Day 7 / Blank

Garret's sleep that night was anything but restful; it was constantly disturbed by nightmares or intrusive thoughts. Occasionally one would startle him into consciousness, causing him to shudder and wake the woman sleeping in his arms.

"Garret? Is something wrong?"

He hugged her tightly for a moment, then shifted and tried to get comfortable again.

"No, just a nightmare… Sorry for waking you."

"S'alright…" She yawned and scooched herself a little closer to him. Soon, she was snoring away again.

The second time that happened, Annika knew something was wrong. It wasn't like Garret to get nightmares, but he refused to talk about it when she asked. The third time, she turned around and pulled him into her embrace, letting him rest his head against her chest.

"It's alright, Garret… You're…" She yawned and rested her head against the top of his. "You're gonna be alright…" She held him like this until he managed to fall back to sleep. At least she was here. When they were close like this, he felt like everything was going to be ok.

"Thanks for that, Annika."

"Hmm?"

"For last night… It really helped."

Annika looked up from the half-laced boot she was working on and smiled.

"No problem, Garret. Gotta make sure my partner gets his beauty sleep, after all. We can't have you passing out in combat again." She paused and cocked her head to the side, a thoughtful expression on her face. "Though if something is bothering you, you know you can always talk to me, right? We've been working together long enough, there's no shame in it."

Garret, who was already dressed and waiting on his partner, shook his head.

"It's fine. Just some bad dreams…" Suddenly he felt self-conscious as she gazed at him, causing him to look at the floor. "Thank you for saying that, though. It means a lot."

"No problem!"

Annika's cheerful mood this morning was infectious, and even without saying anything, just being around her helped Garret's mental state immensely. When she finished lacing up her last boot, she clapped her hands together to signal her readiness.

"So. Breakfast?"

"Breakfast."

Another sunny day, another big helping of eggs and meat, another peaceful breakfast by the fountain. Having either been fighting or unconscious for six of the last seven days, Garret was really starting to appreciate the little bits of downtime like these. Half way through their meal, they heard someone whistle a catchy little tune. When they looked up to determine the source of the sound, they saw Eric and Aisha heading towards their table with their own trays of food.

"Mornin', Eric! Mornin', Aisha!"

Annika waved to them as they approached.

"Morning, guys."

"Good Morning~"

Noticing that, unlike her and Garret, Eric and Aisha were both armed, Annika commented on their appearance.

"Ya look like you're about to take on the world. Got a mission for today?"

Eric nodded as he sat down and replied between bites of egg.

"Yeah, an officer dropped by last night to gather people for an operation. Something about needing to exterminate a few plant mamono."

"Mhmm~ They gathered thirty men to fight again and kill the plants that put you in a trance."

Garret smiled as he scooped another portion of eggs into his mouth. That was good to hear. Thirty men seemed like overkill for six alraune, but he was glad they were taking it seriously. At least this number basically guaranteed their success, so they wouldn't end up like… like Rin… Tortured and changed, reduced to a shell of themselves, killed mentally and spiritually but not physically, their bodies desecra-

"Garret? You alright, man? You've got a really dark look on your face."

Shit, that was careless of him. He looked up, smiled and waved their concerns away.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just be careful, eh? And good luck."

He wanted to add 'and make sure you kill them all', but that seemed a little too obvious. The group's meal continued in silence until Aisha spoke.

"Has anyone seen Catherine of late? I haven't seen her since our…" She paused as she tried to think of a rhyme, before shrugging and speaking normally. "I haven't seen her since we carried her home."

Apparently neither Eric, nor Annika had, because they shook their heads or replied with "No".

"I saw her when I was getting water yesterday, but she seemed flustered. Maybe she's got something going on?"

Aisha looked thoughtful at this, before shrugging. "She shouldn't… I don't think the Mage's guild has handed down any assignments recently, and she usually eats with us anyways. Maybe she's busy with a personal project?"

"Maybe… I need to return the crystal she lent me anyways, so Annika and I could check up on her today."

Eric nodded and flashed a thumbs up. "Sounds good. Let us know what happened when we get back, alright?"

"Sure."

They chatted for a while longer about various, more pleasant topics, as they waited for Eric and Aisha to finish their meals. Once done, they wished them luck on their mission and parted ways. They'd need to get to their rally point, and Garret and Annika had a certain wizard to check up on.

"It was strange how flustered she was, though… And we'd drank so much, I don't think she'd have been in any state to work on a personal project." Garret mused as they walked to Catherine's house.

