A/N: The first in the "A World with Monsters" series – an AU of Dawn/Dusk. This was supposed to be for the lotus-eater machine trope for the Hat challenge – but it got skewered somewhere before the first chapter so no longer. But still, credit goes where credit is due and that's where the inspiration came from. :D
This is for the Building Blocks Challenge at the DFC, using song prompt 81 – Yellow Flicker (Beat Lorde). The lyrics were surprisingly…fitting. Snippets of the song will precede each new arc…and let's see if the song for the next fic in the series will be equally fitting.
Enjoy!
A World with Monsters
Monsters in the Yard
"I'm a princess cut from marble, smoother than a storm
And the scars that mark my body, they're silver and gold
My blood is a flood of rubies, precious stones
It keeps my veins hot, the fires found a home in me
I move through town, I'm quiet like a fire
And my necklace is of rope, I tie it and untie it…"
Yellow Flicker
Beat Lorde
1.01
She was no sleeping beauty sleeping on a bed made of brass and gold and wrapped in the richest gown in the palace while waiting for her prince charming to walk up and peck her on the lips. Hell, she wasn't even asleep, let along dressed up prettily and waiting for a prince.
There wasn't even a such thing as a prince or a pretty gown in this world. Just nightmares, nightmares, nightmares…
Chains rattled. She laughed and dug her nails in to her sin. 'Sorry, puppy,' she whispered at the sharp pricks. She'd sharpened them especially. Just in case.
Well prepared, she thought. For when her little puppy grew up in to a big puppy and lost his head. But not enough. Never enough.
She laughed again. To herself and to that little big puppy that managed to snore away senselessly and still create hell. 'Never, never, never,' she chanted to herself. 'Never, never, never.'
If anyone could see her now, they'd be…shocked, to say the least. Perfect little doll Sayo with her head tumbling down. The girl who could watch blood and skin and other human bits splatter about her and not even flinch. But there was no blood or skin except maybe under those sharp nails of hers. Just nightmares: nightmares that made reality look like a breeze.
And until it was morning and the sun came up and the monsters prowling the streets faded back into their shadows, the nightmares would go on.
Even if she did manage to stave off sleep this night.