The Rumble

It had been two days since Winston had last visited, and Yuna couldn't stop worrying about the blood she saw on the scarf. She felt that something had gone wrong; maybe he became severely ill or got injured somehow. She tried to stop thinking about it by doing other things like blanking out while staring at a wall, picking up remaining bugs and playing with them, and randomly stretching.

But nothing worked. It would always come back to the scarf wrapped around Yuna's neck and its original owner.

Positive thoughts about his situation turned into pessimistic ones. Though Yuna didn't believe in a god, she prayed for his safety and that the feeling she kept feeling was wrong.

She had dreams and hallucinations of Winston opening that iron door and seeing those little boots and bright smile walk in, lighting the walls and leaving reassurance that she wasn't all alone in this new world.

She was so used to his lantern's light. That without it,

she'd might as well be dead.

...

It came unexpectedly, like a storm.

[ RUMBLE ]

The ground beneath Yuna shook, leaving her tumbling off the table in the middle of her sleep. She landed on her face and got up with a bloody nose and a delayed surprise. The walls around the room acquired small cracks, visible to Yuna with her developed eyesight.

Her head pounded, and her heart was about to beat out of her chest. Her jaws clenched in pain, and she felt itchy all over. The pain spread from the tips of her fingers to the middle of her brain, piercing every limb like sharp needles. She gasped for air.

"What the... hell..." she was shocked, "Armageddon[1]?!"

This world seemed filled with illogical events and insane agendas. Yuna was confused out of her mind, but she forced herself to get up.

It got harder to breathe with each storm of rumbles. The closing room reminded Yuna of the scarring suffocation that man she refused to accept as her father inflicted upon her, but she quickly shoved those memories to the back of her mind and focused on the problem.

Anxiety had hit her hard. From what she was experiencing, was the room going to cave in on her?

The floor kept shaking as if there was an earthquake, but the explosions above the ground and colossal pangs in Yuna's body made her think otherwise. Each vicious bang drew her to the point of insanity. She felt sick to the stomach; the room looked like it was spinning and screaming. It was as if her soul was getting sucked out of her chest.

Her organs felt like they were about to burst.

Then suddenly, everything went quiet.

The pain disappeared, and so did the rumbles.

Yuna's breathing returned to normal, but her state of mind did not.

"The heck..." she muttered while trembling for another breath. She held on tight to the table for support, only to come crashing down.

A splurt of blood spat from her mouth;

and like that, she went back to sleep.

...

She awoke with a splitting headache and tearing muscles.

Moving an inch was impossible without feeling the pain of a thousand jabs. Her eyes carefully opened to find her surroundings pitch black.

Of course, the room should be completely dark with no light source. But through Yuna's time here in the room, she had developed a form of night vision. She should be able to see even in the dark, yet she had lost this ability.

Without her ability to see around her, she wasn't sure what exactly she was lying in. A cold pool of thick liquid had dried on her skin.

This liquid would be her blood.

She was too tired to move, so she just laid there and let the blood keep her.

'Will I die again?'

Yuna noticed the white scarf, now dyed red, still wrapped around her neck. It was as if it was comforting her, whispering to her that she wasn't alone.

She bore the pain to hold the scarf, and brought it closer to her chest, which bled out continuous streams of red.

Her movement made small ripples in the blood, further spreading the puddle.

Yuna didn't care what she looked like at this moment. Right now, her attention was on the scarf in her arms.

...

As she couldn't move to figure out her situation, Yuna let herself to her thoughts.

'Those explosions above the ground... is there a war up there?' she wondered, 'I hope not. That means Winston might've been harmed or worse. Ahh, I don't want to think about it.'

Yuna shook her head inwardly as she remembered the innocent smile on the little boy's face, 'He couldn't have died. It's not possible,' her eyes closed, 'right?'

Images of the blood on his scarf appeared in her mind, making her doubt her thoughts, 'That blood... it couldn't have been his. It could've been someone else's. Yes, someone got hurt while giving the scarf to Winston, but he didn't notice, so...' Even her own words and excuses didn't make sense to herself, but she forced herself to believe in her guess.

'Or he got caught coming down here...,' the memory of an overbearing man with white hair and a hateful glare surfaced. She instantly denied it, 'No, that couldn't have happened either. Maybe he got bored of hanging out with me, so he stopped visiting.'

She felt a sting in her chest but sighed in relief, 'Yeah. That's what happened.'

'If that's the case, what about those explosions?' she wondered after finally finding the answer to Winston's absence.

'I haven't seen the maid in a while. Could the corridor outside this room have caved in from the booms? It never looked that stable in the first place...' Yuna's worries started surfacing.

'Then, without food or water, is this the end?'

Only time would answer that question.

...

[ 1 ] Armageddon: (in the New Testament) the last battle between good and evil before the Day of Judgment. A metaphor for the end of the world.