Literature...

(GE Copy)

Honestly, I'm not even sure I'm done editing it yet, I'm just catching up for lost time...

Chapter 25: The Sternest Reflection (Part 2)

“...However: ‘Some times a cigar is just a cigar’ ~Sigmund Freud”

Thick cuts of grass dug into his knee, as Aaron lifted the garage door. Inside the dark room they poured until their eyes adjust to find their way around. Aaron withdrew his plastic tub from the junk heap, activating the waters and retrieved his project. His gems had set back into a hardened mass, still curved, though not all of them were put back in such condition. They would need to be tempered again.

Withdrawing her torch, Sophie took a fresh cut of sheet metal and cut it to shape before adjusting the flame to a glowing bulbous tip. Aaron never really ready watched anyone working like this, and witnessed most technical flaws with his design overcome by the sheer simplicity of her experience. Aaron looked to his flat piece and questioned, even with his gel-lifying gemstones, how could he actually form a flat sheet into a smooth doughnut. Every complication he had was made simple, and Aaron chocked it up for a lack of tools, but Sophie informed him rather abruptly that it was more a lack of experience.

“You’re on the right path...” Sophie informed, “But... The tools you have, have much more potential than you give them credit for.”

“Guess I just never thought of doing it like that...”

“You said that the objects maintain their strength, even when gelatinous, yea? Then I see no reasons that welds like these shouldn’t hold, and the rough shape of it will work itself out once the bulging occurs, making it a proper rounded doughnut and not the glorified stone wheel I’m constructing for you.” Setting two round metal disks aside, Sophie picked up the base sheet, cutting a long strip from the remainder for the centre and edge, “Limitations are only good for sorting out options; if you want to create, it’s more efficient to imagine what you can make, else you’re only reinventing the wheel when a perfectly optimized one is standing right in front of you –and if I wasn’t so focused on this, I’d probably tell you the status on whether that pun was intentional or if I were simply taking credit for it after the point.” Bending the new strip before fixing it to the disks.

Aaron sat back, taking everything in, studying the function of her hands from balancing the heavy working piece to how she could transfer the momentum as she rotated it. Pulling the curtain over his face, Felicity stood overtop, draping his hair in front as he looked Aaron in the eyes. “So? What you focused on so hard?”

Moving the draped strands out of the way, “Learning...” Aaron replied, “...We need to stop and do that every once in a while.” Continuously fighting the swaying of Felicity’s hair as he hovered over top. “Why are you still there?”

“Because I’m waiting for a real answer, dummy.” Placing his fist overtop Aaron’s shaggy hair for a knuckly noogie. “Now what’s got your eye, Aaron?”

“Can you leave him until after we’ve finished?” Sophie butted in, “I need him to prepare his gemstones for insertion, being as he is the resident expert on these radical jewels.”

Aaron prepared his gemstones for softening, still feeling the hovering presence of their onlooking audience impatiently pressing himself into their airspace. Felicity jumped onto Aaron’s back, looking down from above. “Will you knock that off?!” Aaron retort, “Or at least turn into a snake if you’re gonna sit there? I swear, where does all this extra weight come from when you’re not a tail with eyes?” He stopped wiggling around, and Aaron looked to face the cynical slants of Felicity’s stare, until he opened his mouth and squirt a benign glowing liquid against Aaron’s face. “Just...” Wiping the glowstick juice from his cheeks, “Go... Wait over there...”

Picking up the gemstones, he tested their malleability, audibly listening to the conniving snake pace the room, offended.

“Alright, welds look clean,” Sophie announced, “I’m going to need that yellow powder to make it functional, because if we are gonna go all crystal tech on this thing, why go only half way...” Placing said powder carefully along the unhinged metal until it could bend up backwards, Sophie informed of her creation. “This hatch is for maintenance, but considering that all the stuff you have around here is for automotive, –and I can’t figure out why coz there’s never a car in here... I can’t really fix it a proper latch... Not that I think it would stay, given the... ‘rubber’ quality of this vessel. So... We’re going caveman, and using plastic” Holding up a package of zip-ties

Carefully aligning the placement of his stones to interact with as much surface area as possible, Aaron filled the metal doughnut with all his malleable components. The stiffness in his gloves seemed to become soft and he realized it was time to switch to some tongs. Things began moving very quickly just as before, and adding the new components to the running machine became a game of 4D Frogger. There came a certain traffic jam at the hatch as one gemstone got caught on the rim and Aaron quickly shoved it back in the hole again.

