Gravitation
Disclaimer: I don't own Gravitation. Maki Murakami does.
Angel Eyes Kiyone: Hey all. I know it's been a while. But here's another chapter for ya. Enjoy.
He awoke to the sound of running water. The setting sun glared in his face in a rather peaceful manner. The boy sat up quickly, realizing that he was lying in sand. Somethng cold ran over his feet covering them like a blanket. He looked down.
"The ocean?" The boy said to himself seeming rather confused. "How did I get here? What...is this place?"
His thoughts were broken by the sound of laughter. The boy got to his feet and dusted off his shorts. He was going to find the source of the laughter.
The journey seemed endless. Walking along the ocean; listening to the sound of the waves crashing to shore seemed to put his mind at ease. He had no idea where he was. Did he even care? The laughter came again. This time, out popped two teenage girls; a red head and a blonde. Both were wearing matching black tube tops and tight black shorts. The boy stared with wide eyes at them as they ran around chasing one another.
"Um...excuse me." He called out to them.
The two stopped in their tracks and spun around. They stared at the boy with grins on their faces.
"Hey!" Squealed the red head. "Haven't we seen you somewhere before?"
"Um.. I don't know. Maybe."
"He definitely looks familiar." Said the blonde nodding her head.
"Er-hey, can you girls help me out?" He asked walking towards them. "I don't know where I am. I'm not... even sure how I got here."
"Oh, well you must've had an accident." The blonde said sadly.
"An accident?" The boy repeated scratching the back of his head.
"Yeah." Said the red head. "I mean that's what happened to us. Or at least that's what the nice couple told us."
"Nice couple?" He repeated cocking his head to one side.
"Yeah!" Squealed the blonde bouncing up and down. "We can introduce you to them if you want. They might be able to help you."
"Great!" The boy said with relief in his voice.
"Okay, let's go!" Said the red head leading the way.
The three of them ran along the beach passing a long row of jagged boulders. The boy looked out at the ocean. The water seemed to change colors the farther they went. Lovely sea green turned to sparkling blue when the foam rushed over it.
"How beautiful." He whispered almost breathlessly. He turned his attention back to the path ahead of him. When he looked, he could see what looked like another beach. But this one was different. The water was still; quiet. Yet, there was a certain peacefulness to it. Distant mountains decorated the background. The everlasting sunset seemed to make them appear as shadows. Just ahead, the boy could see something glowing in the sand. It was a strange purple glow. Just beyond the glowing line, there were two smooth rocks about as high as the boys waist. Sitting atop those rocks was a man and woman. Their bodies were shrowded in darkness.
"There they are." The blonde pointed out. "C'mon."
The boy continued foward until he came just a few inches behind the purple line. Mesmarized by it, he took a step foward. But just before he could step over it, a male voice snapped him out of his trance.
"Don't come any closer son."
The boy felt himself being pulled back gently. When he turned his head, the blonde and red head were standing behind him smiling. He looked back at the figures in front of him. They both stood. The female then bent down and reached out her arms. The three outside the line turned around to see a little boy running in their direction. He looked no more than four or five.
"Awe, he's so cute!' Squealed the blonde. But the smile faded from her face just as quickly as it had come. The boy ran over the line and into the woman's arms. He too, became shrowded in shadow. The red head covered her mouth with both hands. The blonde burried her face in the other's shoulder. The boy looked back at them. He couldn't understand why they were so sad all of a sudden. Scratching his head, he turned back in time to see the woman walking away with the boy in her arms. A bright light appeared before her out of nowhere.
"What...is that?" He asked completely stunned.
"The enterance to the afterlife." The man answered. "Where everyone must go when their time on Earth is up."
"So...that little boy..." he said softly. "He's..."
"Yes." Came the woman's voice as she returned; the light vanishing behind her.
She looked at the two girls standing behind the pink haired male. They were still sobbing for the little boy.
"Thank you for bringing him here, girls." She said to them. "We will take it from here."
Both girls walked away still clinging to eachother. Their heads hung low in sadness. The boy couldn't help but shed tears for all three of them. He looked down at the line in the sand. There was something that he noticed about the line. When the little boy crossed it, it flashed white before returning to purple.
"Sanyo and Jessica." The woman said out of nowhere.
"Huh?" The pink haired boy said surprised.
"The red head is Sanyo. The blonde is Jessica."
"Are they friends?' He asked.