"Maybe she was still tipsy." Annika giggled, remembering the scene. "She drank more than any of us."

"A day later? That seems…" Garret was about to say 'unlikely' but remembered exactly how drunk she had been that night. "Actually, that might be the reason."

A few minutes later, they arrived at their destination and Garret approached the door to knock. Immediately, things felt off… when he rapped his knuckles against the old wooden door, it swung open slightly, like it hadn't been properly latched.

"Catherine? Are you home?"

This might not have been considered socially acceptable, and in truth, what he did next made him feel a bit like a school kid trying to sneak out of class, but he cracked the door open and slowly crept inside.

The small interior was even messier than what he remembered… Before, there were piles of books and trinkets everywhere, and now… well, there were still piles of books and trinkets, but many of them had been knocked over and were scattered across the floor. Signs of a struggle? … No, it looked like they had been disturbed by someone while drunk or similarly disoriented.

"Garret, what are you doing? Don't go snooping through her stuff."

He shushed her as he moved on to the next room. She was right, there was no reason for him to do this, but… everything felt wrong here. Catherine's previous actions might have been because she was drunk, but maybe something else was going on… or maybe his paranoid was getting the better of him.

As he approached the kitchen, he heard a dripping sound, which caused him to pause and listen.

"Catherine?"

No response.

When he walked through the doorway, he saw the source of the noise: a bucket that had been knocked over was slowly dripping its remaining water into a puddle on the floor. That wasn't the only thing amiss in this room… there were about a dozen other buckets in here, littering every possible surface; all kit for food preparation had been pushed aside to make room for them. Some of them were full of water, but most were empty, and the entire area was damp, like spills had not been an uncommon occurrence in the past day here. The scene caused Garret to raise an eyebrow, before heading to the stairs.

"Someone must have been thirsty…"

Seeing he hadn't been stopped by her protestations, Annika had apparently given up and decided to join him. While she was looking around in the kitchen and common room, Garret ascended the stairs to what he assumed would be Catherine's bedroom.

"Catherine? Are you home?"

He gently knocked on her bedroom door before easing it open with a loud creak. The inside was in a similar state to the rest of the house, damp and messy. The bed was particularly affected, with the sheets having been tossed off of it, into the corner, and a very obvious wet patch present in its center. The only thing of interest was her desk, propped against the wall with a spilled inkwell and quill laying next to an open journal. Out of curiosity, he picked it up and took a glance over the sloppy, rushed handwriting. There was only a single, short entry for today, but it was written largely enough that it covered both pages. What it said caused Garret to immediately snap the book shut and sprint down the stairs.

"It won't stop. I have to lock myself in the basement. The wards will …" A sudden scribble, like a mild earthquake had hit, marked the end of the entry dated for this morning.

"Woah there, Garret, what's wrong?"

His sudden arrival, and near collision with her, startled Annika, but there was no time for apologies. He scrambled to the door that lead to the basement staircase and yanked on the handle. Locked. To break the door, he threw a roaring fireball at it, but it stopped an inch or two away from the wood and sputtered out of existence. "And don't worry about scorching the floor. The whole house is warded against fire." Damn it, Catherine…

"Garret! What's going on?!"

This door didn't seem too sturdy, they could break it!

"Help me with this door, Annika! She's in the basement!" Garret pressed himself against the wood and tried to push, but was pulled away by his partner.

"Not until you tell me what's happening!"

He wordlessly pulled out the journal, opened it to the latest page and handed it to Annika. She read it, then flipped to the previous page and read a bit more. Apparently what had been written there was even worse, because the colour began to drain from her face. She quickly handed it back to him with a nod.

"On three."

They counted it out, then rammed their shoulders into the door. It gave a little but remained standing.

"Again!"

They repeated the process twice more, the door shifting a little each time. On the third attempt, with a splintering crack, the lock holding the door shut broke, allowing the door to swing open and sending Garret and Annika tumbling down the stairs. They landed in a crumpled heap at the bottom, thankfully without injuries, but as Garret staggered to his feet and pulled Annika to hers, what he saw sent a chill down his spine. The air was thick with demonic energy, and loud moans (previously muffled by the wards) bounced around the room. In the corner sat the person they were looking for. A naked, and much more youthful looking Catherine lay there, eyes closed, in a mound of pink slime that engulfed her legs and lower body. The moans were coming from her as the slime slowly thrusted its tentacles between her legs or traced across her breasts.

"Catherine! Annika, get a priest, quick!"

His partner nodded and ran back up the stairs as Garret approached the woman, a conjured flame burning in his hand.

