Specks of light danced between gaps of bricks, concretes, and black crystals, illuminated tiny grey dust particles floating idly in the air. In the middle of the ruins of New York City, a girl was digging through a mountain of soil, rocks, and crystals. The girl’s face scrunched up, her eyes squeezed in a tight line, displease evident on her face. Her frail arms continuously lift chunks of dirt off the ground. It was gravity-defying.
On a closer look, however, her hands never touched the dirt. The girl just waved her arms and portions of what appeared to be a blockage to an underground entrance moved out of her way. Her eyes squeezed even tighter, and her arms moved more frantically. The wall of earth disappeared like there was a giant invisible maw, hysterically chewing away. With the last wave of both her arms, the blockage exploded into a rain of dirt and black crystals. A massive hole appeared in front of her, leading to a greater darkness below ground level. It was an underground subway entrance, the gate to her old home. A corner of the girl’s lips curved up ever so slightly. Her eyes relax. However, there was something indescribable brewing within them. And the tiny smile on the girl’s face didn’t look like one anymore.
However, before she could enter the subway station, the ground rumbled and the whole of 17th Street crumbled downward. Loud cracks roared; the wide street separated from the middle like a chopped jelly, and a few barely standing buildings joined the rank of crumbling concrete. The girl lost her standing, her petite frame rocked to the side, and she fell face first to a protruded crystal pike. However, there was no fear on her face, only shock and anger could be seen on that pale and scripture-like feature.
The girl's temple met the peak of the black crystal pike, and the pike gave way to her head. From the point of impact, black dust fluffed around her ear, blew up to her cheek, down to her neck, and then bloomed outward like a black flower. The girl, still shocked by her misfortune, didn’t even register the phenomenon that just occurred. Her body rammed into the crumbling ground, bounced off of it, then continued to roll downward. More crystals shattered, steel bent, and concrete broke to the rolling girl.
The momentum eventually died out, and the girl stopped at a sunken hole. Her eyes widen, mouth agape. She screamed. But before her voice could travel far, she was buried below the ground by the fallen street.
Some time passed before the collapse finally stopped. The air returned stoic, dust and black fog mixed together painted an even more melancholy picture of New York City. Time seemed to stand still, waiting for the dust to settle down. However, muzzled by layers of rocks and concretes, an extremely agitated scream could be heard. The scream lasted for some time before finally stopped. The world once again returned to its somber tone. But it didn’t last long, an amazing blast blew up a big section of the wreckage. A figure shot straight up into the air. The figure continued to fly up, high above even the highest-standing skyscraper. At the apex of her launch, the girl smiled. A full-bloom smile graced her previously aloof face.
Like a mischievous fairy, the girl’s hearty laugh traveled through the empty sky, abandoned streets, and fallen buildings.
The girl was falling, and the faster she felt, the heartier her laugh. She was having fun, the happiest she had ever been since that day eleven years ago. She was home after all, after more than ten years, she had returned home.
Wind sped through her ears, deafening the sound of her laugh. Her hair skirted the air, creating a silky black curtain that obscured her face. Her chest heaved for air, or was it, the girl hadn’t needed to breathe for years now; but her chest was throbbing, working for the first time since forever to pump the black blood through non-existent veins. Excitement and nostalgia built up within her, dark emotions squired but were pushed back by the sight in front of her. She was falling from the sky, fast.
The girl twisted her body upward, facing the sky. It was a vast greyness with columns of fading light falling down from heaven. Her skirt flapped wildly in the air, unfurled like a butterfly stretching its wings for the first time. An image of a fairy soared through New York City’s sky, fast approaching the ground with near sonic velocity.
The girl hit the ground like a comet hit the earth. Shockwaves traveled along the ruined, kicking off even more dust into the sky. A big hole appeared where she landed, not that it mattered with the whole surface of New York City littered with similar holes of various sizes.
The girl stopped laughing, a smaller smile, more reserved with a hint of melancholy graced her face. Memories once again resurfaced.
She could see her mother’s face, her gentle eyes, pepper hair, sunken cheeks, and thin lips. She could hear her mother’s voice, calling out to her like when she was still a child. She remembered; she remembered how the wrinkles along her mother’s eyes moved whenever there wasn’t enough food for all three of them. She would tell them she had already eaten, and that they should share what little ration she brought back together. Then, then *** would think of a smarty come back, *** could bring out the truth of her mother like no other. She had always been so proud of ***, and so jealous of *** at the same time for understanding her mother even better than herself.
The three of them would share the tiny amount of rock-hard ration. “It tasted like frozen rubber”, *** had told her so, even though she had no idea how *** knew what frozen rubber tasted like.
There was a time when there wasn’t anything to eat for a whole week. Her mother would hug them and sing them a lullaby. It had sounded like a broken CD cassette, nothing like the gentle voice she remembered, but soothing it was that all three of them had survived through the week.
The girl continued to smile as two lines of black tears rolled down her cheeks. Her face distorted, eyes squeezed tight, trying to hold back the tears in vain. Her whole body trembled. Her hands fisted the air, black mist whirling within them. Dark thoughts revolted and pushed back all the happy memories. A storm of coarse negativities roamed furiously through her psy-mind. Destructive desire overturned her soul, like a ravenous hunger to consume all threatened to break loose. But the girl held strong, she refused to let herself become one of the mindless by-products of black crystals. She was more than them, her soul remained intact, and her psy-mind protected her from the black corruption, using her emotions and memories as fuel.
She forced herself to remember, to relive her days together with her mother and ***. She missed them, she missed them so much that it hurt.
She loved them so much that she could not calm the raging storm inside her.
“I’m home.” Her voice came out shattered but with an unyielding strength within.
It took a while, but the girl finally climbed out of the cracked hole in the rubble. She looked around the wreckage, not a single sign to indicate where her home had been.
The girl stood there, unmoving for some time, immersed in the memories of home.
As if awakening from a slumber, the girl’s eyes gain clarity again. The girl released her black fog and sunk it deep into the ground. She closed her eyes, her hands held tightly onto her dress, her face betrayed any hint of emotions.
Time seemed to fly as the girl just stood still, alone in the middle of a massive cobweb of cracked ground. When black fog slowly emerged from the ground, it traveled along her body, submerging the girl in an ink-like cloud.
Inside the black void, memories and emotions flashed across her mind. It was her mother’s, or rather, a replica of what had been her mother. It was fake, a creation of intense emotions. But they are all the same, the girl thought.
Held onto the black fog dearly, the girl brought it close to her chest. The black fog swirled in a circle, violently refused to be contained. But the moment it touched her chest, the black fog calmed down, like a calm autumn lake. The fog fused into her.
A single, clear teardrop fell down from her cheek. Like an afterimage that was never there, disappeared into the debris.
“I’m home.” The girl murmured, “And now so are you, mother.”
