His Dark Queen - Sondam

Chapter 44: Complete Black

The hawk's talons gripped onto Gundham's forearm as it perched to him. All the letters that had been tied by him were removed. Assumingly by Sonia.

"It returned much later than when delivering it to Fuyuhiko," Gundham noted, a tight squint in his eyes. His brow creased together, extending his hand to pet its feathers.

Peko pursed her lips, looking out into the horizon. Lights from other neighboring islands could be seen glowing in the sky. The pier of cottages out in the sea with many dark oak wooden panels being its only connection to the main island.

She turned to him, her arms crossed, rubbing her chin with her thumb and index finger. "Perhaps Sonia was shocked to find the surprise being a hawk. Maybe she was expecting something else."

Gundham's eyes peered downward, staring down onto the many cottages, Sonia's cottage, a lump hardening in his throat, "Perhaps," he sighed, repeating Peko's words into his head. In an attempt to overcome this worry and convince himself that was the case. Lifting his arm higher, the hawk flapped its wings and set off into the night sky, returning to its next. He turned to face Peko, his hands buried into his jacket, the ends flailing in the wind, "I hope to not have disappointed her."

"I don't think that's possible," A smirk warmed onto Peko's face, a rare sight to her on her, especially one to see without Fuyuhiko nearby. Placing her open palm to her chest, "I'm certain that ever since you woke up again, she hasn't been disappointed in you one bit." A spark in her eye caught onto Gundham's, staring into her crimson eyes, he was able to find comfort in that infamous cold stare of hers. A sense of mutual respect was felt between the two. Despite their bickering fights, cold stares, and clashes between the two on this island. At this moment the air was thick with understanding. Both required to cooperate together for a common goal; freedom.

Peko and Gundham depart to their motels, Gundham entering into his pitch-black room, exactly how he likes it. Stepping closer to his bed and pulling open the nightstand, he feels a pinch at his nape.

"Ah!" He winces to the pinch, gritting his teeth, and rubbing the back of his neck. Time went to a stop. Suddenly his head felt light, the walls of his room melting and the floor spinning around him. His neck twisting and turning for what felt like hours until his head fell weightlessly. Paired a loud thud hitting onto the carpeted floor. Sweat beaming through his skin, his limbs stiff and heavy. His enlarged pupils darting, watching a large shadow creature standing above him with a thin companion. Eventually, his ever-growing heavy eyelids fell with him. And the room turning into a complete black.

-

The world peering through Gundham's eyes is blurry, without a single shape to detect. With only the mixing of blues in the night sky and yellow glowing lights above him to see, the plain hues boring his eyelids again. His entire body weightless, straddling in one's arms like a baby. In an attempt of using all his might, his shaking hand lifting mere inches until dropping back once again. Along with his blurred vision into a complete black.

-

It happened once more again. Instead of dark blues and yellows in his colored vision replacing it with the dark tones of smooth greyed walls with intense bright cyans bouncing from it. His mouth and lips escaping groans from his dry throat in his aching body. Complete control of fingers, bending them tiredly across a wooden texture beneath his fingertips. His body sitting upright, but his head slugging down between his shoulders. Hunching over as his head fell between like weights. The whirring of dusty old fans, mechanical beeping, and the low screech of a winding hard drive pounding into his eardrums. Being distorted into echoes from his half-unconscious mind. A sensory overlord in his mind beginning to irrupt, his head spinning again, the echoes increasing until his blurred eyes gave in, into a complete black.