"On pins and needles we are waiting for the fall - We count the days scratching lines on the wall
Wait in the wings at someone's back and call
No longer recognize the place that I call home - No longer recognize this face as my own
Somewhere this fate, I lost control ..."

-"I Don't Want To Be Here Anymore" - Rise Against-


The distant rumble of thunder can be heard. The sky was turning grey. Everywhere he looked, people around him were retreating. Find some shelter was what his mind said, but he dismissed the thought and kept on walking.

Sometime later he reached a building that looked abandoned and rather beaten-down by the weather. Reaching inside his pocket he retrieved a key and proceeded to open the door. Another loud rumble was heard as the sky prepared to unleash its wrath on the city.

He sighed and went inside the building. Leaning against the wall he felt about it until his fingers met a familiar point. He switched on the light, dim as it was and looked around the room he was in.

He sighed again as he heard the pitter-patter of raindrops slowly falling. He knew that the slow pitter-patter will turn into a galloping horse within the next five minutes. He walked over to the battered remains of an old and musty couch and flopped himself on it. Waiting like that for the course of the next five or ten minutes he sighed again and looked at a cupboard which was kept in a corner of the room.

He went towards it and opened it, grabbed something from the inside and gazed at it. This was his prized possession, the one thing that he felt like he truly owned. This was his and his alone.

He took the object and started to climb a staircase that will lead him to the upper floor of the building. He loved this floor. Simply because the roof had holes in certain places that were wide enough for him to gaze at the stars at night and because of the half-shattered window that provided him an astounding view of the world outside the lonely walls of the dejected building.

He went to the window and watched the rain. A streak of lightning illuminated the room. He momentarily saw the reflection of his face on the remaining piece of glass on the window. He grunted.

After staying at the window for about half an hour or so, lost in his thoughts, he ventured downstairs to keep his prize back in its resting place. Then he lumbered back upstairs, pulled out a folded bundle of sheets and arranged a makeshift bed for himself.

Alone and forgotten, he thought, Hn, who cares.

And with that Kai Hiwatari drifted off to sleep.


There she was clutching her pillow tightly, trying not to scream every time the thunder boomed in the sky.

"Typhoon Fujiwara is expected to hit Tokyo by this evening. Heavy rainfall, strong winds and drastic temperature drops are to be expected. All citizens in the area are advised to stay indoors until the typhoon subsides. And that's your daily weather report."

She remembered watching the weather forecast this afternoon. She knew it would be cold but she didn't think that it would be this cold. Another streak of lightning flashed and a large boom followed, resulting in her clutching her pillow even tightly and screaming her head off. She desperately tried not to cry but the tears were already on the corners of her eyes, just waiting to fall, one by one.

Hilary hated the thunder and lightning. It was loud, scary and bright at the same time, like something traumatic.

"I'm a tough girl"

"I'm a tough girl"

"I'm a tough girl"

She said to herself trying to ease away the fear.

"I'm a tough g-" she ended with another scream as thunder rolled in again. This time, the thunder and lightning broke her dams and she started seeping out the faintest of rivers. The rivers started flooding.

Hilary started sobbing, slowly and then losing control every time thunder and lightning followed. She clutched her pillow even tighter. She hated this. She really really hated this.


It was still raining heavily in the morning. Kai slowly started to wake up. He lay there in his "bed" listening to the sounds around him. He liked the sound of the wind howling and the rain hitting the roof steadily. The main part of the storm was over but he knew that the thunder and lightning will return again. They always do he thought.

He lay there and thought about his past, the wheels that he tried so hard to escape from, but were always coming after him. He felt anger building up inside him. He remembered a certain scene from his past.

()

It was raining heavily. A lone post was fixed on a wide expanse of land. He was led there to the post. He knew what was going to happen. He's seen it before. He's been here before.

"I'm going to enjoy seeing your flesh being ripped from your weak body, Kai" retorted a tall figure who was watching Kai being dragged out to the post.

Kai didn't fight back, he didn't say a word in his defense. He did nothing at all. Because he knew that nothing he could do would matter. This was his destiny. Pain.

A kid, he guessed that the kid was his own age or close to that, chained him to the post. The shackles were really heavy and Kai tried his best not to stagger under the weight loaded onto him. The kid smirked and gave Kai a look of pure loathing.

"What have you done to this children Boris? Why can't you just leave these innocent kids alone?" Kai thought to himself.

He's seen orphans, homeless and all kinds of assorted bunches who knew not the slightest trace of hate, being turned into mindless zombies by Boris and the others who worked at the abbey. The zombies had only one purpose, to carry out whatever task BioVolt and Boris required them to do. Many of these tasks involved the destruction of others.

"In fact," Kai thought, "everything was about power and greed. Nothing more. Not a thing."

The kid then brought out a whip. Smirking at Kai again, he raised the whip in the air. Kai didn't fear the impact that he was about to feel. He steeled himself and looked out to the far corner of the field, where Boris stood with his gaze fixed on Kai.

Kai looked and he swore that he saw Boris break into a smile, an evil grin more likely. Kai wasn't going to scream in pain, he just wasn't going to let Boris have his satisfaction.

The whip came down, once, twice he soon lost count on how many times. He could feel his skin ripping but he didn't even utter the slightest sound. No. He was stronger than Boris and his army of hate-filled zombies. He was stronger than the man whom he is related to, his grandfather Voltaire Hiwatari. He was stronger than everyone there. And Kai was determined to show it.

()

He jolted out of his memories, his blood boiling and head throbbing. The rain had subsided greatly but the wind was still strong, which meant that it would be raining again soon. He felt hungry but brushed it off, he could eat later. He rolled up his bed and put it back in the corner where it usually stays.

Another boring Saturday I guess he thought.


The room was quiet and calm, unlike in yesterday night and the early hours of today morning. Quiet enough to hear the calm and steady breaths of the sleeping figure covered in blankets and hugging her pillow tightly. The rays of sunshine peered through her window and illuminated her in a somewhat ambient glow.

She grunted, caught her breath and slowly and rather lazily opened her eyes. It was a new day. The rain has stopped but the wind is still blowing she thought. She got up and yawned.

"Well, thunderstorm or not, life goes on!" she stated simply.