No Longer Spring - Writings of tomorrow

XII

When we finally got at the entrance of the town, multiple guards came over and asked about Li Wang, who was still wearing his bloodied robes.

"It was nothing," he always replied, "We just passed through a cursed town and had to take care of it."

He didn't say anything about the three souls that we have lost the very same day we put our feet onto the muddy forest. It was just the deathly calm after the storm, when all the ones who were taken were passing from a world to another.
It was weird. Looking at the newfound elegance in town, it felt as if the forest had been nothing but a dream waiting to fade away.
They should've been there with us to see it, but they weren't. They didn't even get a proper burial.
From a crime scene, we got to a wedding one.
The area where we were going to hold it was part of the main hall. The entrance was of an elegant shade of gold, the stairs jade white and numerous. Inside, there was a picture portraying a beautiful, red dragon flying over what looked to be the very same town that we were in. It was so delicate and elegant, yet it showed the imposing power of the dragon and it's majestic posture.
There was nothing written on it, but on the sides; Under the dragon's protection nothing can fall. It must have have a strong weight to them, knowing that the HuoLong sect had the red dragon as their symbol. It was truly beautiful, yet it held some sort of ominous aura to me.
HuoLong...
Because of them, our future was put on hold. With all of the pain in my heart I had to end the story once and for all... let my family rest in peace and tell my sister everything; tell her why they left and tell her that our dark fate was over before she even knew of it. We all have to heal eventually or, perhaps, we simply get consumed by the dark void inside. It's either one or the other, and I didn't want the latter. I trusted our newfound legacy and, gods, I wanted to build something even greater with you. I wanted us to grow together and exist as a whole crafted by two.

I had to be strong.

Sighing, I looked at my reflection. I just couldn't feel as any of it was real. It had all been so fast. I just had to keep putting myself to sleep night after night, hoping that the days were simply going to pass one by one.

...

The next day came.
I had one thing to do- I had to be decent, wait for the preparations to be over and proceed with the ceremony. Li Wang made sure that it was going to be exactly as he wanted it.
My hair was almost done, my clothes were fresh and radiating. I was wearing a set of red robes, golden detailes embordered into the fine fabric, chosen by the man himself. It was meant to symbolize prosperity, good fortune.
It waa funny, really.
If both of us had good fortune, who was going to win? One of us had to fall at the end of the other. There was no sunrise without a sunset.
It was him whom I was to be wed to, but it wasn't him I saw in the back of my mind. As I looked at the natural make up I wore, the red lipstick that they put on me- I could only think of you. I saw you. Over my reflection, I could see your shadow looking back at me as if it was you who waa going to stay in front of me.
As I combed the last rebel strands of hair, I could only think at how we should have gotten to experience this. I could only imagine you looking as gorgeous as the moonlit blooms, where every petal is kissed by the delicate light of the moon.
I smiled ironically to myself.
I didn't even have a hairpin with me. It wasn't where it was supposed to be, so I looked through my previous sets of robes, hoping to find one.
Getting up, I nonchalantly put my hand inside the pocket and grabbed the first thing I touched. When I had gotten back to the mirror, however, I saw it; the same hairpin that the little girl wanted me to have.
How come it was there? Those were the exact same robes from then, but I didn't feel her putting it on me.
I laughed to myself again, bitterly. It looked as if the bird it represented fled back just to mock me.
Every move of my hand made my heart ache. I wished to be nonchalant, but my heart was too full not to flood. I left you wondering where I am.
My throat throbbed as two of the maids opened the door to my room and smiled at me shily or, perhaps, out of fear of authority, and asked me to follow them to the very main hall.