The immortal paced alone in the small inn bedroom, as a dull morning sun drifted in from the tiny window opposite the door. The lamented the small size of the room, as it didn't even have the space to facilitate a small loop, instead forcing her to just pace back and forth. It was a far cry from the endless blue and white expanses of the world she knew. 

She paced deep in thought. It wasn't usually in her nature to be curious, except when it was, but in this instance she felt it necessary.

'Last night, that wasn't normal.' She thought. 'It doesn't make much sense, either. But even more than that, it's dangerous.'

'Based off his symptoms,' She contiued, her gaze drifting to the ceiling as she placed her tongue against two of her teeth, 'probably something deeply repressed. Maybe an early childhood experience, or something particularly unfortunate. Given his lack of a reaction until it started, I doubt he remembers. Additionally, it's clearly not consistent. It's unlikely he was like that during our... During my encounter with that stupid fucking-'

She paused. Breathed. She started pacing again. 'With the unicorn. It was storming then as well, but given that he was able to use his wormholes and formulate a lie, he was evidently still mostly alright. Rules out normal astraphobia, Which means there was something special about this attack.'

She paused, looked around the room. 'This place. It's dark, cramped.' She resumed pacing. 'He's shown no signs of nyctophobia or claustrophobia thus far, at least not beyond a reasonable level, but this place would certainly be more than enough to freak someone like that out pretty bad.' 

'Given that he was totally normal, well, normal for him anyway, until the storm started, it seems that his response is contingent on several conditions met at once. Maybe all three. Could be other factors I'm missing, too.'

She squinted, gliding her tongue across her teeth as she walked, 'Could be a conditioned response. Not sure why he'd have that, but it'd make some sense. Or maybe he was just locked in a small room during a combination blackout and thunderstorm as a kid. Or, again, something nasty just happened in similar conditions. Whatever it is, it's probably buried too deep in his subconscious for me to be able to do anything about it. Or for me to...'

Her pace came to a gradual halt, as her eyes drifted to the floor and her thoughts blurred.

'know... why he'd say something like that...'

She sat on the bed, and covered her eyes with one hand.  

'Only to forget anything happened in the first place...'

And she sat on the bed like that for some time.

. .-

"No. This is stupid." She declared after about 15 seconds. 15 seconds is some time. "I can't think like that. I can't-... I can't."

She started vigorously pacing once more.

'A-ANYWAY.' She thought, 'Thinking rationally, I doubt he was in any real danger. Still, he was vulnerable. If someone were to take advantage of that...'

'Well, nothing I can do about that, is there? I'll just have to deal with it when we get there. And I will deal with it.'

She stopped in front of the door. 

'He'll probably be done eating soon. S'posse I should head down.'

With that, she put her hand on the handle and stepped through.

---

"Hmmm..." Mewed a peculiar cat faced individual, alone beneath the covers of a maroon bed built for two, clutching a plush cat toy and wearing a set of enchanted earmuffs, sweetly blaring classical tunes into their ears, blocking outside sound entirely. "Looks like he doesn't like storms. Hah! What a dope!"

They took a moment to laugh at his expense.

"But irrelevant! That boy, such a bad listener, he's using it again!" They said, feeling the pang of their 'Child Safety Features' at work.

"Making me get up out of my sanctuary..." The cat faced one complained, again, totally alone, as they pulled the covers away from them and spun their hand over their earmuffs. "Naughty, naught-"

The cat faced one paused. The pang had gone away. 

"Oh? It's done already? ANOTHER false start?!" They exclaimed. "And JUST as I got out of bed?! Oh, that boy, such a tease!"

With a huff of anger, they lay down in bed once more as the covers moved themselves around her, all the while still clutching her cat plush.

"That said, that is preferable to the actual thing..." They said with a sigh. "You better be careful, boy... A few more strikes like that, and you'll be out." They mewed as they got comfortable again. "Though, he'll be fine either way. Ain't he lucky to have me?" They said with a satisfied laugh.

