Faolán had a nightmare once. He had lost his skin. It had tangled in the corner of something pointy and ripped from his flesh revealing his bare insides. The awful colors and viscous texture of nasty guts. He was conscious of how the people who could catch a glimpse of his true being could react. He was sure it wouldn't matter. At the end, only a glimpse of his golden eyes, could turn them into his personal bitches. The thin layer of pure desire that covered his body was enough to make up for a mediocre soul and insecure self.
But he wondered, if the people that he so diligently had nourished and chased with his heart in his hands, mind his simple sad self.
On a day like any other, inside a reality where their lives were as influential as a child's scream, the beginning of the end took place. The witch had gouged Faolán's eyes out.
The boys had taken him to the Ravinia house. On the second floor where the lady bird had bandaged him, he sat in complete silence. Warmth from the sun coming in through the window painted a shadow against a green wall covered in vines. His puppet leaned against a corner not even pretending to breathe. The birds were unusually absent as were the bees roaming above Faolán's head. There was nothing. He ached in silence, hiding in plain sight.
Cirrus opened the door without knocking and widened his chest with the last of fresh air before entering that unusually cold room. He stomped his way to Faolan's face and slowly let out of the air. "We'll be our way home by tomorrow morning." He clenched his teeth and turned to the door where the puppet was now standing.
"Is that what you think I want to hear?"
He swallowed loudly fixed on Faolán's legs with the crown of his head tilting towards the one incapable of discern.
"Take responsibility." Faolán said under his breath. Cirrus' eyes widened. Cirrus wondered if those were words he could take lightly. "I will." Cirrus responded and abandoned the room.
''I'll go find-" "Stay here" Faolán interrupted the doll. "The birds seem to b-" Shut up" Faolán interrupted. The doll walked towards Faolán, who remained by the window. He leaned towards his face and with his tongue caressed his shut off eye lids. Faolán irked. "If I can be of any hel-" "STOP SPEAKING!" Faolán snapped. The doll pressed his lips and slowly lifted his body from the floor. He walked towards the corner of the room as he had before and remained silent.
Faolán's eyelids fluttered, he was way too conscious of the emptiness within himself. Not his missing eyeballs but everything else, he was now the shell of what he considered to be himself. The usual noise that came with his presence. The pecks on the window, the buzzing of the bees, the scratches, the humming, the squeals, all of it was gone. It reminded him of the ruins of what was once a church.
"When I return, would the people that loved me, love me once more? Would it be strange to miss something that never existed?"
He chuckled. "Well, at least they have the shell of something. Better than nothing." His lips rested from the forced display of nonchalance. He lifted his face and turned around looking for the doll. "I really can't see you at all. It's weird because I know you are here. The doll only rested his forehead against the vines. He wondered inside his own head. He aimed to be a reliable partner, but he was a nuisance, and he was disliked by him. He wondered if there was a reason for it beyond the nature of his existence.
Daelan crawled in through the window with a seemingly exhausted demeanor. "Theres a bunch of drama going on down there" Daelan said fixing his hair and wiping the sweat off his face.
Faolán shook his head in instinct, hiding the remains of the accident with his hair. Daelan reached with his hand for Faolan's face, lifting it by his chin. "Thats a nasty look you have." Faolán slapped Daelan's hand off his face. "What do you want?" "Nothing, I just thought you'd be lonely. What's that thing doing in the corner, ominous as shit." "Hmmm." Faolán let out a sigh.
Faolán hoisted his weight from the chair in direction to the bed; the sun had begun to bother his skin. "Aren't you curious of what they are saying?" "Not at all." Faolán responded. Daelan held his hand and pulled him on the bed's direction. "Do you want to go out for a walk?" Faolán clicked his tongue. "Stop playing around." "Aye, you are very irritable ever since that bitch borrowed your eyes." If he had eyes, he would have rolled them real hard.
"You know I'll never let you fall, wherever you place your feet, I'll make sure there is floor." Faolan thought that was a romantic thing to say. The doll observed in awe how Faolán had truthfully lifted the corners of his lips.
Hours before, they sat around a fire. Stolas had approached them saying; "Are any of you curious of how I met Cirrus, truth is the story is actually very cool."