Endless Recess

A Cold Winter Night| Part 3

The sound of water filled the room, it was a white towel getting squeezed by a pair of gentle hands.

Hope was diligent with her self-imposed duty and very careful.

She had just finished washing Christian's body, with a dry towel, she began slowly erasing any trace of water from his skin.

The chest of Christian was exposed, and every time he breathed, it slowly and painfully went down as his body trembled with pain.

The occasional coughing filled the room and only that sound, Hope didn't speak or made much sound at all, she simply cleaned him.

"W..wa..t..er" the weak and broken voice of Christian was barely loud enough to be understood as anything more than random mumbling.

"Here" But Hope was used to it and keen of hearing, she gently lifted his head and made him drink from a cup.

She rested his head on her lap, sitting right behind him.

As he steadily emptied the glass, she caressed his hair with her right hand.

Soon, it was emptied and she placed the cup next to her but remained in that position for a little longer.

Christian's right arm began to twitch as if he tried to raise it, panicking, Hope leaned forward to look directly at his face.

"Do you want something? does it hurt too much?" The concern in her eyes, she stared directly at him.

His eyes were almost completely closed, the effort to open them too much for his weakened, mangled body, yet his eyes could move.

Slowly, they went up to look at Hope's eyes, and as tears began to fall he gave his best attempt at talking.

"I..m..so..rry...m..y..l..o..ve"

Hope's heart broke as she too began to let tears fall, however, she quickly used her arm to clean them.

Sobbing, she carefully cleaned the tears from Christian's face, and leaned down to kiss him on his forehead.

"Don't be, it's not your fault" she said to him, with a weak smile.

Then the windows shook fiercely as the unforgiving winds struck them, making Hope look at them in hopes they didn't break.

She then smiled melancholically and stared at Christian again, she resumed her hand movements, playing with his hair.

"It's very windy, remember when we first met? a year ago? It was a cold winter night...

It was.

He thought, unable to speak, in too much pain to even say more than a single word.

He couldn't do much at all since the day of the outbreak, but he could always remember.

And he did so clearly.

Rain.

The streets shinned with water, it had been raining for hours now, no vehicle dared best the furious waters flooding the streets.

" It has not rained like this in years" Christian mumbled.

Without the bruises and scars on his face, he was a very handsome-looking young man, and he had to be.

Wearing a thick winter jacket, his hair neatly done, and his shining blue eyes almost glimmering with the reflection of the lights in the wet window to his side.

"s**t" he said pulling out his cellphone.

He was sat inside a coffee shop, the empty tables all around, only a cup of coffee on his as a company.

It was 6:35 pm, the light poles on the street started to turn on.

"He is not gonna come" he put the cellphone back in his pocket "Goddamit this rain"

He looked out the window at the rain that showed no signs of ever stopping.

Letting out a long sigh he stared at his empty cup of coffee in defeat, there was nothing that could be done.

"Maybe he will come if I wait longer" He thought, stretching his body on the table, facing the window "There is no signal either, damn"

He watched the rain when suddenly, an open hand hit the wall, painting it red with blood.

Startled, he immediately straightened his body and saw a hooded girl collapsing on the floor beyond his eyesight.

He felt doubt for a moment, looking around to realize none of the waitresses had seen it and that there was no one else appearing from the other side of the glass.

Finally deciding, he rushed out of the coffee shop from a nearby door and saw the girl sitting right under the window of his table, hugging her legs, soaked by the rain.

She wore a thick winter jacket similar to his, but brown, she must have a hoodie underneath it, her black and long silky hair falling on her legs.

He ran near her and noticed she was crying, once he was close enough he kneeled, but before he could say anything the girl suddenly looked at him.

Her face was mangled and butchered, red with gory blood.

He threw an ear-wrenching high-pitched scream almost at the same time she did.

Falling on his ass he was about to flee when he looked at her closely.

Pieces of her face were falling onto the ground, but the flesh was brown.

Looking slightly at her feet he saw the destroyed remains of a bright red birthday cake.

Returning his eyes to the girl once again, the girl quickly threw the pieces that remained on her face, showing an insanely cute pair of hazel eyes and bright pink lips.

"S-sorry" He mumbled, lost in her beauty.

"What a cute girl!!" He thought excitedly.

...It was raining so much, and I fell face flat on my mother's birthday cake" She whispered, looking at him with a sad smile.

Christian's chest went up and down in quick succession, while from his mouth pained dry sounds came out.

It was laughter.

Her heart, already beating fast by the initial shock of suddenly having someone be inches from her, was now threatening with bursting out of her chest.

The guy in front of her could easily just be a fantasy, yet he had just spoken to her.

