The Fates Intertwin

02 | Hard Reality

[" I feel cold inside, so cold that I can't move my body. There's something wrong here, and logic can't explain it. Why am I . . . Here? "]

"What're you doing here? We should move! " Ken yelled at Claire who looked ghostly white, unconsciously nose bleeding. She felt the liquid and with the tips of her fingers she wiped it, pondering at the red that would soon fill the atmosphere. She glanced at the sky, breathing the air surrounding her.

[" Is it late to dream for the good? "]

Only seconds, and every living being was accelerating, escaping the storm of gunfires behind them. Those who were blessed with unfortunate from the God, got hit and fallen on the ground dead. No one got an eye on them; when the matter is about life and death, no one could blink an eye or give it a think. Everybody chased after their lives, a bitter truth.

Ken was carrying Claire on his back with the others following behind. All felt the salty liquid inside their eye sockets, except for Ken who took it back, dreaming of a dim of light to get him out of the reliable nightmare he was living. Claire felt the urge to shed the fright inside her in the form of tears, or scream, but this thing that she never knew what was it, took everything back. She was abnormally silent, clutching her cousin's shoulder, feeling the wind hitting her face and blowing her hair, hoarsely breathing.

She could hear the shooting guns. She even counted the number of people getting hit, for the feeling that was await for their turn. Her heart was already raging from the thought of it, sending a shiver down her spine and a sting of pain inside her head. She closed her eyes to throw everything inside her skull away, but the feminine screech from behind pierced into her ears made her eyes to flit and for her breaths to cut out. It was a part of a second when she prayed for the God and all his creations that what she heard was no more than a mistake, hallucination, imagination, anything but not reality and truth.

Everyone turned back. Ken immediately spun to see, and for sure, Claire too -though she never wished to.

"Vanessa! " all screeched, all were horrified and all went pale for seeing their sister falling as one of their victims.

"Sister! " Ken cried loud so she could hear him and wake or even reply. Eyonzo rushed to her side with Kyonzo next to him. He checked her heartbeats, breath, the pumps. He checked again, and again just to end looking at them with tears and quivering lips. Ken stood there, staring at his beloved and caring sister, lifeless. He never imagined that they would be separated so quickly, or even that way. He never imagined that they are so savage to kill the women, he felt it now. He felt the 'no hope' they had, and how they all were fools to think that something like hope existed.

Claire who was watching from behind his shoulders was so terrified and trembled vigorously. The scene of seeing Vanessa with no life but thrown on the ground was so atrocious for her eyes to bear looking at. Her heart thwacked that she could feel the pressure in her ears would explode her eardrums, and her breaths weren't organized anymore. Ken felt her bad condition, only to be conscious for the reason. His sister was a mother to her, and not only a big sister to them. He cursed his tied hands for being unable to help her.

"Let's go. . . . We will die as well if we stayed here for longer, " he hoarsely uttered with bitter in his mouth. Everyone's eyes, except for his eyes that he darted away to not face their looks, widened and their jaws went slack. It was as if the whole universe had stopped at this very moment with a thunderstruck. Ken glimpsed at them from the side, he wanted them to understand the situation they were in, but opening his mouth would just throw them dead with a heart attack. Eyonzo deeply thought about it, and knew the better to do. He sighed to lighten the burden inside him, and stood up, signing for his brother to follow. Kyonzo looked lost for what his brother did but followed quietly, not knowing what to say. Ken felt his spirit lifted a bit that they have finally understood his mind that he wasn't forced to explain any further.

He looked at his sister for the last time, a tear betrayed him and slipped down his cheek, before turning to move. The chirpy hoarse voice from behind had stopped them before they could move a foot.

"B- b- bu- bu- bu- " Claire's throaty voice stuttered trying to stop them from the farce they were doing. Ken stood there helpless. She was still so young to understand that 'sometimes you should take the hardest decision to move on'.

"If it's written for us to be alive the coming days, we will definitely return and give her the right to be buried in a well grave and have her funeral. I promise. "

And so, the escape game started, with unmovable Claire feeling betrayed. Vanessa was more than a mother; she was caring and kind, the kind of person who would stay up the whole night beside you who have fever and couldn't move. She was the person who would give you her food because you weren't full yet, or the person who could know what you feel by just a look into your eye. Her warm smile was so astonishing, bewitching, so bright that could blind the eyes. She was like an angel from the heavens, that was for her beauty.

She felt too tired, that was much for her to see. That was an intense pressure for her to endure. She felt a paining urge to cry and scream. Her little weak heart couldn't bear it anymore. Slowly her world all turned black, for what felt like a minute.

A minute, 60 seconds was it. In such a small period of time, many things could happen. The world spins, souls taken and souls given. Wars start and wars end. People are no more than unconscious of that fact but are idiots for thinking, 'nothing could be done within a minute'.

Claire's eyes fluttered open suddenly, and a loud thundering scream were heard from her. The scene before her was so shocking and unbelievable. A few metres away from her were the twins lying without moving a muscle. She felt a weight on her lap and was scared of looking. The tears were already burning her sore eyes, and her heart beated so crazily warning her not to do so. But this feeling inside her that already told her what was it pushed her to see. Once her eyes landed on the head on her lap, her breaths stopped and her heart too stopped for a second or three. She gasped so deeply that she was about to be knocked out from the lacking oxygen.

She took in deep strong breaths, but it didn't help the flames inside her ribcage. She tried to hold back everything, but cried out so loudly that it shook the world. She wanted to take out all these pains in her loud cries. Her hands pulled her hair so stoutly and struck her head with her fists. She digged her nails into her face that it injured her and her lower lip started to bleed from her biting teeth on it. She begged her being and the whole universe that what she saw was no more than living a nightmare.

"No! NOOO! "

Her violently shaking fingers, quietly and carefully, traced Ken's head, dirted the tips of her hands with his red blood, sniffling her cries and the loud screams that drowsed her head, but her quivered lips couldn't help these paining sobs.

"Ken. . Ken, please open your eyes, " she wailed, embracing his head and biting her b****y lower lip so unyieldingly for she was too oppressed from inside as if a dreadful fire was eating her flesh slowly slowly. With his head in her embrace, she hefted her gaze to check on the others to offer her a help but shut her eyes in regret from the abhorrent she saw. No one was alive; everyone was thrown in all sides and directions with reddish sand beneath them. That was a hard reality to devour. The treasure she cherished for her whole life, had turned to be what? She lost everything. She had nothing else to lose. She wouldn't care if she died now, no, she wished to die now. She tried to forbid her tears and tried to take her breaths, to calm down, to be patient with this harmful poisonous fate. She felt so suffocating, the breaths she tried to take were like carbon dioxide and not oxygen. She felt something daggering inside her to come out. Her pitiful brain ran through all these mess again that she broke into tears. She covered her mouth with her finger to stop it, but her canines dug into the flesh with whimpers. She felt like it was a dream. Her body felt numb and empty. So empty, so hollow and so cold.