A crystalline tear spun around in her eye, falling onto a steaming plum cake.
One drop, two drops, three drops…
She took a bite of the originally sweet cake, but found she couldn't swallow it down.
Lost and alone, she sat motionless on the staircase.
Her hair obscured half of Jasmine Yale's face, her head hung low, her lips pale.
She thought, and suddenly she understood a term-
Depend on each other to survive.
The plum cake stuck in her throat, Jasmine covered her face, heavy teardrops fell like incessant rain.
In the deserted alleyway, atop the staircase, she began to sob uncontrollably.
The crying echoed, like the evening drums and morning bells, again and again.
In the lengthy deserted alleyway, the gloomy sky, the old houses.
Time stood still, the people are but gone.
Jasmine covered her face, her shoulders twitching, bitterness lacing her throat.
The bitter cold of late winter.