Moonstone Lake

Bad and Good

Across the baseball field, Mono stared at his young self frozen in time like the rest. He squeezed the palm of his hands. He knew what he had to do, but he really didn't want to see it. Then he looked at his friend, Ray. Even in pain he, worried for Mono. If he was here, he lay back on the grass and talk about that day with a smile on his face. He thought back to after Ray broke his ankle.

                                                                                         ***

"I will be a baseball player." Ray declared. Pointing one of his baseball cards at Mono.

"Yeah, right." Mono shoved his hand away. "You said the same thing about football, soccer, and ballet," he grinned.

"I never said that with ballet! And Mom said a good sportsman should know a little ballet. Anyway, this is different. I will be a baseball player."

"You sure about that? That means eating more vegetables and less cake."

Ray froze for a moment. "I'll just have to take the good and the bad, but I will do it. For real!"

                                                                                   ***

Even now he couldn't believe Ray said that right after he broke his leg, but it was just like him.

Mono stood up. "I guess I'll try taking the bad and the good too. If there is any."

The room where he found the moonstone was small and simple. He didn't think much of it back then, all he wanted was his mother's gift, but why did he want it so much? His Dad talked about her all the time. There were even pictures of her in their apartment, and yet Mono still knew nothing about her. Her family. Her friends. His Dad would change the subject whenever Mono asked those things.

"Proof." He said in a small voice. "I wanted proof that she was real."

 She wears the moonstone as a necklace in all the pictures except for the last. When she was in the hospital, she had the necklace but without the stone. It didn't seem right. Once he forgot to take the stone off during a check-up. When the doctor checked his heartbeat, he didn't notice it. Like it wasn't there. It wasn't just him; it was everyone, even Mono forgot about it sometimes.

"Why did she take it off?"

Mono moved to the baseball field. He had stared at them for a while but saw nothing related to the stone.

He crossed his arms. "I wish I could make it go back to the beginning."

At once, everything started moving backward like he had pressed the rewind button. Mono watched wide-mouthed as it changed to the beginning scene and stopped.

"Start?"

The excitement of the kid's playing, bat hitting the ball, everything played out like before. When young mono was about to crash into Ray, a red shined under his shirt.

"Stop!" Mono got closer. "Why is it glowing?"

At the young Mono's leg, a slight glow around it, the same as the stone.

"This is."

Mono went to the next memory, the worst of the three. When his past self ran away from the unconscious teens.

"Playback."

At the time a frightened Mono worried about how badly they would beat him. How painful it would feel as they missed shaped him with their fists. Mono turned to the moon for help. The same red glow from the stone covered his body even brighter than before. That's when he changed.

"Was it... was it protecting me?"

There had to be more. In the way of his thoughts. He felt a cold stare at his back. He didn't think about it. He didn't look back. His legs moved at full speed. 

Author Note :

Image- Pxfuel.com