Whooosh!!!
Cold winds brushed through the canopies of trees, the leaves swaying and dancing to their rhythm.
"Bzzzt."
A young boy, barely ten years old, clutched his oversized woolen coat.
He tried to block any and all breaches to his body, yet it was all for naught, as the cold night breeze intensified, scoffing at his futile attempt.
"It's really cold, let's get inside," he muttered through chattering teeth, his gaze shifting from his father to the tent standing behind them.
"Hahahaha, with this little conviction, you want to become a hero?" his father teased with a mocking smile.
The two looked identical, like a grown-up reflection of the latter.
Both had square faces, hazel eyes, and reddish-brown hair, their looks certainly above average.
"This is nothing." Embarrassed, the little boy threw down his woolen coat, trying to act tough, but almost immediately, the wind reminded him of his folly.
He quickly took back the coat and wrapped it around himself even tighter. "Heroes don't need to fight against the cold; they fight crime and villains," he said, lips pursed in defiance.
"Hahahaha," his father laughed heartily as he ruffled his hair.
"A hero is not only defined by that, you know. It's not only the external battles but, most important, the battles you fight within..." his father said, his tone solemn as he looked up at the night sky.
"If you are impregnable, there is nothing you can't face," he added, the sound of night adding weight to his words.
The boy, too young to understand his father's words, could only follow his gaze.
He too looked up at the sky, entranced by the beautiful constellations above.
Despite the absence of the moon, the night sky was brilliant, hosting billions of glittering stars.
The canopies of the tall trees parted enough for them to view the beauty above, their branches adding more serenity to the view.
"Dad, I wanna come here with Mom and Asya next time..." the boy said happily, wishing to share this beauty with the rest of his family.
"Yeah, a star rain should happen in three years, I think... We will all..." The father paused mid-sentence.
His sudden silence drew his son's attention, curious as to why his father had stopped mid-sentence.
"Da... Dad?" To his horror, his father had begun to glitch, weaving in and out of existence.
Like a broken game character.
One would have screamed or panicked, yet the boy just teared up, seemingly expecting it to happen yet wishing it didn't.
An inevitable phenomenon he had decided to ignore; maybe if he ignored it this time, it wouldn't happen.
Yet...
"Sniff, sniff!!" Like a broken dam, the tears began to flow, his hazel eyes clouded by sorrow and unwillingness.
"Don't go, Dad..." He threw off his oversized coat, hugging his father tightly, holding on to him as if his grip could change the inevitable.
"...The star rain is today..." he choked out through sobs, burying his head in his father's wool jacket.
Tears and snot stained the fabric, yet the man did not move, not even a pulse.
The boy's head bobbed forward, then backward, as his father's glitching intensified, his body becoming literal nothingness whenever he weaved between existence.
"Please..." The boy tightened his embrace.
"Dad... Dad... the stars... the shooting stars, they're here..." The boy cried out, releasing his embrace—no, rather, releasing one of his hands, one gripping tightly to his father's woolen coat while the other pointed upwards, showing his father the scene of numerous shooting stars, like a rain of stars falling but never reaching the Earth.
The once-still sky was now traced by numerous falling stars.
"Please, look... Look, the star rain is here... Sniff... Dad, look, please look at it. It's here." The tears continued to fall, his body shivering from the sheer emotion he felt at the inevitable.
His father, though looking up, could not see what his son pointed to, his hazel eyes devoid of life, stale and emotionless.
"Dad." He turned back to his father, gripping tightly with both hands, his hands occasionally missing the feel of his father as the glitching continued.
"Please, I beg you, don't leave me again..." he cried out, his voice, which should have been childlike, now a bit more mature, creaking like the voice of an early adolescent male.
"I can't... I can't be like you without you..." he sobbed, his body slowly morphing to that of a thirteen-year-old, standing at an imposing 5'5".
The tears, like an ever-flowing river, did not stop, each stream carrying his pain, his anguish, his vision now completely blurred.
Overwhelmed, he once again hugged his father. "Please, Dad, Mom is not the same. The house feels empty without you," he sobbed, his voice trembling with desperation.
The glitching intensified.
"NO!! No!! No!! Please... please don't go... please don't leave us again... please!!" He tightened his embrace, the veins on his hands slightly bulging as he used all his strength, yet it was to no avail as the feeling of nothingness quickly replaced the warmth of his father.
"Father, please, I need your guidance once more..." he cried out, his body falling face-first to the ground as his father's body disappeared from existence.
"Dad!! Dad!! Dad!!..." With a thud, he hit the ground, his tear-filled eyes now gazing at familiar yet unfamiliar soil, not the land littered with dead leaves but a flourishing carpet of grass, its vibrant green corrupted by a crimson-red liquid.
"If you are impregnable, there is nothing you can't face," his father's voice, like a whisper in the wind, wafted into his ears.
"DAD!!..." he croaked out, a sharp pain assailing his lungs as he spat a mouthful of blood.
An unknown pain shot through his body.
His whole body ached, every breath more painful than the last.
The vibrations of his own heartbeat added to the agony he felt.
"Argh." He couldn't even voice out his pain, only think of it, his lungs pulsating in agony as he felt hot liquid crashing in a place where no liquids should be; his lungs.
"It hurts... what's going on?" Unable to speak, he could only think internally, his blurry vision trying to make heads and tails of what was happening.
He was with his father a few moments ago, but now...
All he could feel was pain, his whole body pulsating with it, his once comforting heartbeat now adding to the torment.
"Dad... Asya... anyone..." he tried to wail, tried to call out, yet the simple action of speaking was unbearable.
He was unconsciously convulsing in pain, that very action adding more to his suffering.
Weeeh!! Ooooh!! Weeeh!! Ooooh!!
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A/N
And so we begin.
Sigh... I really enjoyed planning this novel, hope you would stay for a while, maybe through out.
Ps. I ain't trying to be pitiful here, just me voicing my thoughts