Evermore...
In the early morn, at a crowded underground train station, a family of three had found refuge. The ponderous environment coalesced the ancient air which smelled musty, with that of the neoteric tenant, the human smell that wafted from unwashed bodies. The poor light had become a playground where fleeting shadows played hide and seek, with the dim lamps dispersed unevenly on various corners, uninhabited as if awaiting for grim reapers to walk out.
"Evermore" *whisper*
Under a flickering light...
...foreheads gently met each other, small belonging to a pitifully crying child, and, broader wrinkled in grim worry, to a middle-aged man whom she desperately clung to. Her small clumsy arms barely encircled his burly neck, yet they refused to let go, as her teary voice incessant with desperation, uttered shiveringly "Vater, geh nicht, Bitte-Bitte-Bitte"
Yet, her squeaky voice weakened to a bare whisper, and unto silence, her head bobbed rhythmically, one in unity with the gentle rhythm of his beating heart. Tired, she dozed away within the comfortable embrace of her father, as her mother by their side continued watching them in a hushed melancholy. Melancholy, it gravitated from the depth of her light blue eyes, and behind them, her dampened spirit intermittently held the tiniest warmth; hope. Yet, when those sorrow-filled-hopeful eyes found him, they reflected in them, feelings inexplicable, weighted down by weariness in each of their depth. Deeper still, wordless meanings reposed in the sanctuary of blissful harmony, as their child rested in peace, and so did they, for the time being.
Time passed and seconds ticked into minutes and minutes flowed into hours. Half a day went by, almost on the eve, silence whose stillness reigned supreme was abruptly shattered by the sharp whistle of an incoming train that loomed over them as angry as a huffing and puffing giant, resting to a standstill with a screeching halt. Then as the metal doors opened simultaneously with a *whoosh*, pandemonium broke, the weary crowd woke up and resurged as one towards them. Similarly, as the virgin waves in a Tsunami reach the distant beach, so did they cascade towards the dark and cold doors. Hurriedly, the man half carried, half pushed the confused, half-awakened child, to her panic-stricken mother, to whom he nodded. She nodded to him back and the child could only gasp fully awake as her mother desperately rushed among the last of the crowds, lost in its wake, there was no time to say goodbye. Barely had they entered the train, the doors closed with finality. The child could only watch her running father among the abandoned crowd, his figure getting farther and farther into mere shadow, which disappeared into the depth of the darkness. Yet she still could hear his familiar shout, calling her name, "EVERMORE, EVE-ER-MORE"
Tears shined in her mother's eyes, but she held them back. Her child could only look at the distant horizon longingly, her hands and legs involuntarily flailed. Some people nearby sighed, others too afraid to look at them clung to their possession and their loved ones, and there in the silence, darkness swooped in.
Yet the very moment, that darkness was swept away... thundering noise accompanied by the flash of light
"BOOM"
***
As each explosion came closer and closer, that child closed her eyes, and so did her mother, as did the fated commuters who prayed together for their loved ones, those, left behind, perhaps never to be seen again, and those who had already breathed their last. Still, they hoped, as did mothers and children did, centuries past, a millennium ago, when wars were dictated on the whim of the righteous rulers who invoked the will of the collective for the greater good. Orphans of wars were born as such, as echoes of the past came true.
"BOOM"
***
In a city devasted by destruction...
...a dirty face peeked from a corner of a broken window of a broken building, and in a familiar double-take retreated to safety. Back in the corner, the owner of the face looked worriedly at his stern comrade. "?!"
***
(After what felt like an eternity, the booming explosions had ceased. A dot came hurling, and thereafter a figure was seen running towards the center of the greatest explosion, his footsteps determined in its beat became unsteady when they reached the wreckage of the train...it was burning, and with it, so was his soul.
his eyes burned
in the fiery purgatory and smoke
His chest felt heavy, his legs gave up, on his knees he fell, his cheek found the ground, unresistingly, paralyzed, salty tears came streaming,
His brittle hope broke
into pieces and pieces
there was hurt, and guilt
he wished he hadn't sent them away
it was his selfishness that got his family killed
he wished he was dead too
dead, DEAD-DEAD
in the darkness, in the heaviness, he saw them
his child and her mother before his eyes,
those memories...
Shock, confusion, disbelief, and finally DENIAL, all these came like a storm and abandoned him like he was not worth being with
Memories and feelings
back-forth--forth-back
Only numbness graced his being,
"Evermore"
The wind carried his anguish along with the falling leaves that were too brittle to touch.
"Evermore"
Ashes flowed above the river of blood that met with his salty tears
"Evermore"
Memories flashed back, her first laughter that resembled her mothers
"Evermore"
The pair of sad eyes that condemned his weakness, his fears
Whistling filled the air
he cared not
The earth trembled and the heavens tore apart
he still cared not
The only thing he did was, get up on his knees
facing the incoming missiles with open arms
eyes closed,
He welcomed the coming of death
... creeping barrage reached him;
FLASH of light and deafening noise
"BOOM"
Nothing
only silence, and...
The End.
(PC: Pinterest: https://abedformyheart.com/two-places-at-once/)
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