Bad timing

I didn't want to go out tonight.

My mother told me to go for a walk, just a short one, and there's no arguing. I wouldn't know how to argue. She's never seen the giants, or the watchers, or the great birds during the night. She doesn't know what's out there. She doesn't understand why I'm afraid. She doesn't understand how they can hurt... and if I try to explain... more bad things will erupt. No good ever comes of me talking back. So I had to go. Besides, it's safer to keep moving.

I felt it as soon as I stepped outside. Warning lights blinking on and off all through my head, I saw it as soon as I began walking. Dark fire. And I knew, coming for me soon... was a Dark Giant. I kept walking, wondering why. Where was I going? Why was I doing this? Why did I keep going, when I knew the danger? Why?
Near the end of the street I finally saw it. It was coming towards me. I spoke aloud. "If it got me now, would anyone notice?"
Across the street, it towered over me.
"Would I notice?"
It was right next to me.
I closed my eyes. "Would I care?"
And then it reached out and touched me.

Seriously, that's all it did. It touched me. In the side.
It was a strange feeling. Not as though something had taken hold in me; not that kind of feeling. More like when something really cold is pressed against you, and it leaves a cold impression when you take it away. Not like that, but it was that sort of feeling. Suffice to say it was unlike anything I've ever experienced - certainly not in a positive way, but not quite in a negative way either. And so, asking myself over and over what had just happened, I carried on.

I didn't mention. That night, at jiu-jitsu. I was trying a few empathic exercises, measuring levels of focus from groups and how they changed as movements became more or less complex, when I felt something... strange. A presence. Something possibly... malignant. I honestly don't know. I did my best to hide for the next ten minutes or so.

Walking on, I decided to take a shortcut across a field. But then, looking up, I saw to my surprise the dark fire in the sky. I'd never seen it so close, right overhead. I told myself to back up and go around it. Instead I kept walking. I felt a slight shiver as I came under its shadow. I came to a path. "I can take this path," I said, "and go straight home. I need to get out of here. It would be a very, very bad idea to continue." I didn't take the path. I couldn't seem to stop myself.
The fire was centered over the school, right there in front of me. And there, right in the middle... something was there. Something big. Not quite as big as the Giants, but somehow more menacing. A great winged, horned beast, connected to the fire above by a dark light. Not the Dark King, no... but I still felt a dark sense emanating from this creature. I have named it the Fire Prince. I told myself to stop walking, right this instant. I couldn't seem to stop.
"You can't fight that thing," I said. I didn't stop. "What are you trying to prove?" I came closer and closer. "God," I whispered. "Help me." A strange move, for me. I don't usually turn to benedictions... perhaps I should, more often. Perhaps a certain someone has been a good influence on me.
It was as though the night became day. The sun shone through the fire, and the beast vanished just as I reached it. It stood before me, exactly the same but suddenly my height. Yet forward I kept walking. Drawing closer and closer, I took a deep breath...
"Hey, do you know what time it is?"
"Yeah, it's about quarter to nine," I yelled back to the guy with the cigarette. I looked down. I was standing right where the prince had been. Uncertain, I took a step forward -

Three slashes, down and to the left. Two more, down and to the right. All over in a second.

Don't ask how I managed to get home. It wasn't easy.
I think I'm going to be okay. These were wounds meant to hurt, not to kill. God only knows what would have happened if I hadn't asked for His help; and I mean that literally.
And she's gone.
Tonight's the last night. Tomorrow morning she leaves. And we've said our goodbyes. Of all the nights, it would be the one... when I can't even tell her... how much I need her.
But maybe that's for the best.
It's for the good of everyone that she's going away. She's happy, the kids are happy, and because I know she's happy in a way I'm happy too. And I'll miss her terribly... but it's not forever. Few things are, really.
But look. I'm fine. When it comes to it I generally am. Wounds heal. Everything's better in the end. You'll see.
Oh, and when I say "the kids" I mean the ones she's working with at the camp. Not our kids. Because that would be weird. Very much so.

I can hear fireworks.

This is not the straw that broke the camel's back. This is the veritable crabload of bricks that crushed the camel completely, leaving only a greasy stain that no one wants to clean up. I just don't want to ruin another relationship because of the stupid and crazy things that happen to me. After all that's happened, I don't want to drive her away...