Telos
Posts : 1394
Join date : 2016-05-26
Age : 23
Location : Somewhere in time and space
 | Subject: Childhood's End (Work Thread for Takeru):  Mon Dec 11, 2017 10:00 pm | |
| On some days, if you took a look at the young man known as Takeru Kagemaru, you would not call him happy. On days where he had deadlines for himself, specifically, a submission for a magazine that published short stories, he was especially unhappy with himself, what with what had happened to him lately. All his emotions boiled within him as he put pen to paper, and began to write away... - The Story:
Childhood's End:
By Yami Kazemaru.
Once upon a time, there was a boy.
The boy wasn't the strongest, but he was the kindest. He may not have been the smartest, but he always tried his hardest. He might not have been the bravest, but he was always optimistic.
At least, that's what he thought was true.
Maybe it was, maybe it wasn't, but still, he wanted it to be.
So he smiled, and behaved because he wanted to be a good boy, because that made people happy.
For a time, that was enough. For a time, the world was warm and caring, a golden world he grew up in. He welcomed and loved within it, and so, he was happy. For he had his toys that he loved to play with, the bright colors of the world that amazed him, and the kind, old people that seemed to care for him.
But as time went on, and the boy became a young man, the world became colder and crueler, and slowly, the warmth and kindness he had grown up with began to fade from his world.
But still, he did not change. Though the world became cold and cruel, he kept his spark of that golden warmth alive, hoping that someday, it would come back. That golden, warm, world where he had grown up and been welcomed, he wanted that world.
Because in the new world, he was not welcomed warmly.
Where there had been smiles, there was now silence. Where there had been love, there was only hate. What had been once pure became spoiled. Things that had been familiar disappearing, one by one.
First the toys that had brought him so much joy.
Then the colors that made the world gold and warm.
Finally, the kind, old, people he had known, the ones who seemed to love him, they too seemed to leave.
He was confused by this. What had happened to the golden, warm, world he had grown up in?
When he asked why, nobody seemed to know.
In its place, things had become cold and cruel instead, a harsh reality where there had once been a land of dreams.
He was, for the first time in his life, scared and alone.
So he decided to try and make friends, because maybe if he wasn't alone, he wouldn't be so afraid in the strange, cruel, world.
But where his weakness had been accepted, it was now rejected. Where he showed love, he received only hate. The harder he tried, the more alone he seemed to become, and the more cold and scary the world seemed to him.
But that didn't stop him from trying again and again. Even when things were at their worst, he tried to be the good boy he had been before.
Because he clung to that hope, that golden hope, that maybe one day he could find the golden, warm world he loved so much. He knew it had to be there somewhere.
So all he had to do was find it.
But he was slowly losing hope, and one night, as he fell asleep, cold and alone, he saw a shooting star.
With that star, he made a wish.
“Please don't let me be alone.”
That was his wish.
Though he knew it was a selfish wish,he hoped someone like him would come to help him.
But nothing happened, and that night, he fell asleep with a heavy heart. The aching void where there had been warmth in his heart seemed stronger than ever before.
That night, in his dreams, he saw a beautiful woman before him who gestured for him to approach.
Slowly and carefully, but eyes glimmering with hope, he approached her.
When he got close, she held him, and her warm, tender, embrace put a smile on his face.
“Who are you? Where am I? Is this the world where I belong?” he asked her, hoping that maybe that this was the golden world he so dearly sought.
At this, she smiled sadly before she answered.
“I am only the queen of dreams, and this is the land of dreams. This is not the world to which you belong.” she said.
“But… but then where do I belong?” he asked her, and though the fear returned to his heart, the hope was still in his eyes. Though he knew the truth in his heart that he tried so hard to deny,
At this, she sighed sadly, holding him as close as she could before she told him the truth.
“There.” she said, making a image of the cold, cruel world that he had come from.
“B...but… where's the world I know? That golden, warm, world? I cant belong there! There’s no place for me there!” he asked her.