"Say something, SAY SOMETHING" She thought.

"T-T-thanks!" She said with a kind smile.

The guy in front of her, who before stared at her with eyes wide open in apparent shock, looked at her now in confusion.

"KILL ME, PLEASE ANY CAR COME BY SO I CAN LAUNCH MYSELF AT YOU" She thought before her mind became only incoherent screaming.

Ashamed and wishing to be unborn, her smile twitched.

"I mean, yeah" She said rising from her feet.

"GOD, WHY DID YOU MADE ME?!" She thought, feeling so nervous that her knees were starting to fail.

"I...came over to see if you were okay, I thought you were hurt" He said rising from the floor as well and pointing at her hands and then the wall.

"Oh" She replied, looking at the objects he pointed as he did "Then I am the one who should apologize"

"Not at all!" He shook his hands in front of him "I'm taking coffee right here, want to enter to hear up a little?"

"No thanks! I actually have to run back to my house with the-" She looked down at the destroyed dessert "The disappointing news"

He seemed a little disappointed, and In a way so she was, after all, she didn't want to stay any longer under the rain, and looking at the cake made the initial shock disappear.

"I'm sorry for troubling you, but I really have to go"

"Wait!" He said turning around and rushing back inside the coffee shop.

He then ran back outside where she was still standing, not only because he asked her to wait, but because she was surprised by his speed.

The guy pulled out a black umbrella and opened it, it was big enough for the two of them.

She was then struck by surprise when looking up, the inner part of the umbrella was filled with cartoon-like stars and rainbows.

"It's of my little sister" He said a little embarrassed "Lucky umbrella, she said" he ended up the sentence with a quick chuckle.

"But, you want to?..." She thought she knew what he meant by pulling out his umbrella but still needed to be sure, she pointed at herself with her thumb.

"I would like to take you home, you are going home right?" He just then realized he wasn't even sure if she was going to her house.

"Well, I don't have an umbrella, and its very kind of you, but I don't know who you are"

He smiled, then stretched his free hand towards her.

"I am Chris, I study at the Lionheart School Unit"

"Really? I study there too! Hope, nice to meet you" She shook his hand with a broad smile.

"I guess we are no longer strangers then, so?" He said returning her smile with one of his own.

Hope's mind screamed and said a bunch of incoherent words.

"I would be very grateful for your help" Were the words that came out of her mouth.

They began walking side by side, protected from the rain by the umbrella, even if they were already drenched by it.

"What was the occasion?" He looked backward at the cake still on the floor.

"Oh! excuse me" She pulled from his jacket a few times to let him know she wanted to back.

They quickly walked back to the cake and she grabbed it all with her hands, only to dump it in an actual dumpster nearby.

"My mother's birthday" She let out a sigh "My father's car got messed up and she is not home yet but will be soon, then the store called saying was closing soon due to some accident in the kitchen, I had an umbrella but I must have forgotten it back at the tourist's district" she held her head in disappointment.

"I see, it's filled with the plastic tarps, so I imagine it must be filled with people seeking shelter right now"

"You have no idea and when I step out of it, I realize I had forgotten my umbrella"

"Why didn't you went back for it?"

"Quickly!, say something different to I panicked!! " She thought.

"I didn't want to risk getting home late"

"I see, once we are there I could take a look at your father's car, I used to help my uncle with his mechanic shop for a while"

"Well now, you make me embarrassed being so kind" She blushed slightly.

"May as well say you want to marry, wouldn't mind I assure you, Just be rich and have half Korean ascendance, and we are golden!!" She thought, followed by an excited screech.

"You said you are in the same school as me right? How come I have never seen you?"

"Hmm, I am fifteen, and you?"

" Sixteen, that must be it then! A shame we have never met during recess" He then thought about something " Wait, have you ever gone to any of the football games?"

" I was never really one for sports" She admitted a little bit ashamed.

" WHY DID YOU SAID THAT?! YOU COW!!" She thought, wondering why she didn't simply say no, I have not.

"Why you ask? do you play in the team?"

" Yeah, my full name is Christian Gray" He said full of pride.

"Ah! I have heard of you! one of the best in the team right?"

"HE IS THE CHRISTIAN!! " She thought, followed by a scream that if could be heard outside her mind it would have broken any nearby window "HE IS NOT KOREAN, BUT HE IS FILTHY RICHHHH!!, I have to find a way to show cleavage with this Eskimo clothing!!"

Then she remembered the fact that he was in the coffee shop before, so maybe he was busy doing or planning to do something.

"I forgot to ask, I appreciate the company and help, but didn't you had anything to do?, I ended up stealing you from the coffee shop, were you waiting for your girlfriend?" She asked giving him her most pure and gentle smile.

