It was a bright sunny morning but by noon, thundering black rainclouds had rolled in, shrouding the entire city with tall sky scrapers in darkness.
It was nothing out of the ordinary for the city's inhabitants since thunderstorms were a norm in the monsoon season. What was out of the norm, however, was the sky dipping downwards like a giant blob, dropping from the heavens themselves in the sky's attempt to kiss the earth. Down and down it came, unearthly blue light crackling all around it, bursting like a water balloon dropped from a great height when it finally met the ground. In its place now stood a tall figure covered from head to toe in a crimson liquid.
Dead, haunted eyes looked around, their gaze coming to a rest on a lone swing. The person staggered towards it, slumping down on the wooden plank that was attached to a couple of old but sturdy iron chains. The man could feel blood flow down from the gash in his arm, the one that he had wound around the chain.
The wind blew harshly, whipping up dust clouds in its wake. It felt freezing against his soaked skin but the man did not care about feeling cold anymore. His head drooped a bit, as he stared at the ground unseeingly.
"Hey! Are you alright?" he heard a familiar voice call in the distance. He dismissed it as another figment of his imagination. It had been ages since he'd heard her.
"Oh my God!" the voice was much closer now, not more than a foot away from him. "You're covered in blood!"
For some reason, it was harder for him to ignore it this time. Not really believing the possibility of having found her in this world once again, he slowly raised his head to meet a pair of wide amber eyes. They belonged to a girl, no older than eighteen at most. She had a pale, angelic face which was currently staring at him with something akin to horror.
A voice in his head told him that this was not the girl that he knew but seeing a familiar face, even if that face was of a stranger's made him want to tell what had broken him.
"Everyone…" he whispered, not wanting her to hear it but wanting her to know all the same, "is gone."
If anything, the look of horror on her face intensified as she gave a visible shudder.
Disappointment crushed his heart. It wasn't her. The person that he knew was no more. None of them were. He was all alone.
He let his head drop as he resumed staring at the ground which was getting stained a dirty maroonish brown.
Pat.
A drop of rain fell from the sky, the water droplet splattering on the ground on impact. Not even a fraction of a second later it was absorbed by the parched earth.
Pat.
Another one fell.
Pat.
And another.
Pat.
And another.
The rain had started.
"You're hurt!" the girl cried all of a sudden, reminding him of her presence.
He was hurt. He knew it. But did it even matter anymore? What was the use of caring anymore?
"They left me alone," he mumbled, raising his head to look back at her. "They always do."
"You're in shock," the girl said in an understanding manner as she dropped her bag in the wet ground and sat down in front of him, "and you're losing blood due to that wound." She drew the drawstring of her bag, opening it up to dig inside. "You should wrap some bandages to stop the bleeding. Here." She pulled out a small role of white gauze and offered it to him with a small smile, "My mom makes me keep some on me at all times."
That smile, so sincere and sweet. It was just like hers. But this wasn't her. This was somebody else.
A scene flashed in his mind. One that he had kept him awake at night too many times.
He was running down narrow but well lit corridor, till he came to a black steel door. Blue glowing runes crunched the door out of his way, as the light spilled inside the dark dungeon. A motionless bloody figure was sprawled on the ground. Lifeless amber eyes stared unseeingly in his direction as a mutilated hand tried reaching out for him. The person's chest heaved one last time as the life faded away from those eyes, the hand falling limply to the cold stone floor midway.
"If you don't stop it soon, you're gonna drop out cold," she got on her knees, gently unhooking his arm from around the swing. He made no move to stop her. It just didn't matter. Nothing mattered now. It was all over.
Her fingers were soft and warm against his own cold flesh as she examined the long gash he had received in that fight. The water falling from the sky stung whenever it fell on it but soon it was covered up in the bandage.
"There," She declared with a delighted grin as she tied the knot and let go of his arm. "All done." She said as she climbed to her feet.
He felt the rain trickle down his face, washing away the blood of the ones he loved.
"I think it would be better if you got yourself checked at the hospital," she said in a concerned voice, worry showing clearly on her pale face. He could see her lips turning blue from the cold wind that kept on blowing.
"Thank you," he forced himself to smile at her. She had gone out of her way to tend to his wounds. From her behavior, he knew that she did not know the him of this world so she really did not have any reason to help him and yet she had. He stood up, noticing how he was almost a head taller than her.
"It was very kind of you to help me, Masooma." He said softly, once he had turned away from her.
"Masooma?" the girl repeated and he knew that she was shocked that he knew who she was.
"You look like a girl I knew by that name." he explained in a quietly, not looking back to meet those sincere amber eyes. "She died." He added more to remind himself that this was not her than to let the girl know of the fate of the Masooma he had once known.
The girl made no move to stop her as he walked away, exiting the playground and disappearing around a corner after taking a footpath.
A brilliant flash of lightning lit up the whole sky before the world was shaken by a rumbling thunder. He paid no mind to the pouring heavens or the howling wild wind as it raged all around him beating against the window panes and tall buildings.
The entire city appeared deserted, every living being having found some sort of shelter from Mother Nature's wrath. But he was no longer aware of his surroundings, his mind was in the past, images and events of his past flashing before his eyes, changing with every burst of the brilliant purple light that split the sky every now and then.
