-Final-
Aria♪
Title: Our One True Freedom
Author: Final
WC: 9,960
_____________________________
[COLOR=BoC4DE]
___________
“What… the hell…?”
I utter these meaningless words to nobody in particular, hardly able to comprehend the situation before me. I stand atop the decaying ruins of what was once a tall building as rain pours down on me from an ominously dark sky. My face twists itself into a sadistic grin, as it always does when I am faced with a hopeless situation. The rest of my body remains frozen in place: not because of the immense cold of the rain, but because of terror… or wonder. Suddenly, I feel a great gust of air force its way past me, causing my drenched hair and clothes to sway back and forth more violently and my already chilled skin to become all but numb.
As I turn my gaze skyward, 3 immense objects come soaring by overhead, carrying with them an ear-shattering roar. Anybody in this time and place knows what they are: fighter planes, made for nothing but total destruction. Realizing this fact, I have no time to question why enemy fighter planes have come to such a worthless town.
Forcing my shaking limbs out of their mechanical state, I turn around enough to find the fighter planes once again within my line of sight. With a rippling noise frighteningly similar to a building being torn off its foundations, they swerve around in unison and shoot back across the sky… back towards where I now stand. Realizing the dilemma I’m in, I finally force my seemingly unwilling body to move. I scan the nearby area for a suitable place to take shelter, but nowhere can one be found. I cover my ears with my hands and, having no other alternative, begin to run.
Sheer panic causes me to become all but oblivious to my surroundings, but at some point I notice that the roaring of the planes has grown considerably softer. I look around to see what is happening. The fighter planes are still there, but are on the complete opposite side of town, engaging in an air battle with 2 green and white planes. Those are allies, sent by this country’s military. Noting the distance between myself and the turmoil, I take off swiftly in the opposite direction.
My name is Rei: Rei Young (Or as my absurd parents once decided to name me, Reinard. I prefer the former). What else do you care to know about me? I’m a 16-year-old boy, and my only distinguishing feature is my prematurely silver hair. I never stand out in a crowd: never care to, actually. I’m perfectly content with being the person who sits in the background and watches the action from afar. I, as well as all of the rest of the world, am currently in the middle of a violent struggle: a war, and one that seems to have no meaning or end. I was born into this war, and, as some of the pessimistic leaders in this nation often predict, will probably die in it. Well, I’m alive right now. That’s good enough for me…
As I continue my trek through piles of ashes and shattered debris, the sound of thunder shakes my eardrums nearly as much as the booms and explosions of the warring planes. I don’t dare turn around to face the destruction. I force myself through this graveyard of filth. The falling raindrops feel like needles on my frozen skin, but stopping now would be like digging a grave of my own.
I finally hop out of the last of the fallen building’s remains and reach a cracked and muddy street that seems no more alive than a ghost town. I can see a rather large and secure building on the opposite side that can serve as a shelter. Naturally, I would want to get safely in there as soon as possible, but halfway across the road, I stop dead in my tracks. My gaze is taken away from freedom by a bright reflection of white light from directly to my right. Normally I would assume it’s just a distant flash of lightning and move on, but this time, my curiosity tells me better. I glance towards its source and see, standing perfectly still in such a storm and drenched from head to foot, a girl. In her hands is the source of the flash of light: a metallic white rose, wrapped to a tiny string around her neck.
“Hey!” I call out to the girl as loudly as I possibly can with all the background noise, but she takes no notice of me. All her attention is fixed on the dreary, lifeless sky. She remains completely immobile, her wavy brown hair dripping rain water over her pale white skin and gluing her drenched garments to her body. “Hey, you! What are you doing there?” Again, I get no response. “Can you even hear me?” I quickly jog over to this oblivious child, but my mind is taken over halfway by the sound of something growing louder and louder by the second. My eyes open wide with terror as I briefly glance over my shoulder at the source of the sound. “Watch out!” Hardly conscious of my actions, I jump forward and tackle the girl before me to the ground. I scrape my arm on a stray piece of glass as we roll underneath a fallen metal beam. Not a second later, a huge explosion blows half of the street we were just on to pieces. Shards of some hard metal slam against my back as a result of the explosion, but for the most part, I escape unharmed. The mysterious girl, seeming to be just as fortunate, looks up me with a terrified expression on her face. “Hurry, let’s get somewhere safe!” I tell her in the gentlest voice I can muster in such a situation. She nods, and slowly follows me out from under the debris. “This way!” I grab her small wet hand in mine and run back across the now ruined road. Luckily for us, the abandoned office building on the other side is unlocked. We walk inside a lightless room and slump down with our backs against the closest wall. Such a place is not much use in protecting against explosions, but for now it will have to do.
We lay against the wall, relishing the warmth of the dry building. The girl quietly looks deeper into the dark building with the same terrified expression she looked at me with when we were outside. I don’t know what, if anything, I can do for her, so I accept her silence and simply wait for peace to return to the town. After quite a bit of time passes, I decide to speak up. “Hey, do you- …eh?” No sooner had I begun to my attempt at conversation than the girl’s head slips down on my shoulder, fast asleep. “How can you sleep in a situation like this? Jeez…” Only now am I really able to look at who my partner is. She doesn’t look to be much older or younger than me. I feel her delicate brown hair rub against my neck as she rests her head on my shoulder. She is wearing a now-drenched pale t-shirt, crimson skirt, and brown boots: clothes that seem a bit too ordinary for a girl her age. Her tiny hands and feet seem like those of a child; ‘Heh…’ I think quietly to myself. ‘When she doesn’t have that expression on her face, she almost looks like she could be a doll.’
My carefree thoughts disappear when I truly begin to question the current situation. ‘What… was the girl doing alone out there? She seemed afraid, but she didn’t move. She watched as bombs tore apart the city. It’s almost as if… she wanted to die…’ I quickly shake my head at the horrifying thought. ‘That’s impossible.’ As I wonder such absurd things, I too close my eyes, and, though accidentally, begin to doze off.
___________
When I next awaken, I feel great warmth soaking through my now-dry clothes into my body. The sensation feels so nice that I just sit there for a while, completely unmoving. After a while, though, as my senses begin to come back to me, I realize that I am not alone. I slowly turn my gaze to the girl resting her head on my shoulder. “A… girl?” I groggily whisper, still half asleep. “Oh crap!” I finally remember what had been going on prior to my slumber and get angry at myself for falling asleep at such a crucial time. As thoughts of the fighter planes race through my head, I notice that all noise from the outside world has stopped. Bright streams of light shine through the shattered windows, telling me that the gloomy rain clouds from before have disappeared. ‘How much time has passed, I wonder? It still seems to be daylight…’
“Nnn…” I hear a slight groan to my right. I look down just as the strange young girl raises her head and glances around the room with half-open eyes, just as confused as I was moments before.
“Finally awake?” I tease her, though with a kind smile on my face.
“Kyaa!” The girl almost jumps back upon hearing my voice, but begins to blush after remembering who I am.
“Well, then. I’ll take that as a yes.” Without the girl’s weight keeping me down, I stand up and stretch my legs and arms. I look out a nearby window at the city. The destruction remains, but the fighter planes are now gone. Several white Clouds remain scattered across the sky, but the rain has stopped completely. If a good portion of this city wasn’t in pieces, it could be considered a nice day. I turn to the girl, who appears to have been staring curiously at me the whole time. “Shall we get going, then?”
Being addressed directly, the girl blushes and looks down. “Umm…” I turn, surprised, as she utters the first words I have heard from her. “What’s your name?”
“My name?” My surprise quickly turns into a grin as I gladly answer her question. “Call me Rei. Rei Young. Yours?”
“Mine?” The girl blushes again, as if a name is something to be embarrassed about. “Rinea Sandrine.”
“Well, shall we go?” I walk back over to Rinea and reach my hand out to hers. “Rin?”
“R-Rin?” Rinea seems slightly surprised by the childish nickname she was just given, but that surprise quickly turns into a slight smile. “Okay… Rei.” she nods and takes my hand. All of the dark thoughts I previously had about this girl disappear completely when I see her smile. I pull Rinea to her feet and together we walk out into the light of day.
_________
[COLOR=BoC4DE]
A soft morning breeze drifts through the grassy plains and chills my body, while a slight ray of sunshine inches its way above the mountains in the distant horizon. I tighten the jacket around my shoulders in an attempt to ward off the cold. I raise my head and look around me, but I am completely alone. I stand on a neatly mowed field of grass that has no noticeable end in any direction of sight. Not a single sound but the wind can be heard for what seems like miles. The dead, after all, aren’t exactly the rowdiest group out there. In front of me rests a pure white wooden cross, one of thousands in this vast sea of green. It is a grave marker, and on it several words are inscribed in some dark ink. “Saul Rendington… Born December 27th, 1945. Died February 14, 2016.” I read the words aloud, though nobody is there to hear them. “Heh. Well, you got what you wanted, I guess.” I tease the person whose body rests underneath my feet.
Taking my gaze away from the cross in front of me, I turn to look at all the hundreds of similar grave-markers spread throughout my area of sight. It is hard to imagine that every one of these graves belongs to a citizen of this country who died in the war. Lying here in hurried, makeshift tombs are both soldiers fallen in action and civilians caught in the crossfire. Though a good portion of the crosses are adorned with full details of a person’s life and death, others have nothing. Most of the bodies that turned up dead were never claimed by family or friends, and therefore their identities were never recognized. All these nameless people have nothing on their grave markers except the date their bodies were retrieved. Well, that’s not exactly a happy way to be known for the rest of eternity. Saul Rendington fortunately did not have to suffer this fate. He was a soldier at one point in his life, but in the end, he died as a civilian.
My own parents died in the war when I was only a few years old, so I have no recollection of being with them. They, too, have their own white crosses in this field. After they passed away, the man who now rests here, Saul Rendington, became my legal guardian for the next 8 years, until he too lost his life in a struggle with an opposing soldier. I have no idea how my parents met this man, or for how long they were acquainted, but when I was only 4, I was placed in his custody. Saul was a war veteran himself, serving many years in the military before he was discharged for reasons he never told me. He had a strict attitude that was no doubt molded by his years in combat. He never did have a happy outlook on life: not for as long as I knew him at least.
My previously expressionless face turns into a frown as I contemplate this man’s words. “Our one… true freedom…” I to this day don’t know exactly what he meant by this statement. I guess, though, in this time and place, we are not free, regardless of what our country tells us. War constantly surrounds us, and the only way to escape is through death. At least that was Saul’s philosophy on life. I cannot say the same is true for mine. “Well, such things don’t matter to me anyways…” As I say these last few words to myself, I avert my gaze from the grave and look out at the horizon in the distance. The sun has risen to a considerable height and is now well over the mountain peaks. Slinging my book bag back over my shoulder, I start to make my way towards school.
__________
School was once for me almost a punishment: a daily torture that I was forced to sit through. Nowadays, however, it has become the one place I can truly be at peace and temporarily forget about all the tragedies the war brings. Much about our daily lives has changed drastically in the recent past, so it’s nice to have at least something stay the same.
