My Lost Soul

Chapter 21 - Old, Red Spider Lily

A Red Spider Lily - A lovely crimson, with a dangerous core. With a poisonous bulb, the flower also symbolizes death. It was her favorite. There was a time she told Uyama about this flower, how much she loved it- its uniqueness and grace. But also of a folk legend, saying that if you lay eyes on someone you may never see again, the red Spider Lily will bloom between the both of you. There must've been another reason she told him this. Maybe she knew they were blooming at the time, so that's where she decided to say goodbye. Maybe it was so he could lean in one last time and embrace him- at least one more time. She wasn't around to answer his questions.

The warm spring breeze blew as the three came to the graveyard. "Omega—word of advice—every time you visit someone at their grave, you gotta make sure you come with something. For Uyama, it's flowers." Enjō pointed at the flower in Uyama's hand. "Speaking of, what's today's flower?" Omega looked at the graveyard with an agape mouth. The grass grew lushly here. There were mementos of all sorts on each grave, standing out brightly among the rest of the city. "This place is..." Omega began. "Beautiful, huh?" Uyama looked down and inspected the flower in his hand," This is the red spider lily - lycoris radiata. Her favorite." Enjō smiled softly as he tapped Omega's shoulders for him to stop. "Is this it?", Omega stopped as Uyama walked towards the grave and placed the flower down in front of the headstone. "Should we say something?" Omega whispered beside Enjō. "If you can't think of anything, it's best to say nothing at all," Enjō replied.

Uyama wiped the top of the headstone and then sat down in front of it. Enjō looked around for somewhere to sit and found a bench not too far away. Tapping on Omega's shoulders he whispers, "Let's leave these two alone for a moment." They walked off quietly and Uyama stayed, sitting down in front of her. "I'm sorry I couldn't be here sooner. There's been so much going on recently. It should be a good thing, though. It's what you would've wanted for me." Uyama shifted on the grass bed, "You're magical to me. Whenever I lay a foot on this grass, I feel like I'm in my 20s again," He chuckled softly. "I got you your favorite flowers again, to make up for missing you last time. I remember the last time I saw your face. I never did want to board that plane. I wanted to stay with you, to watch the chaos with our blind civvy eyes. But that's all in the past now. When I came back on the very same field -but with a completely different man-, I saw this very same flower. Right in between the grass and concrete. It was right below where we said goodbye."

"This place is so..." Omega looked around in wonder,"...different." Enjō looked down at his feet," Yeah, it's the only place here with fresh air. Kinda ironic, huh?"

"It's more than that, I think." Omega looked at Enjō, "I know I haven't seen much of this place yet, let alone the world outside, but there's something special about this place." Enjō fiddled with a blade of grass," My dad wouldn't hang out with me much. If we were together, he'd be on my ass talking about "life lessons". Didn't believe him 'til he brought me to see my mom. At a place just like this. The town I used to live in was almost like this one: quiet, but loud, packed, but felt so empty. This was the one place I felt the most..." He thought for a moment,"...how do I put it? Connected to all of life?" Omega snickered," I never knew you could sound philosophical." He scoffed in response," I'm not stupid you know. Anyway, my dad told me that graveyards are the only places left in the world that show any sign of humanity."

"Humanity? In a place with dead people?" Omega furrowed his brow. "Ironic, but yeah man. I mean look at it!"He waved his hand across the field," Compared to the rest of the city, it's real colorful." Omega leaned back on the bench.

Uyama coughed softly into this forearm sleeve. "That was when I knew you knew about the world better than me. Even a person like me, who almost knew it all!" He dropped down onto the grass bed, "There were so many times that I felt more than human, but at the same time, less. You really did outsmart me. You make me feel human."