Shape of a Miracle EP 2 - FreezeFrame

The pied Pawn

"I bought the limited edition."

On a cold October morning, Just two months ago, Ishida was walking alone in the dimly lit halls to class, when he overheard Shimada and his friends talking about a limited edition to a new album from a band they liked. The very edition Ishida had just bought the previous weekend. He couldn't let this chance slip him by, and in all honesty, he had been silently hoping for a week that they would bring it up. Why else would he be hiding that very CD in the bottom of his school bag? But even if they said something, it was up to him to speak up, it was up to him to make that leap of faith. And he did it! He said it! He actually Said it!

"Ugh.." Shimada murmured, his grey eyes shifting away from him "then I'm going to stop listening to them."

Then they all walked away. Leaving Ishida alone.

Oh...

Oh.

Ishida stood there alone in the hall, taking out the CD from his bag and staring at the garish colours on the cover..

That settles it then , there are some things in this world he simply can't attain. He's never going to be friends with them again. He's never going to be friends with anyone. He's just too inept to make a human connection. He just doesn't deserve it. he's going to live the rest of his life like he does right at that moment: alone. He's going to study at a boring school, get a boring job, then die. That's it. That's all there is to him.

"Is that what you really want?"

Ishida stood still. Everything around him melted away: the chill in his spine, the ruckus of the classroom next door, the little black butterfly flying around him. It was suddenly all gone, like he wasn't even there anymore. Like it was all but a meaningless dream. But his head was stuck in a nightmare. It was like every anger, pain and sadness that he had ever felt had been crammed into his skull. He couldn't see. He couldn't hear. He couldn't think. He could only feel.

And listen. Listen to the voice.

"Poor, little, Shoya Ishida...." The voice echoes in his head "Left all alone. Abandoned by the people he once called friends. Facing a... Lonely future... But it doesn't have to be like this. I can... help you... I can give you what you want. You just have to get a few pieces of jewellery for me. So tell me, Ishida, or whatever your dumb name will be. What do you want?"

He looked back down at the CD, then to the windows to the classroom beside him. In it, he saw Shimada and his friends sitting around a desk, laughing and speaking in tongues he could never understand.

"I just thought...We could listen to it together... Like old times." The words hurl out from his mouth. It's hard to speak, to form coherent sentences through the cement block of agony that's replaced his thoughts. But he feels himself chipping away at it. leaving it to crumble out with every word he says. If he keeps going down this path, maybe it will be nothing but dust .

"I want... us... to be friends again." He gasps, holding tight onto the idea, the only anchor in a pitch black sea of his own anguish "I don't want to be alone anymore!"

"Alright then, Pied Player. Just do exactly as I say and I'll give you the power to get what you want. Do we have a deal?"