CHAPTER 12♍♑
FLAMES OF INNER TURMOIL!
"What?!"....
"Asterialnauchseccin Elspeth Katsuragi...is my name"
she clarified once more but this time much slower than the last, shylyishly turning her gaze elsewhere.
Kiel on his part wore his trademark blank face as he listened. He was bewildered.
"Surely she must be joking"
He thought, but looking at her quite frankly, he knew it to be otherwise. He could tell she wasn't for there wasn't a single hint of smile on her face only from the shyness that followed.
Kiel couldn't help but blink randomly, staring at the girl with so much detached fascination
"What a name..."
he thought aloud, like he could talk. He had to admit his own name did sound strange and different from most but being a listener to this, this was just ridiculous.
"Astra!..he responded, finally saying something after two to three minutes in silence
"Yeaaa...am just going to call you Astra for short" he smiled then settled back on the bed soon after.
"Say, don't suppose I get to know yours?!"
She asked...
She listened....
Silence.....
Kiel hesitated, he turned his gaze facing the ceiling and remained utterly quiet. It wasn't that he couldn't just tell his name to her like he did with Orenji, he had his reasons not too and for once he hoped it stayed that way.
"I knew it...she said in utter dismay, one as if she'd given up from asking anything, any further but that's when he spoke;
"Kiel... just Kiel" he answered, his gaze still turned upwards. His voice quieter now, less sure than it had been infact
"At least that's what I do remember someone calling me"
"Right, well Kiel it's been a real pleasure meeting you...she said picking up the pail from the ground "I have to get going now. So you rest well, make sure you're stabilized.."
With that being said, she had attempted to leave but that's when Kiel reached out, gently grabbing her by the wrist.
There was this certain sense of warmth that followed, a fullness of soul and breath that is gratitude....
"Astra.... thank you, he muttered
"Thank you...this time he said so looking at her
Astra was momentarily stunned by this but then she let out a smile, a calm smile, a gentle smile
"You need rest Kiel, we'll figure out the other stuffs later" she continued in her tracks but then she stopped suddenly and turned around.
"Oh and uh, no worries.....
She added before resuming in her footsteps, walking away with a smile.
********
Now Kiel was left in the room all alone
Shortly afterwards, he exhailed, closed his eyes for atleast a moment before his whole world went black.
He didn't know how it happened...
He didn't know how he could have ever gotten back to sleep after being through what he had, only that he must have done so somehow
He lay there on the bed, too deep within the swirl of blackness
He was lost in a foggy world; little by little, his long forgotten memories began to surface
"A monster like you doesn't deserve a family!"he heard
And there he was, in a strange place untold of. The building was unstable, coming down upon them due to seismic activity as it seemed, rocking the place
An earthquake?! He didn't know
In fact there were alot of things he didn't know. For one, why he was being held and pulled halfway across the room by the arm
In the midst of the chaos unfolding, roughly pulling him was a male figure dressed in what looked to be a black trenchcoat.
surprisingly enough, it was the same strange figure whom he saw back at the track
They were running, but from who?! A better question, from what?!!
The images, the scenes, they were all moving faster than they appeared, faster than they came.
His eyes darted from place to place, from scene to scene and not long after, he found himself wound up in a strange room
"Get in...a voice called out and now standing behind a control panel of some sort was the bearded figure himself
He was a man, probably in his mid forties.
His hair, though long and white draped across the sides of his face revealing a Stern expression
To Kiel, he did actually resembled a hobo only on glasses.
"Hmm? Hobos on glasses, that's a new one"
he foolishly thought to himself
And just then, he heard the man speak;
"Get in quick.....
As if on queue, a loud seismic activity rocked the place yet again which in turn, sent him flying off his feet and into the exceedingly complex mechanism.
And that's when he knew....
It wasn't an earthquake but of something that had just struck the facility.
Something big no doubt.
His world seemed to go black again, his past a fading dream he couldn't tell if it was real or not.
"Get up Kieru,... he heard a voice say.
"Kieru you have to get up...
You know what your mission is now, don't worry about me.
Just go, save the world.......
Save the future.....
Save our future"
At an instant, Kiel awakens but with a sudden gasp for air, almost like he'd been hit by something but no, it wasn't that at all....
"I...I can't breathe, I can't....
His words fragmented, his eyes utterly bloodshot. He was suffocating!
******
Wide eyed, he began gasping for air as the world around him swirled.
His breathing were heavy and they came in all strides.
He had been thinking an awful lot lately, placing as much emphasis on the unknown than the known. Such infact that anxiety, stress, they were all inevitable....
They were in escapable...
and the results, hyperventilation.
He's breathing but the air won't go in, almost like his lungs were clogged and surrounded by metalbands. It was like a cluster of shock plugs wired in his abdomen and straight to his head, completely devoid of oxygen.
Next came the rising panic that ensued; a carousel of fears spinning out of control, the dizzy feeling and the need to get as low to the ground as possible, panicking just for air, only for air.
A rush of fear shoots through his body, his eyesight going blurry and his arms flailing everso desperately for something to clutch onto, something to save him from this horrific fate.
But alas nothing!
Minutes passed by and he became weaker and weaker, black filled the edges of his vision, sweat trickled down the tensed face of his and soon, the only thing he could hear was his own heartbeat.
His breath came in ragged, shallow gasps.
He was slowly dying, and he knew it.
"Is this it??, Is this how it all ends for me?!"he wondered. He was scared.
This fear kept him incapacitated for a time, succumbing almost to his tragic fate but that was until he spotted something up on a cupboard in front of him.
Something that gave him a reason to hope
On it lay a cloth and on that were items placed, items such as an alarm clock, an action figure Kiki probably owned since this was his room, series of comics and a night lamp.
It was probably an antique but given the circumstances, he needed to call for help and he needed to do that quick but was too weak too, too weak to do anything.
Now he was close to the point of death as it was, staring technically at it's jaws if not already in it.
And just when all hope seemed lost, kiel's eyes began to glow a dull blue, giving him the little ounce of strength he needed to press forward, to push through and so he does, dragging himself slowly across the wooden floor board beneath him.
Slow and yet steadily, he raised up his arm and once held high enough, tried to reach for the table cloth above him.
He hoped they'd forgive him for what he was about to do next but the dire situation and condition of his left him with no other option.
He tugs hard on the cloth, constantly pulling with the intention of bringing down the lamp to a crash but it all proved abortive.
His attempts were laboured as in vain.
Still, he wouldn't give up though and that was something that perhaps made him live this long as a monster.
As he hung between the balance of life and death, he wouldn't choose either, atleast not yet anyways.
And with all the strength he could muster up for a 10 year old, he gave a strong pull and within seconds, everything came crashing down to the ground
It was done....
The sudden swift of his momentum had caused him to topple over amongst the broken pieces.
The despair and sufferings of the world that took those he loved away from him, he would be joining them soon enough.
Soon, he would be able to finally leave all the pain, the agony and sufferings behind.
- such is life -
And he had little fear knowing that fact.
Wide eyed, his heart rate picked up and so did his gasps for air.
And after some minutes of agony, his limbs stayed still. His eye color returning to it's original form.
His fragile, human heart beating one last time.
He hadn't chosen death but death instead had won him over!