Parallel Days

The landscape changed from concrete skyscrapers and flashing lights to a lush, open countryside in less time than I could fathom. My red, normal eyes looked at a young girl, 17 years of age, getting lost in a desolate world, who's eyes, red like mine, looked back at me. It was my reflection. I brushed my pale hand through my pink, mid-length, straight hair as I watched the other travellers on the train get fewer and fewer, until I was finally the only passenger left. The train met its final stop early the next morning, and after asking the train driver for directions I learnt that my destination was about a mile and a half away. As I stepped off the train I looked around me. Nothing but grass, trees and the countryside was around me. The train began to set off again on its way, causing a large gust of wind to blow my pink, glossy hair about my face, almost as if it wanted to make sure that I knew that I was leaving my whole life behind. Forever.

I walked along the path which connected my new town with its neighbour. It was very green, with lots of leaves and flowers and such. The air was so clear and thick, compared to back in the city, it was almost like breathing in soup. It was strange, almost like another world. I continued to walk along the path, not really looking where I was going, my mind filled with conversations and feelings of which I have experienced over the last 48 hours, 'We're trying to save you', 'This is the last stop', 'None of you have ever understood how I felt!', 'You need to forget...'. Mixed feelings flooded my mind once again, feelings of anger, sorrow and confusion. "This is all one big pain. All of it."I said, my voice high pitched and nasal.
My red gaze saw something, or rather someone, as I stopped in my tracks. An old man wearing tattered clothes was lying on the grassy floor, about 10 feet ahead of me. I looked around, just a grassy valley.
"There's no way there could be a tramp in a place like this... Ugh... This is not what I need right now...".
I walked slowly over to the lying man. I could see that he was still breathing. I stood up straight as I thought for a moment. I knelt down and shook him by the shoulder. His eyes fluttered, and he mouthed something to me, but his voice was too dry to make any sound. After pouring some of my water into his mouth, he slowly began to get better. He sat upright by himself and smiled at me,
"Its been a while, right Kira?"
I looked at him with a disgusted expression on my face. He laughed,
"Kira, don't tell me you forgot your grandpa have you? I'm Dunhill, a good freind of your fathers."
A wave of understanding shot through my mind. This was the man who came to play with me when I was growing up. I sighed,
"Ol' Man, don't tell me you've been wearing these same clothes since you played with me when I was little, have you?" I said with my high-pitched, nasal voice, causing him to look slightly offended.
"Very funny. Whatever happened to the days when you used to call me your grandpa? I guess you've grown up a lot since then, huh, Kira?",
"Quit calling me that! Listen, I'm Akira Fujibayashi now, so don't ever call me Kira, Miss Kamiya, or anything else other than Akira, OK?"
He looked surprised, then gave me a reassuring look,
"Akira Fujibayashi? Your stage name? ...I guess being called Kira Kamiya holds too many memories for you, doesn't it? I'm sorry about-",
"Never mind, its all in the past... Ol' Man, I'm tired, do you think that you could take me to hell, or wherever I'm going to be living now?" I said, avoiding eye contact with him as my voice started to go a little shaky.

We walked to the town I'd be living in without exchanging many words. I guess he knew that I wasn't in the right state of mind to talk much about any drastic change. I looked up and saw two women talking to what must have been a father and son. I couldn't make out much of what they were saying on our way past them, just 'We'll miss you'. Dunhill looked at me with a slight smile,
"That's Hossan and his son, Niko. They're leaving town to start up their Inn some place else. This town isn't lively enough for an Inn to do any business." He said as I looked back to see them leave the town.
"I see..." I said, my voice tainted with sadness.
Dunhill lead me down a small dirt path with rock walls either side, until it finally opened up. I looked around, my red eyes scanning everything. An old house, lots of trees, another small building with a fence around it, maybe a barn? And also some patches of gravel. That was all there was. Rocks, branches and weeds littered the ground, making the whole place not one bit more appealing to anyone. I looked at him with a worried expression.
"This is your new home, Akira. It may look a little worn out, but that doesn't mean you can't make it look better again. This was your grandfathers ranch before he died, and your father being who he is, he couldn't look after it, so its just stayed this way for quite some time. Now that you're here, you should bring this run down little place a new lease of life."
He looked over to see why I wasn't responding, and he couldn't help but laugh when he saw my face, full of terror.
"Ol' Man? If its OK, I think I want to wake up now. Hurry, pinch me or something!"

After learning that this indeed wasn't a dream, I felt a huge amount of despair settle on my small shoulders. Dunhill gave me the run down of the ranch, telling me how to use things like the watering stop and stuff, but I wasn't really listening, not out of rudeness, my mind was just not in the right place at that time. After showing me around the inside of the farm house that I'd be staying in, he left to let me gather my thoughts.

But the only thought that was in my mind was when did everything start to go wrong?