• Sound Escaping Me By: Hikari



    “And so, the two sisters fell, one before the other. They watched each other crumble and die away, now nothing but a fading memory in those who had seen them and those who had known them. They were gone.”

    Haine stood before the wreckage in front of him. He breathed in the dirty air and it’s silence. It had occurred to him that what had just happened here was something that he knew humans were capable of doing, but had just figured they never would. He stretched his shoulder-length angel wings and yawned.

    “Oi! Hikari, you done yet?” He looked amongst the clouds and the small girl came into view. He held his breath.

    “Yes, Haine, I’m coming.” Her usually sing-song voice was lifeless and her rainbow eyes were now but shadows…hollow. She floated down beside him and looked amongst the rising cloud of dust and ash to see what had just days ago, been two strong towers. Her eyes were lost to him now.

    He breathed in sharply and asked the question she dreaded most. “Are you ready Hikari?” He glanced over to her to see her nod slightly and he knew her silence was a respect for the ones who had just fallen. They stepped into the fading cloud, their wings fading with them.
    *******************************************

    They searched amongst the ruble and shadows, along with the many service men, for people…but theirs served a different purpose. They had to find the souls of those who had not been lead to the gates of heaven yet…and there were too many to count.

    They searched and regretfully found for hours on end. After leading an old man who had been on the top floor, Haine glanced up too Hikari to notice her movements. She moved as if in a trance, lost to the world around her, a zombie looking for its own grave.

    After a short moment, Hikari looked up to see Haine’s ruby orbs glancing toward her. She tried to force a small smile. She knew how he hated to see her sad. How even though he always frowned and how he always complained,…he never really liked this job, but he had kept it because she took it to be with him. The both intrigued each other, and they didn’t even know it.

    “Our we almost done?” she said, her voice sounding like a wisp of air. He looked down then back to her. He then glanced around and sighed.

    “One more I think…I believe that-” He stopped speaking when he saw her float amongst the darkness, searching again. He furrowed his brow and rubbed the back of his head. “Geez,” he mumbled, “I didn’t want you to go and find it.” He sighed again and thought of how troublesome she could be and began floating toward her presence.

    He stood in shock. There she stood, above a heap of something he couldn’t make out. His eyes tried to refocus in the darkness, but all attempts failed and as he got closer, she fell to her knees, grabbing the heap in her arms. He floated closer only to be stopped by the tears of light that fell from her obsidian orbs.

    They fell to the ground and rippled into invisible water as she held the lump tighter. His eyes widened to see the body of a six year old boy in her arms. She clung to the hollow shell and sobbed into the boys hair. She rocked back and forth, as if it would soothe the tears.

    His own tears rippled beneath him, slowly sliding down his face, but he hid his eyes as to so she wouldn’t see. He just turned and looked the other way. He closed his eyes and listened to her silent pleading.

    “Pl-please!!!! God! Pl-…..please let him live!!!” He tightened his eyes at the next phrase that left her lips. “HE DOESN’T DESERVE THIS!” He turned his head to the small gasp she had and watched as the boys body began to shatter away into shards of light. Before they could reach their hands up…he was gone.

    “And Sound Escaped The Two Jewels, leaving them in the darkness.”

    She stared in silence, all thoughts and breathes long gone from her body. She couldn’t feel, the numbness of death seeping into her bones and running through her veins, stinging her skin. Haine looked to her and more ripples of light formed around her body than he had ever seen come from the rain. He got to the ground and walked to her, dropping to his own knees and pulling her into his arms. Her tears soaked his already dirty jacked and she clenched to his back and wings.

    Her face to his shoulder, his eyes to her hair, he stroked her feathers and listened to her as she screamed, “Life is not fair…”

    “Life is cruel. How it is born, lived, and ended abruptly. It is like the rain, ever falling in it’s moods and different shades, some drops heavier than others. It needs no reason for being there, it just simply is. I’ve come to learn and believe that life always ends and I could never see why humans, why she, tried to preserve it so. Why they all cried for ones who leave the earth and why everyone feels regret. It’s their own damn faults for knowing that we all die and still acting the way they do….but then, she told me something…she said…it is because they are human…they can’t help it…they don’t understand. She said that the greatest human fear is being alone and that loneliness, or the fear for it, will drive a person to act the way they do, in what ever way they do it.

    “After seeing that boy in her arms and watching those towers fall after the planes hit, after looking into her hollow eyes and hearing her cries…after seeing what humans are capable of when they want to keep those trapped under the building alive…I guess it’s true what that one guy said…9-11 did show man kind what they are capable of doing. A lot of times its bad, but there is also good. And it also shows them how to do things like help each other and save peoples lives…just because it was the right thing to do.Damn...humans can be so cruel. “