#vader writes

[vaderslocker]

The Silence of Worrying

  She had felt better. Much better than she did now. The feeling crept up on her and had hit her all at once. It was back. Those horrible feelings of being a bother to people, being significantly unimportant, and the feeling of not being needed.   She had an inkling of why those feelings hit her so suddenly, but she refused to believe it to be true. But now with those feelings came doubt. Doubt that she was ever actually needed. Doubt that she was ever even slightly important to someone. Doubt that she wasn't constantly bothering people. The more she tried not to think of those feelings, the more she thought about them and the worse she felt.   She didn't know what to do.   At this point, her best option was sleeping, and hoping the feelings were gone come morning. But she knew herself better than that. She knew they wouldn't vanish as suddenly as they appeared. No, they'd linger, ever present in the back of her mind. Waiting for a chance to strike again and layer on more doubt and worry in the process. It wasn't fair, but nothing in this world comes without a price. The price she paid for having friends were the horrible feelings, the doubt, and the worry. She thought her price had finally been paid, but that was seemingly not the case this time.   The doubt of ever really being important and being needed by someone hit her the hardest this time. It tore her up and settled within her mind with a dark cloud of uncertainty hanging over her and an uneasy feeling in her chest.   But she knew for a fact that no one would likely notice any change in her the next day, and she knew that she wouldn't be able to tell anyone herself. She'd just feel awful if she had someone else share the burden that should be her own.   As much as she knew she would very likely still feel awful come morning, she couldn't help but hope that wasn't the case. If it wasn't the case, she'd be incredibly grateful. But if that was the case, she didn't know what it would take to get herself back to normal, nor did she know how long getting back to normal would take. It could be days, weeks, heck even a month or so. She didn't care how long it took as long as she knew that the feelings, doubt, and worry would be gone again.   Her hope for the feelings disappearing again was starting to decrease the longer she was still awake, and sooner or later, the certainty that the feelings would be around for a while longer would be sure to stamp out any remaining trace of hope she had left.   She just wished she knew what she could do to get rid of the feelings, worry and doubt, but no answers sprang to mind for her.   She was reminded once again of how fragile she actually is inside, and that broke her resolve and hope down even more.   She only wanted to know how to fix herself, but the answer wouldn't come so easily. Still, she wished with everything she could to figure out as soon as possible what would make her feel better.   She glanced at her clock and began to count how long it would take to find the answer she needed so desperately.

[vaderslocker]

The Silence of Peace

She sat, Silent, watching, calm, at peace. She heard the leaves crinkle as the wind blew through them. She heard a stray insect. Heartily chirping away, it didn’t know or care that it was one of the few left. She heard crows arguing in the distance, and she smiled. She felt the wind, chilling her to the bone. But, she also felt the sun, peeking out from behind the clouds. It shone down and gave her a warmth to battle the wind. She saw the leaves. A brilliant red, A beautiful orange, A charming yellow. A stark contrast to the dull gray sky high above. They were her favorite. She saw the sun as it increasingly gave the world a warm, golden tone the closer it got to setting. She felt relaxed. Balanced with the world. But she knew it wouldn’t last. Any small occurrence could tip the balance and the peace would be shattered. It was a brittle, fragile thing, this peace. She very rarely found it, and when she did, it wouldn’t last long. She didn’t mind however. She was just thankful for the peaceful time she would have, no matter how long or short that time was. Then, in a blink of an eye, her illusion of peace came crumbling down around her. Her name was called and she was told to “come inside, it was getting cold out”. Still clinging onto the peace, she stood up, not responding. She bid the autumn farewell, ‘Until next year,’ she thought. And with that, she went inside.

[vaderslocker]

Sweet Dreams

My first SlyPKC fic! And it’s written for the ever lovely @criwish , who also told me I should include a warning for the possibility of dying from cuteness while reading this. So yeah. Enjoy!

