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for as long as they could remember, it’s been just them.
them, in a stone temple.
of course, they knew what it was that they didn’t have. they knew of the outside. they didn’t know what it looked like, or sounded like, or smelled like, but they knew it was there. they knew they couldn’t touch each other, or anything of the opposing element for that matter. they didn’t know why.
they didn’t know what they were here for, exactly. they didn’t know how, or when, or even if they would get out.
each temple looked different.
sometimes it had ice. sometimes it had light. sometimes it had crystals.
but it always had one boy, with constant flames licking his whole body, and one girl, with constituents no different from that of the rain.
they always trusted, for some unknown reason, that they would be together again at the end of the steep stairs, the ones revealed once the doors had slid open.
watergirl liked to spend her time on those steps, her only time alone, wondering. she wondered, why am i here, how can i get out, why am i water, why is he fire?
fireboy liked to spend his time on those steps, his only time alone, imagining. he imagined what it would look like outside, he imagined what it would feel like to touch her hand, he imagined what it would feel like if he ever escaped the temples.
they both spent their time hoping.
it never lasted long, before the stairs ended and they entered the next temple. would they end up next to each other? or would they not be able to even see each other? would this room consist of obstacles requiring their utmost focus and determination to get past? or could they lazily jump through tiny pools, racing each other to the end?
you could say both of their lives were just big question marks.
she pushed the lever with great effort, hearing the loud noise of a bar sliding into the ceiling, warranting fireboy’s pass. watergirl learned some time ago not to be fooled by the shiny levers, not to be put under the impression that they’d be switched with ease. all of them were old, and all of them were rusted, and although it varied in difficulty, they always took more effort to push than one would assume from just looking at them.
she ran a little quicker, to catch up to fireboy, before leaping onto a ledge and wading through a pool of water. at the other end of it, already waiting at his opened door, was fireboy. they shared a smile, before watergirl jumped onto a platform above him, to her own door.
“ready?” he called out.
“yeah,” she replied, looking back on the temple.
she did that every time, knowing she’d never again see one just like it.
she heard fireboy’s first footstep echo through the passage just as her own touched down on the steps.
it was dark, but the soft glow emitting from her body allowed her to see enough.
after a bit, she became confused, because at this point she would have surely seen the square of light that was the entrance to the next temple at the top of the passage. but she did not. she banged on the stairs a few times to fireboy, who replied back with a few pounds of his own fist, confirming his presence below her still.
eventually the ground flattened, and her glow suddenly became ten times as bright. she could tell she was back in a temple, but it was pitch black outside of the sphere of light she gave out. “hey, can you see anything?” her voice echoed.
“barely.”
she moved forward a little bit, and stepped onto slightly raised ground, permitting her to see further. “it’s a maze, i think.”
she had a vague memory, or even a few, of this happening before.
far away, on the opposite corner of the temple, thinking very similar thoughts, was fireboy, taking a tentative step forward. he didn’t like the dark, and even though his flames gave off a radiant glow, he wanted more than anything to just sit down in a corner, and stay. he supposed he could, nobody was waiting for them.
regardless, he placed one foot in front of the other, and his surrounding glow moved with him.
he had always felt slightly inferior to watergirl, somehow. he knew fire burned and water raged with the same voracity, but it was something about the way she leapt so gracefully above flames, or her confidence with every step she took. he never knew why he wasn’t the same. it had only been he and she since the beginning of their consciousness.
sometimes, he pretended he was the very same. he liked to believe that if he pretended hard enough, it would just be true. after all, how can one be superior in a game with no end?
a dirty wall came into the light. the boy hopped over it, landing cleanly on the other side, only to find another one, which he cleared as well. then, a fork in his path appeared, splitting it into two. he could go forward, or up. long ago, he and watergirl decided they would always take the lowest or leftmost path in a fork, so they could keep track of what they had tried. so he continued forward.
he came upon a narrow tunnel to the ceiling, with small ledges for him to hop upon on either side. he leapt up onto the first, and then onto the second before he could slide off. up and up he went, and finally there were no more. he walked along the wall.
he often found himself alone with his thoughts, miles away, when he reached his doorway. it helped him with his fear, as he couldn’t be afraid if he was barely aware of his surroundings. and away his mind went, as it always did. fireboy could rarely remember the temples once he left them behind.
eventually, he noticed another bright glow entering his view. watergirl.
“you ready?” she said. she was already at her door.
“always.”
his door was on just to the right of hers. he walked past her and both doors slid open as soon as his foot fell in front of the doorway.
the steps always made him nervous. he figured it’d hurt if he fell backwards. he’d tumble all the way down. he’d hit his head on the door.
i think the boy and girl were often sad. i think they were sad because it was just so repetitive. occasionally they’d take breaks. that’s when they talked. that’s how they knew each other. they talked about the outside. they made up stories about this world they’d never seen. sometimes they’d cry together. sometimes they’d sit together, enjoying the silence, because that just might be the best part of having a friend. it was those times that they’d feel happiest.
they wished that they could sit there forever. it would be so nice. at least compared to the constant running and jumping and climbing and wondering.
one time they talked about sitting there forever. they really didn’t enjoy running through the temple. they wanted more than anything to escape the stone prison.
they wanted to escape. but what if they were only halfway there? what if they were even further away than that? fireboy and watergirl didn’t want to keep running. they just wanted to sit down. they wanted to sit and tell stories and cry and sleep forever.
what if that temple they decided to stay in was the very last one. what if the only flight of stairs they never climbed were the ones that led outside.
if only you could make progress by standing still.
i think they’d only ever keep going because of the sheer terror that they’d quit too soon.
and i think they’d only ever stop because of sheer terror that they’d never make it out.