Every Little Memory

Entry #50: Purple Heart

Throughout my entire experience viewing memories, nothing has filled me with more emotion than this one right here. It has always felt as though I were watching a play and I was lucky enough to get a seat in the front row. A place close enough to touch the actors, to see with utmost clarity the true colors of the scene. Except the blood that flows is real blood rather than liquid colored red. Those hunters are not pretending to be dead. The emotions are real; not false faces put on by performers.

 And I… I, the audience member whose heart is swayed by the smallest of emotions, cannot help the relief that flows through me like a flood of water. The release of all the tension, all the worry that welled up within my being. For like the audience to a play, I pray for things to go right. The world to be saved, the villain defeated, the darkness pushed away, the protagonist to reunite with his true love…

 It seems almost easy for him, though I know his heart is heavy with sorrow and poison crawls through his veins, weakening his body slowly but surely. I have heard that, when given enough motivation, the weak can become strong. The flames burn brightest when in the darkest darkness. When a loved one is in danger, somehow one can find the strength to protect them.

The force with which he killed multiple hunters, despite the nullifying toxin, proves that he has great strength. He just needs a reason to use it.

 He doesn’t bother to look at those whose lives he ended. He sprints as fast as his legs will take him until he skids to a halt beside her, just in time for her to fall into his arms. This is what fills me with relief. That he made it; that he even came for her. It makes my heart leap.

 Her glassy eyes grow bigger at seeing him here while a single tear streaks down her face and splashes on the ground. She struggles to take in a breath as the poison from the arrow begins to take its toll. Opening her mouth just a bit, she manages to speak his name. “Kain…Y-you…came…”

 “Of course I did. Perhaps it is time I did the protecting…” he replies, wrapping his hand around the shaft of the arrow protruding from her shoulder. She barely even winces when he pulls it out as smoothly and painlessly as possible. Her eyes just stare up into his with disbelief, as if she didn’t even consider him coming here. When he removes it all the way, the arrowhead thankfully still attached to the shaft, he murmurs an apology for any extra pain it may have caused and tosses it aside.

 More tears well up at the base of Kaiya’s eyes as she says, “I-I’m so…stupid…Kain…I’m sorry…I shouldn’t have run--”

 “No, no, Kaiya,” he interrupts, holding her closer. She seems a bit stunned and confused, but rests her head against his chest. With a sigh, he continues, “This…is entirely my fault.”

 With a very wide-eyed expression, she whispers, “What? But I…messed up…a lot…”

 “I brought you here, to a place that doesn’t suit you…after I caused your mother’s death…”

 “It’s not your fault. You…didn’t kill mom. The humans did.” She sounds very sure of that, as if she has finally come to terms with her mother’s passing. She has finally stopped placing blame and accepted what is true.

 Now it is Kain’s turn to be surprised. “I may as well have been the reason they--”

 “No. Whatever you say…it’s…not your fault…”

 “If…you insist… Regardless, I was too cross with you; even when there were times…I didn’t intend to be. You have done so much and I never once gave you credit where it was due. I am…I am the fool here. I am the one who…‘messed up’. And now it has led to this…”