Wishes in Carried Flight
Based off of Paper Plane and Prisoner by Len and Rin Kagamine
For My Mom, So that she can enjoy this amazing story like I did, and get the same feeling I got out of it.
Chapter One:
Throwing Planes in a Glass House is like throwing stones.
World War II, such a rusty and dirtied blot on humanities surface. Len Kagamine sat on the grass, staring up at the sky. His ribs jutted through the torn black shirt he was supplied at the prison, his feet cut and muddied from the harsh, grassless ground. He stared longingly through the barbed wire fence, daydreaming of a train to take him away.
But it was a lie; he knew that all his daydreams were a lie. All but her, he gazed upon her as she walked through the grass on the other side of the fence. Day by day she came day-by-day she left again. Len wondered why she was here, what she wanted with this filthy Jews prison.
Len placed his palms behind him in the dust and stared up at the blue sky. He wanted to find a way to communicate with the girl outside of the fence. He needed more to life than just what he had now. Len picked himself up and returned inside to his cell. He sat in the dusty corner and waited, watching the guards pass by. Turning towards the brown box –his one luxury – Len pulled some stashed paper from inside of it. He grabbed a small piece of rock and rubbed in on the corner.
Rubbish.
So were the next, and the next. But by some stroke of luck, the workings of God perhaps, Len lifted a thin, long rock and tested it. Black substance that resembled charcoal imprinted the page. The blonde boy smiled and began to write, his script was messy but not illegible. Silently he worked, using his thumb to blot out errors. It took him a long time, but he had managed to construct a simple but friendly letter. Len blew off the stray pieces of gritty charcoal that littered the rough paper and folded it into a crude airplane. He tucked the plane into the cardboard box and curled up, his heart filled with hope for the first time in his life.
The next day, he slid the paper plane into his moth-eaten back pocket and headed out to the fence with the rest of the Jews. Len strayed past the others until he got to his normal spot, and he waited. He waited and dreamed of the train that would never come. Finally, when it seemed as if she wasn't coming, she walked past his section of the fence. The girl wore a simple white dress, a pink shawl draped across her shoulders. Her silky blonde curls peeked out from under her sunhat, her blue eyes nearly matching the ones that were currently observing her. Len dashed as close to the fence as he dared, and when a gust of wind blew he threw the plane. His heart thumped loudly in his throat as he watched it soar, with that plane went his hopes. The girl looked up as the plane landed at her feet. Len smiled, unwilling to call out, and gestured to it.
She bent down and lifted the plane, smiling. Len watched her open the letter and head down the path, pausing only once.
The bell tolled and Len rushed back inside with the others, thrown roughly in his cell. He barely felt the blow to his shoulders and back that day, he was so happy. This made him pause, he could never remember enjoying his life. He had never before wished to be alive for another day. A smile lit his face, and he rest his head against the ground, watching a spider crawl up his box as he drifted off to sleep.
Len awoke and was led to the yard with the others, the taller man beside him roughly jabbing his shoulder to make him move quicker. Len rolled his eyes, this treatment was stale and his shoulder was numb from sleeping on it so lest he feel the jabs. Len was surprised to see the girl lingering by his section of the fence before he had arrived, never had she done this before. Len ran jovially towards her, and stopped a foot from the fence once again.
She smiled and waved a frail, pale hand. In the other, she held a perfectly folded paper plane. The girl stood on tiptoe and tossed it over the fence. Len watched it soar over and fly directly towards his face. He smiled and reached up, catching it in his dirty hand. She clapped her hands together and waved, limping down the path once she was sure he had his hands on her response. Len unfolded the letter and sat on the ground with a soft bump. This was how everything began.
Len's days no longer mashed together in a blur, they stayed aligned and straight in his mind. He wrote to her every other day, the off days he received a response. He treasured the letters as if they were precious jewels, reading them on days when he was trapped in his cell, falling asleep with the letters in his hands. In these letters were his happiness.
The day was normal, just like any other. Len followed down the painful procession line of Jews, the man that would jab his shoulder no longer among them. Len was once again surprised to notice her standing there before he reached the fence; the only other day she had beaten him to their spot was the day she first responded to him. He approached carefully, something about her seemed off to him.
