Hopes of Paris

Chapter VIII: Spark

The food Jacquie had brought with the others on their way back from the bookstore had gone cold. Sall had just finished telling his story about Zen and Pierre, and got off the fountain's edge. He took a couple of steps to stand infront of Pierre, who was sitting on the edge prior to this, and started kneeling down on both knees infront of him. Everyone amid their tears looked at Sall in surprise wondering what he was trying to do. Sam, who sat by Pierre, frowned slightly as he looked down, and Pierre showed no reaction whatsoever. His tears continued falling silently as his eyes trailed Sall.

"Pierre," Sall started speaking, eyes towards the ground. "You couldn't save your brother... because you were young, clueless and naive."

Pierre's eyes widened and his eyebrows frowned intensely in pure anger. He pulled his hand back in a fist and aimed to punch Sall. Just before his fist hit the front of Sall's face, Sall grabbed Pierre from the wrist and stopped him. Sam gasped, wanting to stop the punch, but just before he acted, Sall did. Everyone else almost got off where they were sitting to pull Pierre away but they saw that Sall had control of the situation. Pierre's arm kept shaking into Sall's hold, his hand wanting so badly to leave it and reach his face.

"But I..." Sall's tears fell as soon as his eyes met Pierre's and as soon as he started yelling out the rest of his words. "I couldn't save Zen... because I was ignorant and stupid!"

Pierre's eyes both widened, and his tears continued falling. His lips parted when he saw how that Sall was hurt as much as he was, and how helpless they both stood infront of the prevention of Zen's suicide. Evangeline and Evanka both blocked their mouths in an attempt to silence their audible weeps. Sam grit his teeth and attempted a frown to prevent himself from crying audibly, though his tears fell uncontrollably. Aiden didn't cry, but looked away and closed his eyes, not wanting to look at the two. Sall breathed heavily then let go of Pierre's numb arm, arching his back down.

"I'm sorry." Sall said beneath his cracking voice and falling tears, wrapping both of his arms around Pierre's legs, and leaned his forehead on the top of one of his feet.

Sam followed Sall and kneeled by him, asking him to stop and just stand up. Suddenly, Jacquie placed her hand on her forehead as if she got a sudden headache. Flashes of white, blurry images passed infront of her of a woman laying numb on the floor, surrounded with a bit of blood. A young girl was peaking from behind a wall at that woman, and a man could be seen holding a broken bottle in his hand. Jacquie's eyes lidded in half and the strands of her hair covered the far corners of her eyes from the others.

"Ah, this again..." Jacquie whispered under her breath and closed her eyes, with darkness covering everywhere for a moment.

Closed eyes that had the longest eyelashes could be seen, and nothing but the sound of heavy breathing could be heard. These closed eyes started twitching under their full lid, and the breathing started growing faster rapidly. All of a sudden, Sall opened his eyes widely and jolted up in terror to the sound of his phone's alarm going off to the tune of a song called FFXV's Main Theme Somnus. He was sleeping on his bed in his room, having another nightmare. These dreams started occurring ever since Zen's suicide for reasons beyond Sall's knowledge. His eyes went back to their half lid once again as he wiped his cheek from tears he shed in his sleep. He breathed in slowly, and let it out just as slow, shakily, then adjusted his sitting position on the bed to slide his feet in his slippers.

Sall in the past year lost a lot of weight. His cheek bones started emerging slightly and he got a bit of bags under his eyes. His eyes lost all the shine they once had and looked almost like as if they grew smaller in size, because they'd always look lifeless, half lidded and depressed. His cheek bones emerged just a little bit and his wavy black hair grew just towards his jawline. After removing the cover and revealing his topless body, he took a rubber band from his night table's drawer and put his hair in a man bun, letting some hairs loose from the sides to caress the sides of his face. Sall leaned his hands against the edge of the bed and looked at The Eiffel Tower through the window. Moments after, his phone vibrated, signaling that he got a new text from someone. Sall unlocked his phone and noticed that he had gotten loads of texts since yesterday.