A/N: A 2000-word section commission! PLOT and CHARACTERS belong to Poxis Fan. Story is written by Six (gaia username Sixstatic). Stealing is not permitted!
“It’s all over now.”
Her thoughts seemed to echo around the atmosphere and back as the nineteen-year-old girl trudged on into the darkness. It was a windy and cold night - not the kind of night most people would hope to die on - but it didn’t matter anymore. The girl only brushed her dark hair away from her eyes and looked around.
There, she could see a lonely road sticking out in the distance.
Roads meant cars.
Cars meant accidents.
She turned and started walking toward the road, head low and heart heavy. The only thing she wished now was for a person, any person, to be driving down that road tonight.
If there were any cars, then Nada Nara was going to die.
oOo
“It’s all over now!” the tired teacher exclaimed, dropping his pen and rubbing his eyes.
Zero Sareka had just finished grading the papers of all his students. The task had taken him so long that he had lost track of time; he looked outside the window from his classroom and realized that it was already dark.
Sighing, he brushed a speck of dust from the stack of essays. His students had complained about the uninteresting topic (economic benefits during the industrial age, with at least five facts and examples of inventions during that time period), but he would’ve willingly traded spots with them; reading twenty-three misspelled, misquoted, and misinterpreted essays wasn’t exactly day in the picnic either.
Zero picked up the papers and stacked them neatly together before putting them in his bag, along with the two fresh love letters he had gotten from his students. (He got them on a daily basis, so his trashcan was usually full of them. Zero always threw them out in his own trashcan at home, in case parents or authority became suspicious.) Packing all his things together, he headed out of the schools’ double-doors and into the chilly night.
Finally, he could call it a day.
He hummed as he walked into his shabby car; without the daytime traffic, it would be a short drive back to his apartment. For now, the only thing Zero wanted was a good nights’ sleep.
oOo
Why didn’t anything good ever happen to her? Nada thought bitterly as continued toward the distant road. Her destination turned out to be a bit further than what she had originally thought, which gave her time to review over her miserable life.
Nada instantly regretted it, though, because thinking about it only made her feel worse - if that was possible. She had powers, but people were afraid of them. She had friends, but all her friends were dead and living on as ghosts. And even now, just when she thought she had found a safe harbor in the local dollar-theater, just when she found somewhere she could really call a home… it turned out that the owner was stalking her.
Death was the only answer… but why, then, did the only answer worry her? It wasn’t as if there were something out there to live for….
Nada finally reached the road. She looked up and down the streets. There was nobody driving.
She looked up and down the road warily - still, nothing.
“Of course,” Nada thought with a sigh. It was in the middle of the night and from up close, it looked as though the road had been long abandoned… indeed, nobody would be driving. And it didn’t help that fate seemed to frown upon everywhere she went and everything she did - trying to die was no exception, it seemed.
She waited for a while, hoping that something would happen. Nothing happened. Nada turned her heel and was about to walk away, thinking of trying another road or finding a cliff to jump off of, until a sound startled her.
From the distance, she thought she could make out a soft rustling. Nada paused, but the sound didn’t come back. She started to leave again.
Vrrrr…rrrrr….
Nada whirled around, her heart beating rapidly against her chest. The sound was coming back, louder this time - and she could tell that it was definitely the sound of an engine.
Specks of light started to appear from down the road. She instantly recognized it: headlights from a car.
Nada took no time waiting; she skittered back to her position and leaped into the road, just as the car sped into sight.
“Watch out!” she heard a voice cry from the car, but Nada had already done it: the last thing she remembered was the screeching of tires against road, a sharp pain shooting through her body and a faint green glow; she collapsed.
“No….” Zero stared, shell-shocked and horrified, from his seat in his car. What had just happened?
He threw the car door open and raced outside to see a girl lying unconscious on the ground. She had short, feathery dark hair and was wearing an outfit that mostly consisted of red and black, making it hard for him to tell where and how much she was bleeding. Zero kneeled next to her.
“Are you okay?” he asked breathlessly; the girl didn’t answer. He tried again, but she didn’t move an inch.
For a terrifying second, Zero thought she was dead - but then the girl turned and looked at him.
“You’re alive - thank goodness!” he sighed; however, the girl looked shocked and confused. Zero watched her as she tried to get up, but she seemed too weak to hold herself against the road.
For a split-second, upon instinct, Zero reached out to help her - but he stopped. His powers… he forgot about them, he remembered, and looked down at his un-gloved hands. If he touched her, he would have to read her mind. But did it really matter when someone is hurt this badly?
When he looked up again, the girl was glaring at him. “Is she mad at me for hitting her?” he thought.
She kept glaring at him. The girl seemed too dizzy to speak, but it was evident that she was trying to tell him something.
“Do you want me to help you up?” Zero asked.
Glare.
“Okay, I’m sorry - here, let me help….” He reached over and, against his will, grabbed her arm and lifted her onto her feet. Zero braced himself for the thoughts that suddenly overcame him.
These thoughts - he saw suicide and loneliness… an abandoned theater, a warning… and something else. He frowned. Aura? Ghosts?
“Nobody understands… everybody is afraid of me… why me? Why me?” came her voice. No, her thoughts. No… his thoughts?
At that moment, something strange happened. His own mind, his own thoughts were echoing in his head… his loneliness as a child, his isolation even now, and the fear in the eyes of others….
Pain. Powers. Zero looked down at the girl in his arms, whose dark brown eyes reflected almost as much shock as he felt.
He blinked, and everything disappeared.
