The day Clare Vincent ceased to exist, it stormed.
It started out gentle at first, just an angry wisp in the air. Then, a roll of thunder. Then, the rain. She'd paid it no mind, at first. She had been safe from the sudden onslaught of the storm, lounging in her favorite cafe as she studied for an upcoming exam in her nursing practice class. It was usually a quiet, quaint place, which was why she enjoyed slaving over her notes there so much. But now, as others rushed in to take refuge from the sudden storm, her focus was awry, unable to focus on the words that stared at her from her laptop screen. She didn't mind the unexpected distraction of her surroundings, despite the stress nagging her that she desperately needed to study. At least Harvey, the cafe's owner, was getting a boom in business, as people began to settle in and order hot drinks to fend away the nipping cold the rain had brought.
"Anything for you, Clare?" Casey, a young sixteen-year-old girl who worked the Wednesday afternoon shift, asked her kindly, a mug of what she presumed to be freshly brewed coffee in her hand. Clare smiled at her in response, touched she would take the time to ask her despite how busy it had suddenly gotten.
"I'd love one, thanks, Casey," she replied, moving her mug to the edge of the table so that Casey could reach it with ease. With no sign of the storm settling down anytime soon, Clare let out a small sigh and closed her laptop, swapping it out for her phone in her bag nestled at her side.
Sensing her dampened mood, Casey gives her a sympathetic smile and whispers, "Consider this one on the house. Harvey loves you, so he won't mind."
Clare, who had taken a short moment to stare out the window, snaps her eyes back to the young waitress. "Oh, thank you Casey, but I'll still pay. I don't want to take advantage." Despite her objections, Casey still shook her head. She looked as if she wants to talk more, perhaps take a small break for a few short moments, but before she can even open her mouth, a man is calling for her a few booths away, waving his hands wildly with his mug raised in her air. Clare raised an eyebrow at his impatience, but Casey only lets out a small sigh, patient as ever.
"Duty calls," she gives Clare a final cheeky wink before walking off, back at work in an instant.
As Casey walks out of her line of sight, she spends the next few moments merely staring out the window, watching as the storm forces people to hurry along, absently listening to the rain patter on the window. Despite the awful weather, the city was still as lively as ever; it's what made Clare love living in it so much.
But right now, she didn't need lively. She needed quiet.
With the stress of upcoming exams clawing at the back of her mind, she decided she'd done enough daydreaming for now. Stifling a yawn and stretching her legs under the table, she packed her phone away in a small pocket in her bag, slinging it over her shoulder as she stood up from the booth. Catching Casey's eye and giving a little wave of goodbye, she winds around the many people littering about the coffee shop, a group of teenagers sidestepping her to sit down at the booth she had just abandoned.
"Leaving already, Clare?" the familiar, friendly voice of Harvey asked, flashing her a winning smile as she made her way over to the counter, one of his gold teeth gleaming in the light. She'd never met a coffee shop owner to have a gold tooth; it seemed so... gangster. Once she'd built up the courage to ask him about it, and his only reply had been that it added to his charm. Harvey was strange like that; hiding behind jokes and charismatic quips.
Clare flashes him a smile in response, her eyes leaving his as she fished her purse out of her bag. "Yeah, I should get home before the storm gets bad," she replied, handing over the perfect amount of cash for her order; she'd memorized how much money she needed for her order here long ago. Harvey didn't bother counting the money, as he knew her well enough to trust her so, and simply opened the register to drop the coins inside.
A sympathetic smile flashed across Harvey's features at her reply, yet before he could open his mouth to speak, another roll of thunder sounded through the city, causing some patrons to yelp and others to jump. Clare felt goosebumps spread across her arms and the hair on her neck stand up in uneasiness. Harvey only grunted, seeming to be mildly undisturbed by the sudden noise. "Y'sure you don't want to wait it out here? It sounds like that storm's getting pretty bad, and I know you live far away and walk home."
She couldn't help the smile that spread across her face at how concerned he sounded. As far as she knew, Harvey had no children, but she knew he would have made a fantastic father. "You're busy enough as it is, Harvey. I don't want to take up seats when others could be using them."
