Shire's End

A Story by Forsaken

Only two more. Two more corridors and I’m free. I take one more glance around the corner to be sure Sister Adry isn’t in sight. She always meddles too much. I take a deep breath and make a final dash to the main doors, unable to wait to see my brother.

I manage to move slowly; the thing bein’ right there creepin’. I come crashing to the ground with a thud"my hands in front of me wrigglin’. I lets out a giggle when I sees my hands holdin’ nothin’ but air. The insect I was tryin’ to catch flyin’ freely just out o’ my reach. I gets to my feet and pat the dirt off o’ me. I knows it won’ be long now. My sister would comes see me, and we will play. I jus’ had to wait.

I manage to sneak my way out of the front gates unnoticed, making my way up towards the grassy plains just outside of town. The grass feels so nice. Maybe if the monastery had grass instead of cold stones for floors, it would be better. I smirk, because I know that that isn’t true. The only thing that would make that place better would be to see the remains of its smoldering ashes. The thought brings a smile to my face, and I hurry over to the hill where I know Akihiko will be waiting. He’s probably asleep or chasing a bug again. My smile grows wider as I reach the top.

As soon as I catch sight of Yukiko, I smiles brightly. “Yuki!” I screams and runs the distance between us. I throws myself at her attemptin’ to hug her. Instead o’ a hug, though, I crashes into her, and we goes tumblin’ down the hill. “I missed you so much!” I lets out a whine, while squeezing her closer to myself.

The hours progress as always. Spend the first half an hour trying to detach myself from my twin, then a few hours to have fun. We run around free, without a care in the world, without glares from everyone else. No one judges us here; no one tries to tear us apart. We are invincible.

This hill was our world. It’s the one place we can be ourselves. The one place we can even be together, bein’ as the church hates the like o’ me. Called me a demon and tossed me out they did. The few hours we gets together were always short. I’m always sad when we has to part. And whiles we was having fun now, I knows Yukiko will have to go. I fears her going away the most. When the time comes, I cling to her askin’ her without words for her to stay with me, even if only for another hour. She smiled and pats me on the head, and reassures me that she would come to play with me again. At that thought, I smiles.

I stayed too long. I knew I should have come back almost twenty minutes ago, but we were having so much fun. I’m so preoccupied with getting to my room so I don’t get caught, I forget to look around the corners. I run directly into Sister Adry, and I can feel my heart jump into my throat. “And what are you doing, Yukiko? I didn’t realize you were allowed to go to bed a half an hour after all the other children.” Her voice is calm, but I can hear the underlying menace in her tone. I know this will be bad. “Well. How about we go talk to the Matron about your disobedience?” I feel the blood drain from my face as she leads me to the north wing of the monastery.

I stares longingly in the direction Yukiko went. They don’ allow me in the monastery anymores. Demon children like me can’t step foot on holy ground, so they says. I don’ mind really. The people in the city can be nice; so long as I stayed away of the shops of the market place, they sometimes even give me food. They don’ take too kindly to people who lives like I does. Well, I don’ wanna go into a market place anyways. I’m a bit afraid of them to be truthful. I feels pretty bad for keeping Yukiko as long as I did; she has a curfew and would be in trouble if she gets caught out late. I shrug; I don’ think they’ll do anything bad. I smiles and wanders off in a random direction, wonderin’ where I was gonna sleep this time.

Finally, she left. I wiped the crocodile tears from my eyes and glared at the door the Matron had exited through. How dare she say those things about Akihiko, she has no right. I didn’t even look for a way out. I know this room well. I’m to be locked in this room with no breakfast in the morning. They could at least have the courtesy to put a window in it, I thought grumpily, crossing my arms and leaning back on the wall to wait.

I was nervous. I thoughts ‘bout it last night, and I thinks that Yukiko would be happier with me. We could go somewheres! Get away from this town and do somethin’ with our lives; go on an adventure. I smiles at the thought. I always dreamed of going on a adventure. I makes my way around the monastery; somehows I sneaked though the front gates. I hears footsteps, and I pushes myself against the wall. I presses flat against it and hopes that I will go unnoticed. I hears Yukiko lecturing me. “Ya haveta be carefull!” she would say. I’m not very good about bein’ all stealthy like. Startlingly enough, the nun jus’ walks past not even lookin’ my way" nose hidin’ in a book. I don’ believe my luck.

I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve paced the room now. I get so restless in small spaces. It’s only a matter of hours until the walls get smaller, the air will get hotter, the- I shake my head. I don’t like small rooms. I feel trapped, like some kind of animal. I wonder what Akihiko’s doing. I hope he wasn’t worrying about me. He always worries too much.

