Lame traffic earring- part eight

I want you to stay here with me.
Even if it's only in this world, I'm alive, you get to see me all the time! that's better than the real world, isn't it?
I want to stay with you.

I want to give you a friend,

but not here.

But I don't think you'll ever understand that though.

 And I don't blame you.

He continued his rant, looking right at me.

His eyes were sad, but this time they had recognition.

Unlike the first time we'd met after he died.

And really, you're a human! You're alive, living, you have the opportunity to make friends, and live life. I don't! You'll never understand.

Maybe I can, I said, the words tasted like metal in my mouth.
If I die, maybe I can understand. If I become an apparition, like you.

The silence that followed was louder than any scream.

The moonlight from the hallway window seemed to vanish.

I meant it.

I would throw away my future, my life, my brother, my daikon friend,

just to stand on equal ground,

just to give him a real friend,

one who didn't have to walk away.

He stared at me, his sad eyes wide now, terrified.
"Kou, what are you saying?"

He finally used my name.

But it didn't matter anymore.

The choice Shijima (wonder number 4)gave me was a lie.

Stay here forever, or kill my friend.

I found my third option: change the rules.

Give up my humanity to make this fake life real.

I took two steps back from him,

my heart hammering a rhythm against my ribs.

I looked to the window, the glass reflecting a perfect, false blue sky.

Wait! Don't do it! He yelled, lunging for my sleeve.
But he was too slow.

I turned, shattered the glass with my fist,

and stepped into the blinding afternoon light,

embracing the fall,

embracing the silence,

hoping the bottom was a world where we could finally be friends.

But it wasn't.

He caught me.

A cold hand wrapped around my wrist,

and then the spectral manifestations of his power,

mirrors and black feathered wings, flared to life,

stopping my fall mid-air.

He was using his true nature,

as wonder number 3, just to stop me from being an idiot.

He hauled me back through the shattered window frame.

You can't be serious- I have no other option! I asked you to stay, not die!
His voice was raw, breaking.
It's either we stay here, you die, or I die.
And I know you can't die again, you coward.

It was harsh, the word hanging in the air like a knife,

when I saw the tears streaming down his face for me.

What else could he say?

What did I expect?

I tried to throw my life away, and he saved me,

proving his reality, proving that he cared,

more than the fake world ever could.