Fear Garden 2: Scarlet's Bloom (An IDFB Fanfic)

Sense of Belonging

A dead coin walking.

Coiny knew what his fate would be if anyone discovered what had been done.

Rumor had it that the TLC-ers had all gathered in the town square earlier today. He could see it from the window, even as he scribbled unspoken words on a pained letter. He had no idea as to what was taking place- but he knew that if this were to be done, it had to be that night.

The sky was dark. Night had fallen upon the city, and everyone he had come to know was slumbering underneath the comfort of their newly found homes.

Except for him.

His hands had already pressed the pulsating green button- there was no going back.

And what if she hadn't changed?

No. None of that now.

He needed one look. A moment.

There was no way to make the world stop, to freeze time so he could see what had happened to the woman he had come to love. But with the sun in its usual slumber, and with the world at bay, he knew that it would be now, or never.

The familiar ding of the recovery center fills Coiny's 'ears', and he hears the familiar thump of an object falling onto the ground. Did he fathom the severity of the situation- how crucial it was going to be to act normally, as if these mere moments were nothing but a distant thought? He must. He clenched his fists.

Everyone was asleep by now. The night air pricked against his copper surface, the moon now poised over the night sky as the stars twinkled ever so slightly amidst the gaping void of space. The lights within the laboratory were off, the usual hum of distant machinery now silenced as the two scientists had left for the night. It was just him. No one else.

Yet, if that were the case, why did it feel like the ghosts of the past were watching, burning damned holes into the tragic sinner before them?

His face began to burn. It was not pain- not particularly- but a hushed stinging that continued. Perhaps it was blush- or the rising anger that he had carried for an endless amount of time. He carefully brushed his hand against his cheek, failing to notice the tears that began to make their way down his face.

For the first time in these damned five weeks, he could feel the tension in his heart melting away at the sight of someone he had fallen for, seemingly ages ago. His hands trembled violently, twitching with the urge to reach towards the figure before him.

Pin.

Act.

In one moment, the light had vanished.

Act.

In another, the Earth itself melted, and everything that surrounded her dried up to mere ash.

Act, act. act.

Her flesh had boiled, wounds ripping open like roasted vegetables, and any sound that attempted to escape from her mouth was scorched to dust.

ACT. ACT. ACT. ACT.

This pain. Something she had never imagined before.

ACT.

Blazing agony seared through her mind, the fires consuming every fragment of her being.

ACT.

She was not alone.