10

Even as treacherous weeks passed, I couldn't stop thinking about the dead man. The familiarity I felt from seeing his twisted face and embroidered bracelet.

Nor could I stop myself from remembering the only person who had coloured my world in deep shades of sadness and bright yellows of joy. Each tiny sliver of hope I had felt those days were etched into the very fiber of my being, like a burning brandmark, still hot to the touch.

Had it been five years ago? Seven? Ten?

I couldn't remember.

Say, have you ever wanted so badly to grasp a memory, but no matter how hard you tried to, it kept slipping through your fimgertips? Teasing you with flashbacks but not quite letting you look back at precious, past times?

Well, that sums up the past days and weeks I had spent contemplating on the matter.

However, I had something.

---

The sun had gleamed through the leaves in high-standing trees, scorching the earth with it's insufferable heat.

That day had been like any other.

Various monsters swarmed the streets. Loud noises all across the camping area my parents had dragged me off to. They had sent me off to do things on my own.

Not that I had much to do, anyways.

I remember some parts vividly.

Hours spent lonesomely, finding solace in the shade under the swings by the cliffside, gazing down into the dark abyss of the sea below.

You had come that day. You had come to me.

There weren't any conversations needed. The moon cast a warm, comforting glow onto the quiet landscape, few stars illuminating the pitch-black sky.

You had sat down on the swing next to me.

I don't know what compelled me to speak that day.

Perhaps it was the silence that seemed unusually out of place. Or maybe it was the thickness of the air, which felt cool on my skin. Nonetheless, I had spoken to you first.

"I want to go there.", is what I had said.

You stayed quiet for a while, until you asked me:

"Far away?"

It was like we understood eachother perfectly, albeit our eyes betraying completely different emotions.

"Yes. Further than the camp. Further than home. Maybe even more than that."

"You won't get lost?"

I don't know why, but your every word struck a chord in me. Something out of tune, yet still with a nice sound. Unusual, but comforting.

"No. I want to leave. If I get lost, it doesn't matter."

"Why not?"

"Because I don't know where I want to go in the first place."

"Will you go as far as another land?"

We hadn't looked at eachother once during our exchange. But it was almost as if I knew you already. What you looked like, what you sounded like.. everything.

"The moon. I want to go there."

"Is that far?"

"Further than the stars."

We sat in silence. But then, something left your mouth that hung onto my heart.

"Let's go to the moon together."

"Together?", that was the first time I turned to look at you.

"The sun is too cruel. We have to shield eachother from it's warmth, don't we?"

You had looked at me, too.

"Why?"

"Don't you think our problems can be forgotten if we leave? Together."

"I don't know you."

"I know you. At least, it feels like I do.", you had murmured. Looking up at the moon. It's reflection in your eyes was pretty.

"But why would we go together?"

-----

Oh. Right.

Those words were the ones leading me on.

The true goal I had lived for was to meet you again, after all. Wasn't it?

You told me we would go to the moon. Together. So where are you now?

Why did you leave me that day, with no clue how to find you? I thought you had died.

So why, to this day, are you giving me hope that you're alive?

Why am I hoping that you haven't gone to the moon alone?

Well.. it's probably because..