What she had been doing and where she might have been heading slipped from her mind as soon as she heard it. Mikey’s voice. At first she thought it was a trick – it had been happening to her since she got down here. With so many others taking refuge in the caves, she thought she heard Mikey, Kahlua and Sasha a thousand times. Even Aurelia once, in the voice she used to have before..
It wasn’t until she heard it again that she knew that this time she was not imagining things. This time it was real. “Mikey?!” His voice echoed down into the caverns below, calling from the surface. Something about it made her skin crawl but she banished those thoughts as soon as they crossed her mind. Maybe he was all right after all! Hope came so naturally to her – it flooded through her as a bright smile lit up those emerald eyes. She could do this, her mind flew ahead of her to tomorrow where everyone would be back and safe, where they would wake and find that they had been tested and everything was sunny once more.
Hope was so easy. So much easier than sadness, which clung to her as unnaturally as if she was wearing someone else’s skin. She was built for happier times.
Even though there had been clear pain and fear in his voice, it didn’t matter in those first moments. He was there and anything else they could deal with.
With some difficulty she managed to race up the slope that led back to the world, or what was left of it, but as soon as she spotted him she stumbled and skidded to a halt just on the lip of the entrance to the caverns below. “Oh no Mikey.” came the whisper, her smile shattering as she looked at what was left of her dearest friend in the entire world. Sharp bones pushed against his skin and there was nothing of the colour and brightness that she knew and loved so well. First Aurelia, now him. There had to be something she could do. She wanted to go to him, to comfort him, but she could not will her legs to move more than a shaky step.
She had to be careful, she knew. She may not have anyone relying on her but she refused to waste Resplendence’s warnings, not again. Not when the last time she had tried to take a stand had resulted in… this. “I’m... I'm so sorry.” Still she could not make her voice go any louder as she trembled. He had leapt in front of them, he had wanted her to leave, but that knowledge did not make the fact that she had any easier to bear.
They had run, they had left him. It was her fault, always her fault.
But even though he looked different, he was still her friend – wasn’t he? Those emerald eyes glossed over as the tears already threatened to come. It wouldn’t be the first time today, though she usually made sure she was alone before giving in. But the caverns often echoed with the crying of at least one other in the darkness. So much was lost – she didn’t even understand how much.
Though she had wished for Sasha often, selfishly, to comfort her – she was happy he was gone, that he and his brother had been spared from whatever this was.
Her mind so often went to that black, absent stallion. But there was another that demanded her attention now. Words came pouring out of her of their own accord; “Are you... What can I do?” Her leg lifted as though she was going to take another step forward but she couldn’t. “We’ll find a way to heal you, I promise. I can find someone to help.” There had to be someone.
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[P] when you feel my heat, look into my eyes [Alysanne]