"Identicle twins actually." The man replied.
"Oh." The boy said surprised. "I never would have guessed."
"It happens." The woman laughed. "Those two don't even remember their names."
"They don't?" He said scratching his head.
"No." The woman continued. "And there isn't much point in telling them. They would just forget again. You see, this place is called The Horizon; a place that exists between life and death."
"Life and death?" The boy repeated in utter shock.
"Yes." The woman said simply.
"That can't be." He said shaking his head. "I'm not dead! I can't be!"
"Not yet you're not." The man told him. "It's not your time yet. That's why you're standing outside the line; those girls too."
"Do you even remember your own name?" The woman asked. "Do you remember how old you are? Do you know what happened to you?"
He stared at the shadows. Now that they mentioned it, he couldn't remember what happened. He had no idea how he even got to where he was now.
"Would you like us to tell you what happened?" The woman said softly.
"Yes." He whispered.
"You were struck by a car." The woman said. "You were trying to save someone. A young boy."
"What?" He said with trembling lips. "What was...what was he doing, playing in the street?"
"Yes." The woman said simply.
The boy sank to his knees in the sand. Tears spilled from his eyes as what the woman told him sank in. He didn't remember the kid's face. He didn't remember anything about that time.
"It was late at night when it happened." The man chimed in. "Do you remember what you were doing out so late?"
The boy only shook his head as he wiped his tears away. The two shadows looked at one another and then at the pink haired boy in front of them.
"Do you remember what you were feeling?" The woman asked softly. "Do you remember the emotions that were going through you?"
"Close your eyes and try to focus." The man told him.
He did as he was told. Taking a deep breath, the boy tried to concentrate on the emotions he was feeling. A gentle wind came out of nowhere and blew his hair back. With a little bit more force, it came at him making him sway just a bit. The expression on his face changed as a wave of emotion pushed its way through him.
A smile spread across his face. Then it turned into a grin. It was a look of excitement. Another wind blew. The expression changed. The boy scrunched his eyebrows a bit and the smile slowly faded away. It was a look of confusion. The couple looked on intently. Confusion then quickly turned to shock. The pink haired boy started to tremble and his lips quivered; eyes shut tight. Tears came streaming down his face. His breath hitched in his throat. He huntched over clutching his chest. It was heartache.
The couple stayed silent and watched. Another wind blew. He stood up straight. There was no expression on his face. There was no emotion. Another wind. More sadness. Another wind. Curiosity mixed with confusion. Another wind. Surprise. Another wind...adrenalin. His muscles tensed. He flinched, then froze. Another wind... Nothing. The boy opened his eyes. He remained silent.
"Do you understand what happened to you?" The man asked.
"My heart was broken." The boy replied in a low voice. "I left. I was sad. Then I was overwhelmed with surprise. All I could feel after that was adrenaline rushing through me."
"That was when you saved the boy." The woman said.
"But why was I heart broken?" The boy asked. "What did I do?"
"That we can't tell you." The woman answered. "The only thing we can do is help you understand what your life was like."
"And to help you take control of it, son." The man added.
"I see." The boy said in a calm voice.
"You know," the man went on, "in life, we used to know a boy who was a lot like you."
"Yes." The woman said. "Our son. He was such a sweet, loving boy. Just like you."
"Oh." The pink haired boy said bashfully looking down at his feet. "Really?"
"That's right." The man answered. "It's sad that we had to leave him so soon."
"What happened to you?" The boy asked sitting down in the sand. "Do you know?"
"Surprisingly yes, we do." The man said. "We were murdered."
The young boy gasped in shock. The worse thing that can ever happen to a person is to be killed by someone elses hands. More tears started to form in the boy's eyes. He couldn't look at them. Instead, he looked down at the sand. The human world was cruel. Mad men took the lives of innocent men, women, and children. But nobody knew why they were driven to do those things. It was simply inhuman.
"Why?" The boy asked looking up again.
"Jealousy and rivalry." The couple said in unison.
"Seriously?" He asked wiping his tears away. "What kind of rivalry?"
"Well," the man said, "I was a lawyer."
"And I was a doctor." The woman told him.
"Wow." The boy said amazed.
"Yeah." The man chuckled. "You see, there was a couple that lived down the street from us. The husband was also a lawyer. We worked for the same law firm. And the wife was a doctor. Their twelve year old daugher had a cold; just a simple cold. But for some reason, no matter what they gave her, she just couldn't get better."
