Tiny Prayers
Sakura pursed her lips and intertwined the string of beads round her fingers lightly. Saying tiny insignificant prayers as she went along, she looked up at the black and hollow ceiling, wondering if he'd ever come.
Her corset was pulled tight, and the ribbons reached the floor. Sometimes it was like hands were reaching up and grabbing them violently, trying to pull her down. The room was asphyxiation in itself, yet, the room was the world. It was like a charred, blackened crystal. Useless and imperfect, yet still so in tact and rare.
Sakura reached the final bead and went on to counting cracks in the walls. It urge to cry was so painful, but tears never came. It was like she had escaped from herself. Too long since she had felt her own hands and too long since she had heard her own voice.
Shadows approached and she heard the faint ringing echo of his calm, clear voice. Was he standing right next to her? Or somewhere far away? She couldn't tell.
"Will you follow me?"
It was a calling. A beckoning, if anything. But it wasn't what she wanted, so she took up the beads and stayed rooted to the dark, miserable floor.
"I don't love you,"
It was definitely her voice and it surrounded all the shadows.
The string snapped and an explosion of tiny prayers took flight around the room.