iv.
-everything crumbles to dust.
There's one breath, then two, then three. She lays her head in the space between his shoulder and neck, breathing in the familiar scent that is his alone. It's at times like this when the fear is strongest, when the need for protection arouses something desperate within her, and she's clutching for anything to keep her grounded.
So she listens to his heartbeat – thump, thump, thump; and the in-out motions of air – whoosh. They're a set piece, her lullaby. Thump, thump, whoosh. Thump, thump, whoosh. Again and again the sounds travel through her ears, colliding with nerves and racing towards her brain. Again and again her anxiety crams itself down her throat.
She wonders when she started to depend on his sole existence.
i.
It's a smiling June day, and the heat burns her skin with its tentative touch. There she is, covered in grime, and crouched low behind the bushes. In this moment, she morphs from prey to predator, from hunted to the hunter. The stone she wears around her neck seems to weigh her down. As she waits, ever patient for the first whiff of a scent, she can't help but feel how cold it is.
ii.
He is bound by dreams. They run, thick and fast, through his veins; they inject him with something alien, something different, and he knows that just one step will lead to him falling down.
iii.
Track.
Her feet are steady, but inside it's turning past hidden corners and racing on. If there is life apart from this misery, she would take it, she would live it.
It's one thing she can never do.
And she closes her eyes, knowing this is wrong. She stands still, her decision made, and in a flash of uncertainty –
v.
They're bathed in rain and tears, and every little droplet is a pearl of pain. His heart is encased in frosty ice and burning fire, and as they clash in a whorl of color, he wants nothing more but to turn back time. He wants nothing but her.
A prayer leaves his lips as he spreads out his arms in surrender.
vi.
She would give it all up for him.
Her chest bangs with this one truth, her heart on the verge of leaping out into forever. The blade glistens in the sparkle of neon lights, cars whizzing past and lives tumbling by, as their own world threatens to dissolve right before their very eyes.
viii.
Everything is spinning out of control. It's a crash course to hell they're taking.
He listens to her heartbeats, thinking of how much he used to take it all for granted. And she listens to his, knowing it still keeps her sane, knowing it is the only thing erasing the nightmares.
vii.
He says something to her. It's devoid of sound – a void.
A hole where something happened.
ix.
"We could run. We could run and never look back."
I've been of a morose turn lately. So busy. Only got my laptop back. Was stuck in a limbo of confiscation.
The words fail me.
I don't think I made it clear who this was supposed to be, so you're free to interpret it any way you want to. But in my mind, this sort of represent Arthur and Hope - since Arthur is a rumored Vesper after all.
- Adrie