A Sunless Father
The blond hair of Day's father fell over his cheeks, hiding the scars, the pain of his past even as his eyes darkened and glowered. He leered, he squirmed from his position on the ground as what could be assumed was rage coursed through his body. The single misplaced beam of Day's watch aimed at the dead, tangled vines of the forest eerily illuminated the shadows in his face, sharpening his high cheekbones and creating shadows under his suddenly sunken red eyes.
"Hey," Day crept backwards, feeling her crushed face throb as her long hair brushed against it. "Dad, it's me. Day. Your daughter. I'm here for you." She arched her head back, feeling the strain as the man's clenched hand pass just above her face. "Dad, I love you. Don't you remember me?" Something in her told her he had just forgotten what had happened, that the rage had blankened his senses and wiped them clean of any other emotion, any other feeling, any memory of good. That's part of what the disease did. It erased anything happy, anything joyful. It took everything, memories of love, joy, content, until the mind was a blank slate for anger, until the mind seethed with black hate. Black hate underneath the black sky, clouds of anger underneath the real clouds that block light.
"Oh yes Day, I remember you." Her father crawled closer as his prosthetic leg scraped against a rock and a tumble of sparks showered the air, several landing on Day, who gasped and fell to the grass, losing her balance on all fours. "We were just talking, weren't we?" He pressed and, twisting his torso and planting his arms on the ground, boosted himself to raise onto two feet. "So very well I do, do I remember you. So very well I do, so very well I do. Do I remember you?" He repeated the phrases to himself like a chant, a chant that gradually developed into a wordless slur. Looking up, Day felt her throat dry and ache painfully as she saw his eyes, small and cruel, filled with malice. "You are Day, my daughter, and you ruined my life, ruined my life." Again, he kept on saying the same phrase, his eyes still fixed on her steadily.
"Day," she heard Josh say in the background. "Come on, we have to go."
"I can't!" she cried. "I can't leave him alone in the wilderness."
"You have to!" There was real pain in Josh's voice. "My parents... Well, there's nothing you can do."
"Leave me alone in the wilderness, eh?" The Sunless advanced with a crooked gait. "Who says I won't break you and leave you alone in the wilderness?"
A sudden thing happened to her then. Something that broke her in two. Sacrifice.
"No." Day growled, feeling her heart tear in her chest as she did the unforgivable. "You can't join the other Sunless. It'll only make things worse." Gathering her hands underneath her, she rolled away and swept one leg under the man. With a grunt, he crashed to the forest floor, his red eyes hidden by a dirty mop of blonde hair. With a gasp, he rolled over, to where his prosthetic leg had snapped away.
"No," he moaned. He struggled to lift himself on his hands and one knee and crawled towards Day, who scrambled backwards.
"Catch!" A voice shouted and an injection needle came sailing through the air. Day managed to catch it, just barely. For a second, she forgot herself and turned around to look at him quizzically.
"Why the heck do you randomly have this lying around?" She asked skeptically. Josh leapt forward and shoved her father away, who rolled onto his back again.
"Watch out!" He snapped and returned to a wary, crouching posture. For the first time Day noticed his hands were shaking on the soil, and dirt was tumbling away from his outstretched fingers as if he was digging into the ground. Returning to her father, she saw he had paused with his hands outstretched from her leg. His eyes were blue for the last time.
"I... I know what you want to do, daughter," he whispered in a dry, cracked voice. "Just do it, end it. I don't want to live like that." His eyes were flickering violently, and his face was etched with sorrow. "I'm sorry I couldn't be there for you, but... here." With trembling hands, he reached behind his neck and fiddled with something there for a few brief moments, before unfastening a chain. A locket. It was dirty, and the paint was cracked and peeling, but Day took the chain that was draped limply over his hands and fastened it behind her own neck. The locket fell into the hollow of her chest where her broken heart was located.
"Thank you," she whispered, fingering it open to reveal an old picture of the family together. Her mother, father, and sister. Longing closed her throat and she glanced at it one more time before snapping it shut. "Thank you," she repeated numbly.
