I'm in an odd mood right now, so I'll have to warn you that this story is strange and slightly gory. xD
Solstice ~ Coralina
How could I?I was sitting on a park bench that day. It was late October, the weather was getting more dismal, and the sky was progressively getting grayer and more depressing. It was wonderful; just the way I liked it.
I was thinking about sad things. Angering things. But mostly I was thinking about murder. I'd always wanted to try it. See the fear in their eyes, watch their blood pool around their body, feel their life slowly slipping away. It sounded like a thrilling experience, and I wanted to try. I had a knife with me; I always did on the off chance the zombie apocalypse started. I decided that I would kill the next person I saw. I would lour them away and kill them without a trace.
"I'll do it today." I promised myself. "The next person I see, I'll kill them."
I sat on the park bench, watching the sun slowly sinking into the horizon. It cast the most beautiful shades of yellow, orange, and red. But I couldn't care less about the display of colours in front of me. I was too busy waiting for my helpless victim to come.
The weight on the bench shifted slightly and I smiled deviously. I looked to see who was going to die soon. I almost laughed with glee when I saw how easy this was going to be.
A little blue pup swung his feet excitedly over the edge of the bench. He had the biggest, happiest smile I'd ever seen, and he had a pink plush penguin with him. He giggled at a pair of little white birds that chirped melodically near by. He looked at me for a split second and noticed I was watching him. He turned his whole head towards me and showed me that trusting, naïve smile.
"Hi!" he said in a squeaky, high-pitched voice.
"Hello there." I replied.
"My name is Solstice." he said, obviously overjoyed that I'd responded. "What's yours?"
"Coralina."
"That's a pretty name."
I blinked, a bit surprised by the compliment. "Th-thank you." He giggled at my embarrassment, and my cheeks flushed.
"Why are you here?" he asked me.
"Because it's nice here." I lied, flashing a fake smile. "Why are you here?"
"I have nowhere else to spend the night." he said, his face falling slightly. "I have no home."
This was my chance. "Oh? Well you can spend the night at my house if you like."
His eyes lit up and he smiled at me like I'd just offered him a million dollar. I'd never seen such a pure smile before. It almost made me feel guilty about the fact that I was going to kill him soon.
Almost.
I stood up and started walked. He slid off the bench and followed, walking past me. He shoved his penguin into my hands and then went off skipping and jumping and trying to catch leaves as they fell. He suddenly jumped rather high and closed his hands around something fluttering through the air. He walked over to me, his smile absolutely huge. He lifted his hands to my face and opened his hands. I thought it was an orange leave at first, but then the butterfly flapped it's delicate wings and took off again.
I stood, amazed that he'd managed to catch it without hurting it. He giggled and took his penguin from me. He held it with one hand, and grabbed mine with the other. I flinched, not used to contact like that. But I didn't let go; I needed his trust so that I could follow through with the plan.
"Corile... Corela... Caro.. Can I just call you Cora? Your name is too long." he said. I laughed at this; it was too cute that he couldn't say my name.
"Sure."
"Cora, does this mean we're friends?"
An intense wave of guilt washed over me. He didn't have a home. He didn't have a family. He was coming to my house. He'd caught a butterfly to show me. He was holding my hand. And as much as I didn't want to lie to him and say yes, I knew I would feel awful saying no. But I knew what I had to say.
"Of course we are." I lied, choking a bit on my own words. He didn't notice. Instead, he wrapped me in a hug. Another wave of guilt.
What was happening to me?!We continued home. He only stopped once after that to catch me a leaf he saw.
"It's the same colour as your fur." he decided. "And I want you to have it so you won't forget me."
We talked all the way home. He told me about his life, the people he'd met, the friends he'd made. He assured me I was the best one yet. That just made me feel worse, though.
By the time we arrived at my house, both of us were laughing. He was playing with my cell phone; he'd never seen one before and thought it was interesting.
"Here, I'll show you how to take a picture." I said. I walked him through the steps on the little screen, and soon he had it down perfectly.
"Smile!" he exclaimed, and we both did just that as he took the picture. He showed me the picture as we walked through my front door.
He seemed to cower away from everything inside my house; my walls were blacks and dark browns. My furnature was the same. My kitchen consisted of stainless steel and black granite. My house was just... dark. And I loved it.
Solstice stuck out like a sore thumb, though, his vibrant fur contrasting against the dark hues of my house. He seemed rather nervous; I could tell that he didn't like my house's darkness.
After a moment of deciding, I walked into the living room. If I was going to kill someone, it would be easiest to go about it in there, since the door stuck to the frame a lot so it would be harder to escape. He followed me in, and I closed the door all the way, even shoving it a little to make sure it would be really difficult to open.
I sat on the couch and turned on the television, flipping it to a random channel. Solstice crawled up onto the seat beside me, hugging his penguin. I could see how scared he was. Perhaps we was affraid of the dark.
The knife still stayed at my side, tucked into a belt under my dress. I knew this was the moment I'd been building up to. I slid it out from under my dress. I gripped it in my hand; my hand was shaking. I stared at the boy. He was blanky staring at the television, obviously trying to distract himself from the spookiness of my house. I lifted the knife, my hand still quivering violently.
He noticed my hand and looked up at it. He squealed and backed up against the arm of couch, but froze once he made it that far. I hovered over him, my knife above his heart. And then I made a big mistake; I looked into his eyes.
I saw our day together reflected there. I saw the butterfly as it lefts his paws. I saw him grabbing my hand. I saw him huggin my waist. I saw the leaf as he handed it to me. I saw me teaching him how to use a phone. I saw the picture we took outside my door.
I saw his blood pouring out as I thrust the knife downwards.
He let out an ear-piercing cry of pain and I looked down in horror at what I'd done. The knife stuck out of him, not in his heart like I expected it to, though. Somehow it ended up on the other side of his chest. I didn't pull out the knife in fear of hurting him more. I just lifted him up and set him on my lap, cradling him and holding him as close to me as I could. I made sure his penguin was in his hands.
"Solstice." I whispered. "Solstice, I'm so sorry." I sobbed, tears flowing down my face.
"Don't be." he choked. "I did this for you."
"What?" I asked, confused.
"I heard you when you said you wanted to kill someone. I could tell it was a goal of yours. And since nobody would noticed if I died, I thought that maybe I could save someone else and let you kill me instead." he explained.
I'd never felt more awful in my entire life. He'd sacraficed himself so that a stranger wouldn't die. "You never cease to make me feel guilty." I told him. He smiled weakly.
"I was hoping that maybe if I was nice enough, you'd change your mind." he coughed. He started closing his eyes, and lifted his penguin slightly. "Keep Love safe for me. You need some Love in your life, I think." and then his eye slipped shut, and I sat there crying over a corpse.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*
I opened my eyes. It was finally morning. I'd been waiting for this day for a long time. I lifted myself out of bed and stared at my bright blue walls for a moment before grabbing the bag I'd packed the night before and left my house.
I sat down on the park bench that I had become accustomed to over the past while. I opened the bag beside me and pulled out it's contents: a red leaf, a pink penguin, and a framed picture. I stood the picture up beside me, putting the penguin beside it. I held the leaf in my hand and smiled sadly at the picture.
"It's surprising how fast a year goes by, isn't it Solstice?"
