Lost Child

Chapter 1 - Kurapika

I will be adding sound tracks for every chapter. For this chapter, I chose Unsteady by X Ambassadors. Enjoy!

"It's me.

Everything is okay.

Was the lead you found credible?

I see.

Don't worry. This is nothing I can't handle."

Actually, the last part I told Melody over phone was a lie. Everyone knows how impossible it is to be with the Boss. Two weeks without Melody and Basho, I could already imagine, will be hell for me. I reckon that both of them needed this break since I was always out tracking the remaining Scarlet Eyes these past few days. Melody found a lead on the Sonata she's been seeking to destroy and Basho tagged along with the search. 

Neon Nostarade may look like she's walking on rainbow boots and talking on candied lips but she's a walking minefield - volatile, unpredictable, an inconsolable outburst. Every move I make may lead to a possible tantrum and I pray that I have enough patience to withstand it.

The sun just sunk on the horizon, leaving aftertastes of orange and purple clouds and plunging the city in a dazzling aftermath. I let my eyes linger on the drowning light as memories of the previous week shuffled by - Neon screaming at her father. Neon shrinking like a melted candy on the corner of her room. Neon staring blankly at the window for hours. Neon coming home drenched in rain, shivering and eventually, collapsing into my arms. Neon sleeping a sleepless nightmare. Neon not being Neon.

Neon shedding her skin of prism neon.

Everyone around her, especially her hand maids, Melody, and Basho, grew squeamish being with this new Neon. She did not speak, smile nor laugh. Her room which was once bright and radiating with fiery laughter and childish cries plunged into dead silence and ghastly darkness. The new Neon was robbed of joy. Basho and Melody tried to cheer her up. Everyone in the mansion did their best too. But even the jeweled gifts and rare treasures from her father did not budge her from her gloom.

It happened without a warning. Everyone around her was caught off guard with this sadness that suddenly swept the light out of her. 

Eventually, everyone learned how to move around to this new Neon dripping with sullenness from her every pore. 

To be honest, it piqued my curiosity. I am still yet to find out what she is capable of doing with misery. There were times that my imagination would conjure visions of Neon  pale as paper, her huge aquamarine eyes staring blankly at the ceiling with slashed wrists, blood dripping on the corners of her mattress. There were also times that I would see her inside my dreams - sapphire hair swinging gently in the wind, night gown hugging her body and gravity pushing her over the bridge. 

Reality didn't sate the runnings of my imagination, however. There were times though, that I would see her wandering aimlessly on the corridors of the mansion in the middle of the night. And the little voice inside me would always dare me to follow her in which I would always answer. There were also nights that I would see her staring in front of her father's bedroom door, her hands touching the knob but would not dare turn it. Then, I would see her staring at the portrait of her mother - beautiful, unearthly and melancholic. 

 Oddly enough, no matter how much she's drowning in her darkness, I never did see a single tear fall from her eyes.   Numbness, perhaps? Or does she simply do not know how to handle the gravity of this heavy baggage?