33. public nightmare/video.

[everything is deep orange.  faint light streams from overhead--wherever overheard is--piercing some of the darkness, but not much.  and although nothing lives in this mass of orange, there is a single whispered voice.

please stay with me

then another.

i try my hardest, but no one loves me as much as i love them

one more.

i will always be alone

then the whispers grow louder, overlap, increase in number until it's a raucous wail of a world overflowing with sadness; millions screaming for someone to care about their lives of desperation with extending onto forever.   telling them apart is impossible now.  where do they end?

and where do you begin?]

Shinji jerks awake and clutches at his ears as if he's in physical pain.  The howls of life continue ringing in his ears.