Lockdown
2848 Words
“Luke, I’m going out. Do you need something?” a hand grabbed at the door.
“I think I will be fine on my own. Where are you headed?” I stretched my back.
“I have been gone for a few days. My castle staff must be worried.”
“Oh, sorry that I kept you off work.”
“It’s okay. I had fun spending my time with you. You are free to leave the house, if you so will it.”
“Are you sure it’s fine? What if I get abducted?”
She chuckled softly, “You’re so funny and cute, Luke. I usually come home from time to time during the day. Since you are here, I might walk over by noon to check how you are doing.”
“I will still be here when you come home.”
“I hope so. I love you, Luke,” she blew a kiss and my lips caught it.
“I love you, Cyrille,” I waved at her.
The door snuffed out the coldness of the morning sun. Before it closed completely, I thought I saw a group of shadows peering through. I slid behind the door and peered through the small hole. No one was there. I shrugged it off as people passing by the house, but I could have been wrong about that.
I slumped on the couch and occupied myself by counting blue spots on the ceiling. Curved lines stretched like rings circulating a planet. It was art itself. They seemed to dance in a revolutionary cycle, frozen in time. Some groups of dots formed a face which seemed to resemble Cyrille’s features.
Suddenly, I heard taps of wood grating against stone. They also grated my ears, boggling my earwax as I cleaned them. Who could it be this time of the day? Noon hardly arrived, so it couldn’t have been Cyrille, could it? I threw away the bud and walked to the icy blue door. I peered through the glass.
“I know you are in there, boy. Open this door at once. We only wanted to chat with you,” a dry voice sounded from the other side.
“I open for no one except the owner of this house.”
“It would bring tears to the queen for his servant to refuse us entry. We are the elders of the castle.”
“Are you truly? Can I have some proof?” I demanded.
“Is this evidence enough for you?” they each flashed their senior citizen identification cards with a circling dragon stamped in red. It placed on the lowest right corner.
I had a feeling that I saw it somewhere in the castle before. Ah, that’s right. I saw it imprinted below the ankles of the castle’s guards. It must be their seal, which struck me as odd to find it there. What could they possibly want from me?
My nerves shuddered as I tuned the knob. My heart sunk, and my tongue rattled.
“Pardon the intrusion. I hope we didn’t come at a bad time,” a man in blue noble clothing held down on a frozen stick.
I was surprised to see it not puffed, but modernized by the common clothes iron. He looked human in stature, some feet taller than me when he sat. Behind him, two men dressed casually like the fashion couture of the century. Their colors of clothing only differed in hue.
Looking at them together, I thought I was going to be robbed.
“Our presence must have struck you. Forgive the dress choices of my companions, but we didn’t come to rob you out,” a sharp gaze bore through my eyes—a degrading one.
“I didn’t say anything,” I shrunk.
“But you were thinking such thoughts.”
“No I wasn’t,” I vehemently denied as if caught red-handed.
“Anyway, we didn’t come to judge you, but we came with a warning. You must leave this house at once. Your presence influences the queen’s sensitive position seriously.”
“I couldn’t just leave her. I made a promise.”
His gaze attempted to bore through my mind, “Human promises are made to be broken. Dragons take an oath by Elder Blue’s sacred koi ponds and offer a prayer. I assume you weren’t even aware of that fact, human.”
“You can’t send me away from someone’s home. She invited me here.”
“You need not state the obvious. If you were a robber, you would have left and never spend another day in this house. I ask you to leave her and never come back for the sake of our people. We know what you want, but you have to promise us this. You have until the end of the Second Draconian War.”
“I’m staying until she gets rid of me. I wouldn’t break my word on her,” I persisted.
“Oh? Are you sure you wanted to waste your once in a lifetime opportunity to come home? Your grandfather must be gravely ill since you left, and that doesn’t concern you? How long do you think have you been staying in this continent?” his words pushed back
Demanding questions shot at him, “What happened to him? What did you do?”
