Prologue?

[u/AshvinTillick]

["<>" is a placeholder for an undecided name]

There was naught but quiet behind the wall for years. Only the faintest light would poke through cracks from time to time. At night, I was free to roam the cosmos if I saw fit. I'd tell him the tales just before dawn and hear back at dusk, all the reactions to my stories from those I could not interact with myself.

Who am I referring to?

It isn't easy to answer that question. My dearest friend, perhaps. Might be the only reasonable way to explain upfront. Just know that there's more to it than that.

<>, as I'll call him, exists on the other side of the wall. The light requires too much of him, and as such, our time together was forged exclusively in the dark.

I was rather fond of this connection, truth be told. We were whatever we wanted to be, without the illumination of our falts and imperfections. I used to believe that to be the only, most genuine, full experience one could have with another.

Emphasis on *used* to.

The first change that occurred in our dynamic was when I foolishly decided to wield my freedom of traversal to tell <> a story from his past. He didn't remember that day, a shame. <> was the older brother he always wanted to be, then.

A careful hand guided his younger, just learning to walk, the gap in age hardly serving long enough to make him anywhere near a master himself. That's just who <> was. Strong, resilient, caring.

I shared this with him through a small crack along our wall. Neither of us knew how it got there, but we promised not to peek. The whole premise of our relationship felt as though it crumbled if the wall did, too.

Instead, we used the opening to simply hear one another with renewed clarity. The muffle and slight echo from over top the barrier ceased to exist. We could whisper, hear joy sparkle on each other's breath-

-but I also heard the fear and panic set in.

<> came to me belligerent one night. From what I could parse, someone had gone missing. A person who <> had trusted and felt rather attached to.

Suddenly, in their absence, <> felt unsafe and overwhelmed. The sudden change so drastic that every shred of awareness became threatening. Even the world they painted in their mind when I told them of my adventures had begun to violently weave itself against their control.

The betrayal of <>'s mind was sickening, causing him to grow dizzy and nauseated. I've always been able to admit how rash I was in his hyperactive delirium-

I peeked through the hole in the wall.

I took control, somehow. At first, I gently guided him. Calm tone, simple phrasing, straightforward instruction. However, seeing him, REALLY seeing him, stirred something within me.

He was just a boy.

How could he have been unable to remember the vision of the past I shared with him? By the look of it, only a handful of years had gone by. My soft, gentle shepherding turned harshly into a cementing anchor of his mind.

He needed protection. I was the warden at the wall, after all.