Run Through Fire - Part 1: Starless Nights - TWEWY Bang 2023

Chapter 1: Where We Are Now

Shades of cardinal flood every corner of my sight as the world around me crumbles to pieces, reality itself torn apart by an immeasurable force. An endless flock of noise swarm around me, disintegrating all that remains to their bare elements, and then to nothingness, as if none of it existed to begin with.

The factitious birds soar through the air, their flight creating a cacophony that reminds one of eternal excruciation, akin to the din one would hear at the gates of hell.

Debris scatters across the cracking pavement from the rumble of the earth. The quake throws me off balance.

The sky crackles with streaks of static that strike the weakened land, yet the darkness that surrounds the clouds refuses to be illuminated, an unnatural void engulfing the atmosphere.

I can barely breathe, the air thick with the pungent stench of carnage. It burns my lungs, and every inhale is a battle against the urge to hurl.

My head throbs with an increasing pain, my ears ring with an unending screech, my heartbeat threatens to tear my chest open, my stomach churns with pressure, and every muscle in my body burns with fatigue. It's a miracle that I'm still standing, at all.

And yet, despite everything I know and value hurtling towards a cataclysmic end...

My gaze, my mind, my focus...all of it is inexorably drawn to you.

You, who would run through fire for me, willing to put your fate on the line just to try and save me from my own mistake, despite how clear the impossibility of victory is.

You, who never hesitates to brighten my day with a mirth that diminishes my fears, reminding me that life is to be enjoyed and cherished when I spiral into doubt and anger.

You, who proved himself to be someone I can rely and depend on, trust and believe in, despite how difficult it is for me to place that faith in anyone in the world, including myself.

You, who fights beyond the very end, even the destruction of all hope proving inadequate to extinguish your flames.

You never give up on your drive to protect the ones you love. You always believe in there being a second chance — even if it means carving that chance with your bare hands, if you have to.

That's right. You're fighting the noise, aren't you? The noise that I created with my own failures.

You're fighting them ceaselessly, trying to change our fates, trying to change my fate and afford me the possibility of surviving, against all odds.

Each time they come to end the life of their wellspring — each time they come for me, you stand in their way, fearless of the damage it does to you.

Your skin dissolves like thin paper set aflame when the noise barely even brush against you.

Blood springs in fountains from your torn tendons and muscles, quickly evaporating and blending with destruction around you, the energy of the Soul Pulvis burning warm in scarlet.

Your bones appear brittle as they're shredded to mere fragments, as though they didn't support someone who stands as tall, robust and capable as you.

Limb by limb, through my misdoings, every part that made you whole is soon covered in nothing but crimson.

Both your own crimson — warm, and full of life, passion and love.

And the crimson of my creation — cold, and full of erasure, ruthlessness and agony.

As if stuck in an inescapable loop, it doesn't matter how many times I'm attacked. Without fail, you find a way to protect me, reducing yourself to but a human shield.