#promptexcercise

[fleurdots]

As he opened the car door, there was a loud

siren, wailing in the quiet of an open road. Was it a siren? No, they were horns. They rung in his eardrums, sound intensifying as it came closer. It was excruciating. There were head lights ever so blinding. Why would they turn it up this high?

He knew for a fact that he didn't want to be with Renjun in that car. He was bitter about him, alright. He was sick of him to some degree that got him off the driver's seat, swinging the door open. They pulled over in a place he doesn't remember. Stars out, a field in the small town. A typical place where they would talk and make love. The sirens have mellowed down to... beeping. A monitor beeping. Pain piercing right through his skull, targeting its core. Whatever creature that was causing him this stupid migraine must be so pleased it found the said core.

The air smelled too clean. What happened to the cows? Did they figure out their ability to excrete extremely malodorous fecal matter and became insecure of the smell? But there weren't any cows, and there weren't any fields or stars either.

All Jaemin saw were bright, white lights. Then he noticed white linen curtains swaying gently. He must be in heaven. Heaven was freezing, that's for sure. Laying on his back, he registered that he could be on either one of two things: his coffin, or his bed. He reached for the blanket that lay over him, and realized that indeed, he was on a bed, not a coffin.

A small bodily movement had awoken pain all over his body again. His head was throbbing, his skin stung with cuts and his bones did not feel quite right.

"Open your eyes, Jaemin. Please?"

Whose honeyed voice was that? It was almost as if he could taste it, except it sung out to him. Blonde locks glowing and small lips, soft and crimson. Was this an angel of the pilgrims? A Botticelli angel who came to life, perhaps? Must he be the key to some splendid castle in the sky?

"God dammit, Jaemin. I thought I lost you."

Well, God wouldn't like that, Jaemin thought. He groaned, wincing until he had perfectly adjusted his vison.

"I thought.. I thought I was in heaven... I couldn't think of anything I did to deserve being there."

Renjun dragged a stool and sat as close to Jaemin as possible, nuzzling into his shoulder. Because of the cervical collar around his neck, he couldn't shift to take another good look at the boy. He had one light arm splayed out over Jaemin's chest like a limp embrace. Jaemin managed a small smile, but in his chest he was far happier, far more relieved.

It wasn't Renjun who was in pieces. That's good.

"It's too early to go there, Jaem."

"I thought you... were my angel or something."

Renjun scoffed.

"I'm— ow..." Jaemin wheezed as Renjun shifted on his fractured body. "Still not wrong about that."

"I don't want to argue about anything anymore, please.'' Renjun whined.

"It's not up for debate."

The smaller boy laughs, tilting his head up as if to hold back tears.

The place falls quiet again. Jaemin doesn't wonder where the bitterness in his chest had gone. The feeling that had been imprisoned in his ribcage must've broken out, both figuratively and literally.

"I'm so, so sorry."

"Renjun."

"I mean it and you need to hear that from me. If I hadn't persisted you wouldn't have almost died!"

"Renjun, stop."

Renjun's lips sink into a frown, his face crestfallen with guilt.

"You must hate me."

"No, angel. Not ever."

[fleurdots]

She felt for the lock in the dark.

There were multiple key holes. This place was incomprehensible. She was searching for the one she knew, the one with a shape as familiar to her as the back of her hand. Her vision was black. It drove her crazy to live in a moment of void for more than five minutes. She wasn't particularly dying where she was. There was no time limit, and her life wasn't at stake. But she was lost, and that feeling alone was like a warning for Consequences. She searched over and over again.

She didn't have a key, no. And yet she was still searching, like unlocking something was her obligation, and that she must get through a door before a Consequence comes and gets her. She was a Dreamer, for goodness' sake! Aren't Dreamers supposed to be able to see in the dark? Maybe she didn't know what that meant, but she had thought it impractical for peoples alike herself to calculate, to search for a fixed principle that could get her out, like the Scientists would.

But the hourglass was illusory.