WLFM
What Living Forever Means
Maria sauntered through her land, Juan following behind her. She walked slowly, looking at the corpses strewn across the land. The sickening smell of iron filled the air, along with the smell of rotting bodies. They looked like zombies, every single one of them. Something glinted on the ground, catching her attention. It was a golden locket, hanging around the neck of a dead man. Silently she knelt down, Juan watching. She carefully picked up the locket, her fingers barely touching the intricate design. Opening it, she saw the sweetest smile of a young child.
"Look." Maria's voice was hoarse. She kept looking at the picture, until she could feel Juan's presence beside her, kneeling down, too. He held out his hand, waiting for his female counterpart to hand the locket over. She didn't look at him. She simply handed it over, not daring to move anything else but her hand. "She looks... familiar." Juan's voice wasn't any better than Maria's. Maria lifted her hand, and a long, elegant finger pointed to the man's left.
A bitter smile formed on Juan's face, a dark chuckle sounded, and he placed the locket back on the man's chest. "No wonder..." Juan gently caressed the dead child's face. It felt cold, not like the warm, rosy cheeks he saw in the picture. Maria walked on, treading on the dead corpses with Juan right behind her.
"Over here." Juan said, pointing at the cross standing erect from the ground. "It's Jose's." he added. Maria said nothing in reply, gripping the small bundle of sampaguitas tighter in her hand. It was once white, but now bloodstained. "I told you you should've bandaged your arm first." Juan chortled, looking at the blood trickling from Maria's arm and to the flowers. It was as if she lost her voice. She gripped the small bundle even tighter, looking at the grave of their long lost friend.
"He was a good man, that Jose." Juan removed his large straw hat, said a small prayer, and knelt down before the cross to place his hat there. "He didn't deserve to die..." Maria's voice croaked, tossing the flowers before the grave. Juan parted his lips, whispering, "No one did." Maria tipped forward her straw hat, hiding her eyes, hopefully hiding the tears dripping from it, too. Juan watched, his heart throbbing with pain. She knew it was useless, he would always knew when she cries.
Maria's knees buckled, and her two small hands gripped onto the arms of the cross, wailing loudly like a newborn. Her sombrero fell to the ground, showing her dirty, crying face clearly. Crying even louder, she lifted her face to look at the dark sky, letting the heavens hear. Silently, hesitantly, Juan reached out his hand and rubbed her back. A wordless gesture to tell her it's alright if she cries... because truthfully, tears dripped from Juan's eyes, too.
Soon, their eyes ran out of tears. Maria looked down on the ground, her hands gripping the cloth of her pants, bloody memories flowing back into her mind. Juan looked at the ground, too, both his hands on his lap.
Maria let out a dark chuckle. "Funny how mortals want to live forever, yet we, immortals, wish to die." Juan lifted his head, his eyes wide as he looked at his sister. "If we died, we wouldn't have to experience pain any more. If we died, we wouldn't have to see everyone else's death. Hell, if we died, maybe Jose wouldn't have had to die in our place." she went on softly.
"I don't want to see any more, Juan! What's the point of living! First, it was that damned so-called 'Papa' of ours, who wasn't even there! After that, it was that fucking idiot, calling himself a hero! What, 'I shall return'! He was too late! Death March happened two years before he fucking arrived! The whole time he was gone, my brother! Our brother! He tortured us! Fuck life! I want to die!" Maria wailed, water resurfacing in her eyes. Juan watched the display bitterly, his heart hurting more and more with every beat it took.
"I just don't want this pain anymore..."