Sunless Days (one-shot)

Sunless Days

What if there's another living thing in this world that's greater than us and is devouring all the colors of life? How will we be able to survive if the world seeks something we humans lack?

Author's Note: Hello to the ones whose interest I just piqued! ^_^ Before you immerse yourselves in the world of Rodrick, I just want to let you know that I am a novice who wrote this story and this was supposed to be just a class story presentation, but there's a part of me impelling me to publish this anyway, so I did.

I would highly appreciate it if you won't attempt to emulate or translate my story without my consent. Otherwise, there's no way we can be friends!

The world has grown darker as time passes by. It's been years since the trees and grasses haven't wilted. The flowers are deprived and the scenery has been parched causing humanity to barely survive.

One day, beneath a starless sky, stood a lonely man who sauntered across the sunless street. His name was Rodrick. He looked around, but the more he looked, the more he saw nothing as it was unusually dark. Not even people. The sun has left and so did the stars and moon. There was no night and even morning to call. No petals to pluck and even trees.

Suddenly, the rhymes of poem uttered from the distance caught Rodrick's attention and impelled him to follow the sound. He was too voracious to devour the traces of someone's voice. When he found the woman who articulately uttered words that rhymed, he wondered why her place wasn't completely dark at all as she has been sighted by Rodrick. He peeked out at her from the slight distance while she spoke rhymed lines in front of children.

In a world of beasts, I live
Sigh of unsaid poems, I heaved
Over children in ever famine
And underwater speakers, I grieved

"Why are you hiding?" A girl asked him which had his heart pricked as she appeared like a wind.

"My sister Tine is best at making poems! Come join us!" Before he could speak, the girl grabbed his wrist toward where Tine and the children are staying.

Rodrick met tine, a woman who was named after a plant Eglantine which means Poetry and talent and couldn't stop himself from gaping at her. They exchanged stories and along with the children, he listened to her poems. He even asked Tine why the flowers that enclosed her place haven't wilted yet and Tine had no idea why her flowers are still alive.

Every day, they share their stories and even harvest fruits to feed the orphans whom Tine considered her siblings. It's been years since Rodrick saw the smiles beaming from others' lips.

Months passed by, Rodrick grew closer to Tine. He began to enjoy everything he had and savored every moment with her. Tine's beautiful soul captured the heart of Rodrick and even colored his world causing Rodrick to compose a poem of love for Eglantine. One night, rodrick heard an outcry outside the house that they lived, he went out only to see children crying while Tine on the ground. He just found out that the woman he loved was dying and she had been keeping it from them all this time. He felt like all the fireflies had been scorched by everything they touched.

Without a word, he hastily picked Tine up and put her gently in bed.

"Rodrick, promise me you'll never stop sharing your thoughts to the kids." Tine gasped.
"Your thoughts are powerful. You never know what it can possibly do." She added.

"Don't leave just yet. Please.. I have something for you." He took the paper out of his pocket which has Eglantine's name on it.

To the woman whose voice captured me,
The day I found you was the time I met glee
I thought, like other ladies, you only wear a pretty face,
But realized you are undeniably a beauteous golden maze

Through this poem, you'll find love
And you deserve to be the subject of the only poem I have,
My dear Eglantine, without you
The writer within me would swiftly die out of the blue

After he uttered the poem of love right before Tine, tears heaved Tine's eyes seeing the light being rayed out from the sun and said, "The world hasn't died yet, Rodrick.. for you.. have given the world what it needs most and that is genuine love — something the world thirsts"

"You are a hero, Rodrick. Just when the world was about to devour everything it had, you took out something others can hardly give – undistorted love." Tine laboriously added.

Rodrick watched the beaming rays of the sun and finally saw the sky filled with clouds and even the beautiful sceneries. But when rodrick looked back at Tine, she is now resting in peace and realized those were her last yet priceless words for him.