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Flux walked down the crowded street, his gaze fixed on the ground and his hands shoved into his hoodie pockets as a cool breeze swept through the city streets. He had his wired earbuds turned up just loud enough to block out the noises of the city, isolating himself into his own little bubble. Above him, the sky was covered in clouds, blocking all sunlight from reaching him.
Recently, he had begun feeling a strange sense of longing. It was as if he were searching for something he had lost long ago, but he couldn’t remember what it was no matter how much he tried. He couldn’t pinpoint exactly where this feeling had come from, as nothing abnormal had recently happened in his life.
Though now that he thought about it, he remembered that he did have a weird dream a few weeks ago.
The specific events of that dream were blurry as all dreams were. He vaguely recalls an endless backdrop of sunflowers bleeding into the bright blue cloudless sky. But while the landscape itself faded like ink that spent too long in the sun, one detail was etched into his memory. Standing in the middle of those plains was a boy dressed in white from head to toe. Flux had trouble gaslighting himself into believing the entire dream was no more than a trick his mind was playing on him.
The wind blew the clouds north, moving them out of the way of the sun. Rays of sunshine leaked through, flooding color back into the gloomy city and casting warmth onto the back of his head.
He adjusted his sling bag to sit more comfortably on his shoulder, heading towards a busy crosswalk. He came to a stop at the red light, waiting with the strangers around him at the curb. His gaze wandered, sweeping across the crowd on the other side of the street.
His world came to a sudden halt.
Right in the middle of the packed sidewalk, there was a figure that didn't seem to belong to the bustling streets at all.
The stranger was slouched slightly, his hands tucked into the pockets of his zipped jacket, standing in the very center of the cluster of pedestrians, yet he stuck out like a sore thumb. He had pale skin and hair as white as snow falling in soft strands over his face, catching light from the newly uncovered sunlight.
Flux’s breath caught in his throat. There was something so breathtaking and familiar about the stranger that he felt drawn to, making him physically rub his eyes to make sure he wasn’t a hallucination of an angel that belonged anywhere else but this world.
He came to a sudden realization.
It was him.
The blurry fragments from his dream came rushing back to Flux, the mysterious boy in white had somehow materialized and was standing right across the street.
As if sensing the weight of Flux’s gaze, the white haired man slowly tilted his head up, navigating through the sea of people around him before looking straight onto Flux.
The moment their eyes met, their world around them seemed to fade.
A sudden blinding flash of white light bled into his vision, and the noises of the city dissolved into nothingness. He found himself in a completely different place, the concrete beneath his feet replaced by sand. An agonising pain flooded his body as he was impaled through the chest. The wielder of the weapon being none other than the white figure himself, looking down at him with a face full of sympathy and longing.
A pang of overwhelming guilt hit Flux before he could process it, the reasoning a memory he couldn't quite grasp. He came to the suffocating realization that he was the reason for the tragic expression on the angelic boy's face before the memories started flooding back all at once.
He realized he had traded his best friend’s trust for a risky and fragile sense of peace, blindly believing his security measures would protect the people he cared about. But in the end, he had caused more destruction to his own home than anyone else.
Looking into the eyes of the white haired boy staring sorrowfully at him, he felt an apology on his tongue that he couldn't get out of him. He felt a warm embrace, arms wrapping around him as his legs gave out. The two collapsed onto the floor together, the other refusing to let Flux hit the ground alone.
The agony in his chest began to dull, replaced by a hollow coldness that nearly made him miss the feeling of pain, his breaths coming in short, shallow, gasps as life slowly drained out of him.
He looked up, drained of all the stubborn pride that ruined them both as he forced himself to say something with the last bit of energy left in him.
“I really messed up, didn't I?" Flux whispered, his voice shaky.
Hot tears were starting to spill from the other boy, who was holding on to him as if it would stop him from bleeding out any slower. “Yeah, you really did.”
Flux managed a soft, bittersweet smile. “I’m sorry.”
He could faintly hear the voice of someone talking to him as his senses grew unfocused and faded away. He could barely make out a blur of white leaning over him before he closed his eyes and let the void consume him, his world fading into nothing.
Flux snapped back to reality, a cold sweat drenching the back of his neck. He was still staring at the white figure a cross from him, the streetlight still a stubborn red.
He thinks he just zoned out, but there was something that he couldn't grasp, so close to him but never close enough. He spent so long trying to fill the gaps in his memory he swore he had only to come up empty handed.
The walk signal finally chirped, signalling that the light had turned green. They both stepped off their sides of the streets, following the current of the crowd trying to get to the other side, heading towards each other. The distance between them shrank meter by meter as they approached one another, stopping inches apart.
The white haired boy looked down at him, a small smile on his lips as he leaned closer, extending his hand out to Flux, his voice achingly familiar.
“Hey, my name is Saps. Nice to meet you.”