Someday - A Short Story

Someday: Chapter 1

CHAPTER ONE

A Life is Nothing More Than a Group of Senseless Beings

AS I WALKED THE short distance from my place to school, I stopped at the middle of the bridge that I always walked over and looked down at the river, appreciating its beauty. The river had crystal clear water and a variety of fish swam in it. It was rare for a river to be this clean, especially in this dirty city of Lannin, where people just threw their trash anywhere convenient, not caring about nature and cleanliness.

As I was about to continue walking, I noticed three kids down at the riverbank throwing stones at the top of a small tree. Curious, I stopped and turned to look at what enigmatic thing might get the attention of these three brats. Then I saw it.

The small white and red coloured bird that was on a branch on top of the tree was trying to fly away, but couldn’t, due to a broken wing. Forcing my eyes to focus on the bird, I noticed that it was not white and red, but instead, it was pure white, but covered in blood. That was when I jumped down the bridge and ran towards the three hell spawns.

“Hey!” I called out to them to grab their attention. “Stop it!”

“Huh? Who are you old man?” The bald one with a band aid on his nose bridge stopped throwing stones and turned to look at me. He was wearing a white shirt and brown pants.

“If you ask for someone’s name, introduce yourself first, brat,” I retorted as I stopped a couple of feet away from them.

At my reply, the two others behind baldy snickered at him.

Baldy glared at each of them, shutting up both of them.

“F-fine! I’m Alex,” baldy said.

“I’m Torph,” I replied. “What were you doing? Rather, why are you not in school?”

“School sucks!” the red haired guy at the right of baldy said.

“Killing a bird is more fun than school then?” I asked.

“It’s better than nothing,” the third kid said. He had blond hair.

“Scram,” I said, not expecting them to listen. “Go to school.”

A miracle happened then. The three kids actually listened to me. I watched them as they walked up towards the road. I waited until they were out of sight before climbing the tree and getting the bird.

The white, bloodstained bird tried to fly away, but because of its broken wing, it just sat there helplessly, waiting for its untimely death.

“Don’t be afraid,” I whispered as I gently picked up the bird with my right hand. And then, forgetting I was still on top of a tree, I covered the bird with both hands. But, gravity, being the jerk that it was, remembered that I was high on top of a tree and pulled me down. I landed on my back, knocking the air out of me.

“Torph! Is that you?” a girl shouted from the bridge. Still lying on the ground below the tree, I looked at the person’s face. Ah crap. Dammit. It was her.

“Ah, class rep, it’s you,” I sighed lifelessly as I oriented myself.

“What’s with that reaction?” Aika, my class’ representative asked as she went down the riverbank. Aika had long pink hair that reached her waist. Her beautiful eyes were also pink. I’m pretty sure that if she asked any of the guys in my year level to go out on a date with her, they’d immediately say yes, and it most probably wouldn’t matter to them if they had girlfriends or not.

“Hey, class rep, I’ll be absent today,” I replied, not answering her question.

“I told you to call me ‘Aika,’ right?” Aika said, her hands on her waists. “And what do you mean you’ll be absent today? I won’t allow anyone in my class to be absent for no reason!”