The Small Hands Of Hope

Chapter 2: Lonely Hero

"I will be a hero. If my world is thrust into danger, I'll step forward to save it. I'll give it my all. I'll live up to everyone's hope" , muttered my mouth as I dug deeper. Bones started appearing everywhere I look. What did I expect? I was surrounded with graves after all. Raindrops rolled over a skeleton's head and then hided into the eye cavity. Their sound as they gently tapped the bones was like a sweet lullaby. It was a beautiful sight.

"No! I mustn't get distracted. I'm on a mission, remember?" I shouted. Yet, I couldn't focus. I was exhausted and kept having weird ideas. Where did the bodies of all the people that died since the beginning life go to? If they were buried beneath the earth, does that mean that every place I set foot on is essentially a grave? Is our house a grave to someone I don't know? It just seemed that the deeper I dug; more questions arose with the earth's soil.

Suddenly, a hand emerged. I instantly recognized it: it was my father's. His blistered fingers with which he caressed my cheeks, his brown eyes with which he tenderly watched me now lay under a crushing amount of dirt. That's when a voice hiding deep in my heart gave me strength to keep digging. A growing sense of urgency took over me. With a grip firm I handled the shovel, pushed it deep and lifted the black matter filled with pebbles.

I could smell death everywhere around me but the flame of a strong belief was still flickering. Eventually, I was able to see my father's aching expression. He wore a tense mask over his pale face. Life seemed to have been painfully ripped away from his aging body. A gaping hole in his chest was the occupied nest of some bugs and worms. I vomited whatever I had left inside my stomach from the awfully delicious morning cake. "Don't panic" I said to myself." compose yourself. In front of me is a task that I have to fulfill, for I am the hero that will save the day."

Delicately, I pulled his body to the top. It was an arduous process. In the end, there he was laying on the dirt. Clinging tightly to his corpse with all what's left in me, I was cleaning the wound and extracting his heart. The rain washed away some of the worms that stuck. I hope someday, it will wash all my sins. This time around, I knew where to find the heart from the beginning. Past experiences proved to be helpful.

With the same knife that had killed him, I was about to save my father. I didn't want to inflict too much damage. The limits of my powers applied on humans were unknown to me. For animals, it didn't really matter that much. I knew that I can fully restore them. But there was a creeping doubt that almost crippled my hands. What if my powers don't even work on humans?

It was the question that I've been evading the most. I had no answers and I really shouldn't be bothering with this right now. All I know is that if following my instincts will replace the newly born glistening cold in my heart, then I'm ready to do anything to get a glimpse of his grim face and to hear his boring lectures, again. I was determined to carry on, to prove that I am the long awaited hero. Ultimately, the gleam of the heart which loved me the most reached my tearful eyes.

I snapped the vessels out of inexperience and cut the arteries out of mistake. The last steps of the surgery were going all wrong. Maybe it was the excitement, or the exhilarating feeling of the approaching end of this nightmare. After a long struggle, his heart was finally extracted.

There was nothing left to do now, except doing my magic trick. I covered the heart of my victim in clay. I never knew that holding a heart of someone I killed would make me feel such a weird and indecipherable sensation. Yet, my determination came through. Slowly, I linked his heart with my father's cut arteries. It was such a tricky process. I don't know really how long I've been sat here spilling red juice. Time has lost all meaning to me. There was nothing else aside from my dead father, me and a heart. My eyes were burning. Night has finally come around.

I was about to finish when I became unable to see. My hands perished in the thick veil of darkness. Suddenly, within the obscurity that brought me to my knees, floating lantern emerged. Fireflies swarmed around encouraging me to keep going. I worked ceaselessly. It was never going to be easy. But here I am in the end ready to whisper those words. "Living things are really beautiful. I don't want to lose my father. Can I...get a second chance?"

The moon's gleam pierced the sky. The clouds scattered in fear. The warm light cleansed my soul and made my father cough. He was in pain but alive, somehow. I couldn't believe my eyes. I whispered to him how much I've missed him while I put my hands around his large shoulders. There was nothing to wish for anymore.

As my image danced on his eyes, he soon begun to realize what was going around him "Ho...ro...sha" , he muttered his first words like a baby learning to talk. "It's alright father. Everything will be alright now. Just calm down. Where does it hurt?", I said as raindrops from the storm raging inside of me rolled down my cheek.

"I thought I...died", he said hesitantly.

"No father, you didn't "

Moving his head slightly, he looked at my hands covered in clay and said in anguish "Why do I have to be born again in this rotten world?"

"What? Did you expect me to just stand around and mourn your death?"

"You should stop playing God. Accept that in life, death is the only certainty"

"No!" I shouted desperately ", don't tell me that after all what I've been through."

He groaned with pain as I said those words. I could tell something was wrong. His face was losing color and his hands have become frosty. I panicked.

"Father! What's wrong?" ,I said flustered.

"Oh...I can remember this feeling...am I gone to die again?", he implored.

"No! I will not allow this. We're going home...together. We will eat curry for dinner. I will cook for you. You know, I've become a better cook. I've been practicing in secret." ,I tried to comfort him as much as I could. Life was unfortunately being sapped away from him alongside it my last drops of sanity.

"Your mother...you need to find your mother. I think she went to Inai village. I believe she has the same powers as you. Maybe...there are many others like you. Some bad people are trying to find you. That's what the person who killed me said." He mumbled breathing heavily.

"Hold on. I'll definitely figure something out. I'm a doctor, remember?"

"A doctor isn't someone who kills people. I know what you've done. I can see it in your eyes, just like I can see your belief in my imminent death. " , he smiled. " I won't ask for more details. I want to die in peace. Being killed wasn't very peaceful. I would tell you whom he was, except that I don't want you to waste your life for revenge. Just...take care of yourself. Forgive me for being selfish, for I'm a coward."

Soon after that and before I could think of anything to say, he gave up his life once again. This time killed by me, his daughter. That's when I lost control of everything around me. I could feel my glass bubble shattering. My dreams, hopes, everything I had, the pieces that I have long been preserving, lay now on the ground sharp edged. My world turned bleak and I lost all consciousness.

When I woke up, I was behind bars, a prison of some kind. Specters of an endless nightmare haunted the vacant twilit cell. Tiny droplets of remorse and guilt precipitated in the four corners of my consciousness. On top of my father's grave there are maybe some yellow carnation flowers.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hi everyone!

From now on there'll be updates every weekend. The story will now take off. We hope that you enjoy reading it.