Retrograde

in the aftermath of anguish, i find you.

Prologue

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When Hinata wakes up, the air in her lungs have long turned into water, and she is alone.

(I will always come back to you.)

The branch seal on her forehead is half-way done, after forty-eight hours of the needed ritual; splotches of blood decorate the wooden floorboards, a basin of hot water sits to her right. The night a heavy grey outside her window, the constellations forming a future she could not read.

Hinata sits up. Uses her hands to propel herself to stand, steadies herself, breathes.

She finds that something thicker than water has somehow lodged itself in the linings of her lungs, and she can't breathe. There is a constant noise in the back of her head, garbled words in vague echoes of a voice she has never known. The air feels hot and stuffy, like a fault was left unattended in the room to simmer into a grudge.

She moves towards the door that leads outside. Opens it and shuts it behind her. Feels the cool night breeze brush against her face.

Her eyes now see an endless expanse of green and grey, with tufts of white as clouds drifitng along the horizon. The four corners of the sealing room no longer close her in.

But the cage feels tighter than ever.

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edited: 9/23/15