A hand from the stars
Punz stepped into the room decorated in posters of games, all shining in bright colours of the galaxy variety. A few toys were scattered on the ground, mostly a few old Rubin cubes he remembered painting with Purpled. He stepped over each lightly, and after a while of contemplating he lifted them and slid them into their correct sections where Purpled had always insisted they stayed so onlookers could view their streaky masterpieces. Purpled wasn’t in here…
Punz had been looking all over the house for quite a while, searching for the purple star in his dim life. He didn’t mean to find the diary, he really didn’t but when he spotted the book lying open, his curiosity wasn’t one he could withhold. After all he knew Purpled never truly told him what was on his mind. And Punz was so scared he was loosing his little star for good as his light had been slowly fading Each night.
He flipped a few pages in and began reading its contents….
He didn’t remember his brother holding so much spite for him.
The older brother began to shuffle through a few more pages as he felt a cold tear running down his cheek, reflecting in the light to look similar to the stars that grace his little brothers cheeks when he smiled. Punz had thought- well he had thought he was doing his best but as he thought over every night, each day he came home to his brother already lying rest. And the words on the page were just another tribute to prove how lonely he had left his little star.
It wasn’t like Punz never tried to stick by his brother, he had tried on endless nights to free time, space and money but he just never could… Ever since their parents died Punz had spent all hours of the day trying to support himself and his younger brother through countless hours at countless jobs. He was barely and adult, and he wasn’t sure how to handle it all yet. He thought he was succeeding but… clearly he was wrong.
He continued to read:
”I’ve started visiting a therapist, Punz insisted. He said he was sure that I had some thoughts I’d like to express and assured me it didn’t mean he thought there was something wrong with me. I think I mostly agreed because he seemed interested in my life again but I’m not sure how I feel about it.
The therapist is nice, although he is very green. Which is non-debatably the worst colour out there but he clearly tries his best to be sweet and just listen. He didn’t react well when I told him about my new friends. He asked if I talked to them in the house often and seemed to have a weird look on his face.
I shouldn’t be surprised thought, my friends told me he would react this way.”
Punz eyes lingered on the last sentences, widening in pure concern. Purpled hadn’t had any friends over. In fact Purpled had no friends. Punz had been told so by every teacher in Purps school a day prior. Who on earth had been in Punz’ house, he would assume it was a friend outside school but despite Purpleds bitter attitude towards him in these pages, he had never let someone in without permission. Who the hell had been talking to his little brother in the house alone. Punz felt a protective jolt surge through his soul as he began to skip pages searching for more about these friends.
”They came back today! I nearly missed them as I’d been alone in the house all day but I saw them again. The shadows in my room gathered together and I watched my shadowy friends gather, covered in stars.
It’s funny I thought a while ago they looked like demons, they look similar to me in reality and well I’m not a demon, I at least took that from Punz. I nearly told him about them… but the shadows told me that he would take them away and leave me lonely again.
I don’t want to be lonely again… I hate the dark, and the stars that Punz once painted on the ceilings with glow in the dark paint has faded. While they are around it’s light and I’m not lonely. They understand me and promise they will be there anytime I need them. Like Punz used to be :)”
Punz nearly sighed in relief, happy to learn these shadows were simply a childish manifestation of his loneliness. But still- something broke inside Punz as he realised that Purpleds loneliness reached far enough that he had started to interact with oddly suspicious figures of his imagination. Just at this moment Punz noticed a pile of stardust on the ground. Odd- he had known Purpled created some sometimes, he wasn’t sure how though and he had never seen so much at one time… he glanced again at the words on the page truly considering the stardust demons before realising how insane that truly sounded. Despite the relief that there was no intruder, Punz still felt concern rise within him, surely Purpled shouldn’t be experiencing this, especially if the therapist is concerned. Perhaps he should talk to Purpled about this, convince him to stop interacting with his imagined “friends” at the least. Surely that might help, he won’t be leaving Purpled so lonely anymore anyways, he would figure out how to be home more, how to give and buy more for Purpled. He wouldn’t need the figures anymore soon anyway.
As of on cue, Purpled entered the room and looked on with shock and horror as he layed his eyes on a Wolf shuffling through his book as if it was a vault full of all of Purpled’s thoughts, a portal to the part of Purpled mind that he had locked Punz out of.
Betrayal overtook his thoughts and his mind as he felt warmth and fury run through his body, this was the last line of Defense, the last privacy he had and Punz had felt it was appropriate to simply peer in and glance at it. He doesn’t get to pick what parts of Purpled’s life he wants to be involved in. That’s just not fair, not fair at all.
”PUNZ!”
Purpled’s voice shattered the calm worried atmosphere that had filled the room and hit Punz like a meteor from the furthest stars.
