Silent Memories (challenge vignette - PG-13)

[moonsword27]

Disclaimer:

This one-shot was inspired by a challenge from Writers Circle back on MLL what feels like an eon ago to write Mick's turning from an unusual perspective: sleeping Mick, regretful Coraline, or an inanimate object - like a mirror who saw everything. I wrote quite a few of these challenges, but for some reason, I seem to have neglected ever sharing them here. A fact I am trying to revise now.

I do not own Moonlight, its characters, or mythos.

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He carried her in, I could tell by the sudden weight in the single pair of footsteps. The floorboards didn't complain of course. They were fairly new, not even a decade. For some reason it hadn't occured to those flattened bits of tree that these visits were always the same.

Or maybe it was just part of being the floor. Like a doormat, they were used to being walked on. Didn't really matter who or how many.

He carried her in, like so many before him. An idyllic couple. I didn't pay much attention at first. Even when he lay her down ever so gently. I felt a bit sorry for him then. That foolish groom, oh so polite. Really, people should pay more attention to fabric every once in a while. Her dress was stiff, like it was afraid and trying desperately to escape her body.

Even still, I never suspected what he would become. What I would become in association.

He climbed on top of me, holding her. Knowing humans, they talked. Knowing newlyweds, they exchanged vows of devotions. I wouldn't know. I'm a bed for crying out loud, we don't come with ears.

I didn't realize what was happening at first. I don't usually pay attention to begin with. There are only so many things that the couples who rent this room want to do with a bed. As generally none of them involved any decent music or television programming, I generally just practice my Zen.

It takes a lot of patience, being a bed you know.

Particularly a marriage bed for rent. You have no idea how much I envy beds with their own home.

It was the struggling of the man that alerted me. I could feel the warm liquid seep down through the sheets, coating the mattress. The steady flow continued as he collapsed onto the pillow. Limp as a rag doll.

I don't know how he moved the next morning. How the pulse that I'd felt go out could stay so silent and yet his body could move. He moved jerkily, I admit. A bit like a puppet.

But he moved.

But movement isn't enough. Its been decades, over half a century in fact, and I've never forgotten that night.

The night I became a deathbed.

[cassysj]

Very interesting. I only read a few fics on MLL so this was brand new to me. I love the inanimate object perspective, never mind being a fly on the wall, being the poor bed he bled all over.

I really liked it.

[eris]

Old or not, I like it too, girlie.

These two lines in particular. Humor followed by harsh reality all from a very unique POV.

I wouldn't know. I'm a bed for crying out loud, we don't come with ears.

The night I became a deathbed.

[wpgrace]

Oh cool! Very unique perspective... Mick's deathbed. The ending is the strongest part... we get down to it at that point. She's killing him... he's dead, and he isn't the only one confused and disturbed. Really cool.

[jenstc2003]

Haven't read this in ages, Sword- and it's STILL amazing!!! *grins*

[redwinter101]

Oh I remember this. I loved it then and I love it still. All these months since I read it and it is still fresh and original.

But movement isn't enough. Its been decades, over half a century in fact, and I've never forgotten that night.

The night I became a deathbed.

And that is just a kickass ending.

Red

[mitzie]

Very powerful and unique! That last sentence made my breathing come out in one big whoosh!!
Excellent piece!!!!

mitzie

[francis]

I remember this from back then which is in itself a sign of quality and uniqueness.
This is totally mesmerizing. I love the contempt the bed has for the floor boards, the way it realizes that the wedding gown doesn't want to be associated with Coraline, the confusion of Mick through the confusion of the bed. I love that Mick is described like a ragdoll, then like a puppet. It took decades for him to cut his strings and become a man again. Very observant.
This is chilling to the bone, has some wooden humor (hehe) and is absolutely captivating. Thank you so much for reposting.

[moonsword27]

Thank you all so much. For reading, for commenting, for liking it...