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Up above, the darkness of the sky breaks into a multitude of colors. Deep purples, blues, reds, lit faintly from behind by some unknown source. Noelle keeps trying to find patterns in the colors, to form an image, but anything she comes close to finding breaks away as soon as she manages it, lost in the dizzying array.
Still, it's something to do. Something to think about that isn't the situation, to distract her from her growing exhaustion.
She sighs, kicking her feet off the edge of the ledge she's on. Idly, she glances down the length of the cliff, seeing the massive lengths of white and black stone that make it up. It'd be funny for Kris to try and Rickroll her with this, she thinks.
Normally they would have tried, by now, or at least reacted somehow to the little church organ being transformed into the massive cliffs and the shining towers of a city above. Right?
Another thing she doesn't want to think about.
She looks up at the sky again instead.
"Hey," comes a voice behind her, and she nearly falls off the cliff then and there. "Can't sleep?"
"U-um," she replies eloquently. "I… I'm going to, I just… you know…"
"Nah, it's cool. Me neither." Before Noelle can react, Susie is settling down next to her, less than a foot away. "Sick view."
"...Yeah, it is." Noelle shakes her head, forces herself to relax. She's been with Susie all day. It's fine. "It's… kind of still amazing, really. How these places I know can change so much…"
"Yeah, I get it. Makes this dumb little town almost seem cool." Susie gives a hoarse laugh. "Still think we should've gone for Ice-e's, though. If we'd gotten stuck there overnight, we at least would have been able to, I dunno, eat the ground. Free food."
"Yeah, but… Ice-e would probably kill us all in our sleep." A pause. "Or Kris would make us think that was happening. Either way."
"I could take 'em." Susie grins.
"...yeah, you could." Noelle gives a little smile. "So, why are you still up?"
The grin fades. "Ugh, who knows. It's not like this is the worst spot I've camped, and the Keyes and Noutes ain't that bad, just annoying. Just… feels weird. Like trying to fall asleep in a dream or some shit. Can't get it to work."
"Yeah, I can see that." Noelle smiles wryly. "I just can't sleep anywhere but at home, and even that doesn't work half the time. I get all scared over nothing, nothing feels comfortable, I keep thinking I'm hearing things…"
She expects Susie to roll her eyes, but instead the other girl looks thoughtful. "Huh. That must suck." She tilts her head. "Anything help at all?"
"Um… Hot chocolate, when I was little, or chamomile tea now… Sound machines… Or, um…" She trails off, realizing where her thoughts are leading her.
"What's um?" Susie prompts.
"It's… dumb. Little kid stuff." Noelle shrugs.
"Dude, we're out here having magical adventures in fancy armor like it's Narnia without the talking lion who might be the Angel shit," Susie says flatly. "We're knee deep in little kid stuff and it rules."
Noelle giggles at that, smiling a bit more. "Well," she starts. "My… My sister. Dess." Saying the name comes easier than it has. "She used to sing me this old song, and it'd put me right to sleep. I don't remember most of the lyrics, but sometimes, well… I sing what I can remember to myself and it helps? A bit?"
Susie's expression has settled into something unreadable. "Can I hear?" she asks.
"Well, like I said, I only remember a tiny bit, mostly just the melody…" She clears her throat. Distantly, she hears the wind starting to pick up, pushing over the tops of the distant pipes and producing low almost-notes. "It starts with something like, when the light is running out…"
"Nothing left to cry about," echoes Susie, voice rough as ever but matching Noelle's notes surprisingly well.
Noelle stops, startled. "Susie?" she asks. "What was…" That wasn't the line, right?
"Oh, uh…" Susie rubs the back of her head, seeming flustered. "Figured if you didn't have the words, but you had the melody, we could just… make some shit up? Dumb as hell, I know. Should have asked."
"No, I…"
Noelle takes a moment to consider. Somewhere still she remembers Dess' strong voice, the strum of her guitar, the darkness that pulled her into sleep. She's held to those fragments for so long, trying to reconstruct a whole from them.
But that's been out of reach for a long time.
Here, now, under the shimmering sky, she sees a hint of a new image beginning to form.
"I like it," she says softly. "Do you mind if I start again?"
Susie shakes her head, still looking flustered, and Noelle smiles and starts to sing.
"When the light is running out…"
"Nothing left to cry about," Susie replies, more confident this time. She continues, faltering over a few of the words but pulling it together. "Nothing in your head but doubt, we're not gonna make it out…"
The melody has shifted a bit, but Noelle rallies, tries to piece together words remembered, words forgotten, words she never knew. "All the places that I know, are shadows as I start to grow. They're grainy like a picture show–"
"We're in the cold, that's all I know," Susie completes.
Noelle nods, smiling. Is it her imagination, or is the wind over the pipes overhead beginning to develop into something more melodic?
"A little light it says to me, take my hand, I'll set you free. There's nothing here that you can't see - don't worry, leave it all to me." The words are coming easier to her now, and she's surprised to find the things that she can say now that she'd never say anywhere else. This church, this grand place, the promises of an Angel that never came, of a way that never opened. All of it surrounds her. "But I already know the truth. It bites me like a rotten tooth–"
"They call us lucky for our youth," Susie adds, and Noelle hears the same bitter note that's in her own voice.
There's definitely something more going on now, something in the way the wind carries the melody, something in the keys of stone beneath them, because they find the next line together. "Because we get to watch them die–"
Noelle alone, no longer caring where it's coming from, sings out "Because I watch them walk away," and there's impossible guitar notes over the organ's melancholy–
"Because of how they look at you," Susie sings, and her voice may be harsh but every note is clear and strong–
"Because no one comes back to me," guitar and piano and hospital monitors beeping to a too-slow beat, "I know, I know…"
"That's not the truth," Susie interrupts. Noelle turns, looking at her, really seeing her, the gold of her eyes, the set of her jaw. The guitar quiets, the monitors dampen. When she keeps singing, it's just them, alone in the world. "You think that no one sees your spark. It's bright and silver in the dark…"
Noelle feels a flush on her cheeks, her nose. Her mouth opens, and she wants to squeak out some protest, but what comes out is something else. Something far truer. "Just promise me you'll leave a mark - just dig a hole inside my heart."
"I swear on friends we don't know yet," Susie replies, and it's a promise, it's written in the notes and the melody and the fabric of the world. "It's there, it's there–"
"Just don't forget," Noelle sings, speaks, begs.
"A fire only takes one spark."
She nods, feels the last of the magic pooling in her. With all the courage she has, she holds out a hand, in the space between them, and Susie takes it and holds it close.
She smiles.
"We'll stay together in the dark."
The final notes fade away. The cliffs are silent again.
"So, uh," Susie says at last. "...musical number, huh."
Noelle giggles. "I love this place," she announces. "You were really good!"
"Yeah, that was, y'know, Dark World shit. Don't expect me to perform like that again." Susie snorts, but her smile is pleased. "Don't do a lot of impromptu singing. I'm not a nerd."
"Sure, sure." Noelle scoots a little closer. Susie's hand is still in hers. "But… I like your version."
"It match up to the one you remember?"
"Nope! Not at all." Noelle takes a second, watching Susie's expression falter, then goes on. "It was better."
"You don't have to flatter me or whatever," Susie mumbles, looking away. "Besides, yours were the cool parts."
Noelle grins, squeezing that hand once. "Want to try again later?"
"...maybe, yeah."
Overhead, the shining sky begins to form new images, and the two sit together and watch.