〚FEATURED + WATTYS SHORTLIST 2021〛
Someone tried to kill him. Someone nearly succeeded.
A traitor walks among them.
The question is, who?
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"A sky full of stars and he was looking at her."
He was a man with a deep and profound love for the stars...
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TRUE TO HIS WORD, HER BROTHER MAKES IT RAIN.
She had loved the rain.
"When I die," she had said softly, looking out into the wet soil as lightning streaked the grey of the clouds and thunder rumbled lowly in the distance, "I want it to rain."
It seemed that the rain had loved her too.
With her no longer gazing out into it- sparkling eyes wide and lips parted in awe as it descended, it didn't seem spirited.
It was heavy, with every drop like a tear from the weeping skies, but without a single spark of life in any raindrop.
Thunder rumbled in the distance. But it was low. Feeble. Grieving.
More angels seemed to have descended. Their heads and eyes are downcast and full of sorrow.
Some have tears running down their cheeks, some are holding each other- but a select few- three, maybe four- seem to be carrying something else.
Her.
Rain leads them all. His eyes are downcast- and with every step that he takes, faint tremors seem to travel through the ground- accompanied by distant rumbles of thunder from the sky.
There was another solitary angel, sitting by the earth that had been dug up for where she'd rest.
She had skin that was dark, like rich soil- and eyes that were bright blue, like the oceans- but filled with anguish.
They said her name was Elisabel. They said she was the angel of the Earth.
And just as the Earth loved the stars and the skies, Elisabel had loved Stella.
It was only natural, that the Earth would mourn her loss too then.
The green in the grass was dull. No longer the sparkling emerald that often shined in her eyes, but dark, faded, and deadened.
Leaves seemed to droop, the petals seemed colorless, and the trees themselves seemed downtrodden as it rained.
But even as it continued to pour, Elisabel sat on the wet ground- gently stroking the soil- and coaxing fresh buds of flowers out from their seeds with her tears.
I want to stay here, on Earth- with the trees, and the flowers, and the streams of water.
Axel doesn't hear a thing that they're saying. The rain continues to descend on them, soaking through their clothes and hair- but he only watches.
He watches how it slowly washes away the blood staining his palms. Her blood.
He doesn't feel a thing either. He only feels numb, even as her voice rings in his head, over and over like a broken record.
