Deptheless: Under the Library

by Tiffany Tay

  With a sigh, I trudged down the slope towards gran, taking care to hold out my double scoop in a way to prevent it from melting. I didn’t want to lick it yet--- no, I always let gran have the first lick of any ice cream I buy. She adores the taste of ice cream. But because of health measures, she wasn’t allowed more than one mouthful, which sucks.

  “Gran! Come back in! I’ve got your favourite ice cream!” I yell. In truth, I had chosen this flavour to match her taste. Gran absolutely favoured banana pecan, for some reasons of her own. She says it brings back fond memories of her past. I would’ve bought her a dozen cones to make her happy, but I wasn’t allowed to. I’d really give anything for gran to be her old self again.

  Gran turns, but she stares at something behind me. I glance over my shoulder, and I see… her.

  It’s her again. I immediately turn, and I catch my breath. Under the sunlight, her golden hair sparkles like glittery silk. A light dash of freckles splatters in a cute manner across her nose, and her eyes… they were so bright, so blue, so sweet.

  Without meaning to, I feel my breathing increase speed. I could only fix my sight onto her. She was standing by herself, gazing out to the waters, with a dreamy look upon her face.

  She was small, lithe and pretty, dressed in a velvet blue dress and black shoes which weren’t suited for park attire, but complimenting her anyway. She looks about ten, with wide eyes and a small face.

  I continued staring at her, and she doesn’t notice my presence. I feel the sun bearing down on me, probably melting my ice-cream, but I hardly acknowledged anything else at that moment.

  Then, she shifted her head ever so slightly, and all of a sudden, her gaze catches mine. Cheeks blazing, I stare at my dripping ice cream. When I dared risk another glance, I see her staring forlornly at… my ice cream.

  Her small mouth was hanging slightly agape, and her brilliant eyes trailed my every movement… no, my ice cream’s every movement.

  “Go on, she wants your ice cream.” I feel a warm hand on my shoulder. Startled, I jumped a little, and a drop of banana pecan ice cream trickled down my hand, making it sticky.

  “Wh---what” I stammer, but gran just nods her head and smiles.

  “It’s only what gentlemen do, David. You hold something treasurable, which bring indescribable pleasure, to yourself. Others hunger after what you have, but they can’t always afford the expanses of what you have.”

  “So…” I stammer, feeling a little mortified.

  “Give it to her, dear Davie. Let her enjoy the sweet pleasures of childhood. As a growing boy, you had already encountered many pleasurable events in your life, and you would soon have the chance to experience more such moments. She is still young. She needs the extra nourishment, the brightness in her young life she has yet to live---“

  “Um… okay.” It doesn’t matter, everyone knew gran was this persistent when it comes to what her dream ‘life’ is. Anyway, I was getting tired of having the cream trickle down to my hand and staining my shirt.

  Uncertainly, I approach her. Her eyes brighten when she saw me. I could feel my face heat up with every step. Until at last, I’m standing in a flaming heap right in front of her. “Uh… you can have this.” I say, shoving the ice at her.

  The smile on her face was priceless as she realized she was to be bestowed upon with this delectable surprise. Her words of thanks barely escaped her lips when a deafening boom echoed throughout the summer air.

  I hear many screams, I was one of the screamers. I lunge at the girl, who in total shock, let the top scoop of the ice cream slide off the cone, splattering onto the broiling grass with a sizzle.

  Another sonic boom blasted behind me. With a defiant cry, I throw myself at the girl, and together, we roll a little way down the slope nearing the lake as explosion after explosion sounded throughout the park.

  “Mommy!” she screamed. My heart leaped into my throat. “Mom? Dad? Gran? Brooke?” I shout, but to no avail. Realizing the hopelessness of the situation, I quickly jump up from the ground and brush the mud from my clothes.

  “Stay here.” Turning towards her, I ordered her.

  Her two eyes welled up with tears, shining like a crystal lake. “I’m scared.” She whimpered over the roaring explosions. “I want mummy!” She started crying, sobbing, choking.

