Text The Empty Cold (Entry for the KH13 Fan-Fiction Give-Away)

[Grotesquery 603]

The Empty Cold

 

Loneliness was hard to find in a city as big as this. But somehow, she had done it. Sitting at the corner of the bank and the malt shop, she had created her own world of seclusion that may as well have made her invisible. She squirmed on the cold concrete sidewalk, writhing in fruitless attempts to keep herself warm from the blistering morning chill that ran up her spine. Her exposed toes instinctively curled up in a vain attempt to find warmth, as she systematically rubbed her feet together in an effort to keep them moving.

 

The brisk smell of firewood caught her nostrils, as she turned to look at a nearby store, well-kept and inviting with its soft brown hues and the thin plume of smoke rising from its chimney. Unable to bear the sight, she turned her head again, and pulled her rough linen hood in close. She tried to convince herself that she was still trying to keep warm, but in reality all she wanted was to hide from her shame. Of all the times she had sat at this corner, twisted, lonely and crying, not a single person had ever paid her any heed. She hadn’t spoken in weeks; she had almost forgotten the sound of her own voice. She had almost forgotten what it was like to hear another person speak to her.

 

“Hey, kid.”

 

Her heart stopped. Stunned, she turned her head upward, the sudden motion inciting an ache in her stiffened neck. Her eyes stung from the bitter cold, yet she could still make out the figure of a young boy standing in front of her. Shocked, she tried to speak, but nothing came out. All she could do was sit in silence and wait with bated breath, as she had always done.

 

The boy smiled at her. “You’re alone, huh?”

 

Paralyzed by the cold, her only response was to nod, slowly and shakily.

 

His smile widened, as he continued with, “Yeah, me too.” He chuckled slightly, before offering his hand to her. “Come on, let’s be alone together.”

 

The girl eyes widened. Cold tears slowly formed at the corners of her eyes, yet refused to fall as she offered another broken nod. Slowly and hesitantly, she reached out her hand, surrendering to whatever fate had brought this moment to her.

 

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

Lea stood patiently beneath the crooked street lamp, trying his hardest to appear casual in light of the numerous civilians strolling by him. His eyes moved callously from face to face, as he consciously began to go over his plan for the nearby pharmacy across the street. After he took a brief moment to think through his actions one last time, he rolled his eyes and breathed hot air into his barren hands, trying to keep warm in the brisk night.

 

“This is stupid,” He thought to himself. “I’ve done this plenty of times already! Why is it that tonight, I’m so nervous?” After Lea had met Arlene, his entire life had changed. He never meant to stick with her for so long, but his conscience had gotten the better of him. She was completely alone; no one to call friend or family. And without him, there was no doubt in his mind that she wouldn’t survive the end of the season. This winter had been the most brutal in decades, and even people in the second ring were coming down with hypothermia. He couldn’t let that happen to her, especially not after all they had been through. So now here he was, breaking into a drug store just to get her through the bitter night.

 

Lea looked around one more time. The streets had finally begun to thin, and pretty soon, there’d be no witnesses. After sitting down, he leaned up against the nearby street lamp as he methodically waited for the streets to grow empty. Feeling a brief chill run up his spine, he braced himself for a bitter gust of wind, as he once again rubbed his hands together in an effort to warm his body. The cold night air didn’t worry him, though. He had always had thick skin. Probably one of the reasons he was able to survive so long on the streets, he thought to himself.

 

The minutes droned on and on, as he continued his wait beneath the lonely light hanging overhead. He closed his eyes, as the time slowly began to escape him. Thoughts of the past and present began to pass through his mind, images of his family, and of his friends. “I wonder if Arlene’s doing alright?” He thought to himself. He found himself worrying about her a lot nowadays, especially now that every other night, she just seemed to be getting worse and worse. He sighed to himself in exhaustion. “Maybe, I should-”

 

Lea’s thoughts were interrupted by the sound of a nearby door swinging shut. His eyes darted open, as he quickly moved to conceal himself, even though he was confident that no one could see him in the darkness. As his eyes adjusted to the pitch-blackness, he was able to make out the figure of a tall man walking through the night. A small smile found its way onto Lea’s face. “Looks like the good doctor’s finally closed up shop.” He took a second look at his surroundings, and noticed that the streets were now completely vacant. “And everyone else has turned in.” Lea’s smile widened. “Good.” He waited a few moments to make sure the doctor was out of earshot, before finally making his way towards the pharmacy.

