Her Soul

“I see what other people cannot see. I see angels. I see demons…”

The memory of a little boy innocently speaking those words kept her eyes from shutting. She repeated those words weakly, “I see what other people cannot see. I see angels. I see demons…”

She could not bear to hold herself stand still anymore. After saying those three short sentences, she stabbed her sword onto the ground and leaned there. Though it would be easier for her to lie lifelessly rather than to lean on a sword and spend the strength she had lost, she did not want to look weak. There was still this man she needed to protect, she had to get up and fight! She had to!

But when her eyes dimly saw her silver boots dipped in the mud of blood, the blood of her own, she felt that her time had come. There was no way she could win this fight, nor could she be saved from the doom.
Droplets of blood that kept on dripping from her body to the crimson ground assured the man whom she had been protecting all along that what he thought was true. She was severely wounded…

The man stared at her shiny light blue armor that had already torn to pieces, leaving her with darker blue clothing on her tall athletic body. Blood was everywhere. Even her long black hair was all sticky with it. She had fought as she could, but it was not enough to defeat their foes. They were still standing there, ready to finish their lives within seconds.

Unconsciously, he shed a tear. She was the woman he thought he should never worry about. She was too powerful for a lady, she always was. By blood, she had been one of his escorts, but only by competence that she had been the toughest. Virya protected him from everything ever since they were children. She was to live her life as the protector from the minute she was born. He knew that she was never afraid of dying, and as for her situation at the moment, she must have found it so right that she died as a protector also. But a sharp ache attacked his heart. He would not let her go that easily. She had to live!

The man yelled as loud as he could to reach her ears. “Open the seal, Virya! Open the seal!” Both of his hands folded in fists and yet, he could not move a bit. “Virya! Listen to me! Open the seal! Please!” He was sure that the woman across the pile of dead bodies heard him; she just would not do what he asked. “Virya! Viryaaa!!!”

A dark shadow flew over her head. It moved rapidly and violently as if it were to cut the air. Then the shadow stopped moving, and from inside the shades came out a gigantic creature. Its skin was covered by black-sharp thorns. Its head was twice as big as two elephants become one. Its eyes were red as the blood that was dripping from its fierce fangs and from its long claws. It rocked the ground when it stepped its horse-like legs. It walked toward Virya who was leaning helplessly on her sword.

“Virya, don’t do this! You must open this seal! Viryaaa!”

Instead of obeying him, Virya gathered her last strength to pluck her sword from the bloody mud and swing it across the demon’s chest. She missed of course, but the retort from the demon did not. It pushed her aside with its claws, causing her to hit a tree nearby. She then fell down. Hard.

“Nooo!!!” Along with the scream, he could feel a great amount of energy flowing through his whole body. He could feel that his skin was luminously burning. His anger and his heartache were too grand to hold that they broke the seal Virya had purposely cast upon him. He screamed and he screamed as his body felt like going to explode. Finally, the great oblivious power inside him was unleashed. And now every life form would die…

“In my infancy, I barely can distinguish them among humans. They all looked the same for me. Each had a spark of different colors. All were fascinating, and they still fascinated me until today although not in the same way.”

Virya was sitting by the window of his study. Her legs were crossed and her eyes were hooked on the thick old book she was reading. She was so absorbed to her reading that he thought she was not listening at all.

But she listened, and she knew how it really felt. She also had that ability and when she was in her teens, she fell in love with one of the demons. Only from that moment that she could distinguish them.

“I know what you mean,” she murmured. “My first love was not at all human. He was the son of the darkness, raised by the six greatest demons to be the seventh, but he was to be the greatest of them all…”

Virya’s reply surprised him. Not only because he thought Virya did not pay any attention to what he was saying, but also because of her deep and honest confession. He had never expected her to be that straight to him. Virya had always been a mysterious person. She never talked about her private life that she claimed had never existed. She never answered any question related to her own life and she seldom spoke. That was why he became speechless. He just smiled a bit while his eyes were looking at her slender yet strong figure.

Without taking away her eyes from the book, she said calmly, “Why are you staring at me, my lord?”

“Uhm… I’m not staring at you, Virya. Why did you say such a thing?”

“Just because I’m reading, it doesn’t mean that I don’t see you, my lord. I still have some eyes on you, enough to tell me what you are doing.”

He could not believe what he heard! “Virya, how did you do that?”