“Morning.” I open the door to a classroom and call out to nobody in particular. A few scattered voices reply with similar greetings before going back to their previous conversations. “Hmm… even fewer of us today…” I say softly, placing my book-bag on my desk. Indeed, there are only seven other people besides me in the classroom. “Hah… How depressing…” I sigh, sit down, and turn my gaze to the window. I can see people working to transport the rubble of ruined buildings out of the city. This town has long-since given up on trying to rebuild everything that has been destroyed by our enemies. Our money is better spent on trying to defend ourselves from future attacks.
“Well, isn’t that natural?” Obviously somebody else heard my previous statement, as a boy with straight, brown hair and similarly colored eyes comes over and sits down on the desk in front of mine. “With this war going on, people disappear on a daily basis. Some leave hoping to find a more peaceful home, some die in the crossfire, and some just go missing…”
“Morning, Sage.” I grin upon seeing his familiar face. “You’re especially gloomy today.”
“Naturally.” Sage replies teasingly. “I’m talking to you, of course.” I smirk at his comment, but don’t reply at the moment. “What have you been up to recently, anyways?”
“Nothing, obviously… Is there ever anything to do in this town?”
“Well, want to come with me after school? I’m planning on hanging out downtown for a while…”
“Ah… Sure…”
Our conversation comes to an abrupt end when the classroom door swings open and a young, glasses-wearing man walks in. “Morning class.” The man puts down several heavy looking textbooks on his desk in the front. “Sage, Niele, take your seats.”
“Yeah, yeah, Mr. Seindon.” Sage and another girl several rows back move to their assigned seats.
“Well, then. Today we will-…” As Mr. Seindon begins his monotonous lecture my mind wanders off into its own world. I only wish the days could remain as peaceful as they are now
_____________
School gets let out shortly after midday, when the sun is high in the sky. Sage has classroom cleaning duty for the day, so I decide to walk around town for a short while until he finishes. There are not many people besides me on the streets. People don’t really linger around outside anymore, unless they are involved in the town’s reconstruction or some other event. Most people only go out when they are moving from one place to another. Nobody knows when another attack will come, so they want to be as prepared and close to safety as possible. Before I realize it, I have already walked several blocks, and am in the northernmost part of the town. In front of me rests the oldest building in the entire area: a church. I look up at it, almost frightened by its overwhelming size. Covering most of the front side of the building is an immense stained-glass window. On it is a picture of what I suppose to be God. I look at the time on my wrist watch. There are still 20 minutes before I am supposed to meet Sage downtown. I am not religious myself, but I still decide to take a brief look inside to kill some time.
The church itself is just one big room with many rows of benches leading down to the altar in the back. I notice, in a far corner, a ladder leading up to a second floor balcony. Since there is no sign telling me not to, I decide to see what I can up there. I soon realize that there is not much on the second floor: just a few chairs, a potted plant, and the stained-glass window on the wall. On the east side is a door that probably leads to a storage room. Deciding that there is nothing else worth seeing on this level, I am about to go back down, but am interrupted by a voice from behind.
“Ah… hello.” I turn around to face a girl with long, blonde hair holding a thick book in her arms. “You’re… Rei, right?”
“Yes, umm…” I try to remember the girl’s name. “Ah, Daniella.” This girl is one of the few classmates of mine that remain.
Hearing her name, Daniella nods and sets her book down on a nearby chair. “So what brings you here?”
“Ah, I just decided to come here on a whim, I guess.” I notice a silver cross hanging from a golden string around Daniella’s neck. “Are you religious?”
Daniella quickly shakes her head. “No, no. This is a gift from my parents.”
“Ah… I see.” I decide not to pry any further into her past. As many other children have lost their parents to the war, I have learned to be sensitive about that sort of thing. “Do you come here often?”
“I guess, yeah.” Daniella sits down in a chair and looks at the stained-glass picture of God. “If you ever want to find me, I will probably be here waiting…” These words strike me as rather odd, and I don’t know what to say in response. For a while, we just sit there in silence, until I realize it’s time for me to leave.
_____________
“Oi, you’re late!” Such are the first words I hear from Sage when he sees next sees me outside an old coffee shop. He’s still carrying his book-bag over his shoulder.
“Well, it would have helped if you told me WHERE downtown you wanted to meet me, you know?” I jog over to him, slightly annoyed that he forgot such a crucial detail. I’ve spent the last 25 minutes trying to find him.
“Haha. Sorry!” Sage apologizes half-heartedly, obviously not very sorry about his mistake at all. “Well, you’re here now, so shall we get going?” I consent, and the two of us are quickly on our way. For quite a while we wander around the many shops and buildings of the main downtown district. We don’t have the money to buy anything, but we look around nonetheless.
“Hmm… I stand by the window of an ancient book store, flipping through the pages of a book appearing to be just as old. Unable to find anything interesting in it, I quickly put it back on its shelf. . “Hah…” I sigh, glancing out of the window at the street outside. There is a great gathering area with a fountain in the center. Not too long ago, it would have attracted quite a few people, but now, only a few are passing by it. Only one person sits still by the roaring fountain, holding a small book in her tiny hands. It doesn’t take long for me to recognize her as the girl I met in the recent air raid: Rinea. She wears the same plain style of clothing and, like the last time I met her, has hardly any expression on her face. I quietly leave the store without caring to tell Sage, and walk over to the lonely-looking girl.
“What are you reading?” I take a seat by Rin on the stone fountain and ask the question before she even has time to realize I’m there.
“Uwah!?!” Rinea jumps at my unexpected appearance, nearly throwing both herself and her book into the bubbling fountain. “Ah…” After regaining her composure, Rin glances over at me curiously. “…Rei?” I give her a warm smile in response, slightly surprised the girl remembered my name. The peaceful breeze and warm sun make me all-but forget about the tragedies of the war. I am soon brought cruelly back to the reality of our situation, however.
Before Rin and I are able to say any more to each other, an explosion resounds throughout the once-peaceful air, throwing the whole town into chaos. Rin screams as an unexpected quake knocks both of us off our feet onto the hard stone pavement below. Out of the corner of my eye, I see several unknown planes soaring by overhead. As the town’s emergency alarm system adds to the ongoing chaos, I come to the realization that it truly is unsafe to remain outside. “Hurry, let’s go!” I grab Rin’s hand; pull her to her feet, and immediately the two of us start running.
“Rei!” Sage comes sprinting out of the book store and joins us. “What the hell’s going on?” Then, noticing Rin for the first time, he adds: “Who’s she?”
“Rinea… a friend.” I tell him, though I don’t let up my pace in the slightest. “Let’s go!” I immediately start searching for a place to take shelter, but not one suitable haven can be found. I am about to give up and use a simple, unprotected building to hide in when another, unexpected person quickly solves the problem for me.
“Over here!” I stop in my tracks and turn my head to the right. Peering out from within a slightly open door is an all-too familiar face.
“Daniella!” Having no time for a different course of action, we swiftly turn to the right and join her. “Thanks!” Sage, Rin, and I run inside, and Daniella shuts and locks the door firmly behind us. We have entered an extremely large room that doesn’t seem to have any use at all. There is a single ceiling lamp in the center of the room, but it doesn’t adequately extend its light throughout its intended space at all.
“Well, if it isn’t you again.” Daniella turns her face and smiles to me. Not far from her stands another girl: one who is also in our class at school, Niele.
“Wouldn’t have thought I’d see you all here.” Niele smiles cheerfully, even in such a dreary situation. Her outgoing personality and constant happiness are the only things I really remember about her. She has extremely short, neck-length black hair and beady blue eyes. “Nice situation we’re in, isn’t it?” Niele adds sarcastically.
“Very.” Sage responds with that single word.
“And who is this?” Daniella turns to Rinea curiously.
“A friend of mine.” I answer in the blushing girl’s place “Rinea Sandrine.”
“Well, nice to meet you, then.” After her simple greeting, Daniella looks out of the corner of her eye at a small staircase in the corner of the room. “This probably isn’t the safest place to take shelter in a raid like this. It’s a bit of a walk, but there’s an underground area that would be much safer through that door” Daniella points her finger at the staircase she was looking at before. Indeed, at the top of it is a rusty old door. We don’t have time to question how Daniella knows her way around this place as we all move to the distant door. Not long after we set out, we hear a gunshot from outside, but we cannot slow down now.
“Rei…” Rin clutches onto my shoulder upon hearing the frightening sound.
“Don’t worry.” I tell the shaking girl. “I’ll protect you.”
“Heh, well aren’t you quite the gentleman.” Sage sarcastically says as he starts up the winding staircase. Niele giggles slightly.
“Aw, shut up, will you?”
The door at the top of the stairs is rather heavy, but with a bit of force we manage to push it open. On the other side is a dusty, obviously unused hallway that extends for what seems like forever. Emergency lights guide us through the otherwise dark passageway. We rush through it as fast as we dare, and in no time reach another door at the end. “If I remember correctly, this should lead...” Daniella turns the door knob and walks inside. “You’d think they’d lock this kind of place, even if it’s abandoned…” I almost fall backwards in surprise when I enter the next room and see the floor 20 feet below. I quickly realize that we are at the top of a narrow security walkway not immediately recognizable in the darkness. In the middle of the room below is an enormous set of stairs leading downward. “This way!” Following Daniella’s lead, we climb down a rickety ladder and the countless stairs, until we finally reach the very bottom area, which is in almost complete darkness. At the far end, against the wall are what look to me like train tracks. They continue through narrow tunnels on either side.
“This… is a subway station.” Sage seems genuinely surprised at what he sees before him. “I didn’t know we had one in this town.”
“That’s because it hasn’t been used in years.” Daniella tells him, not seeming nearly as interested in the spectacle. “My father used to work here many years ago, when it was still in operation. I came here often with him, so I know my way around pretty well.” Daniella stops when she reaches a corner of the station, next to the abandoned subway tracks and under the only light that still seems to work. We all put down our bags and rest our backs against the cold wall. “All we can do now is wait I guess…”
Niele groans at the prospect of having to wait in this depressing chamber for a long period of time, but does not complain. After that, we only talk in whispers for fear that an enemy soldier will hear us. It is very unlikely anyone will find their way here like we did, but we decide it’s best to be safe. I want to sleep, but I force my aching head to stay upright. Thankfully, only several hours later, the sounds of explosions and gunshots disappear. The alarm still remains, however, so we continue to sit and wait. Finally, that stops as well.
“Hmm?” Niele raises her head and looks around. “It stopped.” She glances around the corner and up the large flight of stairs, but she obviously sees nothing there. She slowly gets to her feet and yawns. The rest of us soon follow her. “Shall we head back?”
“Yeah. They wouldn’t shut that alarm off unless it’s completely safe out…” I explain to her as I help pull a half-asleep Rinea to her feet and the five of us begin to walk. Since it’s the only path leading to the outside world that isn’t locked, blocked off, or destroyed, we walk back the way we came, up the security ladder and through the seemingly endless tunnel at the top. At last we reach the room where we first met up. We walk down the flight of stairs and take the side door to the outside world.
