DATE & TIME: february 15th, 3:00am LOCATION: outskirts of starlight carnival STATUS: closed for @codecerberus
this is almost all too familiar to a time once remembered fondly, leaves and dirt crunching underfoot, breaths ragged and moonlight and shadow weaving through the trees; wild things running. wild things almost free.
this is different - more snow, more limping from the smaller boy, breaths more haggard from the taller of the two; reminders that things arenât what they used to be, running from authority with laughter on lips and camaraderie made in the midst of stray bullets.
âcarter - !â he calls out, voice strange as a small thing, unfamiliar even to his own ears. steps are slower than his companionâs, burns charring skin and leaving him more soot than silver in the night. âtheyâre coming - quick - this way!â
(footsteps behind them are sounding too close for comfort, and hearts are beating out of chests; blame easy to put on a thing made of bruised knuckles and sharp words, blame easy to put on mischief-wrapped things made of devious grins and too-smooth sidesteps to questions raised)Â
boy pulls his friend into a snowbank, tucks him into shallow burrows made from fallen trees and winters ignorant to their still-growing; small covers of snow and shadow. lets tails blossom from skin, cocooning the two in the soft whites, pure as snow outside. looks too ragged when he looks up at carter again, grin but a ghost.
âsafe here, for now.â heâs breathing too hard, dim sparks in eyes barely there now. âthink you can hold back your howls?â











