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(SOUL) - SISTER III
> A dream… it is a dream with flames and gunfires. Year ▙2▚▊▚, in the underworld, I see flares and the screams of people. Our neighbor burned down; everyone ran. In this vision, I see, and what I see is beyond a nightmare. I witness an annihilation, a domination that — inflicts fear and injects pain — and that pain everlastingly lasts within one’s life.
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> I see blood(s) shredded & burned alive, crimson rivers dried—forming clots—and infernal flames roasting and perishing generations. Androids, the Yaksha, slaughtered an entire town. From the myths, once protectors but now executioners—Riots became history, as the legend goes on unrecorded—for those who speak, they no longer live to forward to tales.
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> Lastly, this vision — the last minutes of this life—shows the hand. A hand of mine and a voice that kept calling for help. The tears of a man kept dripping—rinsing me well and warming my heart.
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> I was happy to be found finally, but sadly…--- please don’t wash my hand away with your tears, my beloved brother. *Inaudible wishes vanish*
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—!!!
“No—Noooo!!!” She wakes up rinsing tears in blood—unnaturally. The poignant scenery and the undeletable image resonate in Noel's mind. She gripped her hand so tightly that it bled in a scarlet line to the tip of her elbow.
“Arghhh—hhh!!” Noel smashes the ground, its shattering voice echoing around the desolated city ruins. She cried emotionally, with blood and tears channeling her desperation in agony. Her chest feels ripped apart inside; the heart breaks beyond any recovery.
“I’m sorry for what I witnessed—” Noel placed a hand over her chest, slowly gasping for some air, but that couldn’t help her with the flashes of emotion that swarmed to her in those nightmare images.
“—Please rest well in my eternity; leave the rest to the elder-Sweostor” She looked up at the skies, stretching all her fingers over the endlessly sky-reaching tower while all of them were still quivering. As she said: “One day—I will shatter their realm for you, my Noel.” Noel grasped her fingers over the vision in front of her in a powerful grip that made her bleed harder. “— To redempt on all thees such an abominate corrupted.” She swore with her blood.
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Few moments later, observing, Allen decides to join in. “What’s wrong? Did you have a nightmare?” He asked, concerned. He had been observing her for a while before deciding to walk up to her. Instead, Noel cradled her injured hand over her chest. She hugged her leg tightly, trying to alleviate the pain that burned inside her soul. The radiation of anger, the tremble of agony, and the deep-frozen despair haunting her emotions. She snuggles her face over her knees, trying to dry up what’s dripping in her eye, but it never stops streaming.
Allen placed the sweater over Noel as he sat down next to her and wrapped his arms around her. “It's okay, Noel. It was just a dream.”
“No. It was so painful, brother.” She replied. Allen seemed to understand what she had been through, but his first priority was the fact that he needed to neutralize all her thoughts first.
“Well, that’s a kind of life fact, right?—As long as you live, I mean.”
“No, you don’t know, brother.” She leaned into him, finding solace in his embrace. Surprisingly, a strong entity also had the side of a little bird.
“But at least I know that you’re not all alone, Noel.”
“... Thank you.” She replied softly, as he sparked in her a warm hope. They both sat over the wreckage of the building’s floor, just like the edge of a balcony somewhere over the underworld. Later on, Allen starts braiding Noel’s hair slowly.
“Please keep doing it.”
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He kept braiding her hair until the dawn came, brushing every single strain with his fingers, releasing an unease that lingered within her mind. He felt some throbs, erupting lightly, but Noel remained silent as she said nothing but looked elsewhere—Watching the ground below, littered with debris and forgotten for ages. This is the sector where the real Noel was buried. Guns and artillery decimated the entire legion, and rubble covered the ashes and soil. Even if it’s already dawn, the sights are not different from when moonlight shines, just like a vision of night after war. Catastrophe, an annihilation—as if Noel could sense a wandering soul lost around this place—not going anywhere, she trembles—like a hiccup—but still remained silent.
Allen, on the other hand, is unwavering in what he sees. He has neither motive nor retribution; lost souls wouldn’t deserve to receive such a salvation from anyone, he thinks. Suddenly, a little bird began to speak. “Brother—”
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
He looked into her tearful face, which the moonlight of the cities above was reflecting.
“—do you think what makes a soul?” She asked with a tearful face, emotionless.
“Existence.”
“What if their existence…” Noel looked down upon the post-apocalyptic grounds. A land of none.
“Lost souls.—
—Anything that suffers has a soul, Noel.” Allen replied—looking over Noel’s blankness in her eyes, he followed her sight that cast to the ground, where he started to pique her pain and motives.
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“—Therefore, you too, Noel.” He spoke, breaking a short silence from Noel.
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“I see.” —Thanks.
Allen.. might reconsider his trust-revokement of Noel for a while. He reached into his pocket and threw something precious away. A locket, a locket that has his sister's portrait in it. The golden bling that flew away and was lost in the dark, as it doesn’t matter anymore.
“May I ask—?—What was your life like back then, your real life?” As he saw her pressing her own lips. He stopped bothering with any further questions and apologized. “—Sorry.” Allen looked away.
Shortly, after a few seconds of silence, Noel opened her lips. “—It was—A merciless annihilation.” She nestled her face over his shoulder. “—endlessly.” Noel answered in very dim voice and then never spoke afterwards.
