[Day 2 - 4 days before the Sweep]
It was fascinating. The morning was not as bright as it used to be. Sun has never shone this dim for a dawn, and it's not something a citizen would miss. The morning dew was doomed without a humid drop, and the fire was dancing in panic.
The day the librarian was awakened by the unusual clouds in the sky, she had already felt its difference across the town. Waking up from her rusty bed had never felt so comfortable before. It's as if everyone finally felt the terror she had endured before. The fear, the panic, and the haunting dread.
"Hm. Cowards..." She said as she held the note stuck to the front of her apartment. The warning is blank as the threat.
"Looks like I still have more time to stay, then. But what the hell would I do for the rest of these four days now?"
If the prophecy was true, then flee was all they could do. Panic is as framed as the prophet for the darkest day, where faith dwindles without guidance. There's nothing to do here but to lose the very land that she had lived in for long. She could see the clouds triumphant against the sun, claiming the world dark with thunder.
"Alas, we're all joyous and festive. Aren't we?"
"Today, we're about to be a big family in this town. Dying or escape together..."
"I wonder which of these two would make us even closer?"
But what draws the librarian's eyes is watching the people grow even more uneasy in their homes. Doubt struck so quickly the moment the light was taken off their eyes, and there were few who had chosen to change what she believed wouldn't be changeable.
The yellow sun had turned cloudy blue, and slowly it became contagious. Some people had left the town, leaving the Eastwood empty of a forest, and the cleric was not here waiting for the librarian anymore. It was such a strange yet interesting day.
"Hot news! Hot news on the Great Stone today!"
"A bold prince of outsider's land spotted in Great Stone? A messiah or a false prophet? Find out on the latest news at East Wood latest report!"
"I'll take that." Said the librarian with a nickel.
"The End of Gold Creek: Prophet of an unknown origin claims calamity for all dwellers of this land on the fifth day. A false claim of a man or a sign of the Almighty?"
The walk to the Great Stone felt different without the sun. Her eyes were squinting so hard to see the news with a sight so short. Eventually, she reached the Great Stone alone, only to find the ancient monument stripped of its glory by the cold.
"Is there really going to be a rain today? How's that going to make us scared?"
"Can anyone tell me why aren't we debating about this??" She looked left and right. But no one was looking at her.
"Don't waste your time looking at those. No one's going to read a news over an already stated word of a man." Cyrus replies.
Some loyalty remained, while some had crumbled. The cleric was not someone who would fall over a word, but it doesn't make him invincible alone. The librarian was the only person he had for the day, as nothing more but darkness awaited without a friend here.
If the world was about to fall on her head, then there's nothing the town could do to save itself. But the librarian had been more than many moons to see the Great Stone standing against the years of the dark age, knowing that defeat isn't as easy as a prophet's warning.
"There's no fuss for anyone whose head is too smooth to be misguided..." He said.
"You look jealous, priest. Sure you don't want to find out about him like others, too?" She teases.
"Heh, a man like me has something more important to do than join a herd. What about you? Care to join for a look?"
"Actually, yeah. What are you going to do, then?"
"I'm coming with the herd."
The librarian had never felt so ambitious to acknowledge this disaster. The curiousity strikes again, as she wonders about the unseen. She believed the answer was right before the prophet, who could answer all of her questions about the world.
Do gods exist? Is the sky filled with angels? And were all the people look like him?
She could never answer those questions before, because of how tight the wall of Gold Creek was and how little she could leave the place. But now she wonders if she had the chance to glance at the sky outside. The outside world was too bright and full of gifts; if only she had the opportunity to walk out.
"You're curious about all of this?" Cyrus asked.
"How can I not, love?? This is the first time I'll ever get close to an answer I've never got to see! Have you ever seen the world outside of Gold Creek? None of the people here had ever gone out before!"
"And what about the world? Aren't you afraid of the collapse that struck over?"
