Ablackwing

"Black!" I called him as I slowly walked towards him.

He looked at me.

Those emerald eyes of his were shining in a different manner than usual. Tears were dropping continuously from his eyes as if they were some waterfall. I felt his eyes pull me inside them and I was drowning me into sadness too. What I felt was just a fragment. It was horrifying to imagine how bad he might be really feeling. I wished I hadn't seen him that way. It was heartbreaking to watch him cry like that. My heart broke to a million pieces right then.

Whenever Black did cry before, he cried of happiness. I remembered that the first time he cried, he cried because he was happy to see me. No, the first time he cried was in my dreams. But in dreams too, his cry had a contended and happy touch. This time, Black was crying because he was hurt. My crybaby looked nice when he cried but not this time. So much hurt and broken from inside.

"Who... Who are they...?" He asked in a sobbing voice. He lifted his hand and showed me the frame containing the photo of me and my family.

I was 14 years old then. We all had gone to an amus.e.m.e.nt park to celebrate Lucy's birthday. That was the opening day for that amus.e.m.e.nt park. The most surprising part was when my parents decided my birthday to be on the same day because I didn't remember anything from my past. It was really fun there. I remembered all those rides, and that big roller-coaster, bumping cars and riding that giant wheel at sunset was too blissful. That was how I started loving watching sunrise and the sunset. I still remember a few of those sights. My parents even brought two cakes, vanilla for me, chocolate for her. I remember how Lucy messed up mom's face with the cake. That picture captured the moment happiness of all four of us perfectly.

That frame used to be in the living room before. After that accident, I placed it in my room, above the bookshelf.

Who couldn't have guessed that it was me and my parents? I was adopted, that's why I had white-silver hair but all three of them had golden blond hair. It was an easy guess. But Black still asked me as if he wanted to neglect it, run away from the answer for some reason. It was as if he wanted me to answer something else.

"They are my family." I still answered, truthfully, even though that might not be what he wanted to hear. He looked at the picture again, as if he was asking that picture something. His tears didn't stop.

"Why are you crying?" I asked as I squatted down on my knees, in front of Black. He didn't look at me in my eyes. I put my right hand on his shoulder. His hair brushed against my hand.

"I..." He wanted to speak but he couldn't. His words stopped right on track. He was looking down and that sob in his voice was heartbreaking.

"I..." He tried to speak again but failed.

I pulled his face towards me, forcing him to look at me. His head followed my lead, with no resistance. His eyes still avoided me.

"Look at me."

He obeyed me without a question this time. Up close, his face seemed expressionless. Beyond that veil of tears, his eyes appeared like they didn't possess the spark I had seen before. I could see inside him and I saw him stabbing himself, again and again, screaming in pain. What kind of mourning was that?

"I..." He failed to complete his sentence once again. His lips quivering and shaking as if he was in the middle of a storm.

It was unbearable for me to see. I couldn't think straight. I wanted to tell him to not be frightened of anything but it didn't look like my words would reach him. A strange force whispered to me.

I tilted my head a little while looking at him. His eyes widened. I was glad that there was some life left in them. I closed my eyes and came closer. My hands held his face like they were some cage, restricting the movement of his face. I could feel the wetness of his tears on my hands. I leaned forward and touched his lips. They were smooth, like a rose petal. As we kissed, I felt like I was the morning dew on those petals.

He didn't move much, as if he didn't know what to do. I dug in again and he responded. He let go of his thoughts as he came at me with passion and pressed against my lips harder. We kept on kissing again and again as if we were a new lovestruck couple.

At that moment, I had no idea this will become a habit of mine. Months later, whenever he was not alright, I would kiss him like that till he got alright.

"I.. killed them..."

I was shocked when I heard it. I didn't know what to say. My parents and sister died in a car accident. It wasn't a murder. As I looked at that crybaby, I only knew one thing that he couldn't have killed them.

"Tell me what happened," I asked. His eyes still not believing me that how I could be so calm about it. I couldn't believe that either.

"The demons had planned to get rid of me. Hundreds of ranked demons had come for me. I wanted to keep away from all of this bloodshed and I only defended myself. But after three days, higher demons appeared as the second wave and I lost my mind to darkness once more. I retaliated."

"They thought it would be easy to finally get rid of me. But I was still strong enough. When I killed most of them, the higher demons abandoned the ranked ones and decided to retreat. They tried to run away. I was just angry. I pursued them. I kept pulling them near the ground and didn't let them fly too high."

"Those higher demons got afraid. They knew they couldn't escape until they find a diversion for me. They changed their direction to a civilian area. I foolishly kept pursuing. When I was out of the woods, I saw a black car going just ahead of us. Before I knew, the first demon touched the car. The second one followed him and slashed the left side of the car with some small weapon to make the car lose the balance. The front tyre burst. And the next moment, the third one pushed the back side of the car to the right side. The car lost its balance and started rolling forward."

"The car completely rolled thrice before I could catch up to in front of it and stop it. In that small time, the three of them had run away.

"I pulled open the doors. A blond couple was sitting in front seats, a girl was in the backseat. They all were unconscious, bleeding from head, hands, stomach. I didn't know how they were bleeding that much. I pulled them out and tried to heal them but I couldn't. My stamina was exhausted beyond limits because of my reckless flight.

"I tied the girl in front of me with strap and held the other two in both my arms and ran towards the nearest hospital as fast as I could, hoping they could fix their injuries. I took twenty minutes to reach there. I rested for a while and tried to heal them again. But by that time, all I could do was give them a few more hours of life. I couldn't save them from dying... I couldn't save them...

"So much power in my possession. For what? I couldn't save the ones I should have. Why am I cursed with this horrible fate? If only I weren't this way, those demons wouldn't have come after me. If only I hadn't chased after them, I wouldn't have been out of stamina to heal them. If only I had let them go, they wouldn't have tried to use anything to divert me. If only I was on time, your parents and your sister would have been alive. If only... If only... I killed them, Eve. I killed them... I'm so sorry."

His tears increased in numbers as he recounted the experience, like their passion to fall had reached new heights. His words hazed as he dove into despair again. I pulled him close to me and gave him a tight hug. He kept on crying, leaning on my shoulders. I stayed there, without moving from my position, while he cried.

When I first saw him, he was falling. He wanted to die. That much hurt he was from within. It was my decision to help him somehow. But I had no idea that there was still so much sadness inside him. 

I was sure he hasn't cried like that before. I somehow knew that he had built a dam inside his eyes to prevent those tears from flowing. But his heart was as dry like a barren land because he was holding back his tears all this time. Tears are magical you know. They have the power to mend those things that can't be healed physically. It was time he let himself heal. He cried in that waterfall while swimming in it, drowning in it. I let him cry.

I wanted to tell him that it's alright. I wanted to tell him that it wasn't his fault. I wanted to thank him for trying to save them. I wanted to tell him that I don't blame him for anything. But I knew that that wasn't what he needed that time. All I could do was stay rub his back and c.a.r.e.s.s his hair while he cried. That was all I could do.

That was all I could do...

He kept on saying that he's sorry. He kept asking me, more like begging me to not hate him for his mistake. I stayed silent all the time and just rubbed his back. It hurt to not do anything. He cried like a baby until he fell asleep.

He was leaning against me, his limbs seemed lifeless but that's the way they are when you sleep, aren't they? I somehow placed him on the bed. I was glad he didn't weigh too much once more. I put that white-black blanket that belonged to me over him.

I wondered when I started acting all grown up.