Will registers almost nothing as he collapses in his chair at the table. It is hard enough to breathe as it is without paying attention to the world around him. Each breath he takes seems to be harder than the one before it; the pile of dust in his lungs grows with each inhale, suffocating him slowly, and each exhale, that should provide him with some relief, instead makes the dust climb up his throat, threatening to choke out his next breath completely.

Josie Stronghold sets a plate of pancakes down in front of him, and the silence that replaces what he knows should be a ringing clatter deafens him. He stares at the plate without seeing it.

A hand on his shoulder and his mother's voice above him, as though it has come out of the huge speaker of Back to the Future fame, shatters everything around him. The world is suddenly in color again, the birds in their yard are singing again. There is pain in his shoulder again, and he jerks away from his mother, a hand protectively covering his injury. He looks at his mother in confusion. Why would she do that to him?

Josie frowns at her son and speaks again. "Will. Aren't you going to eat your pancakes while they're still warm?"

This time, Will understands his mother's words. He nods silently and looks back down at his plate, then picks up his fork. He finds that it is too heavy. He frowns at it slightly and tries a little harder. This time he is able to lift the fork, but it is still too heavy. Holding it over his plate, Will examines the pronged object. It seems to him that it will float, despite its impossible weight. The fork meets the plate with a clatter, too loud, and Will is shocked to find that he had let go of the fork, thinking it would stay there, suspended for all time.

He is vaguely aware, through vibrations from the floor to the chair to his body, that his mother is walking over to him. She speaks, a question that Will does not make out over the buzzing that has filled the room. He does not hear himself answer, does not create an answer in his mind, and yet is aware that he has, in fact, answered, a denial, as his body vibrates.

Josie Stronghold puts a hand on his forehead, burning him, and looks into his eyes. He sees her mouth move, feels her vibrations, feels his in response, feels her straighten and vibrate, worry, at her husband, his father. He sees his father look to his mother, vibrations through the table into him as he sets his mug down. He feels his father reply, nonchalant, no worry, his mother begins to vibrate back at him, when another vibration enters. The small red phone, through the table, cries out, 'come, come! there is trouble! big trouble! downtown!'

Will does not hear his parents say good bye, but he feels them get up from the table. He feels Josie through the floor as she pauses, then turns back to him, kisses him on the cheek, burn, and says something to him. Then her voice breaks through his world of vibrations and she tells him, "Take the bus to school today, okay? I don't want you falling out of the sky." Then the vibrations close in again, and Steve Stronghold is vibrating at his wife, hurry, from the secret sanctum.

Then he is alone, headed out the door, then there is Layla. Her vibrations are green, growth, good, and he wants to fall, fall into that green and be healed, no more dust, no more pain in his shoulders, but knows, inside, instinctual, impulse, that that can't happen just yet. He hears himself say that they should take the bus this time, feels her vibrate back, green, confused but agreeable.

The walk to the bus stop is a blur to him in his world of vibrations, where anything that moves registers, even the great grinding of the earth as it turns, slowly, in a mass of black velvet, black like her hair and soft like the dusty red velvet that she laid back on, flaunting her bloodless, breathless body. He coughs, feels the dust in his lungs stir up, settle down, and feels the ink run from the ten crescent moons that cover his shoulders.

Will Stronghold is not sure why, but the feeling in the back of his mind assures him that he does, has no time left for beating hearts.

Author's Note: again, thanks for all the reviews. Smokeydog, I'm particularly glad that you liked chapter 3 because I was sort of "inspired" to write it when you said you were confused. I'm slightly worried that this chapter has come out in a different style than the others, but, oh well. It's similar enough that I think its fine. We shall call this "the alliterations chapter". Oh, and on another note, the GodSends, even those who haven't been mentioned yet, are all my own ideas. The characters of Death and Judgment are a part of this. If you want to use them in a fanfiction, DON'T. E-MAIL ME FIRST… realizes does not have e-mail listed eh, just ask in a comment, okay?

OH! one more thing. I totally ganked that "big trouble, downtown" line from the movie. which doesn't belong to me, just a reminder.