Kage awakened from a three-day coma following the surgery. From there he would black out time and again drifting through a week before his consciousness retained itself long enough for simple movement. Then he was roused enough to feel the heat from the sun's rays cutting through the window beside him.
However, that was not the first noticeable pressure he experienced. His left arm found a sheath in the sensation of a person's grasp. It was wrapped deep by her frail arms thrusted between her bosom. A mop of frazzled blonde hair spread out in her slumber. Wetness from tears blotted his hand while a scent persisted, in the finely varnished room, of days without bath.
During his semiconscious state he had seen her there all the while, holding his arm and whispering sweet nothings as she had always done. He had grown and become stronger, but even years later he could not be dissuaded from hearing those words. The words clinging with fear but bursting to have hope. When the pulse grew faint her lips touched his skin as an inevitable proclamation may be made at any moment.
Although their collective struggle, although he was no longer the brother she wanted nor the one she remembered, and although the blame that still piled on top from the misdeeds and suffering that would take place, a bond forged by these events was unbreakable. As she saw her tormenter's deathly gaze grayed out by the choice to ascend or return, she knew not but to cry.
In that instant, her brother was calling for aid. For guidance.
A guide that he lost before and again.
This hospital brought on bad memories tainted by sounds as well as smells that she would rather not remember again. The look of the manic William and Kage staging their plans brought by light of the eventual catastrophe. How her brother exited from that facility a stranger to everyone who ever knew. Hopefully, her brother would return and not the stranger that had taken hold of his mind.
The state he had returned to, gave forth memories that collided with what he held as true. A shadow of a terrifying Hero that ripped the arm from its socket became a mirror. Burning smog turned to factories and a lost child amongst them. His sickness had never ended as the uncountable number of pills were splayed out on his dresser. A deep inferno that threatened to rip it away was a monster not from the outside but within.
Kage's sight held on the prosthetic arm his sister had been forced to bear alone. Never would he be able to feel the skin of another with his own two hands. Never would he see her able to get out of bed without the ghostly pain from a wound never quite healed. Forever gloved into this cacophony of muted senses caused by himself.
Blame and pain warped his mind to find a fiction in reality. It was the *nail piercing through the pupil of reality*.
A term spoken by someone who remained unknown but ingrained itself to his thoughts for eternity.
Her head sauntered up, holding a lasting ogle with her brother. He reached out with a covered hand. Flinching, only slightly, she could not perceive the outcome of this action. Cautious until the end, the duo was.
Kage attempted again, this time she did not dodge from the advance. His hand stroked the prosthetic. Although he would never feel the coolness, he could tell the texture, the grooves, and evenness created by expert craftsmanship.
Questioningly, she looked back to her brother wondering the reason. All she found were watering eyes. Eyes that bore the rapid succession of events which took her arm from her. The eyes were much different that night. They were not her brother's but of a raging beast sauntering for release.
The beast was gone and all that had been lost was returned.
Kage's voice was hoarse, difficult to hear, but nevertheless, the words were unmistakable. "I'm sorry, Lisa. For everything." The two joined together, no longer able to resist.
Morning sun manifested cool waves over the city. It was like the grace of God bearing silence to calmly reassert the world onto its tracks.
Only for the momentum to heighten again as the choir readied their lungs to wail at the Heavens.