ғᴀᴛᴀʟ || twi & shadow
Life was fragile. That, of course, was something that Shadow had always heard: Life was fragile, life was delicate; treasure it, lest it fly away. It was something that he had seen written on cards and been told many a time, but he'd never really thought much of it. He was young –– he was invincible. Of course, that is what everyone thought when they were young: Death wasn't for them, death happened to older people, people who had been around for ages, or someone else. It was never them, it was always someone else.
Of course, that was until it was the day that it was them.
All it took was one moment. Life was fragile; of course that is all that it took. Why should it take more than that? Something like life was delicate, easily broken and impossible to repair. It was just one mistake, just one wrong step, not looking one way –– and that was it. All it had taken was a moment of carelessness, of looking down when he should have been looking ahead of himself, and––
A squeal of tires, a dull thud: a sharp, searing pain, oh, his chest, it hurt, he couldn't breathe–– (The sky, how blue the sky was––) And then...
It was over. He was looking up at the sky, his head light: There was no more pain. He felt quite disoriented; what had happened? He couldn't remember; there had been what sounded like a squeal of tires, and then–– Then what? He couldn't hear anything at the moment, and all that he could see was the sky. (How blue it was today, how clear...) However, as the seconds passed, he started hearing a dull buzz on the very edge of his hearing –– voices. People were talking. Where had all the people come from? Why were they so close?
And then he started picking out the words.
"I didn't see him, he wasn't there–– It was an accident, I swear it was––"
"Someone call an ambulance, he's not moving...!"
Hands pushed Shadow upright, and he clambered to his feet, brow furrowing in confusion. Had someone been hurt? Why was he on the ground? He had just been–– Oh.
A quick glance around him served to answer his question (or, at least, some of them). He was–– On the ground, only he wasn't. He was standing in the middle of a crowd of people, but he was also on the ground. Or rather, his body was.
❝ Well shit. ❞ Had he died? Could anyone see him? No, apparently they couldn't; as he waved, trying to get people's attention, gazes slid right over him as if he wasn't there. No one acknowledged his presence; it was as if he didn't exist any more.
Naturally, this scared him. However, he couldn't do anything –– still, staring around the crowd, his gaze was drawn to one individual: A young man who appeared to be about his own age who had piercing blue eyes. (They were the colour of the sky, Shadow thought –– so very, very blue.) Something drew him towards this young man, though he did not know what. Still, who was he to resist? It wasn't as if he had to go anywhere. Apparently he was dead –– and no one could see him.
(What a lonely way to live.)
