Page 48 of Architecti
A little darkness for my sister.
There.Done.
Interitus emerges from the shadows of a silvery tree.Her wings drag behind her, they look sad.The darkened wingtips leave a trail of angel dust as they carve through the grass.
She traipses over slowly.Every step an agony as I bounce on my tippy toes, desperate for her to see.Her eyes never leave my creation.
“It’s for us,” I say.“To play with.”I clap my hands in delight.
Interitus tilts her head to examine the castle but stays silent, so I add, “I thought we could play imagination and make up stories about the people living inside.Look, I added a weapons room and a moon for you.And a painting room for me, and that’s a?—”
“Prison,” Interitus interrupts me.
I blink at her.
Once.
Twice.
A frown forms between my brows.“No.That room is the Great Library.”
She shakes her head at me, indignant.“Then it’s a prison of words.”
She circles the castle, her finger poking at the walls and punching in and out of the crenellations.
It makes me feel funny; I want to tell her to be careful.She knocks some of the turrets out of line, and I scurry after her, repositioning them.
“Don’t you like it?”I ask.My stomach rolls like the dandelion fluff on the wind.
She glowers at the castle.
It’s rubbish.
I’m stupid.
I wish I hadn’t made it.
It was a silly idea.
Interitus stops suddenly.“I want to see what it sounds like when it breaks.”
My eyes widen.It took me four hours to build, I don’t want to break it.
I raise my hand to stop her, my wings following.But Interitus is already kicking out, her foot spearing right through the centre of the castle.
The structure implodes.Light sprays my body, glistening particles and rainbow strands clatter to the grass and wink out.The funny thing is, the sound it makes is beautiful.
A tinkling like classic pianos and springtime birdsong.The tinny patter of autumn rain and the crackle of winter fires.
It’s a beautiful sound, and yet I feel horrible.Like a piece of me shattered when the castle broke.
It’s gone.
Not a single brick or beam is left.I stand there for a long moment, my bottom lip trembling, my toes digging into the grass as I try to understand my sister.
Finally, I turn to her.“Why did you do that?”
Interitus is calm, her eyes and body still compared to the upset vibrating through me.
