"C'mon!"
He whispers, trying to move Meryl. The boy was familiar. A commoner that's always sneaking in through the fence of the estate to play with her. He had a dark green waist jacket over a white shirt and beige trousers with black leather clogs. His messy bowl cut hair had a center parting and he was a decent looking kid but his large round spectacles definitely made him come across as a dork.
She wasn't allowed to see him normally and instead was forced to get along with her step sister. Better that than an elf.
"It's important that you keep her happy! If you anger her, you anger her father. Which angers me! Do you want that? Do you want me to hate you?" Her mother used to say.
Meryl's face soured again, thinking about the fight and inevitable backlash that will be waiting for her.
"Ooh you REALLY need a bit of cheering up this time. I can take you there! Then yer won't feel sad anymore, trust me!"
The boy puts both his hands on her shoulders to get her to focus on him.
"You look like you had a fight right? Me Ma said that going to the carnival will help you forget about that. We can play games, watch shows, eat toffee apples till our teeth fall out. No one yells at you there. No one forces you do anything there."
For a moment he looks sad but shakes it off instantly.
"MERYL!! WHERE IN THE HELL ARE YOU?!" Footsteps could be heard approaching.
The familiar screech from her mother rang her eardrums fiercely.
She just wanted to get away. Just for a bit.
Maybe things will calm down after a while?
She followed him, wiped the last of her tears, slightly dirtying her face and they both squeezed through a gap in the wooden fence well hidden from the gardeners of the estate. Away from the bellowing contempt of her mother.
The Starfall Carnival.
An explosion of color and chaos unlike anywhere else the two kids have been.
Paper lanterns shaped like stars and fireflies floated above the tents, casting soft glows of lavender, gold, and deep orange. Music shimmered through the air—sweet, strange, and otherworldly, like it had been pulled from a lullaby half-remembered.
Among the laughter and wonder, the two kids stood wide-eyed at the entrance. Meryl, maybe seven at the time, clutched the hem of her ruined green dress with uncertain stained fingers. Blank had given her some band aids for her wounds from the rosebushes. Her hair was let lose and re-tied into a rough ponytail that bounced as she turned her head, eyes scanning the chaos of color with suspicion. She didn't smile, not exactly—but her steps grew quicker with every new marvel that passed.
She had been a difficult child to read but her companion knew her tells when she started to have fun. She was more attentive. More curious. She would finally start to speak and her eyes would seemingly sparkle when she was happy. Beside her, he grinned from pointed ear to pointed ear as they walked. It was a goal of his. A game. To see if he could get her to smile. The best he could get were half smirks or at worst a kick in his shin and a glare if he went too far.
He grabbed Meryl's hand without asking and tugged her forward. "C'mon! You'll like this one, ah promise!"
They wove through crowds of performers and illusions. A strongman lifted a cart with a pink elephant inside. A mermaid sat in a barrel of water, who's hair was longer than that of a professional swimming pool played a flute that caused the strands to float and dance like cobras.
One tent had mirrors that made Meryl look eight feet tall, then one inch small, and she had to stifle a snort when Blank turned into a balloon-headed gremlin.
Why?
At the puppet show, Meryl sat pretty much stone-faced through most of it—until the prince puppet tripped and fell into the dragon's mouth. She smirked once. Just once. Blank beamed like he'd won a prize.
Why can't I...
Later, they shared a sugar-dusted pastry shaped like a comet. Meryl wiped her sticky hands on Blank's sleeve without asking. He didn't mind.
Why can't I remember his name?
They rode the spinning teacups, the owl carousel, and even braved the Tunnel of Whispers, where illusions of forgotten dreams danced on the walls. Meryl stayed quiet, as she always did—but Blank knew she was enjoying herself. Her grip on his hand never loosened, even as the world around them twisted into strange, magical nonsense.
Did I forget him?
By the time the fireworks began—silent blooms of star-shaped sparks that filled the sky like snow—Meryl was leaning against BLANK's shoulder, eyes half-closed. She was exhausted. He didn't tease her for it. He just watched the sky with her, both of them glowing in the reflected light, two lonely kids wrapped in the magic of something bigger than themselves.
No... don't take him too.
She turns to Blank.
STOP RUINING IT.
Meryl opens her mouth. Her voice, beautiful. Her accent was strange and wonderful to behold.
"Merci, this was fun. I feel... normal. My face doesn't hurt so much."
"Thank you..."
Meryl voice wasn't coming out of her mouth anymore. She couldn't feel what she was saying either.
Just as the memory reached its warmest glow, a darkness bled in at the edges. At first, it was subtle: the music of the carnival distorted, the lights flickered like candle flames caught in a dying breath.
Then came a hand.
A massive, clawed appendage formed of swirling black and pulsing red veins, tore through the sky of her memory like it was wet paper, a darkness behind the ruined memory brought forth. Its fingers dragging through the starlight with a sound like tearing silk or perhaps undoing a zipper.
Slowly it reached for the boy and engulfed him in the darkness of it's palm.
In the puppet tent, the boy vanished mid-laugh, his hand still outstretched with sticky sugar on his fingers.On the carousel, the seat beside her spun empty, the echo of his laugh swallowed by silence.At the firework finale, her shoulder felt suddenly cold—no warmth, no breath, no boy.
It ripped him from every scene, removing not just his body, but his presence, like he had never been there at all. In the tunnel of whispers, the shadows turned to mock her—showing each memory again, only now with a hollow space beside her. Where there was once joy, there was now only emptiness.
Her breath caught in her throat. She tried to call his name, to scream it even but her voice, like the boy, had been swallowed whole.
Please...
Put him back...
I'm begging yo-
"We will be in touch. See you soon."
A voice whispered to her and the memory fades to black.