Flower Shards

Sea Pebble

"ある日..."

"One day..."

She smells like petrichor. And fresh pine, like she'd been outside frolicking in the woods all day, picking flowers and weeding dandelions, stitching flower crowns and scaring moths.

Her hair was falling around her ears and framing her heart shaped face like the painting she was, leaves sticking out of the deep blue strand and thorns pickling up and down her bangs.

Fresh and floral.

"私の髪はいつか青くなる."
"My hair will be blue one day."

He looked at her in confusion as she picked at the grass that grew around her, but fizzled and died around him. Her hair was already turquoise, parted at the middle, where blue meets blond, like a beach with green shells littered around it.

"あなたのように、S."
"Like you, S."

Her bright eyes met his. And they locked.

And they drifted and dreamed about why the forest is green and forgiving. What the twilight is like, ethereal and otherworldly. What fresh air smelled like and what fireflies looked like and what the moss feels like against feet, cushioning from the jagged rocks around a never ending stream of cool water.

Cold water. Like the tile floor underneath him, pulling him back to reality.

And he was back. And she was gone.

                               ***

He lay still on the freezing ground, locked in a long but narrow room with tearing faded wallpaper and creaking cupboards. The bed squeaked even when no one was near it.

He gathered a small amount of strength to roll onto his back and look towards the ceiling, right into the eyes of a Fae.

Its heart pounded from outside its pitch black body, the oil-like blood dripping slowly from its thin stretched lips, oozing down its skinny sucked in chest, that heaved with every breath it took. Sixteen more hot pink eyes rolled open to focus on the limp, bruised body beneath it.

"あなたは死にそうです。"
"You're dying."

Straight to the point, no running around or tripping over words with this one. Its long, thin limbs moved from clutching the ceiling to the floor, standing straight over S, glaring straight into his glazed over, unfocused green eyes.

Like he didn't know.

The straightforward Fae lifted its grotesque head towards the singular dusty window above the creaking bed in the corner. It cocked its head to the side in wonder.

"泳げますか？"
"Do you know how to swim?"

Only then did S hear the low rumble coming from outside, the sound of rushing white water, approaching quickly and tearing through the 'lives' of those on the other side.