The morning after the rain {Carmen oneshot}

[Sleepy Fluttershy]

Carmen Stirling.

When you step out of the train, the world disappears. Everything you hear is caught up in your thunderous heartbeat and a carousel of faces is spinning around the one person you've been longing to see all this time. Your eyes grasp the frail outline and cling to the only remedy for your nightmares - your sister. You sleepwalk through the next few seconds, or maybe minutes, with only one word lingering in your mind: 

"Cathy".

When you say it out loud, your arms collide with her shoulders and her hair gets in your mouth while your souls weep against each other. You sneeze through the shower of tears and smile for the first time in what seems like forever - warily but heartily.

"Cathy..."

You want to continue but the rest of your words sink to the bottom of your eyes. You are overfilled with feelings you cannot define - there is bitterness, joy, suffering and hope. Hope for the better times, for freedom and choices that don't kill. Your whole face is covered in kisses and shaking arms caress the bruise on your cheek.

"Carmy!"

Your sister is adding her own hysteria to this symphony of relief. Her face is paler than usual which leads you to a conclusion that she hasn't been eating properly for the past few days. She stopped singing when the tragedy came - you see it in her eyes and in her skeleton-like features. If you weren't standing here right now, her hair could have gone white and she would wilt like a weak flower - your precious colorful flower. But she didn't because you're here now to share her hunger and pain. You would never want to leave again.

"Let's go home, I wanna go home, Cathy..."

You make a few steps in the direction where your house stands, your heart feels its presence in a dirty street, it knows exactly where to find home. You will be safe from everything there, just the three of you. Still clutching your sister's waist in your arms, you pull her forward one more time, looking at her expectantly. But then home melts away instantly, narrowing down to the tangle of your shaken bodies.

"Carmy... Grandma's dead."