I wanted to do something different and tell the same story through two different perspectives. I think it made it more powerful to have one of them read backwards, especially because that allowed me to bleed them together better. I'm not sure about some of middle parts, but I couldn't find a better way to write them so I left them as is. I hope it isn't too awkward, but I suppose I'll find that out soon enough.
Disclaimer: Oh my, I still have yet to come into ownership of the series.
They Lay Stitched Together
Her limbs are pale white, skinny twigs. The large hulking wreckage behind her makes her look even smaller. Her forehead is bleeding, right ankle twisted into something odd and unnatural, but she looks beautiful. Looks perfect.
He drifts over to her. Holds her unresisting wrists in his bony hands. Gazes into her confused eyes with sockets black as sin.
He then snaps the small bones beneath his fingers and slips himself into her screams.
000
He shows himself in the mirrors. In reflections on the television and glasses and peoples' eyes. He talks to her when she's half asleep and vulnerable.
She's prettiest when she's weak. Most beautiful when she's partially aware and fully open. So fascinating when she spills secrets with nary but a weary blink.
He wishes she'd reveal everything.
000
She holds hands with another boy. The child looks at her with hope and adoration. He boils with anger. With every kind of jealousy and betrayal and hate.
He reaches out a hand, imagines twisting the child's arm into something unrecognizable.
He waits for night to come. Can hardly be bothered to allow her any time to drift off.
He steals her first kiss with unsure lips and gnawing teeth.
000
He watches her grow older. Watches her legs grow longer, slimmer. Watches her movements grow more graceful. Watches her gain and lose habits and hobbies and friends.
He compares himself to her. Looks at her arms against his; matches her matured cheekbones to his baby fat.
It's frightening the distance he sees now. So frightening that sometimes he can't bring himself to come out to her.
He doesn't want her to realize how small he is becoming.
000
He begins to completely hide away from her. Ceases the nightly meetings and kisses.
He contents himself to wait and watch. Studies the people around her. Studies the clothes she wears and the things she likes. Yellow makes her glow, and he takes silent note.
Someday that will be him, he thinks. And he sleeps dreaming of holding her hand in the park, stealing kisses in movie theaters.
000
He wakes to wet warmth. To the color green and the feel of liquid squelching in his palms, around and between his fingers.
He wakes to the smell of vanilla.
His memory is in pieces but he knows what he's supposed to do. He can feel them calling him after all.
And he needs a girl with pins in her hair.
000
Her name is gone. The length of her hair, the color of her eyes, what she likes, and hates, and wants is nothing but a gaping hole of emptiness. He gropes blindly but he can't get it back.
However he remembers the sound of her voice (like bells and sweet humming and the whisper of music in his ear) and how her fingers twist in her hair, and the way her lips taste like honey and blood.
All of it, he wants all of it back and so he comes to her in green moonlight.
000
She collects the pieces of him like knick knacks. Snapping him together with blades and bones and malicious smiles.
She collects friends, trinkets, personas that whisper sweet nothings in her ears.
He collects her secrets.
000
She's still bigger. Still towers over him with legs that go for miles and a body far more developed.
Friend, they whisper, late in the pale green light.
He feels himself changing though. With every piece she gives him he feels himself expand, grow, develop.
Friend, they whisper. And he thinks, You mean so much more.
000
He reappears with a new face and hands big enough to envelope hers within them.
She stares at him in awe and confusion and he thinks it makes her charming.
There is familiarity in her name, her voice, and the feel of her arms wrapped around him. She's safe, she's warm, she's beautiful.
He wants to forever be near her.
000
For the first time he finds himself surrounded by people. Girls titter about how cute he his. Boys trade stories of pranks and stupid ghost stories.
But the only people he calls friends are the ones who've gathered around her. The ones who trust her with everything and anything.
He's considered one of them, and she grins at him with pride.
000
He kisses her. On the rooftop of the school with the sound of the track team in the distance.
He kisses her with desperate longing and the feel of finally, finally, finally.
She smiles at him with those pretty lips and moves to kiss him once more.
000
She's everything, anything, the whole world.
He watches the nape of her neck in school. Her fingers as she puts up her hair in the morning. Her eyes as she tells him stories and secrets and dreams.
He holds her hand with interlocking fingers and promises of forever and always.
And sometimes he's gullible enough to believe it.
000
Everything she does makes him love her more. Yet everything she does makes him terrified.
How long will she still exist to him? How much time until he loses her again?
He wants her, from the way she lights up to the polish on her toes. If all of her belongs to him then maybe he won't have to worry about watching that smile melt away.
He wraps her in his scarf. Watches how the yellow makes her glow.
And she kisses the tears from his eyes.
000
She doesn't cry. Instead she stands stiff and stares at him with unwavering eyes.
He cries for her. Because he doesn't have to be the strong one.
He sneaks back to her room the next night, when the clock strikes midnight and she's vulnerable and sleeping.
He strokes her hair and whispers sweet nothings until he melts away.
000
He towers over her.
She's tiny, with her bloody clothes and her messy hair and her ragged breathing. He thinks how lovely she looks, as she gazes at him with eyes so determined they burn.
He reaches out to crush her between his fingers. Reaches out to (take her, love her, steal her somewhere far away where the two of them would forever meld together) bring her back to him. She raises one arm in response.
This time she bleeds into him.
