A KINGDOM OF DEAD HEARTS [COMPLETED]

CHAPTER 22: WHERE ARE YOU?

Gravity pulled her in.

She did not get wet, or even get into any sort of water when she fell into the elegarii. It was like a camouflage, a very good one, because it was definitely not water, or real water, water like what she thought it should be.

The water surface was just a façade. She dived into the water, and she flew like a bird among the orbs that flew up all around her. Her arms outstretched, she screamed till her throat hurt as she plummeted in a freefall, and she could not open her eyes because the speed of the fall. No water. Just air. Lots of air. The air that slowly sucked her consciousness, she did not even know anymore how long she went on a freefall down the elegarii.

Her scream became fainter, and fainter, and then all was dark.

<<<>>>

She saw Mom.

She had missed her so much.

Mom stood in the middle of a forest. Foreign, dead, forest with rotten leaves and soggy soil all over. Tree barks and branches were dead. The air was heavy with the pungent smell of dead animals and plants. Nothing was alive.

"Mom?" she called, and Mom smiled at her. Her beautiful, wide smile that showed her tea-stained teeth, the smile that always calmed her down. Mom wore the same clothes she wore the morning she died. Dark blue cotton shirt, and grey sweatpants. Mom nodded at her, waved her arm at her, asking her to come closer.

She walked closer, and she stood in front of Mom.

Mom was beautiful, her expression looked rested and peaceful.

"Mom ... Mom ... I miss you," she whispered in between sobs that she knew was coming.

Mom held her right palm out. Something was on it.

Mom nodded at her, then Airin saw what she had on her palm.

A seed. A seed so small she could hardly see it if she did not strain her eyes. A small, white-brownish, rather flattened, seed.

"The forest is dead, the soil is barren, nothing is alive now, but this seed is. This, Airin, is the seed of the giant sequoia trees. They grow to be one of the biggest, oldest, trees on earth. Look, look, how small some big things start as," Mom spoke with that sweet accent of hers, accent that came from the fact that English was not her first language, Cantonese was. How she missed that voice, that accent! Familiar, sweet, cozy.

"Mom, I am scared. I don't understand," she stammered with her eyes glued at the seed. She had seen sequoia trees before when she went with some friends on a hiking trip to the Sequoia National Park a few years ago. Those trees were massive, awe-inducing, and old. Its diameter could be encircled by some adults holding hands around it. She just did not realize how small, how undistinguished, the seed that grew to be those majestic giants was ... until now.

"Shhh ... my sweet girl. Shh. Listen. A heart dies because it forgets ... it forgets hope, it forgets its reasons to fight. This forest dies because it forgets the warmth of sun. But this seed is hope, albeit it is small, seemingly insignificant. Hope reminds a dying heart how to live again," Mom smiled as she put the seed on Airin's open palm. Strangely, the seed disappeared as soon as it touched Airin's skin as if it had melted into Airin.

"Mom?" she looked up at Mom, confused, but Mom disappeared with a lingering smile on her face.

"Mom!" she shouted as she opened her eyes, and sat up on a bed.

Not her bed.

This bed was bigger, much bigger than her bed at her apartment. There were four wooden pillars on each corner of the bed, pillars from which a kind of white mosquito net hung limp. The pillow was white, while the blanket, thick and cozy, was dark brown.