Finally sealing it up, they strapped the plastic ties over the hatch, maybe even three of them, and Aaron marvelled as he stuck his ear to it.. “You can hear it moving around in there. It’s working. I should get that oil so it moves smoother... You... don’t suppose that would stop the friction from applying at all do you?” Watching the massive hunk of metal bulge out into it’s doughnut shape. Suddenly, they heard a zipper unravelling quite loudly; and soon, the zipties popped out and his gelatinous gems got jammed at the entrance like a wiener being shoved in a hole sideways. The integrity fell out from the bottom and the whole rig fell on it’s side. “That’s not gonna dent the concrete, is it?”

“...You’re vexating jelly stones are a damned menace to engineering everywhere, and everyone working in it!...” Sophie moaned. “Sorry, but I’m not a very clean speaker with this stuff, it’s kind of a trigger for barracks talk. Why do you choose to work with such a volatile substance?”

“At least there isn’t a bunch of oil shitting out all over the place, spraying all over the wildlife and stuff... Honestly I’m satisfied with it as a first attempt; I don’t think we would have made it past making a doughnut.”

Watching the churning bulbous metal ring piece contort in stereo, they could hear a similar noise began to emanate from behind them. With a concerned furrowing gaze, Felicity seemed bewildered at his stomach and held in the pain while moaning. “That machine looks like my stomach feels... What the feg is going on in there?! It’s running on along the walls, diving off the top board and shit... Sh...”

Dawning on the answer, Sophie remarked towards the dietary differences between species. “I often forget that animals can’t eat the same things people can... Or the artificial content of fast food. You look like you’re about to show your final loyalty to the shogunate.”

With a quick shock, Felicity straightened up, crossing his cheeks, “OH! N-n-ne-ne-ne-ne-no...” Hopping up the stairs for the little boys room.

“I really hope no one’s in there...” Aaron dismayed. Kicking things around for a few minutes, Aaron pondered how he was going to salvage the wreckage.

“It’s definitely not the worst mess I’ve made,” Sophie sympathized, consoling Aaron of his hard failure. “Kinda surprised those gems don’t break up like jello in a blender. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not that cantankerous about it, that’s just usually the stuff I say when anything mechanical fucks up around me. I’ve said a lot worse when a bad solder lights on fire. Still I don’t understand why you insist on working with all these advanced tools.”

“Well, maybe I’m just not smart enough, eh?” Aaron snapped back, noticeably seeing her cower at his powerful assertion. “No... I didn’t mean for it to come out like that...”

“It’s fine... I didn’t even really notice...”

Grieving over it, Aaron returned “Don’t pretend like I haven’t bothered you by it.” Pressing sympathetically, with the back of his head in his hands. “It’s like you’ve changed overnight; I can’t see all that much past my own insecurities lately, and even that I can confirm isn’t just in my head... and all I can figure is that it’s something I did... I hate it, I don’t know how to fix it, and something inside stops me from even trying and I fucking hate it!...” Cracking the dam behind his nose and eyes.

Sophie paused for a long while until muttering out in a voice that almost seemed normal again, if a bit more emotional than ever. “Never thought speaking my mind would ever be this difficult. I feel like a complete clod having this much trouble saying simple things... Saying that I miss... I miss you...” Her tone falling flat.

“No...” Aaron assured, “...Feeling like that is pretty normal. Been screaming at myself for the longest time now, and I’m still not sure I’m hearing me.” Snuffing his nose. “I want to hear you, come on, open it up. You bothered me to do that all the time, it’s your turn...”

“I always figured if you became like everyone else that you’d be boring and not worth admiring... but I’ve come to realize that it wouldn’t hurt nearly as much as loosing the person I admired to begin with.”

“So why did you stop fighting for me? You’ve been the biggest hardass about people giving into their faults. I honestly thought you’d solve it for everyone one day...”

“After a while, the fear of failing became more frightening than the fear of trying, and one overtook the other... Hiding in the mask that people wanted, rather than the one that pushed them away.”

“Well, I’m glad you fought back then... I’m glad you shoved it in my side so much. Had my head stuck in the clouds for so long, someone needed to pull me out... but, I guess I’ve always had to learn the hard way, huh?... Can’t say it’s all your fault; maybe it did nothing but aggravate me, but I just wish I opened my ears the first time. Worst part is, is that it doesn’t end there, still living with it, still hearing every lie I want to tell just to escape a moment’s discomforts.”

