I watched the words tumble out of your mouth in quick succession, one letter obediently following behind the next. The font was Arial, I believe, the letters a crisp silver-grey in colour. They contrasted sharply with the passionate crimsons, oranges, and ambers of the leaves on the tree we were so comfortably sitting beneath, and this made the words all the more noticeable. As I watched them float around my head, about to bestow upon my mind the phrase they had to offer, a sharp gust of wind scattered them. You kept talking as if you didn't notice, so I kept calm too. After all, if it didn't bother you, then it probably wasn't a big deal. The words would come back.

Indeed, the letters fluttered back over to my side, and I couldn't help but smile at them. Your words were always so beautiful. I felt a pang in my heart as I realized that the tiny pieces of you were trying to reconstruct themselves into the sentence they had first tried to communicate to me. Gently, I pushed and prodded them into the semblance that they seemed eager to be placed in only to get "AIRY BUMPKIN OUTWEIGH." Well, that couldn't possibly be right. I tried and failed to imagine you saying a phrase that involved a light yokel being heavier than something. So I patiently waited for the letters to reassemble themselves into a coherent sentence. They tried and tried, and I could only sit there helplessly and watch. Soon enough, I figured out that they weren't even attempting to make the sentence anymore; they were just jamming themselves together in the hope that they could stop trying to make sense of themselves soon. It was as if they didn't want to be figured out.

"Come, my darlings," I cooed softly, beckoning to them. "How bad could you possibly be?"

They tried to show me.

Each Arial letter made a beeline for my face. Blinded by them, terrified of what they might do to me, I desperately swatted at them, covering my ears so that they might not infect me with their insanity. With that, they attached to every part of my body that they could find and began to squeeze. My eyes must be bugging out of my head, I reasoned, and so I blinked up at you to silently ask for your help – for the letters, of course, were forcing my lips together so that I could not request any assistance. You were still preoccupied with your speech, however, so you didn't notice that I was paralysed by your words. No matter. You would save me when you noticed what they were doing to me.

The words tightened their grip and their constriction seemed to suck the life out of me. The cold suddenly felt unbearable, and I knew I wouldn't be able to handle it for much longer. At long last, you wrapped up your speech and I anxiously awaited the moment where you would realize the damage your words were dealing me, and you would rip them off. You leaned towards me and instead of pulling the phrase off, you attached yourself to me in a hug. In a moment, the bitter cold had subsided and I felt refreshed. Now all you had to do was unbind me.

But something was wrong. I knew it as soon as you stood up. There was a strange sadness in your eyes – an emotion I had noticed in you in one form or another before, but never like this. I nervously tried to say something – anything – but the letters pressed down harder upon my lips. I couldn't speak. I couldn't move. I could barely breathe.

And then you turned your back on me. You left me there, paralysed by your stinging words; you left me to face their torment. But that was okay. You would certainly come back with help. You wouldn't leave me alone. You never had before.

It was at that moment that the horde of Arial letters attacked. I saw a flash of silver-grey before the pain began – such a wave of it that I barely knew what was going on. The wild phrase dug into my skin, entered my body, my mind, and I knew there was no escaping it. There was no defending from it. There was only the pain.

But you would return. You would help me.

…Right?