Dystopian Love Affair

A loud screeching awakened Runa, to find a crow on the broken part of the wall staring back at her, as if she weren’t supposed to be there. She could pretend that she wasn’t living in an abandoned and half destroyed castle, but the crow however wasn’t interested in her fairytales. Somehow amidst all the fear, chaos, and disaster, Runa found a corner of this crumbling castle to hide and live in. She used their fancy furniture that she found in the rubble. She had no food but sat on ornate and plush vanity chairs. All the fashions of antiquity had become new again just before the apocalypse. Runa wore the dresses she found in the rubble, so elegant and impractical, and somewhat destroyed. Runa was always home, not daring to go outside into what was still a very dangerous zone to tread.

She was hungry, but also couldn’t forget about all the insanity going on just outside the door. People were desperate, starving, homeless, diseased and had lost everyone they loved. They were mad, and unstable. “But we all are at this point, I suppose” Runa said shaking her head. Nevertheless, she closed the door to the mayhem outside and created world of her own on the inside. A world of ornate items salvaged from the rubble to use in her little corner of the castle.

In the evenings, she would look across the yard at the light layer of snow that would sparkle in the moonlight. As the seasons changed, she watched the snow melt and slowly lose its sparkle. She noticed however, that one sparkle never changed. Very intrigued, she set out in the night to go visit this sparkle and she could follow its shine. She made it all the way to the sparkle and bent over it. It was a heart shaped locket with no picture inside. When she reached out to grasp it, Runa got a powerful shock, and yelled into the night. She became spooked at having made such a noise and attracting predators.She ran back to her broken castle and left the locket behind..At night she’d stare at this sparkle and wonder, “what on earth is it?” for hours on end. It seemed to call to her and draw her in.

Toros had seen the castle and came along looking for shelter, when he found Runa digging in the earth at the back. He offered to help fix the door and make it more secure in trade for some shelter during the storm. “What storm?” she thought looking at the sky. “Ya, there’s a bad one coming, I can feel it in my foot” he explained.

After talking, she decided he could fix her door & sleep on the floor, but only if a storm came. “I have food too,” he said as he headed inside. She turned to follow him sheepishly. She was starving.

Runa was stunned at this handsome man’s kindness. She hadn’t been showered with that kind of kindness in a long time. “What could it hurt?” she thought. Runa wasn’t in any position to say no to his overly kind ways. She took the risk and let him in, not caring about the danger anymore. She just ate the food, and let the kindness into her desiccated heart. Even if his intent was to rob Runa, something happened. The kind exchange felt magical to two starved souls. Tobos was intrigued by this creature who normally wouldn’t give him the time of day, back in the old world. The mere human connection was utterly overwhelming for them both

The lightening came first, then the storm.

Her cautious-self cringed at these passionate needs and warned Runa. But Runa was hungry, sick, and lonely, and Tobos made her feel good. She was just dying to feel alive. Tobos made her feel things she was willing to risk her safety for. He reminded her how to enjoy life again.

Runa was somewhat stunned that she still had capacity to love at all, in the aftermath of the apocalypse.She had felt numb & annoyed at her body’s needs, which she simply couldn’t fulfil. Yes, it was a highly dangerous connection in these treacherous times, but Tobas protected her and cherished her. They were happy. The shambles of the world hadn’t phased their ability to fall deeply in love. They were still human, even after all the war, death, and fighting for their lives

Their love was often deep, needy and intense. Runa missed him while he was away on his long treks and wanted to see more of him. She asked him to stay at the broken castle and be with her. He was thrilled that she considered him that important. There they were, falling in love as the world fell apart. He would cross dangerous terrain to come all the way home, just to dance with her, to treat her like divinity, as Runa sat there amongst the castle shambles. His intensity was so palpable and she drank it all in. They danced and made love and held each other like their connection was all they had to keep them going in this life.

Though Tobos was staying with her now, he still left for his treks to get them supplies. Each time he came back though, it seemed he looked worse. He’d come home with treasures for her and fall asleep at her side, too tired to really touch her.. She wondered if he was ill. He was losing weight, his vitality, and even his common sense it seemed. Whenever she questioned it, he would say, “I was just thinking the same about you”.

His sleep patterns progressed into a iife where Runa was just the person who slept beside him at night, nothing more. She tried to discover what was bothering him but he’d make excuses and run away. She racked her brain over what to do? Was she supposed to just stand there and watch her love crumble, as he acted like everything was fine?