"Well, I'm scared! But I'm trying to find out how to save ourselves, okay?" Eve replied. "Be grateful that your god had set your life ahead of me! Because I'm still trying to carve my legacy in four days."
Gold Creek was a town sealed on a wall, where nobody had ever seen the outside for centuries. The librarian had never heard of anyone or anything coming in for the rest of life, and only now that a man had managed to break that wall.
"It's been years since our forefathers built those walls to seal our town from danger, and we are all here doomed and turned into nothing but weakened sheep."
"Cyrus, think about it! Think of what we could do outside more than this place! The wonder! The amazement!"
But the cleric was not a willing wanderer like her. As the descendant of those who had lived in the wall for years, he had never felt a curiousity like the librarian. The wall was too thick, and the outside was too dangerous to be explored. He believed the fathers were saving them from the beast outside.
This made the librarian and the cleric far different from each other, where only one of them seems to have outshone the other with their heads. But the cleric will always be the same believer the librarian had thought ill of, for he was the faithful who never asked.
"But our founding father said the world outside was horrendous! What if we got slain to death, butchered, or even snuffed into oblivion?"
"Well, maybe they were just too scared when they found this city! Maybe they didn't want others to get hurt because they never believe we could make it." Eve argues. "Maybe we could make it, Cyrus! Think of it..."
"Noo..." Cyrus rolls his eyes. "Maybe they were trying to help us, Eve."
The clouds are filmy, but not as filmy as yesterday. The librarian still remembers—a rain will sweep all with swiftness. But it was too dry, the air was too arid to call rain. Yet the clouds are dancing, darkening the sky.
They headed south, finding the prophet through a trail of his wise foot among the lost-minded. He walked straightforward despite the lack of illumination around the Great Stone, while everyone's footsteps were scattered like a print of a war. Yet the closer they were to the prince, the windier and intense the sky became.
*Woosh*
"Whoa! Urgh!" The two struggled.
"Terrible! It's all terrible!"
"Come on, Cyrus. Get a grip on yourself!"
"How? It's all nightmare to see! I can't even navigate with your hands before me!"
The librarian bravely walked through the wind, besting its indifferent current against her curious force of will. The wind has nothing compared to her strength, but the fire was drawn out so quickly without an effort. And so it was blind for her.
"Cyrus! The torch! It's out of fuel!"
"Don't you have anything? Like lantern from your hometown? That's the only source of light I have!" Cyrus replied.
"Alright. Hang on, I think I have...aha!"
When the wind threatened, they wouldn't go against the librarian; she fought back with a stronger light. But this time, her fire was hidden behind an impenetrable glass, one that even shone brighter than a torch. Her journey continues towards the south, passing through the river curiously with the cleric.
"You really want to do this, Eve? The library was already way ahead!"
"What else do you want to do in your church, anyway? We're the only ones who could do something about this while your people are..." She pauses after seeing Cyrus's face. "...that."
"Alright. I hope the other brethren could handle that..."
And so they walked even further, with the librarian taking the guidance before the cleric.
"There he is!" She said.
Gazing across the south, they find the red hood of the prophet hanging from the tree, while the man meditates by the lake with his feet in the water. Nothing scares him, even at the thought of lightning that would strike at the tree beside him. It was as if he had the power over the sky.
The librarian and the cleric interrupted his meditation, right as he was about to reach his enlightenment.
"Prophet, it's nice to see you..." The priest said. "I did not expect the Fire Son to guide another child through the wall."
"Yes. We are all here in unexpectancy to your visit. Prophet, do you mind if we spare a time to talk about...today's occurence?" The librarian kneels.
"Hm...?" The prophet turns around.
The man stood before the two with a daunting smile, as if expecting their presence in this serene garden he had made home. Yet he was pompous in his stance, taunting the two for their lack of appropriateness and high expectations. He felt like he was disappointed.