"The wife did all of the math for her dosages." The woman continued. "But one day, she decided to double the dosage to one of her medications. Sadly, it didn't work."
"She was found dead the next day in her bed." The man finished.
"When they did her autopsy," The woman continued, "they discovered the large amount of medication in her system; an overdose."
"And because the mother was a doctor," the man went on, " and she was the only one to treat her throughout her life, they arrested her. When her trial came, the judge charged her with second degree murder and gave her fifty years to life in prison."
"Man. That's some pretty serious stuff." The boy said in all seriousness.
"It is." The man said. "There was nothing that the husband could do. He lost his daughter and his wife. And over time, he went crazy."
"So he killed you guys?" The boy asked.
"He hired someone to kill us." The man told him.
"You see," the woman started, "what happened was our son got sick with the cold. But at that time, he was old enough to live on his own. But he didn't want to see any other doctor. So he came to me."
"He spent two weeks at home with us while he was getting better." The man went on. "Then he took off. He was supposed to take off to the states in three days. But somehow, our neighbors heard about how well he had gotten under my wife's care and they congradulated us. The husband somehow heard about it and he became enraged."
"A day later, he was seen wandering through the neighborhood drunk out of his mind." The woman went on. "He came to our house and started banging on the door like a madman. He started making accusations and threats. He ranted on about how it wasn't fair that his daughter died and our son survived. We told him to go on home and sleep it off. We didn't start anything with him. We knew how much pain he was in."
"On the third day before our son left," the man continued in a low voice, "he called us and told us he was taking off in a few hours."
"He told us how much he loved us and that he would be back in two months." The woman said. "The last thing I said to him was, 'I love you and don't forget that you always have a home here with us."
"The last thing I said to him was, 'Bring us home a grammy, son!'" The man laughed.
"A grammy?" The boy said dumbfounded. "Was he an actor?"
"A musician." The woman corrected. "But we think he has also starred in a couple of movies."
"Anyways." The man continued. "We had decided to sit down together and watch a movie. An hour later, there was a knock at the door. I was the one to answer it. As soon as I opened the door, there was a gun pointed at my head and the shot went off instantly."
"I bolted out of my seat when I heard the sound." The woman continued. "When I saw my husband lying there on the floor with a bullet in his head, I screamed. I ran over and knelt beside him. He had no pulse. The next thing I knew, I was looking up at the person who pulled the trigger. He didn't look familiar. The last thing I remember was him pointing the gun at my chest and saying, 'Nothing personal.' Then he pulled the trigger."
"One of our neighbor's called the police." The man said. "The whole area was surrounded by cops and ambulance trucks within fourty-five minutes. But the worse part was that someone got a hold of our son. He showed up within the time that the police did."
"He was on his knees rocking back and forth over our bodies." The woman said sadly. "His whole body was shaking and he was crying. He kept saying, 'Mom, Dad please wake up!"
"It took five cops to pull him up off the ground away from our bodies." The man chimed in.
"He was only twenty-one years old at the time." The woman added. "We're pretty certain it's been years since then."
"Is he still alive?" The boy asked.
"Yes, he is." The woman replied. "But we can no longer watch over him."
"What do you mean?" The boy asked looking confused. "Were you watching over him before?"
"Before, yes." The man said sadly. "Instead of moving on like we were supposed to, we stayed behind."
"You see," the woman continued, "we already knew that we were dead. We weren't affraid. We just...didn't want to leave him behind."
"It was foolish of us to do something like that." The man went on. "Especially when it's a better place you're supposed to be going to."
"But instead of sending us to a place of eternal misery," the woman said, "we were made to stay here for the rest of eternity.'
"Oh." The pink headed boy said drawing lines in the sand. "Well it seems so peaceful here."
"It is." The man said nodding his head. "The Horizon. A place that exists between life and death. A part of our punishment is to bring good souls that have passed on to the other side. Thus, the line in the sand."
The younger male looked down at the line that was glowing purple. He couldn't help but wonder. Why is it purple? He looked up at the couple shrowded in darkness. The man seemed to have read his mind.
"The color of the line is reflected through the eyes of the person looking at it."
"Oh." The boy said surprised. "What about when it changes to white?"
"We can all see that." The woman answered. "It happens after a person has crossed over."
