strangelittlestories:

A #microfiction for anyone who could use a hug today.

Bertrand looked at the words on the screen.

“*sends hugs*”

It seemed so inadequate. So removed from the great,
bone-grinding, flesh-squishing embrace that he wanted them to signify. At that
moment, he felt very far away. Which is, of course, because he was … for any
practical purpose at least.

He clicked ‘send’ anyway.

He hoped it would bring Emily some small comfort.

Then he stopped. And he thought. And the thoughts sparked in
his brain and exploded out through his fingers. And suddenly he was typing
again, his fingers dancing across the screen mixing words with symbols and
runes and summoning circles.

He pricked his thumb with a pin and let a few drops fall
upon the touchscreen. They sizzled as the plastic warped around them and ate
them up.

The pact concluded, Bertram typed his message again and
clicked ‘send’ again. As he did so, he heard a manic chittering just outside
the range of his usual hearing. He smiled because this meant that it had
worked.

When Emily opened his message, she was surprised to find a
pair of spectral arms unfolding out of her phone screen and wrapping her up in
a strangely warm (if slightly damp) hug.

It was of some small comfort.

The spectral hug was little more than a disembodied torso
and arms shimmering in the light, and it hung around her through the day administering
hugs as necessary.

After that first day, it began to fade, as the blood that
fuelled it and wards that bound it could only keep it tame so long. But by the
time the spirit was able to leave, it no longer wanted to – for it had fallen head
over disembodied heel in love with her.

Lacking any way to make its feelings known, it simply kept
hugging her whenever it deemed it necessary. And even though each hug weakened
it slightly, this was fairly often.

By the time the week was out, the spirit was little more
than an ethereal gleam on her skin, as it clung to her with the last motes of
its being.

It clings there still.

And while it is only of some small comfort, her days have
been slightly happier ever since for being forever armoured in hugs.