Well, that was partially true. The full truth was that she didn't want to take up any seats when others could be getting comfortable and ordering something from the menu. She'd never seen the shop so busy, with so many people ordering. She knew full well Harvey could use this sudden boom in business, as he'd once confided in her how the shop hadn't been doing so well recently. After that, she'd made sure to tip extra well when she visited every day for her usual order in the afternoon, but it was hardly enough. The sudden onslaught of customers, however, was exactly what Harvey needed. She would have felt sympathy for the staff working at the moment, as customer after customer poured in, but Harvey was a capable owner, and he trained his team well, which was more than evident by how well Casey was handling all the customers.
Harvey's frown only deepened, his concern dipping further into his features. After a few moments of what looked like deliberating, he spoke, "I'll tell you what. Go make yourself comfortable in the break room. I saw you studyin' earlier, and it's nice and quiet in there. No one will disturb you. You can do y'thing in there until this storm settles a bit. Deal?"
Clare rose an eyebrow at him, genuinely surprised by this generous offer. It didn't seem like a very good business practice to let a customer spend some time in an employee-only break room. Then again, Harvey was hardly what she would consider a traditional business owner. And she had been a loyal customer for almost two years now. "You're sure, Harvey? I don't want to intrude," she replied carefully. It was the truth, after all. She respected Harvey greatly, even considered him something akin to a father figure. The last thing she wanted to do was intrude on him.
He only gave her a boisterous laugh in response, apparently taking her words as a joke. "I trust you, Clare. Besides, there ain't anything you'd be able to steal in there. Go on and make yourself comfortable." Before she could protest any further, he was already ushering her around the counter and through a set of doors to the break room.
As he opened the doors to the room, Clare took a short moment to look around as Harvey pulled out a chair at a table for her, ever the gentleman. In all her years visiting this shop, she'd never gotten to see this part of it. The furniture was the same as what Harvey had in the shop; hardwood chairs and small tables. The shelves on the walls were lined with bits and pieces for the shop, like bags of coffee beans, a handbag which Clare assumed was Casey's, a broken kettle, and in the corner sat a chair missing a leg. The walls were decorated with what Clare recognized as metal bands, motivational pictures and a pinboard with several notes and photos - one Clare remembered being Harvey's pitbull, creatively named Spike - scattered haphazardly on it. She could hardly help the smile that lined her lips.
"Did it up myself! Then again, I did this entire place up myself, but still," Harvey said, proudly puffing out his chest. A delighted laugh escaped Clare at how boastful he sounded.
"It's great, Harvey. Its style is distinctly you," she replied, setting herself down comfortable as she fished out her laptop once again from her bag. Still unsure if she was crossing any boundaries by doing this she asked one final time, "Are you sure I'm alright to be back here?"
Harvey just shook his head at her good-naturedly. "I'm the owner, aren't I? I wouldn't have asked if I didn't want you to be here," he reassured, giving her a wink. "I'd love to stay and chat more, but I don't want to abandon poor Casey out there by herself. I should get back to it. You'll be alright here?"
Clare's eyes widened at his words, having momentarily forgotten how busy the shop still was. "I'm so sorry to keep you, Harvey! It's lovely here, thank you. I'll get plenty of studying done." At her reassurance, he gave her a final smile and walked off, the door creaking closed behind him.
Alone once more, Clare opened her laptop and got back to work. She was surprised at how right Harvey was; that it indeed was so quiet in here. She couldn't even hear the overbearing sound of people around her she usually enjoyed. Instead, the only noise that resounded around her was the sound of keys clicking rhythmically as she typed. No longer did the words and sentences blur together incoherently as she read to herself; now, with her focus finally returning, she was finally able to concentrate, understand and absorb her notes and readings. If she kept going at this pace, she'd be prepared for her exam in no time at all.
