Mobley Eats
Consume. Smother your doubts. Be fulfilled.
Original poster
LURKER MEMBER
FOLKLORE MEMBER
- Posting Speed
- 1-3 posts per day
- One post per day
- 1-3 posts per week
- One post per week
- Writing Levels
- Intermediate
- Adept
- Advanced
- Preferred Character Gender
- Male
- Female
- Transgender
- Primarily Prefer Female
- No Preferences
- Genres
- Modern, Romance, Fantasy, Scifi, Drama, Action.
Penelope Hollows
My hand was cramping. Shivering, at that, but I refused to stop. I was so close to finishing. The last page of the final chapter stared back at me, a-almost mockingly so, yet posing as the ultimate gateway to salvation. My one true ticket to just... finally... finally express how I felt for Cookie. I couldn't take this back and forth anymore. All of the insecurities and unanswered questions and silent dread and hope and confusion...
No more. My heart couldn't handle another second.
Scattered blotches of inch marred the margins, right next to the closing paragraphs of Zemnian Hours.
And as the final flame extinguished itself, leaving naught but the scattering of elven ashes on sacred soil, their hands joined. Bloodied. Worn. Withered by the trials and tribulations, by the distance and discord, by the heartache and heartbreak.
A princess of kingdom past stood before her love, a face once scorned and feared by many. Hated by her. And yet, she could not tear her gaze away and with a weak squeeze of their hands, peace caressed their hearts. Oranges and pinks and lilac stretched across their beaten forms and cast shadows across the ravaged fields.
"It's the Zemnian Hour," she whispered.
"I know."
She swallowed, her voice hoarse and fragile. Invigorated. "Where... Where do we go from here?"
"I'm... I'm uncertain." His gaze swept over the sprawling lands, the horizon warming his crimson-dried cheeks. He locked his vision with hers once more and in that moment, she knew him. Inside and out. For every thought and emotion coursing through his being utnil the beginning and end of time. "But I'll be by your side. Always."
She'd never known love to twist one's heart in such an agonizingly gentle way. "As shall I... We will forge our own hours from hence forth. Together."
The blotches smeared. It was only now that I noticed and a beat later, realization struck. Oh... Oh dear. I wiped the tears from my eyes before dabbing the page carefully with my sleeve. I couldn't afford to ruin this. N-not now. Not ever. Beneath the passage, there was half of the page remaining. I filled in the blank space with a simple hand-written message.
This would work... r-right? Oh God. I prayed it would. If Demi rejected me, I didn't know if my heart could take it. I... What would I do? Although the thought of her turning down my feelings scared me, imagining my emotional response afterwards proved to be far more terrifying. I didn't trust myself. Didn't trust whatever pathetic iota of strength I had left. I was... I was weak. So pitifully weak. I'd nearly shattered when Helen didn't love me back in the way I had, what was to say that I...
A knock at my door. Harsh. Frantic. Impossible to confuse it for anyone else besides--
"Pen! Pen, you in there?"
Demi.
O-oh God. Oh no. No, no, no, why so soon?! I thought she went back to the dining hall! Heart threatening to crack my ribs from beating too hard, I scrambled to shut the book and tuck it protectively to my chest, wide eyes swiveling back to the door. Demi had yet to let up on the knocking; in fact, the pounding grew more and more frantic by the second. Christ. What in the world had gotten into her?
"Pen, seriously! I'm gonna keep doing this until you OPEN THE FUCKING--!"
The door swung open.
And there we were.
Me. Rim rode straight and crumbling all at once, only held up by a string. Even if I was taller than Cookie and had to look down at her, I felt the need to shrink. No--shrivel up, like some salted snail. The weight of everything was slowly crashing over me and judging by the uncomfortable aura radiating from Demi, she was feeling it too. Neither one of us spoke. For a moment, I tried to catch a glimmer of those beautiful chocolate eyes, but she kept veering her gaze from side to side. Nervous. Anxious beyond believe.
It twisted my gut into knots.
"U-um..." I fidgeted from one foot to the other. "D-Dem? Why... Why're you...?"
"I'm sorry."
A long pause.
I... W-wait. What?
The confusion must've been clear on my face, because Cookie then proceeded to launch into a bumbling mess. Pushing back her wild mane of hair, freckles on fire, and words tumbling past her lips like a broken faucet. "Uuuugh--don't make me fucking repeat myself! I said I'm sorry, alright? What I said and did was just... fucking stupid! I was an ass! I shouldn't have just up and fucking left you hanging like that! Like goddammit! Who does that?! Me, apparently. Yeah, that's me! Demi the fucking asshole--"
"Stop it," I said, my voice and bottom lip quivering. H-how could she say that about herself? It was just a misunderstanding. Even worse, a colossal mess up on my part for... opening my big stupid mouth. If anything, I was supposed to apologize, not Cookie. At first, I hesitated, only to swallow back the fluttering in my gut and take a step closer.