It is late evening by the time everything is over. It is hard to believe that only this morning, I visited Saul’s grave, or that only 6 hours ago, school was let out for the day. Police officers, soldiers, and doctors run about and ordinary civilians quickly join us outside and start moving around. I am exhausted, and obviously not the only one, too. After saying their goodbyes, Sage, Daniella, and Niele swiftly walk off to their own homes to rest, leaving only Rinea and I. Rin has become exceedingly quiet, as I’ve noticed she often does when she’s tired. “Hey.” I take her hand and start walking. “Let’s go somewhere a bit more peaceful for a while.” Together we walk around the side of a building and lay down on a wide, grassy field. We don’t have the energy to speak. I merely rest my head on the ground and close my eyes, until I am interrupted by a terrible scream from my right.
“Rin! What’s-…” The color of my face turns deathly pale as I look up. Standing before me is a masked man dressed in military gear. In his gloved hand, he holds a pistol up to my face. I slowly back away, overcome by fear. I try to run, but stumble and hit my head on the ground. ‘No… no… I can’t die here. I-…‘ I start losing my senses as I become overwhelmed by panic. In my horror, I forget about even the one life I swore to protect.
“Over here! He went this way!” A distant voice calls out to another.
“Hurry! We have to catch that man!” A second voice answers.
“Tch.” The enemy soldier grunts upon hearing his enemies running after him. Resigned to his fate, he brings his pistol over to his right and fires a single shot. I hear a scream come from the ground I had just evacuated moments before. What little color was once in my face drains away completely as my eyes open wide in disbelief. I… can’t move.
“There he is!”
“The b******!”
I hear the sound of guns being fired from a distance, and the next second, the soldier in front of me falls to the ground dead. Many nearby people scream, wondering what is happening. My vision gets worse and worse as my horror overwhelms me. All I can hear is Rinea crying, for me the most terrifying sound in the world. The soldiers say something… it seems one of them is going for help, but I can’t hear it. My ears are filled with the same, excruciating sound… one I can do nothing about.
Before I become completely lost to my obscure thoughts and fears, I look down at the fallen soldier. His left hand is wrapped tightly around a small object. Upon taking a closer look, I realize it’s a string attached to a plain cross, much like Daniella’s. As the wind blows through, the cross sways back and forth eerily: almost like a pendulum. This simple last gesture makes the enemy soldier even seem almost human. ‘What… did he have to die for? He obviously fought for his own sense of what is right, but… what do we all fight for?’ It is a question that cannot be answered.
The next thing I know, I’m in front of a busy street, sitting alone on a white bench. Soldiers, fire-fighters, and doctors alike run about, hardly able to keep up with all of their duties. As a stretcher comes rolling past, I force my tired body to run over to it. In it lies a hardly-conscious Rin, bleeding horribly from a wound in her stomach. She opens her eyes briefly… and looks at me. I can’t look her in the face. I… swore to protect her, and yet… I ran away. I didn’t even think of her when I was in trouble. I try to act brave… and yet… I am still afraid, afraid… of death.
____________
I sit alone in a cushioned seat by a dirty window. I am in a building with pale, white walls, and an ordinary gray floor. Several pots with small plants lay scattered across the colorless room. I see several people around me: Some reading, some chatting, and some, like me, doing nothing at all. Eventually a girl not much older than me wearing a white nurse’s dress approaches me.
“You’re Rei Young, right?” She asks in a kind voice.
“Yes.”
“You can come back now.” She leads me out of the waiting area and through the monotonous building. In front of a white door she stops, lets me in, and closes the door behind me. There isn’t much in the room, and most of what there is has no color. There is only white.
“Ah.” A girl is sitting upright on a bed in the middle of the room, wearing an ordinary white dress. She puts on a cheerful smile when she sees me come in. “Aha… You came to see me.” Though she is the same girl I once knew, Rinea now seems distant and foreign to me.
‘Why is she happy? Why… is she smiling? Shouldn’t she be angry? After all, it is because of me that she got hurt, that she almost… died: All because I’m such a coward, because I’m… weak.’ I walk over to Rinea’s side and peer down into her face. “Are you alright?” Before she even has the time to respond, for reasons unknown to me, I break down and cry.
“R-Rei…” At first she seems genuinely surprised at this, but she just continues to smile. She reaches up and gently rubs the top of my hair. ‘Rin… knows nothing of the world, she is too innocent. I know I must protect her, but… I can’t. Rinea was the one who was shot… and yet, she is the one comforting me. Why? Why? I… don’t know…’
___________
[COLOR=BoC4DE]
“Ah!” A girl wearing a pure white dress sways unsteadily on her feet as a strong gale blows past her. She quickly regains her composure, however, and looks up at the brilliantly blue sky. She stands atop a bare grassy hill in a sea of trees. I stand a short distance behind her, watching her every delicate move. “Hey… Rei.” The girl, Rinea, calls out my name from where she stands, staring intently at the azure void above.
“Hmm?” Rinea’s sudden words catch me off-guard, as she has said nothing until this point.
“When there’s a world as beautiful as this…” Rinea lifts up her arms, as if to embrace the sky itself. “Why do people… kill?”
“Heh? Hmm…” It is not the kind of question I can easily answer. “I don’t know… I doubt anybody does.”
“I see…” Rinea lowers her arms to her sides and continues without a single change of expression. “I wish… people could just understand each other.”
“An impossible wish, unfortunately…”
“Hehe…” Rin smiles slightly. “I guess.” She continues staring out at the bleak nothingness of the sky. I can’t help but watch after her. It has hardly been 2 months since I first met Rin, but in that short period of time, she has opened up to me considerably. She is no longer the shy, silent girl she once was, though she still has some trouble associating with strangers. I know nothing of her past or family, but perhaps that is something she wishes to keep hidden. Maybe even she… doesn’t want to remember. I know there are things in my past that are better forgotten.
“Hmm? What’s wrong?”
“Ehh?” Lost in my thoughts, I am completely unaware of Rinea’s presence in front of me, until she wakes me up from my Reverie with her innocent words. “Ah, nothing! Nothing!” I reassure her. “I just spaced out for a second.”
“Ah, okay!” Rin grabs my hand and turns around. “Shall we go?”
“Alright.” I accept Rinea’s hand and follow her down the hill. Ever since Rinea opened up to me and let her shyness disappear, she’s become almost like a completely different person. But why has she changed? Why only me? Ever since… that incident. I try not to remember.
___________
When we finally make it out of the woods on the west side of town and walk back into civilization once more, night has nearly fallen. Rinea, having walked through all those acres of trees with her small, frail body is completely exhausted. Deciding to rest for a while, we sit down at a wooden bench in a nearby park. Rinea rests her head on my shoulder, something that a little over a month ago would have embarrassed her to death.
I frown slightly as I look down at Rin’s weary face. I’ve seen her around quite a bit in the last several weeks. She doesn’t attend any school, and by the looks of it, doesn’t have any family or a guardian taking care of her. It is not uncommon for there to be children with no families: I myself am one of those, though all of my life’s expenses are paid for by the money I inherited from my previous guardian: Saul. I have no idea how Rinea used to make her living. I only learned she was completely alone in the world after she was admitted to the hospital and the nurses began asking around for information about her. Ever since then, I have been the one supporting her: or at least as much as I can.
Our town’s population continues to get smaller by the day. Sage’s family, like many others, recently decided to move away in hope of finding a better place to live. It was a sudden decision, and he was gone before I even knew it. We all said our farewells not a week after I heard the news. I sigh. The amount of people in this town continues to go down. I don’t even know if other towns are safer. All I know is that those who leave never come back.
Only now do I realize that my partner’s breathing has become more regular and soft. “Asleep?” I quietly whisper to myself. I lay her head down in my lap and gently stroke her hair. “Just like a child…”
“Ungh!” Rin’s body suddenly tenses up.
“Ah, sorry. Did I-“ I stop my words mid-sentence, noticing that Rinea’s body hasn’t moved and her eyes remain shut. “Still asleep? Is she… dreaming?” I look down at her face, but notice something odd. Rinea’s lips are moving, mouthing the same words over and over again. “Don’t… leave… me?” I speak aloud the words that Rin fails to say. I smile sadly then bring her head up to rest against mine. “I will never… leave you.”
As the last light of day comes and dies, the two of us close our eyes, together in each others’ embrace.
_______________________
When I next awake, the only light comes from the pure white moon above. Even the nearby lamps have ceased to shine their warmth on the park around me. In a starless night like this, I can see nothing but the moon. I tightly wrap my arms around my freezing body. Fierce winds pierce the already cold air with their howling. ‘Why am I here?’ It takes me a while to remember why I am laying alone on an otherwise empty park bench. Slowly, as reality comes back to me, I remember the events that put me in such a state, and my drooping eyes quickly widen in fear. The girl who was on my shoulder when I fell asleep is now completely gone. I swiftly stand up and look around, but she is nowhere in sight. It’s not like I can see much anyways, but her figure would cast at least some shadow in the moonlight. I quickly start walking. I am slightly unsteady on my feet at first because of my recent nap and the force of the wind, but I quickly regain my sense of balance. Though I can hardly see a thing, there is someone I must find no matter what.
“Rinea!” I yell in as loud of a voice as I dare, picking my pace up to a jog and eventually a full-on run. “Rinea!” I scan every inch of the vast, empty park we sat in to rest, but I can’t seem to find her anywhere. What could have happened to her? There’s no way she would have gone off without waking me. “Rinea!” Rin-” At last I find the shadow of her dark figure standing by a sparkling lake. Her short hair sways back in forth in the wind of its own free will. “What are you doing here?” I ask her. Rinea doesn’t respond or even seem to notice my presence for a while. Her gaze is fixed on the moon’s reflection on the gently swaying waters. I walk around her still body and face her directly. With my words, I try to snap her out of her daydream. “Hey, let’s go.” I try taking her hand, but she does not move.
“Hey…” Rinea finally says as she tilts her face to one side. Only when the moonlight finally shines on it directly do I realize that her face carries the same, horrified expression it had the day I first met her. Like that one time, she doesn’t seem to hear me at first, and her expression seems dead. “Will you really… never leave me?”
“Eh?” I am unable to respond for a few seconds as she finally speaks up. I’m surprised that Rin heard the last few words I said before falling asleep, though it might be that she didn’t hear them at all, and that she is merely repeating something out of her past.. “Of… Of course.”
“Really?” Rin lifts her face up as her expression becomes hopeful for a second, but it quickly returns to its eerie emptiness. “You’re lying. You will leave me, like everyone else. I wi-will al-always b-be…” At the last few words, she begins to shake and her voice starts to stutter, and she collapses onto her knees. She wraps her arms around her chest, though I doubt it’s the cold that causes her to do so. “I will always be… alone…” She whispers the last phrase with surprising forcefulness, before her eyes close and she loses control of her body. The horror of her current state seems to have knocked her unconscious.
“Rin!!!” I run over and hold her unmoving body in my arms. There doesn’t seem to be anything seriously wrong with her. She was pretty much half asleep to begin with. I slowly and gently pick her light body up in my arms and quietly begin to walk off into the distance. ‘Rin probably has something in her past that she doesn’t want to remember… Yet in this near-sleeping state, the horror of it has come back to haunt her. I don’t know what troubles Rinea. I don’t need to know what it is. I just-…’ I tighten my grip on the now-sleeping girl. “I will never leave you… I will protect you… always.” As the two of us tread onward into the moonlight, I make the one promise I will never break.
