| She
was aware that her body had fled the hospital, passing through the wall
as if it wasn’t there, she could see thousands of spirits floating
through the streets, but she believed that these were all just a part
of nightmare from which she couldn’t wake until she awoke to find
herself tangled in the chains of a swing set, with only bits and pieces
of memories of what her body had done over the last few days. But she
remembered everything that had happened to her mind, remembered clearly
her conversations with the dozens of spirits now possessed her body.
She jerked and pulled against the chains, screaming with frustration
but try as she might it only felt she was becoming more and more
tangled.
She
wanted to cry but the tears just wouldn't come. She wished she could
feel like a human did again, but he only felt dead inside. She no
longer saw herself as human, she looked down at a puddle of water and
saw dozens of strange souls boiling inside of her. All around her she
could see other monsters like the ones inside of her drifting through
the air, but only she could see them.
Someone sat down on the swing beside her but she didn't look up to see who it was.
“You are feeling something,” a mans voice told her from the swing next to her.
“What are you talking about?” Fern felt her voice catching in her throat as she spoke.
“These
things you're feeling, they'll pass, you'll cry and then you'll
remember how to be happy,” the man assured her. “I can promise you
that.”
“How do you know what's going to happen?” Fern demanded with frustration. “This isn't your life or your feelings.”
“Right on the first part but not the second, I can feel everything you do,” the man assured her.
Fern
glanced up and recognized the man who both her sister and her had
reacted to sitting next to her, and for some reason his presence
comforted her. In the blink of an eye he vanished and reappeared
directly in front of her.
Fern
gave a startled yelp and fell back as the swings chains came unbound
causing her to fall to the ground. she spun to catch herself with her
hand, and the sandy ground scraped the skin from her palm.
“Ow, ow,” she moaned as one more piece of her miserable life seemed to crash down on her.
The man appeared beside her on the ground and took her injured hand in his.
“Neither
of us is normal,” he told her, “you're right about that much. So you
can't presume that the world works by the rules you've learned must
exist for normal people.” The man pressed two of his fingers against
the scrap in her palm causing it to burn.
“Ow,” Fern pulled away and the pain vanished from her hand completely.
“But
as far as feelings we feel pain like anyone, we feel emotions, so where
as far as what matters we are as normal as anyone,” he assured her. “We
just have a few extra perks the man told her as he pointed to her now
healed hand.”
“Then why do I feel so empty?” Fern pressed bitterly
“Emptiness
is a common feeling for lots of people,” he explained. “You wouldn't be
able to know you felt empty, however, if you'd never felt anything
before. More to the point you wouldn't care if you were only empty.”
“But I'm not human, everything I am is a lie,” Fern choked.
“No,
what you feel isn't a lie, and what you feel is a large part of who you
are” he assured her gently. “You're looking at this whole thing the
wrong way. “
“That
sounds like something my sister would say, just look on the positive
side,” Fern grumbled. “But sometimes there is no positive side.”
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