KZ's and Dragoln's Short Stories [2022 EDITION]

Seasons Change

14.9.22

The pink glove lay covered on the ground. Still, it was visible under the multiple sheets of snow on top of it. The fact that it was also pitch black outside made it even more impressive for anyone who caught sight of it.

Destiny was ambling out of the charity shop empty-handed. She had been extremely busy with her job lately, especially because saving money was now crucial for her this Christmas. To add to that, she didn't want to bother her parents with it. Destiny was too guilty. 

Something close to buying a paint set that would never be used was at the top of her priority list. Over the first term of year 13, she'd lost way too much. On some occasions, she'd only have a few pennies left with nothing to spend them on. The money she had quickly slipped out of her card. The cash she held always vanished a lot faster than she hoped. Most of it was used for grieving. 

Faith loved art. Representations of seasons were her favorite to paint, especially on a canvas that weirdly enough was already painted on, even if it was a fully completed masterpiece. Destiny questioned this time and time again but her friend always responded with the same answer: "I like to change things" because seasons were all about change.

All too suddenly, Faith was called away from the earth too soon. Death hovered over her and claimed her too young.

The changes stopped and canvases were piled up in Destiny's room. She didn't want to think about, paints, or seasons, or change much longer. So she didn't look in the direction of the canvases. It pained her too much.

She was forced through. She was forced because she found the glove. She recognised it.

Faith always used to share clothes with Destiny. They'd try on each other's outfits and imitate each other like typical best friends. After Faith passed, her mother's grief was worse than an attack from a wolf. She had decided to cut off all ties with Destiny. That meant no more of her coming over to borrow stuff, hang out or take anything, not even a little trinket to remind her of the nostalgia. The good old days were just out of reach. It wasn't selfishness. Destiny tried to understand that. Of course, Faith's parents would be hit with the lurking depression worse than anyone else. After all, a parent should never have to outgrow their child.

The girl was absorbed into the memory of the time she and her friend were walking together down a nearby street four years ago. Her friend almost lost a few fingers to frostbite because she had lost her gloves. They were a rose colour, probably leather since Destiny never saw them up close. Still, she recognised the deformed crimson heart that was printed on the palm covering of the single glove. It had a painted silhouette of a bare tree, naked with no dressing of leaves contained inside of it. This was all that there was left of the deceased girl.

She lowered herself to pick it up compulsively, bits of snow and ice and dirt caking the poor thing. It was cold, of course. The feel of the glove in her hand chilled her to the bone. Not because of the horrendous weather. It was because it had traces of Faith's presence. 

Destiny felt like Faith's frostbitten fingers four years ago. Her mind was going haywire but her expression didn't drop or contort at all. Dizziness and nausea no longer surged through her unlike how they usually would when she was reminded of Faith. Numbness was calling out her name so no tears were spilled. This was shocking.

What was also shocking was the fact that Destiny had found out that the glove wasn't made of leather. It wasn't made of yarn or any kind of fabric either. The glove felt abnormally heavier in her hand than she thought it would.

It was steel! The lack of metal shine made it hard to tell. Though it thankfully wasn't rusted, Destiny could tell that it had aged a lot. 

She frowned. This definitely was Faith's glove. Destiny wasn't really into physics but she knew the fact that metals were good conductors of heat. If it was bitter cold, the metal would be freezing to hold. If it was sweltering hot, you'd get burned just touching it. Doesn't that mean the glove was useless? Why would anyone wear it if it served no purpose?

Destiny was still unsure whether her conduction hypothesis was correct. She used to be certain that using a metal glove, if they even existed which the situation proved to be true, would only be a catalyst for numbness in such a chilly season. Now her decisiveness was faltering on the edge of her mind. It had been a while since her GCSEs after all. Therefore she decided to try the glove on.

She was wrong. 

It was cozily warm. 

Destiny shuffled in the snow, puzzled at the bizarre find.

Before she could take another step, some form of power, a dazzling light surged from the glove and into the air like a beacon. The brightness overwhelmed Destiny. It blared in her eyes and sent her flying backward.

She took a hard landing bearing the fall on her back though she rolled a couple of times, snow clinging onto her jacket like a baby and its mother.

But when she shook out of her pain and hesitantly got up the snow was gone. It hadn't cleared up naturally. 

What also wasn't natural was where she suddenly was. 

What? Since when?

And most importantly, the supernatural existed? Did she really just teleport?

Questions were whizzing at the back of her mind.

Time was shifting and Destiny clearly saw that. The trees in front of her started to bear flowers and after, leaves. But then they yellowed. Then they wilted. Soon they eventually fell. The cycle restarted and the seasons kept changing right in front of her.

It was as if her heart stopped. Faith was in front of the tree. But so was…herself?

Her past self?

She didn't remember sitting beside her best friend under a tree, ever.

This was a dream. Surely.

Destiny thought she was going mad.

But when she heard her alternate self speak, she finally understood the vision.

"I can't live without you. I mean. I can't imagine being here without you," alternate Destiny stuttered.

Faith responded with the simple, "I know."

They were symbols. Universal symbols. And what she was seeing showed her that she needed to move on, that there was nothing else to lose because her whole world was already gone.

For there couldn't be a destiny through change without faith.

The pink glove told her that.

~