Unlike before, Demi didn't retreat.
I tried so hard not to let the hope swallow me whole.
"W-whatever I said... whatever happened, we... Y-you don't have to blame yourself for anything, Cookie. I p-promise. I just... I really..." A shaky breath escaped me. "You a-already know what I feel, s-so... It doesn't mean you h-have to say anything just because I did."
"Pen..."
I shoved the book into her hands. Cookie blinked down at the novel, then back at me, the questioning clear in her eyes. "Just read it... Read everything. P-please." I didn't want to give her chance to protest; that seemed selfish of me, but she had to read it. This was my last leg to stand on. However, just as I tried to step away, something warm wrapped around my wrist and I found myself stumbling forward.
Inches.
O-only inches between us. We were so close, and so suddenly that I'd forgotten how to breathe. Oxygen caught in my lungs so quickly that I didn't have a fraction of a particle left to even gasp. The intensity behind Cookie's stare could set me on fire here and there. God... Cookie, never stop looking at me. Ever. I'd gladly drown in her eyes if she'd let me.
"I don't know what you're going on about with... this," she raised the book between us, then lowered it again, "But this? This shit with us? It's not over. I don't... want it to ever be. So..." Her gaze adverted and I couldn't help the pained whimper that knocked at the back of my throat, wounded by the loss of eye contact. W-when did I become so pathetic? I wanted to say something, anything comprehensible, but all forms of human language ejected from my brain as Cookie closed even more distance between us.
Was... w-was she...?
No.
Absolutely not.
I was hallucinating. I had to be. She'd never... Especially not after the stunt I pulled and the reaction she had. Cookie didn't feel the same way about me. It was one-sided. Just like all of the loves in my life. It was a fate bound to my ankle by shackles, forever impossible to escape. That was the truth of my life, so how come I could feel her warm breath wafting across my face? Count the freckles on her scarred visage? Feel the heat radiating from her body? Sense the... th-the lips nearing... mine...
A gentle press.
Against my cheeks, just shy of the corner of my lips.
Before I could clear the fog from my mind, Cookie pulled away completely, her face redder than a freshly boiled lobster and a long stream of disgruntled murmurs unraveling under her breath. She cleared her throat. "We, uh... we're not done, you hear me? We've got shit to talk about later, so... yeah. Bye." Hastily, she power walked away from my door with the book in hand, refusing to shoot a single glance my way.
"Oh..." Slowly, weakly, I slid to the floor and stared at the empty space before me, my head floating from the blood rushing to it. "O-o... kay..."
W-what just happened?
My hand was cramping. Shivering, at that, but I refused to stop. I was so close to finishing. The last page of the final chapter stared back at me, a-almost mockingly so, yet posing as the ultimate gateway to salvation. My one true ticket to just... finally... finally express how I felt for Cookie. I couldn't take this back and forth anymore. All of the insecurities and unanswered questions and silent dread and hope and confusion...
No more. My heart couldn't handle another second.
Scattered blotches of inch marred the margins, right next to the closing paragraphs of Zemnian Hours.
And as the final flame extinguished itself, leaving naught but the scattering of elven ashes on sacred soil, their hands joined. Bloodied. Worn. Withered by the trials and tribulations, by the distance and discord, by the heartache and heartbreak.
A princess of kingdom past stood before her love, a face once scorned and feared by many. Hated by her. And yet, she could not tear her gaze away and with a weak squeeze of their hands, peace caressed their hearts. Oranges and pinks and lilac stretched across their beaten forms and cast shadows across the ravaged fields.
"It's the Zemnian Hour," she whispered.
"I know."
She swallowed, her voice hoarse and fragile. Invigorated. "Where... Where do we go from here?"
"I'm... I'm uncertain." His gaze swept over the sprawling lands, the horizon warming his crimson-dried cheeks. He locked his vision with hers once more and in that moment, she knew him. Inside and out. For every thought and emotion coursing through his being utnil the beginning and end of time. "But I'll be by your side. Always."
She'd never known love to twist one's heart in such an agonizingly gentle way. "As shall I... We will forge our own hours from hence forth. Together."
The blotches smeared. It was only now that I noticed and a beat later, realization struck. Oh... Oh dear. I wiped the tears from my eyes before dabbing the page carefully with my sleeve. I couldn't afford to ruin this. N-not now. Not ever. Beneath the passage, there was half of the page remaining. I filled in the blank space with a simple hand-written message.
All I ever want is to forge my hours from henceforth with you. No one else but you.
This would work... r-right? Oh God. I prayed it would. If Demi rejected me, I didn't know if my heart could take it. I... What would I do? Although the thought of her turning down my feelings scared me, imagining my emotional response afterwards proved to be far more terrifying. I didn't trust myself. Didn't trust whatever pathetic iota of strength I had left. I was... I was weak. So pitifully weak. I'd nearly shattered when Helen didn't love me back in the way I had, what was to say that I...