  A tight band crawled around my heart and squeezed. I couldn’t just leave her like this… her with her fragile mind, her sweet beauty of haven’t yet had being processed by the cruel world…

  “It’s the safest option. “I assured her. While I’m dead scared of whatever I might see up there, I couldn’t just cower down here like a scaredy-cat.

  I turn to race up the slope. Forcing my every step upwards, forcing myself to not look back, just concentrate on going forward, on looking for my family…

  When all of a sudden, I’m thrown onto my back on the ground as an ear-splitting reverberation resonated right behind me.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven// David

  David’s POV

  When the realization of what had just happened hit me directly in my face, I let out the coursed up frustration from deep within in one guttural scream.

  “No!!!” I holler, tears blinding my sight, as I crawl away, further from the death scene, further away from her pure essence, now disintegrated, away from the demise which could’ve befallen me if I had lingered a minute more.

  She was too young, too innocent, to be so brutally murdered. And that was it. Murder. She was murdered, and I hadn’t even leaned her name, let alone saved her. The things gran had told me before suddenly seemed extremely brutal. Yes, she was still young. She still had life’s many flavours to taste. There was so much sweetness installed for her yet… it seemed all too cruel to replace that with an overdose of the flames of death.

  In my foggy state of mind, I had realized I’d reached the park area. But, where were my family?

  “Brooke! Gran! Mom, dad?” I yell, to no avail.

  Chaos ruled. All around me, the park erupted in flames, dazzling, a strange purple colour. Most of everything man-made had been reduced to ashes. Scorched patches burn on the ground, craters as deep as my height spread downwards, evidence of the latest brutal attack.

  “Mooomm!!! Daad! Gran! Brooke!” I yelled myself hoarse, running in directionless circles, with anxious tears dribbling down my face, clouding my sights.

  Far off, I could hear the sound of a giant truck revving up its engine, but I don’t stop to think what that means. Shouts echoed all around, from boisterous men, and I could hear the wailing of women and children as they slump over their wounded family members.

  “Gran!” I scream, gasping, clutching my heaving chest to steady my heartbeat. “Where are you?” Tears keep pricking my eyes, but still, I persist. I keep searching.

  At one point, I remember running past a hysterical young woman with honey curls. Sobbing, she reaches out and grips my shoulders tight.

  “My daughter! My little girl Alice… have you seen her?” She shrieks piteously in my face, her grief-stricken blue eyes an electrifying reminder of the loss I had just experienced.

  Something in the way I resounded must’ve let her in on the truth, because her eyes widen with unmistakable agony, and she releases her grip on my shoulder.

  I crumple to the ground, consumed with tribulation. The mother was no better. Thoroughly heartbroken, she turns towards the lake, before I could issue a shout, and in a matter of seconds, I hear a resounding splash, striking me into temporary immobilization.

  I don’t know how long I spent, hunched in a heap in the middle of the fiery purple land. The explosions had long ceased, like some sort of unacceptable irony. Overhead, the sun only served to ignite the grassy plains, the trees blazed to life, engulfing all last traces of life.

  “David!” I hear a voice. Distant, far off, but still a voice. And it’s calling out my name.

  “Gran… how’s… how is heaven?” Is she still in my mind? Even after death, her voice sounds so u
nmistakable clear, loud, ringing through the flickering of the deathly flames.

  “David!” Then I hear another voice.

  “Brooke!” I yell. She charges out of a thicket of trees, her blonde hair now singled and smoking.

  “Get up! David! Run!” Gran’s voice calls out now, breathless, as she comes into view, a thin figure, now full of speed, as she zipped around burning park benches and flaming bushes.

  “Gran?” Warily, I stand. I couldn’t process this. I couldn’t process what was happening. Then she runs straight to me, and tugs at my arm, then at Brooke’s.

  “Come on! David, Brooke, we have to run! Quick, before they come! Before they take us!” I’d never seen her this overwrought.

  I stagger to my feet, hardly daring to believe that in all the odds, my gran and my sister are still alive.

  “Where---“ I cough, the horrible vile smoke stealing into my lungs.

  Gran turns towards me, and I swear, I could never look at her without seeing that look in her eyes. Never again. Extreme disconsolateness, heartache… chagrin, depressed.