For a moment he looked elsewhere and went silent, but soon after he shook his head.

"No, I wasn't waiting for anybody" He then blushed a little bit "And I don't have any girlfriend yet"

" THAT IS ABOUT TO CHANGE! IT'S FREE REAL STATE IN HERE!!!" She thought, followed by a malevolent laugher.

But he was waiting for someone, it was important, yet, he was already walking with her, so there was no way back.

"Sometimes I still feel guilty you know? With such a cute face I'm sure you would have made it far" Hope said, gently using her thumb to trace one of Christian's wounds "If you could go back to that time, would you choose to ignore me?"

Chris simply rolled his eyes, making a tiny smile, she laughed softly, leaning down and placing a kiss on his lips.

"I know, I was joking"

If I could go back...

He thought, feeling yet more pain in his chest, yet this time from deeper within.

If I could go back, to when I met you, I would gladly do it to relieve everything we did together.

As he stared into her eyes, he wished to try and reach out to her, to place his hand on her face.

The things he had heard, confusing and seemingly impossible, yet if any were fake, then they wouldn't be here for so long.

He sometimes lost track of time, existence was difficult for him.

Breathing was painful.

Moving was impossible.

He couldn't do anything for himself, and the worst of it all is that despite that, he was perfectly aware most of the time.

Weeks, trapped in a meat coffin constantly stabbing him with daggers with the slightest of movements.

At least he could still hear.

And even that he sometimes wished to go away.

When he heard that food was running out, that no help was coming, that one of them had died.

All he could think of was.

Why am I alive?.

Those times he had tried to tell them, to let them know that he was okay with being thrown away.

He was a burden.

At least food was brought back, the group became stronger while making more parts of the school safe.

And no one else had died, for now.

So not everything was bad, but in his mind, the one that had it the worst was Hope.

For weeks she has been taking care of him, washing the filth off his body almost every day.

Staying next to him for hours in contemplating silence, instead of with others.

Did they support her as much as she needed? did they care for her as much as he wanted to do?

He couldn't even ask.

All he could do was painfully exist.

He closed his eyes, nothing good would come out of falling into the void of his thoughts, so he allowed the memories, his only safe heaven, to carry him to times before the world went to hell.

And he got trapped in it, more than anyone else.

He walked with Hope for a couple of streets until he reached a big and expensive-looking home with tall walls and a beautiful garden that could be seen through the iron bars door.

"I take it this is your home"

"It is, excuse me a moment" Hope turned to a tiny box near the door and pressed a button "Father, I'm back"

They waited for a couple of seconds until a buzzing sound came out of it and a masculine voice spoke.

"WHERE IS THE CAKE?!!" The exalted voice shouted, not angrily, just loud.

Hope sighed.

"I will tell you once we are inside"

"Very well, hey there kid"

Chris was startled, all this time he had been searching for a camera around the place but found none, so either it was very well hidden, or very small.

"G-good afternoon Mr."

A beeping sound came from the door and it opened itself.

They walked into the front garden, beautifully decorated with flowers of all colors and kinds.

Once they reached the wooden door of the house a short man, barely taller than Hope, greeted both of them.

His hair unusually long for a man of his age, with a beard a couple of weeks old, he looked overall raggy, if he wasn't clean and wearing nice clothes, he could have been confused by a beggar.

"Tiny!" Chris thought.

"Come on in" He steps aside "Sweetheart, take your friend to the living room, I will bring you both some towels and then you tell me what happened" He walked to a nearby door limping, and left.

"Here" Hope motion him to follow.

The inside of the house was humble and decorated with many framed pictures.

Wood and concrete mixed perfectly for an interesting appearance.

They walked into a large room with sofas and a large TV, the dining room could be seen a couple of meters away.

Several doors indicated the house had a lot more to offer, one, in particular, was large and entirely made out of steel.

He walked to one of the nearby sofas and sat, a little uncomfortable for making them wet.

"This is a beautiful house" He thought out loud.

"Thank you! I will bring you something warm, you like coffee right?" She said walking to a stand with a coffee machine.

"How did you knew?"

"We meet at the coffee shop!" Hope giggled while pouring the brown steaming liquid on a ceramic cup.

"Oh, right" He made a forced smile, having been reminded why he was there to begin with.

A job offer, one of a kind, for a beauty magazine.

He was from a rich family, like almost all students in his school, so he was not interested in a job that could provide a lot of money, instead, he had been interested in the beauty world for a while now.

He would never know if the man supposed to meet with him in that coffee shop came after he left.

"Here" Hope made him snap out of his thoughts by giving him the hot cup of coffee.

