Sunflowers (Not Edited)

Chapter Five

Brendon slowed down, staring at the glass beneath his feet at he did so. He wiped his pants and looked around until he caught sight of where it originated from.

"He looks dead."

"That's because he is dead."

"Oh."

Brendon stared at the man on the ground; he was rather pale and alarmingly still. Glass surrounded his body and some even managed to pierce his skin. The water around his head seemed to have mainly dried up and left a dark stain on the ground that mixed with splotches of blood.

"What do you think happened?"

Ryan studied the man for a minute. "He fell, I guess. He fell and his tank broke." Brendon repeated that in his head, coming up with another question soon after putting the story together.

"Why do you think he didn't go to the ocean like the rest of them?"

"I don't know, Bee."

"You should. I think we both should. Do you think I can wake him up and ask him?"

Ryan frowned and shook his head. "People don't wake up after they die." Brendon wasn't so sure about that, so he said nothing. He did though, step on a few more bits of glass while walking away from the tank man.

A lone balloon floated in the sky, doing its best to fight against the strong gusts of wind. It was very windy. Brendon thought it was because they were sad about the fish tank man. That, or maybe it was just a bad weather day.

"Do you think he-"

"Enough about the man, Bee. I don't want to hear it." Ryan hissed.

"I do. I really want to hear it."

Ryan said nothing, making Brendon feel that he secretly had a lot to say. But bothering him would make him stay silent and hinting towards it would give an untrue answer. Not to mention it seemed like the best option at the moment.

"The balloon is floating away."

"I see."

"It's yellow."

"Yeah."

"Where do you think it's going?"

"Somewhere far."

Brendon knew balloons were the type to float freely but he had always assumed they didn't stray far from their original location. Perhaps he was wrong, but he didn't feel wrong.

Ryan looked completely sure of his words, though Brendon wasn't because of the lack of clocks and chimes. It was hard to figure out the full truth without the clock ticking in the background. Even harder when all he could hear were the sound of drumbeats and other instruments he didn't know the names of.

Hearing things was fine, only, not fine when those things were too loud. The marching band should've been familiar by now, but every day the noise kept changing. It was one of those things he wanted to bring up at some point during a conversation with Ryan, but also one of those things he kept forgetting about.

He preferred the clock, to be honest. The clock was truthful, the band was not.

He wiped his pants and quickened his pace, not realizing he had stopped to think until he noticed Ryan was far ahead of him. The man was too busy swatting away insects to notice.

"Hey Ryan."

"Brendon."

"The sky is leaking again. Why do you think it does that?"

"I don't know. I never really thought of it." Ryan said as another gust of wind blew at them. "I hope it doesn't break. I hate when the sky breaks." Brendon muttered.