Cavaliere del Giardino Overture

Chapter 16

The river appears still, yet she flows under the thinnest of ice, awaiting the gentle touch of the sun. Though the air bares only the coldness and the ground is frozen once more, they glitter with the gift of each nascent ray. It is as if God ensured there would be hope even in the deepest and most wintry of days, asking us to see the sparks that remain even when the world is frozen.

Upon each tree born wand, naked from winter's rasp, come the buds of spring. Each tells of green leaves to come or the sweet blossom within. Even as cold winds blow, they are such embryonic joy.

Under a dove grey sky, the colors of my world don their winter coats, each hue darker and richer than before. The path sparkles and crunches, like sugar underfoot, and the coolness brings me right into the now, into the moment of life. Though the flowers sleep and the trees show their lofty arms once more, a smile plays upon these cold lips. The pink-haired man watched the fight, watch the vampire leave the beetle and walked towards the desert. The doctor stood clutching the syringes in his hand. He watched the beetle yawned as he threw two of his syringes into the mouth. Acid started pouring through the beetle as the barrel slowly rolled off crashing into the trees.

July jumped down from the tree, Inside Pilo was holding his arm and groaning, blood spilled down his head. Angelos stood up grabbing his nails and attaching them to his hips, he walked out to the snowy floor and grabbed his nail from its holster.

A sudden syringe flew through the air hitting Angelos's shoulder. "You took him from me," He threw a second syringe into Angelos's chest. Both filling the other with immobilizing potions. "Took him from the gang," He threw another hitting his throat, this one being poison as it suddenly started melting through his throat. "Took him from all of u-" A sudden bullet flew past hitting July in the shoulder. Pilo held his shoulder as he stood up, barely standing.

Sammy was holding her broken glasses in her hand as she reached back feeling the shell seeing a small minor crack in it. She stepped out of the barrel slowly before watching the acid melt away at Angelos's throat, he fell back hitting the ground with a loud crunch, as the mouth hit the cold snow.

July smiled. "I just want May back," he said frowning before throwing a syringe into Pilo, Pilo froze and hit the ground. "I want my friend back," he threw another hitting the dead beetle and then hitting the tree melting it. Zito and Bria hid behind the barrel as Sammy grabbed the needle around her wrist as she held the crack of her shell. "My loyalty isn't to the boss," He said stomping in Angelos's head. "It's to Him. I didn't join for Dracula I joined for the man who gave me a new life, a new face, and you took him from me all for what," He turned his head peering at Sammy. "A fucking snail!?"

Sammy let go of the crack both hands gripping his blade. A cloud of black smoke poured from her shell as she slowly took a step in the snow. July threw a syringe as She swung the sword cutting it two. Two more syringes flew the air as he cut them down, the liquid hit the ground.

The snow started falling slowly and gentle clumps of snow landed in the two's hair, as July grabbed a fistful of scalpels. "I'll end you!" He threw the scalpels, keeping one in his hand as he charged her. Blood spilled from her, as they left shallow cuts on her chest, cheek, stomach, and legs. He swung the scalpel as she brought her needle down, cutting her index and middle finger off. He bled blue blood onto the snow. His fingers grew back, talons, not fingers. He leaped at the snail as she swung the blade, carving into his stomach and cutting his chest. Blood spilled on her as July hit the ground. Gasping and holding his carved stomach. He stood up looking up, blue.

There is a kind of blue that is a celebration of soft confidence, of a deep resolve to show the truth. It is the blue of the ocean waves and the sky in any season. The kind of strength that wins, as with the blue, is flexible depending on the weather. No matter what happens it is there, reliable and strong. He looked to his hands. "June was right, this is a fate every shade user must go through," He said before smiling. "Change for the better," He swung the scalpel again as Sammy jumped back letting him fall into the snow, leaking that blue blood. It was the blue of forget-me-nots, that bright and bold yet ever so delicate burst of optimism that such tiny flowers are.

Sammy stabbed his scalpel into his head before looking down at Angelos's, she frowned looking away from his mangled face and hole in his neck. She turned to see Bria tending to Pilo. "You dumbass, Why did you shoot at him!?" He frowned before pulling the syringe out. "Sleeping potion, I don't think he was trying to kill us, just Angelos. Either way, our home is gone," Bria complained. Bria was first to notice July making a noise as blue blood spilled around the forest.

From the darkness came the sound of heavy limbs being dragged across the forest floor. Whatever it was, it was massive. Either it dragged its feet or a tail through the undergrowth. Every once in a while would come a cracking noise like bone on wood, or at least that is what Sammy imagined it to be - a thick skull crashing into a trunk. This beast was neither lithe, graceful, or blessed with night vision. Despite the November chill her clothes were sweat-soaked in minutes. The only visual she got on the monster that July had become was wings and a burnt face as he flapped his wings and flew off towards a random direction.

Sammy watched. "Looks like we might have to go home," She said. "Bria, Zito, wanna come to the snail garden?"

"Where else would we go?" Bria mumbled as Zito buried the Moth.

The four started walking, Sammy carrying Pilo.