Beauty is not from what we see, but what we know. In the emptiness of greatness we find peace in that empty void. In the art we carved, we are stumped in amazement in the colors of our creation. It is an emotion that cannot be comprehended but to be experienced.
We expected a whimper.
We expected a scream.
We expected a curse.
But we never expected this.
They gave us what we do not have.
They gave us a single... thing.
They gave us the very thing they abandoned.
But it wasn't a show of surrender.
But a final message.
Sacrificing it for a final single scowl.
"We deny you your victory."
How beautifully disgusting.
...
..
.
Flapping of feathers brings a melodious choir combined with the gentle whistle of wind and the rustle of leaves. The combination of nature brings peace to a disturbed mind.
On a bench in a park, a man sat with mental exhaustion in his form.
His hair the colour of the gray clouds above ruffles along the humming of the wind. The finger in his right hand rests an eyeglass with the hand's back palm covers his eyes in exhaustion from waking from a memory already beyond the past. A past that he thought that he has come to pass on.
Lifting his arm away from his eyes, revealing a colour of canary with a hint of pink, letting it gaze once again appreciate the beauty of the azure sky. He replaced his palm for its fingers to massaging his temple to ease the headache that he has developed in this moment.
The past... He didn't expect to still be affected by it this much, enough to get nightmares.
Well, he should have predicted this outcome. The past cannot be fully left behind, he knows this, but why is it that he still struggles to find peace for his mind even after finding the reason for it all after this years?
Maybe it is because his mind is still worried about the state Eden and everyone was in before he separated from them.
His mind searches for answers for the reason for the emergence of that unpleasant dream. But the answers he can see only present him with more questions. The headache only sinks further down from this numerous thoughts coming and going through his mind.
He should stop these thoughts before his head explodes from this stress, he already has his hands full from his little job tomorrow.
Pushing himself up from the bench, he moved to a stretch to get the soreness to disappear from sitting on the bench while sleeping. He places his glasses on and feels the fatigue even when has just been released from his dreams. Maybe he should get a coffee, that'll help get rid of the tiredness... He really should just head home to get a good sleep properly. But coffee addiction said otherwise!
He decided to go on an expedition to buy a cup of coffee rather than to have the better alternative, he has dictated that he would rather break his body and do nothing all day, rather than to sleep in and do nothing all day. Nothing really changes in those options, huh?
Letting his legs move to go onwards to his desired destination, he enjoyed the scenery at the park as he walks by.
He has gained appreciation to nature's beauty after only seeing sights of its corpse. People can only get to realize the beauty in every little miracle that we see everyday after seeing only its void.
The wind blowing at his face makes things relaxing than the biting cold of a snow filled land.
He has all the time in the world, a blessing so great that he still cannot bring the surprise of himself down. Truly, he is glad that he is given a new life.
He stepped outside the fence gate of the park to reveal the modern beauty of the world today.
Buildings of magnificent proportion in the place of the scenery replaced the sights that were filled with trees. Iron behemoths filled the streets to transport people in and out of various places. Beside the streets are filled with people on their mission to fulfil their contribution to their country.
Walking on the crosswalk, the one blessed with new life walked the road to his destination. Though the path is filled with people, he weaved through the crowd of people like a man who experienced this so many times.
It wasn't too long before he arrived at a building that serves their a cup of great coffee. The door of the building with humble origins opened as the man pulled the door in it's front.
Inside of the little café, although outside was filled with people, was filled with few. The interior was as humbly
The humble little shop owner behind the counter greeted the man who arrived to drink his ichor of caffeine.
"Oh! Elio, here for the usual today?"
The owner greeted the new customer with a smile of familiarity.
"Hn. I'll have the usual, please. With a croissant as a snack."
"Okay! Hot cocoa with a croissant coming right up!"
The cheerful cashier and owner of the café sounded with youthful enthusiasm. His youthfulness did not dim in his early twenties but remained as a vibrant light of an idol of childless memories that shines to people exhausted in life. The customer inside smiled at the bright behaviour of the owner.
"Thanks, Leo."
"No problemo!"
Elio smiled at the bright behaviour of the business owner.
The café owner, Leonardo, swiftly makes his way to make the desired coffee that was ordered. Leonardo is the owner, the cashier, the barista, and everything else. He recently opened this little store a few weeks ago as his first business, intending to make more across this city.
