Re-

Wren: Re LOCATE

(Experimenting with new writing style)
(私は新しい書き方スタイルを試します)

Breathe, Thea, breathe.

I reminded myself. I lifted my sapphire eyes to the horizon, where the sea and the sky collided in a flat line of bluish shadow, my heart already in pieces.

The distance didn't help.

Not at all.

Not when I could, even though two hundred and fifty four kilometres away, still hear the skid of tires, the murmurs of hundreds of strangers, and a lingerie advertisement that seemed to go on forever.

Racing out of the old wooden door, I ran from the unfamiliar house of unsympathetic stares. Their thoughts echoed in my head, all a messy blur of snarky comments, disappointed voices.. pity.. hatred..

Stop..

Stop, please.. it's too noisy..

Can't.. take..

I didn't bother about the branches and thorns that gripped onto the back of my legs, as if beckoning me to stay.

I barely even heard the faint sound of a tear from my black tights, a common mix of deep crimson and perspiration trickling down my calf.

I had to run.

I had to.

If I didn't, I would fall and slide all the way down the steep rice-farms into the ice-cold water, so I dashed away, desperate to feel exactly like myself again.

Thea, who not long ago fell asleep on the couch and didn't wake up for days. Thea, who not long ago would lazily smile at people and doze off while they tried to talk to her.

Not Thea, the girl that shivered under her blankets while everyone was fast asleep.

I came to a standstill at another wooden house, probably another rice farmer's, my breath ragged, blood pumping, and left part of my black tights torn.

After looking around a little, I used my oversized sky blue sleeve to rub my sore, stinging eye.

"Do not trespass, home of.."

So like Niigata.

Ever since I set foot in this rural prefecture, I'd been in someone's way. Here I was, as far from Tokyo as I ever imagined, stranded at the farthest tip of Niigata.

All around me was silent except for the sound of rice plants rustling.

I peeked inside of the old house and found another old sweater, and it still donned its red and black striped shades.

It's weird, really, to stumble upon this seemingly abandoned house, with nothing but an old sweater in it.

Who wore it then?

Whoever it was, they probably lived between these stitches now coming undone, their dreams and secrets held together by the crimson threads that were maybe once vibrant.

I pushed up the sleeves of my own sky blue sweater, the scent of Tokyo now fading, the bottom edge beginning to unravel.

I shuffled up on my knees, enjoying the twilight. The vast rice fields were lush and green, sparkling gold for a fleeting moment with the last burst of sun, the air heavy with the scent of rice, summer, and some sort of forgotten wilderness that never was.

And I saw her.

Another, probably like me.

My assumption was probably right, if anyone got caught in her bloodlust-like looks of those scary eyes, they'd probably die.

But they're so alluring somehow.

As a city girl, I didn't really know much about those who lived in the farms, but she was all on her own, wandering around in the fading light. Most of the farmers I see in Niigata go in groups or pairs.

Raising her head, the pupils of her crimson dragon-like pupils narrowing, she stood still and gazed at me, as I gazed back at her. Shrugging off my existence, she went back to wandering, the long, straight ebony locks weaved into a pretty braid with a red ribbon. The long braid wrapped around her pale neck, and a confused look emerged on her equally pale face.

She looked like a vampire.

But more gentle.

Softer.

More delicate.

It was a moment of perfect stillness, like a kiss on the forehead, or the soft squeeze of a hand.

Watching her felt like I had met a friend.

The sudden, loud shriek of a bird broke the silence like a rock suddenly thrown at glass. Tripping over the laces on my blue sneaker, I fell on my face.

Dumb bird.

The pupils narrowing until they were hair-thin, the girl ran off, clutching something in her hand.

To make matters worse, a fat, wet droplet landed on my skin. I looked up to the ever-darkening sky. This is Niigata, I sighed. One moment, a glimpse of home, and then the rain that danced its evil dance on my white hair as it snapped me back to reality.

Getting back up, I teleported back to my favourite alone-spot, my back soaked by my hair. Tomorrow, I'm going to come back and find this girl again.

However soaked, wet and cold I am now, there was something warm and bright, hiding within the endless rice fields.