface. Stubby legs carried
its hefty body across the desk, where it brushed over his hand.
Ice coated his skin as it crawled along his fingers.
“Women can be soooo insensitive, can't they?”
Dominic crushed the cockroach beneath his fist,
flattening his own left hand in the process. Instantly he was knocked
forward as though someone had punched him in the back of the head.
His face smashed into the corner of the desk, carving a fire beneath
one eye and bursting a blood vessel in his other.
“Don't patronize me.” The voice no longer
sang, but barked like a rabid dog.
“What do you want?” Dominic gingerly patted
his swollen eye. Another force rocked him forward, bashing him
against the desk drawer.
“You know what I want.”
Dominic clutched his ribs as he crawled across the
floor. His heat beat was slow but loud, and something inside him
cried with pain.
A lobster claw reached out from beneath his bed,
clamping tight on his arm. It grind the pincers together, sawing into
his arm.
“Give me the child, boy. I was promised a child!”
Enamel clipped from Dominic's grating teeth. He glared
into the darkness beneath his bed.
Two flaming eyes glared back, and a pearly white smile
beamed through the darkness. There was a tug at the back of his neck,
as though his hairs were trying to flee without him.
“Or do you not have one?”
“I-I don't.”
The smile became a frown. “But you promised. I
made her love you, now I get a baby. That was the deal.”
“You know we didn't have one.”
Something heavy stomped on Dominic's back. Air began to
clump in his throat, to mixed with blood and fear to find his lungs.
“I guess I'll be taking something else
then, won't I?”
A wave of damp cold rushed through Dominic. He tugged,
and battered, and screamed, but the lobster claw never let go.
And then the voice said in his ear: “I knew it
wouldn't last.”
The ground slammed into his chin as the claw, and the
smile, and the eyes vanished. Dominic stared into the darkness,
looking for any sign of the flaming eyes, but saw only darkness. The
room, which had seemed so loud before, was now utterly quiet.
He rolled over, groaning as his ribs shifted at the
whims of gravity. Burning blood slipped down his arm, but the clump
in his throat cleared up. He laid back and closed his eyes, carefully
admitting a few small breaths, wondering if the demon was really
gone.
Then there was fire in his chest. And then darkness in
his eyes.
The horned creature held the dripping heart in its oddly
hoofed hands. It admired the organ with both a smile and a glare.
Were it not for its snouted face, it would have frinned ear to ear.
Thunder on the stairs. “Dominic?” The
frantic cry of an unanswered father. “Dominic, are you okay?”
The creature sat on the bed and smiled, ready and eager
to make a deal.
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