Lamplight

“No! I want to go with You Daddy! ” - The words that left the little girl’s mouth were muffled with her cries, as she tried to wipe her face with her other hand.

“I’m sorry…” He tried best he could to keep up his smile, as he pulled out a ring and slid it onto the girl’s ring finger - “Here…”

Momentarily the little girl stopped crying and looked at it.

“ “When I grow up I’m gonna marry You dad!” Was it?” - He said with a joking tone - “Well, I did my part, I can wait for Your end of the bargain, so what will it be?”

She finished wiping the tears from her face, which was now full of determination - “I’ll do it! I’ll grow up super big!”

“All right, then it’s a promise. Go with Aunt Annette for now, uncle Willburn will come a bit later”

The woman that stood behind the little girl gave him a rather judging stare, but he didn’t say anything.

“I’ll see you soon” - The man said to the little girl as he patted her head. To which the girl just nodded.

As he began walking away, the only thing that caught the little girl’s eye was the matching ring on her father’s fingers, which would also be the last memory she has of him.

-A couple of years later-

In a mostly empty room, a girl could be seen looking through a bunch of papers on a table, trying to make sense of the writing on them, scratching her head, squinting her eyes, rocking back and forth on the chair, though eventually she just rested her defeated head on the table, looked towards a picture with a date on it, in which she rode on her dad’s shoulders all while smiling and sighed:

“Just where the hell did You go, Dad…”

Upon seeing that her question didn’t get an answer, she slowly raised herself back up from the table, and put on some thick-looking clothes, before making her way to the front door.

“I’ll be back soon” - her words reverberated throughout the empty room, her eyes focused on a picture of her together with her father for a few seconds before she closed the door shut.

It was cold enough that her breath formed a small cloud, and as her feet touched the snow she began walking straight away. The sun was dim enough that its reflection on the snow wasn’t blinding to her, or perhaps with how many years she spent here, she’s grown used to it.

Her steps were light, almost as if the snow covered a bunch of sleeping animals and she tried to avoid stepping on their tails. Nevertheless, it didn’t seem like it made her pace any slower.

The Evergreens she had to walk under to get to her destination provided a lot of shade, but thanks to the thickness of her clothing, even spots that weren’t illuminated by the sun felt pretty warm.. Despite what seemed like a really uncomfortable walk, it didn’t seem to bother her much and eventually, after walking past more trees, she made it out to an empty field that was covered with snow, with something in the center of it. Her pace slowed down even more as she walked, but around here she didn’t seem to pay as much attention where she steps. The wooden sticks in the ground formed a cross, and she shook off the top layer of snow from them some carvings could be seen.

After taking a good look at what was written there, she clasped her hands together, closed her eyes and stood in silence for a while all tensed up. Though that didn’t last too long as soon after her whole posture lessened and she breathed a sigh of relief.

“I’m still not used to this…Anyway, hope You’re doing good Auntie, wherever you are. Me? I guess I’m doing okay, it’s been a bit hard since You’ve left, but I think I’m coming to terms with it. The Radio still plays Your favourite song every so often, I guess when You’ve been requesting it for so long it must’ve made its way onto their standard rotation, especially since I don’t think they sang the alarm in a while so few more spots opened up.”

The girl stopped as she stared at the grave in silence, her eyes tightened a bit.

“Ah, the stuff that dad left us? I’ve been trying to make sense of it for a while now, but I’m still as blank as when I looked at with You, but hey, It's the only clue for where he could be and I’ve got plenty of time. I’m sure I’ll manage to figure it out soon…”

As she said all that her hand was starting to clutch together tighter.

“Anyway, I’’d like to stay, but I think if I mopped around here You’d get back up from here and scold me haha”

As her body relaxed when those words left her mouth she turned away and began to slowly walk away from the grave. With a slower pace than earlier she eventually made it back into the woods, and continued to walk along what seemed to be a man-made used path that was woven into snow.

As she navigated through the dense forest, the sounds of human activity began to get louder, before becoming loud enough to even mute the sounds of her steps in the snow. Soon after the bright lights from the buildings entered her vision.

The town was bustling with activity, both old and young chatting with each other, all dressed in thick coats. Small torches lit on corners of houses despite it still being bright outside. None of the people seemed to notice the girl when she was still in the woods, but as soon as she came out a couple of kids waved at her.

“Afternoon, Mira!”

“Right! Afternoon, gramps!”