“It’s not the same. In an instant, one push too hard could set a man on a course, where a thousand words made moot ever after, because he lost the will to hear it... Trying to convince him to keep trying in vein when that one failure set him down a path for destruction; and his every attempt becomes futile to climb back up again. That’s what bothers me... Feels like I’m doing this all in vein. I tried everything I understand how to do, and it does nothing but make it worse, and I’ve pushed you away; it’s not getting any better by trying, and I’m better off living out what frail moments we have before it ends... Like beyond that, I’m just asking an injured horse to run in agony, and injure himself further... And all I have left is the memories of how much better it was before it all fell apart.”

Sitting solemnly, Aaron risen his head, and sorrowfully willed himself to honesty. “Nah, if we struggle, part of us still wants it. I think the thing that is most frightening, is when that door closes for good. That’s the thing that is more terrifying than the cuts we get along the way. My whole life is cuts, never physical, always sore... Still moving despite it. We want it... But we don’t like how to get there.”

Panting by the threshold of the doorway, Felicity stood victor. “I have sl... Slayed... The demon...” Falling onto his knees dramatically. “In my belly... It’s dead... Long live the king.” Before falling over onto stone.

Sophie and Aaron stood overtop, poking the drama queen with a hood rod. “Think we should call the vet?” Aaron heckled, still poking the breathing corpse on their floor.

“The cold is soothing...” Felicity returned, muffled with this cheeks against the cement.

Sitting around, they took cracks at how they’d fix the giant hand melting obstruction until they ran out of clever ideas and wise remarks. “You know, I could just say it’s a science project and hope everyone just leaves it alone until we can figure out how to move it...” Aaron kicked back in, one last time. “Except the only thing left is finals, in like a week from now... They don’t do science fairs for finals. I’m gonna need a lot of portal water if I’m going to send that one off anywhere... Should we just disassemble it?”

“It’ll dissipate eventually, just a matter of time until we can grab it with our hands and bury it in the back yard next to ‘fluffy’, or name equivalent.”

“I gave it some extra powder, I don’t think it’s dissipating in our life times...”

“Well tsh-eeeat. That’s dead in the water...” Grabbing her multi-welding metal cutter. “That only leaves dissembling, have I got your permission to move forward?”

Having pulled most the jiggly doughnut apart, Aaron sat himself upon the bar stool, taking a breather. “Say...” Aaron mentioned, leaning back on the bench behind him “While I’m in the mood... When we were out in the edge of the world or whatever it was... How did all that stuff show up anyway? Just kinda odd that it all appeared out of nowhere, like it already existed there for a thousand years before we ‘trail blazed’ it.”

Wiping the sweat from her forehead, Sophie parted from her work. “Same answer as why superstitions come true; simply, I don’t know. Father said there is a force in the universe that simply creates these things in the same way people create passages through the realms. A self fulfilling prophecy sort of, made manifest by the fears of men... Deservers Forest and stuff... Also heard it called... um... Fërfōrge.” Mumbling until picking her tone back up, at the lacking resistance. “I’m surprised you let me talk about it for so long. It’s the other reason I haven’t said ‘hi’ in a while. We used to talk so joyfully about these things, now... It only seems to anger you, and I can’t handle seeing you like that. At first I could set it aside, laugh at it even, like seeing an ironic little trait in someone; but the more I realized how much it hurt you, the more I seemed to care. I love you Aaron. I want things to go back to how they were. I just don’t know if it’s even possible anymore...”

It was true, some small kindle of embers flared up at the sound, but Aaron held it down long enough to consider his role in all of it. “I’m not sure there is anyone that can appreciate you like I can...” Falling his head to wallow hung loose, “...but you deserve better than me. Most people deserve better than me.

Clinging to him, Felicity assured, “I appreciate you, Aaron!” Huddling closely, awkwardly close. “Say... Why do you guys never have any shells in your bathroom?”

Aaron looked up pensively, slowly becoming more concerned by the prompt that was issued, “You do realize how the paper work’s, don’t you?”

Cutting back in, “Ha!” Sophie heckled. “He doesn’t know how the paper works...”

“I do so!” Felicity defended.

“Anyway, I’m almost done if you want to get to sorting your pieces for storage. It is reusable, right?”

