[2003 New Year's Challenge] Eternal Solitude

[Leia Avenrose]

Disclaimer: I don’t own the characters, or the series, but I do own the small story that I had put together for you. For the ‘word count’, I had only counted the words within the surrounding area of the story, not the ‘disclaimer’ and everything else. The word count is what the actual story came out to.
Dedication: To all who are into Escaflowe?.



Eternal Solitude
By: Lynzi Knight
Rating: PG-13/R
Word Count: 799
Title: Kiss the Skies



The pillows were soft, comforting for the tears that soaked them through, night by night. The moon was bright, full, laughing, as its fingers of gentle light flowed into the room through the white curtains. The stars mocked her also, taunting her back into her nightmarish hellhole. She turned over, putting her back to them, not wanting to hear anymore from their mouths. It was cold, yet warm at the same time, the droplet that slipped from her eye and then glided down the side of her nose. Her throat hurt, the lump of tears clogging her windpipe. His voice was so close, his hand even closer on the days he reached harder for her. She felt his link, their link, fading away with each passing day. How were they going to end? Was their time together, if they had any to begin with, over, vanishing into thin air?

Hitomi Kanzaki shook her head, more tears sliding out of her eyes. Her pillow continued to absorb her pain and sorrows. She didn’t want to believe any of that. His voice was so far away. She glanced up at the blue lights of her alarm clock on her nightstand. It read 8:57PM. She let her eyes slide shut, internally wincing as she remembered what day it was. New Year’s Eve and nowhere to go, nor anyone special to see or spend it with. Sure her friends had all invited her out to a bunch of parties and whatnot, but she had declined, making up the excuse that she had promised her mother she’d stay home and celebrate like the old days when her grandmother had been alive.

Oh, what’s the point, the restless, forlorn teenager thought bitterly, sitting up. She rubbed her eyes, pushing her fingers into the sockets to detach the feeling of weariness, dried up tears. She got out of the large bed and stretched, letting out a loud yawn.

Hitomi slipped on a pair of loose-fitting shorts and then a lengthy t-shirt to drape over the pair of shorts. Looking back at the clock, as she moved around her room, picking up things off the ground and reorganizing things on her desk, she absentmindedly noted the clock and what it read—9:12PM. Only three more hours. She grimaced, sighed heavily and left the room, left the stars and moon to jeer at her back, as she went downstairs to see her mother. She was stopped unexpectedly when a bright beam, as shocking as being struck by lightning, hit her hard. She staggered back on the stairs, her butt hitting the second-last step from the top. She put a hand to her forehead, her eyes shut tightly against the ringing noise that thundered within her head.

“Not now,” she moaned under her breath.

A pair of cold, lifeless auburn eyes stared out at her from the shadows. A hand, clutching a thin golden chain, lay out on the ground from the jagged edges of the darkness. Blood smeared the fingertips, the length of the muscular forearm. A pink pendant, capped with a hat of gold, lay unfastened from the chain within the wet, soggy mud around it. She bit back a scream.

* * * * * * * * * *

He landed roughly, painfully. The sting of his unpleasant landing echoed in his legs. He pulled himself together quickly, looking around, confusion etched within his eyes. Looking up at the single moon that lay high in the skies, he calculated the time. He silently hoped he was right. It was now or never. Standing up, and making sure his sword was still attached at his side, he walked across the balcony and disappeared through the open doors. The tips of the white curtains glowed softly within the moonlight, rippling in the gentle, warm evening breeze.

* * * * * * * * * *

Hitomi entered her dimly lit room quietly. She had wished her mother an early New Year’s and said she was going to bed, that she couldn’t stay up any longer. That was a lie. She forgot the shorts and dropped down onto her bed like a rock, not noticing anything different. She ignored the blankets and closed her eyes against the moon, slowly slipping into the clutches of sleep and nightmares. He watched her from the shadows, crouched in the far corner of the room. Rising in silence, he walked over to her bed and gazed down at her. He reached down then, his fingers gliding along the softness of her bangs. He had to do this….

Bending down, he brushed his lips tenderly along hers, feeling the feathery softness come alive at his touch.

Outside the loud sounds of fireworks, cheers and shouts, and bells ringing rang throughout the air.


~Fin