_______________________
[COLOR=BoC4DE]
An eagle’s cry pierces the air as it soars off into the vermillion sky. “Hahaha.” A young boy’s laugh resounds through the empty evening landscape. “Higher!” I push the seemingly carefree boy back and forth on the creaking swing. It’s a rather uneventful late autumn evening. A light breeze blows through the otherwise completely calm area.
“Timmy!” a young woman calls out from afar. The boy jumps off at the top of a particularly high swing and lands soundly on his feet. “Thanks. See ya!” Timmy runs off to join his mother. I simply smile back at him.
After the boy and his mother disappear into the distance, I turn my neck so my gaze rests on an ordinary park bench, occupied by a single person. ‘’’Rei…” Noticing that everybody else has left the park, Rin puts away the book she was reading and calls out my name. I walk over to where she sits on the bench. “Shall we go?” She asks, reaching out for my hand. I nod then pose a question of my own. “Mind if we stop by somewhere for a bit?” After a nod from her, we are on our way.
The streets are almost completely empty. Well, by now the whole city is actually. Ever since the war started, people have gradually migrated out of this town, but recently it has become much worse. There aren’t even enough people around to have a working school system anymore. As Rinea and I walk along the dimly lighted sidewalk, I remember my own friends who have left this town.
In time, like Sage’s family, Niele’s too moved away to who knows where. The farewell was just as brief, though I can’t say it was unexpected. Out of our old group of friends, Daniella, Rinea, and I are the only ones who remain. I guess nobody can resist the hope of a better life. The few numbskulls left in this dump just hope that such a life can be found here. I guess I hope that too, though hope is the thing that seems in this time and place to be most easily lost.
“Hmm… still here.” In front of me is a large gray building facing a once-busy intersection. The building itself looks as if it hasn’t been used in many months. “School… eh?” I wonder aloud, walking through the large front doors. Even though it isn’t in use, it is still open for the general public. We continue up several flights of stairs until we reach the door leading to the roof. We can see most of the town from the roof’s lofty heights.
Not much has changed in this town. The days remain as peaceful as ever. The relative peace may have put everybody in good spirits, but the war is still out there, and I know these good times will one day come to an end.
As often seems the case when I think about such things, within seconds a huge explosion knocks both Rinea and I to our knees. We quickly cover our eyes and ears, anticipating the horror that is coming. The explosions do not stop there. After nearly 30 seconds of non-stop booms and quakes, the bombing begins to die down, however. When it seems safe enough to do so, Rinea and I open our eyes to the tragedy that has befallen our hometown. It is in flames.
“Rei…” Rin tightly grasps my shoulder as another bomb falls on the city. The building we are currently on top of was lucky enough to escape the destruction, but most of the town suffered a much different fate.
“Don’t worry.” I hold onto her as well, saying once again the words I’m not sure I can keep. “I will protect you.”
“Where’s Daniella?” Rin wonders. My face becomes pale when I realize that our friend is also somewhere in this turmoil. I curse the people who did this to our city, but also at the world... and at myself. I stare at the sky, now dyed a deep shade of mahogany because of the fire and smoke. I guess I knew this would happen eventually, but I didn’t want to accept it. This war could have no end but the end of humanity itself.
‘I will protect you.’
What have we been living… and fighting for this whole time.
‘Who is there to call for’
Nobody…
‘What is there to live for’
...
‘I will never leave you’
Even the simplest promises… I am unable to keep’
“If you ever want to find me, I will probably be here waiting…”
I continue to wonder what we’ve all been living for this entire time. I think of the time when Rin, Niele, Sage, Daniella, and I hid from the enemy attacks, of the time in the hospital when Rinea smiled down at me, of everything in this town I have ever known. We have been living… because we hope. Even if our world ends, we will never lose it. As the countdown of the last moments of our lives begins, we will keep on moving. I have been weak. Even in the end… will I die a coward? I… will not.
“Daniella…” I turn my gaze to the top of the town, to the old church. I have always run away. I have always been afraid. Even if I have forsaken all the rest… there is one promise I must never break. “Let’s go.” I grab Rin’s hand and start running. She is startled by my sudden determination, but does not resist. Once out on the flaming streets once more, I do not let up my pace. I know what I must do.
Most of the buildings I pass are either burnt to the ground or in flames. I hear people screaming. I wish I could help them, but right now, I have something else I have to take care of. I run through destruction and decay, my mind set on my eventual destination. At last we reach the northernmost part of the city, where only one building rests: the church, but it too is in flames, and the entire stained-glass window on the front has been blown off. My legs are aching, but still I must move on. I sprint inside the building, Rinea following closely behind. Through the smoking wreckage, I force a path to the ladder in the back. My lungs fill with smoke, and my every movement becomes heavier and heavier, but at last, I reach my destination. “I knew you’d come here…” The voice that greets me at the top is not the one I expected to hear. It’s soft, cold… and dead.
“Daniella!!!” The shards of the shattered stained-glass window are scattered about everywhere, and Daniella is lying weakly against the only bit of railing that hasn’t been completely blown off by the explosions. When Rinea finally joins us, she stops in her tracks and screams.
“I’m glad… you’re alright.” Daniella whispers in a frail, empty voice.
I cannot speak, but am forced to see the horror before me. Daniella’s body is limp and covered in blood from head to toe. Her once golden hair has been dyed red, and her once-white dress has been damaged beyond recognition. Covering her unmoving body are 8 dark, deep holes.
“No… No!” I run over and hold her in my arms. Her blood completely drenches my body, but I don’t care. There is nothing else I can do to help.
“I’m alright…” Daniella forces out the words in a hardly noticeable whisper. “I’m alright.”
“This... can’t…” Rinea chokes on her own sobbing voice and can’t get her words out.
“I’m alright…” Daniella repeats the same, obviously untrue statement. “You’re… alive.” With these final two words, her head falls back onto the wooden railing and she closes her eyes to the world one last time. I leave the girl’s grasp and back away, unable to accept what has just happened. As a last gust of air blows by the limp body, the blood-stained cross around her neck flutters slightly before returning to complete stillness.
“Daniella!” Rin grabs the pale girl’s hand, sobbing ever more violently. I want to comfort her, but there is nothing I can do. I can’t even comfort myself. I turn around and face the still-ongoing destruction, wondering if the pain will ever end. No help is coming to end this terror. This… is the end. Suddenly, the fighting war planes disappear, vanishing into thin air with a burst of silver light. Accompanying this is a deep resounding cry.
From the far horizon, a bright, pure white light shines through the smoke-filled darkness. Beyond it emerges a frightening figure: an enormous, humanlike figure, though gray and withered. Its 8, colorless, golden eyes are wide open, scanning the world. Its scaly hands are bloody and bandaged, and in them… is a glowing sphere: a globe of the world itself. Finally come down to earth to pass judgment on mankind… is God.
The one known as God lets out a great, ear-shattering roar, and the globe in his hands starts glowing ever more brightly. Gradually, all signs of human existence in the city before me begin to disappear: returning to the brown earth that once existed here. “I… see…” I can say nothing else as I reach out and grab Rinea’s shaking hand. ”God…” My vision and hearing become blurred, my mind blank, and I return to a world of nothingness.
____________
[COLOR=BoC4DE]
‘Am I… dead? Surely I am… but… If this is what it feels like to die, it isn’t so bad.’ I open my eyes to a new world, devoid of the curse of humanity. My whole body is soaked to its core by some soft, warm liquid. My body is almost unable to feel anything. It’s almost like… a dream.
My body seems to be swaying back and forth of its own free will. I turn my head to the right. Water… if one could even call it that. I seem to be lying on a raft in a sea of silver. Above me is a glossy, crystalline white sky. There are no stars, no sun, no clouds, only a dazzling brilliant white. The only objects with any color come from out of the sea of silver itself. Deep sapphire towers of crystal sprout out from an otherwise empty wasteland. A deep glow emanates from these objects, giving the world its light.
I close my weary eyes and bask in the warmth of this empty afterlife. “Who… am I?” from the depths of my mind comes the simplest of questions, but there is no answer. A faint sound reaches my ears, but I am incapable of discerning it. I open my eyes once again. “A voice… surely not.”
“………i”
… Impossible. I can’t hear what its saying.
“……….i”
“…….i”
“………ei”
“……………………..Rei!”
My eyes shoot wide open upon hearing that all-too familiar sound. ‘Re…i. Rei.’ Memories of things that may or may not have happened race through my head: of times long gone… in another world… or this one. ‘Rei…’ Slowly, my past life comes back to me. ‘…Rin.’
I jump up from my position on that white raft. “Rin!” I am not alone. On the other side of this purposeless piece of wood in a sea of nothingness is another person… I force my dreary body into a standing position and run over to where she sits by the side of the raft, her face completely devoid of color. Her drenched body seems as fragile as a flower of glass.
My memories come back to me: my sense of being returns. Everything returns as my reverie comes to an end. That’s right. This isn’t death, but life. This is the world… our world. Or at least, it once was. Only now am I able to fully realize what has happened, to come to the sad realization that this bleak nothingness was once called home. Tears fill my eyes as I remember times of the past, when humanity still existed.
“Rei…” the one close to me calls out, noticing my tears, and then, too starts to sob. I hold onto her hand, not daring to let go, for fear that she would slip away forever. That’s right. Not all is gone. Not all is lost. The world is still whole. We are still here. Even though God brought down his judgment on human beings, we are still alive. I still have… Rinea.
“What… will we do?” Rinea chokes out these words through her countless sobs.
“Who knows?” I respond with the only answer I could possible give. “Everything will be alright.”
As time passes, Rinea and I look out at the sea together. A slight breeze is at our backs, carrying us ever onward. Only God knows where our path leads.
“Rei?” Rinea asks after who knows how much time has passed.
“Hmm?”
“Will… we live?” The question she asks is quite unfitting for the small girl beside me.
I smile, not even having to think about the question. “Of course.”
Rinea is a girl blessed with the gift of love. She is naïve when it comes to the cruelty of the world, yet she is pure, and has been shown kindness. Thus she has been chosen to live, to carry on the love she was once shown: the love only a mother can give. As the world ends, not all is lost. Through all the hardships of life, we carry on. As we sail on through our journey, our hope always remains.
[COLOR=BoC4DE]
[/COLOR]
Author: Final
WC: 9,960
_____________________________
[COLOR=BoC4DE]
Who is there to call for?
When a breath of air takes the light away
What is there to live for?
When mankind’s only destiny is to fall victim to its sins
When a breath of air takes the light away
What is there to live for?
When mankind’s only destiny is to fall victim to its sins
___________
“What… the hell…?”
I utter these meaningless words to nobody in particular, hardly able to comprehend the situation before me. I stand atop the decaying ruins of what was once a tall building as rain pours down on me from an ominously dark sky. My face twists itself into a sadistic grin, as it always does when I am faced with a hopeless situation. The rest of my body remains frozen in place: not because of the immense cold of the rain, but because of terror… or wonder. Suddenly, I feel a great gust of air force its way past me, causing my drenched hair and clothes to sway back and forth more violently and my already chilled skin to become all but numb.
