Valve inhaled slowly. She had been gone for some time. Longer than she perhaps wanted. But, the black mare did not make excuses, especially not for herself. She had largely kept to herself in the time that had passed. She seldom thought of anyone, for there were hardly any individuals left in her life that she cared to think about.

Except Evaline.

She would have been content to melt away into the background, if it weren’t for her. The golden mare meant more to her than she realized, and so on the day of Valve’s return, she made sure to appear before Evaline first. It’s not like there were many others left anyway. We all come and go, just as easily as the dunes themselves shift in the wind.

“Evaline,” she said evenly, the volume of her voice level and unmoving.

She blinked slowly as she watched the golden’s mare expression, expecting to stand a trial of tears and anger and every other emotion that she could throw at Valve—as punishment, reckoning, discipline or perhaps a mixture of them all.

It didn’t matter. Valve was still here.

VALVE
slenderman x black heart machine