One day while dressing, Runa walked in and noticed in astonishment that he had grown a tail. Tobos became very angry at her for barging in on him. He refused to discuss it. There was no problem, other than her creating ideas about him, he said. He swore she was going insane. It became clear to her that Tobos would not admit there was a problem in their lives. Not only did he refuse to discuss it, he refused to even see it for himself. Runa was blamed for creating disgusting theories about him. He would rage at her that there was nothing wrong with him, like a monster she had never met before.

It became a war-zone of her disbelief and his increasing demands, Tobos took his anger to alarming places. It was as if it wasn’t Runa he was seeing before him anymore but some person who did nothing but wrong him in one way or another. Tobos had no love left for her anymore, just a desire to keep her, control her, and then take his torment out on her.

She would have to leave her broken castle home, as she was in danger. “He will soon kill me. He was so angry at me for pointing out his illness to him,” she spoke with cerrtainty. It seemed he wasn’t aware he’d grown a tail.

Runa was stunned, but was certain of what she saw.. “If I’d have grown a tail, I’d want to know. I’d want to have the explanation about why I was acting so crazy and unlike myself.” she reasoned.

But Tobos did not. Runa had made him see something he couldn’t unsee. He couldn’t forgive her for this. As far as he was concerned, this is how she ruined his life.The tail he’d grown was essentially her fault, because she’d made him see it. She ruined everything he knew about himself and he wanted to kill her for it. “Maybe if he killed her, then it could all be made untrue again,” he dreamed.. “How dare she say that about me? he boiled with disgust.

While cleaning once, Runa found a bag of an unusual substance and a pipe. She knew in a moment, it was some kind of drug he was taking. “THIS is what’s making him sick, and angry, and turn into a raging bull,” she said trembling. Runa had not seen this coming..Where could she go to hide, in the aftermath of the end of the world? she wondered. Suddenly Tobos came barrelling in from the back of the castle, and with evil eyes came straight for Runa, calling her filthy names. So she ran. She ran out into the night, without her coat or bag, not knowing where to go. Then she saw the sparkle. She ran for it, thinking, “ maybe I could shock him with it?!”

Tobos followed her outside, his nostrils flared and steaming. He could feel the breadth of his back grow bigger the more he raged. “How dare she try to leave me after what she’s done!” he spewed. Following her across the yard in the dark. he saw her shadow bend and then fall down. But when he got there, he saw nothing at all, save a heart shaped locket that she must have dropped. He picked it up and continued to search. She had vanished into the night. In true monster form, he screamed so loud, the ground shook. He felt the wrath burning inside him, almost choking him, so he destroyed everything in sight.

The Tobos monster returned home bleeding and feeling nothing but that his head was going to explode. He pulled out his pouch to take a hit and something fell from his pocket. It was a heart shaped locket, with her picture inside. His rage finally gave way to streams of tears, searing down his hot red face. From that day on, he kept the locket hidden in his drug pouch. He had loved her but she had also seen who he really was, so he was going to have to kill her to keep his secret. Instead she disappeared into the night, and this was all he had left of her. He missed her from the days before she knew, when she loved him and believed he was just a man, not a monster. She was beautiful and loving then.

But once she knew, he couldn’t stand her. Once she’d seen it, he knew there was no way of convincing her otherwise, he already knew how this went. He could only love her, if she loved the man he wanted to be, the man he told her he was, otherwise he risked people discovering his secret. “AND THAT’S NOT THE MAN I AM!” he spit out and pounded the table, leaving a mark. “If she just could have believed my words and not her so-called “eyes”, none of this would have happened and maybe we would have had a chance!’ he yelled at the broken wall.

At night as he slept, the locket would sparkle, and it was as if it was showing a movie. There she was, in another life, in another realm, and this was a window into it. If he chose to live in the world where he believed his eyes, he could have seen her there. But to him it was just a dumb locket, a reminder of all the pain she’d caused by mentioning his secret. It was something he’d hold in his hand for a moment, before he consumed the substance that erased his tail from his life. Until it didn’t. Then he’d return to the bag, to look at her again before getting on with the erasing of his tail and her memory. He would rest and heal, until his foot began to ache. Then he'd be off looking for shelter again, from the coming storm.