She stopped instinctively the second she began talking to the elderly man.

“It’s “Miller” not gramps! I’m not that old yet!”

“Hah, I’m sure I’ll remember it next time. How You’ve been? Mirina growing up nicely?”

“You bet! Soon she’ll be taller than You!”

“Shouldn’t You be worried she’ll tower over you first?”

“Haha! All I have to do is straighten my back and I’m sure I’d be the tallest person in the town! And what about You?”

“Me? Oh just getting supplies from Granny Moba”

“Oh I guess it has been a while since you’ve last come.” - After a short pause he took a much more serious tone - “Don’t you think it’s about time to let it go?”

The girl didn’t answer and just stared at him, he sighed and simply said “Apologies, it really isn’t my place to speak…”

“It’s Ok, I really need to go now or I’ll be late, Say hi to Mirina from me, and be sure to visit Aunt Annette sometime”

As the girl said this she slowly started walking away and did a small goodbye sign with her hand, the smile on her face didn’t seem as genuine now.

“Yeah, I’ll do just that…”

As she walked deeper into the down the activity didn’t seem to decrease. While some seemed quite comfortable, exchanging greetings with the girl, occasionally she’d walk past someone who’d try to avoid her if possible, and even people who’d gossip between each other while clearly staring at her.

Eventually she made it to the town square , the large number of people seemed a bit overwhelming, but none of their conversations were as loud as the man who stood in the center and speaked through a megaphone:

“It’s now Your turn to protect everyone! The Shadows may not appear here as often, but their terror is still far and wide!” - He said as one of the helpers near him tossed pictures on the ground, which showcased destroyed towns, corpses, people crying, soldiers and all sorts of evidence of fighting.

While some of the audience looked at them in disgust, others hung their heads in shame, and others anger turned into frustration.

“Do not falter when seeing these! It is Your call for action, Join the fireflies now!” - the man screamed as he pumped his fist, at which point a number of the young men from the

The audience repeated his action and screamed enthusiastically.

“Fireflies, huh” - the girl muttered to herself, and then noticed that one of the kids that stood between the motivated boys seemed to get angrier and angrier the longer the speech went on, and it wasn’t long before he erupted from without the crowd and started sprinting at the man speaking.

He didn't get very far before some of the adults pushed him to the ground, and even if he tried to force his way out he was far too weak for it to work.

“You killed my brother!” - he screamed at the man that was standing in front of him, and despite the many tears flowing from his eyes his voice was loud and clear

As the man knelt down, and placed one of his hands on the boy’s shoulders, his composed face didn’t change, and with a quiet tone, at least compared to the boy’s screaming, he simply answered him:

“Your brother simply fulfilled his duty, that’s all”

The anger seemed to leave his body as it turned to grief, and his crying became more intense, the man signaled to a couple of nearby bystanders, and when they let go of the boy some seemed to escort him somewhere else as he was comforted. As the scene unfolded before the girl’s eyes she wasn’t sure what to think, but chose not to dwell not too long on it, and simply continued walking where she was supposed to.

In front of her was a used goods shop, as she stood outside and looked at the rusty sign she gathered enough courage and after steeling herself entered it.

“Welcome! Welcome! Trinkets, parts, clothes whatever You need the - “ - The old woman’s shrewd tone changed as soon as she saw who entered the shop - “ Oh it’s just You”

“Couldn’t You at least pretend to be happier when You see Me”

“No can do, You don’t make it to my Age by faking things like these” - The older woman sat back on one of the chairs and began to pile her nails

“Does that include Your clients?

“Of course, I have yet to hear any complaints, Your stuff is right there in the back,”

“Whatever You say… “

As the girl walked up to a pretty large sized bag the older woman’s stare didn’t stop, she looked through the bag, and after confirming the contents she turned around and began speaking.

“Thank You, as always”

“You don’t have to be, that was the deal”

The girl seemed to look at the contents of the bag, which included food and other daily necessities and contemplated

“If You really were thankful You’d stop living in that house and finally move back to the village…”

The girl was silent once again, so the older woman continued speaking

“How many years has it been? Maybe when Annette was still alive it made sense, but look what happened to her, how long till the same thing happens to You.”

“I get it all right?”

