Lifetimes (EmmaKarin)
She let her favorite song play out toying with the cord of her headphones. As it reached its final chorus, her thoughts turned more and more to her. She had until now remembered nothing but good times, but when her mind tread upon those memories once more, she couldn't help but let doubt creep into those perfect little bubbles of time. As time inched ever forward to when they would meet again, and unfamiliar faces disembarked past her, she faintly wished that they could be apart for just a little longer.
Each step was a lifetime, every inch forward concluding a life's worth of memories. They lingered but moved on. By the time she no longer felt the ocean's sway, some of them felt a little too fantastical. Some were of her leaving behind excited happy smiles, and some faces of sadness and anger.
No matter the memory, the fact she left didn’t change.
The port was loud behind the shelter of her earphones. Sunlight beamed down, and the wind carried an all too familiar taste of salt.
Along the stretch of the pier, the memories turned sour. Every happy time ended with a feeling of loneliness, each perfect vision trailing off with fuzzy, unsettling feelings. When she reached the end, there was nothing but the emptiness that filled her mind. Every bubble had burst, each fantasy crumbling away.
When she found eyes of evergreen teal in the thinning crowd, Karin remembered that it was all a delusion. Worst of all, it was a mercy orchestrated by her mind to forget what she left behind.
"You really came," out came a strained, tentative voice. It almost sounded disbelieving, as if the woman at her front was imaginary.
Taking slow steps forward, Karin was running out of lifetimes to replay in her mind. "I, uh... Mhm, I did."
The bubble of her fantasy had burst, sending ripples that reminded her of what kept her away all this time. It was almost liberating to be free from the fantasy, free from the melody of her favorite song.
"Emma," she spoke a name that, lifetimes ago was familiar, now felt foreign under her tongue. "I'm back."
Her gaze broke away, sunlight bright against a distant expression. It was unfamiliar. Something was missing beneath the teal and freckled skin.
"Are you?"
Karin closed the gap. She was out of memories, the present focused on the soft, uncertain frown beneath a deep gaze.
She shook her head, dispelling the illusion. "No. I never left."
Emma blinked at the response. A bubble burst, Karin almost hearing the pop clear in her ears. "I won't forgive you just like that, you know?"
The next second, Karin wondered why a hug felt so unfamiliar. It was warm, yet something between them felt frigid, stone-cold, and unmoving.
Still, it was new, and she returned the action with her own. Karin took a step forward, feeing weight shift in the embrace.
Her foot felt light, and nothing came to her mind when it touched the ground.
"Let me tell you about this song I've been listening to, Emma."