death of a childhood / open, intro

[METEOR]

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{ takes place the early morning before vass's intro thread }

Stinking of weed, Quasar sprinted over wet sand like a Titan released from Tartarus. His trail of broken sticks and muddy prints marked his path from home to the beach. He never stopped running. Lungs heaving, he shot off with one last burst of speed.

Dark soil clung to his fur in clumps, stuck to his nose, and discolored him. The dirt buried the light blues and purples across his back, markings his mother—

Brain glitch. His front paws tangled, one in the way of the other or an unlucky driftwood or his mother’s ghost herself. The pup crashed into the dirt, nose first, inhaling the fine sand. Eyes shut, he rolled and fidgeted, a tangle of limbs. One paw tucked under his stomach. Then another. On the third, he stood up and wobbled.

Ready to run again. But he coughed on the inhale, his throat burning and eyes watering. He tried to rub the sand off his face, but there was sand everywhere. It caught in his eyes and stuck between his toes. He coughed, softly.

He blinked through the sand and tears, squinting at the waves. He can’t look long at the black, or he will suffer. Remembering is suffering, the pup had learned that lesson last night during fitful sleep. He couldn’t even say who gave him the joint butt. Had he picked the smoldering thing off the ground?

He was so tired. He’d been tired when he woke, but now he was dead tired. Sitting back on the sand, he panted and coughed, his scratchy throat fighting his lungs. He missed—

Brain glitch. Why bother running? He already knew there was nowhere else to go. His chest quivered, but he didn’t need oxygen anymore. His entire body shivered, one rolling muscle contraction. His eyes squeezed shut, and he remembered his parents’ dead faces.

Quasar threw his head back, a scream tearing past his raw throat. “YOU PROMISED YOU’D COME BACK!” he howled to the moon, his voice breaking.

He gasped. He breathed in until his lungs burned and wanted to pop from all the air inside. He forgot how to exhale, holy shit, he forgot how to exhale. “YOU PROMISED!” he screamed again. He gasped another inhale, forehead planting into the sand. “YOU! PROMISED!”

He coughed on the sand again, but the pup didn’t care about breathing anymore. Catching a seashell in his teeth, he crunched it between his teeth and spat out the shards. Blood on his tongue. There’d been so much blood, he could taste-smell-taste the—

Brain glitch. “I HATE YOU! I HATE YOU BOTH! YOU SAID YOU LOVED ME, BUT YOU….” He shook his head, lifting himself off the sand only to headbutt the ground again. He tried to growl, but he whimpered instead. All the fight drained out of his limbs, but he couldn’t close his eyes without seeing the worst memory he had of his parents. It wasn’t fair. He sniffled. “You promised you’d be okay….”