Prompts: Music(How to Save a Life by The Fray)649Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcPZ3cs6DqV
Umbra649Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡt5NE0JiUmj
Raindrops tumble down from the sky and slap the dirt road. It’s mostly silent aside from the rain, and the almost inaudible footsteps of the lone traveler. A lonely and forgotten child who’s clad in nothing more than rags, a hood and cloak. He draws the cloak a bit more to his body, keeping the hood up and his eyes to the ground. It’s a cold and dreary day really, not one for traveling but the child doesn’t seem to notice, or if he does he doesn’t care.649Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOandTH341n
Can’t care really, splashing echoes as his feet find themselves in puddles and he stops. Rippling water drags at the loose ends of his trousers and he looks into the dark haunted eyes of his reflection. Wisps of hair frame a pale face, dark circles only drawing more attention to his red rimmed eyes. Small wet trails shine on his cheeks but whether they’re from the rain or something else isn’t entirely clear.
Slowly he sinks down, his knees splashing into the muddy water and obscuring his reflection. A hiccup escapes him and he draws his arms together, hugging himself and bowing his head. The hood is caught by the wind and yanks back leaving his hair to almost puff out before lying flat and sticking to his shivering and soaked neck and forehead. He whimpers warm and salty tears brewing at the edges of his eyes as they raise to face the heavens.
"Why?" the word chokes him but still manages to break out into the air. It’s a good question, but one that’s without an answer. His whole body trembles with shivers and the touch of a fever as he repeats the word endlessly into the air. Into the emptiness of the abandoned dirt road.
His eyes close and he bows his head once more. Vainly hoping that all this is just a nightmare and that he’d wake up soon. A noose hangs clearly in his mind, along with a blood splatted smile, and worst of all, the apologetic softening eyes.
"Why?" again the word manages to choke itself out of his battered and abused throat and he whimpers. Because it hurts, he’s all alone now. The ones who became his closest companions, his most trusted people are dead, they’re gone and he doesn’t understand why. "Please, please don’t let me be all alone again..." his eyes are drawn back to his reforming reflection, but all he can see is a hopelessly broken and lost figure.
Then it shifts and he can almost see his companions around him, the ghost of a bright and happy grin. The warmth of a family before its torn away again by the splattering rain sending ripples across the image. He sniffs and wipes a muddied hand over his face before pushing himself up to his feet. He takes a deep breath and closes his eyes allowing the wind to blow his hair back and out of his face before opening them again.
Now there is something more than the broken and lost look from before. There’s a steely hard resolve in them, but his lower lip still trembles and there’s a distinct frown on his face. He draws his hood back up and clutches his coat around him and takes another deep breath. One step, two, three, and then four. His feet move on their own sending him forwards, forwards and away from the long abandoned village far behind.
Red footprints are left in his wake, the mud sucking eagerly at his feet. Blood and dirt mix to cake his bare soles but he’s completely oblivious or ignorant. Or he doesn’t have enough of a presence to care, his tears long gone. His humanity whatever remained of it is gone. There’s only his future goal in his mind.
"I’ll make things better. I’ll save everyone..." the words are but a single whisper in the wind.649Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3HQ9HfzSn1
Animae649Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTxfTVDtQH4
She watches as the sky opens itself up and cries. Torrents of water pour down from the sky turning the landscape grey and she can do nothing but simply smile softly, sadly. It’s bitter and pained but she hasn’t got any way to change it into a happy smile. Everyone else is long gone, dead or dying and she knows that she doesn’t have much time of her own left.
The very land itself is weeping over this senseless loss of life, and her heart aches somewhere within her chest. The little boy who she’s dedicated her life to helping lies sleeping under a raggedy torn blanket. It’s only just barely keeping him warm really and she sighs curling into her self, resting hands over her legs. It hurts aches and tears at her that their little group of four has dwindled down to just them remaining.
A hanging noose, and blood splattered smile. Two deaths that will forever be ingrained in her mind. In his mind as well, she knows this and that hurts even more. She wonders if perhaps she’d managed to stay awake longer the previous few days then maybe she would have been able to prevent what came next. But at the same time, she just knows that it wouldn’t have made a difference.
The decision had been taken from her long before she even caught what was happening. There’s cold steel resting just below her fingers. The blade of a knife, usually it’s used as a weapon for defence. But it aches and tears so much, makes her breath short and painful. She fingers the blade once more and a slip of red slides down her finger. It doesn’t hurt and she slowly picks up the blade before there’s a shifting from behind her.
"No..." she looks over at her final companion and her eyes soften. It’s an apology, but she’s not going to stop. She wants the pain and everything else to simply stop.
And she’s not about to allow the sickness to take her instead. The other lunges forwards to try and stop her but it’s already too late. One quick fluid motion and her throat is gaping with a gushing wound. She’s drowning in her own blood, but it doesn’t hurt not really.
It’s more of a distant pain... As white fills her vision, she only wonders if she’d been able to do more before her death then maybe it wouldn’t have gotten this bad. Finally her eyes fall closed for the final time.649Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡB4ZYiVyxbK
Immanitas649Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoqlD5n0mhN
Monster, monster, monster. The word roars in his head whenever he tries to close his eyes or lay to rest. Even when walking with his companions he feels apart from them. He’s a monster posing as a human. It claws and rages within him causing him to stumble and fall back further behind his companions.
Monster, monster. His hair is wild, his eyes wild, and everything is wrong in his mind. He isn’t one of them and he should stop pretending. Yet at the same time he fears stopping, because what if when he does they lose another companion to the chokehold of the Reaper. To the chokehold of the bigger monster.
He can still see the hanging rope, a gaping open mouth and soulless staring eyes that strike deep and accusing into his soul. He should have stayed awake. He should have remembered to keep on watch. Instead he fell asleep and that caused the Reaper to strike in the night and tear away one of their treasured companions.
It tears at him, clawing and scarring him deeply. Every time he closes his eyes, that face stares back at him, accusing. He screams and claws at his own face causing his companions to freeze before he breaks down laughing.
Laughing mad. Monster. His eyes are red glowing in the light of the stars overhead. Both of his remaining companions take steps back as blood drips down his chin and land in the dirt clumping it together between his fingers. He’s still smiling as he looks up at them, a crooked grin.
"Monster..." he says the smile widening at the horror in their eyes. He is a monster, but that doesn’t mean that he’s going to harm them. He lunges forwards and grips the knife of his friend, her knife. "Monsters aren’t allowed to live"
The twisted smile remains long after he’s succumbed to the all encompassing blackness. Only to find himself watching as only a few short days later his other female companion joins him. Joins him with an apologetic softening in her eyes.649Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2et4R0W3Ae
Innocentia649Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyI1GOk5HFF
The days are warm and bright. Filled with hope and love as she runs down the dirt paths and winds into the forest rushing to meet her friends and constant companions. Their world is filled with wondrous things, from the tall and watching trees to the various colorful flowers and buildings, and even the colorful people.649Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsNAWCMhhwy
She laughs as she slows to a stop meeting the group with a wide smile. Finally, finally they’re all there. They’re reunited, even if it means that they’re suffered in some of the most horrific ways.
"Come on! Let me show you around!" After all, they only died to reach paradise.649Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfuMXgtCFz7
