Chapter 5:
Setting Sun Story: Beta
West Main Road. - Adam - 6:35 PM
The moon stamped upon the Eastern sky, Adam and Julian walk beside the Western Main Road. The road is lowered, pressed down below the raised stone sidewalk they travel along, and separated by a railing. Julian is sorely disappointed, and Adam is too distracted looking up at the stars to care.
“Julian, why am I the only one bothered by the sky?” Adam asks.
Julian is too focused on his faltered vision to bash him for such an outlandish thought.
“Please, just let me wallow in peace.”
“Geez, didn’t know you cared about her that much.”
“Never get your hopes up about anything, Adam,” Julian states in defeat. Adam twitches in response, but chooses to keep his head up.
As he continues to limp, Julian looks over with bloodshot eyes.
“Yeah. You know, I actually thought about it a little. I get what you mean, but if we had it any other way, I’m sure you’d just get tired of that too. I’m telling you, just like I’ve told you every other time. It’s just not something you should dwell on,” Julian says depressingly.
Adam scrunches up his face pretending to give it thought. He takes in air through his teeth.
“What do you know? What, you think it’d be better as blue?” Julian asks, starting to laugh. “I mean, come on, doesn’t that prospect sound strange at all?”
Adam has imagined that exact sight before. As it was stated in the Savior’s Prophecy, an old book of ideologies known to the people of Baustas, but read by almost none, the sky was once a different hue. Everyday evolving into a variety of different colors... but if the entirety of the sky were taken up by the outstanding imprint of that butterfly… He smiles, almost crying.
“You’ve clearly lost it. The Chaos erupted hundreds of years ago, if that. It might even just be a legend.”
“Imagine a world, okay… where the stars are all infinite different colors, brighter and more beautiful than what we see under the atmosphere. The green of the grass, vibrant, splashing out for miles on end!” Adam exclaims.
“One of the old Librarians, I brought it up one da-”
Adam feels lost. Julian digs into him time and time again over his thoughts and dreams, but this heavy handed inquisition is unheard of.
“Which… what?” Adam asks as Julian puts his hands on Adam’s shoulders, making him feel tiny.
“This librarian! If he’s saying things like this… he should have a talk with the Deacons,” He says, his mouth overflowing with out of place anger.Adam’s voice cracks as he draws out nervous laughter.
“They’re just stories… be- besides, they’re… Deacons themselves,” He squeaks.
Julian looks deep into his eyes, as if inspecting every nook and cranny in his brain. He finds nothing but his own reflection in pupils darker than the perfectly still lake water lying in the shadow of the moon’s light.
It feels like Julian has been interrogating him for an eternity.
“D-dissent?” Adam asks, flabbergasted at the serious tone, the corners of his mouth curling downward.
Adam gulps down masses of pressure from his mouth.
“Uh, right. I, uh… definitely don’t… dissent?” Adam says, mentally pleading with Julian to rip his hands from him.
“Good, because if this Librarian’s implying a will against the Savior’s,” Julian says triumphantly.
There he goes again, using that label with unbridled arrogance.
“N- nobody’s implying anything! That’s just you!” Adam yells, gathering the courage to pull himself away.
Julian scowls, shrugging the whole thing off, and walking off down the street, at least trying to without his soreness making him too pathetic.
Adam isn’t sure what to make of it… things must be getting hard for him, to act so harshly.
Deciding to take a different path home, Adam slips under the railing on the sidewalk, and crosses down over to the park.
“My hesitance in finally joining up probably isn’t helping him,” Adam says to no one.
Paulcin Residence, Baustas - Adam - End of Day, 6:50 PM
Adam steps into an entryway identical to Arrabelle’s home. Though the stairs remain in the same place, the middle room is nothing more than a hall, with the dining room combined to the kitchen in the back, resulting in the head of the steps wrapping around to end parallel the entryway wall, and a flatter square-footage overall.
Below the stairs is another door, leading to the master bedroom, with the top of the steps curving outward, to the upstairs bedroom.
Passing him into the kitchen she looks over her shoulder.
“A little present,” she replies. Adam raises an eyebrow.
“You’ll see it when you get up there… how was today?” She asks, propping herself up on the counter.
“Well that can’t be all!”
“Thank you! I’m not the only one giving gifts, huh,” she says, popping off the counter to receive.
His lungs preparing to collapse by the second, Adam finally wrenches himself away, his own rebirth.
“Sho? You gif any thouggt to the acahemi?” Clara asks, mouth full of sweet bread.
Adam blinks, shaking his head as he tries to take it in.
“I know, tafe yo tam. But if you wan’ my advife,” She swallows, “It’ll be great for you.”
Adam didn’t need to understand half the sentence to know the routinely spoken con. If she had ever gotten out of the house, he’d be quick to believe she was in cahoots with Julian to tear away his life for a future as a soldier.
Adam pulls a chair out from the table, sitting in it backwards.
“Oh? How’s he doing?”
Adam looks out the window, setting his head down.
“You’re probably just nervous.”
6:52 PM
This is it, isn’t it? This will be the course of every day, until I just rip off the bandage. The torture only ends when I accept it… but if it’s this hard to give in… shouldn’t I fight it?
Sometimes I wish they’d all just go away. The Deacons, the soldiers, everybody. Then I could just walk out of the city, no questions asked… find what I’m looking for.
All signs sadly point in one direction.
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