Reflections

So yeah, I entered reflections. It is basically an art program. the theme this year was 'the magic in the moment' So, here is the end result, which you've already seen, but whatevs. i call it: Tumble stumble down.

  I opened my eyes, wondering why I was awake, and there he was, blocking me from seeing anything but his ghostly face.

     “Scoria!” I yelped. “Don’t do that!” he grinned and gave a soundless chuckle, pulling laughter from somewhere in my memories. He drifted down to sit on the edge of the bed, and the bed refused to acknowledge his presence, as usual.

     I glanced at the clock across the room. “One…. Scoria, what in the name of my vampire teddy bear did you wake me up for at one in the morning?!” I put as much emotion into this as I could while whispering. My almost parents were next door, and they didn’t know. They didn’t know anything.

     He patted the bed next to him with a semi-transparent hand and I swung my legs around to sit, shivering slightly from the cold. I turned to face him and wondered why on earth he had woken me so early.

     Scoria reached up a hand that was more solid than not and slid the eye patch off my face. I had fallen asleep with it on again. He looked at my damaged eye, and a hand that was once again insubstantial cupped my cheek.

     I felt him steeling himself for something before he cut the link. I wondered why he had done so, but then all thoughts were blown from my mind as he leaned forward.

     A ghostly touch glanced against my lips, like a soft wind playing across them. I squeezed my eyes shut and then opened them again, and Scoria was still there, filling my vision. I saw gray lids hiding the eyes that, more than anything else, made him different. I saw the pale hair, felt the form next to me grow more solid, and felt the bed sag ever so slightly. It was then that I realized the moment for what it was.

     I did not, could not, break the kiss. I simply sat, stunned. After a few lifetimes that were really moments, Scoria drew back. The link was not made whole. He still fought to keep us separate. He turned away and sat for a moment. I couldn’t even manage a letter, let alone a word. Then he turned into a shadowy cat and slinked away, disappearing as he went.

     I sat for a few minutes more, puzzling. Surely he didn’t love me? It was improbable, impossible, yet to some extent true. I loved him too, I realized with a start, but only as a friend. He was a companion to me, a confident would always listen. That was all. But I realized for him there was something more.

     Had I imagined how his cheeks darkened slightly when he turned? Was it simply a trick of my mind? Or had, as impossible as his monochromatic form made it, he bushed? I wondered and thought until I realized how cold I was.

     I dove under the covers and desperately tried to keep warm. Still, the chill did not leave my fingers for several minutes. I slowly closed my eyes as a wild herd of questions chased themselves around and around my head. I welcomed sleep, because it would bring peace, for a few hours at least. In the morning it would all return, and I would have to face it. For now there were only the black claws of sleep to drag me down.