 

He knelt down at the door’s lock, and quickly pulled out a set of hair pins. “Alright,’ he muttered below his breath, “let’s see if I’m as rusty as these locks.” Lea placed his ear onto the frigid bronze metal of the massive door handle, his skin prickling in response to the contact. He pensively listened for turns of the lock mechanism as he maneuvered the hair pins inside the keyhole, and in almost no time, another smile adorned his features as he heard the satisfying click of the door unlocking. “Ha! Too easy,” he tried his hardest to whisper.

 

Slowly, Lea pushed open the door as he slid quietly into the shop. The room was pitch-black, even darker than the outside, so Lea wasn’t able to make out specific details about his surroundings. It didn’t matter, though, what he wanted couldn’t be found in the front room, anyways. Crouched low, Lea carefully made his way through the darkened shop, trying to keep himself as silent as possible. While there shouldn’t be any practical reason to be so cautious, Lea wasn’t willing to take any chances. The young boy had learned a lot in his life, and chieftain among those was to never believe in safety.

 

Eventually, Lea found his way to a second door within the first room. Unsurprisingly, the door was not locked. Lea had been here several times before, and while the man who ran the place had enough sense to lock up his store, he also had enough sense to realize that locking the second door was pointless. If Lea made it through the first, he was making it through this one, too.

 

Lea opened the door, and passed into a claustrophobic back hallway. Lined with numerous doors, some opened, some closed, the hallway stretched on for the length of the building and didn’t leave a lot of space for maneuverability. Ignoring most of the doorways, Lea quickly managed to pick out an open door that led to a small secluded room lined from top to bottom with wooden shelves, upon which sat countless glass vials of different shapes and sizes.

 

Smiling to himself one last time, Lea slipped into the room, and began to reach for the bottles of medicine stored on the shelves. He narrowed his search to a single shelf, and methodically began to feel through the different shapes and sizes. He knew exactly what he was looking for, and knew that he wouldn’t find it anywhere else.

 

As Lea moved through the numerous vials of medicine, his smile slowly began to fade. “Not that one… not that one… definitely not THAT one…” he muttered, as he slowly started to panic. “Come on, where is it?” He said, a little louder than he intended. “This… this can’t be happening.” He finally whispered, nearly defeated. “Did he move it? But he’s a clean freak! He’d never re-organize his entire stock in a single day! Does he know I’ve been stealing from him?” He thought to himself as he took a seat on the cold, brick floor. “No… maybe he’s out of stock. Maybe he got caught off guard and he’s out for the week? Yeah, that has to be it.” Lea scrambled to his feet and brushed himself off. “Either way, I have to get out of here, I’ll just have to check back next week on a different day,” Lea thought, but suddenly stopped, and grimaced. A new thought popped into his head, and with it came a whole new set of concerns. “What if Arlene doesn’t make it another week?”

 

Suddenly, Lea’s thoughts were violently interrupted by an intense pain that lashed out on the back of his head. His neck cocked, and his legs buckled as he limply fell to the floor. Landing arms first, Lea’s vision blurred as he tried to make sense of what had just happened. He rubbed the back of his head in an attempt to find the source of the shocking pain, when he suddenly felt a cold ring wrap around his ankle. “What the…?” He muttered, as he finally managed to turn himself around to face the open doorway.

 

While his vision was still clouded, Lea was able to make out the shape of a young man, someone about his age. He could see the boy’s mouth moving, but it took a few moments for his hearing to become less than an incessant drone, so all Lea was able to pick up was, “… I must admit though, I’m surprised that hit didn’t knock you unconscious. Your skull must be thicker than I thought.”

 

Lea rubbed his eyes vigorously in an attempt to finally clear his vision. When he looked back up, he was face to face with a tall, cerulean-haired teenage boy in a blue turtleneck and a pair of white jeans. It took Lea a second to notice the wooden cudgel in the boy’s left hand, and it became pretty obvious pretty quickly that this was the person responsible for the pain at the back of his head.

