A wish to stay

Execution

The morning bird's songs flew into the dark room through the opened window, along with the rays of light slowly occupying the room through the cheap, thin curtain.

The woman lying on the bed knew the morning had come but refused to get up, she instead held her blanket tighter.

Then a few fingers gently brushed her long pink hair away from her face, the woman in bed extended her hand to hold those fingers without even opening her eyes.

"It's already morning, Luka. Time to get up now." The voice from up above has spoken.

"If I don't open my eyes, then it's still night because all I see is pitch black."

"Come on, I need to go and you know that." The fingers within Luka's grasp wiggled a bit, it was like they were begging for her to let go.

"And you know I'm not a morning person, so you need to give me something to get up."

Luka then heard a sigh from above, then soon received a gentle kiss on her forehead. Now she can finally open her eyes with a smile on her face.

A woman with short brown hair was looking at her, with a slightly annoyed expression on her face.

"Good morning, Meiko."

"It's getting close to noon," Meiko replied, then quickly pulled her fingers back.

"Aww, where's my sweetheart that was talking to me just then."

"I got knight duty today for the execution. I already lied about wanting night patrolling because you want me to stay, so I think I'm being wonderful here.."

Meiko rushed to put on all her clothes and armor, while Luka just sat in bed and enjoyed the view.

"Well, it's not like you couldn't just turn me down," Luka said with a grim.

It made Meiko stop herself to look at her in the eyes, and gave the fakest smile of sarcasm then got back to dressing up.

Luka wasn't mad, since she also knew she'd just nudged the hell out of Meiko for not spending time with her.

The sound of the bell struck Meiko, as she quickly picked up her helmet and checked herself in front of the mirror for one last time.

"I really need to go now, are you coming to the city square later?"

"Nope, you know I'm not into anything that's blood-related," Luka said with the same grin on her face.

Meiko shrugged, then proceeded to walk towards the doorway.

It was when she turned her back towards her, that Luka's smile faded for a second before she called Meiko with a bit of hesitation.

"Hey, Meiko?"

"...yes, Luka?" Meiko was getting a bit frustrated because of the time but still turned to Luka for one last time.

"I'm going to leave the city pretty soon."

"Okay? That's talk about that later, or just send me a letter or note about when you're coming back to Pari."

"No, I meant I'm moving to another place."

Meiko stood at the doorway, not knowing what to say.

---

The weather today is sunny, without a cloud to be seen across the blue sky. Almost everyone living in the central city of Pari was heading towards the city square. As more people begin to gather together, the fuzziness among the crowd cannot be hidden anymore, filling the air like the annoying fruit flies on a hot summer day. Uneasiness and excitement were slowly saturating.