Drip.
Drip.
Drip.
Drip.
She was swimming.
An endless cornucopia of the lightest blue and the deepest green seeped through her body, her arms, her legs, her fingers, her hair. Heat swamped her senses, sharpening them to a point absolute awareness of every sensation.
She didn't want to wake up.
Her muscles clenched and unclenched, the potency of her energy concentrated on every part of her body. The feeling was intense… feral.
She reveled in the power.
Swim. Swim harder, she told herself, pushing the airless distance around her. Swim faster.
It was an unbelievable wholly free experience. It was as if she was in a separate glass bottle filled to the brim of all the blessedness in the world. The environment vibrated with force and life.
Wishes, hopes, dreams, emotions…
Every secret whim, every quiet craving, every tantalizing desire in that single place, every human yearning ever placed inside the subconscious. They were all there, present and naked. For her to see, feel and experience.
Fly. Swim, she whispered, hugging herself tighter in her lithe arms. She wasn't cold, she wasn't afraid even. Strange, considering every eerie apparition floating beside her, this was the safest place she could ever be.
Except when beside him…
Her light blue eyes snapped open. No. No more thinking of He who she cannot mention. He who she had failed to protect. He who she had once trusted and she had betrayed. He who had betrayed her as well. He who held an eternal piece of her heart… her SOUL in his hands.
Rage surged inside her but withered as quickly as it came. How can she be mad at someone who wasn't there anymore? How can she hate a memory of someone so infinitely important to her?
No, he means nothing to me. He was just a pawn in fulfilling my brother's wish for an independent Japan, she thought. Just as I was pawn to him in his mind games for our future.
The impulse to cry leapt through her mind. She was surprised. The last tears she had shed were far beyond her memory could recall.
I can't cry here. I will not desecrate this place.
Yes, this will be my home for now.
The glass spectacle around her was beautiful. Everywhere she looked, there was color and light perfusing her eyes. Indistinct shapes swirled around her and by instinct; she knew whether it was a little boy or alittle girl's dream.
This one was a little girl's. She was holding her mother's hand as she watched her father walk off, ready to join the Black Knights' ranks. She was thinking that she should've stopped her father, she was thinking that maybe if she'd run to him and held him back, she'd still be with him.
If only, if only, if only.
Those were the words running through the little' girl's mind.
If only she had prevented him from going off alone.
If only she had thought of a better plan to hold him off his plans, even for a little while.
If only she had grasped his hand, and made him known how important to her he was.
She stopped short. This was her wish she was dreaming of.
Panic flooded through her. Stop it! Stop it, or else you'll die if you keep thinking about him!
But you're already dead without him, a voice answered back.
A sharp pain stabbed through her stomach. She bent, grimaced. It was worse than being gutted in the battlefield with no one around to find you. It was a stab of loneliness.
Gasping for air only made the pain worse. Frantically, she pumped her legs, trying to find a stable ground to lie on. But this was an alternate universe; no one was there save all the unspoken yearnings of the human soul, including her own.
She tried to scream for help, but her words died in her throat. She couldn't emit any sound.
No! Help me!
His face came towards her, compassionate, strong and beautiful.
The ache intensified.
Help me . . . .
Everything turned black.
