Starlit Samsara (on hiatus)

A Birthday Memoir II

Joachim looked at the woman standing outside his cell, vision blurry as he tried to hold in his tears.

"Xie Mingmei has requested to speak to you." The Whale said, "Stand up and come over here.". Her stern attitude never changed, not even after all this time.

"Huh? Who now?" Joachim had never even heard of that name before, "I dunno who that is. Tell them I don't wanna speak to them right now."

"Let me rephrase that then. Xie Mingmei demands to speak with you. You don't have a choice in the matter.".

Groggily, almost as if he were a zombie, he clumsily stood up and made his way over to where the deity stood. He stared blankly at her for a moment, and she did the same, albeit with eyes that looked more fed up than empty.

"Hold out your hands." she commanded, sounding rather bored, after Joachim did nothing else.

Reluctantly, he did so, and with one swift motion, she grabbed the chains permanently bound with his wrists, and dragged him outside of his cell, into the hall.

"Why are you still doing this? You know I'm not gonna try and escape. Why bother." Joachim grumbled.

"I know you won't try to escape. You're too cowardly to attempt. Right now, at least." she said, rather bluntly, "If I leave you unattended for too long, you may just try to escape into heaven. I can't let that happen. You might be too cowardly, but you're also too ambitious."

"...Hah.".

It'd been a long time since he'd willingly let himself out of his cell. He'd been offered multiple times, but he always refused. Many wanted to speak to him, but he always had the choice to say no. So, why was he being forced to go and visit someone now?

Undeniably, he was nervous. Names of people he knew would want to speak to him in the afterlife ran through his mind.

It couldn't be Simon. After what happened, Joachim knew that he'd never see Simon again. Trudged up memories could resurface in Simon's mind if he visited, and even then, Simon might not even bother to. Perhaps Simon forgot about him, or was trying to forget about him. Simon would want nothing to do with him. And it was all Joachim's fault.

And Stella?

Stella didn't even want to see him, she couldn't stand the sight of him. Before the two of them had been separated, any attempts Joachim made to talk to her, to apologise, to explain what happened, all of them were ignored. The only thing she could do, it seemed, was stare at her own body before her. Then, once she processed the fact she was dead, a half-stifled sob made it's way out of her chest, and after that, she didn't bother to listen why he'd done that to her.

All of her attention went to comforting Simon, though she knew it was useless, she still tried her best to tell him that she was okay, that she was safe now, that she knew it wasn't his fault, that she loved him dearly. Even if those words couldn't reach his ears, even if the god before standing before them all mocked her futile attempt to make everything better, all she cared about at that moment was Simon.

It was only when Simon left that she decided to pay attention to the man behind her. She asked him as to whether he knew the extent of what he did, about how this didn't just affect Simon, but also her family, her friends, and now her younger siblings were ridded of a childhood she worked so meticulously for them to have.