A/N: To be honest, I didn't expect a new chapter this fast either. xD I was surprised (and flattered) when I got a review already too. Seriously, I think I take them too kindly, I get all giddy and excited like a little school girl.
So thank you TuesdayNovember. c:
Enjoy the chapter, and thanks for reading.
Song - My Mirror Speaks by Death Cab for Cutie
No Sunlight: Chapter Two
My Mirror Speaks
"Hey,"
I looked over at Emily, she was calling me.
'Cause I'm a man who hides from all that binds
In a mess of fading lines
"You okay Ralph?"
Not really.
"I didn't mean to pinch a nerve or anything."
"I know you didn't."
She frowned at me, and then suddenly she changed it into a slight smile. "Hey, you know what?" She paused, and clasped her hands together. "Wanna race over there? It's just straight ahead." With those big brown eyes, it looked like she was pleading, "C`mon it'll be fun!"
I attempted to grin back at her, getting my hands out of my trouser pockets. "`kay." I laughed, forcing it out of my mouth. "I'll beat `cha anyhow."
I looked over to her, but realized she wasn't by my side anymore. It wasn't until I looked ahead that I realized that she was already a quarter of the way there, running as fast as her little dress and her little legs could take her.
"Hey no fair!" I shouted out to her.
"That's what you get for standin` there!"
I began running, and suddenly, I ran faster than I thought I ever did. Suddenly, the English countryside dissapeared from the background and it became a lush forest. Suddenly, I heard cries and shouting behind me. Suddenly, I felt the ground shaking underneath my own feet, and the sound of many people chasing after me. Suddenly, my mind took me back to place where I never wanted to be again.
I ran faster and faster.
And suddenly, it stopped, and Emily stood in front of me, holding my arms.
"Ralph?"
"Wh-Wha -?"
"You almost crashed into me." Emily giggled that same giggle that she does often, it was so comforting and girly. "You okay?" She let go of me.
"Y-yeah, I'm alright." I replied, my voice was shooken up and cracking again.
"You sure? We can go back, the sun's going down anyway." Emily paused, and then leaned closer to me. Cocking a single eyebrow, "Are you . . . tearing?"
"Wha- ? No!" I wiped my eyes with my arms, barely wet after I did. My instinct to retain my 'masculinity' was overblown. "Damn bugs okay? Got caught in my eyes! I'm not cryin`!" My voice raised slightly at the last part.
"I just thought you . . ."
I cut Emily off, "Sucks to your thoughts!" I looked over to the thing Emily called a forest, nothing but leafless tall trunks with a spider web of branches. But the word forest still haunted me, I didn't really want to play in there.
"Okay then, let's go Ralph."
I nodded and made my way next to her. We both looked at each other for a second, and quickly turned away, similar to the first moment we looked at each other. I didn't try to start a conversation, and I think she didn't bother either. It was a rocky beginning, but I knew I would be seeing more of her. In fact, there was no way out of seeing her more.
We continued on the pavement, all the way home.
Emily walked with me to the front of my house, letting me walked up the wooden stairs as she stayed standing on my lawn.
"So," I saw Emily scratching the back of her head, "We'll see each other tomorrow?"
"I think so."
"Um," She paused, "Bye then, Ralph."
"Bye."
Slowly, but surely, she walked off of my lawn, and into her own house. I sat on the stairs of my porch, watching the orange sky and the sun setting. It hasn't hit me yet that I was actually home, and that horrible thing wasn't happening anymore. I should be happy that my life is back to normal, but it just feels weird.
I mean, it's good to be back and not on the island, but I'm not happy.
I felt my hands twitch as I thought about what was bothering me.
It was no surprise what was bothering me.
I looked up, my body falling back against the wooden porch. My mind wandered to wherever it wanting to go and I starred blankly at the cieling, and then I felt something. People up there; they were mad at me. They were glaring right at me. They were up there and I was just down here, like everything was okay.