Punz dropped the book quickly and his eyes jolted to his small siblings location immediately. He looked… angry.
“Oh… hey Purp, I was just- ummm, look I can explain. I-, well I was looking for you and-“ Punz searched his scattered mind for an explanation and an answer to why on earth he was looking through his brothers diary- God why was he looking through his brothers diary!
”What- what did you read?! Which pages- why on earth were you looking through this!” Purpled looked on with fear and a bitter sort of anger in his eyes, why didn’t he want Punz to read it? Purpled’s words sparked a thought in Punz mind as he remembers his previous worry about his brother.
”I… I don’t know, I was worried… you’ve been acting weird, and now I’m reading about some hallucinations your having about new shadowy demon friends, Why didn’t you tell me any of this?! I mean this is some weird stuff, Purp!” Punz spoke in a loud, very concerned tone. Heavy with emotion and laced with worry. It was out of character for Punz for any other person he had never met- no this kind of emotion was reserved for his fam- his brother.
“They aren’t hallucinations! And they are none of your business! Why is it so hard to believe I might have friends! Or did you just want me to be as lonely and sad as you are?!” Purpled’s glare hardened in hurt and despair for his brothers reaction, they always said he would react this way…
Punz eyes filled to the brim with hurt, overflowing into the few tears that marked his face in contrast to the stream of tears pouring down his younger brothers face, betraying his bitter expression. Punz raised his hand to his face slowly, noting the tears for the second time today. He never cried this much…
“Purp- why would you… I thought- well I thought you always wanted to be like me, why would you say that, of course I want you to have friends, I want you to be happy” he laughed slightly in a broken tone, wiping the tears on his face.
”Seems like it,” he rolled his eyes and glared down at the hand Punz still had placed on his diary, “ and who on earth would want to grow up to be like someone who would abandon their brother all the time and breach his privacy for no good reason, I hate you!” Purpled regretted that immediately seeing his brothers expression fall further than it ever had, he hated that but he certainly didn’t hate Punz. He loved everything about his brother, he loved his hard exterior towards others and loved the soft core he portrayed to purpled, purpled had even began to mimic it. Purpled didn’t know how to fix this- he was so angry, he didn’t want to fix this. His childish thoughts overtook and he turned quickly pacing out of the room, leaving the stormy mess he had partly created with his brother in the other room and began to race through the house with tears running down his eyes.
He just wanted to get out- he had to get out. God he never wanted to go back, he felt so embarrassed, betrayed, hurt and most and worst of all he felt.. oh so lonely.
Purpled’s sprint came to a quick halt as he reached where his heart had intended to go despite his brain never being aware. He was in the garden, here he used to watch his mother trim the plants, here the plant had overgrown seemingly living through spite and despair at the death of their owner, they had covered the garden. Here was where he had first met the creatures, he never got their name but they called themselves his “friends” another family of his, they would say. He longed for their presence and the comfort the brought. He longed for his brother to follow him.
Surely enough, his wish was to come true as a shadow began to clime through the thorny leaves of an overgrown vine littered with blue flowers vaguely similar to a forget-me-not, although those flowers should have been dead by now. The shadow raised higher through the plants and gathered a glimmer from every flower it passed until each had gathered into stars int the smoking shadow, a glass lady formed and began to narrow down in to a compact material of a soft and whimsical figure. Its hair ran down its back and hit the floor, following behind it and reaching into the flowers. It had small swirled misty horns around its head and a quite tall but slim form.
It reached its hand out to the child of the galaxy, rightfully he was theirs, and here they would claim him back. “You look lost again dear, I remember you said you wanted to leave, I’ve been thinking about that a lot :).” Purpled doesn’t remember ever vocalising his want to escape but he wouldn’t be surprised if he had, he was so sick of missing people, sick of living in a skeleton of his home, his life.
“I could take you somewhere new dear, you could get away. I found somewhere, and I know they would love you, they would care for you. And I could visit you ever day. It could become home again my child”
”I… I don’t know-“ Purpled was so angry… but he loved his brother, and. The thought of Punz looking for his broke his heart. He could ever leave him, not truly.
”Why not?” they flew around the child and a smoke covered his being before fading with the wind and rejoining its host, they spoke as if reading his mind. “You could come home any time you like, and he will be none the wiser, we will return you home if you ever truly wish to return. He hurt you, he abandoned you.. it is now time for you to do the same, simply take my hand and I’ll lead you to the land of the loved”
it was impulsive, it would be stupid, but he oh so wanted to go. Perhaps, just for a little while, he could feel whole again. And he doesn’t have any friends left here anyway.
maybe, he could feel happy again.
Yet again they smile, they had lied through their teeth and they would reap the benefit.