Chapter Text
Suffocating
He's suffocating
He can't move
Around him, darkness
"Where am I?"
"Why can't I move?"
Someone's there
Someone's singing
. . .
He looked around him, the scene changing in front of his eyes. A dead garden.
"All the pieces of my heart fell apart" he heard the soft voice continue "There's nothing left of me to find." It sounds hurt and lonely, and the teenager wanted to help whoever was singing with such a sorrowful voice.
"Where are you?" he asked, pleaded, overcome with the sudden urge to find them.
"Free me from my chains made of thorns. Oh, fool of me. This place turned out to be my tomb. I kept waiting, turning pages, just to find my story ended before it started." The hybrid searched and searched but it was like a phantom, a ghost that he couldn't see only hear. It's maddening.
"Let me help you. Let me see you" he asked louder. And Steven started running faster.
"Happy to listen, Happy to play" something changed, he noticed "Happy to wait," there was a pause, just a second enough to know the stranger was hesitating "Free me from my prison of memories, come and get me. Come and get me. Come and get me" her voice broke at the end and with it Steven's heart. Why? Why is it that he couldn't help someone that was in so much pain?
The teen closed his eyes in despair, wishing he could find the voice. A tear rolled down his cheek, and softly, almost like he was afraid to see what was in front of him, he opened his dark eyes, holding his breath. There she was.
It was a gem, he mentally laughed, half hysterical. Of course it was.
It sounded too painful to consider, yet he could easily see. She was pink. Related to mom, probably, he thought in distress. The gem was staring at him in disbelief, surely wondering who was this stranger that suddenly appeared in front of her. Poor thing... Her eyes were red, tear marks left at both sides of her pink cheeks. She had been crying, he mused. Well, not anymore. Steven took a step forward, determined to help her. The pink gem, though, took a step back. Or, well, she tried. Her legs where stuck to the ground surrounded by roots and thorns and overgrown plants, painful by the look of it. And just like that she fell with a weak yelp, her feet still glued down. It would have been hilarious if it wasn't because of the depressing situation.
"Hey, you okay?" he approached her again and, taking the roots in his hands, Steven started to pull until they broke. Without thinking, the boy also started to tear the rest of the plants, his hands caught in the thorns and drawing out blood. With a hiss and one final pull he got the pink gem out of her confinement.
"Wha...?" she started, still confused. Her eyes darted around her, and back to Steven "Who are you? What's goin' on?" she fearfully asked.
"I'm... Steven. Steve Universe" he introduced himself, careful while approaching her. He showed her his hand in an invitation, "What's your name?"
The pink gem took hesitantly Steven's hand, "Spinel" she replied in awe. She thought she's lost her mind. Surely, it wasn't normal to hear voices inside her head when she knew she was alone in the Garden. It wasn't possible. And yet... Here's the stranger.
"Well, Spinel, what do you say about coming with me?" asked the boy with a reassuring grin.
"With... you?"
"Yeah. Is that okay?" now he didn't feel so sure. He doesn't know what type of place is this, but it looks dead. Desolate. And so he assumed she wouldn't want to stay. But maybe he got it wrong?
At Spinel's hesitation, Steven took a quick glance at their joined hands. There was no real reason for him to do what he did, just a weird feeling he couldn't ignore. The boy immediately let go of her hand at seeing his own colored pink and see-through.
Suddenly everything went black again, Spinel's cry echoing around him, before the teen woke up with a startle.
"A dream...?"