He jumped and caught the plane, his eyes meeting hers as he landed back on his feet. She didn't leave like she normally did, she waited, watching him carefully. He glanced down at the letter, and opened it in the yard. His eyes widened, his heart thumping loudly in his ears. On the paper were the worst words he had ever read in his life.
I am leaving for the city, goodbye.
He watched her turn and march through the grass. He took a painfully large breath in and screamed, his voice stopping her. She resumed walking when he stopped.
She did not look back.
Len slammed his fists onto the ground, curling into a child's' pose. He sobbed, his tears dripping down onto the ground. He screamed as he sobbed, gulping ragged breaths. He could never remember crying this much in his life. Len's days returned to being blurred and depressing, hi existence seemed pathetic. He wondered how she was, re-reading her letters over and over until he could recite them, for they were his everything. No longer did he rush eagerly to the fence, and soon he stopped wandering outside with the other prisoners. He wished silently for her happiness, hoping one day they would meet again.
He was reading over her last letter once again, marveling over her perfect script and tossing aside the meanings of the words, when the guards yanked him from his cell. A tall man with blonde hair and glasses scooped up the letters and read them aloud, the others laughing and jeering. When he got to the last letter, stacked them all and tore them cleanly down the middle.
Len screamed in agony and ripped free from the men's iron grips. He threw himself at the guard, punching and clawing whatever skin he could reach. He managed to land a good firm hit on the jaw before he was yanked back and thrown into his cell once again, bawling like a child.
Not more than an hour later the guards returned, one of them with a red bruise on his cheek, glasses crooked. They yanked him up by the arms and cuffed him, dragging him down the halls. Len understood what was happening; yet he was powerless to stop it. They led him to a large room, un-cuffing him before shoving him inside.
Len stared blankly at the walls, a skeleton in the far corner. His head snapped up when a small hissing sound leaked from a pipe at the far end. Len wailed in despair and ran to the wall, pounding and clawing at it until his fingers bled. He screamed and screamed, falling to his knees. His mind wandered back to the moments he was with her, his flower amongst the weeds. They were from different worlds, but they had made it work for so long. He clutched his throat, the blood from his fingers staining his pale skin. He knew his time was short now; his breathing became heavier as the gas filled his lungs.
Len felt his heartbeat begin to change, coughs began to bring up blood until there was a steady puddle beneath him. He knew that his last breath was drawing near, a numb feeling spread through him. He glanced to the side, a twitching image of a perfect paper airplane intruding his gaze. Tears leaked down onto the floor, and with his last jarring breath he reeled up and screamed.
"I JUST WANT YOUR NAME!"
Chapter two:
A cursed flower resting in the bed of weeds
Rin Kagamine sat silently in her hospital bed, staring out from the dusty window that defined her world. Her legs were numb, and the heart monitor beeped like a curse at her side. She saw her father leave for work from the corner of her eye, and watched him travel down the path past her window. When she was sure that he had long gone, she stood and pulled the IV from her vein. Carefully she dressed herself in her Sunday's best, topping it off with her favorite hat.
Rin wandered down to the prison where her father worked. She knew not what the men and women had done to be trapped inside, only that it seemed like an injustice to keep such young children there. She passed down the path day by day, and began to notice that one prisoner was watching her.
He seemed to be around her age, his blonde hair pulled back into a short ponytail. He was constantly staring at the sky as if daydreaming, his hole-riddled clothes hanging limply off him. She allowed herself to stare for a few moments before heading on her way once again.
On her walk one day, while looking at the weeds and pebbles on the ground, she was shocked to find a paper airplane. Her head rose slowly, and she looked around, meeting the lone prisoner's eyes. He nodded twice and gestured to the crudely folded plane, as if telling her to pick it up. Slowly, she bent down, her legs straining to support her. She lifted the plane and saw messy black calligraphy on the inside.
Rin clutched the plane to her chest, smiled at the prisoner, and walked slowly back to the hospital.
