Disclaimer: I don't own LOZMM. I merely own this story.
HITD: This is far less mushy than the first part, this time it's angst.
From Anju to Kafei
I wait for you patiently in my room. Switching gazes between the ever looming moon, and the wedding dress I hope to wear tomorrow. There is no one here; no one. The streets are empty. The houses are vacant. The city itself is utterly devoid of life, save for the truly hopeful or truly desperate; those who are trying their damnedest to convince themselves that there will be a tomorrow. You will come right? Or was the past two years of my life just one long beautiful dream?
The necklace…. I hold it in my hand now fingering it with worry. It feels as fragile as the hope for tomorrow in this moment, yet solid. You gave this back… Why?
Hear the loud alarum bells-Brazen bell! What tales of terror now their turbulency tells!
In the startled ear of night how they scream out their afright!
That night when you didn't return from the bar… I got scared. Your parents hadn't seen you, days later… Laugh at me if you want I was concerned it was as if you fell off the face of the earth. I had search posters up in three days; waited for weeks. There were whispers of rumors that you were spirited away. It eventually got to be too much. You told me at one point, you liked my hair long, that it was really pretty that way… I'm sorry….
Too much horrified to speak. They can only shriek, shriek out of tune….
I sat in the park. Not North Clock… a different one… I sat there trying not to think; trying not to think of life without you. I sat there on the park bench despondently, in the rain. Only the sound which snapped me out of this horrible daze was that of a door creaking open. There stood a small boy possibly the age of ten. His face was hidden by a Keaton mask. He lowered his head, yet said nothing. He slowly walked up to me and picked up a single tear off of my cheek. I hadn't even realized I was crying. I apologized to him for reasons unknown, and he turned and left. Later I realized it had been you who had stopped my silent tears. No, I think somewhere in my heart I knew all along.
In a clamorous appealing to the mercy of the fire- In a mad expostulation with the deaf and frantic fire leaping higher, higher, higher,
A day or two later, a messenger; a child in green came to the inn. He had a mask on that resembled your countenance. The timing was perfect. I had received your letter nearly a moment earlier. I told him to meet me in the kitchen at midnight. I thought this time was most appropriate. I was busy all day that day, and even if I wasn't it would have been hard to pull myself out of work to do this. I closed up the Inn for the night and ran up to my room excited. It had been nearly a month since I'd heard from you. I crudely tore though the envelope. The handwriting was true. It was indeed from you.
He was certainly strange… the concept of time seemed lost on him, that or it simply had no effect on him at all…. Regardless, I entrusted my own letter to him. With that, I could only wait and hope you were still ok. By this time the moon was already visible by day.
…With desperate desire, and a resolute endeavor. Now-now to sit or never by the side of the pale-faced moon.
I was given a response sooner than I thought. The same child brought me this very pendent. I know now to wait.
Oh the bells bells bells! What a tale of terror tells of despair! How they clang and clash and roar! What a horror they outpour. In the bosom of palpitating air! Yet the ear it fully knows, by the twanging and the clanging, how the danger ebbs and flows:
Yet waiting is far harder than you may realize; to simply sit and wait. To wait as the town is in frenzy. To wait as the soldiers give the order to evacuate. Did you know your father sits in his office all day fighting the soldiers and festival company? Mother and Grandmother have already left for Romani Ranch. Still I stay. Still I wait.
I flip through the letter you've sent. Reading it once more:
Dear Anj,
I can't see you right now. I'm sorry to have made you worry. I just can't see you right now. It pains me to stay away from you, yet… I will bring the sun mask when I return. I promise you, my love for you has not waned for you in the least. Please wait. In the early hours of the day of the festival. I'll return.
Kafei
Yes the ear it distinctly tells, in the jangling and the wrangling; how the danger sinks and swells, by the sinking or swelling in anger of the bells, of the bells, of the bells bells bells bells bells bells bells In the clamour and the clangour of the bells
I hope my waiting will not be in vain
"Kafei… please come."