บท 18: Reckless Abandon Part 2
As she roles out of heat's way, a sheen of dew covers Rosalind's arms. The blazing ball of flames disintegrates upon touching the tree line. She pushes herself up to look at Noe. He bursts out of the truck in fury, eyes burning like coal, footsteps drying the grass beneath his soles.
"Don't get mad at me just because you can't accept reality!" she taunts him.
Without breaking his step, Noe raises his arm and swings it forward. Violent flames launch towards Rosalind. This time, as she roles away, it follows her movements. She misses death by a hair's breadth.
"Rosalind, just apologize!" Feng Mian yells from a few meters behind Noe.
"I refuse," she replies, dodging another cannonball of calcification.
"I won't use my powers to calm him down. What happens if I'm not there and you two kill each other? Learn to respect people and apologize; don't let the past repeat itself!"
"What the heck do you know about what happened in the past?!" Rosalind flushes Noe with water. Before she can surround him, he takes the ring of oxygen around her throat and raises her off the ground. Her black shoes slip around in the air.
"Noe was chosen to be with his soulmate for a reason. To insult someone's soulmate is to insult the Omniscient! Even if there was no reason for them being together, you have no right to interfere in their busines- Rosalind! Just apologize already. Is your pride more important than your life? Come on, guys!"
To Feng Mian's exasperation, Rosalind keeps her mouth clamped.
"Noe, you're not helping your soulmate by fighting meaningless battles against Rosalind. What if something has happened to him? You have to go and find him," Feng Mian tries to speak Noe into submission.
"But he doesn't want to see me."
"How do you know that? You've blindly assumed his feelings. What if he needs you now more than ever? Ask him and only believe what he tells you himself. You're not protecting him by getting into fights - you're just destroying his scenic business location."
Rosalind continues to writhe around in the air. Feng Mian worries that she may soon be unconscious but Noe could care less; to Xeron with all who insult Mr. Henderson.
Suddenly, Noe's heart skips a beat. Instability racks through him - white panic. The Veren in his body has stagnated as if Mr. Henderson's soul has vanished.
He lets go of Rosalind and bullets out the park before she even drops to the floor in a heap of desperate heaving.
Noe follows the traces of spiritual energy Mr. Henderson left in his stead. Pedestrians going about the day turn around at the feel of wind brushing against their backs but find nothing passing by them; he is gone by the time they have set eyes where he dashed.
Searching high and low for any traces of the man, Noe picks up screaming in the distance. Digging his feet into the ground and leaving a sizable crater in the asphalt, he vaults into the air like a vexed grasshopper; rapidly, unexpectedly. In the blink of an eye, he has landed within the back alley of a spiring apartment lot.
"NEHRUMA!" a young girl in a frilly red and blue school uniform shrieks, grabbing Mr. Henderson's arm while throwing a tantrum.
"It's okay, I'm listening. What's wrong? Just calm down, please," Mr. Henderson soothes her softly by patting her head and lightly holding the hand she grips him with. After being in such close proximity, Mr. Henderson and Noe's souls appear to have combined to such an extent that he has acquired some of Noe's capabilities - seeing and touching ghosts being one of them.
Shooting across the dank alley, Noe pries her hands off of Mr. Henderson's bruised flesh and installs himself as a barrier between them. Mr. Henderson's green, pink, and white apron securely looped around his waist crinkles as they converge.
The Ghost Girl goes stationary. Observing her more closely, as if tiny bullets have pierced her skin, bloodless crevices demarcate every inch of her exposed body. Her uniform is incessantly spotted by tiny holes.
Wonder slowly fills her eyes as she stares up at Noe.
"Nehruma!" she exclaims in joy. Clamping down on Noe's forearm arm, she drags him away.
Noe takes Mr. Henderson into his arm as they walk away from the city center and towards the shantytown erected in Westville's outer suburbs. He is satisfied to see that the Veren in him has come alive again.
Like a deep wrinkle fraying a senile grandma's frown, the line of towering buildings breaks into acres upon acres of temporary homes. Glued against the brick backs of the city's buildings, heaped cardboard homes lie. No windows dab the buildings that face the town, as if Westville has turned away from those who live here.
"AHH!" children play in the streets, their bare feet caked dark brown. Beating down on the rooves that cover slanting walls and dilapidated facilities, the sun spares no mercy when heating the dry land. Looking around, Noe and Mr. Henderson see no adults around to chaperone the hyper kids that run around.
Ghost Girl continues to lead them down the narrow, dirt roads until they come across a structure exponentially larger than the other houses; a hall of some sort.
Opening the papery double doors, thousands of eyes turn to scrutinize them. Wincing, Mr. Henderson jumps out of Noe's arm and stands a safe meter away from him. When his eyes land on the people before them, he chokes.
All the adults vacant from the path they took are gathered on the floor of the hall, silent.
This is not what shocked Mr. Henderson, no.
It was that each person in the room seems to be missing something: One, an arm. Another, both legs. The man over there absently stares into space. A woman in a red dress has a cavity where a nose usually rests. Another young man in a blue cardigan has Plano sunglasses covering his blind eyes. Almost every elder sits in a wheelchair.
Invisible to everyone but the two soulmates, Ghost Girl pulls Noe down the aisle of the stuffy room. Mr. Henderson follows behind them.
When they reach the front of the hall, Noe feels sorrow overwhelm Mr. Henderson's heart. Ghost Girl steps away.
Hundreds of hand-made picture frames are stamped on the headwall like pedestals for all of them to kneel before in apology. Inside each border smiles the face of a bright teenager in the same red and blue uniform adorning Ghost Girl.
Some wear their uniform with pride while others seem to wish to escape it as soon as possible. However, they each have a single thing tying them together - they have life. And now, that life is gone.
--
Xeron:
The Underworld, ruled by Chaos.
Plano Sunglasses:
Sunglasses worn by the blind to filter out ultraviolet light that may cause their eyes irritation.
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