Original Stories Fan Fiction ❯ Eternal Snow ❯ Eternal Snow ( Chapter 1 )

[ P - Pre-Teen ]

Eternal Snow Everything seemed gloomy that day, the grey sky, the rain. I sat just inside the door, looking out into the front yard. I was 8 years old at the time and wearing my auburn coloured hair short, curving around my small face. I wore a simple blue dress, a bit of lace on the hem of it. Not proper clothes to go out in the rain and mud, not at all. I had no clothes proper for these activities, which meant I spent all my time indoors on days such as this. It was lonesome. No children to play with. Being home schooled didn’t leave room for many friends, I had none at all. I sighed and pushed myself off the floor, dusting off my dress, as to make sure no dirt or grim would be on it, scared of the thought of my mother finding my dress in such a condition. I turned to go back inside, where I could at least play with toys or even do school work to pass the time, but stopped short as I heard someone shouting. I turned back around and stared as I saw a young boy, maybe a year or so older then myself, lying in a puddle of mud. Not caring about the rain, I rushed out of the house, running towards him, almost falling into the mud myself. He was slowly getting up as I got there. He had such light blond hair, that fell into his face, as it was tilted downwards. As he looked up, I caught a glimpse of his eyes, a bright sapphire. “Are you ok?” I panted out, my hands on my knees while catching my breath. He didn’t answer. He simply looked at me, and got up to his feet, only to fall to his knees after trying to walk. I didn’t know what to do, till a thought hit me, the nanny could help, surely. “stay here!” I cried, as I ran back into the house, dragging mud all over the floor, as I searched for the nanny my parents had hired. I found her in the kitchen making some simple sandwiches for lunch. I quickly ran to her. “Please, some boy outside has fallen down, can you help him?” I asked, stopping beside her. She looked at the floor and then me. “ Miss Akina, what do you think you are doing muddying the floors! What would your mother think?” “There’s no time, please, can you help him?” She shook her head and sighed, while she put away her apron and started to walk out of the house. I had to run to keep up with her. At first, I did not see him, till I noticed he was attempting to limp away, falling and tumbling every once in a while. The nanny took her time to getting to him and pulling him to his feet, still, he said nothing. “what a filthy thing you are” She chastised, while dragging him back into the house, but still taking care of not letting him put weight on his foot. She quickly brought him into the bathroom to clean him up and check his foot. “You sprained it” She said, as she grabbed some bandages from the cabinet and started to wrap his foot up. “Why doesn’t he say anything?” I asked, staring intently at him. His eyes had changed, an emerald now. How interesting. “I wouldn’t know. Wait, he’ll talk to you eventually.” She replied, as she finished wrapping it up and started putting everything away. She turned back to me. “Your mother will be away for a very long time, I suppose he could stay here till then.” I smiled brightly. I would have a friend! I looked back at him and smiled even more. Slowly, he made a small smile as well. He was my first real friend. I could not wait for the day where we could talk. My mother had later come home weeks later. How angry she was, I feared for my life at that moment. After being left alone, she had come to talk to me. She had called someone to do research on this boy, finding out he was orphaned. My mother relented, saying he could stay. It must have been the happiest day of my life. I told him and he looked so happy as well. His eyes had gone wide as he smiled brightly, but still, he said not a word. I was fine with it, I would wait for him. He never did talk. Which is why we had named him Kiyoshi, which means quiet. We had never learned his real name, he would never tell us. We had been friends for years, inseparable. I was now 14 and him 15. We were both home schooled. We had learned sign language, so that we could still communicate, but he would always carry around a little pad and pen. My mother had assumed that he would not talk because he could not. We had asked him about it, but had never gotten an answer. He would look at us sadly, shake his head and walk away. We eventually stopped asking, thinking it wasn’t anything serious. How wrong we were. A few months after my 14th birthday, he had started to get sick. He was almost constantly in bed, coughing, having no energy. Doctors came and went, but none could understand what was wrong. Today was another of those days. He had been in bed all day, while I had to do my studies, no matter how much I wanted to be beside him. My heart hurt to think of him all alone in his bed, with no one to be there with him. I sighed as I continued my work. Suddenly, I saw my nanny run across the hallway. Alarmed, I didn’t know what to do. Should I stay here, or follow? I stayed in my seat and fidgeted, nervous of what was happening. My body shook as I heard screaming, running around, bagging of doors. I feared the worse.

There was so much shouting, I couldn’t help myself from standing up and walking out of the room, down the long hallway to Kiyoshi’s room, where all the noise was coming from. My legs shook, but I kept myself upright. Slowly, I pushed the door open, it being already slightly ajar. What I saw made me freeze.

There, hunched over on his bed, was kiyoshi. His hair was a mess, and his face deathly pale. He was coughing none stop as my nanny yelled franticly on the phone, but all the blood. The dark red stains were everywhere, all over the white sheets, his hands and face.

I felt faint as I grabbed hold of the doorframe, not believe what I saw. I heard my nanny scream things at me, but at the same time, I could hear nothing. I could only see dear kiyoshi and red.

