Challenge 278 Entry
Title: As Large as Alone
Challenge: [278] Alone
Word Count: 489
Spoilers: for BBS
Notes: many thanks to lettersandliars for the beta. Any remaining errors are the sole property of me. Con crit is welcome, as always. Also! I have never had an icon more appropriate for a drabble :)
Aqua has set herself up on the relative safety of the beach- a strange, itchy thought to entertain when enemies lurk unseen in every direction, just waiting for her to step away from the sand. She is tired- tired of fighting, of waiting, of straining to remember a life before the endless darkness. She lays exhausted on the (dark) beach, listens to the (dark) splash of the tide and stares unseeing at the (dark) sky.
Time bleeds into itself, here in the Realm of Darkness. In the beginning, however long ago that was, Aqua tried to keep track of the days by watching the moon.
It never moved.
There are no stars to chart her location in the endless stretch of black sky. She cannot remember being tired or hungry - which may be a blessing, as Aqua’s not sure how comfortable she is eating things born of darkness.
-
She is feverish for want of the light.
She comes to hate the moon; pale disc of false light, barely bright enough to illuminate the water’s edge so one does not drown to death. She screams at it once, in a blind rage, and is chilled by the way the air swallows the sound.
It’s hard not to dwell on what was when there is absolutely nothing else to do. Too often has Aqua closed her eyes and imagined: soft grass and star strewn sky and her best friends flanking her on either side- she dare not say their names in these little delusions of hers, too afraid to break the spell so much like a delicate soap bubble.
-
She catches herself laughing one day and the sound is so unexpected it shocks her back to reality and the (dark) sand and (dark) sea and (dark) sky.
She begins to believe other colors are just a lie and there will only ever be shades of black.
-
Aqua finds her Wayfinder - thrown into the sand at one point - and she stops, dusts it off, caresses its edges, straining to remember the work and love put into it. A promise, far off and distant rests in the back of her throat and she weeps for the friends she has (saved) lost.
-
There comes a light some length down the shore from her. It is sudden and foreign and so bright that it strikes her immobile and mute. Aqua watches helplessly as it crests and fades away, the after-image printed to the back of her eyes forever more.
It gives her hope enough to stand and move and begin working muscles that have long been dormant. She takes advantage of the strange way the Realm of Darkness has stagnated her fatigue and hunger, moves through the familiar warm up exercises and tries not to let her mind stray too far to the past- with sun-flooded hallways and the echo of laughter long lost still filling the empty moments.
Challenge: [278] Alone
Word Count: 489
Spoilers: for BBS
Notes: many thanks to lettersandliars for the beta. Any remaining errors are the sole property of me. Con crit is welcome, as always. Also! I have never had an icon more appropriate for a drabble :)
Aqua has set herself up on the relative safety of the beach- a strange, itchy thought to entertain when enemies lurk unseen in every direction, just waiting for her to step away from the sand. She is tired- tired of fighting, of waiting, of straining to remember a life before the endless darkness. She lays exhausted on the (dark) beach, listens to the (dark) splash of the tide and stares unseeing at the (dark) sky.
Time bleeds into itself, here in the Realm of Darkness. In the beginning, however long ago that was, Aqua tried to keep track of the days by watching the moon.
It never moved.
There are no stars to chart her location in the endless stretch of black sky. She cannot remember being tired or hungry - which may be a blessing, as Aqua’s not sure how comfortable she is eating things born of darkness.
-
She is feverish for want of the light.
She comes to hate the moon; pale disc of false light, barely bright enough to illuminate the water’s edge so one does not drown to death. She screams at it once, in a blind rage, and is chilled by the way the air swallows the sound.
It’s hard not to dwell on what was when there is absolutely nothing else to do. Too often has Aqua closed her eyes and imagined: soft grass and star strewn sky and her best friends flanking her on either side- she dare not say their names in these little delusions of hers, too afraid to break the spell so much like a delicate soap bubble.
-
She catches herself laughing one day and the sound is so unexpected it shocks her back to reality and the (dark) sand and (dark) sea and (dark) sky.
She begins to believe other colors are just a lie and there will only ever be shades of black.
-
Aqua finds her Wayfinder - thrown into the sand at one point - and she stops, dusts it off, caresses its edges, straining to remember the work and love put into it. A promise, far off and distant rests in the back of her throat and she weeps for the friends she has (saved) lost.
-
There comes a light some length down the shore from her. It is sudden and foreign and so bright that it strikes her immobile and mute. Aqua watches helplessly as it crests and fades away, the after-image printed to the back of her eyes forever more.
It gives her hope enough to stand and move and begin working muscles that have long been dormant. She takes advantage of the strange way the Realm of Darkness has stagnated her fatigue and hunger, moves through the familiar warm up exercises and tries not to let her mind stray too far to the past- with sun-flooded hallways and the echo of laughter long lost still filling the empty moments.