  “They’re gone, Davie. Gone.” Her voice catches, and I feel a wave of numbness rise from my throat, spilling out, washing me over like a tidal wave… By my side, Brooke chokes on a sob.

  “I’m so sorry.” Gran says, looking exorbitantly dejected. “I--- I witness the whole thing.” She says in a soft voice, pulling me and Brooke tight, embracing us, while I could only stare past her shoulder, my eyes with a certain level of dryness like those pools which had never lasted up till now.

  The tears would come later, I knew. In fact, it wasn’t until we reached safe quarters that the tears did make an appearance. But that was a different story altogether. My future. Our future. And gran seemed to know what I was thinking.

  Giving me a tight squeeze, she pulls away and grabs our hands.

  “Come, now.” She says, urgently scanning the area. “We must leave.”

  “Where to?” We had started running, but I dug my feet into the ground pulling gran to a stop. “I don’t want to go home.” I persisted. Panic bubbled up my throat. No matter where gran took me, no matter what would become of us… I would never, ever, want to step foot into that place of vacancy.

  “Go! We have to keep moving!” She urges me, and I have no choice but to rush after her. Alarms blared, sirens wailed, piteous moans echoed around us. With every step came a growing sensation to just shake myself out of grans clutches and just throw myself into the fire, just consume what grief I’d felt. Like what Alice’s mother did to herself…

  Almost as if sensing my depressed thoughts, gran pulled me into an alleyway, and gave me a little shake. “David! Please, stay with me! I know what you are going through is beyond tough, but you have to be strong!” her tears overflowed, trickling down her cheeks, muffling her voice.

  “Your past may have been obliterated, just like that. But you know… after every bit has burnt down… there are still pieces left over. Pieces that mean more to just ashes. Pieces of what makes you stronger, changes you and builds you up.”

  She pauses for breath in between what must’ve been her most encouraging speech in the most desperate of times, but still, she never stopped being the gentle lady I will always love.

  Brooke tears up again. “She’s right, Davie. They burn, but they are still remembered, Davie. And we must honour their existence by living---“

  She wasn’t allowed to complete her sentence. A resonating blast echoed from behind, and she throws me to the lane to the left.

  “Keep running!” Gran orders between breaths. “The Library! Find the library! Take shelter!” She gasps, urging my sister and I to run faster.

  Brooke is lagging behind. I want to stop, to wait for her, but gran pushes me forward.

  On I go, stumbling blindly through the horrible nightmarish world.

  At least we were safe now. At least we still have each other--- the three of us.

  At least, that’s what I had thought.

  All of a sudden, out of nowhere, a shadow emerged from the side, a young boy of around my age leaped shakily in front of me, blocking my path.

  Slowly, he draws out something from his belt. Something long and black, and pointy. I gasp, and stagger back into gran, who shoves me behind her.

  “I--- don’t move, or I’d be forced to shoot!” The boy quivered. He’s too young… too young to be mixed up in all of this. And yet, here he stood, a boy with blonde hair and an uncertain expression, wielding one of the world’s most lethal invention.

  “You don’t really want to shoot us.” Brooke quips, stepping quickly to the front. She acted so spontaneously, it startled me. “You were forced into this, against you will.” In one swift movement, she had stepped right in front of gran and I, either being reckless, or incredibly brave.

  I wished I could do something… anything, to just stop this from happening. But… nothing. I was rooted to the spot, and it’s incredibly embarrassing for me to admit it: I didn’t know what to do.

  It was Brooke who saved us, though. The boy’s eyes dart back and forth between Brooke and the stampeding army, growing closer with every step. He swallowed nervously. “I--- you don’t know what you’re talking about.” He said, his voice giving him away.

  “Come on, you know what you feel. You don’t want to do this. Please!” She said, the urgency in her voice rising notably.

  At last, when I thought he wasn’t going to back down, the guns started firing up from behind. We jumped. He paled noticeably as the approaching army hollered unintelligible phrases.

  It only took him three seconds to come to a decision. “Follow me!” He yelled over the deafening roar, and charged towards the right, taking a turn around a splintered building.