“No, You don’t, if You did you wouldn’t rot away clinging to something like this”

“I said I get it, if it's money You care about i’ll figure something out,

“Hah! What good will that do to me, I’ve only got a couple years left to live. I just don’t want to spend all of them seeing Your miserable face walking in here every week. Why are you so stubborn to let that house go”

“I don’t care if it’s stupid, It’s the only thing I have left!” - The girl’s face was filled with tears but her voice was firm - “ I know there’s something there, He told me to wait, Dad wouldn’t leave me like this!”

“But He did!” - the older woman raised her tone as well - “How many more years are You gonna waste before You finally let it go!”

As both of them now stood in silence and the older woman saw tears swelled up on the girl’s face her gaze seemed to soften a bit and after a brief pause she began speaking again with a softer tone

“It hurts me as well, seeing You like this…”

The girl’s eyes also seemed to become softer after hearing this and after sniffling one more time she matched the granny’s calmer tone

“Is the same time next week Ok with You?”

The granny smiled and - “Yeah, it’s perfect, just don’t scare off any of my precious customers”

“If they saw my face behind the counter I’m sure they’d buy up the whole stock”

“I guess we’ll never know… All right, tell Annette I said hello on the way. Good night”

“Good night, See ya next week granny”

The girl left the shop and slowly closed the door, though the sad nature of her face showed clearly. As she sighed at the whole situation and looked at the fact that it was now sunset, she knew it was time to head back home.

The town was pretty much empty at this point, the light from the torches blending in with the sunrays. As she slowly walked back through the town she enjoyed the freedom of not having to deal with being judged by the random passersby, but at some point the loneliness she felt walking through started to feel worse.

Still stuck with her thoughts of the argument from before she didn’t even notice when she made it back onto the entrance to the forest, and after staying still for a couple of seconds, she looked back at the town one final time, before turning right back around and disappearing between the trees.

The snowy path she took earlier was still not covered so tracing her steps was quite easy, but it seemed like her body moved more on instinct, like it knew the road anyway and just happened to go into each spot in the snow.

The little sunlight that was getting through the thick branches of the trees was getting dimmer and dimmer and before she knew the spots from which sun was shining through were as dark as the shadows. Nevertheless she seemed confident in her step.

Occasionally she’d have to flip the bag with the supplies she got from the grandma, from one shoulder to another, but it didn’t seem to affect her speed all that much.

She was nearing the path which led to her aunt’s grave and stopped for a while to think what she should do. After turning her head a bit she just muttered “I’ll just say Hello tomorrow, I’m sure she won’t mind the late message” her nose and continued moving forward.

Soon enough, her house came into view, it blended perfectly with the mountain behind it. The darkness that seeped through the windows made it seem like there were none to begin with. She slowly approached the front door, her hand touching the cold door handle. As she hesitantly opened the door some of the moonlight from behind her seeped from the hole and illuminated some of the house.

“I’m back!” - She caught herself reflexively saying it. Her empty voice reverberated through the empty room again, though this time it didn’t feel as warm as before.

With a disappointed face she took off the jacket she was wearing and tossed it on one of the chairs,.As she walked around the empty room. she touched some of the stuff that was used by her or her auntie. Random pieces of furniture, utensils, before finally sitting down again at the desk and turning on a small lamp in the middle of it.

She moved the stash with the papers to the other side for a bit and in their place placed a small radio, which she started to tune with one hand, but to no avail.She sighed and took one of the papers from the stash with her other hand to see if she had any revelations, but nothing came to her mind. As the static from the radio grew louder and louder, the letters on the page seemed to make even less sense than usual, and with the ever increasing volume of the radio it just seemed to get worse and worse, and at the point where the static became almost deafening the letters on the page didn’t make any sense. At that moment she slammed her hands on the table as she got up, quickly grabbed the same jacket and run outside, slamming the door behind her.

However, as she slammed the door, the rattling was able to tune the radio just enough for it to catch a transmission, even if she wasn’t able to hear it anymore:

“Attention to All Citizens in the area, Shadows activity detected, stay inside at all costs, Fireflies will be dispatched. I repeat…”

She ran with her head down, her heavy steps dug deep into the snow. Fast enough to not notice branches sticking out, that scratched her face along the way, but that still didn’t stop her from going as fast as she could. She’d slip and nearly fall to the ground, but would quickly regain balance and go back to running.

She didn’t know how long she ran for, and where to, and despite being out of breath and hurt in a way it felt good. Eventually, she approached a big slope, but with no time to stop herself she simply fell over and rolled all the way to the bottom of it, though it wasn’t a pleasant experience, the snow absorbed a lot of the impact so she wasn’t as hurt.