“The answer lies in your decision. For now, we are giving him life support to keep him going. You have until the end of the war, human. After that, it’s goodbye, gramps. We must make our leave. Instill in your mind that we are always watching,” he walked his stick and disappeared through the door.
Some time has passed, Cyrille revealed herself to me. I didn’t move from where I stood since the dragon elders left. She waved a hand at me, which I barely noticed. Then she tugged at my shoulders, making her a reality. What should I do now? Should I tell her? What if she got her crown taken away because of me?
“Hey, did something happen while I was gone?” her asking eyes broke my trance.
“Uhh, no, I was thinking of gramps. I wonder how he is,” I thawed myself from the shock.
“Luke, do you want me to take you home? I can do that if you ask me to.”
“Will I get to see you again?”
“What kind of question is that? Of course, I will visit you, but it might me some years before I get to you again. I need to balance my obligations to the Crown, you see. Also, it takes a great deal of my power going back and forth.”
“Can’t we run away? Somewhere far from here?”
“I wish I could. I sensed the elders talking to you earlier. What did they say? Their communication barrier was impossible to penetrate.”
“They stopped by to say hi. I wasn’t harmed in any way,” a half lie.
“They can be harsh at times, but that’s because you are here under my wing. Please disregard what they said. They were testing you.”
“You don’t know that. What if gramps dies because of me?” it spilled out.
“Luke, I think it’s time I get real with you about the situation we are having. After you breached the barrier, another one replaced it, which brought Draconia in total lockdown. No magic or physical object can pass through it, not even its residents.”
“Is that why you prevented me from leaving? How could you lie to me?” flaming rage washed over me.
“I didn’t lie to you—my feelings weren’t.”
“How can I see my family now? Isn’t there any other way out of here?” I slumped to the ground. I couldn’t help myself from being helpless once again, “Gramps, I’m so sorry.”
Lunch had been uneventful—no spoon clattered, no chattering laughter, and no tears shed. Her hand held out to me, but a barely noticed it. I sighed my deepest, forming a visible cloud of smoke. Blue eyes looked like an inhabited pool, which no one dared to swim. A stiffened silence—I found comfort in that.
Finally, she disengaged. Nothing passed my mouth, no exchanges made, and no fleeting feelings. I felt nothing for the past hour, even after she left for her duty. I slumped on the couch with a hard cerulean pillow under my clutches. No matter how much I spun my body, I couldn’t reconcile my thoughts.
Should I kill myself? If I did so, she would cry a river. I didn’t want to be buried in foreign soil. I want to return to my hometown, where gramps was, where I belonged. Another part of me argued that I should stay for her.
There’s something else regrettable about escaping this land, but I couldn’t point my finger at it.
“Ugh, what should I do? It’s no use, I can’t go home until after the war!” a groan, not a complaint.
Thoughts of gramps, thoughts of her, and thoughts of that other person. Who was she again? It’s a cycle I kept turning up until dinner. The heat of her specialty soup—a chowder of some kind—wasn’t enough to heat my frozen stance. Her face slumped at me, but no words came out of her mouth. She only stared blankly.
She sauntered up the steps after assigning me to the dishes. A day full of hope was crushed with a few words, and no words followed after that. The next morning should be any better, right? Absentmindedly, the chore was done as if a set of strings pulled at my limbs.
A girl’s shadow wrapped in a brown dress manifested inside the living room. Her brown hair flowed down bare shoulders, swaying effortlessly. She twirled and kicked and bowed—the sequence of her dancing in my mind. She waited for me to follow.
Her body spun like a lily in spring. I extended my arms around her graceful form. Her porcelain skin was covered in dust, imparting a trail of her existence in my mind. She swayed her hips from side to side with me. My palms lifted her to the ceiling, and she held my face. A shower of dust landed on my eyes.
Small hands shifted on my neck, squeezing harder, chugging in more dust. Coughing proved useless in expelling the specks as it winded down my windpipe. A wheeze became painful. It felt like being buried in the sand, but from within. Breathing burned my remaining energy, and I was slipping out.
A gentle voice screamed, “Luke, no!”
