In the Warm Gray

~

The world was breathing.

Celene took a deep breath in, and then out. The flowers, trees, the entire land around her inhaled and exhaled in unison, and this struck joy deep into her heart.

Where was she? Yet as soon as the thought came it was replaced by the deepest feeling of home. Of knowing.

Yet she didn't know where she was.

Colors were excruciatingly bright. She had to squint looking at anything. The colors dripping and swirling like motor oil in water, whatever motor oil was.

She heard a noise, and whipped around to see a young male around her age standing in front of her. She felt like she should know who he was, but she didn't.

The redhead's eyes widened when he saw her. "I think I know you," he said. "But I'm not sure from where." His turquoise-splattered tail twitched in confusion.

Celene shrugged. She didn't have the energy to care about whether she knew him or not.

"No matter. Come on, you'll be late for the ceremony."

Ah, yes. The ceremony. How could she have forgotten? Her new friend took off, and she ran off after him. The woods was still breathing around her, the air damp and heavy as she breathed it in. Vines hung from every branch, dripping with moisture. Everything was so wet. She saw the dewdrops forming on her skin, and then forming strange shapes and patterns. If she focused on them enough, she could see a message forming to her. But what did it mean?

"Hello? We're here." The boy with the too-green eyes said.

There was a small clearing amongst the thick forest of rain. Several distinct looking trees surrounded it. Celene wasn't sure why they were distinct, just that they simply, well, were.

"They're watching us, aren't they?" Celene whispered to her companion. She wasn't sure why she was whispering, but it seemed that sound cut through the air like a knife.

He nodded. "So you know, too."

She nodded. She knew alright. The trees breathed as they watched her make her way to the clearing. As she stumbled to the center, it became increasingly difficult to walk. The world was bending, turning in on itself.

The center. She just had to get to the center.

But the center didn't have anything for Celene. She felt the trees watching, waiting, pushing her to be where she was.

"Stop! What do you want from me?" She cried out desperately, only to be received with silence.

Her winged companion ran over to her. "You must be still," he said. "It'll happen soon."

Before she could process what he alluded to by 'it', she felt it. A sickening feeling of being pulled right from her body, and the world shattered and layered on itself. She was in a broken mirror, each reflection wrong and distorted. The trees and her companion were forgotten. She saw herself.

Looking into the sea-green eyes of the person she knew most, Celene was shocked to see the emptiness there. The unseeing death of a lost, shattered soul. And the blood running in a little stream down her porcelain skin, drip, drip, dripping off her chin, being birthed from her mouth.

Celene decided she did not like herself very much at all.

Everything was burning. Celene screamed as she fell to her knees–except she wasn't on her knees. She wasn't anything at all, and with tremendous effort she pushed herself back into her body, until she was her again.

This did not help at all. The air was burning her, stabbing her.

"Celene!" Leo yelled, and as he held her, Celene wasn't sure when it was that she remembered his name. Only that this young winged boy was Leo, and he was holding her in his arms.

"I'm a monster," she said weakly as she faded.

He paused, and said, "I think that's why we're here."

Celene wasn't able to understand what that meant before she was gone.