The darkness drops again
After the end, time unknown
And the wire snaps.
I scream, thin human sound, and start to run, barefoot and right now entirely mortal. I'd know if he was gone. I'd know it. He must be here somewhere. He must.
I look for him and look for him. There is dust, smoke, blood, things and people fighting. I go through it all blindly, again and again, like running my hands through loose grain over and over, everything slipping through my fingers. I can't find him. I can't find him. I search until my feet start bleeding again, from grit and broken glass in the once-clean streets.
In the dawn there is an explosion, and I go out to the tower on bloody feet and it's a dead and broken shell, hollow, only the smell of cordite and a fading illusion-magic still trying to make me see what it thinks I want to see. There's nothing in it. He's not there.
He's not here.
Things are dying down. Dying.
I go to Management in the end. I'm not afraid. I'm too tired to be afraid. I know they fought. I know he was - protective of me, in the way someone else would have been scared of me going near them. I don't care any more.
It should be different in there with them. But everything's the same, except even the hairs on my arms are too tired to rise. I don't think they're very interested in me any more. I know the smell of triumph, can hear it in their dry, haha, yes and, run along, dear boy, run along and play. As they tell me what they did.
I look harder. He'll be in danger now. He's human, as I've been when I've been human and stupid and he's - loved me anyway. The town is trying to put itself back together as it shook itself apart, Nanshe-saturated, people helping one another through the ruin. Kindness to kindness. I'll find him, I will. I will.
I don't.
Closed
And the wire snaps.
I scream, thin human sound, and start to run, barefoot and right now entirely mortal. I'd know if he was gone. I'd know it. He must be here somewhere. He must.
I look for him and look for him. There is dust, smoke, blood, things and people fighting. I go through it all blindly, again and again, like running my hands through loose grain over and over, everything slipping through my fingers. I can't find him. I can't find him. I search until my feet start bleeding again, from grit and broken glass in the once-clean streets.
In the dawn there is an explosion, and I go out to the tower on bloody feet and it's a dead and broken shell, hollow, only the smell of cordite and a fading illusion-magic still trying to make me see what it thinks I want to see. There's nothing in it. He's not there.
He's not here.
Things are dying down. Dying.
I go to Management in the end. I'm not afraid. I'm too tired to be afraid. I know they fought. I know he was - protective of me, in the way someone else would have been scared of me going near them. I don't care any more.
It should be different in there with them. But everything's the same, except even the hairs on my arms are too tired to rise. I don't think they're very interested in me any more. I know the smell of triumph, can hear it in their dry, haha, yes and, run along, dear boy, run along and play. As they tell me what they did.
I look harder. He'll be in danger now. He's human, as I've been when I've been human and stupid and he's - loved me anyway. The town is trying to put itself back together as it shook itself apart, Nanshe-saturated, people helping one another through the ruin. Kindness to kindness. I'll find him, I will. I will.
I don't.
Closed