Zora ideale
The sun pierced the grey clouds when Zora left his apartment that morning.
The previous night was enjoyable, he would never have guessed he would break the day after.
Enid played it out like it was nothing. Or maybe it was after.
Somewhere along the way, the sky turned completely grey and dark. The rays of sunshine no longer pierce the clouds. The ambiance made the ambulance lights stand out from the grey scenario before him. A crowd formed around the ambulances, a few meters behind them, like a perimeter.
His hands started to shake and his mouth ran dry.
A gloomy morning for a precedent disaster.
The whispers and idle conversation became louder as Zora approached the commotion. The best option would have been to turn back and ignore the day, but his legs moved on their own and only halted too close to whispering and cries. It smelled like death.
Behind the ambulances, the authorities covered the sunflower patch with heavy, dark cloths hanging from a metal structure. However, when the wind blew, it allowed a peek under the cloth. All there was, it was red. From the thin opening, there were no flowers or the marble of the building. Only red.
He opened his mouth with the lack of oxygen getting into his lungs, but to avail. A pain in his chest drove his hand over his heart.
It was still a possibility that he was wrong. It was still possible that it was nothing but a coincidence. His faith was soon to be shattered.
Across the street, the press arrived at the scene. From the corner of his eye, Zora recognized a figure completely paralyzed. It was Asta.
Zora managed to move his legs towards the boy. His haunted face became clearer, his eyes filled to the brim with tears.
"Hey, kid," Zora groaned.
Ever so lightly, Asta deviated his attention from the crowd to Zora.
"Zora…"
He conjured no words, despite his efforts. Only his own shallow breaths he tried so hard to dissimulate.
"They killed him." Asta said bluntly, toneless.
Zora blinked slowly, taking in the sentence.
"Who did they-"
"Yuno. They killed Yuno."
He never allowed himself to, but as he sped up through the city streets, he did it. He dared to ask himself how many were the times she had killed someone.
To make the kill, collect and run, he would bet that was her style. His attempt to find her, to let her know everything that rushed into his head, it was most likely worthless. But alas, he was wrong.
In the parking lot of the apartment building he had spent many nights, her car was still parked nearby.
He never knew Enid like he thought he did.
After Zora parked his car, he jumped off the vehicle and banged the door closed. His heart accelerated and his head about to explode.
She found him and overflowed him with all the things he never had before. He was afraid to leave her. All the promises, all the times he took her off her knees. Only so she could take advantage of him. Everything he did to keep her close. All his efforts in waste. He gave love about a hundred tries. He took the demons from inside her mind and made them his. All those efforts for the mere wish for Enid to stay. He didn't even notice because his love was blind.
When the tears threatened to fall, Zora clenched his jaw and his teeth screeched.
He banged her door. Three times, one stronger and louder than the last. After two seconds, he banged again. If she was there, she would listen to everything he had to say.
Finally, the door opened. A neutral face, no words came from her. For a second, Zora searched Enid's face, insearch of something. An emotion, guilt, malice. Anything, but there was nothing. Not a smile, not a frown. Not blame, not satisfaction.
That triggered something in him, all the words stuck in his throat suddenly came out.
"How does it feel, huh?" he asked. "To have a job well done? Do you know they don't have a clue of what happened because everything was covered in the victim's blood? "
Enid turned around and left the door open. Zora followed her inside and shut the door.
"No, seriously. Top marks for the job. It's amazing how you can remain unfazed after something like that. Those are some moves you've got. Such effortlessness, what an innovator. But what do I know, right? I'm not a fucking killer!"
"Don't throw that to my face when you knew who I was from the start."
"No, I didn't. I thought I did!"
No response from her. Enid advanced to her room in a relaxed pace as Zora stomped behind her. Her room was mostly empty. All her personal belongings in bags or about to be.
"Just what you did… I ought to know. I had to go and find out from Asta!" his heavy breaths filled the silent room for a moment. "So tell me, how does it feel?"
The last sentence wasn't a shout like he had been doing. He didn't yell it, it was almost a murmur. A genuine question to which he wanted an answer for and had none.
"Enid, dammit answer me!" he shouted once again.
He gripped her arm and turned Enid to face him. Nothing. There was nothing.
"I don't know what to tell you." she said. "I have to leave and so should you."
The sole sentence landed on Zora like a punch on the stomach. It was over. She didn't need him anymore.
His shoulders dropped. The fingers still clinged to her arm, more gently. When he let go, his hand started to shake. After one last glance, he left.
With no turn-backs, no hesitation. Zora went back to his car and drove. Not sure where to go, he just drove with his windows closed and vision a blur, wondering if he could live without her. If she could live without him.