She laid out on her back on the snowy ground. Looking up at the starry sky above her. As she silently watched, little snowfall began to fall from the sky, settling on her face before melting, and again and again. The darkness from the sky was surprisingly pleasant for her eyes, but she didn’t enjoy it for long, because of the blurriness that started to form in her eyes. Before too many tears started flowing she lifted her back from the floor and sat upm murmuring “What’s wrong with me…” under her nose as she wiped her face. And at the exact moment that the clarity of her situation returned to her, and she was about to look up the hill she came from, but upon seeing something that was just a few meters from her she froze in fear.

The monster that was staring into the distance didn’t seem to notice her, despite looking like she was in its field of vision. It seemed to melt within the dark background well, but she couldn’t tell whether it was black or simply a darker shade of some other color. It stood on two legs, and the 3 pairs of arms that ended off with sharp spikes seemed to move like they each had a brain on their own.

Even with her best effort to remain still, her breath soon got way too irregular, at which point the monster turned its head towards her. Her eyes widened at the smallest movement, and before she knew she leaped forward even further down the hill, which turned out to be a good decision as the second she moved 2 of the monster’s arms seemed to slam into the space she just moved from.

She landed and kept low to the ground while she tried to crawl away but upon turning her head around to check where the monster was, it seemed to spot her once again, at which point it started to run at her, causing her to quickly get up and start running as well, deep into the forest that was in front of her.

“How? There wasn’t a broadcast for years, why now!?” So many different thoughts popped into her head, but soon after she shook all of them off to focus on running as fast as she could.

Her stamina was still a bit drained from the running earlier, so each step she took was more painful than the previous one, and with each of them she also heard the monster behind drawing closer and closer. It tried to reach her with its arms, slashing everything in its way, and eventually it reached her too. Though it seemed to cut through her clothes and drew blood, she continued to run with everything she had.

Even if she had gotten away for a few seconds, it didn’t matter in the end. No matter how much she sped up, her body was already at its limit, and the appendages that clawed at her only got closer and closer, when finally one of them managed to penetrate her back deep enough for her to fall forward, and slam into one of the trees.

She managed to turn around and get her back against the tree, now sitting with her face looking at the monster that slowly approached her. She looked around to find anything to fight it off with, but to no avail. Its hands spread out blocking the ways she could escape from, even if she didn’t have the strength to do that.

As its mouth got closer and closer, the monster opened it wider and wider, unveiling an array of sharp teeth, which frightened the girl even more. She supported herself with the tree behind her and used the other to try to scare off the monster, but without any success. The closer it got the more frantic movements of her hand became, and in an instant the monster tried to close its mouth, when one of the teeth she slammed with her moving hand broke off, drawing blood from the monster's gums and onto her finger, and the ring on it. In a span of a moment, faster than the jaws of the monster could clench, the ring began to shine vibrantly, before erupting into bright flames inside the mouth of the monster, blasting it away.

She had to turn her head around even after closing her eyes due to how bright it got, but after looking back in front of her, she saw the flame on her hand slowly going back into the ring, before engraving itself on its surface as the number “ 27089”. There was something about those numbers that seemed familiar to the girl but she couldn’t put her finger on it, despite that, and despite the monster which got blasted away still moving around as it writhed in pain, a small smile of excitement cracked on her face. Despite many thoughts racing in her head, asking just how was the ring from her father related to all this, or how she hasn’t noticed it till now, they were overrun by the fact that her belief turned out to be correct.

She gazed upon the stars above her once again, this time facing them with a smile. She knew that despite taking the step, it was now over. The same flash that burned the mouth of the monster seemed to attract a dozen more. Their eyes looked at her from all directions, each of them approaching apprehensively, but it was only delaying the inevitable.

She moved her hand up so that she could read the numbers on the ring one more time, but no matter how much she thought she couldn’t think of anything. The steps of the monsters became louder and louder and at the moment she dropped her hand back to the floor they'd all lunged at her. Her hand hit the snow and with the corner of her eye she saw the jaws of the monsters becoming bigger and bigger, but despite that she also saw one more thing, the stars in her vision seemed to get closer and closer, and in the instant she realized what they were, it happened.

