LILIA–
I’m alone. All the light has gone in this dystopian future, and I am alone. There’s no one to share these thoughts and wishes with. I sigh. The midnight sky draws nearer, and I run across the bridge, knowing the horde of bloodthirsty humans will find me if I don’t keep moving. They’ve been looking for someone to target for creating it, and today I’m the target. But as I run, I spy a girl in a black jacket painted with aqua designs, a white skirt, and grey-blue hair in the side street. I hope my words will reach her ears, and yell “Get out of here right now!” She looks up, astonished, and runs to my side. “Why?!” I gesture behind myself, and the girl gasps. “I didn’t know they were in Japan! Is the disease here too?!” I nod. “I’m Lilia. Who-” I pant from the effort of running, but my companion is quick to catch on. “I’m Ciel. I… I have the disease.” I look at her again and see the dark circles under her eyes and the way she moves from fatigue. The newfound disease targets your heart rate while you sleep, so Ciel must have been awake the whole time she’s been running.
We tuck into an alleyway and the mob runs right past us. I let myself breathe, and Ciel pulls a flask of water out of her pocket. She gulps some down and smiles at me. “Thanks for that, Lilia. I owe you.” I look down. No. She doesn’t owe me anything. If she knew what I was doing… I decided to tell her the truth. “Ciel. I have scientists working on a weapon that could destroy the world. You don’t owe me.” I look down. “I owe you.” Ciel smiles. “Me too.” She looks at me. “When I realized that the mobs were in Japan too, I seriously thought I was gonna die. You saved me, Lilia.” She looks up at the sky. “Well. Goodbye. Until we escape together again.” I gasp and grab her arm. “Wait.”
She looks at me with confusion in her face. “...What?” Tears are streaming down my face. She’s a stranger. I don’t know her at all. But… “I want you to stay. Please. I… I love you.” She smiles. “No. You just met me, Lilia. You don’t love me.” The tears on my face fall quickly to the ground. “So… you’re leaving?” She laughs. “No. I need someone to watch over my heart while I sleep, huh?” I laugh and wipe my tears. “Yeah. Yeah, you do.” I sit down and pat the ground next to me. “Go ahead. You need sleep.” She thanks me and sits down. As soon as she does, I pull high-end tech out of my pocket, clip it onto her thumb, and she rests her head on my shoulder and falls asleep.
Her blood pressure never once strayed from normal.
After a few hours, I woke Ciel up. She groggily looks at me and says thank you. I smile. “Listen. We have to go. Away from here. Now.” Ciel looks at me, puzzled. “Why?” I told her about the bomb. She listened to me attentively, and then… “I know a train line that will take anyone. How far do we have to go?”
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And so, we traveled from Kyoto to Tokyo, where we wouldn’t be affected too terribly by the bomb. Ciel told me stories of her travels with the virus, stories of China (her home) and beyond. I told her stories about how I came to Japan, how I’m fluent in Chinese and English, and apparently we both had started to learn Japanese before the outbreak.
Ciel had me watch over her blood pressure once or twice as she slept.
When we arrived in Tokyo, we took the elevator to the top of an abandoned building. I laid a blanket down, brought out some food, and we counted down the minutes until it exploded, picnic-style.
Ten.
I looked down at my watch.
Nine.
Ciel messed with her under eye bags.
Eight.
“Lilia, will we be okay?”
Seven.
“Yes. I hope so.”
Six.
Now I’m stressed. Will we be okay??
“Five!”
Ciel has started chanting the numbers like it’s New Year’s Eve.
“Four!”
I joined in.
“Three!
“Two!
“ONE!!!”
And then the world exploded in shades of pink and blue.
CIEL–
I’m falling. Lilia is by my side, her white and pink hair flying in the wind. I reach out and pull her to my side, and we’re falling together. But suddenly, we spy someone through the rubble.
There are two young girls on the top of blown apart buildings. One looks like me, but she’s dressed in blue and green with vibrant blue-green hair. I know her, but I don’t. She brings a sense of nostalgia. The other looks just like Lilia, but she’s wearing pink and yellow instead of pink and white. Lilia and I break apart and she reaches out for the girl that looks like her. I put on a serious face and reach for the other. Xi. I know her. Memories that aren’t quite mine flood into my head, and I fight to keep them out. I grab onto her, and we fall.
When we are near the ground, Xi pulls out a parachute and our fall is slowed. Lilia and the other girl are waiting. I turn around and look at Xi. She’s crying. She whispers, “Bye-bye, your lie…” and I reply, “A new day’s going to dawn.” The tears fall off her face, and she evaporates. Lilia is singing a song that I’ve heard before somewhere. I walk over and sing, “The sound of thundering, it declares the start of spring…” and she looks up, tears pouring down her face, and continues the song. “You see, I’m shining brighter than-” She breaks into tears again. A sign reading “TACITLY” pops up over the sky, and suddenly… we’re gone.