Otherworld

Forgotten

The morning air felt just as sleepy as I did. The sun had barely risen and I was already up and walking the winding streets of the Capital. A few late night bar hoppers were finally heading home. I stuck close to the alleys in case someone spotted me. Anyone under the age of eighteen was not permitted to be on the streets until the first church bells have finished ringing signaling the start of the day. But today I have to be out this early. I was meeting someone. I shudder at the thought of what would happen if I were late.

"Here." I say holding out a crisp red apple. The trust's sheen had dulled from its time in my bag but it was still perfect. Waiting in a ghost town in the middle of the woods was not my idea of fun but I made a promise and I keep my promises. I sigh. I set the apple on the broken fountain long void of water and take my place beside it. A chill runs down my spine. I growl.
"Fine, you can have the green one!" I say digging for it in my sack.
"Yay." A light voice says. From out of the ruins of what was probably at one point in time a lovely shack came a head full of snowy white hair. Mari.
"I don't understand your aversion to red." I say tossing her the bright green fruit. She catches it and slips it into her pocket. Mari always wore the same black clothes. A dark yellow scarf wrapped around her neck. The scarf itself was impossibly long. It had been wrapped around her neck a multitude of times and the ends still trailed down her back and brushed the dusty ground.
"I don't understand your preference for it." She mutters. She crouched in front of the red apple beside me and studies it. The red sheen reflected nicely in her violet eyes. A deep shade of purple surrounded by empty blackness, not the normal whites of every other person's eyes. She cautiously pokes it and it tumbles into the empty fountain.
"Hey!" I scramble for my food while she releases a quick breath from her mouth.
Tch. She was laughing. I brush off all visible dust before angrily taking a bite. The rush of sweet juice floods my mouth. She stays still and watches me. She never talked much. She just watched everything with blank eyes. "What?" I ask. Her silence remains unwavering. Realization dawns on me. "I forgot it. Sorry." Her normal frown deeps ever so slightly.
I have been visiting Mari for over half a year. Once every two weeks, though sometimes I come every week if possible. One time I brought a ball. A new invention that had gained fast popularity throughout the kingdom. A spherical object full of air that bounced. She loved it. It might have been my imagination but when she bounced it for the first time I could swear I saw her smile however small it was. Of course I haven't seen it since then. She grabs my arm and pushes it back and forth. Exasperation. Even though she was near my age, I'm seventeen, she was slightly like a child. The reason for it could be chalked up to her circumstances. She obviously grew up in this empty town. For how long I don't know but her social skills suffered greatly from it.
"You should bury them, you know." I say, my voice barely a whisper. The town she lived in had obviously been abandoned long ago, decades ago even, but people still lived here. Well, their corpses at least.