"G… Garret…" Her eyes flicked open for a moment as she heard him call her, then closed again as the slime intensified its motions.

"K… K…"

"Hold on! I'm gonna get you out of there!"

He had to be careful about hitting her, but if he cut slices of the slime, maybe he could boil enough away to pull her free safely… He extended the flame from his hand into a long, blazing blade, then brought it down on the slime, carving away a portion beside her left leg. When it touched the goo, though, Catherine spasmed and shrieked in pain.

"You're fine! I didn't hit you!"

The slime must be doing something to her… Garret quickly cut a second piece off of it, causing another shriek. He was about to make a third cut, when the remaining slime suddenly retreated, disappearing between her legs and… into her body? He took a step back, completely befuddled.

"What the hell…"

Catherine seemed more alert now, the pain likely bringing her to her senses, and she curled into a ball, pushing herself against the wall, trying to get as far away from Garret as possible.

"P-Please! No more…. No more…"

"Catherine…"

The poor woman had already begun to show the effects of being exposed to demonic energy. The few wrinkles and skin blemishes she had had disappeared. It was making her more beautiful, younger looking, preparing for her inevitable transformation into a monster… but she wasn't a slime yet! There was still hope, so long as Annika could find a priest quickly.

"Garret… Please… Kill me…"

Catherine briefly opened her eyes and had just enough lucidity to say that, before closing them and moaning again, her fingers reaching towards her nether regions.

"Help me, Garret. It feels so good! It feels so good! So good, so good, so good…"

She trembled as she came again, either from her own finger work or the slime's motions inside of her.

"Hold on, Catherine! Annika will be back with a priest; we can still save you!"

She smiled as she played with herself, before slowly standing herself up.

"No… No, no, no, no… Garret, I want you, I want you, I want you, I want you…"

She took a step forward. Garret took a step back. She kept walking. He backed himself up against a wall.

"Garret, Garret, Garret, Garret..."

He knew exactly where this was going. When she got within arm's reach, he lunged forward and rammed her with his shoulder, sending her tumbling to the ground.

"Stay back, Catherine! We're going to help you, but I can't let you touch me!"

Her behavior… she wasn't a monster yet but was already acting like one. Were they too late? The woman writhed on the ground, moaning and seemingly having difficulty picking herself back up. Slowly, the slime he had seen previously oozed out from between her legs and began to fondle her again. She stayed like this for a few minutes, but eventually stood up and tried to approach Garret for a second time. This time he waved a flaming hand in front of her, which caused her to quickly retreat back into her corner. The fire seemed to scare her, so he used that to keep her contained until Annika arrived with a priest in tow.

"Garret! We're here!"

The older man descended the stairs and looked upon Catherine with a mixture of pity and sadness. Annika was about to follow, but he commanded her to stay put, no doubt to limit her exposure to the demonic energy. He approached Garret and raised a hand in greeting.

"Good morning, Garret, I'm Father Sullivan. You found that woman like this this morning?"

The man spoke in a serious, low voice, as he looked over Catherine. Garret nodded in confirmation when he asked his question.

"Yes, not even an hour ago."

"Then maybe there's still hope…"

He grasped the holy symbol on his rosary and approached Catherine. She moaned again as the slime moved within her, then tried to reach for the priest once he was close enough. She never made it, though. Her moans turned into screams, and she collapsed to the ground as the crucifix he was holding flashed with divine energy, shining its holy light on her. Where the light touched the slime, it burst into brilliant, white flames and was burned away, but the majority of it managed to retreat inside of her just like when Garret attacked it.

"I see…"

The priest made his remark in a grim tone before channeling his power again. Even with no slime present, it still caused Catherine scream and spasm with pain.

"Do you know what this is, Garret?"

"Some kind of slime, Father?"

"Yes… but not the usual types you would encounter in the wild. This one is a slime parasite. They're rare, usually only found deep underground or around other powerful monsters."

"K… Kill me…"

Garret nodded but didn't understand. Why was he being told this?

"Does it make a difference? A slime is a slime, right?"

Father Sullivan shook his head sadly, then delivered a kick to Catherine's thigh, causing her to groan. The skin wobbled and flowed, like he had just booted an overfull waterskin.

"They infiltrate a host's body and slowly convert it into slime from the inside out, leaving only the skin intact. I'm told the feeling is quite pleasant, but the end result is always the same. There's no saving her. The infestation is in its final stages."

"Wha…" Garret looked down at Catherine, disbelief written plainly across his face. He had never seen anything like this before…

"But… she was talking… She knew me."