Zero hastily stifled a gasp - he almost dropped the injured girl in astonishment but caught himself at the last second. He looked guiltily down her to see that she was unconscious again.
oOo
Hours had passed.
Nada looked up absent-mindedly at the ceiling of the hospital, only dimly aware of the bandages wrapped around her body and cast around her tightly-bound right arm. Moments ago, a white-clad nurse had told her that she fractured her arm and had a few moderate wounds along her side but would otherwise be okay.
She’d be ‘okay’. Ha ha.
Nada sighed and tried to shift her position, but the sharp sting in her injured limbs forced her to sit back straight. It was irritating, laying face-up on hospital cot and staring the pattern-less ceiling all day. The major thing that was bothering her at the moment, though, was the fact that she was not dead. Maybe a green angel had saved her?
The dark-haired girl sucked in her cheeks. A green angel.
Nada’s thoughts swerved back to the man who had rescued her. She was dizzy at the time, she knew, but Nada could’ve sworn that something about him wasn’t right. If she remembered correctly, he was… green. Not his hair, although that was green too, but his aura… it was a definite contrast to the brownish-yellow auras she was used to. But even more strangely, his aura had been kind. Understanding, even. There was something different about him….
Nada shook her head. What was a green aura mean, anyway?
“Miss Nara, you have a visitor,” came the tinkling voice of the nurse from outside the door. Nada blinked a few times in surprise - somebody visiting her? Did she even know anybody? But she could see the shadows of two human figures from the screen on the door window….
“Let them in,” she said warily, painfully propping herself into sitting position. The door creaked open and her nurse stepped in along with the man who had been driving the car. His aura was still resolutely green.
Nada was taken aback. Why did he want to see her, out of all people?
“Hi,” he said breathlessly. She stared at him numbly; the nurse nodded from the doorway and left the room, leaving the two alone. The man gave a warm, tentative smile.
“I hope you’re not too mad at me for what happened,” he started sheepishly, rubbing his neck. Nada continued staring. “Because… I wanted to say that I’m really sorry about the accident. It’s my fault - I should’ve been more careful tonight.”
Nada didn’t say anything, so he continued: “I covered for the hospital bill and everything, so you don’t have to worry about that. Are you feeling better?”
The dark-haired girl swallowed; why was she suddenly feeling so… horrible?
“I’m better, thanks,” Nada mumbled, unable to look the visitor in the eye. She suddenly realized that she was feeling guilty - this nice person had covered for the bill even though she had been the one who had been trying to kill herself. “And… thanks for visiting me. What’s your name again?”
“I’m Zero Sareka,” the man, Zero, replied. He smiled and stretched out a hand. “It’s nice to meet you, Nada - oh, uh, I saw your name on the hospital identification papers,” he added when he noticed Nada’s surprised look.
She almost smiled and shook his hand. Nada noticed that he was wearing white gloves on his hands.
“Do you… do you work at the hospital?” she stuttered, looking up at Zero’s face for the first time. He had stunning aqua-blue eyes that were almost as distracting to her as his strange aura. Nada gestured lamely at his gloves.
“Oh, no,” said Zero, laughing rather nervously. Nada cocked her head, obviously waiting for an explanation. “Well, you see… I need to wear them at all times.”
Nada raised an eyebrow. “How come?”
Zero hesitated. “I need them to….” he paused, but when Nada glared at him, he hastily continued. “…to restrict my powers.”
“To restrict your….” Nada repeated, breaking off mid-sentence. What? “You… you have powers?”
“I have powers,” Zero confirmed. Nada leaned back, wide-eyed and looking awe-struck; but somewhere in her expression, he thought he could see relief and happiness rather than fear. Maybe it was just his imagination.
After a long while, the girl broke the silence. “So, what’s your power?” she semi-whispered; Zero felt his heart drop, knowing that this was the question he least wanted to answer.
“I can read minds,” he admitted.
There was another long pause. Zero waited, almost half-expecting the girl to fear him, or otherwise reject him - just like everyone else had done. Nada looked away and stared at her bandages; when she looked up, however, she was smiling. A forced, rather pained smile, but so much more than what others had given him upon discovering what he truly was. There was no pity or disgust in her smile.
“Powers. Dreams come true, aren’t they?” said Nada dryly, and Zero almost laughed. “You’ve read my mind then, have you?”
“I tried not to,” he said apologetically, but Nada didn’t seem the least bit bothered by this revelation.
“Good. I could never tell the difference between what I said and what I thought to begin with anyways,” she said, and Zero did laugh this time. Nada seemed surprised and flushed; it was then that he noticed how pretty this Nada Nara was.
“Do you want a drink?” Zero asked, more to break the awkward silence than anything. She nodded, and he promptly got up to filled a nearby plastic cup with tepid fountain water. He handed it to her, and Nada took a small sip before setting it down on the desk table.
“My life’s a wreck,” Zero heard her murmur.
“Mine’s is, too,” he agreed before he knew what he was saying. Nada looked surprised, but she smiled.
“I haven’t got any friends, either,” she admitted.
“Are you sure about that?” Zero took her hand, smiling gently. Nada stared up at him, disbelieving and confused. “The sun is already rising. Do you want me to take you home?”
Home?
Nada looked outside; it was almost morning, but she hadn’t intended to go home. Indeed, she had intended to die, but suddenly, she didn’t want to die anymore… going home seemed bearable with this Zero around.
She swallowed. “I’d like to go home… with you,” she answered finally.
Zero helped her to her feet and she started walking with him, hand-in-hand. The hospital people waved them good-bye, and for the first time in her life, Nada couldn’t tell if they were afraid of her or not; she was too happy to care.
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