I looked up to the roof, biting my lower lip, clawing at the wood underneath me.
'I'm sorry,' I said to them.
They were silent; I wasn't sure if they could speak or not.
'I swear!' I cried out at them. 'It's not my fault!' I felt like I was screaming.
"Oh? But everything was your fault."
My body quickly shot up, and now I was sitting up right. I looked around, not seeing anyone or anything that could have been that voice. I stood up now, and walked into my house. Heading straight for my room that was still in the works. Boxes everywhere and just a mattress in the middle and a dresser off to the side of the plain room. I think my mom was trying to talk to me, but I had ignored her, only wanting to be in my room by myself.
She was probably just going to try and ask about my day, like she always did before. And even before this, before all of this I always replied the same thing day in and day out.
'How was your day today, Ralph?'
'Fine.'
I shut the door behind me. It made a loud slam. I plopped myself on the matress.
I hesitated, looking back up at the cieling. There were people there. I felt like I could touch them, they were real. As real as I am, and as real as Emily; as real as life. "Piggy, Simon." I could barely utter the words out, I felt like I was being strangled. My vision was blurring and I felt hot tears roll down the sides of my face. "I'm so sorry." I whispered to them, if they were listening.
I hope they were listening.
I pushed myself up off the mattress, and was about to walk to the living room when I noticed the dresser's mirror as I passed by. I stopped, and stared at my own reflection. I could barely see my ordinary pale skin underneath all of my burnt and cracked skin above it. My eyes were red and puffy, my face the slightest shade of pink. My hair was kind of a mess.
What happened to me?
The mirror's image was changing, back and fourth from me to some other boy. The other boy was shirtless, dirty, and angry looking. dried blood and dark burns covered his leathery looking skin. He held a pointed spear next to him, and looked directly at me. His eyes were glaring right into my own. It was like he was reading my mind, like he was studying everything about me just by looking into my eyes. He frightened me.
"I'm the beast, Ralph."
I wasn't shocked when it began talking, not at all. It was like he wanted to say something anyways.
'Who are you?' I asked the boy.
"I'm you."
When my mirror speaks it never minces words
That these eyes don't shine half as bright
As they used to do and they haven't for quite a while
I was about to ask another question to the boy, I really wanted to. But when I looked back up, I saw my own reflection. I didn't know exactly what to do just then, I gulped, trying to settle in what just happened there. I felt like screaming, like yelling and cursing at the damn mirror. I felt like breaking the thing into a millions sharp little pieces. I felt like choking that boy on the other side of the mirror.
That wasn't me.
It couldn't be.
My back turned to the mirror, and my head began aching. My eyebrows narrowed, and I turned back to look at the mirror straight forward. My hand soon turned into a tight fist, my viens beginning to pop out on my hands. I breathed heavily.
"What are you going to do?" The boy in the mirror asked, he had a slight smirk on his face. He held the spear in one hand while the other hand rested on his hip. He looked at me through the bridge of his nose. "Get rid of me?" He laughed, a ridiculing, haunting laugh. It sent shiver down my spine, "Ralph, I am you."
Then my mirror speaks with irreverence
Like a soldier I can't command
It sees the frightened child that I am
"You actually think that you can get rid of me by punching and screaming at me? Beating me like the animal you are?" He laughed, his ugly, yellow stained teeth showing. "Like you did to them?"
I grabbed a blanket that was laying on my matress, unfolding it and pulling it over the mirror. I didn't want to see the boy anymore. No matter what he said, I wasn't him. I just wasn't.
"Ralph, you silly thing." I could still hear his voice, it was in my head. It was clawing away at my brain, trying to break me down. "If you want to get rid of me, you've got to get rid of you."
I walked out of my room, slamming the door behind me. I wasn't going to sleep in that room.
Actually, I wasn't sure if I was going to get any sleep tonight.
Just a frightened child
