Blood Red

Blood Red

By Hachi Mitsu

08.03.00

Epilogue

"Police are still investigating the recent massacre which occurred during an annual dance of Rikoso High School. The casualty has risen to an astonishing 67 with many more injured. No witnesses can be found who actually remembers the events leading to the tragedy . . ."

            The radio rambled on. They're talking about it again. I sighed as I rested against the wicker chair on the spacious balcony. It had finally hit summer. School had ended a week ago, but unlike other years, no one rejoiced. How can we? Out friends are dead, so are our hopes.

Reaching up, I brush away a piece of bandage that had fallen over my eyes. Which *some*how got tangled with a loose bandage unraveling from my shoulder. Finally pulling loose, I grimaced. I feel like a mummy.

Its been almost a month since *it* happened. I'm still recover from my various wounds, but they'll heal, eventually. My emotional wounds, however, will always leave its scars in my heart. I frowned. But the weird part is, I don't know why.

            Sighing again, I half listened as the news ended, and a song began to play over the radio.

I woke up today,

My thoughts were all astray.

I thought I held the memory,

Of someone gently holding me.

But it's just a dream.

Since I awoken in the hospital 3 days after that night, the doctors, counselors, and police were always on me. Like vicious hellhounds, seizing every opportunity to find out what had happened. I guess I can't blame them *too* much; I was the only one who was found alive. Other than the scarce few that had escaped shortly after the shooting started, everyone else died. And being the nice person that I am, I guess I owned the parents of the deceased that much, to help find the cause. But the memories refused to come. Only pain did, a pain in my heart that refused to abate.

            I can't remember. I can't remember anything that happened *before* that either. I've been told that my name was Duo Maxwell. But that was it.

            Smiling mirthlessly, I shifted to better view the laptop before me. I found it in my room while packing up after my release from the hospital. It must have been mine; cause hacking into the school's records revealed that I had no roommate.

            Hacking into the records also showed that I had only just transferred to the school. But what struck me more was that I had no family, no relatives. No one who knew me.

The sun shines above,

Filed with tenderness and love.

But something is missing,

Light's gone, it's drizzling.

Only pain remains.

            If I didn't have any families, wouldn't I at least have friends? Wouldn't they be worried? Sometimes, I wish that I could remember. But the claws of some little demon, shredding my heart, suggested otherwise.

            I glanced at the screen again. It was my medical record, the one that was never shown to me. I could *feel* the bitterness in that thought. It stated that an exam showed I've had numerous injuries in my life. And one wound, a bullet to the shoulder seemed to have occurred before the disastrous party. Despite my search, I was provided with no explanations. Hell! Why wasn't *I* told this? Isn't it my right to know?

Out in the spring rain,

I hear him calling my name.

Like the scent of a rose,

It leaves my soul

Blood red.

            I scowled as I uncovered more information, which was left unknown to me. Actually, if I hadn't such good computer skills, a lot of things would have been kept from me. Which also led me to wonder why I even had such abilities. According to teachers and others who had known me, I was a lighthearted kind of person, certainly not one who should possess such skills. The bitterness turned to rage. Any minute now and I'll be seeing the flames of hell.

Ack. I calmed myself. Anymore of this seething, and I'll seriously have steam coming out of my head. Definitely not a welcomed thing this early in the morning.

Your longing remembrance,

Holds painful resemblance,

To the thorns of a blood red rose.

Cutting my heart, staining my clothes.

You left me.

            I slammed shut the laptop, still feeling a bit pissed. As I did, I felt the familiar chain rub against my wrist. It was a pretty silver chain with a violet rose of crystals. They told me that I was wearing it when they found me. It was absolutely crusted in blood. Yuck, took me forever to scrub it all off and make it actually *look* purple, instead of that rusty red.

            I raised it before my face, the cool stones brushing against my lips. Call me sappy, but sometimes I imagine that it was from a friend. Someone special. But hell, that's probably just another damn delusion. Like the so many others that haunt me. Cause, why haven't I met this person? Considering how many have died that night, death is the only explanation. And if that were the case, I'd rather not know. Really. I don't need anything else to burden my already overweigh guilt.

But your voice will fade,

As will the emptiness, it made.

Deep in my heart.

In my very soul you've carved,

Your name.

            Sliding from the chair, I stretched up my arms, as if reaching for the heavens. The heaven that had recently took so many. The heaven that refused me.

            Maybe someday, I'll have my life back. But until then, wait for me.

            I wasn't sure who I was talking to, if anyone at all. But that was all I could think of to say. Even if it'll only be lost in the wind forever. Never being answered.

            Wait for me.

Out in the spring rain,

I know he's still calling my name.

But I hear him no more.

Only petals in the breeze, for

Memory brings only pain,

That's driving me insane,

Goodbye,

My blood red rose.

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AN: mmm... eh... there will definitely be a sequel!! I don't like this ending much =[

Btw, the poem used in this story is posted under 'blood red-poem' if you wanted to know =D

So go read the sequel "Angelic Voice"!