Late, a cold December night. For my sluggishness, I apologize. So little occupies too quickly. Chapter Three. Three is a good number. I apologize also for the speed of my last chapter. It lost something as Ms. Greenshadow so aptly saw. Please forgive me. Now, again, I own so few, but gradually those I do shall accept names. I claim only Karah and Erden.
Thank you all who found time to review, I cannot begin to describe my appreciation.
Shorter, this one, but it seemed right.
~Kyre
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III. Hope, But One Lost Fool
Hope, but one lost fool
Alone and tearful as despair
The cold was piercing, could so easily touch even the strongest of hearts. The bitterest of Januarys, the most arctic midnight, and the most acute pain she had ever felt. It should not have come as such a surprise. So many winters had she endured…yet so few years. The icy breath of emptiness slid along her spine, seeped slowly down her arms.
Their apathy frightened her, appalled her, and most dangerously, threatened to numb her. How much longer could she feel their sting with out gaining still deeper scars?
Despite the frigid wind, she sat outside. There was a bench of gray wood, under a barren tree. From there she could see many smoking chimneys, a light glow through thin curtains in high windows. Cozy perhaps, but not to one outside. More than ever she felt like a stranger. Why couldn't she accept the world?
The tears came so quickly when she was alone.
The wind picked up, blowing the last leaves across the dirt path that led to her solitude. She watched them, listened to them. Look how easy it is to be blown along, they whispered to her. Look how easy it is to let go.
She let herself get caught up for a moment, lulled by that gentle voice…but then strong hands placed themselves tenderly upon her shoulders. They steadied her, held her in place.
"Karah…don't listen to them…they're dead, after all," his voice was not as soft, not as luring, but she knew it, and even in its tired, strained rasp, it held comfort. His hands were cold, however. She shuddered and he released her so that he might sit beside her on the bench. With pale hands he wiped away her tears, brushed her simple brown hair out of her eyes. "Hypothermia is not the best way to leave this world," he commented.
She turned, to face his black stare more directly. "Nor is it the worst."
He reached out to comfort her, but she pulled away.
"I'm lost, Erden."
He stiffened slightly. "As are we all, is such times, you can't expect-"
"-No!" Her voice was desperate "…I mean, really lost..." She trailed off, her eyes growing dim. "How can I speak to them when I don't know myself anymore? I feel empty…" Her voice wavered, and the weakness angered her. "I'm standing in the middle of a dark room full of people. I'm screaming and no one even turns…" She looked away from him. "Erden...I can't do it anymore…" Her tone grew softly somber. "It's killing me."
He closed his eyes. "You act as if you're alone, as if you've accomplished nothing." He opened them again, black pits of such intensity. "You saved me, didn't you?"
She looked up at him.
"There's always hope," he told her. She used to be the one to say so. It pained him to have to remind her. What happened to the light, the fearlessness?
She smiled painfully. "Walk with me?"
They both stood, and slowly took the dark, lightly wooded path.
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