Chapter 1: Release 2
"You have arrived at the Mariana Threshold, the doors will open to the left"
Light was nudged from unconsciousness to lethargy by this echoing announcement. Before his eyes fully opened, his right arm sprang into motion and grabbed onto the top rail of a seat opposite to him in an attempt to lift him upright.
His motion paused as the cold of the rail penetrated his palm and a chill ran throughout his body. Light felt the skin on his arms tighten as a forgotten texture rose beneath the patchwork sleeves of an otherwise tidy black trench coat.
His relaxed eyes followed the fluffy clouds of white materializing from his breath before they dispersed and disappeared, just for another one to take its place. He found that taking deeper breaths would make for a larger cloud, but when he put little breath into it, there was no cloud at all.
For a solemn few minutes Light was only accompanied by the sound of his sporadic breathing and an underlying heartbeat as the cold curled over his lips and mastoid.
Light's semiconscious attention was drawn ahead of him by a quiet sniffle. He pivoted onto his right leg and made his way to the noise.
Each step lingered in the air as the weight of his polished black leather boots struck the shabby metal floor with a dull force.
Once he finally reached the closed right doors he saw a boy, curled up in the corner between the closed doors and a seating separator.
He stared for a short few seconds before lowering himself beside the boy. Light sat with the crook of his right elbow placed over his bent knee, his left leg was laid flat while the corresponding arm bore the weight of the upper body.
Looking to his side, he saw the boy in greater detail with his arms wrapped around his withdrawn legs and his head buried within. The boy tilted his obstructed head towards Light with teary eyes. Light's eyes met the boy's and his already narrowed eyes narrowed slightly further.
The boy couldn't have been any older than 16, the sleeves of his patchwork tee extended to his wrist. The patchwork consisting of coils holding together patches of brown hide ran down to his ankles as a pleated skirt.
Neither of them spoke immediately, instead they exchanged gazes with neither of them shifting their eyes for an uncomfortably long time.
Light was the first to look away, he shifted his gaze ahead of him. He opened his mouth to speak but his voice came out raspy, there was an accumulation of mucus. Light turned to his left and coughed into his shoulder.
cough
The sound echoed in the silence.
"Why are you here?"
Light continued to stare ahead of him with quarter closed eyes.
"You're crying."
"I'm not crying."
His voice was grainy, the boy, too, cleared his throat before another pause in conversation.
"Did you know where you were going?"
The question lingered for a moment.
"No."
Light paused before he pivoted his weight onto his supporting arm and stood upright.
"Life in the slums wouldn't be all that much worse than life in prison."
"Don't we have the right to try?"
Light turned his head towards the boy who was looking ahead of him and then turned his head back to his front.
"Looks like you got lucky."
Light was now standing and staring ahead of him at a wall of blurry teal mist. The mist crept through the open left door, but Light continued to show a blank face.
Light reached into a hand sewn pocket on the inside of his trenchcoat and pulled out a flattened face mask.
He used his fingers to mold an opening for his face when one of its jagged protrusions nicked his thumb.
Light pressed the mask tightly against his face and an uncomfortable suction following the uneven shape of the mask encapsulated his mouth and nose as his free hand looped the wire straps over both his ears.
The boy watched Light with his eyes following the motion of Light's hands without saying anything.