 

Reflexively, Lea tried to push himself away and to his feet, but something tugged at his leg and kept him bound to the floor. Looking down, Lea realized that the boy had managed to cuff him to a large metal pipe embedded in a nearby wall. After struggling with the metal chain for a few moments, Lea sighed in defeat, finally accepting that he probably wasn’t going to get out of this one.

 

“I wouldn’t try running,” the boy said. “My father is probably already on his way back, he’ll decide what to do with you.” Lea frowned at the boy’s words, but less out of fear for himself, and more for frustration at the situation itself. “Look,” Lea began. “I don’t care what you do with me now, but I can’t stay here. I have a friend, you see; she’s sick! And she needs your dad’s medicine!” The boy’s eyes narrowed in response, as he replied with: “That doesn’t justify stealing from us.”

 

Lea’s eyes slanted in turn. “Yes, it does! She might die if I don’t do something about it! What’s more important, following the rules or saving someone’s life!?” The boy went silent. He began to circle Lea, almost as if he was sizing him up. “Who are you, anyways?” he asked, “And why are you stealing from our shop? You’re a little too well-dressed for an orphan.”

 

Lea began to calm down, and was content with answering his captor’s questions if it managed to get him anywhere. “I work odd-jobs in the second-ring. But I don’t make enough money to buy your father’s medicine, and I definitely don’t make enough to take my friend to a real doctor.” Lea scoffed, and turned his head in disgust. “Even if I did, no one in their right mind would take in rats like us.”

 

The boy refused to say anything, but his gaze belied the conflict going on within his mind. The two waited there for only a few moments, but those moments felt like a painful eternity. Finally, the boy broke the silence and said, “My name is Isa.” Lea turned his head in response, a little surprised to say the least. “And, why should I care?” he asked, a doubtful expression on his face.

 

Isa knelt down, and looked Lea in the eyes. “Because I want to be your friend.” Isa held out his hand to Lea, his cold and empty expression unflinching even after what he had just said. “Well?” he asked pensively, waiting for an answer. Lea’s eyes went as wide as dinner plates, and he was seriously beginning to question whether or not this person was really all there. “Uh…” he muttered, “If I say yes, will you let me go?” Isa chuckled, and smiled lightly, although it was hard to find any humor in his expression. “Very well, I’ll ask again when I don’t have you chained to a brick and mortar floor.” Standing up, Isa turned his head as he heard the front door open. “That should be my father,” he said, before turning back to face Lea. “I’ll see about getting help for your friend. And if you don’t mind, I’d like to meet her someday.” He waved one final time at Lea, before turning to leave. “Goodbye, for now.”

 

Lea was speechless. His eyes still wide with shock and confusion, all he could do was sit on the cold, hard floor and wonder what had just happened to him.

 

“Apparently, this is the only way I can make friends.” He muttered to himself in silence.

 

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

Lea propped himself up against the concrete wall of the alleyway he and Arlene had stopped to rest at. He looked to his right at the entrance to the secluded alley, staring at the open pathway expectantly. On his left hand side, Arlene sat on the ground, her legs pulled up close to her chest as she stared at the concrete floor with a penitent look etched onto her features.

 

After a few moments, Lea decided to break the silence with some small talk. “So, nice weather, huh?” he turned his head to look at her, just in time to catch the slightest shrug of her shoulders. Giving her another momentary glance, Lea turned back to face the opening of the alleyway, before continuing with, “Isn’t it kind of funny how we would have killed for a setting like this just a few months ago?” He wiped the sweat off his brow, a reminder of the heatwave that had struck the city not too long ago. “Now we’re ducking for cover in a place like this. Guess that makes us pretty ungrateful, huh?” he chuckled, and Arlene offered a slight smile, but didn’t respond otherwise.

 

He turned to her again, before kneeling down to meet her face to face. He looked at her quizzically for a few moments, as she turned at him and did the same. “You really don’t talk much, do you?” he asked her. Slowly, she shook her head in response, after which, Lea sighed and stood back up. He strode over to the other wall of the alley, leaned up against it and turned to face his friend. He locked eyes with her for a few moments, before she turned away, trying to avert his gaze. After another long stint of silence, Lea finally spoke up with, “Can you do me a favor?”

