Footsteps - Gonou - PG-13
Title: Footsteps
Author: lillypuff
Characters From: Saiyuki
Pairing(s): none, HakkaiGonou-centric
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 461
Warnings: potentially dark, not-so-happy-thoughts/angst, some mentions of blood
Summary: You know that memories, like wounds, can leave wretched scars…
Disclaimer: They don’t belong to me anymore than they did yesterday, which is to say they don’t belong to me at all.
A/N: Prompt - The Road Not Taken, Time Taken - 30 minutes. Another experiment with second-person. Not sure what to think of this, but it’s written so I might as well share. I probably shouldn’t write fics after an aggravating night at work lol The end is definitely rushed, I was running out of time.
Blood drips on your muddy shoes almost as fast as the rain that falls from the sky to collect in footprints sunk low into the path. The hypnotic pitter-patter of the rain is almost enough to erase the memory of all your pain. But you know that memories, like wounds, can leave wretched scars.
All that’s left is to find a place -- dark and empty -- where you can die.
To the left you see an array of footprints sunk into the mud. No one is around, but you can see the evidence plain as day, too many people walk this way. There are too many chances that you’ll be found, too many chances that you’ll be saved.
To the right, the path seems to be welcoming you with tree limbs that reach for you as if trying to lure you in. Only the most desperate of souls -- fools -- would find it comforting, and who, tonight, is more desperate than you?
You nod, as if letting them know that you are coming.
Every step you take is slow, tedious. Your teeth chatter from the cold, the pain; the fear. The only part of you that remains warm is the arm that hugs your stomach -- wet and sticky -- like your life depends on it. And it does, doesn’t it?
But even so, you don’t let go, even if that’s the point of all of this, the letting go. You just keep marching onward, eyes fixed on the ground, fixed on your feet and the occasional divots in the road, evidence of a lone traveler long since passed. If luck is on his -- your -- side, he’ll not pass this way again.
And so you walk, until your body begins to shake and your lips start to tremble, until the mud finally pulls you down to the ground on your knees.
And still, you won’t let go. You crawl, the best you can, with two weak knees and one shaky hand. You hug yourself tightly and remind yourself that this is what you wanted. Soon, you can see her again.
Your fingers claw through mud like a loving caress through soft strands of hair, your vision is blurred, your head is reeling; everything from your chest down is starting to go numb.
You sink to the ground and you can feel the mud seeping into places it has no business being, but it doesn’t really matter now, because everything is beginning to fade away and you’re starting to believe that this is finally the end…
“Oi, you still alive?”
…even as something hidden deep inside you -- behind barriers and walls that you fought so hard to put up -- tells you that it’s only the beginning.
Author: lillypuff
Characters From: Saiyuki
Pairing(s): none, HakkaiGonou-centric
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 461
Warnings: potentially dark, not-so-happy-thoughts/angst, some mentions of blood
Summary: You know that memories, like wounds, can leave wretched scars…
Disclaimer: They don’t belong to me anymore than they did yesterday, which is to say they don’t belong to me at all.
A/N: Prompt - The Road Not Taken, Time Taken - 30 minutes. Another experiment with second-person. Not sure what to think of this, but it’s written so I might as well share. I probably shouldn’t write fics after an aggravating night at work lol The end is definitely rushed, I was running out of time.
Blood drips on your muddy shoes almost as fast as the rain that falls from the sky to collect in footprints sunk low into the path. The hypnotic pitter-patter of the rain is almost enough to erase the memory of all your pain. But you know that memories, like wounds, can leave wretched scars.
All that’s left is to find a place -- dark and empty -- where you can die.
To the left you see an array of footprints sunk into the mud. No one is around, but you can see the evidence plain as day, too many people walk this way. There are too many chances that you’ll be found, too many chances that you’ll be saved.
To the right, the path seems to be welcoming you with tree limbs that reach for you as if trying to lure you in. Only the most desperate of souls -- fools -- would find it comforting, and who, tonight, is more desperate than you?
You nod, as if letting them know that you are coming.
Every step you take is slow, tedious. Your teeth chatter from the cold, the pain; the fear. The only part of you that remains warm is the arm that hugs your stomach -- wet and sticky -- like your life depends on it. And it does, doesn’t it?
But even so, you don’t let go, even if that’s the point of all of this, the letting go. You just keep marching onward, eyes fixed on the ground, fixed on your feet and the occasional divots in the road, evidence of a lone traveler long since passed. If luck is on his -- your -- side, he’ll not pass this way again.
And so you walk, until your body begins to shake and your lips start to tremble, until the mud finally pulls you down to the ground on your knees.
And still, you won’t let go. You crawl, the best you can, with two weak knees and one shaky hand. You hug yourself tightly and remind yourself that this is what you wanted. Soon, you can see her again.
Your fingers claw through mud like a loving caress through soft strands of hair, your vision is blurred, your head is reeling; everything from your chest down is starting to go numb.
You sink to the ground and you can feel the mud seeping into places it has no business being, but it doesn’t really matter now, because everything is beginning to fade away and you’re starting to believe that this is finally the end…
“Oi, you still alive?”
…even as something hidden deep inside you -- behind barriers and walls that you fought so hard to put up -- tells you that it’s only the beginning.