Splintered Realities

Rya

"Well dad, my first day at a new school wasn't very eventful." Rya sighed, looking up at the sky as she walked back home from her new school, Oyama High. She reached a small gravel footpath leading off from the main road towards the abandoned train tracks. Rya had decided to walk this way because it was quiet and spaceous, for some reason the othe people at her school preferred to walk the longer way along the main roads. She smiled at the open, peaceful space around her, listening to the birds singing in their blissfully ignorant way.

Rya danced over to one of the  large rusting rails and perched herself on it, thinking about what would be the best way  to summarise her day for her dad. "I didn't really make any new friends... But there's a ton of clubs for me to think about joining; I'm sure I'll make some friends there. The teachers seem nice too but I already know a lot of what I was taught today. Oh well, I'll just have to study hard when I get home."

She paused for a second, looking back and forth from her feet to the sky. She clutched onto the iron rail hard, digging her nails deep into the layers of rust.

"How are things up there dad? Are you happy?" She asked, releasing her grip on the rail and placing her hands behind herself on the dirt floor, pushing herself back up.

"I miss you." she whispered, scuffing her shoes on the floor as she walked, kicking up loose weeds and clumps of soil.

She walked for a while, staring at her new blue canvas shoes as she walked, trying to keep away from the sun's harsh glare. The breeze picked up suddenly and Rya shuddered as she watched the trees in the distance creak and bend eerily. Something in the trees caught her eye and she stopped in her tracks, swivelling round on the balls of her feet to stare into the small forest. Her eyes widened as she watched a shadow flicker between the leaves. It didn't look like any animal she could think of, it's outline was large and round and it appeared to be floating- or hovering above the ground.

The shadow grew larger and larger as it slowly edged towards her. A singular bright purple eye opened and began to stare at Rya, it's robotic glare holding her captive. Rya closed her eyes tightly and let a small squeak of terror escape from her throat before turning back around and running as fast as she could away from whatever that thing was.

It took Rya a long time to realise that running with her eyes closed was a bad idea and by the time she had opened her eyes, it was too late. Rya stared in shock as the outline of the person she was going to crash into came closer and closer as she hurtled forwards. She tried with all her might to stop but it was too late, all she could do was brace herself for impact as she slammed into the innocent person's chest.

"Oh." She managed to croak as she flew backwards, her school bag emptying it's brightly coloured contents in a shower of stationery and text books. She closed her eyes as she fell waiting to feel the pain that usually followed after she fell and hit her head- but no pain came. 

Rya opened her eyes as she felt a pair of warm arms wrap around her, suspending her slightly so that only the heels of her feet were on the ground. The arms belonged to a boy that looked about her age, his face seemed sullen- almost emotionless. His eyes were seemingly colourless and distant, as though he knew what was happening around him but he didn't much care for it.

"I- I'm really sorry. There was something in the trees- I just wasn't looking where I was going and these shoes are new... They don't have very good grip. I promise, I didn't mean to!" Rya spouted nervously, looking anywhere but the boy's deep yet vacant eyes.

"It's okay." The boy muttered akwardly as he gently set her down on the ground, "I'm not supposd to be out here anyway, it's probably just Karma or some crap like that."

"I'm Rya." She smiled, sitting up and brushing the dirt off her school skirt, "But you can call me Ree, everyone does."

"I'm Ren... You can't really shorten that to anything." He seemed uneasy as he spoke his name.

He held out a hand to help Rya up, running his other hand through his dark mess of hair.

"Thanks." Rya mumbled, bending down to pick up the things that had fallen out of her bag. Ren bent down to help her, passing her a multitude of brightly coloured pencils, erasers and books.

Rya walked back a few steps, kicking up the dirt to see if she had dropped anything else and stopped as she spotted something poking out of the soil. She bent down to examine it. It was a box, no bigger than her hand, half-buried in the ground. I had been painted black but it was an unusual black, it was the darkest shade of any colour she had ever seen, nothing reflected off it even under the bright sun. Her arm stretched out to pick it up and as her fingertips brushed against the box, whispers and voices begain to scream in her ears. They were begging for Rya to take the box, begging her to take it with her.

She began to dig it up, scratching away at the rock hard dirt surrounding it with her nails. Rya quickly decided, for reasons she could not quite decide on, that she didn't wan Ren to see the box.

"I think that's everything!" Ren called, walking back over to Rya.

She hastily pulled the box loose from the ground and stuffed it into her bag. "Yeah, I think so too." She nodded, turning round to face Ren, "Well, thanks. I guess I'll see you at school, won't I?"

"Um..." Ren thought to himself for a second, "No. I dropped out of school after junior high. I started work with my older friend, Sota, a few months back."

"Oh," Rya looked down at her already dirty shoes, "That's too bad. Thanks anyway. Goodbye Ren."

"Yeah, bye." Ren waved.

As she walked into the distance, Ren swore he could hear a faint whispering sound- almost like the one they were searching for.

"Rya!" Ren called after her.

"Yes?" Rya asked happily, spinning round to face him, almost losing her balance in the process.

"It's nothing." he sighed, brushing the thought off immediately. What would a girl as clumsy and normal as that know about the Boxes and what would she have it for anyway? Ren chuckled to himself as he watched Rya wander off into the distance- imagining her wth the object that could end time itself.