Although he is the only worker in the café, he is unburdened from the numerous work loads he gave to himself. The few people inside the shop are regulars and only customers he only gets. As a new business, his café shop is towered by others in the area, but the taste and atmosphere inside here is better than the others that are too extravagantly designed.
"Here's your cup of brown coffee and your croissant, enjoy and get energised!"
It wasn't long before Leonardo arrived to deliver him a quaso~ and a brown cup of coffee, designed with a symbol of a maple leaf made by the milk mixed in. A thumbs up mixed with a smile given by Leonardo to the customer, who Elio reciprocated.
Elio watched as Leonardo left to tend to another customer who passed through the door.
There are more people here than yesterday. Elio's thoughts drifted to the surrounding, the nine people who are usually here in this hour of the afternoon turning evening have increased by four. The result of this little café slowly being known in this block.
The atmosphere of the inside is in still tranquility, the expression of everybody enjoying their drinks makes him turn to his own cup in his hand.
A sip and his mind falls to peace, the skill of the maker showing how perfect the brew is as always.
Leaning back to the backrest of the chair, his head turned to the side where the window acts as the wall for those beyond the glass . His reflection secretly hinted in its reflected surface, the outside revealing more than just his blurry figure, the people of this world walking in unknown of what is beyond what they know.
The clear sky is decorated in pillows of white, the blue hue slowly turning to yellow as the sun says its goodbye for the day.
He sat on his chair as his cup was slowly being drained and his piece of baked wheat was already swallowed. He sees the guests in the café slowly being emptied as time slowly comes to go.
Numerous thoughts were emptied and reviewed, the sun's rays barely seen in the sky as the yellow hue says goodbye. The towering and the humble buildings have sparked their lights, below on the cement they light the way for those who cannot see in the dark.
The day has passed for the way of night, the stars have come out to sing their choir, the gentle moonlit glow of the moon leads their orchestra as their conductor.
It seems tonight is a full moon.
The last drop has now been consumed, the cup of caffeine now drunk and the drinker ready to leave the place for their next destination.
Getting up from his seated form, he moved his leg to let the soles of his shoes be lifted from the ground. A step and a two, his name be called for his attention.
"Going now, Elio?"
With a final wipe on the table with the cloth in his hand, Leonardo asks Elio. He walks forward towards Elio with a warm friendly smile. Elio responded with confirmation.
"Yes. I'll be going now."
"Then please wait, I have something to give you before you go."
Seeing that he does, he requested for his patience and goes beyond the counter and through the back of the café. Elio left there standing center in the now empty building, a rise of an eyebrow shows he is in wonder on what and why the shop owner will gift him with and the reason why so.
It isn't too long before the door where the owner came in to open once again. This time the anomaly of a small box decorated in a ribbon in hand made his form different when he came inside the backdoor.
"Please, accept this, Elio."
"Hm? What is this?"
Leonardo raises the box for Elio to accept. The respondent questions the content of the inside.
"It's bread and cupcakes I baked. I know that you'll be leaving the country today for your work, so I made this for you to snack on while you travel."
Leonardo pushed the box of pastries to Elio.
"Oh, is this chocolate I smell?"
"Yep. I always see that you prefer chocolate themed food when you order. So I baked this in your preferences."
"Oh damn! Thanks, but you didn't have to busy yourself with this, right?"
Leonardo shook his head in denial.
"This is small compared to your sponsorship in helping build this shop. I'd rather have a peaceful conscience than worry in what to give back."
He does not want the person who helped make this business come true go to another country without him giving something back, his conscience does not permit that, mama thought him that. And he will not forget his mother's teaching.
"Well, it is what it is. I'll probably finish this before I arrive at the airport though."
Elio shrugged his shoulders, already grabbing a cupcake inside the box.
Leonardo shook his head at this display, though the small upward lift of the side of his mouth indicated his amusement.
"Well, I don't want to be the reason with you being late to your flight."
Leonardo patted his back and gave him a light push to him at the direction of the door. Giving his goodbye to the man.
"Hn. Goodbye."
Elio responded with a nod of his head with the bell of the door jiggle while it was being pushed open.
The door returned to its resting position as he let it go from his grip, he waved goodbye to the small friend he made from Leonardo, who responded with a wave of his own.
Now he lets his step take him to his destination of the nearby bus stop to take a ride to the place where he needed to be. His bags and other luggage must already be at the airport now.