As the monsters were all in the air, a man in full suit of armor landed from the sky, and the second he touched the floor, he dragged his glaive along the thigh part of his armor, igniting the blade and swinging it around himself 360 degrees, cutting all of the monsters and the tree the girl was resting on in half.

The black blood from the monsters stained both the white snow and the girl, but she was far too concentrated on the man in front of her to even notice. Despite the glaive’s blade being on fire he still flicked off some of the blood that got on it, and only then he turned his head towards the girl. The glowing eyes of the armor were clear to see in the dark. And despite that and the helmet not resembling a human face, it did put the girl at ease.

“Are You all right?”

The emotionless, almost robotic voice left the man’s mouth as he turned around to face her. Due to the fact what just took place the girl was stunned for a split second and couldn’t muster an answer in time, especially since the man didn’t wait long and soon after he continued speaking:

“There was a warning issued in this area, did You not hear it?”

“No…” - the girl answered a bit shamefully

“Obstructing an extermination is a punishable crime, stay put, this place is about to become a battlefield” - He said as he started to look throughout the surroundings for any remaining monsters.

“Eh, Yes sir”- She said, unsure of the tone she should use. At the same time she also started scanning the surroundings, and it seemed the fire spread to other trees in the area.

Her mind went back to racing about the numbers on the ring, which she instinctively hid behind herself. Not long after, she saw the same pillars of light descending all over the forest, and with them sounds of gunshots and monster screams began. The last one to arrive was near, and soon another armored man emerged from between the trees lit on fire. His stature was much smaller and less imposing than the man that saved her, and unlike the man, he seemed to hold a gun, though he seemed to have a sheathed sword near his waist, but most importantly, his suit only had two arms, unlike the man who saved her which had three, with the third one being significantly smaller and attached right under his right arm.

As the slimmer man approached he took a quick glance at the girl, after which he started reporting the situation to the bigger armored man:

“Commander Bismuth, There’s way more Shadows than we expected, we need Your help straight away”

“I see, let’s move out then, let me just restrain the woman first”

Her eyes widened in surprise but no voice left her mouth when she tried to speak. The slimmer man looked at her through the suit of armor, and then back to Bismuth.

“With all due respect sir, with this being a low activity area Our warning was not within acceptable standards, as a member of “Fireflies” our duty is to protect, and we fixed our mistake right now, let’s not make another one.”

The commander stood in silence, which just the amplified how loud the gunshots from the surroundings were, and the man in the smaller suit seemed to get more nervous, and just as it seemed like he was about to back out, Bismuth started speaking:

“Perhaps You’re right, Let’s just get to it then.” - He said before looking at the girl - “ Either way, You have to stay put, we’ll get You to safety after dealing with Shadows ”

“R-Right, Thank you…” - The voice of the girl expressed more surprise than gratitude.

Upon hearing those words both of the men looked at themselves, and after nodding to each other, the plates on the back of their armor and their legs seemed to shift in some weird way, and they began to get brighter, before both of them disappeared from her vision instantly. Before she could process what happened she got hit with a strong gust of wind and a loud “boom” sound.

The strength in her legs was finally returning after everything that happened, and upon looking at the ring again she got up and with a determined face decided to head home, rather than stay where the Fireflies had told her to.

She half ran the same path from earlier, watching the marks on the trees from when the monster tried to slice her, the sounds of gunshots and screams filled the otherwise silent air. Eventually she made it back to the bottom of the hill she fell from, and paused for a second. Its height seemed much more imposing looking from the bottom, which surprised her, but most importantly, the thing which caught her eye was the red hue that stretched over it. Panic jumped over her face knowing that the fire had spread all the way up there, so she ran up the hill as fast as possible.

Unfortunately, her fears were proven right, once she’d gotten to the top and caught her breath, her eyes widened when she saw just how much of the forest was now on fire. She shook off the confusion and quickly went back to running back home.

The sounds of fighting have also gotten louder, but she was too focused to really notice them. The familiar path she ran on many times seemed so different now, the once familiar trees riddled with bullet holes, some sliced and fallen in half, and others simply withering away as she ran past them. Maybe because she ran on the same path just a while ago, but this time she managed to dodge all of the little branches sticking out, though there were much less of them.

She’d sometimes look around herself, and see the same monsters from before appear for a split second before they were dealt with by the fireflies, but then one of them appeared right on her path.

Unlike the previous one it seemed to stay stationary and waited for her to come to him as it stood between a pair of trees. She didn’t want to lose any speed by going around it, especially since it’d probably follow her anyway, so her only way was to bust through somehow.

