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After an indefinite amount of time had passed, she woke up in complete darkness.

“where…”

She’d found herself lying down on a bushes, it’s the same with the one that had saved her life from before. She felt like she just woke up from a long slumber, lightheaded, and her eyes still felt heavy.

Then, she recalled what just happened before.

“that’s right… I died…”

She raised herself and looked around her, there was nothing but void encasing her.

She stood there, in silence.

She still could not believe it, but indeed, it seemed that she had died, and the afterlife she got here was nothing but an eternal darkness.

“ah…”

How poignant, to live in such a hellish world, facing hardships after hardships after hardships, only to receive eternal darkness after she could not endure the hardships anymore, how unfair, it’s not like she gave up either, she had given her best. Was this her punishment for failing? For what reason does she even exist in this world? Why was she born? That line of thought crossed her mind for a second.

She did not care about that one bit though, the lingering regrets on her heart remains. A tear broke through her eyes, the rest followed in a torrent

She fell to her knees, and wailed as if she was being ripped apart

“ahh.. aa.. Haaaaa…”

This is it for her, in her mind ran all the thoughts of her little siblings, the thoughts of what would happen next to them.

“Sorry…”

She won’t be there on the front door tomorrow.

“I’m sorry”

No more bedtime stories for them.

“I’m sorry”

No more playing session with them.

“I’m… sorry”

No more person to clean their clothing.

“I’m.. I’m.... ah…”

Her cry became even more broken after she reached the most horrifying truth that awaits the children.

No more food for them.

They will die starving.

“waah aa… aaaa…”

It’s not fair

It’s not fair at all

She tried her best

To shoulder them

To embrace them

To protect them.

Yet she still fails.

She just wanted to protect them.

The moment she got plunged into this abyss, it was already over

It’s not fair.

This world is horribly unfair.

They’re just kids, thrown into this pandaemonic world.

They’re just kids, and yet, they’ve been punished for crimes they did not commit.

Why? Why is this world so cold? Why? Why?

She had always question that, no answer ever came, nothing.

Alone, in the dark, she wept.

Not for her, but for the children.

As she was breaking the tipping point, suddenly on the edge of her vision, she spotted something… peculiar

“ah… hah… huh?”

She had not noticed it while she was melting down, but from the looks of it, the bushes and the trees had emitted a faint, purple glow.

“what… what is”

the glow slowly intensified, until the entire room was lit up in purple.

A sight out of fairy tales she used to read every night to the children now presented itself to her. On the bushes, translucent flowers bloomed, it glow in purplish pink, some of them were swept up by the wind and float around with their brilliance intact. the grasses she was stepping on all glittered, twinkling like the object the people of old called stars.

On this magnificent scenery, she was struck with awe, never before she had witnessed such beauty, for all she knew, the whole world is nothing but death and decay.

So this is the afterlife?

It’s not so bad after all.

Now that she think about it.

All her pain is gone. She could move her legs and arms

She stood up, and walked, but when she looked around, on the bush beside her, what she saw surprised her.

“Is that…”

What lies there, is her assault rifle.

What the heck?

Why is it here?

She approached it and grabbed it, she could lift it all right, she swung it around, and inspected it, the dent in the buttocks from the fall is still there

There was still some leftover bullets in the magazine, so she raised it up, pointed it towards the sky, the sky, which is completely dark now, and fired a shot.

*Bang!

It spat out a tongue of fire and hit her with its recoil, the recoil caused her to fall down because she was pointing the gun upwards

She looked at it in disbelieve, isn’t she supposed to be dead?

How is this thing still working?

While that floats around her thought, she put in the sling of the rifle anyway, she stood back up and looked around the now magical scenery.

For a moment, she could not help but to behold this sight.

Oh how the kids are going to love this…

“Hey you there, awake already?”

Suddenly, a deep male voice called out to her.

Naturally, she turned to face the source, and naturally, she pointed her rifle towards it.

“Wow, wow, wow, calm down girl, I mean you no harm.”

“Who are you? where is this? I thought I… died?”

