(WHOA. So sorry that this was just a mess of code. I uploaded it, went to bed, and then didn't check back in on it. Hopefully, those that tried to read it will come back and give it a go now that I've fixed things. Sorry!)

He looms on the edge of the darkest woods, all in shadow save his bright eyes. "There are two kinds of light," he says, "But one kind of darkness and I am all that there is in the world."

He cannot pass the river, but he holds out his hands and a bluebird floats into his palms her song sad and meaningless. There was a time where they could talk, but that time has passed.

Still, she comes to him. She knows that she is what keeps the human part of him alive. He is so far gone that it would be easier to let the roots grow and the light go out, and she could sing to him all the while. The blame rests on her alone now, because, despite her best efforts, the beast is winning. The two boys are gone and only the bluebird is left to face the consequences. He stands there on the edge of the woods like a ship mast in a storm, a reminder of what she led him to do.

He is running in his mind, under the milk moon and through the corn fields. He and his brother chase bluebird wings while singing their own song. It is a memory that never happened, and the manic desire for it lights his eyes. He runs and runs through the light. Sun, stars, moon, he is afraid but he is also fear itself. There is a home that he is returning to, and in this imagined past he has hope that they will find it. He runs through the light, his brother by his side, and they climb back over the garden wall.

The bluebird sings and flies away.