lingering scars
Tasuku didn’t remember much of the night before. It was as if a haze had fallen over his memories as he drifted off into slumber. His consciousness swam in a sea of misty darkness, as if suspended...
...and when he opened his eyes again, it was to a vastly different landscape.
“...?”
This wasn’t Hive City. But it was a city...an entirely empty city. One of the many that had been destroyed in the disaster. The white marble of its crumbling stone foundations stood stark beneath the night sky, and a frigid fog crept between desolate buildings and the skeletons of sky scrapers.
Tasuku felt a chill running down his spine that had nothing to do with the cold. What was he doing here? Was this another one of Hive City’s tricks?
“Jack... Chrono--”
He froze at the sound of his own voice.
It was much higher, more childish. He looked to his hands, and they were much smaller than they usually were, lacking gloves or any attire whatsoever. Tasuku ran, the footfalls from his sneakers echoing against the pavement and rebounding throughout the unsettlingly quiet streets until he came across a relatively smooth surface, a glass storefront that had been spared the destruction of the city around it.
“...!”
There was no question about it. Tasuku was a child again.
“...ah...”
There was no Chrono here. No Jack. No Takihara, no Buddy Police, nothing. Tasuku had had this dream before, a nightmare where he would wander eternally alone as a helpless child, robbed of everything that had ever made him smile. Even now, he still dreamed of it occasionally.
“...aahh...”
But it felt so much more real this time.
Desperately, the young boy sank to his knees before his quivering reflection and squeezed his eyes shut, hoping the nightmare would end soon.
@blitztiger