As I turn my gaze skyward, 3 immense objects come soaring by overhead, carrying with them an ear-shattering roar. Anybody in this time and place knows what they are: fighter planes, made for nothing but total destruction. Realizing this fact, I have no time to question why enemy fighter planes have come to such a worthless town.
Forcing my shaking limbs out of their mechanical state, I turn around enough to find the fighter planes once again within my line of sight. With a rippling noise frighteningly similar to a building being torn off its foundations, they swerve around in unison and shoot back across the sky… back towards where I now stand. Realizing the dilemma I’m in, I finally force my seemingly unwilling body to move. I scan the nearby area for a suitable place to take shelter, but nowhere can one be found. I cover my ears with my hands and, having no other alternative, begin to run.
Sheer panic causes me to become all but oblivious to my surroundings, but at some point I notice that the roaring of the planes has grown considerably softer. I look around to see what is happening. The fighter planes are still there, but are on the complete opposite side of town, engaging in an air battle with 2 green and white planes. Those are allies, sent by this country’s military. Noting the distance between myself and the turmoil, I take off swiftly in the opposite direction.
My name is Rei: Rei Young (Or as my absurd parents once decided to name me, Reinard. I prefer the former). What else do you care to know about me? I’m a 16-year-old boy, and my only distinguishing feature is my prematurely silver hair. I never stand out in a crowd: never care to, actually. I’m perfectly content with being the person who sits in the background and watches the action from afar. I, as well as all of the rest of the world, am currently in the middle of a violent struggle: a war, and one that seems to have no meaning or end. I was born into this war, and, as some of the pessimistic leaders in this nation often predict, will probably die in it. Well, I’m alive right now. That’s good enough for me…
As I continue my trek through piles of ashes and shattered debris, the sound of thunder shakes my eardrums nearly as much as the booms and explosions of the warring planes. I don’t dare turn around to face the destruction. I force myself through this graveyard of filth. The falling raindrops feel like needles on my frozen skin, but stopping now would be like digging a grave of my own.
I finally hop out of the last of the fallen building’s remains and reach a cracked and muddy street that seems no more alive than a ghost town. I can see a rather large and secure building on the opposite side that can serve as a shelter. Naturally, I would want to get safely in there as soon as possible, but halfway across the road, I stop dead in my tracks. My gaze is taken away from freedom by a bright reflection of white light from directly to my right. Normally I would assume it’s just a distant flash of lightning and move on, but this time, my curiosity tells me better. I glance towards its source and see, standing perfectly still in such a storm and drenched from head to foot, a girl. In her hands is the source of the flash of light: a metallic white rose, wrapped to a tiny string around her neck.
“Hey!” I call out to the girl as loudly as I possibly can with all the background noise, but she takes no notice of me. All her attention is fixed on the dreary, lifeless sky. She remains completely immobile, her wavy brown hair dripping rain water over her pale white skin and gluing her drenched garments to her body. “Hey, you! What are you doing there?” Again, I get no response. “Can you even hear me?” I quickly jog over to this oblivious child, but my mind is taken over halfway by the sound of something growing louder and louder by the second. My eyes open wide with terror as I briefly glance over my shoulder at the source of the sound. “Watch out!” Hardly conscious of my actions, I jump forward and tackle the girl before me to the ground. I scrape my arm on a stray piece of glass as we roll underneath a fallen metal beam. Not a second later, a huge explosion blows half of the street we were just on to pieces. Shards of some hard metal slam against my back as a result of the explosion, but for the most part, I escape unharmed. The mysterious girl, seeming to be just as fortunate, looks up me with a terrified expression on her face. “Hurry, let’s get somewhere safe!” I tell her in the gentlest voice I can muster in such a situation. She nods, and slowly follows me out from under the debris. “This way!” I grab her small wet hand in mine and run back across the now ruined road. Luckily for us, the abandoned office building on the other side is unlocked. We walk inside a lightless room and slump down with our backs against the closest wall. Such a place is not much use in protecting against explosions, but for now it will have to do.
We lay against the wall, relishing the warmth of the dry building. The girl quietly looks deeper into the dark building with the same terrified expression she looked at me with when we were outside. I don’t know what, if anything, I can do for her, so I accept her silence and simply wait for peace to return to the town. After quite a bit of time passes, I decide to speak up. “Hey, do you- …eh?” No sooner had I begun to my attempt at conversation than the girl’s head slips down on my shoulder, fast asleep. “How can you sleep in a situation like this? Jeez…” Only now am I really able to look at who my partner is. She doesn’t look to be much older or younger than me. I feel her delicate brown hair rub against my neck as she rests her head on my shoulder. She is wearing a now-drenched pale t-shirt, crimson skirt, and brown boots: clothes that seem a bit too ordinary for a girl her age. Her tiny hands and feet seem like those of a child; ‘Heh…’ I think quietly to myself. ‘When she doesn’t have that expression on her face, she almost looks like she could be a doll.’
My carefree thoughts disappear when I truly begin to question the current situation. ‘What… was the girl doing alone out there? She seemed afraid, but she didn’t move. She watched as bombs tore apart the city. It’s almost as if… she wanted to die…’ I quickly shake my head at the horrifying thought. ‘That’s impossible.’ As I wonder such absurd things, I too close my eyes, and, though accidentally, begin to doze off.
___________
When I next awaken, I feel great warmth soaking through my now-dry clothes into my body. The sensation feels so nice that I just sit there for a while, completely unmoving. After a while, though, as my senses begin to come back to me, I realize that I am not alone. I slowly turn my gaze to the girl resting her head on my shoulder. “A… girl?” I groggily whisper, still half asleep. “Oh crap!” I finally remember what had been going on prior to my slumber and get angry at myself for falling asleep at such a crucial time. As thoughts of the fighter planes race through my head, I notice that all noise from the outside world has stopped. Bright streams of light shine through the shattered windows, telling me that the gloomy rain clouds from before have disappeared. ‘How much time has passed, I wonder? It still seems to be daylight…’
“Nnn…” I hear a slight groan to my right. I look down just as the strange young girl raises her head and glances around the room with half-open eyes, just as confused as I was moments before.
“Finally awake?” I tease her, though with a kind smile on my face.
“Kyaa!” The girl almost jumps back upon hearing my voice, but begins to blush after remembering who I am.
“Well, then. I’ll take that as a yes.” Without the girl’s weight keeping me down, I stand up and stretch my legs and arms. I look out a nearby window at the city. The destruction remains, but the fighter planes are now gone. Several white Clouds remain scattered across the sky, but the rain has stopped completely. If a good portion of this city wasn’t in pieces, it could be considered a nice day. I turn to the girl, who appears to have been staring curiously at me the whole time. “Shall we get going, then?”
Being addressed directly, the girl blushes and looks down. “Umm…” I turn, surprised, as she utters the first words I have heard from her. “What’s your name?”
“My name?” My surprise quickly turns into a grin as I gladly answer her question. “Call me Rei. Rei Young. Yours?”
“Mine?” The girl blushes again, as if a name is something to be embarrassed about. “Rinea Sandrine.”
“Well, shall we go?” I walk back over to Rinea and reach my hand out to hers. “Rin?”
“R-Rin?” Rinea seems slightly surprised by the childish nickname she was just given, but that surprise quickly turns into a slight smile. “Okay… Rei.” she nods and takes my hand. All of the dark thoughts I previously had about this girl disappear completely when I see her smile. I pull Rinea to her feet and together we walk out into the light of day.
_________
[COLOR=BoC4DE]
A Man once told me that all a person’s worth is determined by how he/she dies
‘Life is a Curse’ he would say,
‘And our one true freedom is death’
Well, look where that got him…
[/COLOR]‘Life is a Curse’ he would say,
‘And our one true freedom is death’
Well, look where that got him…
A soft morning breeze drifts through the grassy plains and chills my body, while a slight ray of sunshine inches its way above the mountains in the distant horizon. I tighten the jacket around my shoulders in an attempt to ward off the cold. I raise my head and look around me, but I am completely alone. I stand on a neatly mowed field of grass that has no noticeable end in any direction of sight. Not a single sound but the wind can be heard for what seems like miles. The dead, after all, aren’t exactly the rowdiest group out there. In front of me rests a pure white wooden cross, one of thousands in this vast sea of green. It is a grave marker, and on it several words are inscribed in some dark ink. “Saul Rendington… Born December 27th, 1945. Died February 14, 2016.” I read the words aloud, though nobody is there to hear them. “Heh. Well, you got what you wanted, I guess.” I tease the person whose body rests underneath my feet.
Taking my gaze away from the cross in front of me, I turn to look at all the hundreds of similar grave-markers spread throughout my area of sight. It is hard to imagine that every one of these graves belongs to a citizen of this country who died in the war. Lying here in hurried, makeshift tombs are both soldiers fallen in action and civilians caught in the crossfire. Though a good portion of the crosses are adorned with full details of a person’s life and death, others have nothing. Most of the bodies that turned up dead were never claimed by family or friends, and therefore their identities were never recognized. All these nameless people have nothing on their grave markers except the date their bodies were retrieved. Well, that’s not exactly a happy way to be known for the rest of eternity. Saul Rendington fortunately did not have to suffer this fate. He was a soldier at one point in his life, but in the end, he died as a civilian.
My own parents died in the war when I was only a few years old, so I have no recollection of being with them. They, too, have their own white crosses in this field. After they passed away, the man who now rests here, Saul Rendington, became my legal guardian for the next 8 years, until he too lost his life in a struggle with an opposing soldier. I have no idea how my parents met this man, or for how long they were acquainted, but when I was only 4, I was placed in his custody. Saul was a war veteran himself, serving many years in the military before he was discharged for reasons he never told me. He had a strict attitude that was no doubt molded by his years in combat. He never did have a happy outlook on life: not for as long as I knew him at least.
My previously expressionless face turns into a frown as I contemplate this man’s words. “Our one… true freedom…” I to this day don’t know exactly what he meant by this statement. I guess, though, in this time and place, we are not free, regardless of what our country tells us. War constantly surrounds us, and the only way to escape is through death. At least that was Saul’s philosophy on life. I cannot say the same is true for mine. “Well, such things don’t matter to me anyways…” As I say these last few words to myself, I avert my gaze from the grave and look out at the horizon in the distance. The sun has risen to a considerable height and is now well over the mountain peaks. Slinging my book bag back over my shoulder, I start to make my way towards school.
__________
School was once for me almost a punishment: a daily torture that I was forced to sit through. Nowadays, however, it has become the one place I can truly be at peace and temporarily forget about all the tragedies the war brings. Much about our daily lives has changed drastically in the recent past, so it’s nice to have at least something stay the same.
“Morning.” I open the door to a classroom and call out to nobody in particular. A few scattered voices reply with similar greetings before going back to their previous conversations. “Hmm… even fewer of us today…” I say softly, placing my book-bag on my desk. Indeed, there are only seven other people besides me in the classroom. “Hah… How depressing…” I sigh, sit down, and turn my gaze to the window. I can see people working to transport the rubble of ruined buildings out of the city. This town has long-since given up on trying to rebuild everything that has been destroyed by our enemies. Our money is better spent on trying to defend ourselves from future attacks.