                                                            ~~~

   The night had hardly begun and Seamus already regretted saying that he'd share the bed with Eddie during the PAX trip. They had unknowingly booked a small, one bed hotel room, so it was either share the bed or someone had to sleep on the floor. Both men were much too tired to fight over the bed, so they reluctantly decided to share.    Little did Seamus know, the Puerto Rican was an extremely lousy sleeper. Tossing and turning about 20 times before finally settling into a spot, only to toss and turn more a few minutes later. Seamus glanced at the clock to his right. 1:43. As he closed his eyes to attempt to sleep, he was positive that he was going to go crazy before morning came.    Suddenly, Seamus realized that all the tossing had stopped for a longer period of time than before. Surprised, he opened his eyes and checked the clock once again. 2:16. Seamus breathed a sigh of relief, thankful that he could finally sleep without any interruptions.    Moments after he shut his eyes again, Eddie's tossing resumed. Fed up with the man next to him, Seamus couldn't stop his angered outburst. "EDDIE JUST FUCKING GO TO SLEEP ALREADY, GOD DAMMIT!"    "Seamus? What the fuck?!? I was sleeping until you started shouting at me! What the fuck was that for?" Eddie sleepily, yet angrily replied.    "Maybe if you didn't keep tossing and turning I wouldn't have had to shout! Just pick a damn spot and go to sleep," Seamus said. He turned onto his side facing away from Eddie and shut his eyes again. He had hoped once more that he'd be able to get a decent amount of sleep before they had to be up in the morning to prep for the Creature panel. 

~~~    There had been no tossing from Eddie for about a half hour, and Seamus was gratefully sleeping while the bed was still. But then in an instant Eddie was back to shifting around.    "God dammit, Eddie," Seamus mumbled, too tired to even shout at him now. At least Seamus could say he got a half hour of sleep, but he likely wouldn't get much more than that for the rest of the night. He tried to close his eyes and get back to sleep when he felt a weight on his arm. 'What now?' Seamus thought. He opened his eyes once more to see Eddie's arm resting over his side.    "Oh my god," Seamus muttered to himself. However, with his arm draped across Seamus, Eddie's tossing seemed to have stopped, and Seamus wasn't about to complain over the lack of Eddie's shifting on the bed. Even though he certainly wasn't thrilled at the arm over his side, Seamus was surprised that he didn't seem to mind it too much either.    He gave in. Glancing behind him at Eddie, sleeping peacefully now, Seamus whispered, "Sweet dreams, Eddie. Your arm can stay, for now." Seamus just hoped none of the other guys would walk into the room in the morning while Eddie's arm was still around him.    Seamus then smiled softly to himself, and settled in to get whatever remaining sleep he could. 

[vaderslocker]

Up On The Rooftop

After starting this snund fic in December, I figured I should finish it. And what better day to finish it than on my waifu’s birthday? Happy birthday, criwish​ ! This one’s for you :)

