I find it odd how I don't like reading tragedy-genre stories, yet here I am writing two in a row…Strange.

I'm honestly a little worried about how this fic will be interpreted, so I'd be in debt to those that review and help me get better at this kind of writing. I like doing this, but that doesn't mean I'm good at it.

Anyways, here we go.

Padlock on Heaven's Door

"Be quiet. Do you think we're in a position to play fair?"

These days, I cannot remember how I came to be here at the human ranch. The past seems so long ago, days turning into months, and months to years, all combined into a cacophony of time and work and captivity.

Hell on earth….can it be defined? A home without light, a slave for a higher power….freedom is nothing short of a fairy tale in these damp hallways. And Hell's definition is skewed beyond belief. We are slaves without purpose; our lives only befit for a single sphere forced upon our wrists. Our existence relies upon our fruitless labors, our souls at the mercy of our Desian captors. Our only hope lies in the existence of a heaven to which our tormented souls may finally find peace.

Those hopes are hard to maintain without the comfort of the stars above our heads.

Sitting in the confines of my cell tower, I flexed my aching hands. We were worked to near death today, just like any other day. For sixteen hours it was pushing blocks along a kilometer-long corridor, and then pushing them back. What is the purpose of pushing a solid concrete block? What little strength I had left was awash in the radiant glow emanating from the jewel on my wrist. Whatever this thing was, it gave me strength, and sapped it at the same time.

Whatever hell this was, pray tell I escape soon. I'm not sure how much more I can take of thi—

A great screeching sounded as the doors to my cell were pried apart. I briefly saw a flash of red and yellow quickly ascending to the second story of the tower. Was this my ticket to escape?

Other prisoners that came forward to investigate the noise immediately recoiled in panic as guards appeared at the front of the cell, but that fear quickly vanished when the two I saw climb the tower jump down upon the guards. The dual-wielder dispatched three of them before they had time to react, and the blonde-haired female threw another two off the edge of the platform with what looked like a gigantic toy hammer. Before I could question it, both of them were gone.

Now, when a dog is let out of the house after seventeen years, he will run with a vigor not seen once from him. I considered this a fair analogy as the other prisoners and I made a break for the adjoining passageway.

I couldn't believe my luck. Perhaps we would actually make it out of our living nightmare! Stepping onto the elevator at the end of the corridor, the remaining captors and I descended towards the first floor. Or what we hoped was, anyway.

For a cavernous room, the walkway that the elevator deposited us upon was deceptively small. Overhead, a small dome gave way to a single ray of sunlight that illuminated the pathway, which was littered with Desian corpses. That group I saw earlier was probably responsible for that. With no resistance at the front, all we had to do was make it across the passage and we'd be-….

"But first I have a special underwater show for you!"

Where the voice came from was the least of my concerns. The one door we so strived for vanished, and the cavernous room was suddenly awash in torrents of noise and water. Just as it reached my fee—no, it's at my knees now, and before I knew it, my neck was now soaking, desperately trying to stay above the unstoppable cascade. The water was merciless, dragging the weaker captors below its murky depths and continuing to carry those that could fight it up towards the impassable rooftop.

"The rooftop…!"

And then it clicked. What was I thinking? My body, my soul, my entire existence was damned to the watery hellholes of this godforsaken ranch, drenched in torrents of water (or is it fire now?) My coughing and wheezing would not stop; be it fire or water, my lungs could not take either. Looking up, the dark blue metal material on the roof loomed ever closer, an unstoppable force that would drive all air, all the precious oxygen out of the room, out of our lungs, out of our lives. The single ray of light that filtered through the dark cavern came closer and closer, beckoning me to salvation, but staying just out of reach of my desperate hands.

And there I was, the last lifeblood of oxygen gone, pounding against the padlock to heaven's door, desperately trying, hopelessly enduring, until I began to sink lower and lower into my watery grave, desperately grasping at the light that grew farther and fainter with each passing moment. And as I sank back to the room…my room, my hell, the one ray of light that remained visible to my fading eyesight disappeared forever.

"Is playing fair toying with the lives of innocents….?"

"Lloyd?"

Looking up, the twin swordsman banished the visions to a secluded area of his mind. Sitting up from his position beneath the giant oaken tree, he motioned for the blonde Chosen to join him.

Sitting down silently beside him, she cast a questioning glance in his direction and was about to ask what was wrong when he spoke.

"Stars are pretty tonight, aren't they?"

Colette looked at the twinkling lights above her and sighed lightly, nodding once.

And there, with the breeze in their hair and the waves caressing the sandy beach below them, the two gazed into the sky as the stars began their eloquent dance.

Story End