MIRR/OR/ED

|Chapter 5|

Chapter 5. Broken Frame

• • •

It feels like hours have passed when my eyelids begin to slit open, the weight of sleep rising from them. I begin to adjust to the pure darkness I awake in-- and the only light that slips through is the passing streetlamps from the small front window of our car.

I lean over to Lilly.

"How long have I been out?" She must be asleep herself considering all she offers is a small grunt before turning over and leaning her head against the metal seat I'm sitting on.

A stiff crick in my neck makes it hard to turn my head to the rest of the sleeping. Faint sounds of the car echo through the still air as those around me rest soundlessly.

Something moves beside me, catching me off guard and a whisper erupts through the silence.

"Hey, it's okay. It's just me." The deep base of the voice is familiar; I freeze a moment realizing who's sitting next to me. Exactly who I didn't want to be the one moving beside me...

"I'm not gonna bite, I promise." He mocks, a low chuckle reverberating from him and without approval my lips form a faint smile at the sound.

I move over slightly to the left, closer to the person on the other side of me, inching away from him so I don't feel so exposed. The familiarity to his aura is unsettling, especially with my stomach twisting knots over the endless questions I still have for him.

"Look, I get why you're uneasy around me. After all, I am a complete stranger... I just... I really need the familiarity right now." His energy is soft, not like it was in the interrogation room. It almost feels... inviting. I can't see him, but I can feel the heat of his shoulder pressing against mine.

Anxiety suppresses the will to speak, and all I can huff out is a hushed.

"I'll try."

My back is pushed up against the cold metal wall, and the chill pacifiers my need to escape—though we have done these moves a thousand times over, I can still feel the suffocation of the bodies around me. And an uneasy desire sitting beneath my skin as a foreign entity causes my breaths to grow hoarse.

"I get how weird this must be for you... Well, I don't get it, but I can't even imagine the shoes you're being forced into." It seems like he's just saying it to fill the space, though his tone is genuine. I scoff a little, not meaning for it to sound of anything but of agreeance.

He says he knows me, it feels like he does somehow, but he can't possibly...

"So," I choke on the dry dank air. " What's your name?" I ask.

"Devin." His name slips from his tongue and I can't help but shiver through the amicable response.

There's a long pause in the air before I speak once more.

"Was she like me at all?..." I ask, trailing off. Not knowing where the question is taking me, or why it was the first to form.

He doesn't answer at first, but I can tell he's turned his head towards me from the figure that's blocking the light coming in through the small back window.

"On the surface you seem the same—from what I've seen at least. She had the same walk as you. She looked just like you when you cry. It's hard to see the difference-- but I've only known you for a couple of hours." His tone hints at an emotion he tries to hide.

"What was it like? This other reality?" He shifts a bit beside me in response to my question.

"It was like living but not, all at the same time. Things felt real while I was there but now that I'm no longer, it feels like a fever dream... The emotions from it though—that was as real as can be. I felt love, happiness, and joy... I felt it all. Now that I'm here it feels like I have been ripped apart at the core." His being, although I can't see it, I can sense it's lost.