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The door had shut. Susie had gone home, as she would put it. Kris stood, back turned to that closet door, string to a balloon clenched between their fingers. Their chest felt extremely tight, and they couldn’t seem to move an inch. The images of the day played through their head, the sight of Susie and Noelle in the lake engraved into their memory. It burned to remember it, to remember the words muttered between the two girls. Kris had just been sitting there, letting it happen, because of that soul, the soul in the balloon.
And they had just been standing there, shaking as their body felt weaker and weaker. Susie was setting up for Noelle. It was all for Noelle. That was Susie’s, and soon, it would be Noelle’s. Nothing of anything belonged to Kris, not really, anyway. Kris Dreemurr was just the kid who scared their friends. Kris Dreemurr didn’t feel things. Kris Dreemurr would just drag their body across the classroom, like a zombie, settling into a deep sleep before the lessons even began. Nobody knew Kris Dreemurr, and in turn, they knew nobody. No amount of darkness would change that.
So, of course, it was childish to believe a fantasy world of darkness would change anything. They had to have known better, anyway, with everything that had happened to them. Those fountains weren’t an escape into an alternate reality. They would destroy everything they ever loved… And yet, they had no choice but to keep diving in, swallowing down the waves until their voice no longer came out. And Susie, oh Susie, she would just keep going, taking what she needed, smiling as she made friends along the way. Kris was happy for her, they really were, but was it what they wanted?
How long, exactly, was Kris just staring at the ground? Was that orange glow from the outdoors growing dimmer and dimmer? For some reason, although Kris knew better, they didn’t walk towards the exit of the school. Instead, they took a deep breath, turning on their heels. They faced the closet door, tightening their grip on the string of the balloon. A hand reached out, anchoring itself over the doorknob that led to the castle town. Instead of opening it, Kris paused where they stood. It only took a few seconds, but they tied the balloon to the door, trapping the soul right outside of castle town.
When the door opened, Kris could already feel the darkness enveloping them. In full truth, they weren’t sure if they could safely plunge into the darkness without the soul inside of their body. Either way, they had to try… There wasn’t any time left to watch her anymore. Soon enough, she’d have flown away from Kris’s grasp, garnering wings and lifting up into the sky with no one by her side but Noelle. And yet, Kris stepped forward, falling into the castle town like it was home.
Instead of the usual camaraderie of Ralsei greeting them, Kris noticed the emptiness of the little town. Everybody had gone to sleep, hadn’t they? Kris was just standing outside for hours. Of course everyone would be asleep, away, not there to greet them. They grit their teeth, heading towards the castle with tense shoulders. The air was still. The town was quiet. The only light in such a dark place was the save points, but even those flickering lights were unable to be seen without the red heart in their chest.
Inside of Ralsei’s castle, it looked relatively the same as the last time they had been there. At the front of it, however, Susie had hung a banner for Noelle. It was a welcome sign, for her, for their love, for their friendship. Something bitter hit the back of Kris’s throat when they passed by it. And yet, they kept walking, past all of the rooms in that castle. That was, they kept walking until they were stopped in their tracks by a yellow door, a door for her. Something in their chest got tight as they stood there.
It hurt too much to stare at. It hurt too much to acknowledge. Kris’s vision began to blur the longer they kept it trained on the door. They needed to move, to look away. So, in a flash, Kris tripped over themselves and ran back towards the exit. Though, they stopped themself, stumbling the moment the purple came back into view. The purple door was the window to where they wished to be. Behind that purple door, their knight in shining armor awaited.
On the other side of the door, the room was dim. Kris barely poked their head in before their ears became aware of soft snoring. A quick look around would make them suddenly aware of just what they were staring at. There she was, the knight of Kris’s story, the girl, the second hero, the one who would save them, who did save them. She was sprawled out on her bed, asleep with her hair askew. Next to her bed, a small slice of pie was awaiting her return to the land of the lucid and awake.
Kris’s chest hammered, and they slowly stepped into the room. Their body mostly felt empty as it was, but for some reason, looking at Susie’s sleeping form, it felt as if their own soul began to form once more inside their empty chest. The bare feeling of nothingness slowly started to wilt, leaving place for the old warmth of feeling whole to grow again. Kris took another step forward, finding themself even closer to Susie’s bedside.
“I love you,” Kris muttered under their breath. Finally, they were right up next to Susie’s bed, standing just parallel to the slice of pie. “Please… I love you. I… I want you to love me too.” Their words were quiet, too quiet to hear.
Kris leaned closer, dipping their head down to get a closer look at Susie’s face. She was so unaware of the truth, of who Kris really was. It begged the question; was Susie friends with Kris, or was Susie friends with the so-called “angel” possessing them? Every small thing, even about the way they moved, the color of their eyes, it was changed and morphed by that being, by that foreign soul. All of those things, Susie knew them as how Kris always has been, because before that “angel”, Susie never noticed them, nor their staring.
Before they could stop themself, Kris crawled over Susie’s form and settled in between her body and the wall. Tears spilled from their eyes as they laid beside her. Every breath was like a reminder that she could never be theirs. And so, crying to sleep, in a Dark World, was exactly how Kris Dreemurr spent the night of the festival, wishing that Susie could be their king.