Chapter 2

"Look Life, I'm bleeding! But no-one can see the blood coursing down my skin; sentimentalising, toxic beauty locks me in place, but no one can hear me scream - Can you read me now? Can you hear me watch you fall apart? …."

()()()()

A silvery silence branded the area around the space ranger immoral, blinding the slivering lights of his luminous space suit into the faint speck of a spark against the looming darkness as every single hope he had ever had - most having been forced down his throat by the irrational theories his mind alone had created and brainwashed others simply to escape the unbearable pain of facing the indefinite inevitable - disintegrated into the ashes of the winds.

With the inaudible murmurs of reality taking hold of everything in sight, absorbing the limelight in the darkness and lifting the darkness from the deceiving shadows and into plain-view, came a feeling unlike any other that had ever struck the dim-witted novelty merely standing at the stage of the windowsill. Watching all he loved slip right from his view as common instinct kept his artificial muscles frozen in place, his jaw quivering uncontrollably at the mere sight of such a catastrophe. The scarce remaining of life in such a desolated area of the world hid right in the light of the unforeseen, but this fact simply wasn't taken into account as he gaped through the dusty glass of the window and towards a sight he wished he could tear himself away from.

How can the world be so bright when he felt so cold and dark inside? He asked himself this now as he pulled at the inner cords of his mind to shake his head out of its position. But all went to no avail as the crystal jewels began to form within the heap of his plastic stomach, jabbing his core until he bled internally. He just stood there, paralysed. Nothing he tried to do could control anything, as the entire situation just rolled out before his eyes, flattening all that lay before him in pessimism through the inaudible screams of the silent. When all hopes had been lost, this was what he wanted to do. He wanted to flee-he wanted to runaway from his fears as his world fell apart before his eyes.

Diamonds may perch within him, ready to crack as soon as he hit the robust step in life. But nothing on this earth could have prepared the diamonds for what he saw now. His friends, his family - well - they were all being taken away from him. And he was standing there, helplessness etched upon his face as he gaped at the sight with distraught eyes. Nothing in the world could have prepared him for this; the day where the diamonds within him simply shatter, settling his senses ablaze in anguish that startled his nerves completely.

His friends - his 'family' - were being taken away from him, but yet their owner hadn't laid a finger on the ranger that day. And yet she had been talking about dumping the toys off, every single one of them, at the local day care for weeks. By today's standards, old hand-me-down toys were far too old-fashioned for seventeen year old girls - or any individual of that age for that matter. Creativity had been overruled by logic and imagination had been obliterated from the innocent child's mind long before this day.

Unconsciously, this sent the ranger's train of thought off course and he suddenly found all of his senses wandering aimlessly off into the distance. Maybe he should have noticed it approaching earlier than he had - earlier that they all had actually, but he didn't like to partially force a fair percentage of the blame on any of this friends though because something like that was hard to see when it was coming. Almost as though trying to dodge a punch when the opponent was so close to destroying everything that had lifted one's spirit up from the ashes and into the limelight where it truly belonged. It just couldn't be done, and he was the logical one of the group. He was the smartest of them all if he wasn't going to be modest, and yet he had been one of the last to see the inevitable approaching.

If he could see correctly through the hazy blur of his corrupted memories, then he'd be able to figure that it had really been the love of his life to notice it all first. Partially due to the fact that she had been through it all more than the others had, and she was the most experienced one of the lot. Wiser than the rest given the years she had witnessed, even if most had been deprived of their flourishing innocence through the masking darkness of storage, and the strongest one internally when it came to battling with emotions and keeping Poker Face's straight. But her weaknesses made themselves far more apparent than others, and this was what had kept her unable to help herself when the anxiety struck her core.

Second to see the inevitable approaching had been the group's leader, though even the Sheriff had been unable to make the ends meet in the end. As keeping the group calm when the rumours spread had proved to be both difficult and ultimately impossible, eventually leading his hopes over the edge when matters spiralled out of control. And he was to depart now as well, leaving only the space ranger behind to wander in the desolate field. He had tried though, and so had Jessie. They had tried and they could have put their all into it, but nothing would have prospered as the inevitable was met no matter the path one would take to avoid it.

In the front, he could see Mrs Anderson at the yard sale stall and he could also identify the passer-bys observing the toys from a distance. He didn't know them for obvious reasons, and this told the ranger that they were not from this local area. This was the worst news he could have stumbled across when it all came down to the simple matters. Purely because they could live absolutely anywhere. What was to tell him that none of them were planning to move to a different country next week? This was also what the Space Ranger had asked himself as one of the individuals, a tall, fair-haired man in his forties, made his way to the stall out of pure interest.

From where he had been stood, Buzz Lightyear had been able to spot the man survey all of the other toys individually, classifying most as garbage, before his attention was snatched by a feminine like rag doll with a high and wild personality.

- No! - The space ranger mentally pleaded, only for his pleas to writhe forward unheard as his worst nightmares were brought to life -

When a force greater than Fate drew the space ranger away from the deep state of sleep, Buzz Lightyear gasped slightly and shot up into a sitting position. His metaphorical heart was beating wildly as his senses readjusted to the new change in the atmosphere around him, feeling slightly bewildered.

No longer was he surrounded by the bright lights of the surging day, but he was instead mocked by the looming shadows lingering all throughout the area of the interior surroundings of the toy box around him. A simple change from dream to reality was often one overlooked, as it was far harder to adjust to the absolute burden of life when the dreams aligned them almost perfectly.

Feeling slightly groggy, Buzz blinked hard and examined his surroundings with cautious eyes. Surprisingly, he was one of the last to wake today, but yet no one had noticed his anxious behaviour prior to this moment. He decided to dismiss that particular dream for now, as it was one he had come across many times before. He didn't question the dreams either, for he knew exactly what the cause behind them was. What, with Bonnie growing older day by day and all. She'd be eighteen next week, and she was set to follow her natural ambitions to the very last root; which would very well include her leaving the household for at least half a decade or more before returning home a completely different person.

As she grew older, an inevitable concept had been drawn closer into the core of his mind and now they were all facing their last chance. As either the attic or the yard sale lay before the paths of most of the toys, and these were ones none of them wanted to meet.

Shaking his head, Buzz Lightyear demolished the provoking thoughts and scanned the area around him for any sign of the Sheriff, before spotting him in the corner talking over their roles in the plan with the cowgirl the ranger had come to love with all of his heart.

Sighing, Buzz groggily got up and made his way over to the western duo - with only one principle encrypted into the back of his mind.

If Buzz didn't make the plan he invented work, then he could shatter the whole group apart within the matter of a few seconds.

A/N Sorry for taking ages to update this, but I had started and deleted ideas for the second chapter time and time again (too many to count), until I was struck with the idea for this. So I hope you're all happy with it. This one was only short, but the next few will be considerably longer. A/N