Reflections
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"Hallelujah...."
The name reflected off his lips, splitting into fractions, fragments, that resounded between him and the glass windows. It wasn't him, and yet it so certainly was. Who else could he see in his reflection but himself?
He knew that no one who looked in a mirror was actually seeing himself or herself correctly. Illusion. The shiny glass didn't show the truth. But the backwards reflection was the only way people could see themselves at all.
A smirk that wasn't on his own lips. "What's it this time, Allelujah?"
His heart beat to a quicker tempo. Who's heart was it really though?
"We share the same heart, Allelujah. That's why I won't let us die." The smirk was gone, the golden eye piercing, reflecting, echoing into his soul. Silver-grey into yellow-gold, he was looking into himself. Monstrous... maybe.
"I don't think you have a heart, Hallelujah."
He meant for a quiet voice, achieved the feel of it, but heard the laugh. He wondered whether it echoed only inside the confines of his head or whether the reflection held the truth this time. If anyone saw him now... Setsuna, Tieria, Lockon, Lasse, Sumeragi, Feldt... what would they think of him? Would they hear a one-sided conversation? A snatch of laughter? Or the complex mixture of sounds from both personas resounding down along the corridors, certainly the voice of the orange-vested pilot, but distorted by inflection, reflection, the sense of direction misplaced.
"You know you don't have to hate me." The image in front of him gave his head a quarter-turn. Allelujah didn't know who moved.
"Do we ever?"
A strange double image of seeing himself alongside himself. For a moment, perhaps his real reflection saw himself in the glass. Or was it just the blue-white of a star pretending to be grey? His mind often played tricks on him that way.
"There must be a way for this to end, right, Hallelujah?"
"I won't let us die."
"That wasn't what I meant."
"I know. But it's what I mean."
A half-smile. Black-green hair swaying in the cool oxygen draft that rebounded along the hallways. They were being courteous because they could afford to now. In the cockpit, the midst of battle, enemies all around, so much confusion, no time for affection or perfection of words.
"I don't hate you."
"Me neither." A pause, the sentence left hanging ambiguous. "You know what I mean."
He looked away, but of course, the presence was still there. Permanent, constant, hiding in his mind—their minds—even if the mirrors and scattered reflections gave them both a truer and still copied form. When the positions were reversed, he liked to be seen the same way—that is, to be glimpsed at all. At other times, he wasn't sure who was the reflection and who was the figure. Selection of the recollection in a gold or silver orb.
"Accept, Allelujah."
"Are we both real?"
"Accept, Allelujah."
"I don't think I can forgive you."
A raised eyebrow, an artificial questioning of the truth. "Face it, you can't forgive yourself."
"Am I you?"
"Who else would I be?"
"Hallelujah...."
A softer smile, near pity, gracing his sharp features. The golden eye caught him again, the eyebrow slender and straight but for an upward cast meeting the dark hair covering his face.
"I'll take care of you, Allelujah." A sincere gaze, no smile in elegant seriousness. "The things that hurt you, or scare you; I'll protect you from them. It's what I've always done, so don't expect me to stop now."
A pause. Silence to reflect over the words, perhaps unspoken, but certainly thought. Then a grin from one, a soft smile from the other, expression caught between the mirror and image, merging them into one.
He turned from the window, from where the stars flickered, winking their way through their glittering eyes and reflections.
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Okay, thanks for reading. I know it's super short, but I was trying something waaaaay different here in terms of style, so I'd really appreciate reviews to let me know whether it worked or it didn't. I know the grammar sucks, but I was more interested in focusing in whether it was readable and simple yet elegant observations. So... my question really is, could you, as a reader, understand more or less what was happening?
And if you really liked it, I might consider writing more of Hallelujah and Allelujah's interactions (with much more substance than this drabble) in a pretty poetry-filled prose way.