Alistair. (This chapter is in Alistair's point of view, in case you are confused. The subsequent chapters alternate between their PoVs😊)
|Its pulsing stars that light the sky;
Shine faintly bright throughout the night
As morning comes when evening fades,
It paints a crimson red.

He fills with awe by this plain sight
Simplicity what he yearns despite
The world's dear need for more; it's greed
That's cost us all our light.

That light of love which used to glow
So surely, everywhere he'd go
The love an earnest heart had had
Has bleakly turned to stone.

But up here where the sun is gold,
and tranquil streams that're laced with snow,
are all the lives here seem to care,
and live and breathe and know

It feels as though the love we had,
was never lost; was always shared,
and people still could feel and care,
despite the trials of life.

As people come and people go,
into our lives and shape our souls
and love and joy and hate and peace,
stay for a fleeting moment;

It dawned a light that shone so bright
upon his shoulders late at night
that the pulsing stars and crimson skies
promised him all is fine.|

I longed to leave this place.

It was a beautiful city with pretty people, but ever so lonely. Everyone lived in quiet isolation, as bland conversations and forced smiles were exchanged as a way of life.

Was life not more than studying and working and counting the number of zeros on your paycheck? Why did it seem that this world saw importance in the most trivial of things? It seemed to have found some sort of comfort in its mundane, routine ways which only came into existence because the things that mattered were pushed away.

They exchanged trust, the innocuous, beautiful bond between our hearts and that of others, for a much less risky, but greatly shallow safety.

The safety from disappointment, from heartbreak, from being reliant on someone not yourself.

It saved their fragile souls from being crushed, but robbed them of a joy that makes life worthwhile.

I want to go back to where the people trusted; where the air was free of the heavy dampness that was sterility.

Take me back.