~~~

  "Shit..." Scott murmured as he heard the clang of what he presumed to be his ladder falling from it's place against his house's roof. He walked over to the side of the roof to see that he was right. But, not only did the ladder fall, it fell onto his neighbor's house hard enough to scratch off some paint and leave a small dent. "Of course, as if half of these lights burning out wasn't bad enough, now I can't fucking get down, and whoever this neighbor is, is gonna be pissed at me," he said angrily to himself.   Looking defeated, Scott brushed aside some snow that had settled on the roof and sat down. He looked at his phone to see that it was only just now eleven AM, and that his phone was at 2%. That meant he couldn't call his back up to get him off the roof.   Scott's back up would have been his best friend, Cry, who lived fifteen minutes away. He usually was the one to get Scott out of any tricky situations. The power was out, the X-box was broken and Scott couldn't fix it with his knowledge, or even the occasional blind date Scott was on with some woman that wasn't working out and he needed a reason to bail out early. He was always able to rely on Cry, but not this time.   Scott groaned and fell backwards onto the roof from his sitting position. "I can't believe I was too fucking stupid to remember to charge my damn phone overnight or to put the shitty ladder in a more stable spot. God dammit!!" Scott shouted towards the sky.   As he lay on his roof, still seething in anger and muttering swears under his breath, he heard snow crunch. The crunching snow put a pause to his frustrated cursing. Scott kept still and quiet, and he heard more snow crunch. This time, the crunching was louder and most likely who or whatever it was was getting closer.   "Uhh... hello?" Scott heard a deep, gravelly voice question. He kept his silence and didn't move. "I, uh, heard your irritated swearing. Something about a damn phone and a shitty ladder?" the voice said.   "Yeahh. You heard correctly," Scott remarked and sat up from where he was laying. He still couldn't see the owner of the voice.   "I should probably explain that I'm your new neighbor." the voice explained while Scott stood up and walked to the edge of the roof. Then, his neighbor came into view. From what Scott could tell where he stood on the roof, this neighbor was tall, and pretty buff. He kept his brown hair away from his face with a green bandana. His face was shaped with sharp angles, creating a tough look. The man coughed and Scott realized he'd been staring at him for a few minutes.   "Oh, um, hi, uh, neighbor. I'm Jund. Er, Scott Jund. This seems like more awkward of a first meeting than I expected," Scott told his neighbor, scratching the back of his head as he spoke. 'Damn I didn't expect the new neighbor to look so foxy. Wait. What am I even thinking?' Scott thought.   "People call me Snake," Scott's neighbor  replied. Snake raised his hand in a greeting wave. "Did you, uh..." Snake trailed off, gesturing to Scott on the roof and the partially visible ladder on the ground.   "Why yes I did get stuck on my roof putting up Christmas lights. Help me, please. You're the only hope I have right now," Scott begged.   "As inclined as I'd be to help you, Scott, I'm going to be busy setting up my own Christmas decorations before it gets to be even later in the day," Snake answered him.   "Oh come the fuck on! You can't take two seconds to put back up a damn ladder?" Scott snapped.   "Nope. Sorry," Snake snickered as he walked over towards the ladder.   "Well then what are you doing? If you aren't gonna actually put up the ladder for me to get down?" Scott questioned.   "I'm getting it off my house, thank you very much." As Snake removed the end of the ladder from his house, Scott winced, waiting for him to be angry about the dent and scraped off paint. Instead, all Snake did was move the ladder back and enter his house. Not a word more left his mouth.   Scott breathed a sigh of relief, until he remembered he was still stuck on his roof. "Shit," he murmured. He glanced over the edge of the roof, debating whether he could jump off and not break his legs or not. ~~~   "UP ON THE ROOFTOP REINDEERS PAUSED. OUT JUMPS GOOD OLD SANTA CLAUS. DOWN THROUGH THE CHIMNEY WITH LOTS OF TOYS. ALL PART OF A LITTLE ONE'S CHRISTMAS JOYS." Snake heard the loud, horrible screeching of what seemed to be Up On The House Top coming from next door. Not ironically, from Scott Jund's house. Snake sighed, got  up from his gift wrapping, and made his way outside.   From his spot on the ground he couldn't see Scott, so he inferred Scott had laid down again after Snake had gone inside three hours ago, and then came more of the eardrum-shattering song.   "HO HO HO, WHO WOULDN'T GO. HO HO HO, WHO WOULDN'T GO? UP ON THE ROOFTOP CLICK CLICK CLICK. DOWN THROUGH THE CHIMNEY WITH GOOD ST. NICK." Scott continued to scream into the cloudy sky.   "Hey, isn't it house top, not roof top?" Snake questioned, knowing he was most definitely in the right.   Scott jolted up, unaware his neighbor was standing at the edge of his yard listening to him. "Uhh, nope. Pretty sure it's roof top,"Scott answered him, slightly embarassed.   "Well, I have Google here, and it's telling me I'm right," Snake retorted after he pulled out his phone to do a quick search.   "Uh yeah, well, see, I was obviously changing it to fit my problem. Of you know, being stuck on my roof. So excuse me if I wanna sing a goddamn Christmas song while I'm stuck on my goddamn roof!" Scott shouted down to Snake. He was fuming mad over a Christmas song and Snake had no clue why.   "Alright then, I guess you do you, Scott Jund," Snake replied after a moment's pause, and he turned to go back into his home.   "Wait wait wait, please. Are you seriously gonna leave me up here again, to freeze during the night? It wouldn't even take a minute to put the ladder back up. C'mon Snake don't be an asshole to your new neighbor," Scott pleaded.   "Well, you see, first of all its not even nighttime yet, its only two. And secondly, I could put the ladder up for you, or I could just..." Snake trailed off as he walked backwards into his house, laughing as he shut the door and heard Scott's fake crying. Maybe this neighbor wasn't as horrible as he thought. ~~~   Three  more hours later of Snake hearing Scott cycle endlessly through numerous Christmas songs which he had managed to somehow screw up each one, Snake decided to end the torturous singing. After he made a BLT for himself and another for the roudy neighbor stuck on a roof, he grabbed two bottles of water and made his way back outside.   "Hey," Snake called up to the singing man. Scott ended his song as he sat up to see who called him and why he was called. In response, Snake held up the two plates in his hand and the bottles of water. Quickly, he set the dinners down as he lifted back up Scott's ladder.   "Woah, woah what are you doing?" Scott questioned.   "Just bringing some dinner. Y'know," Snake answered him. He set the ladder against Scott's house, picked back up their food, and slowly started up the ladder.   "Wait lemme get this straight. So you won't put the ladder back up for me to get off my roof, but you will put it up to bring me food?" Snake nodded to answer Scott, and as he did, he saw the man looking more and more pissed off with each passing second.   "Then, do you not want a dinner? Cause you're looking pretty mad right now. I mean I can just take the food I made back to my house and you can be stuck up there for the rest of the evening if you really want to," Snake said and he made it seem like he was starting to climb back down the ladder.   "Aw shit. Fuck. No. No, no, no. Come back, please. I haven't eaten all day don't make me starve to death. That'd just make you an absolute ass of a neighbor. Please come up here with the food. Please," Scott begged. With a slight grin, Snake continued up the ladder with the food. When he reached the top of the roof, he set the food down first before stepping onto the roof himself.   In an instant, Scott had dashed over and snatched up a sandwich, cramming it into his mouth with absolutely no hesitation. Snake quietly chuckled. "You're probably gonna want to slow down your eating before you start feeling sick," he said.   Reluctantly, Scott put down the sandwich, just in time to see Snake quickly kick the ladder from it's spot against the roof.   "Oh, you. You motherfucker!" Scott shouted as he lunged at Snake. "What the hell did you do that for you piece of shit?? Now we're both fucking stuck up here you asshole!"   "Whoops. Now we're both stuck. Looks like the only thing  left to do is eat and talk until we think of a way to get back down," Snake replied and he took a step back from Scott, who had grabbed him by his shirt collar. He sat down with his plate of food and began to eat.   "You. Ugh. You son of a bitch. You're the absolute worst neighbor ever," grumbled Scott as he unwillingly sat down next to Snake, plate and bottle of water in hand.   "Yeah but you at least have food now, so you're welcome," Snake snidely replied. As they ate, the two spent plenty of time talking. The two had almost heard each others' complete life story. ~~~   While time sped past as the two men talked, it was nearing 8 PM, and the light was finally starting to disappear.   "Well Snake, as much fun as it's been being stuck on my roof with you, it's gonna get cold pretty damn soon and I'd like to be inside when that happens," Scott told Snake while standing up, brushing snow from his pants and his jacket.   Snake sighed and stood up. "I suppose you're right. Give me just a second," he replied. Snake moved over to the edge of the house where the ladder should have been, and he held onto the edge of the roof before leaping down into the snow.   "WHAT THE FUCK. I SAT UP HERE THE WHOLE DAY NOT KNOWING HOW TO GET DOWN WHEN I COULD'VE JUST FUCKING JUMPED? GOD. DAMMIT." Scott shouted at Snake, absolutely enraged.   "Hey, it's not my fault you didn't think of that." Snake bent down to pick up the ladder, and he set it back up for Scott. Angrily, he climbed down with their trash from dinner, grumbling in frustration.   "Well, uh, thanks, and what not. For the good food and finally putting up my ladder for me. I owe you one, man," Scott sheepishly told Snake.   "If you want you can repay me now," Snake started. "I've got a load of presents to wrap and I don't want to procrastinate that, so you could come over to my house for some hot cocoa and help with the wrapping if you'd like."   Scott smiled up at Snake. "Yeah, I wouldn't mind helping you out," he replied.   As he walked with Snake to his front door, Scott stole a glance at him. He noticed how the fading light hit his face perfectly, and lit up his eyes. He smiled again and thought to himself, 'Maybe being stuck on my roof wasn't too unlucky after all.'

