-Paper Rain-
-By Kuroi Diamond-
The young boy's hands scrabbled at the walls of the drain, but his fingers found no purchase there upon the slippery smooth surface. He was cold and frightened and at his feet the rain water rose unendingly. Exhausted from his fruitless attempts at escape, the boy sank to his knees in that frigid liquid and he began to sob quietly.
Home... I want to go home!
Then, just as soon as he'd begun the boy stopped crying. He could hear a faint sound getting louder; the sound of approaching footsteps. A whimper escaped the child's lips and water sloshed around him as he crawled to the far end of the drain and flattened his back against it.
The man with the yellow eyes was back.
The boy could not remember the man's face. The fear and shock of his kidnapping had wiped it clean from his memory, but somehow he knew with no amount of uncertainty that for however long he had left to live, he would never, could never forget those eyes.
The man peered down at the boy from between the metal bars of the drain. The fading light of day was just enough to reflect off those strange irises though the rest of his face was swathed by a scarf, the high collar of his coat and a battered old fedora. Faintly over the hiss of rushing water the boy thought he could hear the man breathing slow, steady breaths as he gazed down at him.
Another frightened whimper caught in the boy's throat as the man reached into his coat pocket. He imagined some horrible weapon but what the man withdrew from his pocket was too small for a gun or a knife. Whatever it was, the boy thought the man held it gently, almost tenderly, with his hand formed in a protective cage around it. Very slowly, the hand was opened and the item dropped, slipping between the bars and landing at the boy's feet. Reluctant to take his eyes off the man, he didn't look at it until the dark figure had retreated calmly backwards and disappeared from sight over the edge of the drain.
The light was now almost none-existent and the boy squinted through the darkness. He reached out a hand trembling from cold and exhaustion to touch the tiny object before him and his fingers brushed paper. The boy hesitantly let the shivering digits close around the item and brought it close to his face. It was a little dog... A little paper dog.
The boy blinked, confused; had the man who had taken him and trapped him in the horrible drain given him a gift? He remembered once in school they had learnt to fold paper into different shapes for art. Origami, the teacher had called it. He remembered showing his little paper animals to his parents and tears stung his eyes.
The young boy curled up in a corner and as the water rose higher he cried until he had no tears left, the tiny paper dog his only companion in the dark prison...
Three days later the drain was near to over-flowing and the origami dog had all but dissolved and sunk beneath the water. The boy was barely staying afloat and barely staying conscious, his legs leaden and unable to tread water. He was no longer afraid, just tired. So very, very tired...
The man with the yellow eyes stared down at him and the boy stared back through half-lidded eyes. It was only a matter of minutes before he would succumb to the ravages of exhaustion and give up the fight to stay afloat. As the child's eyes began to close for the last time, the man removed the scarf from over his mouth and whispered something the boy could not hear in a voice no louder than gentle rain hissing upon asphalt.
The boy's last thought as he slipped beneath the surface of the water was that it looked as if there were tears in those yellow eyes, but that couldn't have been right. It was probably just the rain...
- End -