Chapter Text
Red.
Red was all I see around me.
Whether it was from the blood spilled on the ground, or from the bright ember of fire, burning everything to the ground. The color of the sky bleeds red, the first glimpse of night started to chase away the dusk.
I could not even remember what happened before this. One second I was standing alone in the middle of nowhere, the next thing I knew, I was getting swept away in the midst of a stampede. People were running away and pushing each other left and right. Running away from what, exactly, I did not know.
In the midst of chaos, I saw him. He looked around the same age as me, standing motionless right in the middle of the street. He had dark red hair, the color so deep it almost resembled blood a distance. His face was full of soot and grime, but his eyes stayed unblinking, facing towards the sky.
Suddenly, I was overcome with feelings of protectiveness towards this unknown person whom I had never met before. Before I knew it, my body was already acting on an autopilot, escaping the crowd and moving in an opposite direction from them. I just wanted to go to this red-haired boy, to take him away and save him from this place.
When I reached him, the shadows around us seemed to be closing in. The moon and the stars seemed to be hiding themselves as well, turning the night darker than pitch black.
“Hey,” I said, with no response from him. I did not know his name. I had no choice but to grab his hand and tried to call him again. He seemed to be broken out of stupor and finally, finally he looked at me.
“Let’s go,” I said, almost pleadingly.
We ran away, leaving the burned city behind us. The shadows also seemed to stop chasing us after that. But I knew that the darkness would come one day, looking for him.