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Few hours before.
“It is what it is. Well, no one's gonna repair, bro.” They both inspect the property’s window. Looking from the ground up there, the estate, specifically to his room, was damaged. A broken fragment lay around the balcony—and some—even dropped to the ground, reflectively. After a journey from the upper level of the underworld. The first thing that welcomes Allen is a trace of trespassing—in front of his sight.
“That’s kinda bad. How long have I been gone?” He turns to Noel.
“A few days, almost a week, that you were asleep.” Noel placed a finger over her lip and tilted her head to the angle that she thought represented curiosity. The thing is that her facial expression was too emotionless, showing no sympathy at all. “—Maybe, he heh” A fake innocent grins.
“Useless.” Allen shook his head in disappointment
“You had been tracked; remember when I told you before?”
Before Allen starts saying anything, she cuts him off right away. “—Not by the Apex, for sure.”
“How are you certain of that?” Allen asked curiously.
“Because you’re not even in their network yet.” —Noel paused before changing the answer instantly: “If you’re on their list, by now, we wouldn’t be able to stand here, brother.”
Seemingly—a legitimate answer, but Allen was curious about what she had accidentally slipped into. But there’s no point in investigating, so he looked over the estate again, feeling pity for his newly rented room.
“Need more time for the estate's mourning?” Sarcastic response from his little sister. “Kind of, at least I wouldn’t mourn if someone's turned into a face wash or aging cream.”
“Brothaaa!!—” Noel yelled.
Hence, Allen couldn’t stay at his residence. The uneasy feeling of being tracked is going nowhere. They don’t know whose the third player is—nor how much they know about Noel—is there any other mastermind behind? But it’s risky to suddenly prone out of their shade now; therefore, Allen seeks a hideout. His choice was limited; there’s no undercover left—his secret hideout was also exposed recently, except for that abandoned sector where no one passes through anymore. It is not the best option, but it is the only location where Apex no longer has sight. They chose the destroyed high-rise building due to the only entrance it had left. And that’s when Noel began to dive into the history of her vessel's memories.
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As the dawn arrives for an hour, Allen stands up, ready for his departure upon these ruins. Luckily, there’s still running water left in the tank of this lost wreckage building. Noel takes her shower after a few days of venturing; also, Allen leaves her a piece of blanket nearby. While she enjoys refreshing herself, Noel also hums a few melodies—a song that no one has ever heard of. Allen still remained as expressionless as he had been since last night. The melody wasn’t touching to him at all, neither nostalgically nor reminiscingly. He looks at the edge of the horizon, drawing his sight down to the vast-graveyard, —an evidence of a battlefield between Apex and the Underworld, a living tragedy record. He had been spending some time standing at the edge of a high-rise building alone, countless resonating afterimages bringing him back to a traumatizing past. He hoped to let his thoughts drift away with the breeze, but memories remain rooted deep in his consciousness as a stigma.
*Whoosh*— An object flies away at high speed, just a few centimeters away from his cheek. It was an ornate sigil—like something as precious as his locket, flying away into the darkness—where lost and found are no longer options.
“What’s up in your mind, big bro?” Noel walks up half-dressed; she’s busily wiping her hair while stepping forward. “I’m just like you—there’s no longer a past in me.” After the last word spoken, she throws her wipes at him as she walks in.
“Now your turn. Enjoy showering; there’s still some running in the tap, brother.” Allen catches the throw-over cloth and walks by as he says nothing, heading to the bathroom with the broken door. She looked at him with some disappointment in her eyes when they crossed, but there was nothing further she could do.
“Farewell, my past.” Noel looked down far away, over debris where she had thrown her last memento in exchange for his. ‘He still hasn't let go of the past, hasn’t he—?’ Noel questioned herself. ‘Maybe just a little more time.’ She stretches her hands and body, flipping herself aside to relax some spots, and finally washes her face with rinsing water she had from a carryover mug.
Before they left the sector, Allen paid a visit to the grave of the real Noel. There, it left some traces of digging. He turned to Noel, whom he suspected to be a smooth criminal in this case, but she looked around merrily as if nothing wrongful ever happened. An innocent bird, Noel, watched him pray and venerate the tomb silently, and a minute later she imitated his actions.
“It feels weird to venerate my own death.” Said Noel.
“Then you don’t have to do so.”
“—Mhhmmm— I’m indebted to her for my second life.” She crossed her arm over Allen’s arm. “Right, brothaaa–?”
“Have some respect, please, Noel.” Allen rolled his eyes—turned and walked away.
As he walked a few steps away, he sensed some abnormality in the atmosphere. He looked back over at Noel, who held her arm still and unwavering, letting her stream of blood slowly drip from her hand onto the tombstone just like an offering. He couldn’t hear any words she said, nor understand any of her intentions. Was it any ceremonial, perhaps?— Shortly, Noel wiped her hand and turned away from the grave, just before he was about to raise a question. Allen went silent, frozen by the look of forlornness that remained on her face. She masked herself with a resisting smile over her cheeks. “I’m alright.” With that cold expression on her face, it left no room for a follow-up question. That’s quite a mood killer with the overwhelming pressure, and also one of the worst ways to start a new morning as well. Hopefully, it will be a great day for both of them—later on.