A gray sky was instilled above me as I ran a thin stretch of land between the two waterways and under the tube. The tracks were held about 30 feet overhead and railings reached up around them to keep the train steadily in place. I had to get as far away from the screaming city as I could. As I bolted, worry flooded into my head about all of those still left behind me. But I couldn't stop to turn around now, and from the destruction I'd seen, there was no way that someone as powerless as me could go against whatever the hell was back there. Images replayed in my head; chunks of buildings collapsing, people being tossed through the air like rag dolls, crying children in the arms of their terror stricken siblings. But one image in my mind stood out…one I wasn't willing to accept as real. When I had looked down into a puddle the reflection showed something enormous walking into a crumbling apartment complex; wide white split mask, black holes for eyes, ashen exterior, eight awkward scrawny limbs, and giant curved horns that came down around either side of his face… No. I must have just been hallucinating. There was no way that a creature like that could exist. But somehow…I knew it had to be real…because I had seen something like this before. Thirteen years ago when I was just a little kid, I had been sitting on the swings, pumping my little legs back and forth, I sang a little song called 'Autumn Leaves' that was about the colors of fall and leaves floating down a river. Looking up to the sky, the clouds appeared gray and ready to burst with rain. All of the trees had turned to vibtant shades of bright orange and crimson. The only other person around was a woman near the train station about fifty feet away. She ran towards the tracks, fear plastered to her face. Once she reached the tracks, she opened her arms and tried to grab something. As if knocked over, she collapsed to the ground and the train approached. But the train was not what killed the poor lady. In the reflection of the calm river next to the tracks I had seen something….a gruesome beast….and it had something attached to its forehead, like a large tentacle. And dangling off of the tentacle was a small orange haired boy. I think that must have been what the woman was reaching for. After the train had passed, the woman had quite obviously perished. I wanted to run over and do something but didn't quite understand what was going on. So I stood up and watched as the same young orange haired boy ran up to her, this time not attached to any beast. He kneeled beside her and tried to move her but she was still as stone. The boy was sobbing and yelling in hopes to wake her up. Then I realized that she had to have been been the boy's mother…and he had just seen her motionless body. There was nothing he could have done. Tears streamed down my face in utter sympathy for him.
From that day on I swore to always try and protect people whenever I could. Because if I had acted more quickly in that moment, I may have been able to save his mother from this terrible fate.
That's when I heard a familiar voice shout my name. I turned around to see my best friend, Himitsu, sprinting towards me with a look of desperation stuck on his face.
"YOU NEED TO COME THIS WAY NOW! RIGHT NOW! SOMETHING IS BEHIND YO…."
But that was all I could make out. Because in that moment, I felt a bone crushing grip encase my entire body. Raised above the falling tracks, I felt my lungs sputtering for air. My eyes burst wide and my brain was filled with the image of the creature again. I couldn't move anymore. I could only watch as Himitsu jumped into the air, unsheathed a sword and swung it down onto some invisible force in one fluid movement. All at once my body had been released and I was falling; flying; breathing. But this feeling broke into a horrible reality within a split second. One of the train railings had become impaled straight through my chest. I let out a chilling, bloody gasp as my body remained face down to the water. In that moment, I saw that Himitsu hadn't just been swinging a sword at nothing…he had been battling the monster…and he was winning. Seeing that someone so dear to me would be alright gave me the single spark of hope inside that I desperately needed. My heart beat slowed and I found myself closing my eyes.
I awoke to needles poking and prodding at my skin. I might have screamed if I had the energy. Instead, my eyes blinked rapidly and mouth gaped open. Looking down I found a hole in my chest that was at least two inches in diameter. The blood...…. There was so much blood…all over the white sheets of the hospital bed. At least, I assumed it was a hospital. The two focused faces above me were covered in white masks and goggles. Their voices a demanding, loud mumble. What were they saying? If only I knew, maybe I would have realized how terrible my conditions were or that the railing had actually plunged itself through my right lung. But in that moment, all I knew was my shallow breath and the feeling of terror. That's when the blinding lights and scarlet stained sheets went black. The voices stopped and I was wrapped in perpetual darkness.
When my eyes fluttered open, the next thing I remembered was the warmth of tears on my cheeks and deep brown eyes staring down at me. But they weren't my tears. They belonged to Himitsu. As soon as he realized I had awakened, the tears stopped momentarily and he looked stunned, as if he never expected me to wake up.
"Hey," I heard myself saying in a groggy voice.
"You…..you're awake. You were asleep for so long….. I thought that….. I thought….," he replied between small catches in his words.
I looked up at him unsurely and hugged his neck as tightly as my limp arms could.
"Thank you," I whispered in his ear.