Her brown dress wrapped on my neck, violently rocking my body, “You must stay here with me. You cannot leave this continent. We’ll be together forever.”
My eyes rolled upward as more sand entered my body. A cold slap squared my face—a measure to check my existence. Some breath of fresh air tickled my ears—a mourning melody. Drops of cold water dampened on my face.
At last, my eyes opened. I saw her sitting on top of me, hands quivering on the collar of my shirt. Her blue eyes flowed. The palm of her hand squared my face for good measure. With a sigh of relief, she dismounted herself from my chest. I continued gazing at her as she seated herself under my legs.
“What the hell was that for?” she stabbed my leg with her fist.
I winced, “Did I say something while I slept?”
“You were joking when you gagged on the sofa, weren’t you? I knew you were trying to grab my attention, but not this way.”
“I thought you were strangling me in my sleep,” I chuckled.
She swept my legs out of the way and slapped harder. I finally confirmed that I have woken up seconds later, and this wasn’t a dream anymore. Another streak of tears ran down her pristine face. One landed on my right cheek. She slumped over my chest, losing her will to continue another hit.
“It wasn’t funny!” her small hand thumped on my chest.
I pulled her closer, brushing her soft locks, “Shh… It’s okay.”
“It’s not okay. How can I ease my mind knowing that you choke in your sleep?”
“It was just a nightmare.”
“It was death’s door.”
“Tell you what, I will keep myself busy while you are gone. Maybe sweep beneath the furniture and shine your stuff if you don’t mind,” I suggested.
“That sounds like a deal. I will work something out for you to reach your uncle.”
“There’s no need to rush things. I’m holding myself quite well here,” an assurance I molded for her.
“Are you sure? Don’t overexert yourself.”
“I’m sure. Don’t worry about me, but your duties as queen.”
“If you need anything, you can contact me using my shell phone,” she pointed at the conch structure with an antenna sticking out.
Her hips swished sideways as she went for the door—a playful gesture. There was a hint of worry under her lips, hiding in her smile this morning. I leaned in closer toward her and grabbed her soft hands. Footsteps seized by my touch and blowing breath. My heart shook at the walls.
“Uhm, Cyrille, can I ask you something?” a hesitating question escaped my mouth.
“Sure, go ahead,” she turned her head in my direction.
“In this coming war, can I be part of it?”
“What?” all the colors left her body.
Her body fell as if a strong wind swept away the previous energy she had. I caught her fall inches from her disgrace and offered her a seat toward the stiff couch. A glass of cold water moistened her juicy lips. The thought of it drove me crazy for a moment, but I practiced restraint—I had to.
“I thought we had this conversation already? What the hell, Luke?” bliss removed itself from this angel.
“I thought maybe I should do something rather than wait for you like I always did.”
“The answer is no. End of discussion.”
“But—”
She pinched my mouth, “I’m having none of it, Luke. First, you almost died in your sleep, now this? Are you trying to kill me instead? I might as well strike my heart with a spear.”
“I’m doomed here either way, so why not fight when I can?”
“But you can’t. I will not discuss this any further with you, Luke. A ‘no’ is a no,” she emphasized each word in the last sentence. Her eyes were like that of a monster that turned its prey into stone.
She prepped herself, placed the glass of water on the table, and left through the door without looking back. I couldn’t sit there thinking, so I have gone to my chores. Surprisingly, there wasn’t a spot that had a hint of dirt or dust.
Her stuff was obsessively organized—one misplaced shade wouldn’t come unnoticeable.I pushed out a heap of breath and cracked my knuckles over them. I hope she wouldn’t scowl at me for doing this, but what else was I supposed to do?
A game I made for myself while she was gone—rearranging them into disarray until she came back. A knock at the door pricked my ears. The blue sun shining through the window fit the western side perfectly. These thin cyan discs and miniature stuffed dragons would have to wait.
Hurried knocking dragged on as I walked toward the door, peering at the looking glass. No shadow flattened on the cold ground. Blue eyes appeared out of nowhere, peering through the glass I was using. I jumped and backed away from the door.
- Writer
