My eyes are blinded. In an instant, the world flashes to monochrome. Amid it all, the blue of a clear, cloudless sky, and a red...a red sign, and then...! Those two colors alone, bursting in stark contrast, burning themselves deep into my retinas. This sight now spread out before me—what is this? The sound of the cicadas’ mindless, frenetic cry stabs into my ears. The smell of iron intermingles with your scent. Every one of my senses pounds directly into my brain, bypassing my consciousness completely. A set of tire tracks, burned across the pedestrian crosswalk, along with a line of red, as red as your tiny body. There’s nothing I can do, not now, but when I run to the scene anyway, choking heat sears my eyes, my nose, my head, beating the reality home all the more. This isn’t you here. This isn’t the girl I was speaking with just now. This is just a red lump of something. I don’t care what anyone says. This—this isn’t you.

My eyes are blinded. In an instant, the world flashes to monochrome. Amid it all, the blue of a clear, cloudless sky, and a red...a red sign, and then...! Those two colors alone, bursting in stark contrast, burning themselves deep into my retinas. This sight now spread out before me—what is this? The sound of the cicadas’ mindless, frenetic cry stabs into my ears. The smell of iron intermingles with your scent. Every one of my senses pounds directly into my brain, bypassing my consciousness completely. A set of tire tracks, burned across the pedestrian crosswalk, along with a line of red, as red as your tiny body. There’s nothing I can do, not now, but when I run to the scene anyway, choking heat sears my eyes, my nose, my head, beating the reality home all the more. This isn’t you here. This isn’t the girl I was speaking with just now. This is just a red lump of something. I don’t care what anyone says. This—this isn’t you.