Abyss
I sat myself down in the vehicle seat carefully. It was my first time in one of these land transportations that Sarit always described.
The world whirled by me so fast. I looked at the man next to me. Despite seeing his power in the water, he looked so serene, so harmless here. He seemed to carry himself with a composure I had never seen before him.
"If only he wasn't an Akkorokamui, he'd fit in our tribe the most," I thought to myself. Sometimes I saw glimpses of something more under the surface with him. I'm not sure anyone can ever truly be completely evil when they treat a child they didn't bring into this world as the only blessing in theirs. I knew he was only a few years older when the incident happened. However, Akkorokamui are unpredictable.
He may seem nice now, but that can change in a heartbeat. I watched as Pixie played. She was such a cute tree sprite. The way she seemed to glow in a special way, it would be hard for me not to notice she was special even if I had not already known from the report. I wondered what would happen to her if I took out her whole family. I felt a pang of guilt.
Suddenly I felt that maybe I am no better than them who did this to me.
I would take her in, but being taken in by the man who harmed your family? I wouldn't dare. That would be a heavier burden on her than anything. Plus, I was too young to be a guardian or parent. I wouldn't even know how.
The vehicle arrived and as we got out, he stopped the chauffeur and instead held out his hand to help me out. His demeanor toward me this last month or so had suddenly changed to an active curiosity. I wasn't even sure why. My head instead thought of that grave wood with my name on it.
Did he know something? Was he really just trying to get closer to kill me? He was practically cursing me in my eyes. I couldn't shake the suspicion that maybe he had figured out who I am.
My thoughts were quickly distracted as Pixie skipped around, pulling us toward the booths. She had an exuberance I fear neither of us could match.
The both of us exchanged slightly nervous glances. I could see drops of sweat forming on his forehead. Taking notice, he commented, "the weather is quite hot."
I then pulled out a cloth and dabbed his brow, getting closer as I did. Our faces were suddenly close. We stared into each other's eyes for a moment; I felt a bit lost in the depth of them.
He looked at me, his chest slowly rising in a deep breath. I didn't expect him to be so soft.
Everything I knew of his kind and this tribe told me to be extremely cautious. The man in front of me, though, looked like a gentle soul. He looked like his skin was soft and his heart as well. I wondered how anyone could see him as stony.
He seemed to look at me with a bittersweet, sad longing. I almost felt the urge to cry. I forced myself to turn to keep an eye on Pixie. She was prancing around, eating some sort of cotton candy. "Pixie, that's not very healthy," he said in father mode, leaning down.
She pouted and started batting her big eyes at him. Watching this sight made me emotional. So this is what family love looks like. It was like watching them in their own little world. It was a beautiful sight.
The sky started to darken a bit. "Papa, phi Abyss, can we go watch the fireworks? Please!" she bounced a bit, pointing in the direction the set up was occurring. Slightly to the left was a stand selling floating candle lanterns. We stopped to look at them. I could not see what Onyx wrote in his, but he looked at me softly, smiling.
I wrote on mine, "I wish to have a family," thinking how nice it would be to have one like these two have in each other.
The three of us held the lanterns and slowly released them into the sky together, holding Pixie's hands in our own as we sent them up.
Now as we watched it float away, I looked to the side and saw him hugging her shoulders. He noticed my glance and turned to me, flashing a sweet smile in the warm lantern glow.
Suddenly the fireworks started a bit away. Pixie gasped in surprise and he smiled, watching the fireworks fly. It was a bit loud for me, but my first time seeing them.
He picked her up and hoisted her onto his shoulders, letting her sit there and holding her arms. She bounced up there a bit, enjoying the higher view, completely trusting him.
I watched the fireworks in awe. We stayed there a while, just genuinely enjoying it. No pretense, no boundaries, just enjoying the life in front of our eyes.
I found myself starting to feel joy, an emotion I seldom had. The world looked so free from here. It isn't as if the ocean didn't have some societies or versions of fun, but perhaps I was too used to them and the dangers. Too used to feeling the sorrow in the place I didn't feel like home any longer.
Up here, yes, I can see the world is very complicated and unusual. However, it sparkled. The cities lit up just as the sky before me.
To me, that looked breathtaking. When the fireworks finally died down, we waited for the smoke to clear. We sat on a blanket, leaning back on it, staring at the stars.
He looked over at me. "You look like you've never seen this before," he said softly.
I shook my head. "I have, but not like this. Not truly," I replied with the same softness.
Pixie looked back and forth between us before rolling around playing with the grass.
I felt Onyx bump his hand against mine. I looked at it; his eyes trailed there briefly. However, I didn't make any move. I let him linger there. We stared up, finally seeing the moon.
It was the most beautiful thing I'd seen yet. A red hue covered it and its dark shadow. Somehow seeing its darkness and the red reminded me of him. For the first time, that didn't instill fear; it didn't bother me. It looked simply beautiful.
"The moon sure is pretty tonight," I murmered, looking over at them. Onyx's eyes widened for a moment. Pixie giggled.
"What?" I asked, a bit confused. Pixie was about to speak up when he stuffed her mouth with spinach. Instead she went, "Bleghhhhhh, Pa!!"
He turned to me. "It's nothing, let's just keep watching the moon."
I turned, now resuming admiring the sky above us. I still noticed out of the corner of my eye, I could swear it looked as if his face had turned vivid red.
It must have been a trick of the dim light.