Work Text:
—and all of a sudden, the apartment was empty. The house sighed, like it was taking the first breath it had in a long while. Creaked into the doorways, shifted its blinds to let the light in just right. The home wasn’t fearful, nor was it furious. It simply was, in the way many of the inanimate are.
Many of the lights were still on. The studio lamp in Grian’s room, the lantern candles lit in Joel’s. Jimmy was the only one who remembered to turn his off, the only one to think about the energy bill.
But the normalcy of routine was ruined, slightly, in the places where there should’ve been people. In place of Grian’s storm of sheets layered a bare, tidy bed. The closet drawers were jammed tightly, and even the dust was softly cleaned away, leaving alien surfaces in their place. Signs of guilt lay everywhere, a please-forgive-me and i-am-sorry. The most damning? A letter strewn on the desk, no return nor forward address, written in panic and forgetfulness (despite the life cleaned sterile from the bedroom itself).
In contrast, Scar’s room sat destroyed: ransacked closets and paper balls, plants knocked to the floor and pillows in the wrong places, the door left ajar and the doorway itself chipped, as if someone had knocked into it before hurrying on his way. On his desk, there lay in precision a sheet of paper. a try again and again at writing everything, everything, resignation in the 8x11.5 space— even before you’d see the single blank paper, written not anything, anything at all.
And then, if you’d walk out of his room or Grian’s, floorboards creaking and walls whispering, you’d see the stone-granite counters, kitchen sink left full. Vase knocked over, still rolling on its side, wilted poppies drifting petals and that beautiful sunlight winking at it, that dutiful sun falling from the sky. There were only flowers in the vase, before; no need to bring it outside, let it sit among the storm, capture the rainwater and unbroken vows.
There was no levity, no room for softness anymore; not even room for flowers, however many were left. No, all of a sudden there was only room for reality. All of a sudden, they’d grown up and left this house all by itself, not to be furious or fearful but simply be.
All of a sudden, and not a moment sooner, the apartment was empty.