Finally dispatching the final pieces, Aaron could lay them aside to harden again. He could feel something in his hands, as though the softness of his skin had become incredibly hard, and slowly compressing; but before he could tell anyone, it seemed to resolve, and the pendulum sung back again to soft. The stiffness in his fingers would pulsate until neutral again and Aaron would have to reconsider the methodology of his forging practices. Studying the straightness of his bones, Aaron’s stride wobbled on the floor, and he made sure to throw a tarp over the squishy cement before someone else stepped on it. It’d harden again... Eventually...

“Did the best I could...” Sophie assured, packing up her things, “Don’t beat yourself up over your failures, there is success in every thing it teaches you... Wow that does not translate to English very well. Just remember that learning comes from both direction, and goes in both di... You know what I’ll stop bestowing Altarian wisdom. I had fun today...”

“I liked it too...” Aaron admit, if a bit forcefully obligated. “Back to the couch, and human programming?” But Aaron already knew the answer, waving her out the back door. She had only just turned the corner while the reluctance on Felicity’s face finally broke through to him, and Felicity ran to catch up to her. Aaron turned the corner also, only to hear a muttering that he couldn’t quite make out.

Huddled, the snake continued his whispers into Sophie’s ear, “That’s why it’s been this way... Someone has to protect Aaron from the demons inside: There are days that they almost come out, and it’s my job to keep that from happening.” Before patting Sophie onward and breaking to catch eyes with Aaron. He walked past, though ignorant to the inquisitive glare Aaron expected to be met, until having to raise his voice to it.

“What was that about?” Aaron inquired with some skepticism

“Girl stuff...”

Looking up and down the dude’s body, Aaron retort. “That’s bullshit...”

“She was worried about you... I just wanted to let her know that I’m here for you, that she can trust me, like you do. You care about her, so I wanted to comfort her, so she knows that she doesn’t have to fret over it...”

“No, you’ve been acting strange lately and it’s really obvious that something is up...” Giving no ground from his stance. “It’s like you’re jealous or something.”

“It’s just...” Surrendering himself, Felicity began to fidget shyly. “That I really do like you a lot, and I know that you can’t return those feelings. It’s just when I see her fawning over you like that, I wish I could be seen the same way you see her...”

“Wait...” Aaron dumbfounded, “She’s fawning over me? When?... Oh” His voice deepening at the prospect.

“HOE-LEE-FUQ, Dude!”

“Yeah, I’m joking. I know she’s been like that, I’m not freaking blind; it’s been weirding me out too –Even if I didn’t have that dream this morning... Look, I know that you care a lot, and that I’m your favourite person in the world next to Detective Richard Chaser, and all eight pervy show hosts for The Rooftop Runaway gameshow; but you’re acting like a complete fool, and it’s embarrassing.”

“Why can’t you look at me the same way as her? You say you’re not into her like that, so how come she gets that treatment and I’m still just the snake in the jar that you keep around? I freaking worship you, dude! Stop giving me this straight shit, and telling me she don’t matter like that. If she’s nothing special then why don’t I matter to you like that? You care about her, and I’m bloody jealous of it, okay!?”

“I know...” Aaron sighed, with his head hung low.

Putting Aaron in his arms, Felicity held him and sympathized “Maybe it can’t work... But I can’t change the way I feel... You’ve been so distant from me, and it feels like it’s my fault. We need each other. Please come back to me...”

“You didn’t actually threaten her, did you?”

“I could never loose your trust like that, I really did tell her not to worry about you, because I’m here... And if there’s a problem I can’t cut down in cold blood, I’ll just have to hold you until the hurt is gone...” Peeling off Aaron returned to his work, leaving Felicity to stand alone.

Putting the freshly rehardened tongs to good use, Aaron disposed of the last piece of evidence that he was there. He wondered why it was so hard to work on anything, finish anything, he should have been past this stage long ago; maybe even have something working by now. At every turn, there was always a new distraction, fate throwing something in his way; Deservers Forrest, sure... Why not? First Zack, now Sophie, always wanting something from him while he set aside to play. Though, he already had enough things on the go; it’s not like there wouldn’t be moments where he’d have to choose between his own polarizing ambitions, with himself as the only blame... Today just came with the luxury of having somewhere or someone to passing it onto. Part of him just wanted to run away from them all, and find a hollow hole in a mountain somewhere where not even the birds could perch to sway him. His work was a matter of grave importance, so was leaving, did no one else understand that? Did Aaron even know? The only reason he could summarize was that they mattered to him just as much as his worries, and wished he could leave that sentiment behind for a cold and lonely existence; maybe until it all blew over, and the sun could reach him again, or at least he allow it to.

