509. Blooming flowers, 9

(Zeslinry)

I felt like I woke up from the deepest of sleeps.

I emerged so slowly, for a second or two, I didn’t remember who I was nor where.

My sight came to me like a soft dawn.

As I awoke and sat, things turned from night to day around me in a matter of seconds.

My fingers looked for my glasses next to me by reflex. I was still confused, looking for something not pertinent.

I began remembering who I used to be while the sight of my environment begun gradually to make sense.

I remembered my name and life.

I couldn’t remember how I got to this place however, that I don’t recognise.

My clothes are unusually dirty and ragged.

I began standing up in that red poppy like flower field. Ruins of a city I don’t recognise surround that bright red field.

I feel very tired, though I feel like I slept for a very long time as well.

How did I get here?

I make two steps, on unsteady legs.

Legs.

Something feels wrong, very wrong, but I can’t quite realise what it is yet.

I remember travelling with Myls...

What’s the last thing I remember?

I try to watch back in my mind some dusty films, as I try clumsily to walk toward the nearest edge of that bright park.

I remember meeting the spooky and insidious lord of nightmares.

Where is everyone? Why would they leave me alone here?

I’m out of breath by the time I reach a large stone I can use to sit on like a bench.

I hold my head. I smell like dirt and roots. My smell is nothing like what I recall.

Some of my thoughts are unable to reach their proper conclusions. Things don’t work. Some connections have broken. Something is missing...

I unconsciously go to check and adjust the strap of my prosthetic. A reflex. It itches maybe.

The surprise of the sensation raises the hair on my head and arms.

I should probably be happy, but right now I feel horrified, more scared than anything else, to see I have my leg back.

The foot is weaker, but there. It grew back. This terrifies me.

Fear floods my blood. I panic, my heartbeat rising too much.

I look around more desperate, searching for the threat.

I can’t see anything nor hear anyone but me around.

Fear is shocking me, paralysing me, and I just stay there, sitting and sweating profusely as if my doom was underway.

I’m panicking.

And the last memory strikes me back.

A flash of pain, and blood burning my head.

I scratch the top of my head, looking for a scar or worse. I can’t seem to find it. It was too real... I’m in panic, unable to calm down.

And then, it clicks.

I’m sweating enough to leave a wet stain on the rock I sit on.

My head feels hot.

I’m crying silently.

I feel intoxicated.

A poisonous truth just sipped inside my veins and spread. It’s harder to breathe.

Tears roll out without control along my cheeks and soak up my muddy shirt.

I died.

I fucking died...

I’m in complete shock and terror.

I’m traumatised like I never thought possible.

I can’t breathe or move. My heart is in panic, terrified, and my skin sweats like it’s pearling tears as well. Utter terror swept me away...

I can’t breathe. I just cry, in mostly silence.

The wind gently brushed me. The weather appears so nice and peaceful outside of me...

~

After maybe an hour of shock, I was able to check my pulse being at a reasonable speed. I still am trembling, almost shaking.

It’s terrifying... The awful feeling that you barely escaped death, and went through, is shocking.

Realising you were dead for a while, is terrifying.

They buried me here, and left me behind.

That’s why I’m alone now...

Unless I missed something...

An intuition tells me I missed something.

I turn around and slowly stand up. I carefully walk my way back to where I woke up on my two human legs and feet.

There wasn’t any giant pod of flesh there. I would have guessed faster. There was only me. I check around, and check my clothes again.

I find a letter in plastic wrap inside a pocket.

I unwrap it and open it. I begin to recognise Myls’s handwriting.

‘’When you read this, I should be on my way back to you.’’

Z - I heartily hope so...

I cling to the letter, still under the intense anxiety of the realisation. It reassures me slightly to hold onto it...

She expected me to read it.

So she knew... She asked for it? To a daiûa?

Myls... What have you done...

I’m scared for her as well now.

~

The wind changes as afternoon passes.

I see some petals flying away as a burst of wind passes.

I turn around, still too spooked to properly move away.

My brain gets fuzzier as something impossible to describe covers the sky and lands at the edge of that space.

Wings and colours all over, but mixed in patterns my brain can’t manage to make sense out of. All I see is an abstract mess I don’t understand.

The world I see makes no sense to me, and I begin tearing up again in despair.

Soon after, a human shape is walking in my direction.

Between sobs, I think I recognise Myls at first.

But the closer that thing gets, the less I recognise her.

Actually... Her face may look scary, the way she is and stands... I think it’s her.

Z - Myls... ?

She begins to cry loudly even before I do, and before reaching me. She’s running to me.

I don’t have the strength to hold her as she hugs me and we fall.

She still doesn’t let go and cries ugly all over me, loudly, loudly...

I hold onto her. I’m not letting go.

Above us, I can see the sky is blue, clear light blue.

~

Between uncontrolled sobs, Myls tries to explain to me.

M - How much I’ve missed you... What I’ve had to do... What I have done... What I’ve been through!

I’m still too much in shock to properly hold a conversation anyway. And she’s still crying so badly, so much and messily over me, clenching onto me and shaking anyway.

My heart aches a lot for her. A lot.

I don’t know what she’s been though yet. But it must have been a heavy lot...

~

When she got a little over her cries, she began kissing me all over, her face and mine still all smudged in tears.

My heart ached more than ever. After I was able to give her a kiss on the forehead as a reply, we managed to stand up, clumsily, again.

M - Your leg...

Z - You tell me. You’re obviously the one responsible for my resurrection...

She has a light grin. I saw a glint of her old familiar pride there.

I put an arm across her shoulders to hold onto her. It paralyses her for a second, as if she was scared.

Z - ?

M - It’s... Alright. I’ll help you.

Z - Thank you Myls...

I’m so happy I’ve met you.

Z - I’m... so happy I’ve met you.

M - Me too.

Z - I’m not saying that just because you brought me back to life you know...

M - I...

Words swell and get stuck in her throat. She looks awful. We both stink like never before.

Z - I love you too...

I can’t see if she blushes as her skin is naturally dark. She doesn’t say more. Tears fall around her damaged face.

I can breathe...

We walk toward the incomprehensible thing made of giant wings I see like a wall reaching the sky. I kind of remember what that thing was, but not clearly enough yet. It’s all abstract.

But I’m breathing again, as I hold onto Myls.

~