Being in France as a vacation for a week, his intrusive thoughts and whims suddenly said to create a coffee shop. Which he decided to just sponsor a random person, which is Leonardo, and let them build it for him. The results being the building he just exited.
But now, he has to go to work just like everyone else do, which is the reason him having to fly to Amsterdam.
He has an ensemble to lead. Being a conductor and all that.
He chose the path of being the lead in a musical rather than playing the instrument because he was curious to feel what it's like being the instructor rather than the player.
Well... Mostly because he wanted to have a reason to release albums from the previous world to get some easy cash. Being a conductor was a side mission that he felt like doing on a whim.
It ain't plagiarism if it ain't exist here. -Sun Tzu.
Bro, I didn't say none of that. -Sun Tzu.
Two negation verb means that you actually said that. -Sun Tzu.
STFU. -Sun Tzu.
So he continued on his merry way. Consciously ignoring the constant vibration coming from the phone inside his pocket. Knowing those notifications might be just a random discord server he infiltrated just to see two people saying racial slurs at a random 3am Friday simply from boredom of just sitting at the toilet.
...
Please, someone tell me. Why must good people always go to heaven first?
Why must they be the one to see their premature end when someone else could br the sacrificial lamb?
That is because only good people can go to heaven...
...How much more do you torment me, ------...?
"Paba... Apa... Maahmah"
A child spoke incoherent words in their small colorful little crib. It's mouth strain as the bearer spoke the words it has heard through time and time again from their lifegiver. The voice box of the small child searching for the right syllables that align to the same frequency and right letters that it's little ears have heard.
"C'mon Lily, just a bit more! Pa-pa! Ma-ma!"
A middle aged man with dark hair decorated his head. Below his eyes colored in blue bare the scars of restless times. He spoke to the child in a tone so gentle that contrast his unrested face. A blonde woman besides him watches with emerald eyes as the father cooed his child to address him to the title he so longed for.
"Ama... Ma... Mappa... Apapa"
Through the guidance of the father. The child spoke closer and closer to the title it was guided to.
The father's eyes, although required rests, shines with the joy of the child's journey of searching for the correct words.
"Pa... Papa! Mama!"
The fruits of its labor bore fruit. Through its childish shout, it played with words it has learned.
"Yes! My little lily finally said it! Love! Our little flower finally said it!"
The father's hand swiftly took the child in his hands. He closed his face to the child's body and tickled the little bundle of his joy with his bushy beard.
But the sudden shift of its resting place and the disturbance of their father's hairy beard, the annoyance it felt was put in display by the baby turning into a crying fit. The distress of the child put the father into a worried state of fumbling words.
"Now now. Did Dada scare you? Come here, I'll protect you from the bad Dada."
The mother took the crying child in her hands and comforted it in her warm embrace. Her gaze to the father became stern at his disregard of the child's comfort for his own.
The father's only response to his mistake is sending an apologetic look at her.
Rocking the child back and forth in her arms, it regains itself from the crying mess by the loving embrace of its mother.
The small family of three remain in peace.
The clumsy father is the fortress that guards the family.
The gentle mother is the fire that gives them warmth.
The small child is the star that shines brightly in their life.
The small family of three remain in peace.
...
..
.
The ivory castle shall collapse in their knees in the unceasing run of time.
All the flames that have ignited must inevitably be extinguished in suffocation.
And the sun with its stars must sleep at the impending end of the vast universe.
All of it must.
...
..
.
I ran in the white hallways of the big building, carefully to not bump into the adults walking to do their adult work. My head turning to every corner and rooms that we are only allowed to go inside.
We already agreed to not go to the other floors and the not-allowed rooms to hide, but I only found Ozzy and Bridy! I'm not the best at hide-and-seek but it's unfair! Just because I was the lowest on our test means I am the seeker! It's unfair, that the other two are the best in this game! They'll be crying when I get to pick the next game after I win this!
I grumbled with a pout as I finally entered the last room, but even then, I still couldn't find them! I only got five minutes left to find them!
...Aha!
I run back to the hallway and run back to the starting place we started the game. They are hiding at the starting place! They know that I won't be coming back to there until the time is up!
But even then when I got back, they weren't there... Only Ozzy and Bridy sitting on the couch while reading another story book.
The clock sounded as the arm hit 12. It's time to eat.
Just noticing me, both Bridy and Ozzy stopped reading when the clocks bell sounded.
"Ah! Lily, did you found those two yet?"
