Exhale
Ami believed in facing your fears. Logical thinking, that's what she called it. Rationality. Scientific reasoning. Kind of like your parents telling you why there can't possibly be a monster underneath your bed, or ghosts in your closet. As she walked up to the large, looming building, leaden and breakable soul within, she dismissed these as all of her thoughts she had before.
Before.
The wind seemed to whisper harsh rhymes as she walked slowly up the cement steps to the double glass doors. Ami swallowed and grasped the metal handle. Cool air rushed from the inside lobby of Juuban Middle School as she pulled a door open and slipped in, her eyes adjusting from the honey sunlight. Her skirt felt so stiff and scratchy against her knobby knees, she noticed.
The hallways were naked and barely filled. Ami felt she needed to have this visit, this trip to hell, to get her out of this mindset. The thoughts that were entering her mind…they were too nightmarish, too bleak, too black. She needed peace, she craved to be cut from this awful world she was living in and to fly, fly without restraint in aqua-colored fields like a butterfly cut from pureness and white sky.
She walked out of the lobby and to the hallway, shaking as if she were dripping wet. Ami swallowed again, her palms becoming clammy and sweaty. She squeezed her hands into little fists and walked on. Her knees straightened and seemed to be made of flimsy paper and rubber bands as she dragged herself along this tortured walk. Breaking into a cold sweat, she reached a bend in the hallway. Looking down, she saw sparkling white tile floor illuminated by sunlight streaming through the clear windows. Digging her fingernails into the corner of wall beside her, she glimpsed a single red rose placed on the hallway floor, propped up against the wall.
Crimson flooded her head as she broke into a cold sweat, read each letter inscribed in gold on a tile next to the rose.
U…
S…
A…
G…
I…
Ami bent over and ran, ran as fast as she could from that spot, that moment in time. She flew into the bathroom and into a stall, sick to her stomach. After she was done, she sat back against the wall, pale and stricken. Overwhelmed, she began to sob uncontrollably, her cries bouncing off the walls of the girl's bathroom. Ami's sobs turned into shrill screams, screams of horror and grief and disbelief. The whiteness that filled her eyes receded to black as she leaned her head back and passed out.
* * *
Beneath this grief and sadness lay a job that still needed to be done, still needed to be filled. New darkness was gathering itself, preparing to destroy the world and all the lives contained on it. With the opposing side weakened by an unexpected change, malevolent forces were gripping beauty and love by its throat, a blade of evil cutting through the light and destroying what had been so precariously saved.
The soldiers were no longer brave, but scared.
The next risk to be taken would be to find new bravery in the face of sorrow, to lead where love had led them so many times before.
To victory against unbeatable odds.
---------------------
A/N: Sorry so short! Chapter 8 next!