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Liam awoke.
Bitter cold struck his fabric as he shot awake. As he frantically looked around, there was nothing but pure darkness in every direction.
He realized he was sitting down on a shoddily made stool - similar to the one in Airy's cave.
He attempted to force himself to stand up, but he couldn't.
He could barely move his legs at all, it was as if they were bound by chains.
It dawned on him how heavy he felt. He could feel his whole body being weighed down by something. He weakly raised his hands to touch whatever was on his head - it was cold metal. It was big, round, flat, and... within an instant he realized it was Airy's "hat".
He froze up in fear as he desperately tried to take it off - but to no avail. It wouldn't budge.
He kept trying.
He kept trying until his arms hurt.
He kept trying until his arms felt like they could rip from their sockets.
He gave up.
He tried to free his legs from the invisible chains.
He kept trying.
He kept trying until his legs ached.
He kept trying until his legs felt as if they could snap in two.
He gave up.
He stared into the abyssal darkness. Hoping. Waiting for something. Something to appear, anything to appear, anything to help him from this eternal loneliness.
He held his head in his hands...
Glass.
He jumped back, his legs still as stiff as iron. He whacked his hand against his face in panic. It shattered into several pieces of sharp glass, collapsing to the void-like floor. Somehow, he felt no pain - but the sheer horror of him looking down to find his body replaced with that of a lantern's was enough to make him scream.
But after only a second or two, his mouth was covered by a hand. Liam's body locked up in terror - and still so when the figure waltzed around and became visible... Airy.
"It's all your fault." the dull tone stabbed into him as it stared his frozen body down.
"Don't you see? Look at yourself."
Liam could finally move again. He looked down at himself.
He was Airy.
He was truly Airy.
Liam shook as he tried to stand up again, but this time he actually could.
He had to try and pry his voice out of his throat, scratching all the way up.
"N-No, you'll- You'll never understand! No, you'll never ever ever UNDERSTAND!" he screamed at Airy.
As if his energy was sapped from just that shouting alone, he collapsed back onto his stool again. Airy's stool.
And within a single blink, he was infront of the computer in the cave. He squinted his eyes at the sudden blaring light of the screen directly infront of him. He heard a rustle from behind him and turned around. His "blood" went cold.
It was him. It was Liam. The real Liam.
And he was Airy.
His body froze up again. He tried to say something...
"...Hi." but his voice sounded just like Airy's.
The backpack rushed towards him, shoving him to the ground. He collided to the floor with a heavy thunk - just another reminder that he was a lantern. He was Airy. He was truly Airy.
"DO YOU REALIZE HOW MUCH SUFFERING YOU'VE CAUSED ME!?" the other- well, the only- backpack screamed.
He realized what this was now. He was reliving everything. He had forgotten this oh-so-long ago, after Airy had died and he'd been stuck there for those several months... years? However long it was.
"DO YOU REALIZE THE TORTURE YOU PUT SO MANY INNOCENT PEOPLE THROUGH!? YOU APATHETIC, DERANGED, PSYCHOPATH! End this, NOW."
Apathetic.
Deranged.
Psychopath.
Every single day, he looked at that computer.
Every single day, he looked at the Season 3 contestant list.
Every single day, he felt alone.
Every single day, he considered...
...He needed company.
He wanted to explain, explain everything. He needed to.
Nobody else would listen.
Nobody else could listen.
But, his throat felt tight. He wanted to scream, to cry, to throw himself to the ground, to hit himself with something, but all he could muster was-
"... there's... six, more... eliminations left."
He didn't say that. He didn't say that. He didn't want to.
He felt his metal clunk as the backpack pushed his body in retaliation again.
"Are you BRAINDEAD? Send everyone back! Right now."
He felt like he was going to combust with how hard he tried to say something. And when he did, it was in his own voice.
"I ALREADY DID!"
He collapsed to the floor with barely a sound, and the feeling of fabric against stone. He was finally himself again. He grabbed the other backpack's legs, sobbing. Crying. Wailing. Begging for forgiveness - for mercy - for ANYTHING.
They didn't respond.
He looked up, tears in his eyes.
It was Stone.
Everything was so, so bright now. He looked around, panicked, still holding onto their legs.
The sun shone brightly on an empty grass field, except for small triangular blades of grass every now and then.
Liam tried to get up, but collapsed onto his back due to his weak and shaky legs. He dragged himself back through the grass as Stone approached him.
He didn't know what they wanted.
He didn't know what they WERE.
But they kept coming closer, and closer, and closer... until they stopped.
Paper rustled gently from above, as a sticky note fell from the sky.
Then another.
Then another.
Then another.
More and more, faster and faster, coating the ground like blue snow.
Stone's face split open into a crooked mouth, and they tried to say something, stretching their hand out to Liam from a distance as if to grasp him firmly.
Liam did the same, trying to listen - but the rustling was so loud, and he was drowning in the excessive sticky notes. They filled his vision and he started to sink, sink further, further, deeper into his own mistakes.
He struggled and struggled and ached and ached until he couldn't anymore.
He gave up.
He closed his eyes.
... And when he opened them again, he was awake.
Awake in his poorly made bed of reeds.
The light breeze hit his fabric and the bed felt uncomfortable, but... he was real.
And that was all just a dream.
And Airy was dead.
And he was alone.
Calming, if you look at it right.