"Thank you" he took it, his slight disappointment disappearing a little bit with each sip of the bitter liquid.

"Now dry well both of you" Hope's father said appearing from behind them, with large towels in his arms.

Both teens quickly grabbed the towels and dried themselves.

"Now, what happened with the cake? they said it was done"

"I accidentally slip on my way home and I ruined the cake" Hope said looking at the ground.

" WHAT?! " her father screamed, making Chris jump in his place "... Oh well, at least you are not injured right?" He said sitting on a chair in front of both of them.

"No, just my dignity I guess" Hope said covering her face with the towel.

"And my wallet" Her father said covering his with his hands.

Both let out a long sigh almost at the same time.

Chris sat there staring at the situation awkwardly thinking of something to say to change the increasingly depressing feeling in the room.

"So, it's your mother's birthday, where is she?" he said, trying to find an uplifting topic.

"She-"

"My beautiful wife does not return until at least thirty more minutes" Hope's father interrupted her, now smiling with pride.

"She is working, right? what is her job?"

"My mother works for the government as a scientist and lead engineer in a lot of things" Now Hope was smiling proudly.

"And you, Mr?"

" Well, I am the CEO of the couch and head chef of this household!" He said with a straight face "I'm unemployed"

Chris was worried he had said something he shouldn't have, while Hope required all her strength to avoid laughing.

" Is not like I say that with shame, I scored a real one marrying that amazing woman!"

"Besides, Is not your fault you can't do much with your leg" Hope said while drying her hair.

"Yeah" He crossed his arms while frowning slightly, he then looked at Chris and smiled with ill intent " Hey boy, catch!" He then kicked to the air with great force in Chris's direction.

Unexpectedly, his leg pop off and flew directly at him, out of instinct by his many football games he stretched his arms and caught it, only to stare at it in shock.

Hope's father then proceeded to chortle furiously and hit his leg that missed the lower half of it with his hand.

"DAD!!" Hope shouted angrily, standing up and rushing to take the leg off Chris's hands.

She then walked up to her father and smacked him with the prosthetic on his leg, making him stop laughing, he still smiled joyfully thought.

" Sorry, Sorry" He put the leg back where it belonged " I couldn't help myself" he winked at Chris.

"D-Don't worry about it Mr."

"Lose both of them actually, an accident a good while ago, that was how I met Hope's mother"

"While you recovered or as a co-worker?" Chris said taking a sip of his coffee.

"No, she chopped them off"

Chris laughed for a moment until he realized he was the only one.

"Blew them off I think would be more accurate" Hope's father looked at the roof remembering the past with a smile on his face " Not directly, of course, it's a long story that I bet you will wish to hear tonight, you are staying for dinner right?"

"O-oh no! I wouldn't want to be here as a complete stranger on your wife's birthday!"

"Nonsense! and with this heavy rain, It would be better you stay"

Just as Chris was about to protest the bell rang.

"Darling? I'm coming in, could you tell Hope to bring an umbrella for me? " A feminine voice came from a speaker somewhere in the house, she spoke with hard R's.

Hope began walking but her father stood up and stopped her.

"Don't you worry about it, I want to stretch my legs" He then grabbed a nearby umbrella from a bucket.

"Are you sure? I don't want you to fall"

"I said don't worry! I'll be fine! You and your boyfriend put the table so we get something to eat.

" DAD!!" She blushed and stomp the ground.

He then left laughing again.

"I'm sorry, he may be a little too comfortable with new people"

"It's okay, I don't mind" Chris stood up as well "I will have to call my mother, but I doubt she will mind me staying over for dinner"

Hope was embarrassed but happy, and she let it show by smiling warmly at him.

He stood there for a second, truly and utterly, Lovestruck.

It seemed as if time itself had stopped.

He then smiled back at her.

Chris then began remembering so much more.

How he seeks her out from a crowd next time he goes to school, finding her among her friends.

Spending their first recess together laughing and looking at all types of videos on the internet.

How they spent the first time in her bedroom, listening to all the rock bands that she loved.

When he finally ask her out and went to watch a movie.

When he kissed her for the first time.

He cried.

Hope tried her best to be strong but watching Chris looking at her in such a way, it had been two months since she had a conversation with him and still, she understood what he said with his shaky lips and broken letters.

"I love you too" She whispered, letting the tears fall "And I will never leave your side."

She leaned forward, to give him another kiss.

It was a cold morning, the bell rang, and the students began making their way to class.

Hope kissed Chris on the cheek, she was wearing his jacket.

The day they met for the first time would come soon, so they were both filled with joy and anticipation.

Then they departed, each to their respective class.

That was two months ago.