text: I’m so cold. The empty corridors echo my name in the hush of the darkness. Everywhere I walk, there is frost. It sticks to the walls and floors and everything I can bear to see like a parasite. It bites away at my skin and sinks its merciless teeth deeper into my flesh and soul. I’m so cold. I miss her. However many layers of sweaters and gloves I may have equipped, my mind slips still into the cold void of the night. I cannot bear it any longer. I want to see her. I step quietly through the corridors. Not a single sound comes from me. I am a ghost mourning their own death. I’m not alive, I know I’m not, yet I’m here. My feet move still. My thoughts string still. My breath visible still. I’m so cold. I need to meet her. I reached her office. Her computer still sparks brilliantly. It feels so warm on my ghostly skin. My fingers tap on her keyboard as if a puppeteer stood above my head. I can’t make out what I typed in. It came so naturally I did not wish to cease this involuntary action. The screen changes. It’s a girl. She looks so colorful and full of life. Those eyes. She's looking at me. "It's me again! Uh, so... You don’t have to... What I mean is-” starts the video file. All the while her eyes flashed with content, then spite, then gloom. She’s crying. I whisper something but I cannot make out what it is I said. Suddenly, her voice goes soft. She’s smiling despite the tears. “I tried really hard to go my own way without looking back. I started walking, but the truth is... I’m not... feeling lonely. There is no sadness here. I-I’m not alone. You’re still here with me... Somewhere. I can feel it!” My freezing throat is starting to choke. I cannot begin to cry here, not while I can still see her this last time. “I promise... Nothing will ever tear us apart. Among countless stars, the person I met... Was you! And I will stay by your side, as your guiding light in the dark. Upon endless days and endless nights.” She reaches out for a small crystal shard. It glows a warm amber. She takes it and holds it dearly. “No...” I mutter in the silent static of the cold. “Perhaps tomorrow we’ll find each other. Until then...” Her eyes slowly fall onto the shard. “If you keep your promise...” She holds onto the shard tightly. “I’ll keep mine too.” -page break- The video file cuts. The computer goes black. Complete darkness consumes me whole again. I can still feel the warmth of the screen. It doesn’t seem to stop. Then I see a faint glow from within her desk. My eyes grow wide at the sight of it. The Shard lays carefully wrapped in a cloth in one of her cabinets. As I unravel it, my heart begins to beat again. My fingers lose their solidity and I can feel textures again. As if a flame had erupted, the shard radiates with warmth and life within me awakens. The overwhelming feeling is too much for me to bare. My legs give in and I collapse in awe. The loud thud of me crashing doesn’t phase me. I’m breathing heavily as I mouth “I promise” repeatedly with every struggling breath. “I promise... I promise,” I whisper into the endless night. Disclaimer: I'm likely not going to make this into an official story. This was written shortly after I had awoken from a dream where I accidentally left my earphones on and heard the dialogue of a girl play as part of the song. Everything written here is what my mind imagined when the song played.