“I’m your escort, my lord. I must have more than these two eyes to watch over you.” She eventually closed the book that she read and then gallantly looked him in the eye. “And I’m of the Dragon Clan.”

“You need not remind me of your origin, Virya. I know whose descendant you are and how you are obliged to protect me.”

Virya did not say anything further to prolong the conversation. She never did love talking anyway.

“Tell me, Virya. If it is not your obligation to protect me, will you still stay here with me?”

“I can’t escape my own blood, my lord.”

“You’re not answering my question.”

“I don’t intend to do so.”

“My dear Virya, what is it in your empty mind and cold heart? You always act based on orders. You never put your soul into anything that you do. You…”

“I don’t have a soul!” she exclaimed, stopping him from saying more.

Her words reminded him that he had said what he was not supposed to. It was believed that the people of the Dragon Clan lost all of their souls because their ancestor was once guilty in shedding a holy child’s blood. Their only chance to get their souls back was by protecting the holy child’s Clan. And he was the last of them.

“I’m sorry. I shall go.” He left the study with a little guilt inside his heart. He should not have said so. Virya was not an easy person to talk with. Though she was very man alike, she was absolutely sensitive toward words. Anyone should watch their tongue if they were talking to her, otherwise no one dared to predict what she would do. From the start, she had told him that she was his escort, but she was not his friend. He never thought that Virya meant with what she said.

Stranded somewhere between life and death, Virya saw how the seal broke. He broke it… His power was too great for the seal to hold, and now he had become something she had never wanted him to be. Silently she cried. She had failed… Her seal had been broken.

“Kai…” For the first time in her life, she called her lord with his childhood name. “My beloved Kai…”

She could only see how the kind-hearted man she had stood up all these years destroyed everything they both had nurtured. His power took control of his heart. He had turned into the evil they had been fighting. It was not supposed to be like this!

It did not matter if she lost her life. She never did have a soul anyway. But Kai… His loving heart lay in his pure soul. He was not to lose it. She would not let him lose his own soul. He had to keep his soul and his heart. He was supposed to protect all the living things, not to destroy everything like what his power was doing at the moment.

“Stooop!” she yelled from inside her throat. Her voice was weak, as weak as her whole body. “Kai! Please stop!”

Kai was not listening. He just stood there, numb and expressionless. But flashes of lights kept on coming out from his body, destroying everything they passed, killing every single breathing object, including the demons. He was invincible. No one could go near him. All died…

Virya sobbed. “Please, Kai… Don’t do this. Go back to the real you…”

Kai did not seem to respond. He no longer had the control over himself and especially over his demonic power.

Virya tried hard to stand up. She had to stop this chaos. Kai was not meant to be a menace, he was meant to be the protector, the nurturer, the healer. That was what Virya protected him for. She did not fight for his safety only to see him lose control of his own power and turn into the greatest hazard in the world. Her last duty was to seal his power once more, no matter what it took.

The woman got up from the ground and with her dying breath and wounded body, she ran toward Kai.

Powerful lights struck her, hurting her more than she could bear. She screamed while fresh blood was spilt out from her mouth. She fell, but she still refused to die. She had to keep going, she had to stop Kai. So, she went on her way to her own doom. She needed to get herself to Kai as near as she could. Those lights kept on attacking her, torturing her with the paralyzing pain, but she did not quit, until she reached the nearest step.

A greater light hit her right on her heart that exploded short after. And with that, Virya let go of her last breath. Her head looked up while her hair was flying down just like kingdom flags waved as the sign of surrendering. All colors were erased from her beautiful face, and then slowly, her body collapsed.

However, a second before her body reached the dusty ground, Kai held out his arms and captured her. Kai’s face was stained by Virya’s blood shattered from her heart. The warmth of Virya’s blood had opened his eyes. Only then, he realized what he had done.

His power had taken Virya’s life. Kai’s hatred toward his own power had awakened the control he had lost earlier. His power then stopped emerging, but it was too late…

Kai held Virya dearly in his arms. She was no longer breathing, no longer moving, no longer alive. He could not feel her heartbeat anymore. She had gone, gone like the ashes in the wind.

“Virya, I’m sorry,” he whispered. “I have failed you. I should not have broken the seal, I’m sorry…” Then, he closed his eyes and gently kissed her colorless lips. Tears flowed down from his eyelids, dripping onto her pale face. How he hoped that Virya would open her eyes again and tell him that she was going to be alright.

