Chapter 8 -My Precious Picture Book-
To our descendants...
We have won against the darkness, and some were destroyed. As you travel along, trouble will surely arise. To prevent this trouble, we leave you with the message...
'...' She scribbled down quickly into the cube, trying to inscribe every important detail into it as dried tears fell from her tired eyes. 'Surely... The Millennium Earl will return...' She whispered, carving the symbols into the cube. 'People will die... Like them...' She breathed a bit, her heart aching.
How painful it is to be left alone, where most of her friends have gone to the after world. She bit her lips, her head looking down. 'Please...' She still remembered it, that sight in which 'The End' was revealed. She saw it with her own eyes. Their hero... He died, but he also took down the Earl, she was sure of it... 'I'm sure that the flood will come back again,' she said, shivering under the cold. 'If I can pass down this message... The only way is using this Cube,' hastily, she carved down the last words.
'... There...' She breathed, holding the cube in her hands, '... Ng...' Tears fell from her eyes, dripping onto the cube.
'Everyone... Please... Ah... Take me with you... Please...! It's unbearable...! You guys dying... It's... I can't take it anymore...! '...' ! Why did you die?! Tell me... Please... Our hero and comrade...'
'Why did you break our promise...?'
She knew that it was not his fault. She knew.
But just sometimes...
Humans just have to blame.
It was dark, Lenalee shivered.
What was this? What was this voice? Ah, it was that again. That nightmare that haunted her for so long. She hated that nightmare... Where everyone's... Where home is...
Destroyed.
Shivering, she woke up quickly when the train finally arrived to their station. That page from the picture book really bothered her in the end. The nightmares had resurfaced. Allen... Will he ever come back? Or is this figure of him... The real Allen? She felt so confused, so bewildered. If so, then was the 'person' she thought dearly as a friend was...
.
What if it was someone completely different?
.
Why did it come to this? First, it was the 14th.
And now...
"We reached to our destination!" Lavi said, raising his arms as tiny Allen mimicked him, raising his arms too while holding his picture book. All of them left the train as it went on to it's next station. The sky was the color of gray-blue, the color of Allen's eyes.
"So about today's mission," Lavi said, flipping through the documents in his hands, "apparently, there have been some suspicious AKUMA activities recently, even though this place is a relatively empty place. But most importantly, though, there might be Innocence..."
"A legend?" Lenalee asked as Allen tried to pull Kanda's hair out of curiosity.
"Kind of like that," Lavi shrugged, pulling Allen away from the wrath of Kanda. "... Actually, I wouldn't be any surprised if you guys don't know about it," Lavi said, swinging the documents around, "this place is close to where the first cube was found."
"The first cube... You mean the one that held the message about Innocence?!" Lenalee exclaimed, Allen trying to tug on Kanda's hair again.
Lavi nodded, "Allen, get away from Yu."
"Why?" Allen tilted his head.
"... Now."
-.-.-
"Say, Allen," Lenalee smiled gently towards the boy.
"Yeah, Lenalee?" He looked up, holding his picture book close to his chest.
"... Do you... Understand the words at the very last page... Of your book?"
"Hm?" He flipped through the pages, all the way to the last page. There was the 14th's score, the score that haunted Allen ever since... During the Ark. "You mean... This?"
"Mmhmm," She nodded, "do you understand what it says?"
"..." He grinned, "Nope!"
Lenalee just wanted to clarify something. Something that might... Save Allen, maybe. Saving Allen from the central, about how concern they were about the '14th'. Even if it's just that... Maybe she could do something, right?
Just maybe.
She smiled.
But inside of her was crying.
She didn't know what to trust anymore...
"..."
Ah, would Cross know something about this? She thought. After all... He knows a lot about Allen, about the 14th... But he's not "here" anymore...
...
Timcanpy?
The soft sound of birds chirping was replaced with the silence of death. Lenalee's purple eyes widened as a gust of wind passed by.
"... There's no town," she whispered.
"This... Is weird, isn't it...?" Lavi laughed awkwardly as cold sweat rolled down his cheek. Last time they checked, there was still a small village around here. Where's the finders?
"What the heck is this..." Kanda narrowed his eyes, preparing to draw his sword.
But this place was no house no nothing.
It was only dust with no trees.
"There's nothing!" Tiny Allen exclaimed, his voice startling Lenalee a little bit.
"What's wrong, you ask?" A voice said. If only lady luck was on their side, this wouldn't happen, right?
"Hey little boy, what's this book about?" Tyki pointed at the picture book, smiling.
Allen stared at the man, Lavi trying to reach the boy from afar, panicking. Lenalee too late to react, Kanda too late to realize was the Noah was going to do.
Tyki's smile was scary.
"It's made out of Innocence, is it not? Sorry little boy, but if it's important to you, please don't bear a grudge against me, okay?" At first Allen did not understand what the man was trying to say. But he looked oddly familiar to him, for some reason. That face of his...
'Take a breath, my friend... Take a breath.'
"Take a...?" Allen's voice seeped out of his throat as the wind carried it away. They was too late.
The sound of paper ripping replaced the silence of death.
"As you see, just like you exorcists, we Noahs also have a job," Tyki smiled, leaving the book in shatters, the grey-blue eyes widening with no light, "but this time is only me... So, how about a small game? Oh, by the way, where's the young boy?" He was talking about Allen, but the "Allen" he was asking about was no longer there.
Torn pages was being carried away by the wind, "Allen" reached for them.
His little hands tried reaching for them.
There was a hero, a hero who became the pillar of the people's hearts.
He fought against the evil man, he won.
But in the end, with the evil man's last strength, pierced the hero with his sword.
The hero was left nearly dead, singing the song a friend gave him.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH-"
I just realized something. I enjoy writing stories in which involves Allen screaming like that. Such as, D. False. Well technically it wasn't Al- no wait, past!Allen there also screamed so. Mm. hehe purposely showing Lenalee's very worried state to annoy someone lol- you know who you are~ (¬ w¬ )
It's very interesting to read people's theories about this story xD but I think most of the stuff will be revealed in the next chapter. This story won't be as long as D. False by the way~
Please do review!