author's note. Normally, I avoid angsty things. But I love this song and just felt an urge. So please, let me know what you think.
disclaimer. Right.
song. Return by OK Go
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Now it's years since your body went flat and even memories of that
Are all thick and dull,
All gravel and glass
But who needs them now
Displaced they're more easily safe
She collapsed to her knees, and the flowers that had formerly been clutched tightly in her hand were forgotten and fell to the ground and were pelted with the tears that were now streaming down her face.
This wasn't how it was supposed to be. Save the cheerleader, save the world. He had saved her. He had saved the world. Everything was supposed to be better now.
How could it not be?
He had rescued her, pulled her from the depths she'd been falling through.
The worst of it now: I can't remember your face.
Return.
This wasn't how he was supposed to be remembered. He was a hero. He is a hero. How could he have just been forgotten – locked away in this foreign place, with no friends or family or anyone to talk to. Who could he tell his dreams to now? His ambitions?
For a while, with the vertigo cured, we were alive, we were pure
The void took the shape of all that you were, but years take their toll
And things get bent into shape…
Antiseptic and tired, I can't remember your face.
There was so much more for him to do. So many more people to save. There was so much more for him to teach her.
She had been told not to come here anymore. They said it was too hard for her to handle. She should move far, far away, and never return.
Return.
But how was he supposed to return if she couldn't herself? She wasn't indestructible. He was the only one who knew that. All of the rest of them; they just saw her for the invincible girl. He saw so much more. The real her.
She pressed the palms of her hands into her closed eyes, trying to recreate the fireworks he made go off in her mind every time he touched her. Looked at her. Smiled at her. Kissed her, spoke her name, whispered into her ear, offered words of encouragement.
You were supposed to grow old.
Reckless, unfrightened, and old.
They had plans. Travel to Iceland, Stonehenge, Malaysia, New Zealand, Zambia. Plant a forest. They had a future.
There must have been a flaw in the plan. Perfect plans didn't just go wrong. There was a reason. A reason why he didn't return.
You were supposed to grow old.
He had just been beginning. There was so much more to do. He, of all people, didn't deserve this.
She pressed her palms into her closed eyes again, trying to get a decent picture of him in her mind. But the sobs that wracked her body blurred her vision, and the picture came out pixilated and ripped and stained and undecipherable, and she only cried harder.
She didn't know him anymore. Did he remember her?
Return. You were supposed to return.