Silence is our Companionship

By Jazzmin Masters

Stars shone as sugar spilt over black marble, glistening in the moonlight. It was the promise of life in the darkness, a sense of warmth springing from the cold. The night sky is how Usugo came wishing to fly. It was the most beautiful art, alive with raw energy, a song for the eyes.
Intergalactic communities hidden behind remnants of shimmering glass. The constellations, who'd witnessed centuries and millennia just the same, watched over this tiny moment. The stars, like twinkling doors, protected the endless possibilities and universes behind their threshold. There are an infinite number of universes where every possibility is played out. But there can be similarities and differences between the alternate timelines in that multiverse.
He reached his hand toward the moon that sailed in the cloudless, sable sea, spreading his fingers as his palm swallowed the starlight; the light between his fingers began moving like a chorus, and then slowly, delicately, the tiny specks of light floating above him began multiplying. They flew above him, mimicking unfelt currents that could have easily consumed him. He opened his eyes a little more, and that’s when he saw them: the descendants of the stars. Fireflies danced in a heady swarm of light. Usugo could feel himself streaming alongside their illuminated tides. His eyes are drawn heaven-bound as he continues reaching. If he reached far enough, would the black canopy consume him whole alongside the stars? Would the fireflies become his curator and recreate him into their image?
If the suns devoured him, would he too be reborn with wings, and become a light for the recluse like himself? Maybe the suns would reincarnate him into a constellation on the celestial equator. Become her brightest star and leave dim kisses for the crestfallen moon, telling her he knows what loneliness felt like. The dream that falls from above, can he pray for it?
A second life to become something more beautiful, more purer than himself.
Ornamented melancholy. A feeling Usugo tried suppressing because such emotions birthed weakness, an experience he unfortunately encountered many times beyond his favor. It loiters inside whilst him helplessly trying to shut it out, scratching and aching his every bone; It crawled around in his stomach and fired spears at his heart. Whispering acidulous words inside his heart and biting his tongue. Weakness opened doors for vulnerability. Passable thresholds beholding a light that showcased shame on the other side. Constantly allowing unwanted visitors to denounce his wounds. No key existed to permanently secure the doors from emotional intruders. Somehow his tightened bolts were always dismantled, his heart spilling sorrows onto everyone’s feet. The likelihood of him ever speaking again in this hushed moment was nonexistent. He drank in the silence through every pore, soothed by it's meditative quality as he stands before the Lake of Phantoms alongside Deshai.
Fragments of thought, splinters of words, and droplets of silence spun into a kaleidoscopic jumble, shifted infinitesimally, and fell into an incredible new pattern. The silence was like a restorative draught after the frenetic rush of the day. The silence surrounded them like a fresh, pristine, white blanket of snow on a winter's day. The silence entered his soul like an angel's lullaby, smoothing out the roughness of the day. Silence surrounded them like stars in a freckled night sky.
The cosmos lured Usugo and he followed, surrendering to the lullabies of the obsidian sea. Deep, deep dreams in the sea, and drown in it.
He reached out further and further, his spirit intertwining among glittering teardrops of the night sky.
Kill me... please.

Related People

• Deshai
• Usugo