Screaming. I here distant screaming, explosions are accruing all around me. I catch a whiff of blood and death. I open my eyes and all around me people are bleeding, screaming, crying, praying…piles and piles of bodies. My legs don't betray me; I step forward. Puddles of blood splash up and make artwork on the back of my calves. Wind brushes against my body and my skin prickles with the sensation of war at hand. I am nude. Can anyone see me?
I walk through all of the dead unblinking with my arms at my side. 'Who knew that in WWIII, humans would still be using hand to hand combat,' I mumbled unconsciously.
A patch of land exploded next to me. I turned my face and looked down into the hole that it made. A young man held his stomach and cried. Blood streamed out of his stomach and he gasped in pain. I turned and walked over to the hole. Staring down on him made me realize how human he was. Just a little human: not even full grown and already dying. He will never see the parents that he is screaming for; the people that raised him, loved him, and shared his blood.
'You are dead to then now,' I whispered watching him gasp in what must have been excruciating pain.
'Otosan!! Okason!! Tasukete…' he droned of while lifting his face to me. Tears streamed down his face. No wait—rain. Rain streamed down his face.
I looked up and finally noticed that it was raining. My body shivered on impulse; although I didn't. The raindrops were hitting by face like cold sharp cries of anger. I looked back down at the boy and his eyes were wide with hope.
'Megami…' the boy began. I jumped down into the hole and kneeled at his side watching him curiously.
I shook my head. 'I am no Goddess.' That is all I said. That is all I had to say. I felt human. My body was reacting to the cold. My head felt heavy with…what? With something…
'Don't cry m'goddess,' he said with a gasp of pain. I put my hand to my face.
'I am not crying. It is the rain.' I pointed skyward and he nodded. I looked at his stomach unblinking and watched as the blood created a puddle of death below him.
'You are sitting in your own death,' I said unemotionally.
'If that means I'm dying,' he gasped for air, 'then you're right.' He cringed, I didn't.
I leaned closer to him to look at his face but he leaned his head to my chest and started crying. He yelled things like, 'I'm afraid! I don't want to die!'
'I do not understand how you feel,' I said unflinching, giving no response to his need for comfort. I stared straight forward and let him shiver and nuzzle into my cold skin.
I put my hand to his head, to my own surprise, and patted his cheek.
His tears dropped onto my stomach and his blood spilled over my thighs. I looked unblinking, down at the boy who would never see the sun again, who would never hug his parents again.
I felt him shudder and gasp for the air that he couldn't have. He didn't own the air anymore; he owned nothing.
The rain stopped as his body grew limp and sagged against mine. His heart ceased to beat and his existence shattered. I stared straight forward for probably around five minutes and grabbed his body. I pressed him against me in a hug I never really experienced. I rocked the dead child in my arms for about an hour. Rain splattered down my face—no, the rain had stopped. I looked up into the sky at the gray clouds rocking a dead child in my arms, and waited for more rain to come so that I could use it as an excuse for the wetness on my face. The rain never came; but I never stopped raining…
* * *
I woke up with a jerk on an unfamiliar bed, and noticed that it was raining here too.
