[open] Roam the streets 'til dawn - Any

[Memorie]

one lives in hope of becoming a memory

Had I been in any state to care about anything other than what I’d sought her out for, I might have been grossed out by our incorporeal bodies passing through one another, too, but as luck would have it, there are other things, more pressing matters, on my mind as I whirl around to face my sister. I barely take stock of her expression or sentiments before I drop the dreaded words into the stillness that separates us. They taste sour leaving my lips, which makes me want to wretch. They even feel dirty, like I should wash my mouth out. It is the sound of them, though, that truly makes me shudder. A twinge of guilt and fear and abject horror slides through my veins like poison as the sound of them fills the air around us.

Then there is a moment of silence, a moment where I could see the gears churning in Cheri’s eyes, her thoughts roiling and turbulent, and there is a touch of disbelief there, as well. I want to scream at her, to tell her it is real, that gramma Lilli is gone and not coming back from the Mountain as we had, but I bite my tongue. I had learned long ago that it is better to give others a moment to their thoughts before making impulsive decisions. That moment pays off, as I watch her expression turn from disbelief to realization, and then she drops our brother’s name from her lips, and I can tell her heart has broken, just as mine had when I’d seen the old mare lying there on the Beach, lifeless, unlike the others she was surrounded by.

I feel her heart breaking, as well. I can see it in the memory she casts off. But I can also see her resolve. It forms at the corners of her eyes, then resolutely situates itself across the rest of her features. I can see it in her memories as she thinks of the rest of the herd. Half of me wants to share in this resolve, but the other half of me is still broken, remembering that night on the Taigan beach, playing with Leonidas while gramma Lilli and mother talked about more adult things that they hadn’t realized I was listening in on while I played.

I square my hooves beneath me, though, and lift my head to look at my sister. She brings her incorporeal figure close to mine, and I can feel the breath of her body brush against the breath of my own. It is a minor comfort, but a comfort nonetheless. As she speaks, a sigh lifts itself from my intangible lips. There was a brief moment of guilt that rises within me at her words, at the reminder that we had failed. There are bigger problems in Beqanna, still. The darkness still reigned supreme in the aftermath of our failed quest. Amarine, however, had not been on the Beach when @[Cheri] and I had left, so perhaps there was hope yet. With that thought, I try to put my own faith into my sister’s words. “Yes. Let us hope that she succeeded where we had failed,” I breathe. Unfortunately, this resolve does little to stem the agony leaking from my broken heart like blood from a wound, so I stand there for a moment, trying to wrap my head around the whole ordeal.

Image by Calcifer