exclaim This story and its chanracters are Copyright Robin Cramer 2006 exclaim
Chapter Three: Atlas
Asawa stood over her bed, her body wasn’t tired at all but her mind was. All day long she had thought about what had happened the night before- where she had gone…or hadn’t. With a sigh, she looked down at covers that had been tossed half-heartedly over the futon that morning. Tidiness was the least of her troubles at the moment. What was worse was everyone she knew had noticed it as well. Noticed that she had been acting strange the whole day. That she’d go off in a daze or over analyze it.
Her hand trembled and she clenched her fists to fight back the feeling to breaking down again, like she had when she woke up. Ever since then, Asawa had been highly sensitive to the matter and to life, itself. No one understood how or why she was getting so upset about it. To them, to everyone else…it was just a dream.
…A dream…but…
Asawa could still feel the same cold tingling as she did when two hands reached out and gripped hers. She quickly wiped the tears from her eyes, and collapsed to her knees at the side of her bed. Face resting on folded arms, arms resting on the soothing softness of her quilt. Then the tears came again, both of confusion and sadness.
…How can it only be a dream when…when it felt so real…
With the tears came a feeling of disconnectedness. Her eyes closed and the feeling washed over her, until she felt nothing and only the deep darkness existed…
…
A frigidly temped hand gently pressed on to her back; Asawa jumped and fell back not expecting to being touched let alone by such a frost bitten hand. Her mind was racing again; this place…was neither the forest nor her bedroom. Shaken and blurred, she could see a figure before her; down on its knees and its hand out stretched towards her. She was afraid, and backed away from it still unable to focus her vision. It moved towards her as she moved away. Asawa wanted to cry out, to tell whomever it was to back off, but no words came. Then suddenly, the ground slipped out from underneath her and she gave a gasp and jolted- about to fall again.
“Look out!” Called the figure’s voice, it was a young man and just as before a pair of icy hands pulled her up back onto the landing, “Careful…or you’ll fall again.” It sighed with slight exasperation.
Asawa looked towards the man, still speechless, no longer afraid of him- yet still fearful of her surroundings…the surroundings beyond her fogged vision. She rubbed her eyes and tears fell to her lap. The panic bubbling inside her again, first she nearly falls to her death and now her sight leaves her. Only being able to sense the man looking over at him, a disconcerting thought as Asawa couldn’t tell what he was doing – how he was reacting to her.
“What’s wrong?” He asked, a subtle urgency in his tone. Asawa could feel him moving closer, it made the nape of her neck prickle.
“…I-I…can’t see…” She continued to rub her watering eyes, “…my eyes…” He drew even closer, right in front of her now.
“Stop…here let me fix you.” His voice was harsh, but not negative and he pulled her hands away from her face and ran his hands over her eyes.
Opening them slowly, she was anxious and doubtful that his simple motion would have helped at all, and yet it did. Asawa blinked and though her heart may have been racing before it came to a screeching halt this time. With an instinct reaction to put her hand up to her gaping mouth in horror, the fear that had only edged closer before now brimmed inside of her. She had completely forgot about the man sitting next to her, as her eyes shakily panned across the barren, dark landscape before her.
…What is this place…
“Well, at least I know you have your sight back…”
Asawa turned to face the person speaking to her, and her heart sunk even further at the sight of him. As if looking upon a black and white picture no colour at all resided with in him. His complexion looked as though it had been painted with a pale shade of grey. His hair was short and fell straight, to just below his chin- ebony black, along with his clothing, and even his eyes were, just a darker hue, like asphalt. Details such as the creases in his pants and the shimmer of his hair were in greyscale as well. Her hand still over her mouth, she couldn’t believe what was around her, didn’t know how to react to. Though, one thing was made very certain…this land, wherever or whatever was had an intense ominous presence about it.
She still had yet to answer the man with her, but her courage was extremely low and still wavered dangerously, her mind was flooded with fear and doubt. Something told her that this place couldn’t be trusted and if the place couldn’t then the people couldn’t either. But this man, hadn’t he just saved her, twice. Or had he?
What if it was a trap…what if he means to-
“You can trust me, I promise.” As if reading her mind, he spoke. His smile calm, and struck a note of sadness into Asawa, like the only reason it was so was because he had given up. Perhaps he could be trusted… “See, look at this…” He held out his left hand and wrapped around his pinkie finger was a ring. It shown as if it were new and the most remarkable thing about it was that it still retained its colour. It had silvery platinum bland with a blue ruby in the centre. His smiled revealed its hopelessness, though still remained calm, “Its all I have left of my brilliance …”
…Brilliance…
“My name…it’s Asawa.” She said timidly, her gazed diverted to the dry, crackling earth on which they were sitting on. Peeking up, only for a second to see the smile on the man’s face turn a bit brighter. Something unexpected happened then, and it caused Asawa to look up at him fully, once again…
He wipe a tear from his eye, “…I’m Atlas…” his smiled modestly. “I’m glad you trust me Asawa. Names…mean a lot down here…”
But she had frozen, his name…Atlas, his name had tweaked something in the back of her mind. It held an importance in her memory. As if she as seen or heard of him before, but how and why she couldn’t tell. Trapped within the irking sensation of familiarity, Asawa was even more perplexed by the fact that all nervousness concerning him had vanished at hearing his name. She bit down on her fingernail and closed her eyes in concentration.
“…Atlas…” She repeated it to herself.
“Yes?” He responded not realizing that Asawa wasn’t actually asking for him. He looked over at her, his eyebrow raised in puzzlement.
Then it came to her, as quickly as she had wound up in this situation to begin with, “Atlas…Tetsuya Atlas Kendo…” The image of the small shrine with its engraved tomb emblazed in her mind, “…You…you’re a spirit, right? I saw your gravesite, it was in the forest.”
This news seemed to wipe whatever cheer was held in his smile, and it returned to its dissolutely placid one, “Oh…” He turned his back away from her and dangled his feet over the edge, “No…that just means I have been completely forgotten…it’s a symbol of death.”
Asawa stayed where she was, “A symbol of death…I don’t understand.”
“It means I am dead to the people above. To the people beyond the forest and this hellish canyon.” He slid his ring from his finger and gazed down upon its sparking rock. “I had hoped, this would help me stay alive to them…but alas…”
Asawa gasped as she watched the ring slip from his fingertip, she jumped up and threw herself nearly over the edge just barely catching it in time. It felt hot in her closed palm, out of place knowing whose glacial hands it came from. Sitting up and panting, she could see the expression of pure dumbstruck astonishment on Atlas’s face.
“Never. Never give it up.” She took his left hand and trembled as she placed the ring back where it belonged. Tears came to her eyes again, “…just…never…give up…”
“You’re something else, you know that Asawa” He chuckled and inched slightly closer to her.
“I’m not joking!” She spoke in a voice that she had forced louder, “I’m not-” The feeling of Atlas wrapping his arms around him cut off her words; he held her close. Atlas had warmth to his touch now and Asawa could feel his heart beat. It seemed almost alien to her after what he had just said about his tomb. Alien, but reassuring, there he hadn’t died…and couldn’t be dead to the world above either.
“…Thank you…Asawa…”
exclaim This story and its chanracters are Copyright Robin Cramer 2006 exclaim
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