Gale
started under neon lights, then it all got dark
i only know how to go too far
She doesn't remember him.
He had waited amongst the flowers, hardly daring to breathe the thickly perfumed summer air, certain he was prepared for whatever reaction his presence might elicit.
What he hadn't expected was no reaction at all.
The smile she'd given him (her mother's smile, he'd thought) was polite and hospitable. Her welcome sounded genuine, and there were no shadows behind her blue-grey eyes. She'd invited him into the Gates - she'd called them Heaven's Gates - and he was too bewildered to refuse. Gale had walked beside her, not really listening as she described the landscape, the handful of residents, her dreams and desires for the place.
He was too busy remembering what she'd look like the last time he'd seen her.
Smaller, younger. Dead.
He'd killed her, and she showed him her favorite patch of daffodils.
A few weeks have passed since their initial encounter, and summer has faded into fall. He's seen her a half dozen times, and each time she greeted him with the same warm smile.
Gale cannot bring himself to remind her of the past she seems to have forgotten. Though he knows himself beyond redemption, he still finds himself floundering, unsure of how to proceed.
This is the child that he harmed the least. Starting with her had seemed the most logical choice. Should he seek out the next one?
Lost in his thoughts, the navy blue stallion walks aimlessly along a trail that skirts the very edges of the Gates. Dusk has dimmed the colors of the flowers blooming around him, but the evening air is still heavy with their scent. A few bolts of lightning flicker across his skin, briefly connecting the glowing perlino stripes.
A sound, perhaps the sound of someone else, causes him to raise his head and look in that direction with a startlingly electric blue gaze.
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Gale