She made this her daily ritual; the paper planes held firmly in her hand each moment she was not with him. She was reading the letters one day, her hat covering the rest of them in her lap, when her father walked in. Rin smiled and greeted him cheerfully, and he smiled back. He sat in the chair and adjusted his small glasses that were constantly sliding down his broad nose.
His eyebrows furrowed as he spotted her reading the letter. He yanked it from her hands and read it over, crumpling it and chucking it into the wastebasket before angrily stalking out.
Rin frowned and clutched the other letters underneath her hat, retrieving the crumpled one from the wastebasket. She couldn't understand why their love was so wrong. Despite her father's behavior that day, Rin kept every single letter that the boy flew to her over the barbed fence.
Of course, Rin's happiness couldn't last forever. Her condition began to worsen and soon she could barely use her legs. Her nurses propped her up every day so she could see out the window, so she could watch and wonder and hope that the boy was doing all right without her. Her body grew frailer until she knew that soon she would no longer be able to hold on. The disease was spreading through her young body, invading her cells and corrupting her ability to move. With a trembling hand she scrawled on a piece of paper and forced herself up, forced herself to dress, and with all the passion in her heart she forced her legs to move.
Rin walked brusquely towards the prison, spying him at the normal spot. She threw the paper airplane and waited for him to lift it, fighting back tears. He read the letter and looked up, his eyes wide and his face draining of color. To her despair, he began to cry.
Rin turned away, unable to watch him break down in front of her.
"Please don't leave!" He called. She stopped short, this was the first time she had heard his voice. It was beautiful, even when tearstained.
"Can't you understand how much I need you? Will you ever come back to this place?" He cried, panting from the effort of shouting. Rin's eyes filled with the tears she had earlier concealed, and her head turned towards him slightly as she debated whether or not to respond.
"Our letters, I've always kept them close to my heart!" He continued. "So I'll be here, waiting for you to return!" Rin sobbed loudly, sure he could hear. Out of the corner of her eye she saw him smile at her as the tears streaked down her face.
She ran, without looking back.
A day later, Rin's condition turned critical. Her father rushed into the hospital, slamming her door open. He grit his teeth as he watched her begin to fade. She would last, but for how long? The nurse said some unknown strain was put on her body. He turned and left, suiting into his uniform. He knew exactly who did this to her. He would make this filth pay dearly.
He pushed his glasses up his face and called the prisoner from his cell once he reached the concentration camp. He yanked the letters from the boy and read them out loud, the other soldiers jeering. In a flash of anger at seeing the last letter his daughter had sent – the one, which had worsened her – he tore the letters down the middle. To his surprise, the prisoner broke free and punched him, screaming. He realized in that instant the passion and love that his daughter hand experienced. This boy had brought her happiness when he couldn't. He pulled his cap down over his face and left, unable to do anything for the boy. He knew that the prisoner would die because he had struck a guard.
Rin's condition worsened the next day. Her father entered the room and watched her, keeping his emotions stone. He watched the letter fall from her hand to the floor, as she was unable to hold it. He lifted it and placed the paper in her hand, folding her hand across her chest. Rin smiled at her father, knowing he understood.
It hurts! She thought repeatedly as her heart monitor blipped and sped up. It quickened and quickened, her breath leaving her until it began to stop altogether. She closed her eyes and smiled, one thought burning white-hot in her brain.
Please, I just want one thing…for you to survive.Her heart monitor deadened into a straight line.
Epilogue:
To paradise, a flitting image of the past life.
Len awoke in a field, the clouds floating lazily above him.
Rin awoke in a field, flowers surrounding her body.
Len's eyes widened, he jolted up. He was dead, yes, and he knew it. She was here. He pushed himself up and ran through the plush grass, his body healed. He spotted her, running to him from a patch of flowers. Rin smiled wide, her heart overjoyed. They'd found each other!
The two embraced, pulling back a second later with their hands linked together.
They stayed in that field, talking. They'd both found their eternal happiness.
You were a Prisoner. You were my Paper Plane. Now we're together. Life ends with life, eternal happiness.