Kai cried. His heart was full of grieve and ache. He was to be the protector, the nurturer, the healer, but how come he destroyed the only thing he held most dear? He loved Virya more than anything in this world. He never realized when Virya stepped into his deepest heart, it was as if she had always been there.

“You do have a soul, Virya. It was your soul that had protected and guided me all the way and it was your heart that brought me back to my consciousness. And I love you so much…”

Just One of Them Days

Michael stood still there, in the pouring rain. His eyes sadly stared at the closed window of Louisa’s bedroom. He just kept standing and staring, hoping the window would suddenly fling open and Louisa’s angelic face would be there, smiling gently at him. He did not care about the sharp cloud’s teardrops that felt like cutting his delicate face. Nor he cared about the brownish water that was getting higher and higher on Louisa’s backyard, sinking his shoes with mud. None of them really mattered for him anymore…

He did not understand her. What happened to his sweet Louisa? No more smiles, no more kisses, no more talks… She started to move away. She began to keep distance from him. Why? Has he done something unacceptable? If he has, how come she never told him? Is it that difficult to be honest? To be honest to her own boyfriend?

A pretty girl dressed up in her pajamas, lay on the comfort bed covered with pink embroidery. The room was already dark, but the radio still softly sang some songs. Though she tried very hard to sleep, her eyes would not cooperate. She just lied there, watching the dancing shadows on the ceiling of her room. Her beloved was outside, waiting for her to come out. She wanted to go out at first. She even had prepared her big umbrella to shelter the boy from the heavy rain. But, the umbrella just slipped off her hands and she ran upstairs, went back to her warm sanctuary.

“Please, Michael, just go. Stop torturing yourself and go home, you’ll catch cold… I’m not gonna see you,” whispered Louisa silently.

She did not mean to hurt him or something. No, she loved him, she loved him a lot, she was madly in love with him, but she just did not want him near at the moment. She just needed some space. It was not such a difficult request, right?

“Are you avoiding me, Lou?” Michael asked her this afternoon on break time. “What did I do that makes you so goddam angry?”

“I’m not angry with you, Mike!” she snapped.

“But why are you so different? You didn’t even greet me when we met at the hall this morning. You just kept laughing and joking with your pals.”

“Oh? Since when greeting you is an obligation for me?” Her voice was getting higher and louder. “Just because I’m your girlfriend, it doesn’t mean that I have to greet you every time we meet accidentally.”

“Okay, okay, forget it, it doesn’t matter.” Then Michael continued with heavy sad tone, “But why are you acting so weirdly today? Am I boring you? Or you just don’t want me anymore?”

“Don’t be silly! Look, I have to get in the class, I don’t have time for this ridiculous discussion.” Louisa stood up from the canteen chair, took all of her books from the table, and walked away, leaving Michael, who had lost his appetite, alone with their unfinished lunch.

Michael fell on his knees as if he were a collapsed old building. He hid his face and there he was, weeping for a girl he thought he once possessed. He loved Louisa more than anything in this world. He has always loved her and he always will. He wished the tears could lighten this ache inside a little, but it seemed that they only made the pain bolder.

“I’ve lost you, Love,” his heart painfully cried.

He swung his fists against the ground, causing the mud to stain his face and his wet jacket. But he did not care, he punched and he punched while he yelled like a wounded animal. “I’ve lost you, I’ve lost you! Goddamit!” he cursed.

Louisa heard Michael’s agony among the sound of thunder. She pressed the pillow under her head against her ears and made another effort to get some sleep.

“Sorry, Michael…” she murmured while she closed her eyes.

The song was over, changed into another one sung by one of Louisa’s favorite female singers, Monica. Unconsciously, her lips were singing along with the lady on the radio. “It’s just one of them days, when I wanna be all alone. It’s just one of them days, when I gotta be all alone. It’s just one of them days, don’t take it personal. I just wanna be all alone, and you think I treat you wrong…”

A tear ran out from beneath her eyelid and dripped on the pillow before she opened her eyes once more and started to talk to herself. “Yeah… it’s just one of them days, Michael, it’s just one of them days, don’t take it personal. Perhaps tomorrow will be okay. And if not, maybe the next day… It’s just one of them days…”

Few minutes after she said those words, her sleepy eyes finally agreed to take her to the dreamland, where she could meet her knight in shining armor by the time “one of them days” was over.