this was supposed to be released like last week, but i had no internet at all. here

**

There once was a being, human he was not, strange was all he had been.

Odd.

He lived in the darkness, dragging people who strayed further away from the sunrays of vitality, into the void.

He didn't think of himself as anything but a bringer of misfortune.

One day, there came a girl, pale, scrawny, but she was gleeful.

He was about to drag her away into the darkness, as was he always did when handling those who had come close to the end.

But he saw something, something he had never laid eyes on in the hundreds of returns that he had wandered through, in the girl's hands.

"What is that?"

"A flower."

"Flower? Where can I get it?"

"These flowers grow somewhere along the outskirts of town. You can plant them, but these beautiful things grow out there on their own free will."

The prowling being eyed the 'flowers', and he thought that they were very beautiful.

The objects and the girl, they were very beautiful.

Somewhere along the outskirts of town.

On their own free will.

"..."

He skirted out of the void, and, the task of dragging this girl to darkness long lost, followed the scent that beckoned him to live.

"What is your name?"

"Chera. I'm Chera."

Chera was beautiful. Her pale skin shone in the dark of the town that enclosed her overwhelming potential, that kept her large wings in check.

Even so, she always smiled.

"Hey, since you don't really have a name, I'll call you Oddman."

"Odd... man? Why?"

She giggled, the fireflies dancing around her like a thousand lanterns.

"Because you're a man. And you're really odd!"

All wariness forgotten as he eyed the silhouette of an innocent existence, the stain of the plague unworthy of her skin, Oddman embraced the world and brought the void to a recluse.

She always smiled.

"What happened?"

But the people around her - no - the evil entities around her that sneered and snorted in her wake, took her smile away.

Even if it were momentarily, Oddman didn't want to see Chera's joy in a concave pattern.

"Nothing, really. Just the everyday plight of a dirty street kid."

She still beamed.

"I see. If you are having trouble, feel free to confide in--"

He couldn't say it.

He dragged everyone who breathed negativity around Chera, into the void, into the darkness, destroying the balance that the count of time had willed to maintain.

He could not say it.

Misfortune.

Bringer of misfortune.

"You know, Oddman, I really like you. You're gentle and kind... you're very nice."

No.

'No, I'm not.'

"You always say you're nothing but a herald of misfortune, but I say otherwise! I think I'll go into the darkness with you. So I could stay around you and your kindness forever."

Wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong.

"... But Chera... You can't grow flowers in the darkness."

'No you can't. The void is empty, devoid of anything with a soul, eyeless, breathless, nothing.'

The girl looked at her feet as she walked, suddenly falling into silence.

They continued to let footfalls resound, to follow a map, to beat in a pattern that was peaceful more than anything.

"I guess you're right. But I really like you, Oddman, and I wouldn't hesitate to follow you."

The poor little creature didn't know what it meant to be favored, what significance 'like' had, but he swore, to himself and promised the beautiful fields, that he would protect Chera.

* * *

A long time had passed, and Chera grew up to be a fine young woman, whose knowledge of songs ranged wide.

She hummed.

She smiled.

Oddman watched her, and he celebrated as she found love. Although he didn't know he was feeling 'happy', Chera could see it. Through the long years they had spent together, she cried tears of happiness as Oddman silently showered her in his joy.

Her songs had made a mark in the skull of the void.

And as new seasons came to pass, Chera was blessed with another life, with Allen, the man she had loved.

The newborn baby, her eyes much like her mother's, was named Noah.

Chera sang to her, and Noah giggled and cooed as she did so.

They looked so happy there.

So, so happy.

* * *

But ill fate had to befall every family, and as Allen was enlisted for the war, Chera cried alone, shedding tears for her daughter's future.

Oddman listened.

Listened.

"I'm sorry."

And Allen never came back.

'I had to. I already let a soul escape the darkness. I can not allow it once again. I'm sorry.'

Out of obligation or out of frivolous humane feelings, Allen was never to set foot in the world of light ever again.

* * *

Chera came down with infectious ailments, her pale skin and thin frame worsening into a skeletal figure. She was bedridden, and there had been no one to help her.

To aide her.

Oddman couldn't do anything. He wasn't mortal, nor was he powerful enough to outmatch an apothecary.

He wanted to make her last longer, he wanted her to take care of her daughter until she was capable enough.

But he couldn't. He already let Chera escape once.

Under the halo of a flickering streetlamp, its scarce light peering through the cracks in the boards of the locked window, Chera coughed, and Oddman looked at her with his face reminding him grimly of the plague.

"Hey, Oddman. What'll happen if you melt into the darkness?"

"Then you'll wander in it forever."

"I see... So if I do... I'll be with you forever as well?"

As much as he wanted that to happen...

"That's impossible, Chera. The void isn't a narrow world. Its ends never meet. Its sphere never closes. You must fight and stay with Noah."

"You're right."

She laughed softly, her melodic giggle torn apart by the cough that erupted from her lungs.

Blood.

"It's alright. I guess this is it, Oddman. Since the two of you don't want to be lonely... I'll stay with you both."

As the night grew older, under a moon that was beautiful as it was lifeless, Chera fell into eternal sleep, and Oddman held her one last time as he let her float into the void she once had escaped.

Oddman grieved.

Cried.

He was sad.

"I am nothing but a cause of misfortune as I once had thought. Would Chera not have lost everything in such a brutal manner if I had not been self-centered?"

Would she have died innocently if he didn't follow her into the field of flowers?

Would Allen have been given a second a chance, as he did with Chera, if Oddman didn't...

Like Chera?

But it was too late to feel guilt.

Shame.

He had to do his work.

And this time...

Properly.

He left the back alley with Noah in his hands, seeds of the flower that Chera had showed him, clasped within the baby's small palm.

As he turned his back towards the world of the living, Chera's words played in his head, like a roll of film being rewound in a part where it had reached its peak. A part where her movie had struck him the hardest.

"You always say you're nothing but a herald of misfortune, but I say otherwise! I think I'll go into the darkness with you. So I could stay around you and your kindness forever."

And he retreated.

Back into the light, where the sunrays of vitality had shone over the stone pavement.

Over the flowers that had started everything and ended it in chaos.

He wrapped Chera's red scarf tighter around Noah, bidding all his wishes and nonexistent blessing towards it, so it can protect the child from any further harm.

"I'm sorry, daughter of Chera. Forgive me for leaving you alone in such a place."

A tear fell from his eye.

And he admitted to sadness, without him noticing, without him consciously willing himself to feel human.

"I can't make you happy as I am now, but I'll always be wishing for your happiness. I promise you..."

Promise you.

What?

To give you an extension of the count time?

To rip everything away from you when your stolen life is at its prime?

He shook his head, and, he mustered all that he could swallow, and kissed the child's forehead with something akin to that of paternal love.

"I'll become a herald of life and not of death. Until then... Wait for me to get to you, Noah."