The patterns were there,
Golden the color.
The patterns were bad,
Everyone was dead.
Arrays…
"Mum, what are arrays?" A vibrant kid around 5 years old asked. He was seated on the opposite side of the table with an empty bowl right before the boy. His elbows were both placed on the table as he waited for his mother to serve him food.
She had been humming an old hymn that had been passed down through time such that it was always famous amongst kids. Even adults sang it when they were working. The lady who was just about to serve the him paused and a serious look replaced her joyful face just a second ago.
"Why do you ask?" she asked testing him.
"Because they are bad," he replied without second thoughts.
"You are right. They are bad and are long gone. Even if you searched the whole world, you would never find one," she replied with an assuring smile.
"Why is that?"
"Because long time ago, arrays were used by bad people who wanted to destroy everything. Our ancestors fought so hard to protect us from that evil power thus erasing it from this world.
"Don't you think our ancestors were cool? Many of them were killed by this power but just will always prevail. But do not worry, it is no more in this world and we shall never see it again."
She said as she petted his hair and he could not help but smile and laugh childishly with red cheeks. His mother then went ahead to serve him food and urged him to go to bed later which he obliged. He had a good night sleep and pride of knowing where they came from.
***
He walked happily whistling the tune of the song as he went to a group of kids. When they heard him whistle, they joined in to and some even sang it aloud. The song was almost a sacred song in the village.
Whenever they passed, even the elderly would be left whistling and they were all glad that their values were being passed on to the next generation just like when they were passed to them. This made sure no one forgot the brutality of arrays.
***
"Ha! I like you even more you damned brat. Your decisiveness is a very good quality for an array master…"
Those were the last words the voice said as it disappeared once again. Lyren who was just feeling relieved to have a conversation after a very longtime suddenly felt his world turn up-side down and his blood freeze with what the voice had just said.
"An Array Master?" Lyren fell on his knees as his world crumbled. As for the voice, it let out an even more satisfied laugh that echoed throughout. It had gotten the last laugh with Lyren facing a total defeat.
Yes, he had lost and he had lost terribly. Then it all clicked to him. The hymn he had led the other children years ago playing in the background. Yes, the patterns. He could not believe that he had forgotten such an important detail.
He had kept wondering what these patterns were for and it turned out that he did not have to think too much about it. Those who used the patterns were all evil people and they all met a brutal death.
Had the voice not said that he was becoming an array master, his world started crumbling. Everything he had lived for up to the current moment all going down the drain. If he was going to be a taboo user once he got here, what was the need of leaving in the first place?
He did not even feel like seeing his mother again after he had failed her this much. The song kept saying about patterns yet he had been here all this while dealing with the patterns without his mind connecting patterns to arrays.
He looked at the pattern on his palm and he felt like cutting his arm off and getting rid of it. who was going to shake hands with him when they realized that he had a pattern on his palm. He was actually going to be persecuted even by his mother.
No one in this world wanted anything to do with the arrays yet here he was having dove so deep that there was no going back. He wanted to give up on everything at the moment. He wanted to end his life and there was a way right before him. The stairs.
He slowly stood up and activated the two patterns of the fourth row as the whole first hemisphere lit up. He took sluggish steps as he let his hair cover his face. He climbed the first step and so on until he was at the 250th step where he was going to let the pressure of the stairs crush hm.
At this level he was going to get crushed in an instant. He had made sure to give the patterns only enough energy to last for a few minutes so that his death would come faster. He sat at the last step and leaned on the barrier behind him.
This time, not even the doors had activated. He could feel the Elyria was drying up in the atmosphere and that was proof that the pressure was coming. He closed his eyes as he let his life flash through as he relived the good times he had with his mom.
He felt sad for what he was trying to do but he knew very well what was better. If he was to make a choice, he would rather leave this world as a normal kid than live as a reject. No mother would want that for her child. What would happen if even she rejected him?
That was going to be worse for both of them. If she rejected him, she would be in pain and denial and he would also feel hurt as she was the only connection that he had with this world. If she rejected him, he would just kill himself and since that was going to be the case, why not just do it now.
She probably already that he was dead all this while he had been missing. What if she learned that he was alive but he was now a pawn of an old evil that had destroyed the world ages ago? Wouldn't she wish he never came back and even say that her son was already dead?
The patterns were there,
Golden the color.
The patterns were bad,
Everyone was dead.
Arrays…
Array masters the wilders,
The killers.
Lyren kept humming the tune as he prepped himself for the impending death. As the pressure increased, his voice became hoarse and his breathing became ragged.
"Hmph…" Came a sigh that filled his ears next to him. He forced his eyes open but all he could see was a silhouette of a man sitting next to him.