her voice haunts him. he hears it, EVERY NIGHT. he hears the sound, sees the footprints on the sand as she steps towards him. she’s breathing the air, he can watch her chest ( inhale ) and EXHALE the dry air. he’s playing with the desert, and it’s a dangerous game to play. this land isn’t known for its kindness or compassion, and the words be happy sound like trap. he hasn’t been happy since her death. or maybe even a little before that — since his death. he’s not sure he’s tried to be, but he is fairly certain that it’s no longer possible. and yet, as she walks towards him. he feels in, a slimmer of HOPE in his chest. and that’s the most dangerous thing. hope in this heat can get him killed. “ i am content. ” he replies to his queen. who sounds SO TIRED. but she’s stepping closer, and doesn’t seem to be stopping. and it only takes a moment, for her to be close enough for him to feel her presence. “ why are you here ? ”
“That’s not happy.” She shakes her head ever so slightly stopping an arm’s length away from him. Content, content wasn’t happy it wasn’t sweet and it wasn’t forgiving. She had learned the difference between the real Queens and the tricks that haunted her time in the unknown sands. The Mirages they always seemed like gods like the man who was so happy with their son, but seeing this Queens, her Queens it took only a moment to know. She wants to touch him to lean in and press a kiss to his forehead but how could she? So instead a hand touches his shoulder slightly before pulling it away.
The question strikes her slightly, should she say the entire truth or is he just being skeptical? Asking the “fake” Keepsie he believes she is. Her words spring out before her mind has time to stop them. “I was to be killed, I ran so that I’d live and that a little piece of everything that we knew would live. I never thought they’d kill a girl in my place.” They’re soft and she can’t look at her love she can hardly face the pain she left behind her.