"Just do it!" He hissed and tensed his muscles, then relaxed them. Waiting.
Day crouched down and took his arm, looking down on him. His eyes were still blue, but not for long. "Dad," she whispered. "I love you. I love you, I love you." She felt her arm, as if on its own, move up, then down, plunge the needle into his skin. The poison would then distribute itself over his veins. "Please," she whispered.
"Day," his lips were cracked. "I... love you. Just know, you are mine, and will always be. Thank you, Day." Day pressed a hand on his chest, feeling the erratic pants of his breath. Then he jerked, and his chest's rise and fall slowed. His eyes flickered open and closed, and as Day passed a hand over his open mouth, she barely felt the slight movement of the air as his feeble breaths slid along her hand. His eyes, red, then blue. The whites of his eyes flashed, then with another shudder, he was still. Day felt a terrible sorrow swallow her. Sound was mute, the smallest fragment of light was gone. The day was too far away, the sun was unreachable. Dropping the needle from her hand, she felt the tears flow silently down her cheeks as her hope was washed away in the quite rain of grief. Silently, she stood up, and leaned on Josh, who was there. Her broken heart stopped words from escaping, and everything was black. Self-hate coursed through her veins, and she couldn't stop it, couldn't stop the quite rage at her pathetic self build up in her body as her muscles weakened in the shock of what had happened. Picking up the needle again, she observed it, watching the sharp tip gleam, examining it in her fingers, tantalizing her with the drop of poison lingering in the small canister on the needle. Then Josh was there, seizing it in desperate fingers, throwing it away.
"I killed him," Day croaked, feeling the black rage curl over her and scar the broken pieces of her heart. She fumbled at the air and fell backward, landing on Josh's solid chest. "I... I" There was no escape from this darkness except the gleaming needle now lost in the forest. "I can't live like this, Josh." She looked at him, seeing no reprieve from the shadows that had been following her for a lifetime, now seeing there was no way to get away. She shook her head. "It's not worth it."
"Yes." He said fiercely and gathered her into his arms. "It is. Your going to get over this, and you will live on with your life. It is going to be okay." With a shake of his messy hair, he leaned over and gathered her into a hug, until Day pushed him away, feeling herself shake, feeling her face contort into a sob. Crouching on the ground, she collapsed, not minding as her face was scratched violently by a sharp stick on the ground, pressing against the dirty earth as her tears flowed freely into the dirt.
"What is wrong with you?" She asked him, terrified by his lack of understanding, although from where the terror came so unprovoked, she had no idea. "I killed him." Maybe his lack of understanding made her scared to team up with someone so unempathetic the way she saw it. Then she stopped, paused.
"Come on," Josh tugged at her and raised her limp shape from the ground. She staggered to her feet and mindlessly scooped up her watch. She barely registered what had happened as she followed Josh towards who knew where. "Was that my father I killed?" she asked, not sure why she felt so empty.
"Shh," Josh whispered soothingly. "Your in shock."
"Shock?" Day asked. "And who are you?" When Josh stopped in startled silence, she let out a hiccuping laugh. "I'm just pulling your leg, man." Then with a stagger, she collapsed again, sobbing, "I killed him, I killed him." Turmoils of guilt made her sick to her stomach and she vomited in a nearby bush.
"Come on!" Josh snapped and pulled her forward.
Then there was a drone overhead. A voice boomed, "Sudden massing of Sunless in an area. Scan complete: Two civilians left. Dead Sunless man. Destroyed helicopter. Over."
"Why are they letting us hear that?" Josh muttered and Day giggled again. "Oh!" he gasped. "They know its me!" Then, tugging on her arm, he shouted, "run."
Day scrambled after him as she gained her senses by the urgency in his tone. As they ran, she gasped, "Oh, my father... Josh."
"No time," he panted. "Come on, they found me."
"Oh, well crap." She responded matter of factually.
The first moment they were scrambling over the brush, the next an object flew at them and they were trapped under the velvety snares. Then, shapes were swarming towards them and the world faded into darkness.
Sorry for not updating in so long! I will try to update more consistently.
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