I skips merrily through the halls. So far I hadn’t got caught, and happiness was rollin’ off o’ me in waves. I saw something shiny flash, catchin’ me off guard, and I comes to a halt. There was a door chained shut. Well, that’s odd, I thinks. I tilts my head at the door, and comes closer to the chain to inspect it. It was old and slightly rusted. I can break it if I pulls hard enough, I thinks. And then it hit me" Yukiko must be in this room! I tap on the door. “Yuki!” I sings out, not caring to be quiet. “Are ya in there?” Even though I has no way of knowing if she is.

I jolt off the floor. Was that Akihiko? “Yuki!” Yes, of course it was. I roll my eyes at his carelessness. “Akihiko, can you get in?” I don’t even need an answer; Akihiko is as strong as they come. I put my back to the wall beside the door, and smile as I wait.

I laughs. “Gets in? Who do ya think you’re talkin’ to?” I grabs the chain with my hands and pulls hard as I can. With a bit of effort it rips apart, causin’ me to fall on my bum. I gets back up and pushes open the door, a giant grin on my face. “I’ve been thinkin’. Why don’ you and I go somewheres? We can travel the world! Won’t that be fun?” I asks and turns to Yukiko.

Away? I’m so stunned I don’t even try to quiet him down. Away from here" No more monasteries, no more separation. I never about that. I’ve never known anything but here, but I find that I’m not scared. I grab a hold of Akihiko’s hand. “C’mon, I know a shortcut!”

I nods and let Yukiko lead me. She knows this place better than me. I begins to laugh, unable to contain my excitement. We heads down another hallway; I begins to hear footsteps. But theys gone as soon as I hears them, so I pays them no mind.

I couldn’t wait. We were going to be together; we were going to be fine. “What’s going on here?!” I heard the Matron’s infuriated voice behind us. I smiled bigger than ever before, and not even bothering to look behind me, I broke into a sprint. Just a few more corridors, take a left through the marketplace then out the doors and we’re free. That was the only gate that was always open, so travelers could come through for trading and supplies. I sped up, almost able to taste the freedom on my tongue.

I looks behind us as we runs. I sticks my tongue out at the Matron, who wants to stop us. Yukiko holds firmly onto my hand, and I can tell she’s excited. Voices had grown louder; mindless chatter that sounded like a big crowds of peoples. Finally we takes a left and bursts into a crowd. We had entered a market place. I freezes and lets my hand drop out o’ Yukiko’s. Images runs through my mind: images of shop owners beating me for darin’ to ask for a bit of food, images of them throwin’ stuffs at me, just to steer clear from them, and of the time that street gang cornered me and stole the little money I had got. I falls to my knees. Anger slams isself into me and crawls its way through the rest o’ my body. I wants nothing more than to destroy this peaceful looking market. Slowly I gets to my feet.

Something was wrong. Something was terribly wrong. I turned to Akihiko in time to see him standing from his knees. “Hiki?” I whispered, scared to hear a reply. A grin crossed his face, right before he darted around me towards the market place. I didn’t move. I could hear screaming, what sounded like crashes, glass breaking, and cloth ripping. I wasn’t sure if it was real. I slowly turned around to see most of the market in ruins, and a few pillars toppled to the ground. Somewhere Akihiko had found an axe almost the size of him, and was swinging at the many shops laughing like a maniac. It all seemed like a dream and oddly… not a bad one. I began to laugh, finding joy and excitement in the final disruption of cursed order. Relishing in the feelings of fear and chaos, I could already tell that I would be happy with Akihiko.

I looks up at the sound of laughter. The rage was now passin’. “Yuki?” I asks timidly and takes a step forward. “Did I... did I do this?” I looks around. She nods with a smile plastered to her face. I shakes my head and walk over to her. I take both her hands in mine and bring them up to my forehead. “I’m sorry. I didn’t wanna.” I shakes my head. Yukiko seems happy ‘bout it, and I care more what she wants than anythin’. “Maybe you should do the shopping, okay?” Then I looks up and smiles at her. I keep holdin’ her hands and pulls her towards the gate. “Ya know, the word around town is that there was a carnival in the next town. Wanna go?”

A carnival. I’d never seen one, but Akihiko had told me of the colorful tents and flags he would watch from a distance. It all seemed so surreal and exciting. I tightened my hands around his, feeling an excitement I had never known before. Looking out past the gates, I began to grasp that we were starting something new; we were starting something together. And no one could stop us. I turned toward Akihiko, noticing how easy it was to smile with him. “I’d love to go to a carnival, Akihiko. How do we get there?” I let him keep hold of my hand and lead me outside. It is good to finally be free and happy.

© 2011 Forsaken

Author's Note

It's kinda like a prelude to a game I played with my friend's :) Since only the character Akihiko is mine I wrote this with the help of my friend, being as Yukiko is her character.