She sighed the greatest, saddest, sigh yet, as she pitied him with all her heart, for she knew that the truth she was about to tell him would break him, but it was one he needed to know.
“That IS the golden, warm world you know. Or rather, the true form of it. It was always liked that, but when you were younger, you didn't know it. I'm sorry. It's not your fault that's it's this way. It's just the way it is.” she said.
At this, the young man began to sob into her chest.
“No… no… no! It can't be. It can't be. It can't be…” he sobbed before, in a desperate attempt to try and save himself from his despair, he began to ask questions.
“But the toys… they loved me! Why would they leave me? They didn't hate me, did they?” He asked her.
“No. They loved you as much as they could, but they had to go as you got older. They had no choice, because you were no longer a boy, and that is who the toys were meant for.” she said.
“But.. but… the colors! The people that were kind! Where did they go?” He asked her desperately.
“The people that were kind… they died, for they were old, as all old things do. The colors were just part of the mask the world wore.” She said sadly.
The boy knew what death was. Until now though, he hadn't paused to think too hard on it.
Now he knew all too well what had happened.
Now, having known all this, the young man began to sob uncontrollably.
“Why? Why did you tell me this? Did you tell me this because you hate me, because you knew it wild make me miserable?!” He roared suddenly with utter rage, howling mad before he once again returned to sobbing.
“No. I told you this because I love you so much. You needed to know the truth, no matter how much it hurt. Seeing you struggle so hard for something that you’ll never obtain… it's pitiful, and I didn't want you to suffer that cruel fate.” She told him, tears running down her beautiful face as she held him.
“Then… why can't I stay here with you? Please, I'll do anything, anything, I just don't want to go back to that world!” He said, begging her desperately amidst his sobs.
She shook her head slowly, as if it were the heaviest of weights, and closed her eyes, unable to bear the sight of his crying face any more.
“I can't. You don't belong to this world. That is an ironclad rule that I cannot change. You can visit here in your dreams, and I will love you even when no one else will, but you cannot stay forever in this world. I'm sorry. That's just the way it is.” She said as she held him tight.
For a long time, the young man would not stop crying, and when he did, his eyes were now devoid of the hope, instead, it had been replaced by a sort of sad acceptance.
“Feeling better?” She asked him gently.
“Yes.” He said in a cold, empty tone.
“Then you know you have to go back now.” she said.
“Yes. I do. Goodbye.” He said.
“Goodbye.” she said to him.
The next morning, when the young man woke up, he did not forget his dream. He kept going on the best he could, and lived for the precious nights in his dreams where she would comfort him.
But slowly, little by little, he was fading. With only the hope of the reprieve his sleep brought him, his energy slowly faded away, little by little, until one day, he died when his heart simply stopped beating.
He was alone when he died. Throughout the rest of his life, he had never found anyone else that he would call a friend.
His last thoughts (as there was no one to tell his last words to) weren’t how he wished he wasn't alone in the end.
Rather, it was one, comforting thought now that let him pass away in peace:
That now, at long last, he could perhaps be with her forever, now that he would no longer belong to the cold, cruel world he had come to know.
Thus, he passed away peacefully, and as his spirit went off to the afterlife, it went to her, the one he loved so dearly.
There, in the land of dreams, he hugged the woman he loved so dearly, content at last.
For he was no longer alone, and he could be with her forever.
The End.
He had finished it. It had taken a long time, but it was finished. In the aftermath of his writing, he quietly edited it carefully, then submitted it in for a small paycheck. Under the Pen name of Yami Kazemaru, of course. If anyone asked him, by chance, if he was Yami, he would reply that Yami was his cousin. Of course, this is a lie. There is no cousin Yami. But that doesn't matter now. What does matter is that it was soon published in the magazine, although he had no idea what the reception for it would be. Perhaps it would be a story of merit worth noting, or perhaps it would simply fade away into history. Who knows? Fin. | |
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