Bridy runs up at me, Ozzy slowly walks behind her with the story book being hugged to his chest.
"No... They probably cheated!"
"You know they won't do that. Sissy probably found another good hiding spot after she was found out by me last game."
Bridy shook her head, her brown hair swayed with it. I told her to cut her long hair but she denied, saying that she likes to have her hair long. I don't get it, long hairs are annoying when playing, it gets all over the place and covers my eyes. So I have my blue hair short.
The three of us walk to the cafeteria, leaving behind the other two, knowing they're already there with Sessy dragging Lucy.
And after opening the cafeteria door, the big door opens to see both the adults and children like us eating inside this big room.
"Bridy! Lily! Ozzy! Over here! I got everyone's food here."
Sissy's voice almost drowns in the noisy cafeteria. Her hand waving at the air at us, beside her is Lucy sitting with his hand waving at us too, but not as excited as Sissy.
Bridy and I rushed over there, seeing that there's pork chop on the plate, our two's favourite.
"Where were you two?! I searched all the hiding places but couldn't find you two!"
I asked Sissy for the answer, stabbing the food with my fork.
"Like I'll give you an answer. But if you want to know, then how about you give me half of your food then?"
Sissy offered with a smug smile, both from the victory she got over me and the chance to eat my food.
"Huh?! No! I'll never give any of my food to anyone other than an offer with an Eden ticket!"
Like she'll get my delicious pork, in her dreams! Unless she'll give me a ticket for the space-home-ship-thing in the sky, then I'll never have my pork taken away!
I turned to Lucy, maybe he'll be generous enough to give me the answer.
"Lucy, please tell me!"
Lucy rolled his eyes at me.
"Simply because you called me by that nickname, I'll make the same offer as Selene."
"Hahaha."
Sissy laughed at my denied request. I pout.
Lucy turned his head to the ever silent eating Ozzy, noticing the book in his lap being different from the one yesterday.
"Ozma, you got another book to read?"
Ozzy raised the story book to face the cover at him. It said 'Cinderella'.
"It's a story about a girl being bullied by her sister and a fairy appearing. We don't know what happened next though, we haven't read it all yet."
Bridy replied for Ozzy, which he nodded.
"Oh, then let's all read it after eating."
Sissy said, all of us nodded at her.
After we ate, we went back to our shared room to read the story.
It was a weird story. A girl being bullied then a fairy appeared to give her a chance to go to the party with a pumpkin car? Big dress and glass slippers, that should be uncomfortable though. She met the prince of the country and she ran out when the magic the fairy ran out, but her slipper was left behind in her rush. The prince found her after he put the slippers on her feet.
It's a weird story.
Shouldn't the slipper disappear also when the fairy's magic ran out?
How is it the only one who can wear the slipper only the girl? Me and Lucy wear the same size of our shoes.
How did her slipper slip out when it should be the perfect size for her?
And how did the prince fall in love at first sight?
I asked that to the other.
"Maybe it's because the slipper was far away when the magic wore off?"
"So shouldn't the fairy godmother just go far away until the ball was over?"
"Maybe it's the magic that made the slipper only let her wear it."
"So shouldn't it not be possible for the slipper to fall out?"
"Maybe it's destiny."
Everyone looked at Bridy when she said the last part.
"?"
"What do you mean?"
"What's a density?"
"It's destiny, dummy."
Everyone was confused at what Bridy meant by that.
"Well, you know that Mr. Darwin said that destiny is the events that will happen to someone or something in their future. Maybe the prince was supposed to fall in love with the girl in the story."
"Then why is the girl in that home that bullied her? If she was meant to fall in love with the prince shouldn't she be at the palace at all times?"
"Well... Mr. Darwin said destiny works in weird ways. So maybe it's just that? She was meant to get adopted by that bad family and meet the fairy godmother so they could meet that way?"
Bridy answered Sissy's question. But she still seems to be confused.
...Destiny huh?
"Let's not think too much, just think that it is what it is. Thinking about destiny is too confusing. Mr. Darwin said that destiny thing is supposed to be in late high school. We're still in elementary."
Sissy just throws the subject aside.
But even when we're going to sleep, my thoughts keep thinking about this destiny thing.
"the events that will happen to someone or something in the future."
Is it destiny for the virus to spread?
Is it destiny for us to not be at the Eden space station?
Destiny is scary and so interesting.
If destiny can have the girl meet the prince, can destiny help us live?
I'm curious about what my destiny will be...