“Yeah right, tell me who died bringing in a working, loaded Kalashnikov to the afterlife”

The man got a point

“Now little girl, if you could kindly lower your weapon to the person that saved you, I’d be really grateful”

“You… what? S-sorry!”

She immediately lowered her weapon, and bowed to apologize to the man

“Sigh… imagine that, I’ve lived all this time, only to meets my end by a little girl with a gun, hahahaha”

He gave out a hearty laughter

“I’m… sorry, mister”

She looked upon the man.

He wore a black trench coat, from his face she could tell that he’s in his late forties probably, the man got a green eyes and hair that already went white, but overall, he looked pretty… clean.

Too clean.

“Um… so, where are we?”

“don’t worry, you’re safe here girl, I saw you being attacked by wraiths, you were lucky I got there in time, your life was hanging in the balance back then”

“I see…”

She mumbled to herself.

Turns out she haven’t died yet.

She haven’t died…

That means there’s still something else she had to do.

“Mister!”

“Hmm?”

“Home… my home, I need to go back, I need to go back up there, do you know how?”

“Ah, yes, we can talk about that, but first, let’s get back to my place okay?”

The words of the unknown man lit up her weary hearts. In this utter darkness, hope, it seems, had not abandoned her.

There’s still a chance.

She still have the chance to see her family again.

She was so overwhelmed by emotion that her legs lost it’s strength, and she fell down.

“Oi! What’s wrong?”

“N-no.. nothing, I…”

She looked up to the man, which is now trying to help her up, the man stared at her dirty face and teary eyes.

“thankyou… thankyou… thankyou…”

A few minutes later, they arrived at some sort of an encampment.

The ‘camp’ that man living in could barely be said a camp, it looked more like a small, compact house

It’s made out of solid, white material about four metre in height, the camp is illuminated by several lights outside and inside, it has no lawn, merely just standing atop the translucent grasses of the abyss.

“That’s where I’ve been living on, come, let’s get in, you must be pretty beaten up after all that yes?”

“Y-yes… but I need to…”

“Yes, yes, you can go back, but I want to ask a few question first, okay?”

“… Okay”

Then, they proceed to enter the camp, the inside of the camps were pretty… vacant, and clean, everything is pure white, there’s only two chair with an end table located to the right of the entrance, a bed on the other side, and a white box, a white, pale box to the left.

The two chair also suspiciously looked too conveniently placed for their particular conversation, from what she could deduce, this man had probably lived here alone for a long time, why is there two chairs here?

“Please, take a seat there”

“uh, yes, mister”

She reluctantly agrees, but always maintain a state of alertness should things go wrong.

Well, she’s the one with the gun here anyway.

“Would you like some refreshment?”

“Um… I…”

“wonderful, I’ll go prepare something”

The man walked towards the pale white box, and crouched

It is unclear what he’d done with the thing, all she know is that, the next thing that happened is he had already brought two cups along.

“Here you go, please, enjoy it, it’s tea”

“Ohh, tea, I like tea, thank you, mister”

She looked down at the cup, it contained a light-yellow liquid in it that smells really good, she took a sip of the tea, the warm liquid feels like it had instantly restored her energy, the aroma of the tea was extraordinary

“All right then, first of all, let’s introduce ourselves shall we? My name is Gavriil, what is your name?

“Anya”

“Anya, hm, okay, can you tell me how you got down here? The gun?”

“Um… maybe?”

“Could you elaborate, Anya?”

“I… I was hunting a deer, but then I got chased off by wolves, one of them struck me and I fell down to the abyss”

“Hm hm… is that how you…”

The man cut off his sentence for a moment

“… When I see you, you were being attacked by the wraiths”

“I… stumbled upon them when I was trying to find a way up”

“Ho…”

The man stood up from his chair, and walked towards the wall, all of a sudden, the wall turned into glass, effectively creating a window that overlooked the abyss

He took a sip from his tea, and asked again

“So, why do you hunt down the deer?”

“What? Why? to get some food of course”

“You do realize that you just commit an act of murder, right?”

The man’s voice now sounds steely

“What…?”

“You also realize that the deer is taking care of its fawn”

“How did you...”