Father Sullivan nodded sadly and gestured to her head.

"The brain and spine are the last things to go. She might hold on to her thoughts for… another day? Maybe? But eventually that will be consumed as well. The only thing we can do for her is to-"

"-kill her before she loses who she is."

He finished the priest's sentence for him, and the man nodded in affirmation.

"I can burn her away with holy magic, but that will take time. It would be agonizing. Your partner said you were a flame sorcerer, maybe you could end it quicker?"

A numbness crept across Garret's mind. He still wasn't quite believing what was happening, but stepped forward anyways, a hand alight. The pain from the priest's light seemed to have brought Catherine back to reality for a moment – a small mercy that allowed them to exchange a few words. Her eyes were unfocused and she could barely move, but Catherine managed to slightly tilt her head his way.

"Please… While I'm… Still me…"

"I'm so sorry, Catherine. I-I'm so fucking sorry..."

He blinked, trying to clear the mist that was accumulating before his eyes, as he conjured a spear and prepared himself. A slight smile played at the edge of Catherine's lips when she saw that.

"I said… Call me… Cathy…"

The words caused Garret to snort, then wipe away the tears that began to roll down his cheek. The last thing he had expected was for her to say something like that.

"Sure thing, Cathy."

With that, he sent the spear flying, embedding it in her head. He immediately detonated it with a fiery explosion.

When the smoke cleared, there was almost nothing left of the poor girl. True to Father Sullivan's word, there was almost no blood in the splatter, just slime and skin.

"She was a friend of yours?"

Garret shook his head as the priest laid a hand on his shoulder. How could he call someone he'd only known for a few days a 'friend'?

"No… but she could have been."

The priest confined Garret and Annika to the upstairs of the house while he purified the basement. They sat on the bed, holding each other while they waited for him to finish. Annika had wrapped her arms around him tightly and was loudly sobbing into his shoulder. The death of the woman who comforted her when her partner's life was in danger had no doubt hit her harder than Garret. He had cried when casting the spell that killed her, but now… now he didn't feel anything. Was that because he had only known her for a few days? Or was that because he was getting used to seeing people die in front of him? Maybe he was just in shock… and maybe that was a blessing. Either way, he tried not to think too hard about it, focusing his attention on the woman he could help. He held Annika in his arms and did his best to comfort her as she cried. Eventually Father Sullivan came to them, performed a quick rite of cleansing, and offered to walk them somewhere quiet – an offer Garret appreciated and accepted. They needed some time to themselves.

During their walk through the city, Annika was a complete wreck. Garret didn't think she let go of him for a minute during it, nor did she stop crying. Fortunately, Father Sullivan knew all sorts of secluded, back alley paths that kept them away from other people, so they didn't attract stares as they walked. Eventually, they reached their destination – an isolated spot amongst the rocks where the city met the sea. The washing of the waves against the shore was calming, and the calling of the gulls overhead provided a welcome distraction from their grief. Of course he knew a good spot for this, the old priest had probably helped dozens of other soldiers through similar times.

"Thank you."

Father Sullivan nodded, but stayed right where he was, being there for them as they dealt with their grief and occasionally offering words of consolation. When Annika eventually managed to calm herself and her sobbing began to subside, he walked over to them, laid a hand on both of their shoulders and bowed his head, whispering a prayer. When he finished, he crouched beside them.

"I'll be needed at the temple soon. Will you two be alright?"

Garret looked to Annika, who dried her eyes, then nodded. He had stayed with them at the beach for a couple hours at least, they should let him go.

"We'll be fine. Thank you, Father."

Father Sullivan looked them over somberly, likely wondering if they actually would be.

"If you ever need council, you can always talk to the priests of the church, either myself or one of the others. I would strongly suggest that you do so. You don't have to struggle through this alone."

With that final remark, he placed his hand over his holy symbol and bade them farewell.

"May the Goddess watch over you."

Garret and Annika stayed on the shore for a while longer before they eventually decided to depart. Slowly they walked through the streets in silence, supporting each other physically but trying to stand on their own mentally – if only for a short while. Garret looked to the crowd around him, thinking of it as a kind of motivation and encouragement to continue on. Catherine had died, but he had to stay strong and keep fighting. Everyone did. If not, the usually peaceful lives of the civilians here would come to an end and then hundreds more would have to experience the same grief that he and his partner were going through. Annika was… well, he couldn't read her mind, but she seemed to be thinking something similar, judging by the way she looked over the crowd, the children playing in an alley, and the houses around them.

