Fireflies

42

The room was filled with muffled sobbing. It echoed and roamed through the walls, making sounds of miserable wishes and wails. Everyone passed by the wooden pews looking at her for a little while but figured that everyone was going to be the same.

Everyone you find in the room was going through something, some too heavy and some just enough to keep you awake at night.

Every single one who sat or kneeled in the chapel inside the hospital all went to dedicate their hearts for their prayers to be heard, and yet maybe, there may be people who do not think and do the same. But they went there anyway, a place where they could be one with their thoughts if they wished.

She closed her eyes, tears falling relentlessly down her cheeks, and she never even realized she was slipping into that very abyss she so wanted to go back to.

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It was too impossible at first. She thought it was just another moment of daydreaming, of recalling the vivid images of Amber High. She did manage to go back to the school where everything else was based, but no matter where she looked, and no matter how much she stared at the building, no familiar soft face would appear in front of her.

Not until now. 

Not until the moment she opened her eyes, staring at the pinkish sky, and saw that the clouds were floating fleeces. The pressure up above seemed fast that each cloud was drifting further so quickly.

Claire thought that she was exhausted from all the crying and so she created a little bubble in her head, trying to ease her of the cruel reality. Another illusion, a few-minute series of her head playing with her need of him.

But maybe, just maybe, the heavens have heard her.

The heavens might have extended their hands to pinch in an inkling of a mere mortal's deepest wish. Or maybe she might have read too many mythological books that she was finally reaching a point of false euphoria.

Claire found herself lying on the ground and she couldn't process what was going on. The leaves around her were circling around the air while trees swayed vigorously. Everything else was moving so fast that she found it hard to stand up and collect her thoughts.

She managed to place herself back on foot and then she looked down on the ground. She was wearing the same white shoes Ms. Wendy had given her.

Claire frowned, she remembered keeping it safe and tucked inside a cabinet. She totally recalled wearing a different pair of shoes when she left.

But now, as she studied herself further, she realized that she was wearing the same clothes, the same uniform.

She wore the same clothing from the day she first met Mark. The uniform showed her legs but this time, the scars were there, they weren't hidden by clothing or erased in this abyss. They appeared in every inch of her body.

Claire looked up, watched the pacing surrounding her, and realized where she was. She knew this was no Xavier High, the exact same school that appeared in her dreams. 

This was the real deal.

This place was her abyss, his abyss, their abyss.

This was their secret place, their stage, their haven but also their cage.

She almost lost her balance again because it was all too good to be true. But she gathered the courage to keep herself up and brush the forming tears.

Claire walked through the swirling wind and tried to find him.

She was back here and yet, he didn't seem to be anywhere.