Chapter Text
Aiden wasn’t allowed to see.
He was guided by a hand, the only hand he had left. Ben was only a few years older than Aiden was, but that didn’t mean he was bad at caring for him.
Aiden kept his hand over his eyes, humming a gentle song. He wasn’t sure where he first heard it, a lullaby that came to him from dreams long gone. Some of the lyrics weren’t even clear to him.
But the boy sang anyway. In all honesty, he was quite bored. They had been walking for awhile, his feet were starting to get tired. Every so often, the hand holding his would tighten. Three times, every time. Aiden didn’t know what it meant. But he would squeeze Ben’s hand back thrice, just in case.
An abrupt cease of movement caused Aiden to jostle. He almost kept walking by himself. Ben’s hand suddenly grew loose. Aiden couldn’t help but peek through bloodied and cut fingers.
The boy beside him looked… Aiden couldn’t describe it. An emotion he rarely saw was written across his face. The same look from when something happened to Aiden’s father.
He tried to recall it. He couldn’t.
Ben was looking ahead, and Aiden eventually followed his line of sight. The world revealed to him was covered in smog. A red, fiery smoke. He wanted to marvel at the sight.
The smoke in front of him was slowly clearing. He saw a few figures littered in rubble. Three adults, and a very small child. The longer he looked, the less smoke shielded them from him.
At first, he didn’t recognize that one was the remains of his mother.
And next, he realized he was looking at Ben’s parents.
The last figure, he realized, was a little girl. Very little. Aiden was never good at remembering her age. Brown hair like her mother, never allowed to grow all the way out. Her eyes were shut. Like she was sleeping. Aiden didn’t know when she would wake up. He hoped it was soon.
The boy beside him dropped to his knees, like a marionette with its strings cut. A wail left him. It was an ugly, depressing sound that no one could make on command. It crashed against the gentle wind and crackle of fire. Aiden wasn’t sure what to do.
Hesitantly, he wrapped his arms around Ben. That seemed to be the right decision, since the other returned the embrace, hugging Aiden like Aiden would be the next to go. The anguished cries continued.
He lost track of how long they sat there, embracing just like this. The cries never ceased. Aiden counted every second to pass the time.
He reached 73 eventually, and that's when something happened. A dull thud among the smoke. Aiden didn’t want to look. Whatever it was, he was sure it would make Ben feel worse. And he didn’t know what to do about that. Ben always knew what to do, this situation was just an outlier.
Aiden looked away from the smoke. Perhaps, if he wasn’t looking, nothing would happen. Perhaps his eyes were simply cursed. Whatever he gazed upon was destined for ruin. Footsteps sounded behind him. Aiden wasn’t looking. Ben’s cries fell on his deaf ears.
A man approached the two. Aiden shut his eyes at this point. Eyes fell upon him. He knew it. If he didn’t look, whatever was happening would stop.
He was sure of it.
It was only that Ben looked. The cries quieted into gentle sobs, unable to be quelled against the wrath of grief. If Ben looked, maybe he could too.
The man above him had an ugly cut along one cheek, with brown hair a bit longer than Ben’s. He looked worse for wear, but at least he was alive. He gazed upon the two boys with a look of understanding.
Aiden didn’t understand why.