Raising his head, Aaron remembered how Sophie left; that he could have given her a shortcut, and quickly set out to find her, but she was already long gone. Aaron walked back home.

As the sticky handle of the front door opened, Aaron came to quickly regret it. Sitting pensively, his Father sat sober to a black and quiet television. Aaron turned his head to move past him, but his father spoke in a gravely serious manner. “I haven’t even seen you in over two days...” And the fire reignited.

“This again?” Aaron dismissed, not breaking from his stride. “I’m really tired of coming home, because you won’t shut up about it. I’m gone most days because of you!”

“Well I’m growing grey hairs over here because of you too!”

“HAVE A COUPLE MORE!” Instilling a hostile silence between them, calmly scowling, “Go watch TV with your new friend...”

“It seems I’ve started off on the wrong foot... All this time has made us both on edge, so pardon me if I’ve been a little touchy...”

Gritting his teeth as a facade to his broken heart, Aaron cried back “If you want me to go, I got a place I can stay...” Aaron turned from his melancholy with great disdain.

“That’s not the answer, and you know it.” His Father drearily sighed in bleak and sympathetic tone.

“All you talk about lately is how much of a burden I am to you!” Watching fearfully as his monolithic Father risen from his chair.

Reaching out, his Father gripped Aaron’s shoulders, and threw him into the old man’s chest, gripping him firmly into a bellowing hug. “All I’ve ever wanted was for you to live here and feel loved...” But in the weakness of his Father’s trembling grip, Aaron broke out of it. In his anger and his tears, Paul reasoned to Aaron. “You have no idea how hard it is to go through the day, provide for everyone, and not loose your temper. To hear someone call you for what hurts most and still smile for their sake,” Aaron tried to retort but Paul over powered him, “To be be accused of the same thing you spend every fibre of your being not to become, just to be called a liar and a hypocrite: Go on, tell me I should feel something other than anger; tell me that I should do anything but I defend my honour as I am attacked for even having one! Tell me not to surrender my pride each time, just to reach the child I love!”

Aaron stared aside, sneering as his fiery anger stood still from issuing a solitary retort. His hands grit, and Aaron bit down on his cheeks wishing he could break the skin off from his mouth to blame the frustration back on his Father in bloody spitting rage. Aaron wanted very much that the bones in his body would snap, and bring tears to his Father. That Aaron’s airways would close, and his blood to rush into his head and teach that patronizing old bastard a lesson with the grief and sorrow of his own son. Something, anything that could shatter that old man’s confidence and wisdom. Something to make his doubt everything he spoke. That if it were possible, Aaron could give his own self to bring that tyrant to his knees in agony and haunt him forever.

Calming his voice, Paul returned sympathetically, “I know what it’s like to be growing, discovering, copying everyone else’s catch phrases because that’s what we’ve done our whole lives, never living the life that made those words. That it’s easier to follow someone else’s footsteps, when we never learned how to make our own tale. Always wanting things to change for things that we’ve already seen, because every original idea we have seems to fail while other’s succeed: To want their mantle without the experience to even use it. We pick a little bit up from everybody we meet, like through osmosis. Styles, trends, just the blind following the blind; it’s no wonder every generation gets a little further away from it’s roots, screaming at the moon for existing... Every cliche lived out by a thousand plastic people every day with no idea why it’s all gone to shit; but how can we blame them, walking in the same shoes they are. When you learn to chose, when you hear what really matters, your whole world will change. I don’t know what more I can say. We all live some part of our lives running away from it, wanting something else to exist than what already does... Some, just a little longer than others.”

“I’m tired of all the lectures!” Aaron retort, “Every time you think you know what’s going on in my life, and drown me in constant spiels and lessons. I don’t need to sit down for another half hour conversation, I’m sick of hearing how I’m doing exactly what you did! Let me suffer on me own, because we’re not on the same path, we never were and we’re miles apart so stop thinking you know any better than me.” His father tried to speak but Aaron screamed even louder, “I don’t want to hear it anymore from you!”

