Delirium
Disclaimer: I do not own The Sandman. seriously, I am too broke to buy a book. Thanks to Neil Gaiman and my local library.
Authors Note: I have a love-hate relationship with delirium. She is an amazingly awesome character, but she is really difficult to write about, and calls for some odd creativity I find difficult to muster up. I may steal some things.
He sat in what may or may not have been the uniform of dull gray scrubs, with his legs folded and his hands resting in his lap. His head hung low, wavy nest of red hair drooping. He was listening.
A soft buzzing from a corner, near a window. It could have been a fly. Maybe a watermelon, or a hailstorm, pounding against the window in what might be august. He could never really be sure.
But covering up the buzzing now was the distant echo of footsteps. Maybe footsteps. Maybe a gong, or someone loudly sucking air out of a milkshake glass.
He could never know for sure.
Slowly lifting his head, he saw her.
A dim, hazy figure, making louder steps that seemed possible. Ghostly, almost, from what he saw.
She stepped closer, and he felt a flicker inside him. He couldn't quite recall who she was, and the ghostly thoughts in his mind started again. All around him was smoke. All he could see, feel, smell, taste, hear was smoke, billowing around him. He went into a coughing fit.
She grabbed his hand, hard. He felt her warmth, and brushed away the smoke. She was no longer hazy. He could see her face.
A candle lit inside him, perhaps the one producing all the smoke.
Skin that might have been pale or might have been ivory. Hair that may have been dark, or possibly chocolate. Eyes that were blue, or rather, mini oceans. A few fish escaped his mouth.
She was dressed in real world clothing. Maybe the real world, maybe somewhere else entirely. Maybe he was in the real world.
Delirium danced in a corner, watching the pair. Giggling, she saw how much he drew from her. The girl, she saw the girl, witch chocolate hair and ocean eyes, with fish encircling her and she didn't even realize it. What a strange person. She held onto the boys hand as if it he were falling off a cliff. He made more sense now.
The girl had nearly lost hope. She grew tired of coming in once a week, into these halls, feeling an empty cold, and coming to see him. She used to love him. There was a time when she would take off work and fly across the country to see him. She could almost remember his perfect smile, remembered how he smiled whenever he saw her. Now it was different.
She spoke to him, as she did every week, trying to get him to talk to her. He just coughed and stared at a fly on the window. A tear ran down her cheek. She missed him so much.
He could hear her talking, hear her voice. A wavering sound, as if being spoken underwater. I was beautiful, but he could never know it was a voice. It could have been the scream of an ambulance, or waves hitting the beach. He couldn't respond to her calls. He would look crazy if it wasn't really her.
She sat beside him and held him close. Pearly tears rolled own her cheeks, to land on the dull gray clothing. Tears, or diamonds, now no one knew for sure.
Ten-kih Ho-shih