City's Prewrites idek

There’s only so much s p a c e in my mind, only so much l e n g t h between my body and the next. Everything is rushing past, a blur of light and sound. I cling to the rock, the frail tiered stone. It’s in my hands; it’s in my heart. I’m never letting go. You’re safe, rarified rainbow. My token is warm and lifeless. It stops the heart beat in my fingertips. It is the end of my lifeline. I twist it, my own Rubik’s cube. The cold light washes over. It is

red
orange
yellow
green
blue
white?

I open my hands, and it’s gone. Goodbye, violet. I fall to my knees, the world a cocoon of white. I pushing the feathers aside, digging, and latch onto something. Someone.

[ City attacks ; unarmed ]

9WriXs0Nunarmed

[results]

[picks up longsword]

It was buried, but I’m not. I’m five-foot-nothing over ground. My muscles twitch with memory, a recent one, judging by how easily I wield the weapon. This is a gift. I pause. I’m still holding onto the sword, the concrete weapon made of real things, but if the monster’s speaking, I’m only half here. I’m also there. I lower the longest sword, my knees weak with need.

“What’s it for?” I whisper, only vaguely aware of the mounting chaos.

This is a gift.

And it has strings.

[ City attacks ; longsword ]

sword

[results]

[picks up bag]

The strings the monster pulls start to follow an order. The monster tugs

right elbow

And I swing in that direction, one more marionette in the bleached white world. I like not having a background, for my thoughts, for my body. It is just me and the others. Simple static. Clear ice. The monster tugs

left knee

I collapse, ducking under a flash of brown. An arm? Another weapon? The monster is tugging, pulling, pushing. Somewhere, he’s yelling. But I’m here in the monochromatic, and I have to hold on. It would be so much easier if I knew – “Oh, hello, Lexi. Do you know where we are? I almost remember.” A shadow in the monochrome. I reach forward with my sword. “Hey, could you not?”

[ City attacks ; longsword]

sword

[results]

[picks up empty water jug]

The monster is positively gleeful, now that I am dancing with the shadows. They are as indistinct and pressing as the monster. The moment I think I’ve captured one, it turns, ticking ninety degrees into the grey light. There’s no five o’clock shadow here. I suck in air and it is sharp, a thousand tiny knives in my s t r e t c h e d and burned lungs. I want to scold the monster, to remind him that those lungs have been kind to him. They have tasted mint and thyme and skunk.

But the monster is suddenly very quiet.

And I am suddenly very scared.

[ City attacks ; longsword]

sword

[results]

[picks up Scarf (-2 weather damage)]

“Hello?”

The question echoes against the glassy exterior of the Cornucopia.

“Hello?”

The question lingers. Who is asking? Who is telling? Is it truly a question if there’s not answer?

I am h o l l o w and u n d o n e.

Without the monster, who am I? Just a girl begging pleading singing, “Hello?”

The monster, my monster, is silent. He is monochrome; he is shadow. I shiver. There is an emptiness without him, a vacuum between atoms that he usually fills, and it is so bitterly cold. Without the monster, who am I?

I don’t want to find out.

[ City attacks ; longsword]

sword

[results]

[picks up Empty Water Jug]

It’s taken me this long to realize the cacophony is not the monster. The monster is silent. I can’t be him, but the keening is familiar, full of need and agony. How many times have I screamed the same scream? I have only to open my mouth and cry out –

emptiness.

Frigid air hits the back of my throat and I cough. There’s no sound without the monster, no air in my lungs, and all I want to do is get down on my hands and knees and find him, like my bismuth. But I can’t because the real screams are too close. They want something from me.

[ City attacks ; longsword]

sword

[results]

[picks up binoculars]

Of course, that’s always the problem. People want from other people. They want money or sex or the monster. That’s all I want. I’m stumbling, twisting, fighting. I didn’t even realize I had learned how to fight, but it’s familiar and forgotten, just like the monster. “Please come back,” I whisper because suddenly I’m painfully aware of just how crazy I look, skating across the monochrome glass.

But it’s not glass.

And I’m not cold because I’m empty.

As I crash back into the world, I shiver. I can’t be alone; I haven’t been alone for years. I catch sight of the waterfall of Katelyn’s hair and latch on. “Kate! Over here!”

There’s only one path to her. And it’s lined with blood.

[ City attacks ; longsword]

sword

[results]

[picks up cleats]

The seaspray is red and it’s too cold for waves.

I drag my fingernails across my face just like I marked his face and they come away bloody. It is viscous and coppery and revolting and

oh

so

warm.

I have a tiny love affair with the hot blood on my hands. The moment is momentous. I want to hold it close, kiss it, devour it. But the steam is fleeing, our love cooling. Maybe it needs an offering, just like the monster. I lift my sword high, ready, when the monster tugs.

“I thought you’d left.” I bring the sword down.

I could never leave you.

[ City attacks ; longsword]

sword

[results]


[picks up Roll of Bandages (15 ft)]

My crutch is long and deadly. I hadn’t realized just how lethal until I’m standing in a pool of slushy blood, staring at the vacant faces of my allies. Marc’s shoulder finds my cheek and we stand for a moment amidst the carnage. “I want to go home.” The words tumble past frozen lips. I am the edge of becoming a part of this wintry monochrome, of freezing into a Velocity Rush shaped statue.

This body is ready.

The monster is not.

We have to go home.

That’s what I want, because it’s what he wants, or is it what I want too? There’s only one way to find out.

[ City attacks ; longsword]

sword

[results]


[picks up last item idk what it is <3]

There is a shadow darker than any other. He is the cat, I the mouse. He teases me, drawing me close before disappearing. Every evasion makes me ache, makes me want him all the more. But I know that if I catch that shadow, if I capture the monster, he will devour me. I am only prey in this monochrome world. I am white and he is black and we are a p a r t. This isn’t freedom; this is

lone
li
ness.

“Wait for me,” I breathe, a desperate plea to the truest love I’ve ever known.

[ City flees the Bloodbath. ]