The Forest Was Burned Away

Her lips were parted. HerLipsWereParted. Herlipswereparted.

It was dusk.

I saw you standing there alone as I walked away. Ishouldhaveneverwalkedaway…

Her eyes were the color of wet cedar mulch.

I can't remember what her laugh sounded like anymore. I remember laughter, but icantrememberwhy.

Why is this happening?

Take the meds. Takeyourmeds.

How are you on a scale of one to ten? Howareyouonascaleofonetoten?

Her kimono was pink. It was never dirty even though she sat on the ground every day. The fabric was soft and unfaded. He was fraying at the fabric.

Images blurred and drained as the corners of vision that slowly faded from clarity every day. Pain and joy subsided in equal measure as Hazuki’s mind was dulled more every day as each dosage of chemical neutralization blunted his soul like a blade being smoothed against a cinderblock. His soul was a tree and this new reality was a winter hale. Every gust and frigid stab caused the leaves of his spirit to fall away until eventually all that remained was barren, resolute bark and branch.

Color left his eyes and he shrank into himself. What color was her kimono?

Dusk was pearl and golden-pink that evening when the world ended.

She will forget me. She will be gone.

I will be alone. Time steals everything, and I am what is left.

Time turns light to darkness, and my days have become winter. Cold and grey is all I shall be. ColdandgrayisallIshallbe. I’m sorry, if I never see you again.

imsorry

I hope you remember me, wherever you go, because I'm afraid it seems as though Iwillnotrememberyou.

The tree was further away now, and the girl sitting beneath its branches was now just a distant blur. In a matter of weeks it was all gone.

Hazuki’s mind slowly broke, and in the aftermath, the shards of jagged recollections and misplaced memories clashed together in desperate embrace as his existence fought for any semblance of what once was. Forests were razed and wiped away. The abyss swallowed him, and brightness faded away.