“Well, isn’t that natural?” Obviously somebody else heard my previous statement, as a boy with straight, brown hair and similarly colored eyes comes over and sits down on the desk in front of mine. “With this war going on, people disappear on a daily basis. Some leave hoping to find a more peaceful home, some die in the crossfire, and some just go missing…”
“Morning, Sage.” I grin upon seeing his familiar face. “You’re especially gloomy today.”
“Naturally.” Sage replies teasingly. “I’m talking to you, of course.” I smirk at his comment, but don’t reply at the moment. “What have you been up to recently, anyways?”
“Nothing, obviously… Is there ever anything to do in this town?”
“Well, want to come with me after school? I’m planning on hanging out downtown for a while…”
“Ah… Sure…”
Our conversation comes to an abrupt end when the classroom door swings open and a young, glasses-wearing man walks in. “Morning class.” The man puts down several heavy looking textbooks on his desk in the front. “Sage, Niele, take your seats.”
“Yeah, yeah, Mr. Seindon.” Sage and another girl several rows back move to their assigned seats.
“Well, then. Today we will-…” As Mr. Seindon begins his monotonous lecture my mind wanders off into its own world. I only wish the days could remain as peaceful as they are now
_____________
School gets let out shortly after midday, when the sun is high in the sky. Sage has classroom cleaning duty for the day, so I decide to walk around town for a short while until he finishes. There are not many people besides me on the streets. People don’t really linger around outside anymore, unless they are involved in the town’s reconstruction or some other event. Most people only go out when they are moving from one place to another. Nobody knows when another attack will come, so they want to be as prepared and close to safety as possible. Before I realize it, I have already walked several blocks, and am in the northernmost part of the town. In front of me rests the oldest building in the entire area: a church. I look up at it, almost frightened by its overwhelming size. Covering most of the front side of the building is an immense stained-glass window. On it is a picture of what I suppose to be God. I look at the time on my wrist watch. There are still 20 minutes before I am supposed to meet Sage downtown. I am not religious myself, but I still decide to take a brief look inside to kill some time.
The church itself is just one big room with many rows of benches leading down to the altar in the back. I notice, in a far corner, a ladder leading up to a second floor balcony. Since there is no sign telling me not to, I decide to see what I can up there. I soon realize that there is not much on the second floor: just a few chairs, a potted plant, and the stained-glass window on the wall. On the east side is a door that probably leads to a storage room. Deciding that there is nothing else worth seeing on this level, I am about to go back down, but am interrupted by a voice from behind.
“Ah… hello.” I turn around to face a girl with long, blonde hair holding a thick book in her arms. “You’re… Rei, right?”
“Yes, umm…” I try to remember the girl’s name. “Ah, Daniella.” This girl is one of the few classmates of mine that remain.
Hearing her name, Daniella nods and sets her book down on a nearby chair. “So what brings you here?”
“Ah, I just decided to come here on a whim, I guess.” I notice a silver cross hanging from a golden string around Daniella’s neck. “Are you religious?”
Daniella quickly shakes her head. “No, no. This is a gift from my parents.”
“Ah… I see.” I decide not to pry any further into her past. As many other children have lost their parents to the war, I have learned to be sensitive about that sort of thing. “Do you come here often?”
“I guess, yeah.” Daniella sits down in a chair and looks at the stained-glass picture of God. “If you ever want to find me, I will probably be here waiting…” These words strike me as rather odd, and I don’t know what to say in response. For a while, we just sit there in silence, until I realize it’s time for me to leave.
_____________
“Oi, you’re late!” Such are the first words I hear from Sage when he sees next sees me outside an old coffee shop. He’s still carrying his book-bag over his shoulder.
“Well, it would have helped if you told me WHERE downtown you wanted to meet me, you know?” I jog over to him, slightly annoyed that he forgot such a crucial detail. I’ve spent the last 25 minutes trying to find him.
“Haha. Sorry!” Sage apologizes half-heartedly, obviously not very sorry about his mistake at all. “Well, you’re here now, so shall we get going?” I consent, and the two of us are quickly on our way. For quite a while we wander around the many shops and buildings of the main downtown district. We don’t have the money to buy anything, but we look around nonetheless.
“Hmm… I stand by the window of an ancient book store, flipping through the pages of a book appearing to be just as old. Unable to find anything interesting in it, I quickly put it back on its shelf. . “Hah…” I sigh, glancing out of the window at the street outside. There is a great gathering area with a fountain in the center. Not too long ago, it would have attracted quite a few people, but now, only a few are passing by it. Only one person sits still by the roaring fountain, holding a small book in her tiny hands. It doesn’t take long for me to recognize her as the girl I met in the recent air raid: Rinea. She wears the same plain style of clothing and, like the last time I met her, has hardly any expression on her face. I quietly leave the store without caring to tell Sage, and walk over to the lonely-looking girl.
“What are you reading?” I take a seat by Rin on the stone fountain and ask the question before she even has time to realize I’m there.
“Uwah!?!” Rinea jumps at my unexpected appearance, nearly throwing both herself and her book into the bubbling fountain. “Ah…” After regaining her composure, Rin glances over at me curiously. “…Rei?” I give her a warm smile in response, slightly surprised the girl remembered my name. The peaceful breeze and warm sun make me all-but forget about the tragedies of the war. I am soon brought cruelly back to the reality of our situation, however.
Before Rin and I are able to say any more to each other, an explosion resounds throughout the once-peaceful air, throwing the whole town into chaos. Rin screams as an unexpected quake knocks both of us off our feet onto the hard stone pavement below. Out of the corner of my eye, I see several unknown planes soaring by overhead. As the town’s emergency alarm system adds to the ongoing chaos, I come to the realization that it truly is unsafe to remain outside. “Hurry, let’s go!” I grab Rin’s hand; pull her to her feet, and immediately the two of us start running.
“Rei!” Sage comes sprinting out of the book store and joins us. “What the hell’s going on?” Then, noticing Rin for the first time, he adds: “Who’s she?”
“Rinea… a friend.” I tell him, though I don’t let up my pace in the slightest. “Let’s go!” I immediately start searching for a place to take shelter, but not one suitable haven can be found. I am about to give up and use a simple, unprotected building to hide in when another, unexpected person quickly solves the problem for me.
“Over here!” I stop in my tracks and turn my head to the right. Peering out from within a slightly open door is an all-too familiar face.
“Daniella!” Having no time for a different course of action, we swiftly turn to the right and join her. “Thanks!” Sage, Rin, and I run inside, and Daniella shuts and locks the door firmly behind us. We have entered an extremely large room that doesn’t seem to have any use at all. There is a single ceiling lamp in the center of the room, but it doesn’t adequately extend its light throughout its intended space at all.
“Well, if it isn’t you again.” Daniella turns her face and smiles to me. Not far from her stands another girl: one who is also in our class at school, Niele.
“Wouldn’t have thought I’d see you all here.” Niele smiles cheerfully, even in such a dreary situation. Her outgoing personality and constant happiness are the only things I really remember about her. She has extremely short, neck-length black hair and beady blue eyes. “Nice situation we’re in, isn’t it?” Niele adds sarcastically.
“Very.” Sage responds with that single word.
“And who is this?” Daniella turns to Rinea curiously.
“A friend of mine.” I answer in the blushing girl’s place “Rinea Sandrine.”
“Well, nice to meet you, then.” After her simple greeting, Daniella looks out of the corner of her eye at a small staircase in the corner of the room. “This probably isn’t the safest place to take shelter in a raid like this. It’s a bit of a walk, but there’s an underground area that would be much safer through that door” Daniella points her finger at the staircase she was looking at before. Indeed, at the top of it is a rusty old door. We don’t have time to question how Daniella knows her way around this place as we all move to the distant door. Not long after we set out, we hear a gunshot from outside, but we cannot slow down now.
“Rei…” Rin clutches onto my shoulder upon hearing the frightening sound.
“Don’t worry.” I tell the shaking girl. “I’ll protect you.”
“Heh, well aren’t you quite the gentleman.” Sage sarcastically says as he starts up the winding staircase. Niele giggles slightly.
“Aw, shut up, will you?”
The door at the top of the stairs is rather heavy, but with a bit of force we manage to push it open. On the other side is a dusty, obviously unused hallway that extends for what seems like forever. Emergency lights guide us through the otherwise dark passageway. We rush through it as fast as we dare, and in no time reach another door at the end. “If I remember correctly, this should lead...” Daniella turns the door knob and walks inside. “You’d think they’d lock this kind of place, even if it’s abandoned…” I almost fall backwards in surprise when I enter the next room and see the floor 20 feet below. I quickly realize that we are at the top of a narrow security walkway not immediately recognizable in the darkness. In the middle of the room below is an enormous set of stairs leading downward. “This way!” Following Daniella’s lead, we climb down a rickety ladder and the countless stairs, until we finally reach the very bottom area, which is in almost complete darkness. At the far end, against the wall are what look to me like train tracks. They continue through narrow tunnels on either side.
“This… is a subway station.” Sage seems genuinely surprised at what he sees before him. “I didn’t know we had one in this town.”
“That’s because it hasn’t been used in years.” Daniella tells him, not seeming nearly as interested in the spectacle. “My father used to work here many years ago, when it was still in operation. I came here often with him, so I know my way around pretty well.” Daniella stops when she reaches a corner of the station, next to the abandoned subway tracks and under the only light that still seems to work. We all put down our bags and rest our backs against the cold wall. “All we can do now is wait I guess…”
Niele groans at the prospect of having to wait in this depressing chamber for a long period of time, but does not complain. After that, we only talk in whispers for fear that an enemy soldier will hear us. It is very unlikely anyone will find their way here like we did, but we decide it’s best to be safe. I want to sleep, but I force my aching head to stay upright. Thankfully, only several hours later, the sounds of explosions and gunshots disappear. The alarm still remains, however, so we continue to sit and wait. Finally, that stops as well.
“Hmm?” Niele raises her head and looks around. “It stopped.” She glances around the corner and up the large flight of stairs, but she obviously sees nothing there. She slowly gets to her feet and yawns. The rest of us soon follow her. “Shall we head back?”
“Yeah. They wouldn’t shut that alarm off unless it’s completely safe out…” I explain to her as I help pull a half-asleep Rinea to her feet and the five of us begin to walk. Since it’s the only path leading to the outside world that isn’t locked, blocked off, or destroyed, we walk back the way we came, up the security ladder and through the seemingly endless tunnel at the top. At last we reach the room where we first met up. We walk down the flight of stairs and take the side door to the outside world.
It is late evening by the time everything is over. It is hard to believe that only this morning, I visited Saul’s grave, or that only 6 hours ago, school was let out for the day. Police officers, soldiers, and doctors run about and ordinary civilians quickly join us outside and start moving around. I am exhausted, and obviously not the only one, too. After saying their goodbyes, Sage, Daniella, and Niele swiftly walk off to their own homes to rest, leaving only Rinea and I. Rin has become exceedingly quiet, as I’ve noticed she often does when she’s tired. “Hey.” I take her hand and start walking. “Let’s go somewhere a bit more peaceful for a while.” Together we walk around the side of a building and lay down on a wide, grassy field. We don’t have the energy to speak. I merely rest my head on the ground and close my eyes, until I am interrupted by a terrible scream from my right.
