#inclususbody

was this how it felt to be a piano ...

as silly a thought it was, it can't help but float through your mind as you feel their fingertips dance across your cheeks. eyes instinctively squeeze shut as you simply ... take in the moment.

a moment of quiet vulnerability ... tranquility. the calm within the storm. for a moment it felt like nothing else mattered ... like it was just the two of you.

( your heart flutters ... your cheeks glow as red as your nose )

... if only you'd realized that you'd fallen right into their trap. just as you were starting to get comfortable ( you had even started to reach for their cheeks, too ... )

" wh - what ?? what, what, what ?? "

quickly, you find yourself returning to reality. as they gently pinch your cheeks ... continuously. you want to get mad, you want to scold them and tell them to stop but ...

gosh !! how long has it been since you've heard them laugh like that !!

... maybe you'll let them keep at it for a bit. it kinda tickled ... actually.

you even find yourself laughing a bit, too.

📺⭐🟥⭕ * Hiya, kiddo!! Everything okay? What can I do for you? Was the thing he said the minute he spots them behind him in the mirror, a little surprised they came to find him all the way back here. Though he seemed to be multi-tasking polishing his screen, he looks up shocked at their reflection when they give their request.

It leaves him stunned a moment, which is why he hesitated at all to answer, but before they can even finish that last thought he's thrown whatever's in his hand at the far wall. ( It blows up in a stock explosion. )

He pushes his chair back clumsily, almost knocks himself backwards, stumbles to grab his jacket off the back of that chair and starts to pull it on. " WAIT-- wait! Kris! I-- I AM free, I'm ready when you are! " He fails to realize his long coat tails were caught on the chair and trips forward, effortlessly catching himself in a recline on the palm of his hands as if he planned that.

in all her glory, it is exactly who kris imagines it to be. baseball bat held in hand and slung across a shoulder stands dess, just how she always was. hair fluffy with streaks of red, cheek turned upwards into a sly grin, eyes hooded with mischief. but something was different.

"There's a city beyond here that plagues the light pollution, did you know?"

despite her ever cheery demeanor, there's a hint of darkness that surrounds her. so faint, one would never detect it in the light world, but kris . . . well, dess was sure they could feel it.

"Been a long time, huh, kid? Or would you say it's been too soon, I wonder?"

LYRICAL SENTENCE STARTERS .

...

to say that you were feeling the same would be putting it lightly. the tension in the air could be cut with a knife ... as though the two of you struggled to find the words to say && how to say them.

you could feel your hands grow sweaty, how your heart would race inside your chest.

... there was too much on YOUR mind, too.

you thought about when you were younger, the pranks that they would play on you. how the two of you and your siblings would spend so many nights at each others houses ...

you thought about how things changed. dess was gone ... and then everything slowly started to fade away.

you wondered if there was something else you could have done. maybe if you had then ...

( then maybe things wouldn't have came to this )

so many "what ifs" and potentials. they swirled around your head almost incessantly.

you reach out to them, your hand inching ever closer to theirs. a hint of hesitance, they'd already plucked that finger out of your hand ... surely they wouldn't put it back in ... right ??

... after all that was just a prank -- a dream, right ??

r -- right ... ??

( something deep inside your soul was telling you it wasn't ... but that wasn't something you wanted to think about. that voice would stay in your nightmares for years to come ... )

" there's too much on my mind, too ... "

finally, you break the silence.

" ... i want to talk about it but. "

but you're scared.

the words aren't said, but the feeling certainly comes across.

" i ... wish ... "

a pause.

      *     YOU   LOOK   AT   YOURSELF,     the person in front of you is someone that you recognize yet someone so distant.    their voice feels like dissonance,  a disorderly    NOISE    that makes your chest feel heavy.    it pricks at you  ;    their eyes are piercing,  as if finding recollection.     a sense of remembrance that you had long lost.    there exists a     SPLIT     somewhere,  a space between time between you     &     the person who you know is yourself.

(  and it feels    HAUNTING,    like frost clinging to your fingertips.    like a screaming voice,  like the echoing void that continues to beckon and    —   )

"  did you make it  ?  "      you do not recognize your voice.    you do not hear it.     yet you know it has    REACHED    them,  asking for something that you do not remember.     the kris in front of you,  the person that you are,  morphing into something that falls under the line of incomprehensive.     you plant your hand against the     BARRIER    before you.    trying to resonate,  trying to remember this empty space where only your tears remain.    your breathing is shaky,  you're grasping at straws to feel something.     ANYTHING.

the light at the end of the tunnel,  that golden warmth that cascades over them while you remain in this dark.    and it will become even    DARKER.     this crisp chill    ———     biting,  yelling,     THREATENING    to find freedom in the unknown yet all that exists is naught.     your fingers tremble,  searching for a semblance of heat in the light.    your armored hand slotting between theirs,  phasing right through.     ghastly.      as if a faint husk of what had failed.     what you     NEVER    wanted to be.

what you want them to    PREVENT.

your smile is bitter,  but they know your mistakes. what you couldn't do will     NO     longer happen.    "  you'll make it.  "     a promise.    "  you won't let it happen again.  "      because they remember now.