Darling's Short Stories

Night Routine

TW: Description of gore, Death

Word count: 2,921

                                                                                         I

Ziggy's night routine always stayed the same. He relied on that. He gets home from whatever he does,opens the window, eats dinner, brushes his teeth, then sits on the couch. Every night it remained the same. Even when Skira came into his life.

It was a regular night, Ziggy sat on the couch and he heard a crash. He went to check and just under the window he'd previously opened was a girl with gigantic wings, short horns and scales. He thought this was a demon coming to drag him to hell. He started to back out of the room when he heard it whimpering. He asked himself do demons whimper? he decided they didn't and stepped back in the room. "hello?" he asked quietly, trying not to show he was scared. It glanced up at him, its eyes glinting in the soft lamp light of his apartment. it hissed. He stepped toward again, he saw the faint glint of blood dripping from its

wing. "you're hurt. let me..." he stopped a few feet away, noticing her back away. He held out his hand slowly, she looked at it the back at him, contemplating. He held his breath. He was not prepared to die.

She placed a small hand in his. A little while later he was helping stitch and wrap this creature's wing. She didn't speak, the only thing he could get outta her was her name. "Skiraaa" she elongated the vowel. He attempted to repeat "Skeera" and she shook her head angrily "Skira!" she reinstated. "ah ok." He didn't try again, afraid she might bolt or kill him for messing up. Once he finished he washed his hands. "Do you have a home?" he asked her. She looked around the bathroom and climbed into the tub. She seemed to be interested in the faucet. Ziggy took notice and nearly smiled before he caught himself. He had to get her out of his home. Who knows where she came from or what she could do to him. He cleared his throat awkwardly, causing her eyes to snap in his direction. "Um, do you want to stay here tonight?" she glared at him before her brain seemed to translate. She nodded and crawled out the tub, zipping past him and running through his apartment. He ran after her trying to keep her from breaking something. An hour later, after she was tuckered out, Skira collapsed on the couch.

Ziggy panted from exhaustion and attempted to sit beside her before she snarled at him quietly, a clicking sound coming from her throat. He immediately threw his hands up in defense and slipped to the floor. She went back to laying her head down as she curled her thick spiked tail around herself protectively, blanketing her large scaly wings over her body like a shield. He looked back at her and sighed to himself "sure take the couch." he turned on the tv and turned the volume down as he flipped through channels. He must have settled on something to watch because the next morning Friends was playing on the screen and he had fallen asleep on the floor. He looked back at the couch to find nothing there. Skira had disappeared.

Ziggy searched his small apartment for her but she was nowhere to be found. He guessed it was simply a dream. That is until he came home to complete his nightly routine, opening the window, eating dinner, brushing his teeth, only to find Skira sitting on the couch again. She was perched with her wings beside her, the injured one still wrapped from the past night, and her tail laying across the arm of the sofa. He stopped in the doorway. So she was real? How was this possible? What was she? He didn't have much time to figure that out as Skira had started biting his tv remote, prying him from his thoughts. He went over and gently removed it from her jaws, nearly getting his fingers removed in the process, as Skira bit down when he took it. He showed her how to turn on the tv and how to flip three channels, Nickelodeon seeming to catch her interest. She sat entranced by the yellow character on screen flipping around and taking to a grumpy squid. He smiled, whispering to himself, "that's actually kinda cute." Ziggy went to go and get ready for bed, and sat on the floor like the night before, watching the show with her until she curled into a bowl once again and seemed to sleep. This continued to be his new night routine. Come home, open the window, eat dinner, brush his teeth, turn on cartoons for Skira and sit beside her (later being able to actually sit on the couch rather than the floor) and wait for her to fall asleep. Some nights he even found himself feeding the strange girl, learning she enjoyed roasted vegetables and raw meats. This was his new life, and he loved it.