Re: Near the Tea House, down the walkway -> Memory Emporium
He didn't understand what was happening. It was all very, very wrong, but he was helpless to stop it. While she was lost in memories of the past he was trying to pull her away, to escape the chaos to get to safety but he didn't know that, maybe there was no escape, and it took a few seconds to him to realize that she was speaking. "What?" He stopped, trying to shout over the noise, arm still around her shoulder as though he could protect her. He, who could protect no one. Trying would only seal her fate.
Her words chilled him to the bone. "Who is dead?" But then the ground beneath his feet began to shift, and he stepped back with a confused shout. She held into him then, fingers an iron clamp on his arm, and it seemed they were inexplicably joined whether he wanted them to be or not. "I don't understand," because he didn't, and he didn't like this. They had to get away but maybe... maybe... what if she was causing this? What if it was her?
He reached for her hand, and then those metallic clangs began, a cacophony of sound that seemed to dig knives into his head and rattle his very bones. It was too loud, too loud, and he tried to wrench his hands free to cover his ears. "Stop," he pleaded. "Please, stop."