Ghost Town
Yesterday the sky turned red as blood and broke in to a million pieces.
And the town had no warning.
We were at least a hundred miles away and well protected, but the shriek still hurt my ears.
It felt as though the Earth had died.
And we had failed her.
We went quickly to the ruins and watched the dead rise as though they knew not of their own death.
They whispered, with breath cold as ice, damnation in our ears.
My heart ached.
We wandered together, though in our hearts were alone. Alone with our sorrow, pain, regrets, anger, and pity. We wandered in to the ghost town.
The ruins stretched on forever, meeting with the blood red horizon like some morbid painting.
Heero walked to a small home, now a charred wooden shell, and bent down near where the front porch would have-should have-been. His face was solemn, cold, but still remorseful.
Blood ran like a river through the streets.
Duo was unusually silent, his navy blue eyes wide with a strange sense of awe and intimidation. Is face was ashen as it dawned on him that even something like this was out of Shinigami's control. Though he kept his hands shoved deeply in to the pockets of his black jeans, I could tell he was shaking.
Wufei kept muttering things in Chinese and shaking his head, as though if he did it enough it would all go away. His narrow black eyes had lost any shine they had.
Trowa would only look at the red sky, his mouth opening and closing but not even a tiny sound coming out.
Duo also seemed agitated about something. His eyes kept darting from place to place, like he was looking for something.
So we wandered through the ruins in silence. The dead littered the ground. The dying looked at eyes with blank eyes, cursing our luck and wishing their misery on us.
They didn't know the misery in our hearts was enough to kill our souls.
"It's all your fault." their expressions seemed to say.
It was always my fault.
We were Preventers. We were hired to stop this, but it came without warning, like an Armageddon out of the blue.
Duo took off suddenly, running through the destruction. The name he was calling out surprised and scared us all.
"Hilde! Hilde!" he screamed, voice choked with fear. Trowa and I exchanged worried glances, then ran after our friend.
We arrived at what used to be a stately business building, now only a shadow of its former grandness. Duo was knelt amongst the carnage, holding a battered body in his arms. A head of short black hair identified the person.
He never even said she was in town. Not even on the way over. Not even when we walked in to the town and saw the destruction.
"No…" I heard Trowa breathe behind me. I thought to approach Duo and offer comfort. As if reading my thoughts Heero looked at me and shook his head. His down cast eyes was the closest he got to an expression of sympathy.
Duo was always the one getting his heart broken.
"Hilde…" Duo said softly, tears glistening in the corners of his eyes. I watched from behind as Duo brushed strands of blood stained black hair from her battered face. I half expected him to throw his head back in a howl of emotional pain, but he never did.
He would forever keep that pain inside his dying heart.
Instead he dropped his head, his shoulders beginning to shake. He was crying.
Ignoring Heero's earlier gesture I walked over and knelt down beside my sobbing friend, placing my arm around his shoulders.
Duo finally set Hilde's broken body down and turned to cry on my shoulder, unashamed of his tears.
"Quatre, it's not fair. Didn't we fight so…so…this wouldn't happen again?" my friend sobbed as I hugged him.
"It will never end, will it?" Wufei asked quietly.
His thoughts were with Merian.
"Not even we can get rid of all evil, Wufei, no matter how hard we try." was Heero's sullen answer. There was conciterable strain on Heero's voice, and I knew he was holding back an all our rage.
I looked down at Duo and saw how blank his eyes were. Tears streamed down his pale cheeks. Though he'd long since stopped sobbing, his body still shook in my arms, quivering with every ragged breath he took.
I ached with the same pain, feeling every mournful cry of his soul with the beat of our hearts.
The sky went from red to black.
The icy whispers of damnation were still on our necks.
But how can you damn five souls that are tortured every day of their lives?
END