Thunder Dome deja vu

@Elowen Aeloria

through the tumult of the thunder, a soft voice reaches him. calls out to him. for a moment, he feels as if it's some cruel joke. perhaps a figment of the imagination. as if  the loneliness had such a vice grip on his mind, it'd conjured voices just to torture him. 

no one cared. no one had ever cared. so why would they now? 

he whips his head toward that gentle cadence, only to find himself glaring teary-eyed at a woman. dainty, soft, beautiful. as if one harsh breeze from the storm would blow her off the peak, to her doom. his chest seizes tighter. 

it terrifies him. the last time he'd been in someone else's company, his father had laid still before him. but she's alive—or so he thinks. maybe she isn't real. either way, he struggles to pull himself together to muster an answer. an ugly sniffle, a subdued whine.

how pathetic. 

a strike of lightning briefly backlights his quivering frame, casting a sharp glint to his citrine eyes. "i'm fine." he lied. lying is easy, and what else was he to do? bare his turmoil on this woman, who he isn't sure is entirely there?

no. the pain and guilt is for him to deal with and he only. but gods above, does he wish to pass it onto someone else. to let someone shoulder his grief. 

"leave me alone—you...you shouldn't be up here." he rasped, almost pleading.