Chapter 16: A Little Leader's Nightmare
She dreamt of nightmares.
Before her, she saw a hellish scenery of a world in flames and a burning grey sky torn asunder. She heard the ghastly screams of countless of her onii-chans and onee-chans consumed by unholy fire, their faces twisted in agony. She saw their hands outstretched up to the heavens as if to pray for deliverance only to be put out by their miseries by the cruel judgment of the maidens of death. The high arterial walls of the world broke and split to reveal a large tear in reality and the abysmal void beyond. The wind howled a mournful lament, of hope lost and faiths shattered, for none now lived that could halt the coming of the end.
Her body started to tremble at the sight before her. No platelet should ever be burdened by such nightmares. Little thrombocytes like hers should instead be running down the streets with smiles on their lips.
Tears began to run down her cheeks and, before she realized it, her vision began to blur. At first, she tried to hold her emotions in check, but like a cracked dam, streams of tears fell until she finally burst down sobbing. She heaved, she moaned, and she cried at her utter helplessness.
She would die… Of that, she was sure. As a thrombocyte whose job was to fix damaged sections of the world, she was no stranger of death. Death was an ever constant presence that she had grown to accept as part of the cycle of life. And yet, it still doesn't mean accepting the reality of death already made the pain of losing a loved one bearable. On the contrary, it only made the whole ordeal even worse.
She would die… Of that, she was sure, and she would die young and alone with no one to mourn her passing.
But most of all, she would die a failure.
She shut her eyes closed, wiping them with the back of her tiny hands. Her head started to throb with pain as the words of her former mentor came back to her like a surge of stomach acid.
Failure is a sin, and death is no excuse!
She had committed a most grievous of faults, and there was nothing more she could do other than to live with the guilt.
She had failed in her duties, but even more painful than that, she had failed her friends.
"Oi, Leader-chan!" a voice from behind cried out to her.
She turned and saw her vision of hell had vanished. The world no longer burned, and she could no longer hear the horrifying screams of the damned. Her peaceful world had returned, complete with her red, black, and white onii-chans and onee-chans moving along busy streets, performing their tasks as if nothing had happened at all.
"Leader-chan!"
Amongst the gathered crowd of bustling cells, her eyes quickly darted toward a group of platelets smiling and waving their little hands at her.
Her insides started to churn as fresh tears came rolling down her cheeks. A torrent of emotions swirled in her chest, making it hard for her to breathe.
Before her, was her squad, alive and unhurt. They all looked seemingly fine as opposed to her who looked terrible with her eyes red from crying, her chestnut hair disheveled, and her platelet uniform consisting of a turquoise shirt and shorts all tattered and covered in grime. They even looked unconcerned as if they all didn't go missing only just a few hours ago.
Nevertheless, seeing her squad filled her with much-needed relief. She clasped her hands together and bowed her head in silent prayer, thanking the Consciousness for the safety of her friends.
She sniffed a couple of times to steady herself before opening her mouth to greet them.
"Uh…"
But no words would dare come out from her lips. She paused and blinked a couple of times. Again she opened her mouth as she tried to force herself to utter a reply, but only her dry rasping breath could be heard exiting from her lips.
"Leader-chan? What's wrong?" A platelet boy who wore his cap backward tilted his head to his side as he asked.
Now her insides began to race as panic started to spread all over her tiny body. It was not that she had forgotten how to speak, it just that her lips refused to enunciate her words.
"What are you trying to say?" Another boy from her squad called out to her.
She shook her head and then pointed at her opened mouth, indicating that she suddenly lost her voice.
"You hungry?" A girl with short blonde hair asked. "Why not come with us, and we could go and grab something to bite?"
Again she shook her head, her face flushing red with frustration. Finally, she decided to walk toward her friends but then realized she couldn't move. She looked down to her legs, but they remained frozen and heavy like crystallized kidney stones.
"Oi Leader-chan, come with us!" Shouted another platelet, gesturing to her to move.
Now her eyes swelled once more with tears. She couldn't speak, and she couldn't approach her friends… she was utterly stuck and helpless. She couldn't even scream or signal to them that something was wrong.
"Leader-chan? Why won't you come with us?" The platelet boy with his cap backward asked, but this time, his voice sounded low and deep.
