Dreams and nightmares

Should imps drink alcohol? Tang Ru didn’t actually know. They had found Sying wandering around outside and had simply picked it up and taken it home - the little pumpkin hadn’t seemed to mind.

Tang Ru was lazing in their large armchair, Sying under their paw, wiggling and struggling to dip its entire face in the bowl of sake they held in the other. It might not even drink, just make a mess, so Tang Ru held it out of reach, and finished the bowl themselves.

The New Year was right around the corner and once the fireworks started, Sying would be singing a different song, begging to be held and cuddled. Now though, the gesture seemed to offend it. It jabbed its pointy little tail in Tang Ru’s side a few times and they finally let it go, cursing.

However, instead of skittering off or going off to knock over the sake bottle, Sying suddenly stopped and turned around, its empty white eyes meeting Tang Ru’s.

“Why didn’t you give me any?” it asked, which was strange, because Sying never asked anything. In fact, it shouldn’t be able to talk at all.

Tang Ru balked, unable to find their voice for a time. Finally, they managed to stutter out “Why… why should I give you any?”

“Why shouldn’t you?” Sying countered, furrowing its non-existent brows “You stingy bitch”

“Don’t you talk to me like that!” Tang Ru barked angrily and to their surprise, Sying actually agreed.

“Fine, I won’t talk!” the little pumpkin announced, and then opened its mouth.

Tang Ru didn’t think imps had mouths, but even if they did, it wouldn’t be like this. As if a black hole had opened in Sying’s face, its small, round body stretching out impossibly to accommodate it. That maw opened wider and wider, and before Tang Ru could even think to scream, they were swallowed by darkness.

“Xiao Ru, what’re you doing keeping pets?” A gentle voice drifted by “You’ve never been any good with animals”

Tang Ru jumped up. They couldn’t see or feel anything, not even the ground beneath their hoofs, and that voice sounded like it was constantly floating – both far and near. They thought they recognized it, or that they should recognize it, but their thoughts were hazy and unfocused. Still, it was something, and in the complete darkness that surrounded them, they clung to it like a lifeline.

“I’m not good with animals” they called, desperate “Are you any good? Please come help me appease it!”

“If you’re no good” that soft, gentle voice giggled, as if right by their ear. Tang Ru whipped around, but there was only more darkness “Why’d you take it home? Why not leave it for someone else?”

“I… Sying’s so cute! How could I not take it” Tang Ru yelled, and as if something in the darkness shifted in the corner of their eye. They jumped.

“Stingy bitch” the voice echoed from everywhere around them, and then went quiet. It spoke no more, no matter how Tang Ru yelled.

“Listen!” they called out, giving up on it “Sying, listen! I’ll give you all the sake you want, ok? So spit me out!”

A presence emerged, somewhere behind them.

Tang Ru’s fur stood on end from the menacing aura, and they yelled again, almost hysterical “Sying! Sying let’s stop this game! If… if you don’t let me out, who’s going to save you from all those fireworks! Sying, do you hear me?!”

The thing was getting closer. Tang Ru wanted to believe it was Sying, ready to jump on their head as it always did when they left it alone for a bit. But whatever was behind them was much bigger than their little pampki. They could hear its claws scratching the ground as it moved.

“Sying?” Tang Ru turned around, but there was only darkness. The presence was still behind them. Closing in.

Tang Ru thought their heart would jump out of their chest. Their feet refused to carry them any further, and all they could do was spin around again and again, trying to catch a glimpse of the thing, yet it always remained somewhere behind them.

Jaws snapped right by their tail.

Tang Ru screamed, and like a winded up spring they flew forward.

They ran, yet they couldn’t be sure they were moving at all.

The ground under their hoofs felt like nothing, and but it was changing. There were jagged points in between smooth, slippery areas. Tang Ru ran and tumbled and kept running on all fours until they could straighten up and run on their hind legs again, but the thing chasing them kept getting closer and closer.

Suddenly, they saw a light on their left.

It was small, but Tang Ru saw it, and immediately pivoted towards it.

“Ziji!!!” their newest imp - a white candyl that spend most of its time pretending to be an actual candle and sitting in the cupboard with the scented candles and incense. Tang Ru cheered in delight, feeling the thing behind them come to a stop as they entered the small circle of light Ziji created.

“Ziji, I’m so glad!” excited and relieved, they picked up the imp and hugged it close to their chest “Ziji my baby my little angel what would I do without you!!”

They even started crying in relief.

But their tears fell on Ziji’s head, and the flame died under them.

Tang Ru thought their heart stopped for a moment.

They couldn’t see or feel anything again – not the tears on their face, nor the imp in their arms. Only the warm breath of the thing behind them.

The teeth snapping around their neck.

Tang Ru woke up with an undignified yelp.

Ziji, little red flame and all, was looking down at them from the top of the table.

Turns out they had tumbled from the armchair they had fallen asleep in. Sying was curled up in it, the empty bowl of sake on their head, sleeping soundly. The sky outside the window was just beginning to lighten.

Looks like they had missed the New Year.