Unraveled Words

He could have sworn he was dreaming. He would have bet his life on it. Thankfully, no one had asked for that gamble because every time Ryan pinched himself, all he felt was pain.

“Hello?”

His voice echoed against the towering green walls surrounding the infinite road.

This is great.

Even his thoughts bounced back at him. He treaded carefully to the right wall, lifting his left hand to run his fingers over the impossibly smooth surface.

“Hey!”

A voice other than his own made the curious boy jump, tearing his hand away from the wall. He spun to face the owner of the voice, who he assumed was behind him, but was met with the same sight of an endless path and immense walls. He felt a tap on his shoulder and, as he jumped once again, heard a lilac laugh.

This time, Ryan turned slowly, making sure he was moving rather than imagining the scenery changing although he still wasn’t sure. Now standing in his original position, or so he assumed, he came face-to-hat with a short brunette whose face was dominated by purple eyes rimmed with the lightest layer of black, and he was glowing, a very light shade of purple surrounding him.

“Don’t touch the wall,” the new boy reprimanded, a frown on his lips. “It doesn’t like it.”

“The wall doesn’t like it?” Ryan questioned, eyeing the boy’s ringmaster suit with confusion.

“Don’t ask questions! Just follow me.”

“Who are you?”

“I just said, ‘Don’t ask questions!’” the boy smiled, showing white teeth and taking on a yellow hue. “I’m Brendon, and you’re Ryan.”

“How—”

“Ah!” Brendon exclaimed, pointing a gloved finger at Ryan severely. Ice blue flashed in front of Ryan’s eyes in a solid spiral. “No.” He waited for a moment before dropping his hand and turning yellow again. “Now follow me.”

If Ryan was seeing correctly, Brendon shimmered as he turned. He disappeared completely after a single step, only to reappear farther down the road with a stern expression that didn’t fit his now-golden eyes.

“Follow means to come with me, silly goose.”

Hesitantly, Ryan lifted his foot. As soon as he set it down, he was directly behind Brendon, his stomach having the same sensation as when in an elevator. Brendon’s lilac laugh filled his senses until they were surrounded by glowing flowers.

“How’s the stomach?” Brendon asked.

“Kind of like I just got punched,” Ryan replied. He felt himself being touched by curling black vines, eliciting a shriek of surprise that was cut off when he was pulled to the ground.

“Shush! You don’t want to wake the moon, do you?” the lilac boy berated, taking on a whisper of ice again.

“I guess not,” Ryan said, struggling to pull his right hand away from a particularly strong plant. He was losing, not to mention freaking out. “Um, these things won’t let me go.”

“They’re not things, they’re hugs.”

“They won’t let go!” he repeated, ending in another shriek as his left arm was tugged hard enough to force him onto his back. More ‘hugs’ wrapped around his torso, squeezing his ribs and making him squeak. Brendon laughed again and the grip weakened.

“You have to hug them back.”

“Hug the hugs.”

“Yes.”

Confused, Ryan frowned up at Brendon as he said, “But they have my arms.”

“You don’t hug with your arms!” the other boy exclaimed, eyebrows pulling together. “You hug with your voice.”

Yes, I’m definitely the crazy one here, Ryan thought.

“Laugh,” Brendon ordered. About to protest again, Ryan was quite surprised when a giggle escaped his lips, an embarrassing light pink. The vines loosened but didn’t fall away. Brendon grinned, canary yellow. “Again!”

After another rosy giggle, the hugs fell away, pulsating. Ryan thought that maybe they were happy, but they could just as easily have been mad. He was on his feet with only a thought, head spinning. Brendon watched the hugs with a hint of green in his eyes.

“They’ll be like that for the rest of the week now. Your giggle was too cute for them,” he said without inflection. He met Ryan’s eyes, the brown shade reminiscent of mud making him seem more somber. They morphed into gold again as Ryan watched, stunned into silence.

“Silly me, I forgot to introduce you. Ryan, this is Northern Downpour.” Brendon gestured to the entire colorful landscape. “Northern Downpour, this is Ryan.”

The light brightened and the air adopted a tingling quality that Ryan immediately associated with the hot white of static. It wasn’t unpleasant, and it wasn’t scary, but it was weird enough for Ryan to feel like he was about to faint, and faint he did.