11. Screaming with Sirens (4)

I gasped with loud breaths cycling out my flared nostrils. I ground my teeth as my body tensed. A scream like a wailing siren gradually amplified out of my mouth.

"Holy godforsaken sister cow!" A typhoon destroyed my sanctuary… I would have exaggerated my anger to her if Sera had been here. But now's not the right time. I bit my lip.

I went downstairs and sat beside my crying mother. She stared at the television without an ounce of focus. No distraction could shake her up.

I overheard the updates on the television. "Oh, Ray! It's going to be rainy this afternoon! Did you bring your umbrellas to work? Rain or shine, never forget to bring an umbrella…"

It will rain!? Sera will get sick without shelter. Mom might have been worried about that too. She stared at me with circles under her watery eyes.

I don't know what happened. All Mom said was that it was her fault. Her uncertainty might have hindered her communication with others. Her trembling dry lips slacked and slanted like it was shouting 'Please' at me.

I patted Mom's back and nodded. "I will bring Sera back. I promise. You're lucky that your only son was a reliable man," I said and ran out of the house to search for Sera.

I should find her before nine.

***

Humans… They're all liars… They're all predators… They're all evil.

No matter what world I am in, they're the same greedy creatures with ill intentions. It was the same. They will offer me food. I will fall into their traps. After I leave myself unguarded, they will torture me again.

My hate for humans will never perish.

I'm in a world filled with vile creatures. I don't know where I belong. If I fall for their antics again, no one will save me… And I can never go home. S clue to where the elves reside will take me forever to find.

After countless hours of escaping and circling around the neighborhood by afternoon, Sera sat over the slide in a quiet playground and cried. She hugged her knees and buried her face on it.

The neighborhood playground harbored a wooden bench where no one sat. Rusts paint the monkey bars. Dirt hollowed out the swings. The only thing that remained still was the slide.

The afternoon sky was cumulonimbus. Sera made the stop in that open and lone playground because there were currently no people passing. For her, it was a place matching her loneliness.

"H—home…" Sera murmured even with her hardened throat. Her constricted lungs impeded her breathing. Her knees trembled out of her control.

She wasn't wary of her waist crawling down the slide. When she slid down, she lost her posture and squealed. "KYA!"

The ground caught her buttocks and dirtied her pajamas. Her shock vanished after noticing that she fell at a small height. Her rushed breathing slowed down again.

I will fall… No one would catch me… Annietta, It's so lonely without you… If I can't go back home, I want to die…

She sniffed and wailed, retracting her posture back to its original state. Her face appeared thin and bony. She cried, "I wanna die… I wanna die… I wanna die…"

Even with her loud wailing, no people came. It took her minutes to calm herself and raise her head. She gasped and widened her red wet eyes after witnessing a familiar object lying under the bench.

She stood up, took the plastic flute toy, and sat on the bench. The flute toy consists of only seven holes and was out of tune to a minor arpeggio. Sera stared at the flute on her palm and sobbed. "This… will be the last…"

Even with her weakened abdomen, she closed her eyes and blew the flute on an open chord. That was her way of identifying how a flute was tuned. After the chaotic melody entered her long sharp ears, she pressed the holes of the flute, forming a melodic chord on scratch.

Music united with her. Even with plastic, she played a melody screaming of nature. Her music echoed throughout the playground. Time stopped for her and passed without her awareness.

Ten minutes later, Sera halted playing. Two claps of small hands resonated in her ears. She opened her eyes and witnessed two children grinning wide. They seemed like nine-year-old kids.

"Wow! Look at that! It's my fake flute! I can't even play it!" The girl exclaimed.

"She was a pro! A pro! A pro can play a toy flute! Chii-chan, you said no one could play it, you liar," the boy complained.

"Hey, hey! Can you teach us? Don't worry, I will ask Mom for permission."

The two kids approached Sera with their sparkling eyes. Unable to speak, Sera shook with her ashen face. Her jaws quivered as she uncontrollably swallowed.

Humans… they're doing this again…

A memory from her childhood visited her mind. On a human slum settlement far from their home, little Sierra met a human kid the same age as her. The only feature she could note was his sky-blue hair.

'Are you hungry? Follow me. I have food to spare.'

The kid asked with an innocent smile. When Sierra followed her, she never expected that the worst fate of an elf kid would traumatize her.