"At any rate... See you soon, my little freak~." They whispered alone, as they closed their eyes and let the classical tunes drift them away into the land of dreams.

---

I groggily flittered my eyes open. My eyes stung something fierce, and they were as dry as un-milked cereal. I could barely feel my head, so heavy and numb, I had half a mind to believe it was going to fall right off my neck. And my chest felt like hell.

I put my hand to my forehead as I groaned and tried to lift myself up and out of the bed. It was quite the arduous process for something I've done, y'know, most every day of my life. 

"Augh... Man, my head..." I groggily spoke as I rubbed my head and blinked my eyes hard in an attempt to figure out where I was and get my jumbled thoughts in order.

Right, the one tiny inn. In that dark place, yeah... We're on our way to... The... Crap, what was- Duke! We're heading to the duke's place! Yeah, that was it.

I looked over to the remainder of the small room I was placed in. Sis was there... Yeah, that made sense. I think. 

I don't know if this was just because I was having a hard time being a human at the time, but I got the feeling that there was something odd about Sis. Her mouth was quivering, as if she was trying to say something but couldn't find the words, and she had a strange look on her face. Like some sort of mix of happiness and confusion and fear... Or something. I dunno, I was having a hard time being a thing that existed in reality at the time. 

"B-beye-br-bey-b... I..." I think she said. It didn't make a lot of sense.

"G'morning, Sis. 'Severything alright?" I groggily asked. The distortion around my vision had mostly stopped, but she still looked weird. 

"I-I... Nevermind about me!" She said. "What about you? Is your head okay?" She asked with an odd sense of urgency.

"Oh, uh... Yeah. I think so. Just feels a little weird. My whole body does, actually. 'Specially my chest. It's, uh, getting better though." I explained with a bit of a heave. 

"Well, that's no surprise." Sis said. "Is there anything I can do? Y'know what, y-you should just lie back down. The duke can screw off to hell."

Well, that's a bit harsh. 

Hold on, what's she on about?

"N-no surprise?' Did something happen last night?" 

"Did something happen?' What are you talking about, of cours-"

She paused, I guess seeing the look of confusion on my face. 

"Uh... Wh-What do you remember about last night?" She said, with a certain shaking in her voice.

"Last night? Well, we came up here, talked for a bit. After that... Guess I fell asleep? Oh, there was gonna be a storm, wasn't there? Crap, I missed it." Man, that's unfortunate. Hope I didn't miss anything good.

Sis suddenly had an immense look on defeat on her face. Far from confusing, now she looked utterly devastated. Just looking at her, I felt as though I'd torn my own heart out and split it in two.

"Oh, uh, s-sorry." I apologized on instinct, though I wasn't sure what for. 

"No no, it's fine, it's whatever." Sis said, shaking her head, resetting the look on her face. "Yeah, you were out like a light. When I came back into the room, you were breathing real heavy in your sleep. Probably having a nightmare. I was about to wake you, but... Yeah."

Well that makes sense.

... Oh, who am I kidding. Even I had enough sense to tell that wasn't true. 

Yet... Somehow... I couldn't bring myself to do anything about it. I don't know whether it was the pain in my chest (aside from the actual pain in my chest) or the rapidly onset feeling of dread in my stomach, but I couldn't help but feel like finding out the truth would be very, very bad. Very, very bad.

My breathing started to speed up, and my eyes began to blur.

I fiercely shook my head, despite its numbness. "Ah. Makes sense." I said. 

That seemed to fix it.

. . .

"I'm hungry." I said. "Should we get going?"

"You go on ahead. Food's weird, I'll just chill in here for a bit." Sis replied. "I'll be down by the time you finish breakfast." 

"Oh. Uh, alright." I said.

I got up, opened the door, stepped through, and closed it behind me.

I wiped a tear from my eye as the pain in my chest tightened and tugged at my heart.

I didn't know why.