A Bud Among Flowers

Fir

TIME

Death is a concept that has fascinated and captured the minds of millions of people, and Amaryllis Chrysanthemum was one of them.

After all, her name was a fusion, a mash of Western and Japanese culture. Amaryllis for pride and determination and beauty, Chrysanthemum for truth...though, it didn't take her long to realize that it also means death and sorrow.

For Amaryllis, she was first acquainted with Death when her grandfather died. Her grandfather lived in Japan, but she lived in the US. So it was no surprise, really, that when she heard about his death, she shed no tears, felt no remorse, knew that she could move on in the world without giving the man who gave her mother life another thought.

And that fact was what made her cry silently in her bed that night as her mother mirrored her actions in the kitchen downstairs. Not the fact that her grandfather was dead, but because she couldn't care less.

From then on, she realized that Death was a shadow that was a ticking time bomb. Much like the shadow that the sun casts upon the ground, the one that followed her and imitated her, Death followed her-followed everyone-every single second of every single day.

And Death had no qualms against blowing up.

And Amaryllis was right, in that sense.

Her death was a shadow that went unnoticed in the roiling mass of pooling darkness underneath human feet.

And her death cast that shadow at the most unexpected time.