Back in the present, Sera overdid her retreat and flipped over the bench. She suffered another scratch on her elbow after falling. The excitement on the children's faces transformed into worry.

"Onee-chan, are you alright!?" The kids grabbed her arm and helped her stand up, but Sera swayed away from them, left the flute, and ran behind the trees.

The kids took the flute and followed her. "Onee-chan, you're hurt…" Step by step, they approached Sera.

Hiding her face, Sera screamed at them. "SHUT UP! STAY AWAY!" Sera's scream knocked the children back from her.

The children froze like the ground rooted in their feet. Their breaths burst while they shake. They stared up at the sky to hold their tears. Seconds later, they cried. "WE'RE SORRY! WE'RE VERY SORRY! WE'RE WRONG! DON'T HURT US!"

Their screams dominated Sera's wails. Still hiding, she lowered her gaze, halted her tears, and sucked in air. The longer the kids cried, the more her chest tightened.

No! I'm not going to hurt you… Don't cry… You did nothing wrong… I'm sorry…

She was on the brink of apologizing when two adult women appeared. One of them shouted, "Chii-chan? Ken-chan? Did you two find the toy flute—Why are you crying!?"

The two women rushed towards the kids. It turned out that they were the mothers of the two. They patted their children's tears with a handkerchief and furrowed their eyebrows at Sera.

The two mothers complained simultaneously at Sera. "Who are you? Why did you make my Chii-chan cry!? She never cried once in her life other than her birth!"

"And how dare you hurt my Ken-chan… Wait, aren't you the actress of that new popular movie? And in pajamas?"

"I don't care if she's a bigshot or a lowkey underground slave! Those who make my child cry were my enemies."

"Yeah, right! She's my enemy too! And why was she crying? Playing victim? Tsk! I'm not a fan of actresses like you! That movie even sucked!"

"Let's go, Chii-chan. You already got your toy flute back. Never forget things again or you'll meet that psycho again."

The insults faded. When Sera peeked out the trunk, they already left. Loneliness painted the ground, leaving her in solitude again.

Sera rested her bowed head on the trunk. Her body shuddered hysterically. She shouted with her gritting teeth, clenched her wounded fist, and hit the trunk.

Humans will remain humans, no matter where they are… Soon, those kids will be eaten by their greed… In their eyes, I'm always their enemy.

Deep in her thoughts, she didn't hear Kou calling her from the distance. Kou passed through the playground, not noticing Sera hiding behind the trees.

"Sera!? Where are you Sera!? I'm not angry about the disks, you know! Go home with me! Mom was worried for you!"

Sera swallowed in repeat, biting her lip and sniffing with force. Her heartbeat slowed together with her breathing. She continued weeping for minutes until the gray sky released its anger.

Her pajamas caught the water droplets that fell down the sky. The sky darkened and the rainfall weighed. In no time, the ground dampened. The rain drenched Sera's hair and shoulders and covered the tears on her face.

Sera ran under the slide to shelter herself, sat, and grasped her knees to compress herself. Rainfall showered her back still. Hiding beneath the slide wasn't enough to cover her entirely from the rain.

She shivered, chattering her teeth. Her lips turned blue. She tightened the grip on her body, reserving heat, but the coldness gave her fatigue and apathy. Her stiff jaws hindered her speech.

For ten minutes, the dismal rain didn't stop; it became stronger. The heavy raindrops sped down the ground, making an amplified sound of colliding water. The continuous rainfall made the area zero visibility.

Even when covered, Sera bathed in water. Her fingertips jelled like a brain. Dark smudges rested under her dull and blank eyes. Nausea stunned her in dizziness. Her weak muscles rooted her in place.

For not long, Sera fell to the ground, unable to control her gaunt body. Her mouth slacked open like a stroke attacked her. Unable to cry, her tears fell down her eyelids.

It was better this way. I only had one way out of this world. Humans already destroyed the home I once belonged. There's nothing left for me in this world.

I might never come back home, but… I might be able to see Annietta again, then… We'll live forever.

I will never leave her side again.

Sera closed her eyes, saying goodbye to the world. The sound of rain slept silent. She felt like her soul separated itself from her body… not until the sound of rain came back to her again.

When she heard running steps near her, she forced her eyes. A crimson-haired girl holding a white umbrella approached her. Because Sera's vision was blurred, she mistook the girl's umbrella for wings.

Before she lost consciousness, she smiled.

An angel… An angel was here to fetch me.