Trailing

On this night of all nights...

The piano struck a chord, the notes floating in ethereal bliss above the sound of the waterfall just past his door. The pianist. Her breath caught in her throat as she gazed upon his dishevelled state, the ragged ruins of his nails seeming to complement his attire. She wasn't sure what part of her could notice such a small detail, but as the mournful notes rang through the bare halls, they seemed to tease her forward, elude and entangle her senses, until her steps formed glimmering puddles across the dark floors.

His gaze never faltered from the keys his fingers barely seemed to touch, but his eyes closed at each strike, the shivers running through his very bones and seeming to tangle and entice his body to elicit breath.

This was all he was, she knew, all he had been...for memory fading. And memory did fade as she neared him. Every step a fractured cascade into another world, another life, where all she had been and was rippled away on the breeze, unbinding from her form in ribboned wonder. She turned her head to watch a flow, and some part deep within her felt surprised as she saw it simply halt, ruffling in the air as if time had no sway over it. She found herself nodding, it was simply as it should have been.

He was watching her. How she knew she could not tell, for his motion had not changed, his eyes blinking at each languid strike...but somehow he was. The third eye of the world had glanced at her and she had never noticed, even as she shivered. But the siren's call was a man in a tattered shirt playing a piano in the shadow of a waterfall. The madness of reality had tilted to sane and she had stepped beyond its pale echo, with the aid of a bridge she had never seen.

The Oracle (Dark Blue pt 2)

Lucial threw down her keys and took off her jacket, ending the day with a long sigh and a blank stare across the room. The lounge was in order, as ever, the fluffy pillows enticing with their imitation goose down on the long, soft sofa. But with a shake of her head she got herself moving and trudged over to the kettle, kicking her boots off as she went.

The cool tiling was refreshing under her socked feet and she felt life returning to her limbs as her toes softly pattered on the floor. The fridge didn't have much going for it at this hour, but she hummed softly as the kettle boiled, perusing the shelves for hidden scraps and parcelled packets. Eventually she spied a half-empty pot of humous and the hank of leftover uncut white loaf. "That'll do," she murmured, retrieving the items and setting them on a plate.

The tea took forever, as usual. Or perhaps it only felt like forever as the couch was calling. Still the bread was tasty, though it missed something with the humous, and she would have killed for some tomato soup. Or at least poked someone, she amended in her mind.

The clock ticked back and forth, pendulum in name and nature and an odd thing for a modern apartment, but oh so relevant. He would be coming soon, she knew, and he would want answers.

The television flicked on with a cascade of light and sound, and she let it suspend her as she settled onto the couch. She knew what she would be watching, and indeed had looked forward to it for the entire day. The comforting mellow tones of the love interest as he walked around the city, running errands on his way home for the night, washed over her with the title music.

Lucial supposed he was actually the hero of the story, the protagonist, but somehow she had never seen it that way. He was the love interest, she...or well the heroine at least, was the protagonist. She smiled as she felt herself nod at the thought, at least in the movies Lucial thought of herself that way. Real life always ended up shockingly disparate.

She rolled her shoulders and slipped into null mode, the second stretching out interminably. The movie paused itself in an odd muting of light and sound as she made her way back over to the fridge and fished out some more food. The lazy use of her power made her chuckle, but she wanted to get as much of the film seen as possible before he arrived. That was a good reason to stop time, right?