I Fell in Love with Hope - Lancali

water’s surface, being pulled from the bottom of a pool. The road
fades out behind me, becoming an echo of gasps and angry drivers.
I land with my feet on the pavement, my body stumbling into
another’s.
Hikari’s face comes into view, as close to mine as it was last night.
She is as breathless as I am. She was running behind me. I fell into
the road, but she caught me. She saw the car, she reached for me,
she saved me.
The crowd goes on around us as if nothing’s happened. The traffic
resumes behind us.
She saved me.
Her pulse races beneath my palm. Her nose brushes mine, wisps of
her hair like fingers caressing my temples.
I feel her. Skin, rougher than I imagined, hilled and scarred, hot
beneath the surface. She touched me. The illusion is destroyed. The
glass wall made of our almosts is shattered.
She’s real, tangible, right there in front of me.
It makes me shudder.
“You’re okay,” Hikari says, “I’ve got you.”
“Let me go.” The words leave me before I can think of them. They’re
not spoken, they’re spat, bitten, aggressive. Hikari opens her eyes,
confusion strewn about the flares. I look at my feet, unable to look at
her.
“Let me go!” I yell, and this time, she does.
“Sam!” Sony. She sounds like she’s running. No, she can’t be
running. C is right behind her, Neo limping along with him. “Sam, are
you okay!?”