"Take Jessica and Sanyo for instance." The male spirit said. "Jessica has blue eyes. Sanyo has green eyes. So Jessica sees a blue line that turns white and changes back while Sanyo sees a green line. Get it?"
"Yeah." The pinket said simply. "So I see a purple line because my eyes are purple."
"You got it, son." The man said.
"What about you guys?" He asked continuing to draw in the sand.
"We're on the other side." The female spirit said. "So all we see is a white line."
"Of course, we can see you in color." The man told him. "Pink hair, purple eyes, black baggy shorts, and a red t-shirt."
"Of course, my eyes were brown when I was alive." The woman told him. "And his were blue."
"Wow." The boy said plainly.
"Well, you must be bored with our babbling." The man sighed. "Why don't you go find Jessica and Sanyo; get to know them for a little while."
"Um...but," the boy stuttered, "I thought you were going to help me understand my situation?"
"We are, sweetheart." The woman reassured him. "You still have time. For now, take a break."
"Oh, okay." He said dusting the sand from his hands. He stood up and bowed respectfully. "Thank you."
"Anytime, son." The man said raising a hand in recognition.
And with that the boy ran off. He looked out at the ocean that had began to change colors with every wave. He saw the large jagged rocks that the girls were hiding behind when he first met them. Sitting beneath the rocks were the blonde and the red head. The boy ran over to them. He had noticed that both girls were holding seashells to their ears. They were quiet; still. The two listened intently with closed eyes to the sound of unseen oceans.
"Um, hi." The boy said shyly.
Both girls opened their eyes. The smiles on their faces were truely genuine.
"Hey, you're back!" Jessica said jumping up and throwing her arms around the boy.
"So how was it?" Sanyo asked bouncing on her tip toes.
"They were very nice people." He told them.
"Yeah, see?" Jessica squealed. "We can go back and ask them anything. They're always here!"
"So, did they tell you what happened?" Sanyo asked.
"Yeah." He said running his fingers through his hair. "I was hit by a car."
"What?" Both girls said with wide eyes. "How?"
"I was trying to save some kid from getting hit?" He responded.
"Wow." Sanyo gasped. "That's heroic."
"So you were trying to save that kid," Jessica chimed in, "and you ended up here."
"Guess so." He responded.
"So then you must be lying in a hospital bed somewhere."
"Just like us." Sanyo finished.
"Oh, yeah that reminds me," Jessica said, "do you even remember your name?"
"M-my name?" The boy said dumbly. "Um. Now that you mention it, I...don't remember."
"Yeah, don't worry about it." Sanyo told him. "We don't remember our names either."
"S-Sanyo and Jessica." He told them.
"Who?" Both girls said in unison.
The boy turned to the blonde and looked her in the eyes. "Your name is Jessica." He told her, then turned to the redhead. "Your name is Sanyo."
"Oh." They both said.
"Ya know, we probably won't remember." Jessica said.
"Yeah." Sanyo went on. "They told us our names last time. But we didn't use them so we forgot."
"Ooh, okay." He said nodding his head.
"Oh, hey." Jessica said shaking Sanyo's arm. "They're calling us."
"Oh. Um, we'll be right back." Sanyo said running off with Jessica in toe.
"Um, okay." The boy replied waving at them.
The girls ran across the sand to the other beach. Silence filled the air. The ocean was still. They both came to a hault at the line in front of them. The couple sat there on the rocks leaning against one another. Both girls couldn't help but giggle and aw at the couple.
"Glad you're here girls." The man said.
"There's one small piece of information we need to give you regarding the boy." The woman said.
"What's that?" Sanyo asked straightening up.
"His name." The man responded. "It's...Shuichi."
"He remembers your names." The woman went on. "Don't forget his."
"Okay." They both said in unison.
"That is all." The man said.
The girls turned and ran off in the direction that they came. Both were unaware of what was to come.
"None of them know." The woman said.
"They'll need their names." The man finished. He looked at the woman and she nodded in understanding.
Owari~
Angel Eyes Kiyone: Finally, damn it! I hate using the same damn words over and over. But I'm not a professional so please forgive me. Can anyone guess what's going to happen to those three? Don't tell me, just guess. Tee hee! I'm so bad. A couple chapters left. I feel kind of sad. I've been writing this story since 2009. And I'm getting closer to wrapping it up. *sniff* Thank you to all of my reviewers.
white pedal, Animecartooncomicgirl, MafeLy. And everyone else who reviewed.