“Rin! What’s-…” The color of my face turns deathly pale as I look up. Standing before me is a masked man dressed in military gear. In his gloved hand, he holds a pistol up to my face. I slowly back away, overcome by fear. I try to run, but stumble and hit my head on the ground. ‘No… no… I can’t die here. I-…‘ I start losing my senses as I become overwhelmed by panic. In my horror, I forget about even the one life I swore to protect.
“Over here! He went this way!” A distant voice calls out to another.
“Hurry! We have to catch that man!” A second voice answers.
“Tch.” The enemy soldier grunts upon hearing his enemies running after him. Resigned to his fate, he brings his pistol over to his right and fires a single shot. I hear a scream come from the ground I had just evacuated moments before. What little color was once in my face drains away completely as my eyes open wide in disbelief. I… can’t move.
“There he is!”
“The b******!”
I hear the sound of guns being fired from a distance, and the next second, the soldier in front of me falls to the ground dead. Many nearby people scream, wondering what is happening. My vision gets worse and worse as my horror overwhelms me. All I can hear is Rinea crying, for me the most terrifying sound in the world. The soldiers say something… it seems one of them is going for help, but I can’t hear it. My ears are filled with the same, excruciating sound… one I can do nothing about.
Before I become completely lost to my obscure thoughts and fears, I look down at the fallen soldier. His left hand is wrapped tightly around a small object. Upon taking a closer look, I realize it’s a string attached to a plain cross, much like Daniella’s. As the wind blows through, the cross sways back and forth eerily: almost like a pendulum. This simple last gesture makes the enemy soldier even seem almost human. ‘What… did he have to die for? He obviously fought for his own sense of what is right, but… what do we all fight for?’ It is a question that cannot be answered.
The next thing I know, I’m in front of a busy street, sitting alone on a white bench. Soldiers, fire-fighters, and doctors alike run about, hardly able to keep up with all of their duties. As a stretcher comes rolling past, I force my tired body to run over to it. In it lies a hardly-conscious Rin, bleeding horribly from a wound in her stomach. She opens her eyes briefly… and looks at me. I can’t look her in the face. I… swore to protect her, and yet… I ran away. I didn’t even think of her when I was in trouble. I try to act brave… and yet… I am still afraid, afraid… of death.
____________
I sit alone in a cushioned seat by a dirty window. I am in a building with pale, white walls, and an ordinary gray floor. Several pots with small plants lay scattered across the colorless room. I see several people around me: Some reading, some chatting, and some, like me, doing nothing at all. Eventually a girl not much older than me wearing a white nurse’s dress approaches me.
“You’re Rei Young, right?” She asks in a kind voice.
“Yes.”
“You can come back now.” She leads me out of the waiting area and through the monotonous building. In front of a white door she stops, lets me in, and closes the door behind me. There isn’t much in the room, and most of what there is has no color. There is only white.
“Ah.” A girl is sitting upright on a bed in the middle of the room, wearing an ordinary white dress. She puts on a cheerful smile when she sees me come in. “Aha… You came to see me.” Though she is the same girl I once knew, Rinea now seems distant and foreign to me.
‘Why is she happy? Why… is she smiling? Shouldn’t she be angry? After all, it is because of me that she got hurt, that she almost… died: All because I’m such a coward, because I’m… weak.’ I walk over to Rinea’s side and peer down into her face. “Are you alright?” Before she even has the time to respond, for reasons unknown to me, I break down and cry.
“R-Rei…” At first she seems genuinely surprised at this, but she just continues to smile. She reaches up and gently rubs the top of my hair. ‘Rin… knows nothing of the world, she is too innocent. I know I must protect her, but… I can’t. Rinea was the one who was shot… and yet, she is the one comforting me. Why? Why? I… don’t know…’
___________
[COLOR=BoC4DE]
It is a common thought that a picture tells a thousand words
What of the sky then, a picture that constantly changes?
In it we may find the meaning of life
Or of death
[/COLOR]What of the sky then, a picture that constantly changes?
In it we may find the meaning of life
Or of death
“Ah!” A girl wearing a pure white dress sways unsteadily on her feet as a strong gale blows past her. She quickly regains her composure, however, and looks up at the brilliantly blue sky. She stands atop a bare grassy hill in a sea of trees. I stand a short distance behind her, watching her every delicate move. “Hey… Rei.” The girl, Rinea, calls out my name from where she stands, staring intently at the azure void above.
“Hmm?” Rinea’s sudden words catch me off-guard, as she has said nothing until this point.
“When there’s a world as beautiful as this…” Rinea lifts up her arms, as if to embrace the sky itself. “Why do people… kill?”
“Heh? Hmm…” It is not the kind of question I can easily answer. “I don’t know… I doubt anybody does.”
“I see…” Rinea lowers her arms to her sides and continues without a single change of expression. “I wish… people could just understand each other.”
“An impossible wish, unfortunately…”
“Hehe…” Rin smiles slightly. “I guess.” She continues staring out at the bleak nothingness of the sky. I can’t help but watch after her. It has hardly been 2 months since I first met Rin, but in that short period of time, she has opened up to me considerably. She is no longer the shy, silent girl she once was, though she still has some trouble associating with strangers. I know nothing of her past or family, but perhaps that is something she wishes to keep hidden. Maybe even she… doesn’t want to remember. I know there are things in my past that are better forgotten.
“Hmm? What’s wrong?”
“Ehh?” Lost in my thoughts, I am completely unaware of Rinea’s presence in front of me, until she wakes me up from my Reverie with her innocent words. “Ah, nothing! Nothing!” I reassure her. “I just spaced out for a second.”
“Ah, okay!” Rin grabs my hand and turns around. “Shall we go?”
“Alright.” I accept Rinea’s hand and follow her down the hill. Ever since Rinea opened up to me and let her shyness disappear, she’s become almost like a completely different person. But why has she changed? Why only me? Ever since… that incident. I try not to remember.
___________
When we finally make it out of the woods on the west side of town and walk back into civilization once more, night has nearly fallen. Rinea, having walked through all those acres of trees with her small, frail body is completely exhausted. Deciding to rest for a while, we sit down at a wooden bench in a nearby park. Rinea rests her head on my shoulder, something that a little over a month ago would have embarrassed her to death.
I frown slightly as I look down at Rin’s weary face. I’ve seen her around quite a bit in the last several weeks. She doesn’t attend any school, and by the looks of it, doesn’t have any family or a guardian taking care of her. It is not uncommon for there to be children with no families: I myself am one of those, though all of my life’s expenses are paid for by the money I inherited from my previous guardian: Saul. I have no idea how Rinea used to make her living. I only learned she was completely alone in the world after she was admitted to the hospital and the nurses began asking around for information about her. Ever since then, I have been the one supporting her: or at least as much as I can.
Our town’s population continues to get smaller by the day. Sage’s family, like many others, recently decided to move away in hope of finding a better place to live. It was a sudden decision, and he was gone before I even knew it. We all said our farewells not a week after I heard the news. I sigh. The amount of people in this town continues to go down. I don’t even know if other towns are safer. All I know is that those who leave never come back.
Only now do I realize that my partner’s breathing has become more regular and soft. “Asleep?” I quietly whisper to myself. I lay her head down in my lap and gently stroke her hair. “Just like a child…”
“Ungh!” Rin’s body suddenly tenses up.
“Ah, sorry. Did I-“ I stop my words mid-sentence, noticing that Rinea’s body hasn’t moved and her eyes remain shut. “Still asleep? Is she… dreaming?” I look down at her face, but notice something odd. Rinea’s lips are moving, mouthing the same words over and over again. “Don’t… leave… me?” I speak aloud the words that Rin fails to say. I smile sadly then bring her head up to rest against mine. “I will never… leave you.”
As the last light of day comes and dies, the two of us close our eyes, together in each others’ embrace.
_______________________
When I next awake, the only light comes from the pure white moon above. Even the nearby lamps have ceased to shine their warmth on the park around me. In a starless night like this, I can see nothing but the moon. I tightly wrap my arms around my freezing body. Fierce winds pierce the already cold air with their howling. ‘Why am I here?’ It takes me a while to remember why I am laying alone on an otherwise empty park bench. Slowly, as reality comes back to me, I remember the events that put me in such a state, and my drooping eyes quickly widen in fear. The girl who was on my shoulder when I fell asleep is now completely gone. I swiftly stand up and look around, but she is nowhere in sight. It’s not like I can see much anyways, but her figure would cast at least some shadow in the moonlight. I quickly start walking. I am slightly unsteady on my feet at first because of my recent nap and the force of the wind, but I quickly regain my sense of balance. Though I can hardly see a thing, there is someone I must find no matter what.
“Rinea!” I yell in as loud of a voice as I dare, picking my pace up to a jog and eventually a full-on run. “Rinea!” I scan every inch of the vast, empty park we sat in to rest, but I can’t seem to find her anywhere. What could have happened to her? There’s no way she would have gone off without waking me. “Rinea!” Rin-” At last I find the shadow of her dark figure standing by a sparkling lake. Her short hair sways back in forth in the wind of its own free will. “What are you doing here?” I ask her. Rinea doesn’t respond or even seem to notice my presence for a while. Her gaze is fixed on the moon’s reflection on the gently swaying waters. I walk around her still body and face her directly. With my words, I try to snap her out of her daydream. “Hey, let’s go.” I try taking her hand, but she does not move.
“Hey…” Rinea finally says as she tilts her face to one side. Only when the moonlight finally shines on it directly do I realize that her face carries the same, horrified expression it had the day I first met her. Like that one time, she doesn’t seem to hear me at first, and her expression seems dead. “Will you really… never leave me?”
“Eh?” I am unable to respond for a few seconds as she finally speaks up. I’m surprised that Rin heard the last few words I said before falling asleep, though it might be that she didn’t hear them at all, and that she is merely repeating something out of her past.. “Of… Of course.”
“Really?” Rin lifts her face up as her expression becomes hopeful for a second, but it quickly returns to its eerie emptiness. “You’re lying. You will leave me, like everyone else. I wi-will al-always b-be…” At the last few words, she begins to shake and her voice starts to stutter, and she collapses onto her knees. She wraps her arms around her chest, though I doubt it’s the cold that causes her to do so. “I will always be… alone…” She whispers the last phrase with surprising forcefulness, before her eyes close and she loses control of her body. The horror of her current state seems to have knocked her unconscious.
“Rin!!!” I run over and hold her unmoving body in my arms. There doesn’t seem to be anything seriously wrong with her. She was pretty much half asleep to begin with. I slowly and gently pick her light body up in my arms and quietly begin to walk off into the distance. ‘Rin probably has something in her past that she doesn’t want to remember… Yet in this near-sleeping state, the horror of it has come back to haunt her. I don’t know what troubles Rinea. I don’t need to know what it is. I just-…’ I tighten my grip on the now-sleeping girl. “I will never leave you… I will protect you… always.” As the two of us tread onward into the moonlight, I make the one promise I will never break.
