a bundle of stories: a collection of short stories

Chapter One: Distant Colors

Destiny: The fate that awaits you.

Fate: The future you can not escape.

Land and sea did not fate them to be apart. No, it was something greater. It was their past, and a path for a hopeful future. But in the end, what exactly was Jack's bright future and how was he supposed to see to Hana's? This answer was set down in front of him by reality, but he was in denial. There was no believing anymore. There was no beginning or ending to this fairy tale episode in his life. He never needed one, he never wanted one. All he got was a wake up call.

BACKSTORY
At the age of 5 Jack moved to a little town far from the city, far from his old life, farther from his mother. In those times, he didn't understand., himself or his family. He didn't need to. At the age of 7 he was diagnosed with synesthesia; the ability to see color within a person's speech. At the age of 9 a young girl moved in across the street, her name Hana Soar. It was not too soon until they met and became the best of friends. Everyone described it young love, while they well imaged it as a princess and he noble knight. But anyone could see these two were going to grow up in love, as they did at 16. No one thought their innocent hearts, pure love, and first love would result with the price of a broke heart.

For Jack, brokenness was laying on his door step. It touched Hana like rain on her skin. At 18 years old everything set in motion, nothing could stop it.

PRESENT

The local hospital's children waiting area was a second home to Jack, there was never a time where you did not see him there when he didn't have school. He came everyday, and It was just him. Until Hana moved in. Then she started her daily visits to the hospital. That was the beginning, and everything in between was their time to create their own world.

It was a long time since he saw her smile and her tears. The last he held her, and the first time they held hands, all those memories were numb. He had almost forgotten the warmth of love that transfused at their fingertips. Because, in the end-at times like these-he was deceived by his own conscience, and he wasn't able to depict whether these events had been dreams or reality; it all seemed so fatal, so it merged into one fake reality.

"Are you sure you're okay with this?Becau-" Hana's voice fades. There was not reason to let her finish.

The words he would never forget: "Of course I am. This will be good for us, all of us." A lie hidden by a stoic, yet trembling voice. That time he listened he saw the color of yellow in her voice. Yellow: light and bright, it was beautiful, it was the first he'd ever seen.
All Jack wants, needs, is to forget. But instead he remembers just before now, just before everything cracked.

Now, he was caught reminiscing between the children's waiting rooms and the adults'. It was a fine line, and it made all the difference between a his mind then and now.

The children's side, the walls were light blue with stickers of cute animated animals all around the room, but the blue paint and the little animal stickers stopped at the imaginary line which distinctively differentiated this wall. The adult's side was painted white and chairs aligned around the perimeter. The only sound was the nurse behind the counter calling patient after patient while on the phone, and a reporter on the mini television. Other than that it had was all silent and dull. In his final ruling, being a child meant being oblivious to disease and only being concerned over the amount toys there was. An adult meant sitting in silence with the atmosphere of medication and sickness casting over you clenching tightly at your neck, almost like a noose.

"Are you coming?" It was a snap back into the real world. Jack had not heard Dr. Jefferson Miguel, who had called his name thrice already. Jack looked at him with soft eyes, the Dr.'s voice is ocean blue: calm, direct, and strong. Making his way toward the door Jack left his thoughts with the two rooms.