...Part 12: Krad...
I sat on the roof of a museum somewhere in Europe. I didn't care which country I was in – I was miserable. I'd been miserable for almost fifteen years. I watched as miscellaneous people wandered through the night every now and then. There were only about four people that I'd seen so far. I knew none of them... except for the last one, who paused when she walked in front of the building.
The woman in the street had long brown hair that hung over her shoulders. I couldn't see her face under the hat she was wearing.
She just stood there for a moment, her hands in her coat-pockets, staring at the pavement for a while.
Then she looked up at me – or towards me. "Who's up there?" she called hesitantly, not wanting to disrupt the silence too much.
I stayed completely still, not knowing if I should respond or not.
The woman I should recognize from somewhere squinted her eyes and took a step closer to the building – that was it. The eyes. Risa Harada.
She recognized me at about the same moment. "Krad...?"
"Hello, Risa." The Heart thumped awkwardly in my chest.
"What are you doing here?"
Inflicting emotional pain on myself. "I don't know, really..."
"You should get back to Azumano, Krad. Suna misses you terribly." Thanks, Harada – fresh guilt to bestow upon myself. Just what I needed. Ugh...
I sighed. "I can't go back."
Risa glared at me with those bright brown eyes and shifted her hands to her hips. "And why not?"
"I already screwed up." There was no fixing my mistakes, now. I'd been gone for too long.
"So!?" Risa almost shouted at me. She was Suna's best friend – it made sense for her to insist I come back. "You can go back anyway! She will forgive you – I know it!"
"Risa, please..." I whispered.
"She's your Sacred Maiden, Krad –"
"Stop..."
"– You can't just ditch her like that!"
Before I could contemplate what I was doing, I dove down off of the roof and knocked her to the ground, my hand locked around her throat. "That's enough!" I growled, and I saw something wet drip onto her face.