The girl’s eyes went wide, the last time she remember, there was no other human beings in the immediate vicinity before.

How could this man knew that there was a fawn?

He kept staring out to the open window, but she can’t help but feel that he’s staring at her, somehow.

“But... but I needed food! My little siblings would starve without food, and besides, the little fawn got eaten by wolves in the end anyway”

“By wolves that come because your rifle attracted them”

“I... That...”

He was correct, had she not fired upon the deer, it’s fawn would not have been eaten in such a way, and she would not have fall down into the abyss in the first place.

But that simply can’t happen.

She was desperate.

“Then... then tell me, mister, how am I supposed to feed twelve of my little siblings? I have learned that it won’t magically come out of thin air, no, it doesn’t work like that, this world didn’t work like that, nothing had ever been that easy, please, tell me, how?! tell me!”

It is ironic, really, because in the stories she recite to her little siblings, those magical occurrences were pretty often. People would pray to the old man residing on the sky and they would magically have thick breads and clean water appear out of the thin air.

Anya had tried, many times before, it never happened to her.

The man did not answer, and kept staring outside.

“Please... mister, I have to go back, they need me, they can’t survive out there alone...”

He turned his head back to look at the girl, the girl is staring at her with wide, glittering eyes, she looked genuinely worried of her siblings, there was a long pause before the man sighed heavily.

“My job had been getting harder and harder, recently. It’s not even my job to begin with…”

He mumbled... out loud...

“It was really unfortunate that we are no longer allowed to help you people directly, really, really unfortunate.”

“Huh?”

“How am I supposed to deny a little girl who is taking care of other children, after hearing her anguished cries”

“Mister?”

The man emptied his cup, making a satisfied sigh before turning to face her

“It doesn’t work like this, it’s not supposed to be like this but… You want to go back? Fine, I’ll bring you back, to hell with the rules.”

The girl need some second to process those words, her depressed face is now lit up, her eyes glittered with tears, and she smiled brightly.

“Thank you… oh, thank you”

“Please, stand-up”

She did as instructed, the man stood up opposite to her in turn, next, he clicked his finger, in unison, the entire structure of the camp seemed to gradually disappear in perfect hexagonal pattern.

“What is happening? the camp just disappeared”

“Calm down, I’m sending you back”

The floor, which now had been replaced by the glowing grasses again, suddenly changed colours from purple to white.

This is truly a scene out of tales and story book.

“This… did something like this really exist? who… are you mister? Or did I really-”

“By the way, I’m taking this, consider it your payment”

He held her rifle in one hand, she was surprised, she looked around her waist and confirmed that her rifle is indeed gone, instead, it was replaced by her previously missing satchel bag.

“You won’t be needing this anymore, Anya, also, I’m giving you a present, you will find everything you and your little siblings need to survive in that bag”

“Mister…”

As the glow intensified, her body was slowly disappearing,, she felt that she’s going to be sent back any time soon.

“I still have three more of that back home though, hehe.” She pointed to her rifle, the man raised an eyebrow for a second before he smiled

“heh, you got me, Anya”

The light intensifies, the figure of the man slowly disappeared among the blinding light, it grew exponentially brighter until it engulf her entirely, finally, her consciousness were abruptly cut off.

“…And finally, the old man had found what he was searching for all his life
There lies a land of beauty
Its hills decorated with purple grass and white flowers
The green forest was luscious and never-ending
The skies were crystal blue
The land was like a paradise
he had found what people called the land of smiling people
Because the people there always smiled

He too, finally can smile again

The end”

“waah… Big sis, c-can I visit the… the land of smiling people?”

“Yeah, I want to visit too, it sounds like nice place”

“of course, I’m sure you’ll find it, I myself have witnessed such beautiful place after all, they do exist”

“I can’t wait for it; this place is very dull”

“all right children, it’s late already, everyone else is asleep already, it’s only you two”

“But… but I can’t s-sleep…”

“I’m scared of monsters…”

“okay… you two can sleep with me for tonight”

“yay, I- I love you, Big sis Anya!”

“I love you too big sis!”

“ehe~ I love you all too”