The next few hours were a blur of unpleasant emotions. They returned to the barracks and Annika immediately collapsed onto the bed, staring at the floor. Garret tried to comfort her, but she brushed him away. Maybe she was trying to be strong for him like he had been trying to do for her, or maybe she found it easier to deal with things on her own. To find his own form of closure, Garret began to read Catherine's journal, wanting to figure out where everything went wrong. The majority of the book's pages contained private details about her life and personal thoughts – pages he skipped over out of respect for her privacy, and to protect himself. If he got to know her better through the journal, that might shock him out of this numb feeling that was stopping him from breaking down and crying again. The page for the day of their operation was blank, save for a short note from the morning mentioning her departure. Made sense… she probably was too drunk to write anything that evening. The next morning's entry noted her increased thirst and discoordination, which she attributed to a hangover. An entry for the afternoon mentioned how her thirst had not subsided and that she was drinking water by the bucket to try and quench it. It also detailed how she had begun to feel strange, lustful urges for the men in the city, the unusual fantasies described in a disturbing level of detail.

In her evening entry, she figured out what was going on, her theory soon confirmed by the emergence of slime from within her. The writing from this point on became increasingly frantic. She identified the slime type almost immediately, but concluded that she was already doomed, at least when it came to how much the priests could heal. She hypothesized that she must have been 'infested' during the fight against the slime queen, and that the fatigue from marching and influence of alcohol had allowed it to persist unnoticed until it was too late. Garret suddenly remembered the small slime he had killed that was trying to get into Annika's boot. That must have been one of them… He immediately broke out into a cold sweat, realizing just how close she had come to a similar fate.

The next few entries were written in the form of a research log, with her trying to use her energy manipulation spells to isolate, destroy or hinder the demonic energy as it slowly filled her body and transformed her internal organs into more slime. Apparently she worked through the night without sleep in a desperate bid to save herself… that explained the mess everything was in… Experiment after experiment was scratched out, having either failed or worked too slowly to be effective, and the quality of her writing got worse and worse as the notes went on. Eventually, he came to the final pages that lead him to find her in the basement…

"Catherine…"

The mystery solved, Garret closed the book and tucked it into his foot locker for safe keeping.

Dinner was a somber affair. Neither Annika nor Garret were in the mood for eating and pushed the food around their plates more than anything else. Eric and Aisha showed up at one point, talking cheerfully, in high spirits from the apparent success of their mission. That was soon dampened, though, when they saw the expressions on Garret and Annika's faces. The gloomy mood told them all they needed to know about the result of their investigation into Catherine's disappearance. Garret directed them to the priest if they wanted to find out more, and the two quickly took their leave.

When they returned to the barracks, they found a set of orders pinned to their door. Apparently they, and the rest of the soldiers, were to take the week off to relax. The reason for this was written at the bottom: A crusade was about to begin. Fuck… Garret took the orders and tossed them onto his locker. He'd deal with them another time.

It wasn't particularly late, but the day's events had left the two of them totally drained. They quickly stripped and climbed into bed. Once they did, Annika immediately pulled Garret into a tight hug, a gesture he was all too willing to reciprocate. Locked together like this and unwilling to let each other go, Garret finally broke down. The realization of how close he had come to losing her shattered the numbness protecting him, and he cried himself to sleep. If he lost the person who had been with him the longest, he didn't know what he would do…

"Goddamn it…"

Author's Notes: I managed to squeeze in a lot more writing than I had hoped this week! Don't be expecting me to keep up this tempo, though, that was a lot of work brought about by a strange absence of school assignments.

I don't really have much to say for this chapter. It was hard to write since I'm not used to doing long stories dealing with grief, but I think it turned out ok. One of the problems I had was trying to figure out how Catherine's death would impact Garret, since he had only known her for like... 3 days? A friend suggested that I tackle it from the angle of 'mourning what could have been' which seemed more fitting. If you ever read this, Daemon, thanks for the tip.

I actually foreshadowed this chapter with a bit of symbolism, even before Catherine began to behave strangely. I wonder if anyone caught that~ That's also a general rule for me, if I spend a paragraph describing something that doesn't seem plot critical, it might be a represention something that'll come up in the future.

Anyways, that's all I got. Again, thank you all for the views, favourites, follows, etc. I love seeing those numbers creep up. If you have any comments, criticisms or suggestions, I would encourage you to post a review, no matter how short. I appreciate them all and would love to hear more people's thoughts on my story.

Until next time, Sayonara!