Enid Brown
There were many things Zora didn't understand. How she woke up that morning in a cold sweat and how her skin crawled without him by her side. How all of her jokes hid darkness within.
When the door shut closed with a bang for the second time that day, to announce Zora's departure, Enid stopped her movement. The absent-minded stare rose to the wall before her. Her lips in a straight line, death in her eyes. Warm tears shed.
He had no idea Enid stole one of his pillows. The one marked by her lipstick and infused with both their scents. It reminded her of all the nights they spent together..
At that time, Zora didn't comprehend, but eventually he would come to understand that Enid did not cry for the crimes she had already committed. She cried for the thing it was certain she would have to do. The one sin she would never forgive herself for doing. The one she might need a confessional afterwards.
Zora would never accept that Enid was a lost cause. At a point of no return.
She drifted away from silver faces on display. Far long before she even met him.
Zora Ideale
All he wanted was to stay in the sun. Pieces of sun, pieces of him.
It had been days and he was yet to come back to his normal life. He was taking his time on his ride. He was falling, so he might as well take the time to do it properly. Until he reached the ground.
He would have lived for her. But all she did was ignore the questions he ever made.
He spent too much time thinking and that was his biggest flaw. How his life got affected by all the thoughts and doubts.
The resolution, the civil thing to do. It was obvious. But was it the right choice? So much time spent fantasizing about the end, but he never imagined something like this. He never imagined it to be so hard. Unbeknownst to Zora, he postponed it. Who knows for how long back then. Sense of time was something that melted away from his notions after he last saw Enid.
Maybe, in the sun, he would find the answer. He had been thinking about it ever since. Everytime he wanted to raise his body, it was too heavy. Like it was beaten up and left to die. His muscles weighed him down, but he had to force them to work. His legs were cramped, but he forced them to walk.
Without his confession, the investigation on Yuno's death would never end. It would be archived eventually, unsolved.
Enid wasn't his enemy. Never was. It wasn't her fault. He wanted to liberate her from the life she was doomed for. To confess his knowledge to the authorities. It was the only way.
However, that afternoon, in the secluded area he liked to nap and take time to do his cursed thinking, he wasn't alone.
Zora barely had the time to raise to his feet and walk two steps before he fell again. A sharp pain in both his kneecaps and his legs gave up on him. Cries of pain left his throat.
He never knew Enid at all, and yet, there she was.
"Fuck!" he shouted in pain.
He put the weight into his elbows and glimpsed over his shoulder. To where the grass was red and to the origin of his pain. Enid ran to him. The gun was still in her hand, but she put it on the ground before she kneeled next to him, her face in tears.
"I'm so sorry." Enid cried.
When she whirled his body to face the sky, he groaned in pain. When she placed his head in her lap, he wanted to yank her hands away from him, but he had no strength left. The only strength he had, he used it to grip her hand instead.
"Zora, please forgive me. But I can't let you do this. You can't." her voice trembled.
He blinked, unsure if it was the lighting or the fact that his life ran out, but Enid never looked so stunning. Her beauty always perfected, but at that moment, he wished he had more time with her.
"It 's okay. Enid, it's okay." Zora murmured. "Let us end this."
Enid curled over him. Her free hand on his hair. Her warm tears fell on his face and shirt.
"I never wanted this for you, my love. I'm so sorry." she whispered against his forehead, where she left one last kiss.
He didn't dare to peek down when a cold steel tube made contact with his chin. All he wanted, was to search her eyes before he was gone. They were filled with emotion.
The last thing he saw was the emotion in her eyes.
The last thing he smelled was her perfume.
The last thing he felt was her hand against his.
The last thing he tasted was the salt in her tears.
The last thing he heard was her cries.
He only cursed himself for not giving her the freedom he wanted for her and instead, she liberated him from a lonely life she would have to bear from that moment on.
For this reason only, he wasn't able to smile on his final second. Not even for Enid.
A/N:
Somehow, I actually managed to get through this. Jeez, I put this finale off for a while exactly because it was too tragic to write. But here you have it, the final chapter of a very short fic, that hurt alot to write. Let me know how you doing and you thought about this. Their story was always going to be tragic from the start and this isn't even the worst possible outcome I thought off. But definetly not the best either.
Thank you for reading The Great Distraction! If you like Zora and want to read more fics, I am writing a another one with him. It's a crossover with Haikyuu and it's also longer. The first installment of that fic is called "Dishonesty" and the second installment is called "Heiress". It also stars an OC and is a little more lighthearted. Kind of. It's available on , AO3 and Wattpad. And there might or might not be more Zora content coming in the future, because this boy doesn't get enough love on the fanfic world.
And now that I made myself sad by rereadind and editing this chapter, I will bid farewell.