Chasing Dreams (Dropped)

Chapter 146: Everything But The Snow

"So you'll have to just keep on living okay? For mine, and everyone else's sake."

Jack felt his eyes water when he heard those words. Words that were so distant that they sounded like an echo within this endless night. Jack looked on, opening his heavy eyelids that had been frozen shut from the cold around him.

"Nana..." Jack his icy voice coming out like a whisper "Where are you?" The world was black, masked by a storm of white. No matter what direction Jack looked his vision was clouded. Either by snow or by a sea of darkness.

"I wanted to see the world with you. I wanted to be there with you, Natsumi, and Jacen. I wanted to be with you guys for the rest of my life. But it seems like those dreams won't happen will it..."

Jack froze, standing like a statue within the frozen storm. Iced over with snow and layers of frost. "What are you talking about..?" Jack murmured, his voice spewing like a blizzard. "We can still do those things." Jack marched forward feeling his legs grow heavy as if they were made of lead. "My body won't move the way I want it to..." he noted but still dragged forward. The further he got the worse the storm was. Going from a snowy breeze to a shower of hail. Balls of ice pelted Jack's face tearing at his skin and bruising his flesh. "We can still see the world together, me, you, Natsumi, and..." Jack's mind trailed "Jacen..." he thought "Jacen..!"

Jack's frozen mind melted with an untapped rage, making his once soft exterior liquify with anger. Memories flashed in Jack's head like a raging torrent, washing away any sort of familial bond he had developed with Jacen in the last decade.

The times they spent training.

The times they laughed together.

The times Jacen taught him about women, and the times Jacen acted as a brother to him.

All those memories froze and shattered within the storm of snow.

"Yeah maybe you're right..." Jack coldly admitted, biting his tongue and stopping in place "Maybe all of us won't be able to see the world together. However there isn't anything stopping the rest of us from doing so." Jack claimed boldly. Jack reached out seeing the light that formed within the storm, the light that had formed brown hands that stretched out for him in return producing warmth. "Me, you, Natsumi, and even Ren can see the world together. Just the four of us with no one else to stop us..."

Jack continued to reach as the light changed form, manifesting itself as Nana reaching out and smiling at him. Her smile was bright enough to show a path within the darkness. Her smile was hot enough to melt the remaining snow.

However despite these things Jack's body slowed as if the ice was traveling through his feet keeping him in place. 

"Your smile was always the sweetest..."

"Although I don't think mine is nearly as sweet..."

"What are you talking about?" Jack once again questioned, "Your smile has always been greater than mine!" Jack raised his voice for once, allowing it to roar louder than the surrounding storm. "So just let me hold you, and I'll make you smile over and over again!" Jack shouted. But Nana only became more distant. Eventually shrouding herself within the snow.

Jack stared into the snow. Staring into it for so long it felt like hours, long hours he'd never get back.

Jack stood silently, looking into the desolate storm, the desolate storm that never seemed to end no matter how much he wished for it too. But unlike before where the path once seemed unclear, this time the picture was much clearer than before.

What Jack saw wasn't clear to him at first. But as more time passed the more certain he was at what he was seeing.

Nana's memories.