•Cabin Fever

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"I just wanted to give you everything I never had."

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(Chapter 1)

Looking through piles of scattered messages, ripped papers and old love notes, I look briefly before deciding what to do with it. I look across the window and let the aura of the hills fall to bliss. It's autumn and I haven't done anything to rake the leaves yet. Dried leaves have swarmed the window panes and the driveway. The flame of the ever-dying candle abolished as harsh winds slip through cracks and open doors. Sighed, I sighed deeply. I need to get this over with.

So, I took my jacket and at the very least make a pathway for my barely running car.

Even-so I tried to start my old car and turn its engine afloat. It's quite hard to make it start. I gave it a lot of push and finally, It got going.

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Nocturne Op. 9 No. 2

-

Chopin

.ıllı.lıllılı.ıllı.

1:12 ──•───────── 3:54

↻ ʀᴇᴘʟᴀʏ ⇉ sᴋɪᴘ ♡

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Booze in the front, gasoline out back, and piles of unwanted (messages) was next to the drivers seat. I never thought I'd see myself through. Time and unwillingness never go through together. So I spend most of my remaining days stuck in the house. Time becomes meaningless when you have nothing to look forward too. All that lost time was washed away, entranced by regrets.

Even so, I still drove through the woods composed. Eyes on the road but my soul tweaks emotions.

I never thought I'd visit this place again.

The place where memories fade and get lost. In that place of jeopardy, lies my nostalgia. A place of burial.

After years of going back to this place, I find myself at its doorstep.

A dirty gravestone was leaned against a narrow tree. A pool of lake was placed up shore side. Next to them, was an old cabin covered in moss and riddled with fireflies. I took the keys out of the car while the stereo is still active. Slowly, I picked up the stack of letters and got out of the car.

"Not this again."

The battery of my car can't hold up with the stereo so I lowered its volume, but somehow it began relaying two sounds as static soon as it infiltrates the speakers. So, I had no choice but to turn it off as loud irregular sounds create a sour after taste in my mouth.

"Huh?"

"Why is it still playing?"

Out of frustration, I kicked the door of my car and took a few steps away before I break one of its windows. As I focus on how I can settle the situation, I realize that it's not coming from the vehicle. It's coming from, the cabin.

My curiosity peaked, no one plays the song anymore.

Unsure of what to do, I looked in every direction but the house.

I just want to be dumbfounded and play it off like it was nothing. 'Still, the track opens doors I long to be unsealed.

Is she the one playing the song?

Maybe If I check, she'll be there.

I have spent a huge portion of my life avoiding, and being afraid. I'm doing it again, so in the remainder I spend in this life; I'm not gonna look everywhere but, but...

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I don't know, do I? Can I?

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✦ ˚ 　· 　　 .

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•. ✶

I'm gonna do it.

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- ˏˋ ✎ ˊˎ -

I CAN'T!

I sighed. I'm at its doorstep. I keep repeating the phrase in my mind as I open the door. It's only half opened but the wind slammed the entrance open. Alerted, the fireflies threw a fit of confusion as 'few got out and some flew in circles. The tension grew bigger as I draw closer. My mind was smoked with harsh signals. My chest has never been this tight before.

Wait, why am I here? I just wanted to burn the letters and go.

In my head I kept repeating the phrase. I looked down with a shallow mind. The music was louder than ever. All this ruckus and dangerous broken objects, I focused. I'm not gonna look everywhere but..

If I come here, she'll be here too. Won't she?

"I'M NOT GONNA LOOK EVERYHWERE BUT!"

"BUT..."

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The music slowly faded away as the sustain pedal from the piano unexerted pressure. I wiped the sweat off my forehead with a rag and slowly looked up.

My heart dropped, I don't know what to react.

My chest pounded like never before. My hands are visibly shaking.

My eyes met hers.

I can't catch my breath.

A gray haired woman who has been washed in time, her skin as fair as day yet it has lost to the harsh days of life. Calmly, she broke free of our eye contact.

"Did you wait for me that long, my love?"

I'm confused, I took a few steps back. I hit a cabinet that was full of memoirs.

"You always forget do you?"

"Come here, take a photo of me."

"Huh?"

All the red alarms in my head was screaming. Yet I cannot produce any voice to repent or prevent what's happening.

My head's all dizzy.

Slowly, she took a camera that was above the piano stand. She reached her arms out and gave it to me. I examined the camera, it wasn't soon that she noticed that I was having trouble, so she guided me. She got out of her seat and gets behind me. She brushed my arms as she reached for the camera. She held my index and laid it to the shutter button.

I took off the cap of the lens and tried to focus on her. It's quite blurry. I can't make any sense to it. The worries of my fragile mind takes time to heal, I'm still a bit shaky.

She ran and came back to the piano, she fixes her hair and laid her hands gently on the white keys. I looked into the view-finder intently.

"Chloe?"

My heart dropped, I don't know what to react.

I'm so entranced.

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In front of me was the most beautiful woman I have ever captured. Skin as fair as day, a woman who never lost her elegance. It's like she is youthful? I have never been this captivated before.

She didn't answer my call.

Wait, oh? She got distracted by a butterfly in the midst of fall. It's like she's in another world.

Maybe,

If I shuffle my words, can she hear me? Will she answer the question I called to her for?

"Chloe?"

She looked back. She looked back? Will she look back?

I don't know. I'll still go for it.

"I was lost, like a butterfly flying in the ruins."

"When I was in the midst of falling, why didn't you answer my call?"

I stared at her through the view finder.

"Chloe?"

She's not responding.

"Answer me."

My grip closed onto the camera. I can't control my tone anymore. It's gonna burn into shambles.

"Answer me.."

"Answer me!"

"ANSWER ME!"

"CHLOE PLEASE!"

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100%

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Wind passes in such a

blatant

and

arrogant manner.

I always forget do I?

Tears fall from Eden.

This old man is on his knees.

The glass from the picture

frame shatters.

No amount of tears from Eden will reach heaven.

Death comes knocking earlier than expected.

The glass corridor that was barely standing because of my bump followed the harsh wind.

Times up as he holds the gate to the afterlife.

Liquor filled the cabin. A young man opens the door.

It's October.

Liquor stains a sour mouth like mine.

I pulled him closer.

Don't make the same mistake as I did.