#;;missing deemo

     You pace through the piano room, gazing up at the tree that lay still overhead. Your movement is the only one of its kind. Your mind is racing, racing too fast for you to keep up with. Your footsteps don’t make a sound.

     It’s quiet. You’re quiet.

     It’s been too long without Deemo, without a proper Limbo itself. The castle was starting to break down, grow into disrepair. Vines crawled over the floor and broke through the tile below, and twigs from the tree littered the ground below.

     And you were so, so worried. Their absence ate away at you with every moment, gnawed at your mind and soul until it drove you mad.

     And you wish you knew what had gone wrong. Was it you? Did you say or do something to drive them away for so long? Did you cause such pain in their heart that they had no choice but to abandon you, this patch of Limbo, and move on? Was that even possible?

     ...Did you?

     Your mind snaps over to the piano, having suffered the same fate of the castle around. Your mind wanders, and the thought play comes to the forefront of it. You immediately shake your head - no, you couldn’t. You were forbidden to, less you destroy the Limbo even further. Besides, you didn’t know how to.

     This was to be your last trip to the Waking World, of course, if everything fell through. You had decided that, if Deemo didn’t return, you would become the Limbo itself. You would force yourself to take that role, that position. It was not out of your capability in terms of magic, but you had no idea how the Limbo would accept you. It seemed fine now, why should this be any different?

     But as the park goers pass you by, simply not seeing you, you realize that your problems seem almost insignificant. There were many other patches of Limbo that sleepers could go to, that spirits could pass on through. In the grand scheme of things, you were nothing.

     Of course. That’s how it always was, was it?

     Your bury your face in your hands, your mask pressing up against your face as you start to cry. Anyone who had decided to get a closer look at you would simply see a small, crying child, but no one decided to look.

     Everything was dark in the castle, first and foremost. You realize this as your eyes open, gazing around the room- your room, the library. You had fallen asleep at your desk again, you gather.

     The second thing you realize is that your mask was not on your face. In a moment of panic at this revelation, you scramble to find it, spotting it laying on the desk right beside where your head had been a few moments ago. Quickly, you pull it back into its rightful spot over your face, adjusting the strap as you stand up and take a look around the darkened room. A new layer of dust had settled around everything, and books and papers were strewn over the floor. A frown, and you glide over to one of the bookshelves and examine closer. Why was there such a mess? Had Deemo not been keeping up with the place...?

     You reach into the bookshelf and move away a few books, blowing off the layer of dust that had settled down over them. In the back, you spot...what were those? Vines? Growing out of the shelves. You reach out and touch one, and it gives a shudder at the action, retreating back into wherever it must have come from. Another frown. Where had these come from? Surely Deemo would not allow such things to grow unruly, especially not in the library.

     〈 Where is Deemo? 〉

     The thought crosses your mind and you retreat from the shelf, turning and walking out of the library and into the piano room. Everything here was dark too, and upon closer inspection, the tree’s roots seemed to be growing through the piano, curling in between the keys and almost seeming like it was broken.

     The piano was broken.

     〈 Oh no. Oh no no no no no. 〉

     Panic rises in you first, then worry. Where was Deemo? Were they alright? What had happened to leave the castle in such disarray?

     "Deemo?” You call out, starting your frantic search around the castle in search for your lifelong companion. Surely they must be somewhere, right?