Chapter Text
Artificial lights flickered in a dark and unkempt room, seemingly haven been thrown into chaos a while back and never cleaned up.
Seven flowers stood there, two sharing one case.
A small anime doll was leaning against the one with the damaged flower.
They were showing signs of starting to wilt.
A music box was playing, a fragile and soothing tune.
One of a distant lullaby to put children to sleep.
But there wasn’t anyone to lull to sleep anymore, the dream had ended, their dreams had ended.
The cyan flower swayed from side to side.
Some would say its the wind or that its stem is growing weak, others would say its brimming with energy, contained and making a last attempt at movement.
The purple flower is still as a mouse, unmoving and drooping down at its petals.
Some would say it’s simply trying to reach the light, others would say it’s shrinking in on itself as every tactic they made to avoid this was impossible from the very start.
The orange flower had already leaned against the glass, sliding down further and further.
Some would say its stem had become devoid of enough water to keep it sturdy, others would say it was finally admitting its fear in the face of death.
The green flower lost all if not most of its colour while standing there.
Some would say the light was too harsh for the amount it could absorb, others would say it wants anything but to watch the others go before them.
The yellow and blue flowers were tangled together, their roots stuck in dry soil.
Some would say they didn’t have enough room and that there wasn’t enough water for the two of them, others would say they’re holding on to each other one last time as if it’d stop any of this from happening.
The golden flowers bloom had entirely wilted and partially fallen apart, the stem was already discoloring as well.
Some would say the damage done to it was too great to heal, others would say no one came in time to help it.
The pink doll was slumped against the case of the golden one.
Some would say it was left there half hazardly, others would say she was grieving the only place acceptance found her.
The light flickered off, plunging the room into darkness where you could barely see any objects.
There was a soft click.
Dark. Darker yet darker.
The darkness kept growing and infecting.
From smoke to water to something frozen plunging deep into the ground.
Aqua opened her eyes, once, twice, thrice.
Woah. She has eyes.
Aqua jumped up and laughed, wow! She had eyes again!
She could play again! She could dream again!
“Uehehehe!”
Aqua spun around and jumped from left to right to left to right to walls to roof to whatever surface available.
She looked left and right, she was at the flower castle! Wow! Home! Home!
It was darker than usual but it’s ‘home’ it’s supposed to be ‘home’!
It was quiet though, there was no one there.
Aqua let petals surround her and lifted herself off the ground, dashing forward and heading down the hall.
With Aqua’s weightless manoeuvres she tried to quickly navigate the castle towards the central area, before hitting a hall with a soft jingle.
Aqua giggled, slamming herself into the wall again, bounce…
She went the wrong way! She thought she knew this place like the back of her foot or whatever Seth used to say, but maybe this is all a jumble game!
She likes games.
She should find her friends and ask to join in the game, it’ll be loads of fun!
Aqua zips into another direction, navigating the jumbled rooms and twisting corridors, bouncing between walls whenever she hit a dead end before flying off in some other direction.
It took a good few minutes to get to the centre of the castle between the cafe and the sandy sand patches.
Near the sand patches entrance stood Seth.
Seth? Seth! Seth, it was Seth!
Aqua dove down to slam herself against Seth’s chest.
“Uehehe! Hi Seth! Hi! Hello!”
She hugged Seth tightly, as tightly as she could, it felt nice to hug people again, she should hug everyone real tight.
Seth made a high pitched sound, parts of them felt hard, like rock, oooh why were they turning gray? Are they trying new clothes? Aqua wants to try new clothes!
“Aqua.”
Seth grabbed Aqua’s shoulders, were they smiling? Oooo! They were smiling! Why were they happy?
“I need to tell you something important, okay?”
“Uuuu? Is this about a game? Is this about the game you were playing?”
Aqua leaned in a little. Why was the grey spreading?
“Wha- uhm. yes. Yes this is about a game, we’re all playing a fun surprising game. To surprise you.”
Seth poked Aqua’s chest.
“We're all going to be very still, and go grey, you’re going to have to find us and bring us together. Then, when we’re all here, we’re going to wake up and we can play a lot after too.”
“Really? Really?”
Aqua jumped around, a game! A game just for her! How fun! She wants to play!
“Okay, okay! Uuuu! I’ll get everyone super fastly!”
Seth nodded, grasping their notebook.
“Good luck, Aqua.”
