There’s no answer. He’s gone, too.
I go to the house and feel the wall of water. There is no space in there. I turn aside, my shoulders slumping.
Alone again.
Is this what it’s going to feel like? I wrap my arms around myself, shivering as I walk with my wet clothes until I find a road. I walk along the edge of it, trying to make sure I use the side where it turns to dirt to keep me walking in a fairly straight line.
“I can do it. I can make it here.”
A truck horn screams, and I bolt, heading away from the city, towards the only thing that feels like home. A massive park. I find the thickest, most scary tree, climb up in it, and wrap my arms around myself.
It wasn’t supposed to be like this.
What happened?
I drift into a light doze. The sky rumbles and rain pours down. Even hidden in the canopy, I’m still getting saturated.
I let out a soft sound, imitating the song I heard Brio sing the other day. It’s such a pretty melody. It distracts me for a long time, long enough that I don’t realise there’s someone beneath my tree.
“Who’s there?” I whisper defensively.
For a moment, I think it might be Deux.
But then his voice comes through, loud and sardonic.
“You’re singing my song.”
“It’s a song, it doesn’t belong to you, Brio.”
“You have a beautiful voice, Mei.”
I don’t want to talk about voices or otherwise. I’m angry with them. With him.
“You all left me alone.”
“We did, because we were trying to find somewhere that would allow us to live in a home where that demon can’t just walk in and out of all the time.”
“You didn’t say that, you just dragged me out to drown me!” I snarl.
“We’re not going to drown you, Mei. Not anymore,” Brio says and then starts climbing the tree.
“You’ll fall, and I’ll laugh,” I warn him.
“I won’t fall.”
“You might. I will laugh really, really hard.” I shift back, making room, my fingers biting into the tree trunk. My stomach flutters, and I have this urge to both smile and run away.
“You are cruel.”
He gets closer and closer. He finally stops with his breath fanning my face.
“When did you learn to sing?”
“I can’t sing,” I protest.
Brio touches my throat and rubs the sensitive skin with his thumb. “Yes, you can, and furthermore, you are incredible.”
I snarl, trying to get more room to get some space between us, but that just shifts me closer to him. Brio reaches out and taps my chin.