  “Go.. .Go!” Brooke waved us on. She grabbed my hand, and started dragging me along. I bend down, as volley after volley of bullets pelted through the air, aiming at everyone in sight.

  We had just reached a shabby doorway, seeming to lead underground. The boy disappeared down the entrance, and gran stood at the doorway, waving at us to hurry.

  With a frustrated scream, I pushed myself through the last mile. I was going to make it. We were going to make it. We would be safe at last, away from the world we know, true, but safe.

  At last, just as I reached the door, I feel Brooke’s grip on mine slacken. Concerned, I turn around... just in time to see her sink to the ground, her hand clutching her abdomen.

  Time seemed to stop. It was a dizzying moment as I sunk to my knees, staring open-mouthed as my sister contorted sickeningly, blood sputtering our of her wound. She coughed, and blood spewed out everywhere.

  “Brooke!” I cried, reaching out, wanting to drag her in. But even then, even in my twelve years of life, I looked at her and saw, with a horrible amount of misery, that she could not be saved.

  I took her hand. The tears managed to escape, and were now flowing freely down my grimy face. “Oh, Brooke… you took the bullet for me, didn’t you?” My voice brorke as I said that.

  Her eyes lolled upwards, and I clutch her face until she focuses on me.

  “Davie… I--- I love you.” She manages to gasp out. Her pupils dilate horrible, and her body never stops convulsing. Still, she managed to hold on… hold on to those precious last moments of her fragile life, and she reserved them for me.

  And I was all too shattered to want to believe that. To believe that I was losing her. My sister, my best friend, the one who would always pull through, to be at my side, no matter how much we would bicker…

  Suddenly, she gave my hand a squeeze. Staring lovingly into my eyes, she doesn’t let go of me. With some difficulty, she forms her mouth to say her last words to me: “Go, David.”

  Her body slackened, and she went limp in my arms.

  I couldn’t move until gran dragged me away. Away from my sister, away from the world of death and misery…

  And down… under the library.

  And when I woke up, all I could register w
as the dull ache rebeverating in my chest, alongside a slight confused sensation.

  I was pretty sure that the flames in my dream were a livid purple.

  A/N: Hi! Sorry, I had to separate this into two parts, it’s so long! :/

  How do you feel after reading this? Please share your thoughts with me! It’s not over yet, btw.

  Oh, and this was inspired by a trip to the ice cream shop, watching two boys greedily scoop ice cream into their mouths, watching a young girl stare innocently up at me… yeah. Amazing how much the imagination stretches.

  Sorry for the sad sob story. It had to be told. And there you have it--- the scoop on David’s miserable past! Don’t forget to vote and comment! Love you! :)

  ~Tiffany

  Chapter Twenty-Eight// Alex

  Alex’s POV

  “I don’t care if I never sleep again, all I want now is to break through those invisible barriers and haul her back up to safety!” I snap. Then after my outburst, I slump my back, shocked at my own behaviour. I never snap at people! I do get frustrated, true, but just you wait until someone under your care is dying, yes, dying, somewhere deep underground.

  Jocelyn rubs her bloodshot round eyes, a reproachful look in her face. “Well, the best you could do to help…” she rants, “is to stop moping around and get some rest! In this state, you can’t even think straight, let alone give out sane orders. “

  “I mean,” she continues after I sent her a death glare. “Really? Forcing a team to join hands and lower themselves down the chasm? After what happened to Stella? That’s unlike you, Alex. The Alex I know does not give out dumb orders, nor does he refuse sleep just because he is over-obsessed with the curse and its progressions.”

  I furrow my brows in annoyance. All her high-pitched chatter is making me dizzy and tired.. oh, so tired. I open my mouth to form a retort, but she holds up her arms and makes a big show of waving them in front of my face.

  “Really, Alex? We’ve been through this countless times. We’ve spoke with Niko, and Stella, and David… pretty much everyone else around the scene at that time. I thought we had come to a conclusion? It was all pretty much an accident, you heard it from Niko! Anyway, it’s been three days, and so far, everything is peaceful---“