"Oh, what a mess. Two lost spirits wandering in the darkness? I wonder what had gotten you here...?" He mumbled with nonchalance. "Oh, the horrors. Fear doesn't get you far, does it?"
He knew what the cleric was looking for, just as everyone here does. But the man didn't give himself easily to talking. Rather, he was looking sharp and intimidating to the cleric for the mantle on his shoulders. He sees them so low and false.
"Look at you. Your robe...your clothing. Is"
"We are here to learn more about the apocalypse you're mentioning." Cyrus replies.
The librarian's heart was leaping when he saw the boldness of the man. Not one soul would dare to talk to the priest like that, especially for someone like her. The prophet was glancing at the librarian in the same way as the cleric, only to be stunned at how dissimilar she was compared to the man of faith. He didn't know that she was a learner.
But before the librarian could earn her rightful words to the man...
"Yes, everyone asked me that. All of you, it seems you were all...hopeful for another day."
"Not me," Eve said. "I'm here to ask about the outside world. Not much of us Gold Creek civilians knows what happened out there."
"I see. At least I find a question worth asking..."
"So are you going to tell us? I know it's hard to believe, but out of everyone here, I'm from the southern land of—"
"No." He said.
It was full silence. The man quickly shuts their hope with one word. There was no extension, only a swift rejection and a glare. The librarian was in disbelief when she saw him ignoring her very plea, robbed of her chance to learn about the outside world. But the man was certain of his word.
"N-no?" Eve questions.
"No. There's nothing I could say to you that would...ease your pain, I'm afraid..."
"I have seen the truth, and there was nothing but death to everyone here. It would crush every inch of this land without a pause."
"But youo are lucky enough to be here to watch on the hill as everything that grows below would fall first before the highest."
"I'm talking about Frayfoil, of course..." He smirks.
The librarian was in incredulity. Even at the moment of enlightenment, the light somehow vanishes into the darkness. It was dark, cold, and now it is hurtful for her. The opportunity was gone, and it was as if it was calculated that there was nothing more for the librarian to know than the end.
"No..." She said. "No, it can't be!"
"I'm afraid it is. And it always be..." The prophet said.
"What? Why? What exactly did we do to be punished like this?"
"Everything." He said. "Every inch of it...this disaster is..."
"Absolute."
"Absolute? What do you know about absolute? I'll show you absolute!" Eve replied.
The inevitability. The demise. The inescapable. The librarian thought with such horror as she walked off in anger. She had never found a question left unanswered before, and she knew the prophet was lying because a man would never be so certain of his words unless it was a lie.
"Eve, wait! Where are you going?"
"No! It can't be that! I'm going! I'm going, you hear me?" She yelled from a distance.
"I'm searching for an answer! No more will I be silenced by another's man certainty! Never!"
She storms out, leaving the terrible man to find herself a perfect reflection of a better answer than death. No confidence could break her words more than factuality, and if a man could break into her town, then so could she leave the town.
Lost in her mind, the librarian wanders in horror as she tries asking herself over and over again. But there's no answer to give for her doubt, because all strings had been cut from her. Once again, she is struck by the undeniable fate others called answer.
She ran around the town holding her head, resisting her will to fall like the others. She wasn't lost, and she would never be. But resisting the fall is difficult when she learned the truth.
"No, no, no..." She mumbled. "It can't be..."
"This can't be happening to me! I was just...doing my business and..."
"Why? Why did this happen to me?"
"Why? Why? Why? Why—*sniff* *sniff* Huh?"
As everything seemed hopeless, the sky stretched into a long, unforgiving darkness across the land. But the librarian began to notice that from within the darkness of Great Stone, a smoke still lingers in the air. Distant but ashy, the scent of a fire stronger than the dry air of a storm.
"What the...? A smoke?"
That would only mean one thing—a question. Another question. Who could have set a fire on this darkest day? Where all fire has burnt to a crisp? Where do the lights seem nonexistent? Who could have been so 'indifferent' to this danger? Perhaps they knew what to do.