I barely noticed the doctors rush into the room, trying to put him into a stretcher. He pulled away franticly, reaching into his bed side table and holding something to his heart. I could not see what it was. But having this with him, he let the doctors take him away. As they passed, my knees gave out and I fell to the floor, my eyes wide as I stared at the ground. I could feel my nanny grabbing onto my arms, shaking me and telling me we had to go to the hospital. I felt numb as we grabbed our coats and left the house.

It had been snowing all night. Everywhere looked so bright, even on such a horrible day. I hugged my coat to me tighter, being in only a nightgown underneath. The chauffeur drove us straight to the hospital, as my nanny sat with me and patted my hand, comforting me, but I heard no words. The sight I had just seen kept replaying before my eyes, over and over again.

I do not know how long it took us to get to the hospital, it felt like seconds. This was happening too fast. I did not even notice that we were already inside and I was sat down into a chair. I looked up. My nanny was talking to nurses, but shook her head sadly. They must know nothing as of right now. She looked at me sadly and sat beside me and resumed her patting of my hand and pulling me closer to her, resting my head against her shoulder. She hummed some songs. The sound seemed so far away. The numbness I felt was so strange, as my eyes slowly closed.

I woke later to find my nanny shaking me. Everything was blurry as I opened my eyes. The first I saw was her own eyes looking into my own, tired eyes, with tears in them.

“Miss Akina, the doctors want to see you.” She said to me.

I nodded, got up and looked at the doctor before me. He did not look happy.

“We have horrible news to tell you” he started. He looked down, then back up. “He…will not make it.” he said gravely.

My eyes went wide. No. this could not be happening. This was all a dream, a horrible dream. I would wake up, and there Kiyoshi will, ready to hold me in his arms and wide away my tears.

“You see, we ran some test. After careful examination we found the problem.” He hesitated for a moment. “He has a tumor. A tumor in his pharynx, his throat. From what we can tell, he has already attempted surgery. A failed attempt, that left him withought his voice and still have a tumor. It has spread too much for us to do anything. I am sorry.” He looked down after saying all this.

All this time, it was a tumor…? My body shook in anger. How could they not know this? How could they never have figured it out? Why now? Why when its too late?! I kept this all inside.

“For the moment, he is stable enough for you to talk to, although a bit drowsy. You should talk to him.” He nodded and left.

My nanny looked at me, and softly grabbed my arm, leading me towards Kiyoshi’s room. I hated seeing him like this. He already looked like a corps, with his face so pale. Their was even still some blood on his chin. A heart monitor was attached to him, making a constant beeping noise. I took a shaky breath and walked in, as my nanny closed to door and left us alone.

I walked up to the bed and held his hand. He opened his eyes slightly and smiled softly at me. He took my hand and opened it, putting his hand in mine. When he let go, he had left the object he had reached for before coming here. I looked down at it. A locket, shaped like a heart with a small diamond in the middle. I brought my hand up, still holding the locket and pressed it to my chest. Slowly, he moved his hands, making signs. Sign language. I forced myself to pay attention to what he was trying to say.

Tears sprang to my eyes. He smiled, then closed his eyes. The beeping stopped and started to be a constant sound. I gasped as I grabbed onto him, shaking him hard and crying out his name. Doctors and nurses ran in, having to push me away as they tried to being him back to life. It felt like forever, and still, the beeping sound did not return. I took many shaky breaths, almost hyperventilating and saying his name over and over again. I was dragged out of the room, screaming and kicking. I did not want to leave him. How could I?

My nanny grabbed onto me, trying to hug me, but I pushed her away. I ran. I ran as fast as I could, out the doors of the hospital, down the street, towards a park. I could only faintly hear them call my name. I did not care. Everything was lost now.

I ran and ran until I could run no more and collapsed onto the ground, sinking into the freezing snow. My nightgown was torn, and I had a few scratches, but I did not feel them. I felt nothing but the pain in my heart.

Softly, snow fell to the ground, fell onto my hair, onto me. My hair was a mess and my eyes were dull, tears that did not fall in them.

“why?!” I screamed. How could this have happened? Why…

The pain was unbearable, I wish I had never met him. No…that was not true. But the pain, oh how it hurt. How I wished, more then anything, that he could be here to hold me tightly, to warm me from the freezing cold, the snow. If he had never had this tumor, he could whisper in my ear “I love you”.

My heart trembled and felt heavy. I should have known all along…I loved you. There was no denying it. This hurt more. We could never be together again.

Everything broke down. My tears spilled down my face onto the floor as I screamed at the top of my lungs, screaming till my throat was hoarse and my body hurt from the hard sobs that I made.

I lied down and curled myself up in the snow. I could not feel the could, I was too numb. I sobbed harder as my eyes closed. If he had never had that tumor, he could tell me he loved me, withought using his hands as he did in the hospital. I still held the locket in my hands and brought them to my lips, kissing it softly.

“I want to see you right now…” I whispered. Everything faded into darkness as the pain consumed me. I could never love again…