Hi hi story time cuz suddenly I like to write and I wrote this an hour straight and it’s midnight and I gotta hit the hay ihchugudfg
Context: this shįt takes place in a post-apocalyptic human realm. Maylin is 12 and freshly traumatized. She just lost her whole village to the invasion. Tyler is 14 and was unaffected by the invasion at his place. Lake went missing after the invasion. Tyler is Maylin’s only acquaintance she finds and maybe her only hope.
The cabin tainted with silent ease and fortune is never easy to find no matter its whereabouts; it stays unbothered unless the finder holds its key.
Approaching, hard crunches in the soil echoed in the endless meadows, enough to creak open the cabin’s door. Maylin stops at its doorstep, breathing heavily despite this nonchalant, expressionless sadness worn on her face. She bit her tongue until an arrival.
Tyler came down the creaking stairs, an innocent flash of concern in his eyes. He answered the open door and approached her, fearlessly paying no mind to the portal that now separated the two.
“Maylin? It’s been a while… what’s… up?”
He sported a half-hearted, welcoming grin, but it was apparently flawed with uncertainty. Maylin was too numb to take note of that. She started, almost too desperately.
Tyler flinched at her words like it burned. He hadn’t heard anyone utter HIS name for quite a while now, he forgot how it sounded like. The grin dampened into hollowness. He shrugged and glanced away, as if trying to hold on to his slipping composure.
He scoffs softly and idly leans against the doorframe.
“You never know where he is with that guy. Always at places he shouldn’t be.”
The joke did not pass the vibe check— I mean— the joke did not pass through Maylin’s thick wall. She continued staring at him, as if giving him a second chance to answer before crashing out— I mean before he hit her last nerve.
Tyler continued after an awkward silence, letting his nonchalance slip into a kind of sadness.
“…He hadn’t come home since the invasion. I was hoping he was with you… But I guess that’s just false hope on my part.”
He confessed as he rubbed the back of his neck. He glanced up at her dejected expression… but it was an unsettling, freshly traumatized one. She replied with a change of topic.
“Well you need to get out of here. The invasion killed lives too many. You need to leave.”
Tyler stood shocked by her sudden warning.
“I-I’m aware of what it’s done, but it’s over now. We’re safe, Maylin.”
He reassures in a softer tone as he takes a step closer to her. But solace failed to reach her. She grew more rigid.
“You don’t understand. Who will save you when another one comes?”
Tyler became stiff. He couldn’t understand where she was coming from, but he knew it was too close to paranoia.
“What are you talking about? Maylin—“
“If you don’t leave now, everyone and everything you love will die.”
Her words echoed through the disturbed cabin, followed by a long pause. Tyler stared at her, his softness faded into a blank stare. That set him off.
Maylin turned her head, ignoring the weight of her words.
“Get it? So run away before—“
And before she could continue, a violent push to her chest scattered her thoughts. Tyler stood broodingly. Furiously.
“Don’t you dare threaten me like that. What do you know?”
Maylin slowly turned to side eye Tyler, as if he were in the wrong.
“…what the hell was that for?”
She stood her ground defensively, though that was slipping too as Tyler pressed on.
“You come in here— no, you barge in here, interrupt my log reports and tell me my family’s gonna die? As if losing him wasn’t enough… Get real, I’m not letting your paranoia affect me too.”
Maylin shrunk at each point jabbed at her. Tyler’s anger was never something she anticipated. It seemed her plight to save her only friends, her only chance to take action for Yumari’s sake, was misunderstood to be an episode of delusion. She lowered her head, tapping her fingers timidly at how foolish Tyler made her out to be.
“B-but… I’m just warning you…”
Her voice as low as a mouse, he softened at her newfound nerves and breathed out his annoyance. At least he could tell when someone meant well under pressure.
“Look…” he spoke, piquing her attention. “Want some hot choco?”
The portal thinned. That simple, out-of-pocket proposition was enough to alleviate her hurt.
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