Everything crushes too easily beneath his hands. He squints hard against the light, broken thoughts through his mind… the warm lips of a woman, the hand of a child reaching toward him.

He clutches the table for support, finds it in dust. He stumbles around blindly, clutches the wall.

He finds himself being pulled, wrist being bound to a table.

"Stop."

His whole body stills at the order.

"You're name is Benjamin Casper."

He frowns.

"You were shot."

He can feel the scar on his chest, tighter than the skin around it.

"You're okay."

She spends days sitting at his bedside. He must be in a hospital. White walls, the sound of a heart monitor, the odd sterile smell in the air.

"Has anyone come for me?" he rasps, voice straining from disuse.

"No."

"Will anyone come for me?"

Silence. He opens his eyes and studies her face. She considers him carefully.

"No."

The finality of a death sentence, the force of a bullet. He shuts his eyes again, pushing his head deeper in to the pillow.

All dreams blurs into one.

The sounds of childish laughter.

Picking flowers by the roadside. A tiny hand gripped his, bunches of flowers clutched in the other. A crown of flowers on his head, king and queen for the day.

Bright days in fields of green. A woman's voice calling after them as he chased short legs.

Splashing through puddles of rain. Soaking hair, clothes that weighed him down. He picked up a little body, twirled her around, heads thrown back to the rain.

Rolling snow, stacking it into a snow man. The delighted voice of a little girl lying next to him as they made snow angels.

He wakes screaming.

"You're okay," she would always say.

She takes him out to an open field and points toward the sky. He braces his legs, and pushes off the ground. He sliced through the air with enough force to split a mountain, he felt the wind through his body, but the cold never got to him anymore.

Put on a sweater, Maddy.

He flinches. He could feel the knitted sweater in his hands. He looks down, seeing nothing.

He tips backward, freefalling back to Earth.

"Who shot me?"

"No one knows."

He never asks for more than that.

He is allowed to fly free now, but he always came back to the hospital. He hates the hospital. He has nowhere else to go.

Her name is Dr. Moore. She is the only one in the hospital.

He never thinks to ask why.

He strays a little farther every time. He disappears for a little bit longer every time.

She was always there when he returned.

He finds a city with skyscrapers that touches the sky. He likes sitting at the edge of the tallest one. He thinks of nothing for days on end, sitting there, watching the sun rise and set.

He doesn't notice a boy standing on the edge until he sees him step forward, his feet hovering in the air in a moment of hesitation, then drop straight off the side.

He does think, he pushes himself off the side of the building too, twisting his body around into a dive. Inches from the ground, he catches the boy, face wet with tears. He flies back up to the top of the skyscraper.

He sets the boys next to him. They sit with their feet dangling over the edge of the building.

"I won't save you next time."

"Good."

Dr. Moore was sleeping in his hospital bed. Her eyes flutters open, blinking in confusion as he enters the room.

"You came back."

He doesn't answer.

The boy joins him every time he goes to the tower. He always looks at him questioningly, the boy avoids his eyes.

"My name is Ben."

"My name is Linus."

They sit for a while longer.

"Why are you always here?"

Ben repeats the question back to Linus.

Neither answers.

"Nothing's keeping you here," Dr. Moore tells him.

"Nothing's keeping me from here," he replies simply.

"My dad died."

"Is that why you jumped?"

Linus hesitates. "Partly."

Ben nods curtly.

"I have nowhere else to go."

"Me neither."

He presses her against the wall. His hands trail down and grip her hips, he pulls her legs around him. She kisses him, tugging his hair lightly. Her gasps, her moans, her breaths fill the room. He sinks his teeth into her neck.

Their foreheads press together, their bodies relaxing.

"I have everything," Linus said.

"I have nothing," Ben replied.

"Why are we both here?"

"Nothing is keeping us from here."