chapter:4: "reason to live"
Every so often Elyas would open his eyes to see Noah carrying him, resting by a bonfire or sleeping.
He was heading south.
Despite all of these chances to escape, Elyas didn't. His eyes were indifferent in the face of freedom.
He didn't see Noah as his capturer, he simply didn't see the world at all.
He closed and opened his eyes only to find that the weather had changed, the day had passed or to find Noah, trying to talk to him or carrying him.
One day he opened his eyes in a city on the streets. Dumped like a garbage bag, in a dark alley no one would check.
Days passed, nights came. But for Elyas time was frozen. More frozen than his body under the heavy rain or under the blanket of winter snow.
Noah's words destroyed every hope he had of meeting them.
You weren't thinking about them
You ran away in fear
Mongrel
Coward
Rat
You abandoned them
Even if alive, what are you going to say?
Their rotting under dirt
You'll never see his face
Never see his smile
Never caress his cheek
YOU DON'T DESERVE TO LIVE
With each breath a new thought formed. From it, came a vision which Elyas used to prosecute himself.
He was a criminal in front of the judge, jury and executioner, all being one person, him.
The image of his mother in her last moments. Throwing herself in front of figments to distract them.
The images of that day.
Streets filled with voices as loud as the cheering for a play. The theatre the world, stage the streets, gore and violence the main show.
People ripped each other apart as they lost control and became nightmares; both in the waking world and the survivors' dreams.
Monsters, both familiar and alien, all figments of people's imagination roamed the city like their home.
As rhythmic screams rose to the sky and fainted to the background like static of a tv; came with them, seven moons and three suns.
Shortly after, a thick fog appeared, reigning over the sky. The only reason he and Michael survived was ignoring the cries of others begging for help and the fog.
I'm sorry Ralf
The only thing he could say was sorry.
Every replay lasted mere minutes, but to him, it was more than a hundred years of torment catching up to him.
One day, he opened his eyes to find a familiar face.
Noah was kneeling in front of him, bearing a pained expression, he was saying something to him.
Elyas stared blankly, and did what he had done till now. Fell asleep.
Every few days he would wake up to Noah feeding him, every time, he pushed Noah's hand away.
One day he came to Elyas. This time he wore a determined expression.
"I know how you feel… I was just like you when I thought my sister died." Noah said with a heavy look as he gazed at Elyas. Now nothing but a few bones held together by a layer of skin.
Noah continued
"I was there when it happened… The first whispers. In vernis. My sister and I were little. When the figments poured into the streets we could do nothing but run." he paused, looking at Elyas. Expecting no reaction he moved on
"My parents were murdered in front of me while trying to save us. We hid under rubble from a collapsed building and survived, days passed. We were hungry, but we didn't dare to use our wishes. We watched mothers and brothers turn into monsters, attacking and tearing each other apart right after using them."
Noah's voice slowed, a deep sorrow leaking into each word.
"I went outside to scavenge food, I told my sister to stay put…I told her but… When I returned hours later, she wasn't there. Only a pool of blood and one of her shoes… I was empty. Unable to eat or move. An old man from the Protocol found me in the same puddle and kept me alive."
He looked at Elyas with pity and sighed
"I was reduced to a vegetable. I could hear and sense the world around me but I was unable to react to it… no,I chose not to. I just didn't want to live."
"That's why I know you can hear me Elyas"
Noah looked at the pale skinny man in front of him. It was the first time he had seen himself in another person.
"After a few dreamers turned heartless, word reached people across the world. The old man came to give me hope."
"He told me:
'Young man, I understand the pain of losing a loved one. A few people remain who haven't experienced it yet. But I have good news: your sister might be alive.'
The blood could have been from a monster—or a dreamer trying to save her. From there, she could have become a dreamer herself, with the possibility of turning heartless, nearly immortal."
As Noah said this he observed Elyas closely. Hoping for anything.
Noah's words travelled from his mouth to Elyas's ears and lingered in his mind, from that short contact a spark had formed!
Out of it, a single thought grew rapidly, pushing aside all the clouds covering the truth that was now reminded to him.
There was still hope.
The hope that Michael had become a dreamer and then a heartless— having the chance to live to this day.
He used that hope. grabbed onto it like a rope tossed down into a pit he was stuck in, he clawed and climbed it to survive— to see another day, to have a chance to see his face again.
To say sorry and goodbye.
His eyes regained their luster as a new resolution gave him reason to continue living.
There was still a chance. A sliver of hope that Michael was alive.
And that was enough
Noah was about to leave when he saw Elyas's face. Unbeknownst to him, his lips had curved upward, creating a warm, pleasant smile.
"...I see that the rest suited you well. Then, should I get you something to eat?"
Noah asked, repeating what the old man had told him over a hundred years ago.
As Elyas sluggishly nodded his head, he watched the sky.
The fog with the help of the stars had veiled the sky in a Milky White. Allowing the moons to spread their colours even more than usual, turning the night sky into a colourful canvas.
All of it was fading into a light orange as the suns rose behind Noah, creating a magnificent view.
That night, the moon had two faces.
One emerald green, showing the happiest of smiles.
The other, a colorless cold mask breaking as dawn came— its face, indiscernible
Elyas barely managed to get up with the help of Noah. He was cropped up by Noah, helping him walk out of the alley. The darkness that had been looming over Elyas, was now dimming under the morning sun.
But it hadn't left him, something like that can't leave. It only diminishes.
Elyas whispered under shaky breath. Giving himself and someone he hoped was alive, a promise.
"I'm… Com…ing, Michael."
'I will find you. Wherever you are, no matter what I have to do.'