[private] burn me to the ground, phae pony

[hadrien]

hadrien

He does not expect an answer.
And yet.

And yet, he gets one anyway.

And out of the darkness comes a child. (Relative, of course, but she is a child just as he is a child and children have no business being alone in this kind of blackness.)

He blinks at her. Surprised, perhaps. Or maybe something else. Disturbed? But she is confident, as if she belongs here just as he belongs here, as if there is nothing at all strange about the way they have met here.

So he does not ask her what she is doing out here, if only to save himself from having to explain what he is doing out here.

(How do you explain that you are looking for a sister that you have never met for reasons you do not understand?)

He’d said hello, not to her but to the air pressing in around him, and she’d said hello and he wonders if he should say it again and be more specific about it this time. But she’s telling him her name and asking after his mother instead.

He turns his plain gaze into the darkness that surrounds them, his brow dark with confusion.

“No,” he answers reflexively and then begins to wonder if she knows his mother.

Is this the sister? No, the sister is older. Much older.

“Do you need her?” he asks, though it feels like a silly thing to ask. Would he be able to find her again if the answer is yes? He doesn’t remember now where he left her. Besides, will she be there when he gets back? And what could this girl need his mother for? He exhales a slow breath, trying in vain to sort through his own confusion.

but if that chariot they’re driving don’t swing low enough for us
Just paint two crosses on my eyelids and point me out of touch

@frey