He was walking down the streets with his companions. Well three out of his four companions. The jade-eyed girl was walking hand in hand with the amber-eyed boy, a couple of steps ahead of him while the white bejeweled rabbit teased the two from its perch on his shoulder, the two of them sharing a laugh when the young couple turned redder than a Raki fruit.
A flash of lightning and he turned around a corner. He saw a tall brick building with boarded up windows and graffiti on the wall. Automatically, his feet headed in that direction.
The scene changed to that of an alleyway. His body was frozen in shock as he stared at the ashen face of his best friend. A look of astonishment was settled on the warrior's face, his crimson eyes glazed over yet still wide open in incredulous disbelief. There was a gaping hole in his chest.
The world was lit up once more when a brilliant flash of purple cut through the dark sky. The door creaked open and he stepped inside.
He was now standing at the doorway of a different dungeon. The scene before him was similar to that of his nightmares but there were marked differences as well. Instead of a single body on the ground there were two. A motionless boy with chocolate brown hair sprawled on the dirty floor with his head resting in the lap of that jade-eyed girl who was crying bitterly, clutching on to his dead body like her life depended on it.
He climbed the rickety stairs that led to the roof of the building, a loud clap of thunder crackling like the roar of a mighty beast. His footsteps never wavered as he ascended, finally reaching the top. With a pale hand he reached forward and unlocked the door, twisting the doorknob to let himself on the roof.
He was out in the open now, slumped on the ground, cradling a bleeding girl his arms. Two blood covered swords lay on the ground next to them. The corpse of a blond hair woman lay not too far away, a wild grin on her deranged face, lifeless onyx eyes staring straight at the two.
The girl was pale as a sheet, blood gushing out of the wound in her chest. She too was staring at him, an apologetic and guilty look in her bloodshot jade eyes, tears streaming down her face. She seemed to be struggling to say something but no words were forming on her trembling blue lips, her breath were labored, each one seeming to require more effort to draw then the last one. In the end, it was too much for her as she gave a shuddering gas and fell limp in his arms, the light fading from her green orbs.
He stepped into the pounding rain once again, hearing the wild wind howl and rage against the window panes of the other tall building all around him. In a trance like state, he walked to the very edge of the roof. Lightning flashed across the sky in brief burst, depicting the sparks flying from the clashing swords of some gigantic titans that occupied the sky.
The man bowed his head, staring down at the pavement almost forty feet below him. His eyes were glazed over, and it appeared as though, he was unaware of his surroundings. Unaware of the rain pelting his back, unaware of the cold, harsh wind numbing his body, just unaware- lost in another world, somewhere in his memories. A flash of lightening followed by a loud clap of thundered shook the heaven and earth, alike, yet the blond remained peering over the edge.
Millions of thoughts were running through his head, voices telling him to step away. Telling him not to do it. Telling him to keep on living.
Step back you idiot!
Don't do it!
Please!
Don't kill yourself!
He took a hesitant step backwards but stopped after just one step when their lifeless eyes and pale bloody corpses flashed in his vision.
"There is nothing left." He whispered, his jaw set as his eyes hardened. He stepped back on the ledge, closing his eyes as he took in a deep breath before leaning forwards.
For the fraction of a second, blue wisps of magic floated out of his body, circling around him, enabling him to hover in the air before they vanished and his body dropped like a stone. The wind whipped through his hair, the blond strands beating against his pale face as the ground rushed to meet him.
Idiot! A man roared.
Fai! A childish voice sobbed.
"I'm sorry everyone," he mumbled, feeling the tingles running through his entire body as he tumbled down. "Life isn't worth living anymore."
He had heard people say that a person dies of heart attack long before their body hits the ground. But he was still perfectly fine, even at the distance of ten feet from it.
Fai… a girl cried somewhere.
Five feet and still fine.
Fai. It was a boy this time.
Three feet and still alive.
Fai. All the voices yelled collectively.
Thud!
"They were wrong." A morbid smile managed to find its way on his lips despite his enormous pain. "I'm still alive…"
Blood gushed out from his broken body, pooling around him, mingling with the rain water still falling from the sky.
Yuui...
Someone whispered in his ear as darkness crept along the edges of his vision.
"I'm sorry…everyone…" he breathed, feeling the life leave his body. "But there is… not-hing… left…"
A/N: Um, yeah, this whole thing takes place after the events of my other, currently most popular fic, 'Dead'. Although this is not how that fic is going to end, I will admit that once or twice I considered using it but seeing a I had already promised I would not kill Fai in that one, I decided to turn it into a separate one-shot. By the way, this can also be taken as the second chapter of my previous one-shot, 'Given up' only this time it's told from Fai's POV and sheds light on why he committed suicide. The original reason was supposed to be that his curse had forced him to kill everyone himself, the guilt overwhelming him enough to force him to end his own life but with the end of 'Dead' nearing, it was hard not to put it in there instead of here...
Anyhow, I'll leave you guys alone now so you can give me some loving reviews for adding yet another depressing, angsty story to my quickly growing list of TRC fanfics. ^_^
Ja ne.
PS. I've rewritten the ending of 'Given up' so be sure to check that out as well.