The Moonflower

Ever since she came to New Amal, Hannah chose to come to its flower field constantly. It was a large greenhouse positioned on the eastern part of the underground city, automatically watered and given artificial sunlight. They had their field to grow vegetables elsewhere, also in similar greenhouse facilities, but here, they only grew moonflower, which to her surprise, was the main ingredient to create Bel's Encounter. New Amal apparently was the main producer of the flowers, their main source of income. Initially, she wanted to report to APD, but she heard that the city had fallen to the man who wanted to harvest her womb to create a monster, and the APD itself was gone. She didn't know what to do next and came to the field to try to still her confused head.

Their fragrance was pleasant. They could be processed into a hallucinogenic paste to create the narcotics, but in great quantity, and with a further chemical process, they could be turned into a very deadly nerve agent, with a level of deadliness depended on how far the subjects were exposed to. Those who were far enough would have breathing difficulty, while those who were close enough could experience overflowing of blood into the brain, effectively exploded the head. Just like what happened at DomArt. Her chest tightened every time she remembered what had happened to her city. Her dreams were about those people in the hospital begging for her to set them free.

"A very versatile beauty, don't you think?" Pater's voice came from behind her.

"Hello, Pater," she answered without turning around. She recognized his voice, "They're beautiful yes. But..."

"But could also be death," he finished her words. He walked to her side, "but they are still beautiful."

"You can say that..." she didn't know what to think.

"What's in your mind, child?" he inquired.

"My city..." she answered, "... and how I feel like I disappointed my ancestor for abandoning her. I am the first of a long line of Domaney who actually failed to protect it," she was surprised at how easily she bared her feelings towards that man, against her better judgment. Could it be because of the flowers' effect? Could it be how they were able to convince the New Amalites to believe preposterous dogma about the Goddesses and changing the past?

"It is yours still. It always had and always will be," Pater said.

She scoffed, "yeah... you can think that if you like," she said dryly.

Pater seemed to ponder her words before finally said, "it is still yours. You and the others would save it."

She heard that so many times. How the city would be saved by her and the others, whoever they were. How it was a holy city, blah blah blah.

"Speaking of 'others', Adam doesn't seem to be better. Are you sure that he was... is the one important for whatever mission you had in mind in saving my city?"

***

"Hey, you have to rest in your quarter," Ticho shook Hagar's shoulder to wake her.

Hagar's dream of darkness dissipated, the beeping of Adam's heart monitor took over. She never dreamt about the galaxies ever since she was in New Amal, only endless darkness.

"Have you eaten?" Ticho said to her, "here, have some mushrooms..." Ticho put the aluminum plate in front of her.

"Thank you," Hagar finally answered her, "I'm not hungry, and I need to make sure that he's fine," she gestured her hand towards Adam's body.

"We took a turn to watch over him. He'll be fine," Ticho said, "come on, you need to rest."

"He's getting skinnier and skinnier," Hagar said, "is there any hope for him?"

Ticho turned around and looked at Adam, "of course. He won't die. Not yet."

"How can you be so sure?" Hagar asked.

"It's been prophesied," Ticho answered without a hint that she almost sounded crazy. How could this sharp woman think illogically like this?

"Huh..." Hagar slid the food tray to her chest, slowly felt famished by its smell.

Ticho turned to her, looked surprised, "what? Are you still doubting that?"

"No... hahah," she needed to be careful not to question their faith, "no... I just... it's just. Well, if you know him, it's just so hard to believe that he's some sort of chosen one or something."

Ticho inhaled, then exhaled. She walked to another chair inside the clinic, sat down, still looking at Adam, "I guess so. We spent all our lives thinking about what he will be, not what he is," she then looked at Hagar, "will you tell me what kind of man he is?"

Hagar put a spoonful of the mushroom into her mouth. It was nothing special. She immediately lost her appetite but chose to finish the meal. She chewed and swallowed the damn thing then said, "he's a broken man."

"Broken?"

"He lost his whole family, almost killed by the incident, and then he lost his estranged foster father," Hagar chewed and swallowed another spoonful, then continued, "he turned to BE as his way to deal with his... I don't know... emptiness... perhaps?" she shrugged.

Ticho looked deep into her, then shift her gaze back at Adam, "poor man."

Hagar couldn't help but scoff at the remark, then almost jokingly said, "yeah... guess so."

Ticho seemed to catch her cynicism, then looked at her once more, "you seem like you don't really like him."

Hagar put down her spoon. Now she's full, "are you kidding me? Let's see... I loved him. Very much. Then he sucked all the love and life that I had, never give anything in return, and basically ruined me, costs me like... oh I don't know... a year maybe... of a fucking therapy. He's a great guy!"

After a while, Ticho said, "I'm sorry."

"Look, you know what? Maybe I need to have some rest," Hagar stood up, then, "I don't even know why am I here fighting for him. I was about to lead a life without even thinking about him. But here I am now! A stupid asshole who still thinking that maybe he could change!" she then started to walk to the door.

"Hey, Hagar..." Ticho said.

Hagar turned around.

"Pater said that we can't change what happened to us, but we can control our perspectives,"

An empty platitude. Hagar said, "right. Thank you for the pep talk."

"Can we talk more later? After you have your rest?" Ticho asked.

"Yeah, sure, why not?" Hagar didn't understand why she became livid just now, "I guess I don't have a choice right? Like, I can't leave or anything..."

"Hagar, please."

"Yeah, OK, see you later..." she walked out the door and tried to control herself to not slamming the door.

In her quarter hours later, she found herself unable to sleep at all, no matter how much she twisted and turn. She couldn't understand why a person who thoroughly destroyed somebody's life could be adored by a bunch of fanatics. 'Adam will do this, Adam will do that', and most laughable of them all, 'He will be our catalyst to change the past.'

How about her own past? Her own present? Her own future? Nobody seemed to be concerned about that.

That's it, she finally decided, I'm gonna leave this place. The past be damned.