As she sped up, the monster seemed to get more and more ready, and just a few meters from it, it launched all of its arms to slash her, which is the exact moment at which she ducked and slid between its legs. As she was going below it, she looked up to see how the monster reacted, and it also turned its head around to look at her.

She quickly got up from the ground and continued running, she quickly turned her head around to look at it again, and it was already facing towards her, but as it readied all of its arms, one of the fireflies, with a slimmer build, seemed to appear to its left, before grabbing the monsters head and smashing it flat on the trees from the other side and quickly disappearing. The girl wasn’t sure whether to be thankful, or disgusted by the display, but nevertheless she quickly turned her head back around and continued running back home.

After just a few more minutes she finally made it back, the second she left the denser part of the forest her house came into view, Even if its back was facing an even bigger mountain, the fire had also spread to it. Unsure of where she left the keys there was only one thing to do, with the inertia she built up from running she slammed into the door, forcing it wide open.

She threw her jacket on the floor the second she got in as the temperature seemed unbearable, and rushed straight towards the stack of papers that was left on the table from earlier.

Her eyes scanned each page at an impressive speed, sweat from her forehead dripping on the table. She did one paper after another, and despite that she couldn’t find anything. Even after she spread them out in a pile, but again, without any success.

The determination, or perhaps desperation from her face disappeared quickly. Her expressions went through all stages in just a span of a moment before finally the heat got to her and she stumbled forward, even when holding herself up with her hands, and as she knelt down and placed her head slowly on the table, and started to close her eyes, which were too dry to even produce tears at this point, she mumbled silently under her nose.

“I’m so tired…”

But then, as she was closing her eyes, a small thing caught her vision, the picture of her with her father, but most importantly the date on it, which was exactly the same as the “27089” written on her ring. Her drowsiness wore off instantly, but even with the surge of energy she still had to support herself with one hand on the table as she walked towards it.

As she stumbled her way all the way to the picture, the numbers seemed to get brighter and brighter, and the only thing that seemed right to her when she was finally standing before it, was to touch the ring with the picture itself.

As her hand burst into a flame again, she started panicking before realizing it didn't hurt. It then concentrated itself through the ring and onto the actual picture, from where the writing seemed to smolder similarly to how her ring did initially back in the forest.

Loud movements of contraptions could be heard, and a section of the wall that the picture hung on seemed to recline itself upwards, showing her what seemed like an endless staircase down below.

She turned back and looked at the burning room before setting onto the path. Each step echoed in the empty corridor, and after she made it deep enough inside, the entrance from which she walked through seemed to collapse on itself, perhaps intentionally, though at the same time small lights began to illuminate the stairs. The deeper she went the quieter the sounds from outside became, and eventually all she could hear was her footsteps and her own breath.

Though perhaps she should feel more nervous about this whole situation, deep down she felt excited, especially since she was left with only her thoughts. The lights from the staircase started to give her a bit of a headache, or it was just the heat catching up, but nevertheless she continued walking, before she finally noticed that the stairs seemed to slowly decrease in number, and the bright light, clearly different from the ones on the stairs, got closer and closer. Even if she wanted to pick up the pace she felt too weak to do so.

When she finally got down she squinted her eyes and covered them with her hand for a bit before they adjusted, but as soon as they were back to normal, she stared with disbelief at what she saw. The thick metal walls surrounding the room seemed impenetrable, stacks of papers even bigger than the ones she looked through, diagrams describing different things on walls, models of the room and mechanical armours, old computers, but most importantly, in the center of the room stood a suit of armor, similar to the one she saw in the forest, yet something about felt quite different.

She was going to check out all the paperwork first but she couldn’t stop from moving towards the armor.It was clearly not as bulky as the commanders, maybe even less bulky than the rest of the fireflies, but something about it made it seem like it was as sturdy as them both. Her eyes were locked with the armor’s eyes, and even if they weren’t as bright as the ones she saw fighting up above, it still gave her an uncanny feeling. The closer she got the more imposing the armor became, and by the time she got close enough to touch it felt like it was towering over her.

She moved her hand with her ring towards its chest, and it only reaffirmed her of the sturdiness of the armor. She looked at the ring, and it didn’t seem to react any differently, but nevertheless she started inspecting different parts of the armor, looking for some signs, and feeling the texture of different materials used for it, before she caught a glimpse of something stuck in between the fingers of the suit.