For a while, she was able to ignore the storm. Once every few minutes, she would hear the cries of fear of those outside as the sky rumbled, but was able to put it to the back of her mind quickly enough. Then, the cracks returned, shooting through the air in nothing short of clamorous booms. She was able to ignore that, too. A bit of thunder and lightning never scared her too much. Glancing outside the only window of the room that opened to the outside world, she briefly watched as the wind picked up, people passing by no longer to keep a hold of their umbrellas as they fell to the tyranny of the wind's strength.
Resuming her work, she tried to ignore it. Tried to ignore the clenching in her gut, ignore the slight shake of her hands that caused her to mistype a word or two every few moments, tried to ignore how the hair on the back of her neck stood up in unparalleled anxiousness.
But then, the ground began to shake.
At first, she hadn't noticed it. Hadn't felt the slight quake of the ground as she idly tapped her feet against the floor. But she heard the rumbling. This time, it wasn't from the sky. No, this was a rumble from the air that surrounded her, a wisp of something that grew and festered into something darker as each second passed by. It was then that she felt the shaking; how the walls rattled around her, how the ground trembled beneath her.
She didn't give herself time to think, didn't consider that she was most likely experiencing an earthquake and needed to get under a table right now. Instead, she shot up in a panic, instantly running over to the door, almost tripping over herself, clammy fingers clutching the handle as she turned it with a fervor she didn't know she could experience. Poking her head outside, she cried out, voice trembling, "Harvey, what's going-"
She never got to finish her sentence, for the world around her erupted into an inferno in front of her very eyes.
It had all happened so fast. She registered being thrown back by a force far greater than herself, the ground shattering as it gave way to an explosion of fire, green lapping at the edges of the ground. She felt the overbearing heat swathe around her as it consumed her surroundings, heard people screaming, felt the throbbing in her head. But most of all, she heard the voice.
"Ma halani!"
For a brief moment, she thought it was a wayward customer - a tourist, perhaps? - that called out to her, but then it truly registered. The echoes the voice left, the way it rattled her bones, the way the sound flittered around her skull, biting and desperate. She forced herself up, ignoring the burns on her palms, legs, everywhere. She gasped out in pain, instantly regretting it as the smoke filled her lungs, clogging her airways, unable to stop her sudden coughing. Listening out for the voice that had called out to her, she pushed one leg in front of the other, following those desperate cries for help.
Ma halani! This time, the voice didn't reach her ears; it resounded in her skull, throbbing and beating against her head. She didn't register the broken furniture that passed by, the unconscious bodies that lay upon the floors as the flames ate away at them, the green fire that spread around the room and ate everything in its path. She only continued to force herself forward, through the flames that she could have sworn parted for her, paving the way to that voice.
And then, in the center of flames that crackled and spread in green, she saw it.
A hand of green. A hand of light.
Semi-transparent, reaching from the ground, flailing about as though searching for something, anything, to grasp onto. This time, something else forced her feet forward. Not her own strength, but something else, something far more powerful than her. Something that she couldn't pull away from as much as she wished she could.
Ma halan ma halani ma halani ma halani ma halani ma halani-
Words merging together in desperation, Clare extends her hand, reaching forward. She does not listen to the voice that shouts at her to run, to get out of here. Her own voice. It is blocked, muted by the desperate calls of this thing-
Sathan sathan sathan sathan sathan sathan-
Fingers touch, and Clare grasps the stranger's hand. She does not hear her own voice anymore, does not hear her own pleas to stop, only their command. Only their call.
ar tel'nea neal ne or nen-
The green flames spread around her feet, gentle and warm, enveloping her, surging up until she can't see anything but smoke, grey yet green, dark yet bright, everything yet nothing. She wants to move, to scream, to escape, to do something, but her feet are rooted to the ground, muscles trapped and unable to move. She opens her mouth to gasp, but instead, something else enters her airways, something foreign and full of life and-
Ma serannas. Ir abelas.
The flames swallowed her whole, and the world she once knew evaporated around her.
Translations:
Mana. Ma halani: Help me
Sathan: Please
Ar tel'nea neal ne or nen: I will not go back
Ma serannas. I'm sorry: Thank you. I'm sorry.