Chapter 9: Shooting Happiness
“What’s wrong with being happy for no reason?” – Shirazawa Mimiko.
*
“Little prin… cess
Up a crystal tower…”
A window showing a dark city.
Surrounded by dark walls, twisted and gnarled like blackened wood.
How did it feel to have feelings without a body?
How did it feel to see without eyes?
How did it feel to hear without ears?
How did it feel to feel without a heart?
How did it feel to dream without waking or sleeping?
Am nothingness. Are nothingness. Is nothingness. What am I?
“Little princess
Up a crystal tower,
Hope is her power,
Hope is her power…”
*
Something pinched Holly’s big toe through her sleeping bag, hard. She opened her eyes, and annoyance flooded in. It was Evan, staring at her with his blank expression. “Up, we’re moving in half an hour.”
Holly glowered at him while rubbing her eyes. Two things annoyed her: being awakened by that method and her odd dream. Evan, unperturbed in the least bit, stood and addressed Mimi instead. “So, did you interrogate her last night?”
Mimi was about to partake on a green apple. Upon the question, she avoided the boy’s gaze. “Uh… not exactly.”
“Damn,” Evan cursed. “Didn’t you chat with her or something? Don’t tell me you ended up talking about flowers instead!”
Mimi let out a nervous laugh. Evan sighed heavily, apparently taking that as a yes.
The dawn cast a somber blue hue over everything. The forest lost half of its terror, but some tree trunks still menacingly resembled monsters of the imagination. The sun was still below the horizon, and a faint mist blurred the line separating the earth and the sky.
“I’m here, you know.” Holly stood, rolling her sleeping bag, not looking at them. “No more eye examination, though, thank you very much!”
“She was confined in a cellar for years,” Mimi told the boy.
“What, by some sicko criminal father?” Evan retorted, unimpressed. “Doesn’t look like it.”
“Nah, it was some… paranoid witch who took me in as her daughter,” Holly replied with a straight face.
“And she’s creepily obsessed with you; treats you like a pet, or a doll,” Evan deduced.
“More or less,” said Holly with a frown.
“You’re not a homunculus, or a golem?” Evan continued.
“No.” Holly’s reply was flat, but she was inevitably reminded of the girl in the container. No, I hope not...
“Are you referring to me?” Tamaki’s head floated over Mimi’s shoulder. Nearby, her body was holding a cup of steaming tea.
“She knows a lot of spells!” Mimi added. Tamaki quizzically turned upside down before slowly returning to her neck.
ČTEŠ
Burn In Violet
FantasyIn a post-apocalyptic world ruled by a magical tyrant of godlike might, Holly was forced to live in an underground library with her guardian, what with humans being driven to near extinction. On her 15th birthday, she would be allowed to come above...
