A Dying Boy and a Strange Silence

“Do you remember when you were first tasked to watch over me?”

Haze’s voice was quiet, gentle, somber in the dusky light, making the violent flames seem more like candles that were sitting on a dining room table.

Ah, yes. A job posting. The boy had been recently orphaned, and he needed another bodyguard. His parents had died in a home invasion, and the butler, Caius, had only managed to save the boy. There were people after him and his family, because they were important or something or the other; Rei was never told why. But she was fifteen, and new to the bounty hunting business, so she decided to give it a try. She would rather protect than kill, anyways.

“Do you remember where we went?”

Memories… All old memories that seemed like a dream to her. She and Caius decided that it wasn’t safe to stay in R’veno, and instead moved to a house the family owned in the countryside. Rei had never left the city before. In the vehicle she had been fascinated to see the night sky above, and Caius laughed, though he himself had left very rarely as well.

“Why would…you bring that up again?” Rei asked, her hands completely numb.

“Because it seems that you forgot.” A whirr and a click sounded from Haze’s eye. “Do you remember what we did back then?”

Haze hadn’t been much younger than her, only thirteen, but his hair had been black, and his eyes had been whole. Sure, a little scarred from seeing his parents be killed right before him, but other than that, he smiled and laughed like a normal boy. Maybe he was just keeping up appearances for her, who knew. But gradually, he melted her cold exterior, and she began to laugh with him, because she hadn’t done so in a long time.

Her own parents and sister had been killed in R’veno, and she had been thrown out onto the streets. She chose to join the bounty hunting business to survive, because any alternative would have been hell. So, in a way, she related to the boy. Though she hadn’t wanted to get attached, because being attached to someone who might die had serious consequences, she couldn’t help herself. She was young and stupid and still new to all of this. So attached she became.

Honestly, she might have had all her best memories from that time. But she had locked them away, so that she might not think of them anymore and hurt herself.

“We had fun…I guess.”

There had been the seaside right next to the house, no? The trees and the rolling plains and the ocean, right down by the beach…

“You know…I told Caius that we were going back tonight. But he’s gone. He told me that he couldn’t take me back, because the house had been burned down, and they wouldn’t let us out of the city.”

“Why did you want to go back so much?”

“Don’t you feel the same way?”

It was true, after the incident, Rei knew that she could never return to the countryside. The house was gone, along with the boy, and she was a failure. Why had she thought that she could actually succeed in protecting anyone? And the fact that she had gotten attached meant that anything that reminded her of him would only make her cry.

And so she had shut out all thoughts of the country, because you couldn’t miss what you didn’t remember.

“I just don’t understand why,” she said. “Sure, maybe you wanted to leave the city, but did you really have to destroy it in the process?”

“Destroy the city?” Haze seemed naive, eye wide. “I asked Caius if we could leave and go see the stars. But he said that we couldn’t leave, that they would find us again. So I thought to put the lights out here, so that I could see the stars again.”

All this…just to see the stupid stars? Rei scoffed. “Are you crazy? Just for those childish fantasies of yours, you’re willing to—”

“Think about it, Rei. When’s the last time you’ve seen the stars?”

Oh…

Back then, when she and Haze were lying on the grasses outside the house, Haze had told her, if you wished upon a star, your wish would come true.

“Someone probably just made that up,” she had said. “Back when they had nothing to do and short lifespans.”

“Or maybe they wanted to give someone hope,” Haze replied.

“Hope?”

“Yeah, hope. When you wish upon a star, well, part of you believes that it will happen, so you will subconsciously live on and work hard to make it so. But they built R’veno, and the stars disappeared. Isn’t that funny? A city full of artificial lights, and nothing left for the people to put their hope on.”

“And they’re basically dead, thanks to you.”

“Don’t worry, Boston and his crew will take care of things.” Haze tilted his head, smiling. “What else do you remember?”

He wasn’t even armed. Rei wasn’t sure why she was listening to him. But she went along with it.

“I remember the…wind.”

“Was it cool? Or warm?”

“It was only warm on some summer nights. But it felt very nice, while it lasted.”

“Do you know how there was no one around, except for the farmers down in the village?”

Of course. And it had been nice to see a lack of such high technology. There was only old people who should have retired long ago, selling their crops at the market every morning. They would ask Rei where she had come from, and when she said the city, they would reply:

“Oh, that big and prosperous place. How is it?”

“Busy, full of bustle. I think I like here better. It’s a lot slower, calmer.”

And they would chuckle knowingly and continue on with their day. Rei thought that she could actually get used to this listless life, sitting for days by the seashore doing absolutely nothing with Haze. It was such a fresh breath, a change of pace, and everything…

Even though she had treated it like a vacation, part of her wished that it would last forever.

And now it had been five years, and she could barely remember what the stars looked like anymore.

“You know…Rei…the people in R’veno, they’re capable. They can take care of themselves. And if they can’t, well, someone else can. I told Boston to redeem the city, and he will, because he always gets the job done.”

It was at this point that Haze burst into a coughing fit again, and Rei, automatically, put an arm on his back to make sure that he was okay. But when she peered at his hands she saw blood staining them.

“Do you have medicine?”

“I ran out just yesterday.” Haze shook his head, but grinned. “Don’t worry about me. Caius told me I was dying, and, well, I guess I’ll go see him soon.”

“You…what?”

“I don’t have much longer left… Rei, after all this time, am I still your ward? You thought I was dead, but now…”

Rei remembered that when she had first been given orders to look after him, she had been told that Haze was not to die under her watch. And yet he had. At least, she thought he had. But now that he was alive and before her, dying for a second time…

“Can’t you respect a dying man’s wish?” That was what Caius had said. And now she understood.

If it had been back then, she, too, would have done anything for Haze.

It was at that moment when the last of the lights in the city went out, and that strange hum in the air had disappeared, and there was only the crackling of the ceasing fire.