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Title: water to the dead
Prompt: bad day
Rating: G
Word Count: 575
Content Warnings/Notes: apparent character death
Summary: Seven months and three days after her brother disappears, twelve-year old Noel Srivastava receives a strange letter.
Noel counts the days, marks them down. It has been seven months and three days since her brother disappeared, and though she doesn't want to believe it, doesn't want to think about it, but some part of her has to acknowledge that Aamin might never come home. She hears her parents talking about legal proceedings, sees the papers on the table, and tries not to punch anything.
She can't help slamming her bedroom door behind her, though, when a neighbor tries to talk to her. She doesn't want to hear any more of "I'm so sorry" and the pity in their eyes, she doesn't want to talk, she wants her brother, more parent to her than their parents had been, and she doesn't care that her mother will upbraid her later for not being polite, she doesn't care about being polite, and throws herself on her bed.
For a moment, she looks away, scowls at the wall, when there's a soft sound, like paper falling, and looks back. There's an envelope sitting on the bed, that wasn't there before, and she stares at it for a moment, completely uncertain of where it came from. There is no indication of a sender, no address, it's not even addressed to her, it's a plain unsealed white envelope with flower petals strewn across it, and she has no idea what to think or where it came from or why it's even there.
And then she remembers how her brother had made the flower petals dance for her, what feels like a lifetime ago now, and stares at the envelope, uncertain and not daring to hope, before she snatches it up and scatters black poppy petals all over her bed, ripping open the envelope, spills out a letter and a silver chain with a red jewel, meant to wear
At the sight of the familiar, graceful handwriting, Noel grins despite herself, despite almost wanting to strangle her brother for a moment warring with knowing something was wrong, that everything's wrong, because Aamin never would have disappeared like that on his own without a word, without explanation, with only a letter, he's always too faithful and steadfast to do that and despite everything, despite herself, she almost runs out into the living room, tempted to wave the letter at her parents and the neighbor, see, see, her brother's alive.
But first, she reads the letter, because it's for her alone, and as she reads, she grows more and more upset, because it's not her brother, it can't be him writing this, it doesn't sound like him, rambling and nonsensical illusions to illusions and the end and the beginning overlap when this world ends he just sounds crazy and he wasn't, and she doesn't understand and she thinks it's all one cruel joke, that someone's imitating his handwriting, and then she reads the last two sentences and wants to cry, clutching the silver chain until it digs the shape of the links into her palm, because she can hear him saying those words, and knows that this letter, somehow, some way, and she doesn't understand how, he wrote this letter, she has no idea what happened to him or even what's going on, but somehow she knows that she'll never see him again, that nothing will be the same, and this is really goodbye.
No matter what happens, I love you, sister. Goodbye, and we'll meet again.
Prompt: bad day
Rating: G
Word Count: 575
Content Warnings/Notes: apparent character death
Summary: Seven months and three days after her brother disappears, twelve-year old Noel Srivastava receives a strange letter.
Noel counts the days, marks them down. It has been seven months and three days since her brother disappeared, and though she doesn't want to believe it, doesn't want to think about it, but some part of her has to acknowledge that Aamin might never come home. She hears her parents talking about legal proceedings, sees the papers on the table, and tries not to punch anything.
She can't help slamming her bedroom door behind her, though, when a neighbor tries to talk to her. She doesn't want to hear any more of "I'm so sorry" and the pity in their eyes, she doesn't want to talk, she wants her brother, more parent to her than their parents had been, and she doesn't care that her mother will upbraid her later for not being polite, she doesn't care about being polite, and throws herself on her bed.
For a moment, she looks away, scowls at the wall, when there's a soft sound, like paper falling, and looks back. There's an envelope sitting on the bed, that wasn't there before, and she stares at it for a moment, completely uncertain of where it came from. There is no indication of a sender, no address, it's not even addressed to her, it's a plain unsealed white envelope with flower petals strewn across it, and she has no idea what to think or where it came from or why it's even there.
And then she remembers how her brother had made the flower petals dance for her, what feels like a lifetime ago now, and stares at the envelope, uncertain and not daring to hope, before she snatches it up and scatters black poppy petals all over her bed, ripping open the envelope, spills out a letter and a silver chain with a red jewel, meant to wear
At the sight of the familiar, graceful handwriting, Noel grins despite herself, despite almost wanting to strangle her brother for a moment warring with knowing something was wrong, that everything's wrong, because Aamin never would have disappeared like that on his own without a word, without explanation, with only a letter, he's always too faithful and steadfast to do that and despite everything, despite herself, she almost runs out into the living room, tempted to wave the letter at her parents and the neighbor, see, see, her brother's alive.
But first, she reads the letter, because it's for her alone, and as she reads, she grows more and more upset, because it's not her brother, it can't be him writing this, it doesn't sound like him, rambling and nonsensical illusions to illusions and the end and the beginning overlap when this world ends he just sounds crazy and he wasn't, and she doesn't understand and she thinks it's all one cruel joke, that someone's imitating his handwriting, and then she reads the last two sentences and wants to cry, clutching the silver chain until it digs the shape of the links into her palm, because she can hear him saying those words, and knows that this letter, somehow, some way, and she doesn't understand how, he wrote this letter, she has no idea what happened to him or even what's going on, but somehow she knows that she'll never see him again, that nothing will be the same, and this is really goodbye.
No matter what happens, I love you, sister. Goodbye, and we'll meet again.
no subject
Date: 2011-05-06 08:31 pm (UTC)From:Beautiful piece ^^