Wrap-Up: Crown WHO: He who wears the Crown. WHEN: Following the Halloween Party WHERE: The outskirts, then the lake, then home. SUMMARY: All spells must come to an end. WARNINGS: None.
He had found his way out of the corn maze eventually, wandering towards the edges of the party. He hadn't found who he was looking for - didn't know even if he could find her. She had been supposed to be here, or he thought she had been, and yet, she wasn't here or he hadn't found her. Perhaps she hadn't wished to be found?
This was a thought that swirled, even as the mist around him seemed to depart, leaving him with blisters on his toes from the walking, and a sense that he'd missed something important. In this case the 'this' was a woman that he'd thought he could find again, and yet that wasn't him. But it had been.
He reached his hand up to take off the plastic crown. It felt ridiculous to be wearing it now as the sun was rising. And as he wandered along the lakeside road, he couldn't help but feel that it all felt ridiculous.
Crown. Armor, knight in shining. Once and future king.
He'd been all of those things for a night, sort of. And now he was back only with an aching sense of having missed something important that was all too familiar.
A whole other life lived, and it had been full of everything dashing and courtly, but he'd still been searching for his queen, his Guinevere, if you wished. He'd clearly had too much to drink. Maybe grabbed the wrong cigarettes, because they'd given him some strange dreams.
And then there was this life, the one he was back in now that the sun had risen.
He stopped, watching it rise over the lake and he sighed.
The two lives were not so separate as he would like.
The key to unlock the gate to his home was in his pocket, he used it, sliding it back in and walking up the brick drive to the front door. The door itself opened, his dog came bounding towards him, sniffing, expectant, her heart out on her sleeve.
Jeremiah reached for the lab, and with a smile, he put the crown on Heart's head. The dog wore it for about five seconds before she shook her head, and it went scattering across the ornately inlaid wooden floor of the entryway.
"I need sleep," he told her softly, reaching to untie the armor he'd worn, and sliding it off by the door, not bothering to put it away. Shoes came off, a relief from where they pressed against blisters from the corn maze, and he headed up the stairs.
Heart followed him, and he hoped sleep would not mean further dreams.