Without hesitation, his Father wept, “I’ve failed you, Aaron...” Weeping, “I failed my Father on that day, too, because I couldn’t be the one you needed. I swore that I would atone for the pain I caused him, when I was proven wrong, never able to apologize to his face until the day he died... And it only made me feel the need to atone even harder. I swore that if I could undo the mistakes that was cast down from him onto me, onto you, that it would finally justify the things that haunted me.” Watching Aaron walk away, “I felt in those moment’s that I truly knew how to undo every mistake that was cast down onto me, but I am no brighter than he was when I did the same to him. We pay for our youth in many ways, and no one truly knows what was done for us, until they are there trying to give wisdom onto the preoccupied and the young. I failed you!” And yet it wasn’t enough for Aaron to hear, as his Father cried, it wasn’t good enough.

Not even the sadistic dream he awaited, that came more viscerally than he could have ever schemed, could not douse the flame in Aaron’s heart. Deep within him a voice cried out, but Aaron would have hear it, believing himself righteously separated from his attachments as he climbed the stairs to pack his last items and leave for good.

From the door next to his, he could hear a whimper and the sounds of gargling to speak past weary lungs and runny noses. Aaron stopped, turning for the adjacent door where it could pierce his heart. Opening it’s breach with quiet shock, he could see his mother gasping for air with hands clasped tightly atop her mattress, praying. He had never seen her pray before. Inside, a pit of dry ash slid down his throat as Aaron silently gulped his pasty throat, as he overheard her cries.

“I’m sorry I fled from you, I’m sorry I abandoned him. I was so scared, I was so scared!” Each weary word breaking another crack in Aaron’s heart of stone. “Please give him back to me! Please! Take everything from me, take it, please... All I want is boy! Take this house, take my car, take my life, give me back my son!”

Pulling her up from the ground, Aaron wept, shaking her back to her senses but she only fell into him and sobbed, shaking uncontrollably as she wailed mournful cries into him. “Please, stop praying for me...” Aaron begged, frightened, with more terror for his own life than even the valley of death which he ran from. “Please, it’s not like you.” Barely able to grasp the words to even flee.

Desperately pleading, Crystal stared deeply into Aaron’s eyes, seeing past him for someone else. “Take what you want from me, just give me back my son!” And Aaron could see deep within her.

Tears fell form Aaron’s eyes feeling every manner of fear within her flood into him. Thoughts rushed and he could feel the resonance of every memory she had with him, and every time he turned away from her, as though he read it from her mind. His tears drained upon her head, and the more that fell, the more they began to glisten. Within her, he could hear a voice comforting her, and when Aaron heard this, was he terrified of what it was. The eyes that opened to see, shut themselves though having looked directly into the sun, and he remembered the voice that spoke to him as well. Then another... And Aaron panicked.

Staggering out of the room, Aaron fell to his knees, braced against the railing; calling himself back to reality, as even the walls around him became sharpened and visceral. He could hear everything, fell everything, smell everything. All he could taste, was the gasping rawness of his mouth and Aaron crawled onto his shaky knees.

Aaron went to grab his last supplies but he stood silent in his room, until the grip fell out from his hands and it laid there upon the floor. Aaron staggered out of his room, down the steps and towards the door. A last reminisce reminded him of what had transpired, and he gripped his chest for fear that his now beating heart would explode. “I’ve hurt all of you... I’m sorry...” He said aloud, until muttering the rest. “You’re better off without me.” And he left.

Making only a block or two from his house, Felicity caught up, cheerfully congratulating Aaron. “I know it’s not easy, but you stood up for yourself. Do you know how long I’ve been waiting to see that in you? Do you realize how much respect you probably just gained from them?”

“I knew better from the start, always... I’ve fucked up everything, and I’m ashamed of myself...”

“What happened? I thought you put your foot down? Didn’t you face your fears? Didn’t you finally get the balls to take a hold of your life? What about those guys out to get you, sitting at home waiting for them to take you on account of your family obligations? Weren’t your folks just holding you back from your own safety?”

Pushing the serpent back, Aaron’s eyes shone like light into a dim world, as he sternly returned. “Stop trying to free me, Fuchsias, so fuck off.”

Time seemed to go on forever, but day would turn into night as the lilies would close their petals for the cold. In a blank darkness of his mind, he fought as though drunkard who’s staggers would stumbled him to sleep beside the street. A roar of lions echoed in his mind, taring him apart. He was ready to accept the road ahead of him, which Aaron had feared to even look upon. A thousand thoughts ran through him, until Aaron awoke within a field that was glistened by the sun; knowing all that transpired, and having none the strength to figure out how it was that he got there. All he knew, was that he knew it a long time before, and that was good enough to keep him moving.

Now, where the fuck was he?