A knock at my door. Harsh. Frantic. Impossible to confuse it for anyone else besides--
"Pen! Pen, you in there?"
Demi.
O-oh God. Oh no. No, no, no, why so soon?! I thought she went back to the dining hall! Heart threatening to crack my ribs from beating too hard, I scrambled to shut the book and tuck it protectively to my chest, wide eyes swiveling back to the door. Demi had yet to let up on the knocking; in fact, the pounding grew more and more frantic by the second. Christ. What in the world had gotten into her?
"Pen, seriously! I'm gonna keep doing this until you OPEN THE FUCKING--!"
The door swung open.
And there we were.
Me. Rim rode straight and crumbling all at once, only held up by a string. Even if I was taller than Cookie and had to look down at her, I felt the need to shrink. No--shrivel up, like some salted snail. The weight of everything was slowly crashing over me and judging by the uncomfortable aura radiating from Demi, she was feeling it too. Neither one of us spoke. For a moment, I tried to catch a glimmer of those beautiful chocolate eyes, but she kept veering her gaze from side to side. Nervous. Anxious beyond believe.
It twisted my gut into knots.
"U-um..." I fidgeted from one foot to the other. "D-Dem? Why... Why're you...?"
"I'm sorry."
A long pause.
I... W-wait. What?
The confusion must've been clear on my face, because Cookie then proceeded to launch into a bumbling mess. Pushing back her wild mane of hair, freckles on fire, and words tumbling past her lips like a broken faucet. "Uuuugh--don't make me fucking repeat myself! I said I'm sorry, alright? What I said and did was just... fucking stupid! I was an ass! I shouldn't have just up and fucking left you hanging like that! Like goddammit! Who does that?! Me, apparently. Yeah, that's me! Demi the fucking asshole--"
"Stop it," I said, my voice and bottom lip quivering. H-how could she say that about herself? It was just a misunderstanding. Even worse, a colossal mess up on my part for... opening my big stupid mouth. If anything, I was supposed to apologize, not Cookie. At first, I hesitated, only to swallow back the fluttering in my gut and take a step closer.
Unlike before, Demi didn't retreat.
I tried so hard not to let the hope swallow me whole.
"W-whatever I said... whatever happened, we... Y-you don't have to blame yourself for anything, Cookie. I p-promise. I just... I really..." A shaky breath escaped me. "You a-already know what I feel, s-so... It doesn't mean you h-have to say anything just because I did."
"Pen..."
I shoved the book into her hands. Cookie blinked down at the novel, then back at me, the questioning clear in her eyes. "Just read it... Read everything. P-please." I didn't want to give her chance to protest; that seemed selfish of me, but she had to read it. This was my last leg to stand on. However, just as I tried to step away, something warm wrapped around my wrist and I found myself stumbling forward.
Inches.
O-only inches between us. We were so close, and so suddenly that I'd forgotten how to breathe. Oxygen caught in my lungs so quickly that I didn't have a fraction of a particle left to even gasp. The intensity behind Cookie's stare could set me on fire here and there. God... Cookie, never stop looking at me. Ever. I'd gladly drown in her eyes if she'd let me.
"I don't know what you're going on about with... this," she raised the book between us, then lowered it again, "But this? This shit with us? It's not over. I don't... want it to ever be. So..." Her gaze adverted and I couldn't help the pained whimper that knocked at the back of my throat, wounded by the loss of eye contact. W-when did I become so pathetic? I wanted to say something, anything comprehensible, but all forms of human language ejected from my brain as Cookie closed even more distance between us.
Was... w-was she...?
No.
Absolutely not.
I was hallucinating. I had to be. She'd never... Especially not after the stunt I pulled and the reaction she had. Cookie didn't feel the same way about me. It was one-sided. Just like all of the loves in my life. It was a fate bound to my ankle by shackles, forever impossible to escape. That was the truth of my life, so how come I could feel her warm breath wafting across my face? Count the freckles on her scarred visage? Feel the heat radiating from her body? Sense the... th-the lips nearing... mine...
A gentle press.
Against my cheeks, just shy of the corner of my lips.
Before I could clear the fog from my mind, Cookie pulled away completely, her face redder than a freshly boiled lobster and a long stream of disgruntled murmurs unraveling under her breath. She cleared her throat. "We, uh... we're not done, you hear me? We've got shit to talk about later, so... yeah. Bye." Hastily, she power walked away from my door with the book in hand, refusing to shoot a single glance my way.
"Oh..." Slowly, weakly, I slid to the floor and stared at the empty space before me, my head floating from the blood rushing to it. "O-o... kay..."
W-what just happened?
