Calamity of Light: Volume 1(Incomplete)

Calamity of Light (Ch.2)

Chapter Two: Moving

"So, uh, where are we going?" Danny looked around at the blank plains ahead of them in confusion, there seemed to be no sign of people ever being here, no buildings or roads or anything. Where was he being taken? Did Kristian even know where they were going? The man remained silent as they travelled, not giving the boy an answer, the only sound he made was the impact of feet to hard rock and sand. Where they were seemed almost like a desert, so warm and dusty, the grains blew up into their eyes and into their mouths, Danny rubbed it away and spat it out while Kristian squinted and swallowed.

"How can you deal with this? There's sand in your stomach now and probably behind your eyes up in your brain, and come on, where even are we? Are you lost or something? Talk." He was getting angry, Kristian always acted like this but with everything going on he thought maybe he'd give him something more than a blank stare. He sighed before looking to the little one beside him, shaking his head and taking his hands from his pockets. As he began to talk he stopped walking and rested his hands on Danny's shoulders and knelt down to look him in the eyes.

"I guess I'll just have to scrape the dust out of my head, I don't care. And I don't know where we are, or where we're going, I haven't got a fucking clue, ok? What are we gonna do about being in the middle of uninhabited land that's searing my goddamn skin off cause of how hot it is? You got a plan? I don't either, but we're just gonna walk and see where we end up." He let go of the boy and stood back up, running his hands through his hair and sighing once more, shaking his head and continuing to walk onward toward the sun.

"I'm tired! There's nowhere to rest and we're in the middle of bloody nowhere and there's nothing left to drink cause you used all our water to cool yourself off which makes no sense cause you make fire! You're literally a lighter! Or a match! How can you get hot?! I'm the fragile little kid that's dehydrated and being dragged around some red dusty mountain-y place, maybe you should care more about me than yourself!" Danny threw his arms around in anger, Kristian never seemed to care and this had all just built up inside him ever since that day. He lost his mother and Kristian never even cried, not even as he watched her get torn apart by those things, he didn't even try to defend her.

"I hate you! You just stay with me cause you feel like you have to! You don't care, you don't love me! I hate you! You've torn me away from my home cause you can't do anything right, you did this to us!" He was huffing and puffing, he never took a breath as he ranted and raved at the disgrace that stood before him. One more time he opened his mouth, softly the words slipped out, "I hate you..."

Kristian was taken aback by the child's rage, the way it seeped from him like a breaking dam was frightening to say the least, so much pent up anger was trapped at the core of the boy's being. Not solely for his supposed guardian but for the world they lived and everything it took from him, he hated this place, he hated The Cataclysm, he hated rays and V.Cs and everyone in the whole world. But one thing in his life could never be hated, his mother, her memory kept him alive as he wanted to carry her with him through the wasteland that was laid out before them. One unsullied flame in a world of harsh and chilling ice, he held it so tightly that it burned him. "And what about mum? HUH? What about everything we had to leave behind? That was her home and you got us thrown out, everything she worked for is gone because of you!"

"STOP" The shout silenced everything, the winds seemed to blow away and the creatures of the dust retreated to their homes. "All I do is try my best to protect you, keep you alive, sure I've failed you more than once but I'm trying. I'm no parent, your mum was the greatest woman I ever met, she was almost like my mum too. She protected the both of us, keeping you safe from the cruelty of the world and pulling me back from the edge I was standing on. I wasn't her guardian angel, she was mine. I can't do this, I admit it. Say you hate me all you want cause it means nothing, I've hated myself way fucking longer kiddo. I'm a waste, I get it, nothing but a mistake the world is trying to cover up. But I'm fucking trying, cause if I give in then what was the point of her efforts to save me? You and I are gonna stick together, I have to do this one damn thing, since she did everything for me. Danny, like it or not I'm all you've got left to protect you now, and sure I don't have to do it. I could leave you here right now, I could burn you to the ground and it would be over, but look, you're not alone or burning. She cared about me, I cared about her, and most importantly I cared about her little boy. Cause his smile was so precious that from the first time I saw it I knew I'd lay down my life for it, I just wanna see that smile again." He was going on and on, hardly taking a breath, Danny never got a moment to really take it all in, it was like the words were being thrown at him. He looked shocked, never before had Kristian put so much emotion into something. Slowly he walked to him, arms wrapping around his waist and locking in place, they stayed there a while.