[vaderslocker]

The Silence of Words Left Unspoken

   She ran. She ran, and ran, and ran, trying to leave all her worries behind her. She didn’t know how long it’d been since she’d heard from the other, but she’d lost count, realizing she didn’t want to know, realizing that knowing only made her sadder with every passing day. She couldn’t let herself know. Not this time.

   And so she ran. Worrying about nothing but her breathing, her rhythmic footsteps hitting the ground, the thunder rumbling high above, and the rain falling down all around her. She did her best to not worry about all of the times she was probably bothering the other with her messages, not hearing from them no matter how hard she tried, or wondering if she’d done something to cause the silence between them.

   As she ran, she couldn’t help but notice he anxious feeling in her gut. It worried her, and she did everything she could to keep her mind away from the worry cause by the silence between her and the other.

   She shook her head, trying to clear away all her worry. Instead, she ran harder. The rain pelting her face became her main distraction now.

   But the worry came back nonetheless. It once more caught her in its grip and inched its way back into her mind, and she couldn’t help it. She finally gave in, letting the worry become her only focus.

   The worry began to make her wonder if she was getting annoying or if she was starting to seem needy to the other, or if the other simply had better things to do than spend a majority of their time talking to her. She didn’t know which one she hoped was true. 

   She just hoped that the other’s time was just caught up on something important, and that kept them from ever replying. Or was she just getting needy and hardly able to go more than a day without some sort of conversation to keep whatever anxiety, worry or depression she had away?

   As her mind was all caught up on the worry, she forgot about her running. A stone slowly crept into her path, and she didn’t notice until it was too late.Her foot was held back from taking another step due to the stone, and she fell. Water splashed up around her and another roar of thunder came from the sky.

   She sat up where she had fallen and brought her hands up to her face. They had just barely caught her and had suffered the most from the fall. They were raw and scratched up, little bits of gravel and dirt stuck in them. Another thing for her to worry about.

   She cursed herself for getting so distracted by her thoughts and her worry and  then she cursed herself for the way she was thinking.

   As she sat, resting from the running, she told herself she needed to stop getting so caught up on the fact that one person wouldn’t reply to any messages she’d send. They had their own lives to worry about and she needed to understand that simple fact.

   So,  she tried to forget all of her worry over possibly losing her friend again, and forget the worry of it being her own fault for losing her dear friend. She just wanted the worry gone. She didn’t want it to always be around every day of her life.

   She was doing everything she could to rip up the ties between her and the other. The ties that made her want to always talk to the other, and the ties that made the other seem like one of her dearest friends, because she figured that probably wasn’t a reciprocated tie. 

   She tried and tried to rip those ties apart and to get rid of all of the anxiety and worry that those ties gave her so often. The ties that constantly had her thinking she herself was ruining one of her friendships that was incredibly important to her.

   Sitting on the path where she had fallen, completely drenched with rain, she decided to give up. She gave up on her worry and her anxiety, she gave up on the thoughts that she was ruining another of her friendships single-handedly, and she stopped pretending that it was okay. Stopped pretending that never hearing from a great friend of hers was okay. And she vowed, then and there, that if this “friendship” she had with the other wasn’t going to work out, she’d stop it. Stop all of the anxiety it gave her, and stop all the depressing thoughts she had about herself being a truly horrible friend. She’d stop it all for good, otherwise sooner or later, she knew it’d destroy her.

   If her messages remained unanswered, then the silence of words left unspoken would be the end of one of her best friendships.

   And with that, she got up and ran back, to face her worries once and for all.

[vaderslocker]

The Silence of Her Absence

  She felt it again, deep in her chest. It gripped her heart with its sharp, icy claws and made her sad again. She knew she missed them, but the cold, sharp claws grimly reminded her once more.

  She had been silent for a while, only rarely checking in, but still she never said anything. She knew that whenever she checked in she'd get sad, so she did her best to avoid them.

  There was only one of them that talked to her the most, and for that she was thankful. Thankful that she knew she hadn't shaken off that beloved friend. There was another whom she occasionally talked to, but not as often. And then there was one that she'd pretty much given up trying to talk to completely. Anything involving that specific one made her the saddest, and she did everything she could to avoid them.

  The sharp, icy claws always made her regret her silence, and anytime she checked in, she regretted her absence in their conversations. She remembered how they used to make her laugh and smile so often, but that had long since been replaced with remorse, and the smiles replaced by a painfully sad grimace.

  Sometimes she missed them so much tears filled her eyes, yet she would hold them back as they threatened to fall. She kept her absence and her silence because she truly believed none of them missed her. Why, she really only knew a couple of them, so she was certain no one in the group missed her.

  But she longed to know. Longed to know if any missed her, and, with the one she gave up hope of talking to, she longed to know if it was her fault they stopped talking. Of course, she blamed herself and her silence, not to mention her absence in the clustered group. She was sure that it was her own fault that she lost great friends, but she never tried to smooth things over. She thought they wouldn't care to regain the friendships, but she didn't know.

  Oh how she wished she could know.

  With sleepy eyes and a tired brain, her thoughts drift to all of them, and the icy claws return, crushing her heart more than she thought those claws ever could. Once again, the gut wrenching feeling of sadness washes over her and she tries to think of something else, anything else.

  She doesn't though. Her mind simply wanders through thoughts of the group, which makes her increasingly sad. For another night, she holds back tears as well as she can, but not well enough it seems. A few slip through and slowly roll down her face.

  As she wipes them away, she curses those icy claws of regret. And with the last of her consciousness, she thinks of her absence within the group.

