I Fell in Love with Hope - Lancali

the crystal.
“Hikari,” I say, effortlessly, as if her name was always mine to speak.
The moments she touched this watch, the moments she gave me,
and all the moments from here on that I want to give her seep from
the stock-still arrow. I turn back around and face my friends. My fist
closes around the gift, renouncing the line it drew. What’s left of the
rain washes it away.
“I want to save her too.”
real
My shoes smack the tiles of the hallways twisting into each other like
an elaborate labyrinth. Awkward bodied, I take turns like a drifting
car, C, Neo, and Sony on my tail. Sony cackles, breathless. C and
Neo snicker at the doctors yelling at us to stop. Weaving through this
place is second nature. Only now do I pay attention, not just to the
finish line, but to the scenery of the race.
I guess that’s what happens when you let yourself live for the first
time.
You notice the little details that used to be invisible behind the
blinders. And I may be a terrible runner, but there’s nothing like
chasing the sun after a storm.
“Eric!” we all yell. “Eric!”
He flinches at his name, looking in our direction with absolute terror.
“Hey! Slow down! Quit running!” We crowd him like dogs jumping on
an owner who’s just come home, all speaking at the same time, an
incoherent mess of adrenaline. Sony and Neo get grabbed by their
shirt collars while C is stopped by an outkicked foot. “What’s the
problem?! Who’s hurt?!”