_______________________
[COLOR=BoC4DE]
With Light Comes Warmth
With Warmth Comes Hope
When a Breath of Air Takes the Light Away
Our Hopes are plunged into Darkness along with it
[/COLOR]With Warmth Comes Hope
When a Breath of Air Takes the Light Away
Our Hopes are plunged into Darkness along with it
An eagle’s cry pierces the air as it soars off into the vermillion sky. “Hahaha.” A young boy’s laugh resounds through the empty evening landscape. “Higher!” I push the seemingly carefree boy back and forth on the creaking swing. It’s a rather uneventful late autumn evening. A light breeze blows through the otherwise completely calm area.
“Timmy!” a young woman calls out from afar. The boy jumps off at the top of a particularly high swing and lands soundly on his feet. “Thanks. See ya!” Timmy runs off to join his mother. I simply smile back at him.
After the boy and his mother disappear into the distance, I turn my neck so my gaze rests on an ordinary park bench, occupied by a single person. ‘’’Rei…” Noticing that everybody else has left the park, Rin puts away the book she was reading and calls out my name. I walk over to where she sits on the bench. “Shall we go?” She asks, reaching out for my hand. I nod then pose a question of my own. “Mind if we stop by somewhere for a bit?” After a nod from her, we are on our way.
The streets are almost completely empty. Well, by now the whole city is actually. Ever since the war started, people have gradually migrated out of this town, but recently it has become much worse. There aren’t even enough people around to have a working school system anymore. As Rinea and I walk along the dimly lighted sidewalk, I remember my own friends who have left this town.
In time, like Sage’s family, Niele’s too moved away to who knows where. The farewell was just as brief, though I can’t say it was unexpected. Out of our old group of friends, Daniella, Rinea, and I are the only ones who remain. I guess nobody can resist the hope of a better life. The few numbskulls left in this dump just hope that such a life can be found here. I guess I hope that too, though hope is the thing that seems in this time and place to be most easily lost.
“Hmm… still here.” In front of me is a large gray building facing a once-busy intersection. The building itself looks as if it hasn’t been used in many months. “School… eh?” I wonder aloud, walking through the large front doors. Even though it isn’t in use, it is still open for the general public. We continue up several flights of stairs until we reach the door leading to the roof. We can see most of the town from the roof’s lofty heights.
Not much has changed in this town. The days remain as peaceful as ever. The relative peace may have put everybody in good spirits, but the war is still out there, and I know these good times will one day come to an end.
As often seems the case when I think about such things, within seconds a huge explosion knocks both Rinea and I to our knees. We quickly cover our eyes and ears, anticipating the horror that is coming. The explosions do not stop there. After nearly 30 seconds of non-stop booms and quakes, the bombing begins to die down, however. When it seems safe enough to do so, Rinea and I open our eyes to the tragedy that has befallen our hometown. It is in flames.
“Rei…” Rin tightly grasps my shoulder as another bomb falls on the city. The building we are currently on top of was lucky enough to escape the destruction, but most of the town suffered a much different fate.
“Don’t worry.” I hold onto her as well, saying once again the words I’m not sure I can keep. “I will protect you.”
“Where’s Daniella?” Rin wonders. My face becomes pale when I realize that our friend is also somewhere in this turmoil. I curse the people who did this to our city, but also at the world... and at myself. I stare at the sky, now dyed a deep shade of mahogany because of the fire and smoke. I guess I knew this would happen eventually, but I didn’t want to accept it. This war could have no end but the end of humanity itself.
‘I will protect you.’
What have we been living… and fighting for this whole time.
‘Who is there to call for’
Nobody…
‘What is there to live for’
...
‘I will never leave you’
Even the simplest promises… I am unable to keep’
“If you ever want to find me, I will probably be here waiting…”
I continue to wonder what we’ve all been living for this entire time. I think of the time when Rin, Niele, Sage, Daniella, and I hid from the enemy attacks, of the time in the hospital when Rinea smiled down at me, of everything in this town I have ever known. We have been living… because we hope. Even if our world ends, we will never lose it. As the countdown of the last moments of our lives begins, we will keep on moving. I have been weak. Even in the end… will I die a coward? I… will not.
“Daniella…” I turn my gaze to the top of the town, to the old church. I have always run away. I have always been afraid. Even if I have forsaken all the rest… there is one promise I must never break. “Let’s go.” I grab Rin’s hand and start running. She is startled by my sudden determination, but does not resist. Once out on the flaming streets once more, I do not let up my pace. I know what I must do.
Most of the buildings I pass are either burnt to the ground or in flames. I hear people screaming. I wish I could help them, but right now, I have something else I have to take care of. I run through destruction and decay, my mind set on my eventual destination. At last we reach the northernmost part of the city, where only one building rests: the church, but it too is in flames, and the entire stained-glass window on the front has been blown off. My legs are aching, but still I must move on. I sprint inside the building, Rinea following closely behind. Through the smoking wreckage, I force a path to the ladder in the back. My lungs fill with smoke, and my every movement becomes heavier and heavier, but at last, I reach my destination. “I knew you’d come here…” The voice that greets me at the top is not the one I expected to hear. It’s soft, cold… and dead.
“Daniella!!!” The shards of the shattered stained-glass window are scattered about everywhere, and Daniella is lying weakly against the only bit of railing that hasn’t been completely blown off by the explosions. When Rinea finally joins us, she stops in her tracks and screams.
“I’m glad… you’re alright.” Daniella whispers in a frail, empty voice.
I cannot speak, but am forced to see the horror before me. Daniella’s body is limp and covered in blood from head to toe. Her once golden hair has been dyed red, and her once-white dress has been damaged beyond recognition. Covering her unmoving body are 8 dark, deep holes.
“No… No!” I run over and hold her in my arms. Her blood completely drenches my body, but I don’t care. There is nothing else I can do to help.
“I’m alright…” Daniella forces out the words in a hardly noticeable whisper. “I’m alright.”
“This... can’t…” Rinea chokes on her own sobbing voice and can’t get her words out.
“I’m alright…” Daniella repeats the same, obviously untrue statement. “You’re… alive.” With these final two words, her head falls back onto the wooden railing and she closes her eyes to the world one last time. I leave the girl’s grasp and back away, unable to accept what has just happened. As a last gust of air blows by the limp body, the blood-stained cross around her neck flutters slightly before returning to complete stillness.
“Daniella!” Rin grabs the pale girl’s hand, sobbing ever more violently. I want to comfort her, but there is nothing I can do. I can’t even comfort myself. I turn around and face the still-ongoing destruction, wondering if the pain will ever end. No help is coming to end this terror. This… is the end. Suddenly, the fighting war planes disappear, vanishing into thin air with a burst of silver light. Accompanying this is a deep resounding cry.
From the far horizon, a bright, pure white light shines through the smoke-filled darkness. Beyond it emerges a frightening figure: an enormous, humanlike figure, though gray and withered. Its 8, colorless, golden eyes are wide open, scanning the world. Its scaly hands are bloody and bandaged, and in them… is a glowing sphere: a globe of the world itself. Finally come down to earth to pass judgment on mankind… is God.
The one known as God lets out a great, ear-shattering roar, and the globe in his hands starts glowing ever more brightly. Gradually, all signs of human existence in the city before me begin to disappear: returning to the brown earth that once existed here. “I… see…” I can say nothing else as I reach out and grab Rinea’s shaking hand. ”God…” My vision and hearing become blurred, my mind blank, and I return to a world of nothingness.
____________
[COLOR=BoC4DE]
They say that human souls are ferried to the land of the dead in boats of pure white.
What is left unanswered is whether or not doing the same could take them back.
[/COLOR]What is left unanswered is whether or not doing the same could take them back.
‘Am I… dead? Surely I am… but… If this is what it feels like to die, it isn’t so bad.’ I open my eyes to a new world, devoid of the curse of humanity. My whole body is soaked to its core by some soft, warm liquid. My body is almost unable to feel anything. It’s almost like… a dream.
My body seems to be swaying back and forth of its own free will. I turn my head to the right. Water… if one could even call it that. I seem to be lying on a raft in a sea of silver. Above me is a glossy, crystalline white sky. There are no stars, no sun, no clouds, only a dazzling brilliant white. The only objects with any color come from out of the sea of silver itself. Deep sapphire towers of crystal sprout out from an otherwise empty wasteland. A deep glow emanates from these objects, giving the world its light.
I close my weary eyes and bask in the warmth of this empty afterlife. “Who… am I?” from the depths of my mind comes the simplest of questions, but there is no answer. A faint sound reaches my ears, but I am incapable of discerning it. I open my eyes once again. “A voice… surely not.”
“………i”
… Impossible. I can’t hear what its saying.
“……….i”
“…….i”
“………ei”
“……………………..Rei!”
My eyes shoot wide open upon hearing that all-too familiar sound. ‘Re…i. Rei.’ Memories of things that may or may not have happened race through my head: of times long gone… in another world… or this one. ‘Rei…’ Slowly, my past life comes back to me. ‘…Rin.’
I jump up from my position on that white raft. “Rin!” I am not alone. On the other side of this purposeless piece of wood in a sea of nothingness is another person… I force my dreary body into a standing position and run over to where she sits by the side of the raft, her face completely devoid of color. Her drenched body seems as fragile as a flower of glass.
My memories come back to me: my sense of being returns. Everything returns as my reverie comes to an end. That’s right. This isn’t death, but life. This is the world… our world. Or at least, it once was. Only now am I able to fully realize what has happened, to come to the sad realization that this bleak nothingness was once called home. Tears fill my eyes as I remember times of the past, when humanity still existed.
“Rei…” the one close to me calls out, noticing my tears, and then, too starts to sob. I hold onto her hand, not daring to let go, for fear that she would slip away forever. That’s right. Not all is gone. Not all is lost. The world is still whole. We are still here. Even though God brought down his judgment on human beings, we are still alive. I still have… Rinea.
“What… will we do?” Rinea chokes out these words through her countless sobs.
“Who knows?” I respond with the only answer I could possible give. “Everything will be alright.”
As time passes, Rinea and I look out at the sea together. A slight breeze is at our backs, carrying us ever onward. Only God knows where our path leads.
“Rei?” Rinea asks after who knows how much time has passed.
“Hmm?”
“Will… we live?” The question she asks is quite unfitting for the small girl beside me.
I smile, not even having to think about the question. “Of course.”
Rinea is a girl blessed with the gift of love. She is naïve when it comes to the cruelty of the world, yet she is pure, and has been shown kindness. Thus she has been chosen to live, to carry on the love she was once shown: the love only a mother can give. As the world ends, not all is lost. Through all the hardships of life, we carry on. As we sail on through our journey, our hope always remains.
[COLOR=BoC4DE]
I suppose it may be true that our one true freedom is death
But humans are notorious for breaking free of their bounds
We will always ignore the rules set before us
And this, I guess, is the gift known as life
[/COLOR]But humans are notorious for breaking free of their bounds
We will always ignore the rules set before us
And this, I guess, is the gift known as life
[/COLOR]
