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Say the words, guardian.
“Get me out of this fucking nightmare so I can protect her!”
The darkness around him receded until he was standing in the apartment on the other side of the mirror. He patted his form down, checking the wound on his stomach for darkness. It was as it had been before he was taken, present, but frozen in the moment of his death. He watched the last of the shadows retreat into the corners of the room until the only remaining shadow stood at the backdoor where it had initially entered. The Gatekeeper didn’t take any form this time, just a dark mass seeping out through the door frame. Its black gaze held Mel's for a full minute before it turned and disappeared.
Mel slumped, his back hitting the wall. He had never left the apartment. He’d been here the whole time she was looking for him.
“Anastacia!” he breathed out and ran toward the front door, ready to phase through it. Before he crossed the threshold, he was thrown back, slamming into the wall by the kitchen. He groaned, remembering the feeling of a boundary set by her. He rubbed at his head, glowering at the salt still piled in the corner.
“You gotta be shitting me!” He pivoted around to check the pile in the corner by the back door. Still there, untouched. Putting very little energy into it, he kicked the trash can by the fridge, surprised when it skidded across the floor.
He pulled the can back over. “Great. I finally get a better hold on this stuff, and I’m trapped by fucking salt.”
Something clicked in his mind as he held the can in his hand. He couldn't touch the boundary, but the can could. He launched the plastic container at the salt marker, only to have it bounce back at him. So, it wasn't just him who couldn't disturb the salt, nothing he controlled could either.
"Awesome…" Mel huffed to the front window, pulling open the blinds just enough to see the front walkway. “Come on, Stacia. Come back to me in one piece. Don’t face him alone.”
As the hours ticked away Mel maintained his post at the window, checking for any movement outside. He thought of when he stood guard at Anastacia's apartment window during the long nights, only this time he was the helpless one. Discomfort buzzed through him. He would have said it made his skin crawl if he had skin.
A short walk around the apartment helped pass the time until she came home.
“Look at this, moving in already?” He chuckled, looking toward the bedroom door where he found the gym bag filled with her clothes and some toiletries.
He inhaled their scent as he sat on the bed, flashes of their night together mixing with his anxiety. If the Gatekeeper released him knowing he would be trapped here, so it had a chance at her, he would find a way to tear the fucking thing apart. He would spend the next eternity tracking them down if they went back on their word and hurt her.
The thought didn't sit right. Deep inside he had an inkling they were being honest about everything. Including her mother. He didn't know yet if he would tell Anastacia that detail but there were very few beings, human or not, he trusted to protect her and he still wasn't sure where the Gatekeepers fell on that short list.
“Damn it, where would she have gone?”
The sound of the front door opening made him shoot to his feet. Peeking from the bedroom he watched Anastacia close the front door, turning the deadbolt behind her before laying her head against the wood. Her bag looked heavy and so did the weight on her shoulders. Keeping to the shadows along the hallway, he was unsure how he should approach her. Not knowing what she thought happened to him was bad enough, but if she thought he just left her with no goodbye, then her reaction might not be as welcoming as he wished.
With heavy steps, Anastacia trudged to the couch, dropping her bag at her feet before pulling off the rain cloak and rubbing at her arms, her upper body still wrapped in her turtleneck. Falling back onto the plush upholstery, she reached for the throw blanket at the end of the couch, wrapping it around herself. With a heavy exhale, she pulled a manila folder from her bag, stacked with papers at least an inch thick, opened it on the coffee table, and spread the papers in front of her like a deck of cards.
He watched her brows furrow as she rushed to pick up another paper before digging through her bag for her notebook. Still so focused, she didn’t notice the shift in temperature as he entered the room.
“I need to invest in a computer,” she muttered to herself, tapping a single USB drive at the side of the papers she was currently looking through.
“You know, there's a laptop in the guest room,” he blurted.
Anastacia was on her feet, the blanket thrown back onto the couch, eyes searching frantically for the voice. She blinked, and he saw the golden flakes shine as she focused all of her efforts to see him again.
“Take it easy, Stacia. You don’t need to try that hard to see me. You never have.” He moved out from the hallway and into the light coming from the living room lamps, holding his arms to either side in a gesture to say, “Here I am.”
“Wha-wha…?” she shook her head looking him over, her hazel eyes losing the golden glow, accented by a tearful sheen. “Mel?”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t want to disappear on you. I didn’t—”
Within a second she flung herself at him. Mel pulled energy to try to make himself as solid as he could. They were both surprised when she collided with him, nearly toppling them both. He staggered back, catching his balance enough to keep them from hitting the floor. Wrapped around one another, her hands clutched his back tight enough that Mel was sure she was going to leave marks if it was possible. He put his nose into her hair and inhaled deeply as one hand cradled the back of her head while the other wrapped around her waist, pulling her tightly to him.
She leaned back, eyes filled with tears as she looked up into his. “You’re back?”
“I never really left. It’s a bit of a story.”
“But you’re here?”
“Yeah, I’m here.” He nodded, his hand pushing her hair from her face. “I’m here.”
A loud crack echoed around them as her open hand collided with his cheek.