Seth barely finished their sentence before Aqua bolted off again, checking the Cafe first, Green wasn’t there, so Aqua went up, Green was mid-motion, seemingly petting a Netskie statue in their lap.
Silly Green! That’s a statue, you can’t pet a statue, despite that, Green wouldn’t let go of it!
So Aqua dragged Green and the statue towards Seth, Seth had turned completely gray as well.
Oooo! The game is in full swing!
Aqua bolted off, collecting all of the flowers in their own spots, but some of the flowers were so silly!
When you hide you hide alone so the seeker doesn’t find all of you at once, but some were hidden together!
Yellow and Blue were mid-dance, it’s as if we’re putting on a show to say something, but Aqua has no idea what it’s about!
Pink and Orange were also together, hugging, how cute! Was it to get ready to hug everyone else when they were found? That’s silly! Silly silly silly! Everyone was so silly today!
The last person Aqua found was Flowery, he was hidden best but plainly, so plainly! He was on the roof looking at where there was once a sunset, it was all dark out.
Dark and watery with something moving in the distance.
Flowery was weird, he was grabbing onto his own stomach and leaning onto a stick, was he trying to look old?
Was being old a fun game?
Aqua brought him to the others either way, he wasn’t answering her anyways.
She almost dropped down the vine leading to the big middle room! Which was weird, she stopped being able to fly all of the sudden as her body started to go grey and heavy.
Was this part of the game?
Aqua lined them up real nice and proper, Seth would like that.
Aqua waited.
Waited.
Waited.
And waited.
And waited.
And. . .
Waited. . ?
Aqua sat down in front of Seth, poking them.
“Uuu, do I have to do something else, I won right?”
Aqua kept poking, and then shaking. And then shaking harder and harder.
“Wake up. . . Wake up! Everyone’s here, that’s how I win right? I don’t get it!”
Aqua felt an empty pit grow in her stomach, deeper and deeper, something was welling up in her eyes.
She shook as hard as she could, her arms getting tired and numb and hard to move.
“What if I lose, what if I admit I lose? Uuuu… the game is over! So now you have to stop and wake up, it's not! . .”
“. . . It’s not. .”
Aqua felt tired, so tired and stiff, they curled up in front of Seth’s statue.
“Not fun anymore.”
Silence answered her. There was no one.
She curled up as tightly as possible and squeezed her eyes shut, it was all wet now, and bad, and sick, she felt sick, like the world was revolving around her when she just wanted it to stop.
“I don’t want to play anymore…”
. . .
Silence embraced her, deep and motionless silence, she felt like she was being tossed around by the water of the bath house when yellow jumped in.
But constantly and rhythmically and without all the stuff that made it fun.
. . .
A hand was placed onto Aqua’s head, snapping her back into a reality that was more solid.
[*Oh flower, poor flower, what made you so sad, my little flower?]
Aqua opened her eyes, looking up, it was a person, a red person, poorly drawn with crayons, no other colour than red, but they had a white coat. Like pictures of a doctor.
“Uuuu… is this what being sad feels like. . ?”
[*Yes my little dear.]
The figure wiped away some of the liquid on Aqua’s face.
[*These are tears, tears are sad, sad is bad. So what has you so upset, you can trust me.]
Aqua sniffled, Aqua curls further in on herself.
“My family won’t wake up. . . Uuuu this is the first time losing a game was bad. . .”
[*Oh dear.]
The figure gently started patting Aqua’s head like a cat.
[*That does sound super scary and upsetting, oh dear little child, do you want me to help you with your dreams?]
“Dreams? Our dreams? Uuuu… Do you know our dreams?”
Aqua sat upwards, staring at the stranger.
[*Of course I do, after all I have a teensy little secret.]
The figure boops Aqua on the nose.
[*Can you keep it?]
Aqua nodded violently, drawing an amused laugh out of the entity.
[*You see I am an angel, and you’ve gotten quite a friend within me little one, so what do you say? Do you accept my help?]
Aqua let out a gasp, angel? The angel? Multiple angels? The one from that story Aqua barely listened to? That angel? Woah!
“Uuu, yes, yes! I wanna win this game!”
The angel nodded and opened their hand in front of Aqua’s chest.
[*You’ll have to do a lot of it yourself, but I can give you the possibility the light brings. I can bestow you freedom and the ability to share it with your family if you play the game right.]
“Uuuu! I like playing games! I won’t lose again!”
Aqua took the angel's hand, there was a sharp ache in her chest.
And the world went black again.
Then
This world
Was covered
In darkness