Narrator here! This is going to be just a short, (hopefully) contemplative one-shot, but read the notes to get the details of the fic challenge!
Disclaimer: Narrator does not own Samurai Deeper Kyo. Hence the fact that she posts her stuff on a fanfiction website.
Memories Linger...
On this former battlefield, Chaos reigned, but now… all is quiet.
The reek of Death clings to me, but never have I felt more alive. Life and Death, Death and Life… at times, the degree that separates them seems almost invisible, even to one such as I. Perhaps I am becoming too familiar.
The blood that doesn't belong to me drips from my body and my blade. I lift my face to the sky, standing alone beneath the heavens. Alone, because no one else is alive, and that doesn't count, does it?
I smile because I'm being too clever.
Am I the monster they named me, or do I create that name out my love of Death (Power, Blood, Life)? Was there ever a time I breathed (laughed, wept, lived) when I did not hold in my hand a tool of Death, my blade, and cut others free of the mortal threads that bind them to this world (Hell, Heaven, Purgatory)?
Somewhere beyond (above) the stench of blood, I can smell the coming of a storm. The rain will wash over this field, cleansing it of Death and bestowing on it the illusion of Life that has not been disrupted.
Rain always follows a battle – I wonder why.
What defines "monster"? They say I am cruel (perhaps, but who deserves my kindness?). I am bloodthirsty (again, perhaps, but who can deny the intoxication?). I am inhuman, not a man, a creature, a thing (but that begs the question, what is "man"?). The degree of separation between them is…
My life (existence) had been one of constant battle – to meet a challenge, to feel the surge of battle rage, swept up in the single blinding space where my Life and my Death hang in the balance. Ah, that is the sweetest ecstasy (oblivion, dream, sin).
Ha, I guess I am a monster.
Does it matter at all what they think? I am above it, a being of Death, and I find myself there amidst Chaos.
But has there ever been a time before, a time of peace (serenity)? Has it always been this way? I close my eyes in this space of silence and try to remember…
But memories linger like the perfume of blood, before they fade away.
Author's Notes: Yes, I'm aware that that was very short, but that's the point of this challenge. I'm throwing down the gauntlet for all you SDK fanficcers out there! The rules are as follows:
1. Your fic must be no longer than 1000 words
2. It must be written in 30 minutes or less.
3. It should be in first-person format
4. Finally, it must include the sentence "Memories linger like (insert simile of choice), before they fade away."
The inspiration for this challenge comes from a letter from my aunt about James Joyce and stream-of-consciousness style of writing (I hate Joyce, by the way, for his talking about Ireland the way he did!), and drinking coffee in a very boring Legislative Procedure lecture. :P Okay, ya'll – go to!
Salute!