Your throat is sore from the bitter cold, and you feel you can no longer go on. You carry your little sister, Casey, on your back. You run as quickly as you possibly can through the deep, unforgiving white powder on the ground. Unfortunately, after two hours of running restlessly from the assassins shooting at you, you cannot run fast enough. A bullet whizzes through the air right next to your head, and your knees buckle. You fall into the snow, holding your 11 year old sister close. She struggles against you, and eventually breaks free of your seemingly iron grip. She whips her head around violently, her short bobbed, coppery locks flailing in the frigid winter air. Her frosty green eyes scanned the trees, searching desperately for the attackers, to no avail. When you gain a small amount of strength, you stand up and walk to your younger sister.
"Casey," you say, "We're not safe here. We need to find a way out."
She looks at you, trying to read your face for emotion, and finds little. You were good at hiding them; you had been since you were very young. With a sigh, Casey starts walking cautiously through the snow that came up to her mid-thighs. You hear a sharp bang, and see something flying for your sister.
"CASEY! NO!"
But it was too late. The shiny bullet sped toward your sister's head. And it would have hit her, but at the last second she was pushed down by a beige blur, which…
Took the bullet.
The man clutches his chest where a patch of blood is blooming across his long beige jacket. His purple eyes shine with agony as his knees gave out and he falls to the ground. Casey's eyes well up, for reasons you're unsure of.
You hear your adopted sister whisper something.
"Ivan…! Ivan! No! Ivan!"
Ivan? Who is Ivan?
"Ivan! Please, no! Ivan! You can't die!"
Casey is sobbing now; over the weak and dying body of the man she calls Ivan. The man coughs up blood and a look of sorrow and apology is evident on his face. "Ca-Casey…" he rasps almost silently. Casey brushes a piece of stray grey-blonde hair behind the bleeding man's ear, some of her tears landing on his pale face. She pulls him into her lap.
"There's a song that's inside of my soul
It's the one that I've tried to write over and over again,"
A single tear runs down the shot man's face as your sister's beautiful singing dances in the chilled air.
"I'm awake in the infinite cold
But you sing to me over and over and over again
So I lay my head back down
And I lift my hands
And pray to be only yours
I pray to be only yours
I know now you're my only hope."
The man is sobbing now, reaching up to touch your adopted sister's face, staring meaningfully into her eyes. He manages to choke out, "The lullaby…" Casey grits her teeth in a melancholy effort not to get choked up like the man dying in front of her. She keeps singing.
"Sing to me the song of the stars
Of Your galaxy dancing and laughing
And laughing again
When it feels like my dreams are so far
Sing to me of the plans that you have for me over again
So I lay my head back down
And I lift my hands and pray
To be only yours
I pray to be only yours
I know now you're my only hope."
The man's eyes widen and bright red blood drips from his pallid lips. He takes his final gasping breath, and his once vibrant violet eyes cloud over and gently close. His whole body goes limp in your sister's arms. She doesn't bother to hold back tears anymore, and she sings with more passion and meaning than you've ever seen her before.
"I give you my destiny
I'm giving you all of me
I want your symphony
Singing in all that I am
At the top of my lungs I'm giving it back
So I lay my head back down
And I lift my hands and pray
To be only yours
I pray to be only yours
I pray to be only yours
I know now you're my only hope."
She finishes her song, and lays the deceased man on the snow-covered ground and places his hands over his heart. She gets up, her legs soaked from the snow, and walks over to a lone rose. She plucks it delicately from the frosted ground, and slips it carefully into the man's cold, gloved fingers. She bends down and kisses his forehead and sheds another mournful tear, before grabbing your hand and pulling you deeper into the forest. She looked back at the man only once, and said, "Rest in peace, dear Ivan." When you asked for clarification on her relationship with him, she gave you a bittersweet smile, and said miserably,
"He was my only hope."