petals • jander [rewrite]

red carnation

"Mommy? Where are we going?"

A young blond boy who was around seven years old, held the hand of his mother as they followed down the obscure wooden pathway that led them into the unknown. The boy couldn't help but notice that they were no longer near home. It conveyed fear onto the poor blond.

Stars from far away twinkled over the deep blue sky. The gray moon danced behind the invisible clouds. The frigid gust gracefully caressed their lukewarm skin, causing the small boy to shiver.

The tall grass that sprouted from the untreated ground towered over the young blond. He leaped from one plank to another, brushing his hand past the fragile leaves.

They were going up a hill, which would sound scary if it wasn't for the lanterns hanging off the tree branches. Their feet, which used to follow a trail, were now climbing the concrete stairs.

"We're going to the place where your father and I fell in love, remember?" His mother finally replied as the boy's grip on her hand tightened.

A couple minutes ago, the boy asked his mother about how she and his father had met. Instead, the boy was hauled to the place where they fell in love. It wasn't actually forced or anything. He was just disgusted at the idea of falling in love.

He wondered what had gone through his mind while asking that question to his mother. Luckily, she didn't make fun of him for that question at all. Instead, she seemed rather pleased than ever.

At first, he thought he'd be dragged to a coffee shop or a restaurant, just like how couples get together in the movies. But he was surprised when he wasn't. His mother told him, the location where they fell in love was a place where beauty had cover its mystery. A secret place that settled on a hill, away from anyone else to see.

And now, they had ended up in the middle of the woods, climbing the said hill, and all information that the boy stored in his mind has been pushed away. There were only two things foaming in his brain, and that was the beauty and the mystery that he couldn't imagine.

Time passed slowly. Each step, it had felt like another has be added. The blond's legs could be compared to literal noodles; he didn't know how long he could keep himself up until end of the stairway.

"Mom!" The boy exclaimed, his hands tucked and pulled his mother's sleeves. "Why is this taking forever? When will the stairs end?" He was ready to let his legs fail itself as the words fell out of his mouth. Meanwhile, his mother was still walking quite placidly as if she had climbed this mountain a couple times before.

"It's up the hill. There's a reason why we kept this place a secret." She reminded.

A faint groan escaped the boy's mouth. His back arched forwards as his body began to send signals, telling him to stop moving. But before the boy could even lay himself down or began crawling, at the end of his vision, he could see the stairs ending in on a sharp edge.

Immediately, the blond's eyes sparkled with everlasting joy, accompanied with his jaw that dropped from the sight. His hands faced up towards the sky, happily fisting the innocent air. He began to run up the steps at the speed of an eagle soaring through the skies.

"Whoa there, speedster." His mother joked before her expression formed into a serious one, eyes fixed towards the younger. "Be careful, dear."

The warning effortlessly flew past his ears. The boy didn't listen, he didn't need to. He managed to get his way onto the final step of the staircase and in an instant, he dramatically fell forwards. His legs had abandoned him, but the boy couldn't care less.

He landed onto the flat ground with his hands hugging the floor. From behind, the sounds of footsteps had casually approached the boy's hearing before it had abruptly stopped right besides him.