Antiquated Folly: The Crimson Letter

Chapter 1: To Archaize Despair

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Spring is said to be a season for beginnings.

It's always been the opposite for me. It was a standstill. Nothing began and nothing changed. Without any focus or grasp on anything worthwhile, I just wandered. I watched as everyone around me stumbled in pursuit of things they couldn't see. It never made any sense to me.

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A young girl with long locks of roseate hair was falling from the sky.

"Once upon a time there was a little girl who got lost in a forest. She had run away from home, because she had wanted to see what was out in the world. Despite the beauty of where she came from, she had heard of unbelievably large mountains, and of the beachy sands before enormous oceans that reached as far as the eye could see, and of different colored skies beyond the reaches of even the tallest trees."

The girl was falling and falling, the only sound was the sound of whipping hair and her frilly dress as she passed through cold, unrelenting air. It was still dark out.

"She had wanted to prove she was brave, even on the cold nights where she huddled and shivered through sounds of darkness Even during the long days where she felt alone, and where the sun wouldn't shine through thick foliage, she dared to find her answers still. One early morning, as the girl had excitedly ran towards what seemed to be the end of the forest, her step past the last bit of treeline turned into a fall. For it was a cliff's edge, and the world was indeed past it. She saw it all right before she fell: the large rivers stretching to the horizon where oceans waited, and where sands stood still as time. She had realized then that she was already on the tallest mountain. She had taken for granted all that she had. She had left everyone she cared about without a goodbye."

They first appeared as intermittent flashes of silver. The droplets that would catch the illumination of a rousing sun starting to peak from the horizon. A young girl's tears, falling behind her gracefully. Because of that light, her eyes opened, instinctually flickering towards something moving in the distance.

"When she could finally see the hard ground she would greet, after all that falling, she suddenly saw someone. They were rushing towards her from a distance, at a speed that made her realize there were other places like her home, with gifted people. She marveled at that, grateful to have that curiosity put to rest, even if it was the end. As she waited for him to near her, she could make out his sable hair, long enough to be tied back behind his head. When she saw his other adolescent features more clearly, she was glad she could witness someone so dashing right before her end. But that thought evolved when he was close enough for their eyes to meet. His calm, determined sable eyes told her all she needed to have hope again. Despite how far away he was, he was going to catch her. She was safe. She realized what was supposed to be the end was only the beginning."

More light shone from a more prominently rising sun as the falling girl was about to meet the earth. The girl only closed her eyes, and she smiled.

"I saw him try to stop it, Sakura-chan."

A sudden intake of breath.

A split second. Strong lightning currents arced through a sword in mid-flight.

Emerald eyes opened, lazy under long lashes.