000
They always find themselves in different places. Sometimes it's a forest. Sometimes a beach with the waves lapping at their ankles. Sometimes it's a park with swings enough for two.
It is always only the two of them.
She steals his scarf. Makes him play tag and hide and seek and truth or dare. Makes him whisper her name until her ears are raw.
He steals her rings. Makes her stay up all night and share secrets and kisses. Makes her hold him until they're melded so tightly it feels wrong to be apart.
They dream forever curled together.
000
He towers over her.
He's so dark, looming like a giant, vomiting oppression and fear with every move he makes. His eyes are empty sockets and if there's pain lingering behind them she's the only one who sees it.
She stands with all the determination she can muster as he reaches one bony black, hand towards her. She closes her eyes, thinks of (taking him away, running to the ends of the universe and beyond, dying to be with him) going back home.
This time she bleeds into him.
000
He's gone as suddenly as he appeared.
She curls into him, wills herself to let him go, and watches him out the door with eyes dry and unwavering.
She goes about her days like he never existed.
She goes about her nights dreaming of the feel of his arms around her back and the glow of yellow.
000
The grip he has perpetually tightens. She allows him her time, her gaze, her thoughts.
His touch is all at once needy and terrified. She feels him slipping away and the thought worries her so much she sneaks him to the dorm every night. Promises love and affection and forever, forever, forever.
He wraps her in his scarf, tells her how lovely she is.
She wishes he'd stitch their fingers together.
000
She whispers innuendos and love poems in his ears at lunch. Relishes the looks of disbelief and sweet grins.
He feels like the world to her. Like his mere existence makes her everything brighter.
She swears she'll forever stay by his side, and he smiles so lovingly as he returns the favor.
She thinks he shines much more than he knows.
000
She lets him kiss her on the rooftop.
Feels his (gnawing biting teeth) trembling lips press against hers like a shy child's.
It's so sweet and so innocent and so lovely and it makes her shiver.
In the back of her head she thinks, You're finally all mine.
000
He blends in with her friends like a chameleon.
She watches him laugh with them, spend his afternoons joking and playing and chatting.
She thinks how wonderful he shines, and her affection is overwhelming.
000
The boy that appears has legs longer than hers and hands that fold over her clasped ones like they were molded for that purpose.
He smiles at her and her chest constricts with such familiarity and joy that she has to rush home in order not to make a fool of herself. They know each other's habits, their ticks, their joys. They share looks that make her burn harder.
She wishes to forever be near him.
000
He looks different somehow.
His appearance hasn't changed and he sounds the same, but the glint in his eyes is more courageous. The words he spills far more daring than she has ever heard him speak.
She remembers the blur of her girlhood and the feel of blood and gnawing teeth. Of a malevolence that washed over her with such satisfaction.
Friend, they whisper. She wonders, But should you be more.
000
She tears through shadows like paper cutouts. Grows stronger (surer) with every slash of the naginata, with every night and outing and team mate collected.
She talks with him in the glow of green and the shadows of a hidden hour.
Grows stronger with every secret he shares.
000
Her childhood friend she thinks, when a little boy shows himself in shadows.
She thinks he reminds her very much of a boy she dreamed of as a child.
But she can't quite place a face, a name, a feeling, and smiles at him with something that isn't quite confidence.
000
Her world is bathed in green moonlight. She goes back home and subtly forgets to remember why it fills her with such dread.
Something wells in her chest. Like a candle. Like a hundred nails tearing through her heart and stomach and lungs.
It begins, she thinks, and somehow the phrase makes her smile.
000
She begins to lose him. Forgets the color of his eyes, the lilt of his giggle, the feel of his fingers against hers.
She begins to think of him as a childhood fancy.
But every so often there's something warm in her chest and she thinks of a boy who meant everything.
000
She grows older. Watches in awe as she matures and lengthens and sprouts. She learns to walk with her new legs. Learns how to stand straight and fold her hands properly and smile with more grace.
She begins to notice he isn't growing with her. His arms become skinnier. The top of his head begins to slowly inch down below her chin. It is scary in a way. She thinks this may be a sign she's outgrowing him.
She prays for him to grow old with her.
000
She thinks he may be jealous. Of her parents, of the friends she keeps, of the boys who begin to pick and ogle and blush.
It's cute. Amazingly cute (the frustrated look in his eyes when he talks her to sleep and the way she feels the malevolence wash over her when a boy come near and she drinks it in with such relish) and she almost wants to make him even more twisted up.
She allows a friend to grasp her hand in shaky fingers. Closes her eyes, pretends she is touching a boy in striped pajamas with hands as cold as death.
That night she gives her first kiss to warm lips and sharp teeth.
000
She sees him only in passing. In the reflections of glass and screens and sometimes in the corner of her eye if she doesn't concentrate too hard. He speaks to her only in her dreams.
He's so frustrating to talk to. So hard to catch and pin down. She tries to reach back and snag the sleeves of his pajamas.
She wishes he'd let her touch him.
000
His body is a mass of looming, fluttering black cloth. The green of the moonlight plays just so to make him look even bigger. He's awkward, terrifying, and unnatural, but he feels safe. Feels perfect.
He comes closer and her body stiffens. Swallows in nervous expectation. Locks gazes with a face that look as if it could swallow her whole.
He snaps her wrists and she drinks him in with screams.