by E. Mendell
~ Three ~
“You can’t do this!” Cried the voice of an older man. It echoed as if it were under water and filled the darkness with a morphed blue light. “Leave! Go away! Why are you doing this?” At his words the ground shook with a sound like thunder and broke open. Hiro stared at the cracks in the ground as they came close to him, nearly reaching his feet. Beneath the black earth came a red glow. It mingled with the blue, causing a purple smoke to fill the air. Hiro breathed it in, but began to cough. It smelled of burning rubber and metal.
Turning away, Hiro covered his nose and mouth, gagging from the smell.
“No! Stop! Leave us alone!” Shouted the male voice, his voice breaking through like lighting and no longer echoing. “Don’t do that! No! DON’T!”
Hiro’s eyes flew open and he sat up at once. He was on the edge of his mattress and fell out of bed. As he struck the floor the notes from the young lady fell in front of him and scattered across the ground. Hiro lifted his head, looking around at them. It had been more than a week since she had started writing to him. Every day there was a new note with the golden kitty. Each note spoke of the girl’s life and how lonely she was. It seemed that writing to him was her only entertainment. In her last note she had explained how she had to sneak out of her house to give him the notes.
She also told him about her illness…
Hiro pushed himself onto his elbows, looking down at the notes. He sighed and gathered them up, setting them on his bed as he sat up. There wasn’t anything that could be done for the girl’s illness. She didn’t have much more than a year left to live. Hiro had heard of the heart disease before, but never knew anyone who’d had it. It made sense to him why she would write him letters, letters in which she still had not revealed her name. Hiro was relieved, but to him it seemed it was fated he would learn her name. She was already dying so what could happen if he learned her name?
After changing into clean jeans and a new t-shirt, Hiro sat and examined the pale pink paper with ruffled edges that the girl used. It was such girly paper, but she had told him that she had no say in what she used or owned. Her parents didn’t let her out of the house. To leave the messages for him she had to sneak out and get back as fast as possible. She hadn’t mentioned where she lived, but Hiro had a feeling it was on top of the hill somewhere. The girl claimed she could see him sitting on the bench some days so where else could she live?
It was curious to be in such a fascinating mystery, even if it was just the games of a little girl.
With a sigh, Hiro left the house and headed down to the city. He had shopping he had to do. Many people in the city who saw him noticed how he never shopped in the grocery and never purchased any kind of food. There were rumors that he had a garden that he lived off of only. Hiro heard these rumors and sighed inwardly. When asked about it he told them it was true. He alone knew that he was lying.
In the city, passing on the sidewalk beneath the shadows of towering buildings, Hiro went to the hardware store. He passed many people, some of which waved and greeted him, and others that passed him without a second thought.
At the hardware store Hiro bought nothing but some long, thing screws, a few shorter ones, and a new screwdriver. The clerk thanked him and Hiro left swiftly before he could read the man’s nametag. Shopping was always hazardous for that one reason and Hiro hated it because of that.
His walk home was quiet and uneventful. He went to his house with plenty of time left in the day. Placing the bag of freshly bought supplies on the bed, Hiro looked down at it. He passed a hand over his abdomen, narrowing his eyes.
Shaking his head, he decided to go and see if the girl had left another note. He left his house, walking up the hill to the bench. Sitting there was the golden cat, but there were no messages beneath it.
Hiro raised his eyebrows in surprise and looked around. Was the girl going to come out and meet him instead? He couldn’t risk that. If she spoke to him she might not only get in trouble but she might tell him her name. Even if it was inevitable that he would learn her name he still wanted to avoid it for as long as possible.
Yet his plans went amiss as the days dragged on. Wind, rain, and sun, each fell upon the small golden cat, and every day Hiro would check for a note, but there were none. On the fifth day Hiro stood by the cat, looking down at it. He was secretly troubled. The girl had never taken so long to write to him. Hiro began to fear that her sickness had taken a bad turn. His mind spun as he stood before the bench, looking down at the smiling gold cat and hoping, to his surprise, that she was okay. He couldn’t help it. He wanted to find out who the girl was and what happened to her.
“Well, this is a stupid idea,” he said, picking up the golden cat and looking at it. It was damp from morning dew and Hiro wiped it off before looking around all the houses. He hoped one of them would know who the girl was by the cat. Since she wasn’t supposed to leave her house then someone must have bought it for her.
With a sigh, Hiro went to the first house, which stood across the road from the bench. He went to the door and knocked, waiting. When the door opened and old man looked out at him. He appeared surprised when he found Hiro looking in at him.
“Sorry to trouble you,” said Hiro, the golden cat in his hands. The old man’s eyes dropped to it at once and Hiro thought he saw the man’s face go pale. “Do you know where the girl is who owns this cat?”
“It’s been on the bench a long time,” the old man said, looking up at Hiro. “How do you know it belongs to anyone?”
“The young lady who left it there was writing me notes to cheer herself up,” explained Hiro. “Have you seen her? Do you know where she lives? She is sickly so I fear she might have gotten worse.”
The old man nodded his head slowly. “A young lady with golden hair would stop by the bench every morning while the sun began to rise,” he explained. “She wore a night gown and slippers. Maybe she’s the one you’re talking about?”
“Do you know which direction she came from?” Hiro asked, his hopes lifting a little.
“The other side of the bushes,” replied the old man, pointing across to the bench. “She would crawl under them, set a note on the bench, then crawl away.”
Hiro looked over his shoulder at the bench. “I see,” he said quietly, his mind wandering. The news was helpful. There were many houses behind the bench and bushes, and if the girl could see him then that meant her bedroom window had to face that general direction. Hiro counted over ten houses that could possibly be the one in which the girl lived and he sighed. “Do you know anything about the girl?” He asked, looking back at the old man. “Anything but her name?”
The old man looked confused, but then he shrugged. “I heard she’s dying of some strange sickness,” he replied. “The child isn’t supposed to leave her bed. Maybe that’s why she isn’t replying to you?”
Hiro shrugged. He thanked the man for his time and left, going to the bench and looking around at the houses. It would take all day, but he had to visit each of the houses to find out where the girl lived. Suddenly he paused. A gnawing sense of evil grew deep inside his stomach and he cringed. The girl wasn’t at home wherever she was. A second sense told Hiro that she was somewhere in the city. He lifted his head, looking out towards the city.
“Oh, crap,” he growled. A cold shiver went up his spine and into the back of his skull. His sight blurred and he was suddenly looking through what appeared to be x-ray infrared vision. The shapes shifted as white lines and a blue background. The different vision also showed people and animals in red and orange to him. However, that was not all his sight did. He stood still and watched as his sight took him all the way to the city, passed white and blue buildings and hundreds of people. Hiro gritted his teeth when his sight showed him a dark underground parking lot beneath a hospital. A small figure was curled up in a corner, surrounded by full-grown men that appeared to be armed. Hiro blinked and he was suddenly looking at the world around him in the normal color.
&n
bsp; “Well,” he said quietly, his fists clenched. “I think this means I have a damsel in distress to save.”
