enter Sandman.

[ Exit lights

enter night

take my hand

we’re off to never never land. ]

~

The first to give her a warm welcome was the white of the ceiling, when she woke up, then there were the black fractures under the paint (just like the bluish veins running under their skins), and in the end, there was her captain’s voice to carry her back, with his clawed tune. Where had she gone?

His childish voice in that childish body – claws – morning kindness, when night dreams were being more unbearable than reality.

Where  had  she been?

Where had she been?

«Did you sleep well, Matsumoto?»

Where had she been?

Where had she been?

[ Take my hand
We're off to never-never land ]

And it had been a dream of night and cold: a snake had gone down through her throat and had laid eggs of a new world, of an already heard (already lived) old tale . His skin, his lips, his breath were just like his smell: cold. And cold she remembers, a cold blood like tears of winter air, a slide of the sky to her depths.  Where had he been? Where was he going?

And above all, above all – why  he didn’t

[ Dreams of war, dreams of liars
Dreams of dragon's fire
And of things that will bite ]

Knowing him, was like coming back to life she had clung to the thought of him, and against this  same thought’s chest she had cried loudly, and with her shouts there had been a breath, the breath of life. The counting of the days was started by the chinks of his eyes: Matsumoto was envious of those forbidden worlds that laid down under his eyelids. She would have liked to drink them, if she could, to feel again that obscene coldness freeze her soul, like an ice tongue.

 [ Tuck you in, warm within
Keep you free from sin
Till the Sandman he comes  ]

and above all why – whywhywhy – didn’t he take her with him?

«Did you sleep well, Matsumoto?»

«…Captain?»

[  Now I lay me down to sleep
Pray the Lord my soul to keep
If I die before I wake
Pray the Lord my soul to take  ]

Exit light, enter darkness.

End.