 

Arlene didn’t look back, but still nodded. Lea knelt down once more to meet her eyes, and simply said, “Say something to me.” She looked at him, a hint of shock etched into her expression. They stared at each-other for what seemed like hours, as Arlene tried her hardest to understand whether Lea was kidding or not. And although she could usually tell by looking into his eyes, right now, she simply couldn’t tell the difference anymore.

 

A sudden and rude “ahem” broke their gaze, as Lea turned to his left, while Arlene merely looked away in embarrassment. Standing in the entranceway to the alley, Isa stood with three paper cones folded underneath his arm. “Sorry if I was interrupting anything.” He smiled lightly, before walking over to Lea. Lea, in turn, scoffed at his antics. “Here’s an idea! If you’re so sorry, then just don’t interrupt next time.” Lea said half-jokingly. Isa turned his head up in mock thought, as he slowly replied with, “Hmm, no thanks. Messing with you is a bit too much fun.” With a sigh, Lea turned to sit down next to Arlene, who was trying her best to ignore the moronic banter flying between her two friends.

 

“You’re late,” Lea said. “Where were you? The shop was just around the corner, you should have been back ten minutes ago.” Isa sat on the other side of Arlene, before slowly gathering the cones in his lap. “Well, I may have taken the scenic route back.” Lea scoffed at his friend once more, before responding, “Yeah, that figures.” Looking to his side, he noticed Isa holding out one of the paper cones and having already given one to Arlene, a genuine smile on his face. “Just be glad I brought any back for you at all.” Rolling his eyes, Lea took the cone in a show of faux reluctance. “I just don’t get your obsession with that castle. What’s the point in staring at it every day?” He muttered, as he began to unwrap the gift.

 

Arlene jumped with joy as her cone unraveled, almost threatening to spill out the contents over the dirtied pavement. Pecans. Her favorite. She turned to look at Isa, a look of boundless gratitude on her face. He merely smiled at her and nodded.

 

Isa turned to look at the adjacent wall of the alleyway, his expression looking as if he was lost in deep thought. “Now, as for the castle…” be began. “You know what they say about Ansem the Wise, don’t you? A man, a philosopher, a scientist, an alchemist, even a doctor. He’s all of those things and more.” Isa said. “I can’t say for sure, but I just have this feeling. A man like that might be able to help Arlene.”

 

Both of Isa’s friends froze. Arlene looked away in shame, as Lea sighed at his companion’s words. “You always know how to kill the mood, Isa. Did you really have to bring that up at a time like this?”

 

Isa was right, of course. Arlene had been born with brittle bones and fragile skin. A single stumble usually meant a week in bed, if she was even lucky enough to find one. In addition to that, the winter had taken a heavy toll on her both physically and emotionally. She had contracted some kind of sickness; one that Isa’s father had no idea how to cure. While it wasn’t proving immediately fatal, he had no idea what the long term effects could be, nor how much time she had in her current condition, or if she could even survive another winter.

 

Isa sighed in response. “I know, I’m sorry. It’s just a thought, okay?” Lea shook his head. Isa was always like this, he had grown up with a belief that everyone around him was as detached as he was. While he now knew that wasn’t true, he still had the habit of saying things with no regard to how other people felt.

 

The next few minutes passed in silence, something that the three were not exactly unaccustomed too. Finally, Isa decided to break the quiet with a sudden and strange question, “Lea, what are you going to do when you get out of here?” Lea looked over at him, a little puzzled, to say the least. “Well…” He said, looking away in thought. “I… never really thought about it.” He looked down at his now half-empty cone of almonds, and noticed that Arlene was now looking at him expectantly. Hesitantly, Lea continued with “I definitely know that I can’t leave you two alone, you’d be hopeless without me.” He tried to joke, but failed to get a laugh out of either of his friends. Rubbing his head in embarrassment, he pressed on with, “So, I’d probably just stay here for a while. Really, the only thing I’ve ever strived for was to survive every day, so I haven’t really given much thought about my future.” He said earnestly. Isa, in response, raised a questioning eyebrow. “Is that so? Well, I have to say I’m a little disappointed.”

 

Lea scoffed in retaliation, a usual response when he didn’t have a decent comeback. “Well… I wasn’t trying to impress you with my life-story, anyways.” Isa looked down at the un-opened cone he still held in his lap. “Well, I’ve always known what I’ve wanted to do with my life.”

