Sunset in Heaven

Chapter 1

Chapter 1

He kept running and running until the pursuers were gone, bumping into unknown people and receiving glares and curses in the process. But no one even stopped and asked why he was running, seemingly so afraid and so lost. No one even bothered to look at him and question the way his tears continued to fall down his eyes without his permission. No one cared... He didn't know why those people were chasing him and what for. All he knew was the fact that they all had this predatory gleam in their eyes as they tried to catch the orange-haired little boy with fearful and teary chocolate eyes as he ran for his life, or supposedly, his afterlife.

It had been three days since then... Three days of wanderings around this cold village with strangers who neither cared nor look at him with warmth. And he was scared... so scared that he simply wished to die all over again...

"Kaa-san..." He pleaded silently with hoarse and exhausted voice as he slid down the wall of a deserted alleyway. He choked as he sobbed in silence, trying his best to call for his mother who was nowhere to be found. He wished he could call his father too. But his father wouldn't hear him now. His father was in the world of the living, probably mourning his lost too. He was such an ungrateful son... he wished he could at least see his father again. But that wouldn't do. Wanting to see his father meant that he wished his father dead, and he couldn't even think of such selfish thoughts. His mother died because of him and he couldn't have his father die because of him too. He wouldn't be able to stand it... His father was annoying sometimes, but he loved that man. And so the person he needed to find now was his mother. He needed to find her... "Kaa-san... Kaa-san... Where are you..?"

He couldn't remember his mother's face anymore, not even her beautiful smile. Though he would never forget her name... Masaki. His death stole too much memory from him. He was lucky he still had some of them intact, mostly about his family. Though most of their faces were blurred... He couldn't even remember the faces of his younger sisters, nor remember their names. And he couldn't remember any of his friends or the life that he had as a school boy. At best, his memories were fragmented and blurred, only making sense when he's asleep. All he could remember clearly was his father's anguished, crying face, because his father was the last person he saw before his death. And that broke his heart a little more...

He didn't know how much time passed since he let himself cry for the first time. He didn't know how many hours it took to calm himself down in case the pursuers heard him and decided to torture him in this abandoned place full of dead people with dead hearts.

When he finally calmed down, he decided that it was better to find somewhere place safe to sleep for the night. The moon hung at the sky, oblivious to the pain of the innocent child anguished by the lost of his mother's life more than his own.

He walked some deserted alleyway and hoped against all odds that those manic teenagers who looked like demented souls already stopped trying to pull a prank on him. He ended up walking and walking until he found out that he was already at the outskirt of the village. And yet he still didn't know where he was... All he knew was the fact that he was dead, never to be seen by anyone again, and never to see his mother again.

A lone road lay across him, and about four meters on the other side of the road was a shallow slope filled small grasses. On the far side of the grasses was a small river with sparkling water, caused by the moon's dim light, which flows silently. The air was refreshing, so free and relaxing, so different from the stifling and suffocating air of the crowded and poor-looking village. He found himself inhaling the air greedily as he ran towards the grassy slope and headed straight to the river. He hadn't felt relaxed these past two days and he knew that this silent peace would only last for hours, at least until before the break of dawn when people would start to awaken and he would be scared again.