Vanilla Dusk ✓

Dusk Part 6

Every Wednesday, Ren disappears after supper. Once, Elli sees him bending down next to his camp bed. There is a narrow space underneath each bed for them to keep some of their personal belongings, such as their casual clothing, accessories and snacks. Ren keeps a large brown sack under his bed alongside a stack of his shirts, undergarments and socks. He rummages through the sack and pulls out something white, so quickly the image just flashes across Elli's eyes. Ren tucks the white item into the pocket of his military jacket and stands up. As he glances around, Elli, who is standing near the entrance, turns away and pretends that he has just entered the tent. Ren jams his hands into both of his pockets and strides towards him.

'Are you heading out?' asks Elli. It's an hour before curfew and usually, Elli climbs onto his bed early because of his insomnia. He spends twice as much time as others trying to fall asleep. More often than not, he has to rely on Shaan's bedtime stories and midnight chats.

'Yea, will be right back,' says Ren, rushing past Elli before he has the chance to ask probing questions.

When Shaan returns from his shower, Elli drags him to one corner and whispers to him about Ren's odd behaviour. Shaan simply smiles, shaking the water off his drenched head. He is wearing a plain white vest, short pants and sandals, with a soaked towel around his neck. He smells of fresh blossoms – lavender to be more precise. Elli can't help but lean close to sniff him.

'Want to take a walk outside?' offers Shaan. He wipes his head thoroughly with the towel and hangs it on the bed rail. He takes off his vest, revealing his slender torso with faintly visible abs and a few faded scars he has received during some of the missions. Elli blushes as Shaan changes into a grey T-shirt. He has always admired Shaan. His heart went pounding the first time Shaan rescued him on the battlefield. He tripped and fell flat in the middle of the field, narrowly dodging a few bullets and a grenade. When everyone else was sprinting and crawling back to the fortification, he struggled to get back to his feet with his sprained ankle. Shaan stopped running and dashed back to him, taking one of his arms and hoisting him up. He almost got shot in the head that day.

It's the same tingle he feels in his heart whenever he dreams of that bizarre romantic encounter with an android and that outlandish apocalyptic love tale. Every time Shaan abandons his own escape and darts back to him on the field, dragging him or carrying him on his back, patching him up or injecting morphine to quell his pain, with a smile that reassures him that he will be transferred back to the camp safe and sound, his heart begins to thump louder than the bombs. Sometimes, he feels that everything is crumbling around him – the sky is cracking and hail is teeming down; meteoroids are crashing to the ground at full speed and lava is spurting out of every volcano; the seething waves have grown to meters high and the land is immersed into a sea of flames – and suddenly he is standing on the summit of a melting glacier holding Shaan's hand. There are only two of them and the decaying world. The scenes flash around him as if he's living in a film but he can't hear a single thing. All the sounds are off – the scene is mute and the camera zooms in on just him and Shaan, standing above everything. Other than Shaan's face, he can't see anything. The fires, the deaths and the crashes are all filtered, fading out in the background – a typical scene in one of those old romantic tragedies.

And it's the same on the searing field. When Shaan is beside him, all those desolate cries and grotesque corpses are drowned out.

There is a muddy lake near their camp, surrounded by overgrown bushes and bulrushes. The water often appears yellowish-brown in the light, with thick layers of filth and soil buried underneath. At night, it is a giant black hole. There is a small trail covered with pebbles that allows them to trace around half of the lake. Shaan and Elli stroll along the trail. Shaan squats down and picks up a few pebbles which he proceeds to hurl into the lake. A pebble bounces several times with loud splashes. He pulls out a milk chocolate bar from his pocket and tears open the wrapper. He cracks the bar into two and hands Elli the larger portion.