Volume 4 – Chapter 17: A Flicker in the Dark

Date: September 23

Last 8 Days

Light filtered in from the sun through the worn curtains, lit finely across the dusty floor. Kaito opened his eyes slowly, feeling rather as if an approaching end pressed heavier with each passing day toward him.

Today, though, the air was different-a fragile sense of purpose.

Rika was already awake and sitting by the window with a notebook scribbling something in it, her brow furrowed in concentration. Kaito glanced towards her for a moment; so much so that the world might be crumbling outside, yet stubbornly enough, life still bloomed in this space.

"Writing something?" he asked, all sleep laden in his voice.

Rika looked up, a small, almost shy smile on her lips.

"Names," she said simply. "Things I don't want to remember. People I don't want to forget."

Kaito sat up, the blanket slipping from his shoulders. "Can I see?"

Rika hesitated, and then nodded, handing the notebook to him.

Flipping through the pages, Kaito came upon names-some of the friends, a few family, even a few he's met fleetingly during his journey. Beside some were little notes written-distant memories fading like photographs.

"You think just writing them will save them?" Kaito asked, almost whispered to her.

Rika shrugged and said through soft lips with determination as if sealing a deal.

"Maybe not, but it will save me. I don't want to forget those things that matter... even up to the end."

Getting the book from Kaito and handing it back to her, his chest tightened with emotion.

"You won't," he said quietly. "I'll make sure of it."

This made Rika smile a little brighter this time, reaching out to take his hand.

"We'll make sure of it," she corrected.

The sky outside, however, was heavy and bruised; but within these two hearts beat impatiently against all tides of time, writing a story onto a future that might never come but one they still believed enough to touch.