[private] the chasm grows; linnea

[nikolaus]

how do I learn my dreams to mold, to lay them bare in the morning cold?

Nikolaus does not remember how exactly he had left her that day.

His memories had blurred over time—perhaps, he thinks, in some kind of self preservation. It had taken everything in him to step away from her. Everything in him to walk the other direction and not stand there holding her forever, but he had managed. He had finally broken away and walked.

And kept walking.

And kept walking.

Because what else was there to do but keep walking when he had left her behind?

But then the world had turned on its head and he had known fear once more. The same fear that he had felt when they had fallen through two sides of the portal. The same fear that he had felt when he had watched the magma reach for her and then swallow her whole. The same fear when he had woken on that icy island and felt the knowledge that he would die long and slow and his parents would forget him.

(Hadn’t they in the end though? Castile vanished and Sochi living her new life with her new family.)

It was bitter thoughts that followed him—bitter thoughts that kept him company. Bitter thoughts that he could only lean into, even when all the light had bled from this world. He had stumbled forward into the shadows, feeling the whistling breath of creatures nearby that did not feel of this world.

“Linnea!” he shouted, feeling the sound of his own voice swallowed up. The wind picked up and he felt it whip around him faster, pulling at his hair and sinking icy fingers into his skin. “Linnea!” he shouted again, his steps quicker but no less stunted, his leg struggling to keep up as he limped faster and faster into the darkness. Not for the first time, he cursed his inability to run—cursed his broken body.

Cursed himself for being foolish enough to walk away.

nikolaus

if they’re still out there then the chasm grows
( for all you know, for all you’ve known )

@[linnea] - oops!

@[The Monsters] - have at his animation.