44 Days of Hell

"It's very blue, like the sky", she described rather peculiarly, "And it's shaped like water."

"Like water, Lady? What the hell is water shaped like?", I asked, shifting in what limited space I had on the wooden chair that I had refused to leave for the past three days.

"You know what water is like, Seraph. Or do you not?", she glared at me.

"I'm beginning to think I don't", I answered honestly.

It was impossible to keep Lady in Valhalla so I spent the whole day sitting around, chatting with her. She was describing a blue flower to me that she'd only seen once in her life but it was the most beautiful flower she'd seen. She said it was her favorite. I could tell it was a blatant lie.

"You've only seen it once?", I tried to confirm.

She didn't know what it was called. She didn't even remember where she'd seen it.

"It's not your favorite, Lady. Favorites don't work like that", I declared.

"What's that supposed to mean, Seraph?"

"You've got to have seen it plenty of times to become attached to it. You don't even know its name. It's not your favorite, Lady."

"I don't see why you're making such a big deal out of it. Who decided that definition of favorite anyway?"

We must have looked childish going back and forth about it for the past two hours. June was patient enough to work through even with our annoying noise in her background. Sight and Lubbock had left the hall early in the morning and hadn't stopped by since.

"It's very blue and golden seeds in the middle", she sounded like a scholar to herself as she described the flower to me.

"It could be anything, Lady. You're imagining it."

"You have to know it, Seraph. Aren't country people supposed to know their herbs?"

I couldn't believe she said that with a straight face. She was great at pulling people's legs.

"Whoever the hell decided that? And what's a herb? What the hell is wrong with you, Lady?"

In truth, I sounded like I could be drunk. And I was even worse off than Lady.

"I saw it in a shady place. Or was it sunny?", she couldn't recall.

"What do you mean 'shady'?"

"It was probably near some water body", she conjectured.

"Liar", I denied the existence of that blue flower for no reason.

It was a terribly slow day to make us bicker like this.

And all the while, she came up with the most absurd defenses, claiming she saw the flower in a shady or sunny place near a body of water, I went on denying its existence. It went on longer than it should have.

"Was it raining the day you saw it?"

"I don't believe so", she answered after a bit of thinking.

"Liar", I claimed, without any reason or basis.

Finally, when our absurdity had become too much to bear, June's typewriter stopped. I figured she'd leave any minute. The pile of papers on her table was gone. She was done with work.

"It was in a place...well, it had to be a shady place. Though, it could be sunny", Lady was mumbling to herself.

"It was in a shady place, near the river, under a bridge."

As we were pointlessly going about our absurdity, June walked up to Lady's table and told her.

Lady stared at her emptily.

"Under a bridge...", then, as if suddenly remembering, Lady sat up straight.

June stood still, opposite her.

"Yeah, that's it", Lady remembered now, quite clearly.

June nodded, "That's where we met."

  **********************

"It stopped raining, Chopper!", Lady put her head in through the huge door to announce.

"I know, hag. I can smell it", he answered.

"Let's go!"

"No", Chopper replied.

"Let's go, Chopper", Lady insisted, her head poking in through the door.

"Listen Lady, it'll be sunny very soon. I don't think it'll make for a good day."

"Where are you two going?", Grim asked, losing his sleep as Lady was making a noise.

"To eat", Chopper replied, "We're not really going. She just wants to go."

"To eat?", Grim sat up straight, "To eat? In town? You two? What about me?"

"Listen, you stupid god of nothing. No one's going anywhere. We don't need to do things that'll make us stand out", Chopper replied, taking a drag of his cigarette.

"Chopper!", Lady called for him again.

"Shut up, woman! I'm not going with you! It's sunny outside", Chopper replied.

"Such a sensitive man! I'll make sure you get an ever-lasting tan soon enough. That'd be better than looking so ghostly pale."

Saying so, Lady slammed the door shut and left on her own.

She'd left Valhalla behind a long time ago and by the time she was out of her thoughts, she'd wandered to the end of town. She thought she smelled fresh bread somewhere. It wasn't as sunny as Chopper had made it out to be. It was fairly windy. And the clouds overhead made everything look very dull. Lady thought that it would rain again.

She thought it was better that Chopper didn't tag along after all. She liked walking around the town all alone. And now she'd gotten so far out, where the river ran through the city. It was just a small thread of slow moving water. On windy days like this, it made a pleasant sound. It was quite clear and shallow. She thought, on a better day, she'd have liked to soak her feet in it.

Just as she was observing the clear river water, planning to cross the bridge to the other side, something out of place caught her eye.

The wind ruffled her hair, as she stood staring at the strange green something under the bridge.

After a while, she discerned it was hair. Someone was standing under the bridge. She thought of calling that person but then decided to go down to see him personally. She slowly made her way towards the gravel at the side of the creak and got down under the bridge.

Something tugged at her chest. She sensed how different it was. The world under that little bridge was entirely different from everything else around it. It was like a bubble, unaware of all that surrounded it.

A young boy with green hair and goggles on his head, stood with his hands tucked in his pocket. He seemed to be lost in the clear water too.

Lady could almost sense the danger flowing from that bubble world.

She hadn't walked all the way under the bridge. She was still outside the shade.

The wind seemed to be pushing her away, as if telling her not to get too close. But Lady couldn't help staring. A barrel rested beside the boy. And what poked out of the barrel was a feeble hand.

The boy noticed her presence and turned around, wearing a careless expression.

She went on staring at him and the barrel. The boy didn't say anything either.

"She can't get out. There's enough space to breath though. I take care of her. I give her water and all that", the boy explained after a long awkward silence.

Perhaps Lady had been the first person that stopped by to take note of their predicament.

"She?", Lady asked, taking a step into the shade of the bridge.

"Yes, she can't get out", the boy answered, looking at the barrel.

Before getting a closer look at the barrel, Lady noticed two heads of blue flowers in the corner. They seemed to be the cornerstone of that bubble world those two had under the bridge.

Lady then turned her eyes towards the barrel. It was filled with cement. The hand sticking out of it made way for some air, but that was the only visible part of whoever was inside. Somehow, the boy knew it was a girl.

"Who's she?", Lady felt weak.

"I don't know. I found her in the water."

Lady felt like throwing up. Her pleasant walk had suddenly turned sour.

"Anyways, miss", the boy asked, "Why are you crying?"

Lady was taken aback. She touched her face. She didn't realize. She wasn't just crying. Those weren't ordinary tears, they were crimson red.

"Eh?", her hand was smeared red too, as she touched her face.

Her legs caved and she fell down on her knees. The red tears dropped on her lap and the ground and she couldn't find a way to stop them.

The boy turned back to the creak and continued to watch the clear water. The wind seemed to have ceased completely. It was getting hard to breathe. She looked up, barely.

"What's wrong with you, miss? She's about to die anyway", the boy pointed at the barrel.

Lady's vision was blurred. She felt like she was never going to get out of that bubble world anymore. The shade she'd stepped into, the blue flowers fluttering in a space of their own, and the boy's green hair had trapped her for eternity.