  When she drifts to sleep, the icy claws grip her heart and she deeply regrets the silence of her absence.

[vaderslocker]

The Sorrowful Silence

 Her silence was her downfall and she knew it, yet did nothing about it. She couldn't do anything about it, and that was what she absolutely hated.

 She hated feeling like no matter what she did, she'd remain a silent onlooker, never feeling like she was truly a part of the group.

 Sometimes she spoke up, but more often than not she'd say something stupid that she'd regret, and that would send her back into silence.

 Mostly, she'd just listen to the others talk, and only come out of her silence if she was spoken to. She just didn't trust herself enough to not say something she wouldn't be able to control.

 Other times though, she couldn't help but be silent. On the occasion that she spoke, she'd feel invisible to those who used to make her feel seen.

 As she sat on the edge of the porch, listening to all of the summer insects noisily chirping away in the night, and to the several chimes that filled the air with their soft gongs, and also to the thunder, signifying the soon to be presence of a summer storm, she came to a conclusion. She had no idea what to do.

 She knew how much she wanted to be heard, and how much she longed to talk to others without constantly worrying over what she says, though the severity of her own introvertedness kept her from what she wanted.

 She was surrounded by people, but had never felt so alone before.

 Now, she believed she had no group to turn to that could make her apparent invisibility disappear, so she drew into herself, getting quieter and quieter than ever.

 She hadn't ever wanted to talk to someone so badly, only to find out she couldn't. So, she stopped speaking up in her groups of friends. When she was able to have a single friend to herself, if only for a moment, then she found she was able to speak. Only then, with one or two of her friends, did she feel not so invisible.

 But those moments were rare.

 As she sat on the porch staring into the loud night, she felt herself crack, slowly but surely. Her outer wall of fake smiles and reassuring lies she told, even to herself, crumbled down around her.

 She could no longer contain her silence within her mind, and she finally broke.

 Right as the rain fell freely from the clouds high above, she brought her face down to her knees and wept. The internal jar she had filled with every despairing emotion brought on by her silence had shattered, and so she fell apart.

 As the rain softly pitter-pattered down around her, she let her remaining emotions loose, soon to be lost within her melancholy tears.

 She hadn't wanted to break, but when she did, she knew the emotions her silence created were worse than she thought.

 While she sat, crying in the rainy night, she knew to bottle all those emotions back up, even more securely than before.

 And with the next day, she knew she'd return to the sorrowful silence she had been cursed with.

[vaderslocker]

The Silence

I wrote this for a pal of mine, bicklestron, enjoy.

~~

  He sits, pondering the silence surrounding him in the vast desert spanning far beyond his reach. Off along the horizon he sees the heat move across the sandy flatness. In his mind, the heat has an eerie sound, a quiet sparkling sound that doesn't disrupt the silence, but gives it volume.

  The wind creeps along, dancing on his face and arms before waltzing away from him on some new song, extending its dance to another partner, be it the hawk flying overhead or the cacti that litter the plain.

  He leans back against the tree, the only one around for miles. His mind creates a sound for it too. The wind's whispering to the tree of its secrets from unknown places far away has the gentle sound of a Native American's mindless, thoughtless, and trance-like playing of a wooden flute, a sound not uncommon to the desert. The sound takes no solid, definite shape, but constantly morphs to fit its own unique tune. The duet the tree and wind create gives the silence a sweet, delicate melody, never holding onto the spotlight for long, but giving each sound a chance. It is the kind of sound no one could ever reproduce.

  He stands and places a hand on the tree. He feels its bark, the rough texture it has, and how his dry hands perceive the cracked, broken surface. He imagines that sound too. The bark gives off a low, coarse and grainy sound that harmonizes with the melody of the tree and wind, but never stepping into that spotlight the melody so freely gives away.

  Now, he steps away from the tree, and stares openly into the sky. His eyes drift shut and he extends his arms out to each side. Colors dance being his eyelids as the sun bears down upon him, filling him with an unknown warmth he openly receives.

  He turns his palms upwards, as if reaching out to the sky, wanting for something. In return, the sky drops a quiet rain on him, taking with it the warmth and colors the sun provided him.

  He stands still, letting his skin soak up the rain. Here, he places another sound, a soft shimmer full of high pitches and deep, low droning tones.

  With his eyes still closed and his arms outstretched, he lets the symphony he created resonate in his skull, cleansing his mind and letting him once more feel refreshed. All from the careful concert, delicately forged by the silence.