As her heart started to race, she separated the fingers and a small piece of paper fell out from in between them. She opened it, and upon reading its contents, tears started to form in her eyes once again.

“I’m waiting”

The familiar handwriting spread across the page, but it was soon smudged with her tears, which seemed to not be able to stop flowing. The girl slowly fell to her knees and sobbed as she knew that all these years were not for naught, even if it took her years, she finally managed to grab ahold of something that might give her a clue as to what happened all those years ago.

Her other hand started gripping the armor’s hand tightly as she kneeled in front of it, and she tried to grip it tighter, it seemed to awaken the suit. As it began opening up from the top, pieces folding over each other, the girl got startled enough for her tears to stop flowing, and soon enough the determination from before was on her face once again.

As she stood up and faced the suit, with one single breath she started fitting it on herself. First of her legs, then her torso, followed by her arms and head. Almost as if she tried to lay down on a bed that was the same shape. As the suit began to close itself she felt a bit scared, and despite the fact that putting it on caused some pain, it also had a weird sense of coziness and familiarity. She tried to begin by lifting her legs, but as soon as she did a loud alarm sounded throughout the room. In a panic all she could do is move towards one of the computers, which had a bright error message on the screen that said:

“Project “Lamplight” 1st phase launched, eliminating evidence”

Despite spending hours analyzing the documents her father left her, she still wasn’t sure what this meant, but she knew the 2nd half of the warning wasn’t a good thing, especially since she could hear sounds of rocks crashing from the stairway she came from. She looked for another exit, and opposite from the original staircase seemed to be another door, which she didn’t see when entering as the metal suit was blocking it. When she located it she quickly turned around to see the monitor once again, but it only showed a loading screen that counted 1000s of different files being deleted, and then the next instant it was at 100%.

“You really won’t make it easy even after all this time, huh…”

She managed to grab a single book before making a run for it. Even if she was still exhausted, and inexperienced at using the armor, it ran much faster than she thought, though even with that by the time she made it towards the door the falling debris from the stairs seemed to have caught on to the room, collapsing the ceiling, and starting the destroy the objects inside of it.

When she walked through the door, it seemed to be just a long hallway, though some of the collapse seemed to have spread already as she could see small debris falling. But she continued to run, jumping to avoid pieces which were already on the. She slid under ones which were jammed between the walls, and knocked small ones out of her way.

And eventually she started to see the exit, and while initially she got relieved, that soon changed when she realized that the ceiling right before was starting to fall apart as well. With her current pace there’s no way she’d make it, and with all her effort to speed up there was only a small difference, but then she started to feel it, her feet becoming lighter and lighter, , the smell of fuel filling the air, the thrusters of the suit have been turned on and with all she got she launched herself the fastest she could, leaving at the last second possible, as it seemed to collapse right after she left.

She felt like she was in the air for ages, watching the surroundings, which were illuminated by the moonlight behind her, and some of the more distant ones, where once her home was, being illuminated with the little fire that remained.

With so much power behind her she didn’t stick the landing, rolling in the snow as she hit the ground but at least she was safe. As she laid in the snow she started to gaze at the stars through the armor, before it retracted itself from her face, leaving her skin exposed to the cold air, but despite all that, her face still had a smile. As she pumped one of her hands up towards the sky, loud and clear, she simply said

“I’ll do it dad, Ill figure it all out and find You, I swear”

before dropping her hand back in the snow and closing her eyes while smiling.

-A couple of hours later in the morning-

In front of the burned rubble of the house, a group of men clad in the armored suits chatted leisurely between each other. However a single one of them stood out, his stature much bigger than the rest, his armor more aged. As he made his way through the burnt remains of the house, he moved bigger pieces of the rubble with his glaive which he held in two of his right hands and used his left one to adjust the radio piece in his ear, to which he started speaking soon after.

“We were too late, everything was already destroyed, are you sure this was the place?……. Shouldn’t You be happy that it turned out like this?....... Yes, the outbreak has been dealt with, we’ll fly back soon… Abnormalities? No I don’t think so… All right, Farewell…”

As he turned off his communications device and took one last good look at the ground, he realized that one of his feet was stepping on some clothes that weren’t quite burned yet. As he knelt down, and inspected them, the image of the girl he saw yesterday in the forest flashed into his head for a split second,

“It couldn’t be…”