Disclaimer: I lay no claim to any licensed characters or intellectual properties that were used in the making of this work.
breathe a little longer, will you?
i. grave
Sometimes, when the howling winds aren't enough to block out their sounds of anger and rage, it feels as if his own parents are stepping on his grave.
ii. progress
There's nothing like the thrill of mastering a new ability, of learning something for himself; he's sure Mr. Lancer would call it progress.
iii. prohibit
He knows of the damage he could do if he lets himself go unchecked, knows of the destruction he could cause to those he cares about the most; he can never let himself go, never remove the chains he's imposed — for everyone's sake.
iv. shroud
As he shifts forms, it is as if a shroud has been lifted, and he can let himself breathe.
v. shutdown
When all he has left is the fruit loop, and all he's ever known is in ruins, he thinks it's okay to want to forget and be free.
vi. resent
And when all the city he protects ever does is ridicule and degrade him — well, he tries to be bitter; in the end, the only one he has left to resent is himself.
vii. residue
He lets ghostly fingertips trace ice along her windows, leaving behind sketches of a phantom not yet at peace.
viii. remnant
As the people around him grow old with age, he never changes, constantly trapped in the adolescent body he'd died in; the two he had hoped would remain left the world young, and all because he could not save them.
ix. recuperate
After nature runs through her veins, — before the frost encases his heart — he is defeated and his city taken over; all that's left to do is heal, and live to fight another day.
x. psych
Neither the phantom nor the human are sure which is which; some days it feels as if there are two halves merged together, competing for control, but — other days, it feels he is one and the same.
xi. obtain
It's strange how easily he could obtain riches as Freakshow's puppet, how easily he could sway the world with a few heroic acts; he's not sure whether to be glad or upset, since the only thing he really ever wanted was to obtain peace.
xii. ocean
The sky and space are like the ocean, endless and open and free; he doesn't like to think about how easy it would be to let himself fall, to let go and drown in any of them.
xiii. melody
He laughingly tells her that her voice is like a siren's song, sweet and alluring, even if she herself isn't so simple sugar, spice, and everything nice.
xiv. memoire
To him, fire and ice are memoires of a future he needs to prevent, a future in which the world burns with the loss of what makes him human, and the ghostly ice of his ultimate enemy — himself — reigns supreme.
xv. marble
If the human's skin is like marble, fragile and smooth, the phantom thinks his skin is like sand, always shifting and trapped in the time of the electrocution; together, it is like ceramic glass, dead and alive and able to endure, though never, ever quite the same.
xvi. innocent
Although the phantom is always falsely blamed for the many phantasms that haunt the town, the human isn't so naïve as to believe that his parents will accept their claims of innocence when they learn his — their — secrets.
xvii. dead
In the realm of ghosts, he only has one foot in the grave, but in the realm of the living, he's all but dead to his teachers and peers; the phantom knows he is no longer of the living, — so cold and alone, and — but does the human?
xviii. alive
In that lab accident so long ago, he knows he must have half-died, if that makes any sense; he's warm, he can feel and breathe, and he knows he's still alive, though he doubts the phantom will believe him.
xix. phantom
Sometimes, if he looks hard enough in the mirror, he can see the electrical scars and green eyes and white hair, superimposed over his own clear visage of blue, blue eyes and black, black hair— but only if he looks for it; and, sometimes, he can still see the ghost of the fruit loop — be it at school or when he's alone — encouraging him, pushing him forward; when he looks for them both, though, there's never anything there.
xx. human
It's hard to believe he's still human when all people ever do is stare at him in fear or anger, when all he can ever do is cause destruction and mayhem, when all he feels is cold darkness where there should be a warm heart beating.
xxi. fusion
When the human and the phantom disagree, they always fight for control of the body; the one time they don't is when the girl they both love is falling to her death, and they forcefully break free of the shackles on their mind.
xxii. doctrine
People have been taught to fear ghosts, and ghosts have been known to be evil; he once believed that, as well, before the phantom and before he realized that not everything is so clear-cut black and white.
xxiii. chance
Although she hunted him down like an animal, he'd always known it was his fault — his and Phantom's; against all odds, he'd given her a chance to prove herself, and the Red Huntress, despite her misgivings, soon became an ally.
xxiv. befuddle
Most of the time, he knows what to expect from his enemies; it's the few times that they show that they worry and care that he feels confused.
xxv. amnesty
After the planet is saved, the fruit loop lost in space, and the girl he loves his, the ghosts have forgiven him for protecting his territory, and the humans have pardoned him from all his past actions; the only thing left, however, is to forgive himself for what he's about to do, because he doesn't think anyone realizes how much more phantom than human he's really become.
