Flower Shards

Ice

Drip..drip.

Why are you still here?

"She can't see you half the time and she can't see me at all, she doesn't know who you are, why you're here or how you got here. You don't know that either, you can't be happy."

Cold...so cold...

"Can't you see? You can never be happy. You don't even remember who you were...are."

***

"A great looming iceberg has come to stay! Treat him with respect, he doesn't take nicely to cold tongues."

Her voice is rich and ringing, the faint smell of greenery emanating off her pressed coat. She's loud, the whole stadium is hooked to her every word.

They don't understand any of it, though.

"He's grand and stands tall! He will tell you stories of his great adventures that will surely melt your heart! Stay sharp ladies and gentlemen," She continues. I love the way she talks as if she's only talking to you and telling you a great secret. It doesn't matter what she says, it's riveting.

She's looking right at me. At him. It's odd.

"S," she speaks, and all the heads turn to face him. A battered boy with nothing but the robe on his back.

"Would you like to volunteer?"

Volunteer? Volunteer for what? He hadn't been listening. He will say yes. I always do.

To her, for her and from her, anything.

A sleepy faced rarity.

He climbs down from the seat he claimed and patters on the sandy ring, towards her. She's so much more exquisite up close.

She looks so foreign. Her eyes are red and puffy, though, her eyes glossy. Not a single drop of water rolls down her heat flushed cheeks, but they threaten to. She has nothing to cry about, honestly, he doesn't know why she worries herself like this.

"A great iceberg has arrived at our doorstep!" She continues, not letting the slight crack of her voice stop her.

"Treat him nicely. And stay sharp." She looks into S's emerald eyes. Glassy like a doll's.

"Stay sharp and watch."

She takes his cold hand into her warm one and clutches him tightly. She wraps her arms around his back and whispers into his ear;

"It helps him sleep, see?"

****************

Scream

A greatt pain has gathered. They have taken the ice and he has melted. They burned him with their words and he could do nothing to stop them. The knockertell has arrived. He can do nothing. The Great Itch has arrived. They stand in the square motionless and wait for someone else to prompt and investigation into the whereabouts of the ice's remains. They have stood there for hours.

A great iceberg arrived. And he died. He couldn't handle the heat nor could the rest of this dead town. They are weeping. They are doing nothing but grieving and it does not help.

"Pray tell, what were you doing on the night of the fourth lunar eclipse yesterday morning at 9 pm?'

"Yelling into the void. She listens close. She knows where he is."

'Mind telling?"

"She does, yes."

This is going nowhere. He is deceased and they cannot have afuneral without his head. They have scrathced the surfeace. He does not know they have onlly uncovered the tip of the iceberg. The have not found the body. They have found nothing.

A great pain has descended upon this ghost town. And they have taken our lives.