A globe of silver hung suspended in the dark of the night sky, surrounded by the shadows of trees. A flock of birds flew past, obscuring the view for a brief moment. A slim figure paced on the deserted streets, the white of its grab a stark contrast to the surrounding darkness.
The elite soldier strode along the path, stepping onto and over corpses, steel-blue eyes betraying not even the slightest hint of emotion. And beneath the blue was green fire, crackling so that it was hard to look at her eyes for more than a few seconds. Her pale face suddenly tilted towards the moon as she heard the caw of a raven. A thoughtful look skimmed her brow for a moment before her features returned to their former serenity.
Long since numbed by pain and sorrow, the soldier felt nothing at the deaths of so many. Life to her was a vast ocean which could never be emptied – so much the worse. There was no need to be personal about anything, because, after all, one would just disappear and eventually fade into the background, covered by the veil of time, pushed further away by hazy murmurings.
She was a soldier, and soldiers followed orders. Her orders were to investigate the massacre of the city, and she would finish her task, albeit not without some distaste. The toe of her boot suddenly struck something hard. Bending down, she realized that it was a silver key, no doubt dropped by one of the victims of this time’s attack.
A silver key.
Suddenly engulfed in a flood of memories, the soldier gasped. No – she had sworn never to recall this. Why? Why were all those memories triggered? Was it some form of penance? For a moment, her feelings overwhelmed her and she could almost imagine being held in that warm embrace, those strong arms reassuring her, telling her that nothing would – or could – happen.
Doubled over on the ground with the pain of that night, she clutched the key to her chest and forced a few incoherent words out of her mouth, before finally composing herself enough to regulate her breathing. Standing up shakily, she pocketed the key and whispered one last sentence before continuing on her soundless journey:
“You said you’d come back from the fire…You never did, and I’ve been waiting so long…How long more do I have to wait?”
Now she remembered. Her brother had died in such an incident. Retracing the steps she had taken so far, she saw that even the methods used to dispatch the citizens had been similar to those she had seen so long ago. Right then, she could imagine the crimson sky when this tragedy had taken place, the birds of prey waiting for their feed, the hungry flames sending out their tongues and devouring everything that passed. The blaze of scarlet throughout the city and the clouds of thick smoke, seemingly too heavy to rise, drowning all those not yet dead in their horrible darkness. Hadn’t that been her reason to join the military in the first place? To stop the murderers who kept making such things happen? How could she have forgotten?
Crouching down next to a corpse, she flipped it over face up and did a quick examination. There. The eye sockets were empty. Her suspicions had been confirmed. Yes, it was indeed the ‘jewel hunters’ who had killed her family and friends so long ago. Her family and friends who had been born with the eyes of blue-green flames. It was hard to believe that there were still so many of them left, so many of that one race which had been persecuted from its beginnings to its near end simply because they were different, simply because of their eyes, which had lately become ‘collectors’ items’.
Angry, the soldier clenched her fists, the colour of her eyes now no longer blue-gray veined with almost-living green, but an opaque black. Another unique characteristic her race possessed; having eyes which changed colour when their bearers were overwhelmed by certain negative emotions. Her own eyes would have changed to emerald, if not for all the experiments which had been done on her, and somehow she now felt guilty for permitting any changed to the way her body worked.
“You will pay,” she growled. “You will pay tenfold for what you did then and have done here. I’ll dig all your organs out and let the professor play around with them. And I’ll personally use your brains for my own scientific investigation.”
A voice interrupted her thoughts.
“When did you get so vengeful, Leo?” it asked, before someone wrapped his arms – it was obvious from the voice that the person was a ‘he’ – around her waist, rendering her incapable of turning back to confirm his identity.
Wait. I’ve heard that voice…somewhere. But I don’t remember…
“Who are you?” It was a stupid question to ask, really; someone with the intention to harm her wouldn’t reveal his identity that easily, would he?
“You don’t remember me?”
I remember the voice…
“What’s there to remember?” she asked outwardly, careful to maintain a professional tone. This person could just be impersonating someone she knew to get to her. She was bad at remembering what voice belonged to who; they must have known that.
The person suddenly spun her around so that her face was buried in his chest. She would normally have protested, as would anyone else, but she felt oddly safe with this person despite not knowing his identity.
“You’re trying to suffocate me.” It was a statement, not a question.
“No-one’s stopping you from breathing. You just don’t want to,” came the voice. It sounded amused this time. But nevertheless, it was right.
The soldier took a breath, hesitantly at first. Noting that her enhanced senses didn’t detect any trace of harmful chemicals, she gradually allowed the air to fill her lungs, until it hit her that this person smelled familiar, too. And with the senses she had, it was impossible to fool her with an imitation of anybody’s scent, so that must mean…
“I know you?”
“I thought you wouldn’t ask.”
A searing pain tore through her abdomen. As she drew what she thought would be her last breath, she looked up at her captor.
Brother?
“Why?”
He smiled wryly.
“You need a good sleep. It’ll help you forget some things. I’ll stay with you this time, I promise.”
“Liar. You didn’t keep your word…the last time…” She barely had enough breath left to sustain her bodily functions, but yet there was a note of amusement in her voice, that voice which had previously been colder than ice.
I’ll trust you…Even if you’ve betrayed me more than once now…