The Crimson Estuary

For years, I loathed them; I made myself believe that they did not care; I became selfish; I am ungrateful.

But now that I'm inside this vacated house, I'm worried that maybe all of my what-ifs are real. What if I was the one who made all of my what-ifs happen? ~

"Mom? Dad?" Kaia called passionately as she entered their home via fully opened doors.

"M-mom? D-dad?"

The wooden flooring was groaning, the walls were barely holding together, and water was pouring from the ceilings, filling the bottom level with the water. But Kaia, who was earnestly looking, forced herself to ignore what was happening around her.

The village is vacated, leaving no one in the area, even in their usually empty home.

Kaia clenched her fists and said, "What did I expect?" with a sour expression on her face.

Ha! She sighed and turned away from their home without even attempting to look back.

Her typically icy demeanour broke as tears began to well up in her eyes—tears she had never shed before. Kaia had such severe heartbreak that she is now thinking of surviving without the help of others.

Despite the continual, intense earthquakes around her, Kaia ran constantly and decided to go with the early crowd searching for a spot to spend the night safely. She ran to Maharlika's lengthy, once-bustling street and saw that it was a far cry from what it had been. Although it may still be active, it is currently disintegrating and disappearing, as if swept away by a massive tsunami.

As Kaia passed through the centre of the dilapidated street, innumerable people were lying on the ground, abandoned. Children with brittle bodies were crushed, and their bones were severely broken. The elderly were unharmed but were dead, still covered in dust as the trembling continued; it was as if they had suffered cardiac arrests. Kaia saw several pregnant women on every path she took, oozing with blood in their lower area; their child didn't make it, and neither did the mom after being trampled in the swarm of people racing to safety.

Frowning at the sight she sees, Kaia never stopped. She ran, clutching her hands in her chest, showing her discomfort for the results the unusual event caused, until the back of the crowd reached her very own eyes.

She rushed as quickly as she could to get to them, shouting "Hey!" as she waved her hands and asked them to wait for her.

However, the crowd never even once took a glance at her; instead, they were all silent, in shock at something else ahead of them.

The crowd was dead silent, which was hard to achieve in a vast throng running to safety in a chaotic situation; the splashing noises of broken fire hydrants and the sparks of the live wires were the only noises that reached Kaia's ears.

Kaia pushed through the crowd, saying, "There is something over there." Then, screams resurfaced again.

A sight only found in the Bible emerged: Moses splitting the vast ocean. However, this time, it wasn't the ocean but the grey asphalt road stretching throughout the city. It cracked long and wide forming cliffs in the middle of the busy streets.

Those who were supposed to be evacuees became casualties; some slid and crushed their skulls in the quake rubble, others were trampled by the mass panic, and some went down the cliff. The silence of their voices as they fled changed into a complete 180-degree turn, causing their throats to ache in dread of dying from what they thought was nature's unexpected anger.

I, who you betrayed, I, who you dared seal for all your selfish ambitions, and I, who was the gatekeeper of the underworld, will now and forever make you experience the same suffering I felt from the same people I believed valued me. I loved you and shielded you from all these disasters for hundreds of years.

You dared to leave your land and then dared to return when there was no other option; for hundreds of years, you never learned.~~

Kaia turned around after hearing murmuring voices amid the turmoil and asked herself, "Huh? Who's that?!"

Then, out of nowhere, Kaia heard the sound of rushing water and understood that a new river was now passing through the cliff.

During the uncontrollable tremors, Kaia, who is currently clinging as tightly as she can to a street lamp, turned back, took a deep breath, and yelled, "Run!"

As she let go, her never-ending battle for survival continued.

There shouldn't be any light if there was a river.

But when Kaia turned around, she noticed a bright crimson liquid gushing as though it had free motion. It is a highly viscous lava that can kill you from just a single splatter.