She blinked, and to her horror, she saw her friend's face began to melt like it was wax.
She opened her mouth as wide as she can to scream at him, but still, the words refused to come out.
"Wh-Why… Why won't y-you say a-anything?" Another platelet boy groaned at him. His membrane was also melting away, peeling layer after layer, until his inner granules were all exposed. Still, he seemed utterly unaware of his slow disintegration. "Why w-won't you come to u-u-ussss?"
She made a soundless wail as she tried to tell a hundred reasons why she couldn't help them. She dropped down to her knees, begging for their forgiveness.
"Y-You d-don't want to b-be with us now, Leadachhi?" A melting girl platelet with pink pigtails accused her. "You are abandoning us?"
"Leader-chan… It hurts…" Another platelet girl whose eyes had disintegrated entirely into white gelatinous ooze croaked.
"Plea-please… H-Help usssss…"
Finally, she closed her eyes as she covered her ears with her hands.
This… This is not real! She tried to assure herself. They're not real!
"Leadachhi… I'm s-scared… Please don't l-leave us!"
"It… Hurts…"
"Lead… chan…"
"L-L-L-o-o-o-k-k-k… A-A-A-t-t-t… U-U-U-s-s…"
Noooooo! Her thoughts screamed inside her head. All of you… You're all not real!
"LOOK AT US! LEADER-CHAN!"
"LOOK…"
"AT…"
"US…"
"LEAD…"
"CHAN…"
Finally, exhausted and emotionally drained, she focused all her will in opening her eyes and-...
Her friends were all gone.
The bustling scenes of red blood cells and immune cells moving around and minding their own businesses were all gone.
Everything was all gone replaced only with total blackness.
She blinked and still she could see nothing.
Was this it? Was this death?
Had her young life finally come to an end?
But before she could think any further of morbid thoughts, she saw a faint white light.
The light felt kind and warm. It didn't assault her sight with growing brightness but remained as a soft glow that slowly coalesced to form a silhouette of a figure.
A figure?
She closed her eyes shut for a couple of seconds before slowly opening them again. She now saw the silhouette of a face of an onee-chan with amber-red hair looking down on her. Her sight was still blurry to discern the identity of the onee-chan, but she felt like she at least should know her.
Then she saw the silhouetted onee-chan's mouth move.
"... let… chan…"
The onee-chan's voice sounded muted and distant.
"... chan! Platelet-chan!"
Finally, her eyes went wide open as she finally recognized the redhead onee-chan.
"RBC… nee-chan?" she mumbled.
Tears fell down on her face like tiny water droplets her onee-chan burst out into a cry.
"Platelet-chan! You're safe!" AE3803 sobbed, her voice breaking. She had the little thrombocyte's head resting on her lap. "Thank the Consciousness that you're safe! I… I don't know what I would do if I l-lost you!"
For a long moment, Platelet-chan said nothing but just stared directly at her onee-chan's eyes.
She now remembered where she was. She remembered trembling in fear as a deranged macrophage wearing glasses threw out into the abyss as if she was a bundle of trash. She remembered the screams of other cells tossed out into the darkness beyond. She remembered hitting some type of hard surface before tumbling further down until she hit something soft and fatty. She remembered crying out for help as well as walking in complete darkness in the hope of finding a way out.
But most of all, she remembered the excruciating pain coursing all around her tiny body and the utter hopelessness she felt before finally collapsing to the ground, wishing nothing more than for death's cold embrace.
"I'm sorry, Platelet-chan!" The redhead erythrocyte wailed. "I… I was unable to p-protect you!"
Platelet-chan shook her head weakly. Her lips now formed into a faint smile.
"T-Thank you, onee-chan," she mumbled, her voice rasping.
Then she closed her eyes and finally fell asleep.
A/N:
And we are finally back with Platelet-chan and AE3803! For this chapter, I initially wanted to write in AE's perspective, but then I saw it would be a missed opportunity if we don't see a chapter coming from the perspective of Leader-chan. I feel sorry for the little thrombocyte... she's been through a rough time. Her ordeal is not over though, but hey, at least AE is now there with her right? Right?
Until next time everyone!
Revision History:
- Originally published on May 19, 2019
