Chapter 46

"Wait, are you leaving?" Uriel asked, hoping he wouldn't.

It was undeniable that he felt refreshed to talk to someone of his age.

"Yeah, I'll have to go back to our room. My aunt would yell at me if I'm missing for too long. She brought a lot of friends on this trip, so it's uncomfortable for me to go back. But I can manage. Well then, see yah."

And after that, they never met again.

Uriel did wish he could've said his goodbye to him, though.

He stayed a bit at the lobby for a while to kill off some time and finally went up to have his short nap too.

When he woke up, their things had already been repacked and the old woman was already wearing fine clothes, ready to depart.

"Go and prepare yourself," She said to him. "We'll be departing as soon as you're ready. I'll just go down the lobby and see the bus schedule to take us back to my house."

Uriel obediently nodded and immediately did as he was told to.

He took a brief shower, clothed himself comfortably and warmly, munched a mint candy he got from the top shelf, and went down to meet up again with Olia Isema.

It seemed like she had just finished checking out from the inn and paying for the bills, so they walked through the street until they reached the bus stop.

Uriel looked around the bright city one last time with a smile and whispered underneath his breath, "It has been a fun experience. I hope I can come back here as soon as possible."

The buildings and towers stood tall and beautiful.

They're like unmoving monsters maneuvered by people of dreams and bustle. It was quite understandable what the whole ruckus was about in this certain place.

You really could see the whole world condensed in this city.

It thrilled him to think that there are a lot more cities similar to this one or maybe completely different.

The advanced civilization was quite the work of art itself. When they rode the bus that's about to bring them back to that place, Uriel couldn't help but feel sad and serious at the same time.

As he sat on the window seat, the moving scenery went past him one by one, quicker by every minute.

Being in such a vehicle made him want to remake what happened that day.

He only got more confused, to be honest, when he heard the boy's story. The addition to details made all the difference.

It felt like he was back to square one and that everything collapsed within that jigsaw piece.

He has no clear picture once again. Everything's in tatters.

He thought that if he's in that car crash, then the incident about pretending to have a stomachache and upsetting Olia Isema wouldn't have existed in the first place.

He doesn't know which is which anymore.

All the information he's getting from those who knew about what happened tells completely different, opposite stories and it's hard to keep up.

As he follows the swift sceneries at his side and the vehicle continues to march forward the asphalt road, he imagined them all crashing against a colossal wall.

The bumper was smashed and the front glass shattered into pieces.

Everyone dies except for him.

Everyone else became the collateral and yet, he's the only one who's bleeding and suffering. Why is it that those who were saved from the casualty receive the most pain?