Alone On the Ship

Ephemeral

The Emergence

Zino stroked Nio's hair as the latter looked out the window.

"I tried to keep them alive..."

"I know. It's okay." Zino replied.

"We made a system... We made a system to prevent this..." Nio said.

"Life is short-lived." Zino said as she kissed Nio's cheek.

"I made sure they would live..."

"You can't control the actions of others. Free will is still in place, no matter how much they could be enslaved." Zino said. "Animals can't be caged in."

Zino rubbed Nio's cheek and laid a gentle hand on Nio's shoulder. The blonde's frame was small, and Zino's hand wrapped right around her shoulder. Nio looked up to Zino like a sister, but Zino felt differently.

"You can't blame yourself for his stupidity." Zino said as she wiped Nio's tears.

"How can you be so cold...?" Nio asked.

"You know that I've always been this way. I care only about you." Zino responded and kissed her cheek.

Nio sighed and kept looking out at the waves.

–––

"Why do I have to go on this cruise?"

"Your brother is waiting for you, he just graduated from elementary school here."

"Who's going to watch the house while I'm gone?"

"We have the maid to do that."

"Mom, are you sure about this?"

"If I wasn't sure, then I would say for you to stay home and study."

"Understood."

The girl hung up and kept walking along the pier. She was scared, but she knew that she had to do it.  She held a silver cross necklace to her chest and smiled.

"He will get us through this..."

She put the necklace in her pocket and continued walking down the pier. She held the belief that everybody would make it through okay. For her, dying didn't make the world dead to her. She was life, and she would protect the one who bore her cross. Life was ephemeral.

–––

The Swarm

Despite Zino's insistence that it was a superstition, Nio had always been interested in Christianity. What was it like to believe in a god? What was it like to believe in a creator? What was it like to be loved by a deity? Nio was never able to believe in any sort of religion, despite wanting to. She believed in salvation and in some sort of Heaven. She believed that people could be forgiven. Yet despite it, she never truly had the desire to delve deep into religion. She felt more attuned to spirituality and enlightenment, but was never interested in Buddhism. She lacked knowledge in all of the different religions, but felt herself clawing at her soul to embrace something. Maybe Zino had convinced her that it was all superstition, because the seeds of doubt were indeed planted in her mind.