 

Both Lea and Arlene looked over at him expectantly, their eyes laden with curiosity. “And what would that be?” Lea asked for them both.

 

Isa sighed at the question, almost as if some kind of weight had been lifted from his chest. “I hate being useless; I hate it with a passion. But I hate pretending to be useful even more.” He looked over at his friends. “I’m going to make a difference in this world. I don’t care what, and I don’t care how. I’ll give up everything, sacrifice anything if I have to. But something needs to change, and I’m going to change it.” The only response his friends could offer was a look of confusion and surprise, as they turned away to mewl over what he had said.

 

Isa looked down at his watch, and frowned. “I have to go, my dad will be expecting me back.” He deftly stood, leaving the still puzzled Arlene and Lea to their thoughts. In a swift motion, he offered his cone of Pecans to Arlene. “You need these more than I do.” She looked up at him, a little surprised, but still offered a smile of gratitude. She nodded in response, and happily accepted the cone.

 

“Alright, I guess I’ll be seeing you two.” He said, offering one last wave to them both before turning to leave. Lea, still sitting pensively, suddenly stood and turned towards Isa. “Wait,” he said, prompting the blue-haired boy to turn and face him, his eyebrow arched in a questioning glance.

 

Lea was silent for a moment, as if he was trying to gather his words. “Isa… why did you ask me to be your friend? I just… I just never understood you.” If Isa was surprised by the question, he certainly didn’t show it. He turned his gaze away from Lea, and closed his eyes in thought. “Well, I suppose you could say I did it on a whim, or maybe that I did it for no particular reason at all.” He replied.

 

“Maybe I felt sorry for you, or maybe you struck me as someone who would make a good friend. To be perfectly honest, I don’t really know myself.” Isa chuckled to himself. “Isn’t it strange? At times, we may do things that completely defy reason or explanation, simply because we desire something in a way we can’t explain. We think we understand ourselves, but when the moment comes that our heart speaks for us, we can be entirely different people.” Isa glanced back at Lea and Arlene, both of whom were still staring at him intently. “At the very least, I can say I don’t regret my decision.” He smiled. “And that’s from the heart.”

 

“I’ll see you tomorrow, guys.” He waved at them both one last time, before finally walking off and disappearing from behind the bend of the alley’s corner. Lea and Arlene looked at each-other, before turning away in exasperation. “You think we’ll ever really get that guy?” Lea huffed. Arlene shook her head in response, but Lea didn’t need to see the gesture to know her answer.

 

Lea collapsed to a sitting position beside Arlene once again, as the two finished the nuts that Isa had brought them in silence. Once Lea was done with his, he looked up at the shadow’ the sun cast over him and his friend. One of the little traits he had picked up in all his time improvising on the streets was his ability to “sort-of” guess the time based on the position of shadows during the day. By his estimate, it was roughly a few hours after noon.

 

He turned back to Arlene, who had finished her first cone, and was now staring pensively at the one that Isa had given her, almost as if she was unsure whether or not to open it. “Hey, Arlene,” Lea began, as she turned to look at him. “I’m gonna be heading back into the second ring. I’ll… I’ll probably be gone for a little longer this time.” Her expression fell at his words, even though she tried to hide her sadness.

 

“But don’t worry,” he said. “Isa will take care of you, we can trust him.” While Lea was reluctant to leave Arlene’s safety in anyone else’s hands, Isa was the only other person that he could realistically trust her with. Arlene nodded at him, and smiled to try and assure Lea that she would be okay.

 

He smiled back at her, and slowly began to rise to his feet. “Isa was right about one thing,” he said. “There’s someone out there who can help you. And no matter what happens, no matter what I have to do, I’m going to find that person.” Lea knelt down, and looked her in the eyes. “I mean, if you can’t trust him, than at least you can trust me, right?” Arlene stared at him blankly, before her weary eyes brightened and her limp expression grew into a wide smile. He returned her grin, and offered his hand to her. Timidly, she reached out, as her mouth began to move and words she thought she’d never use again finally began to breathe.

 

“L-L… L-Lea…” She muttered shakily, almost as if her very words were frozen to the core. “T-Th-th…”

 

“Th… Thank… You.”

 

And her tears refused to fall.