This is an entry for the "Amore Tank your Hearts" Contest. This writing will be for the non-comedy category.
He could hear her tears.
That soft, quiet sobbing, muffled through a wall. It wasn't hard, the walls were thin and Trensk knew better. He knew what to look and hear for. It was going to be hard on her, losing her parents. Trensk knew how that was. Nobody is as tough as they look. They're like hardened steel, durable as hell, but can shatter so, so quickly, and Elizabeth....she was just like any other in that regard. She just hid it a little better.
He stood up, swinging his legs over the edge of his bed and shifting his weight, silently ascending from his prone state, like a ghost of times long past. Trensk wasn't sure what he was going to tell her. She wasn't going to say anything at first, that's for sure. But he had to say something. That was just what he needed to do. He wished he had heard something earlier in his life, so he wasn't about to just let this chance to help her go. That was one bad thing about himself, he just couldn't let things be. That just wasn't in his nature. He hated it.
Elizabeth was only next door to him, so it was only a few of his long strides before he would reach her. He moved like a spirit, quietly opening his door and moving to hers.
He paused.
A deep breath.
Go.
He opened her door quietly, her sobs and snuffles being choked silent in an instant. A good actor, she was. He padded over to her bedside, grabbing her desk chair and pulling it along with him. He saw the shock of red hair, flared out over the bed, the only part of her sticking out over the mass of sheets she was cocooned in. Trensk could just barely see her face, a flushed cheek and a single closed eye all he could discern in the low light of the room. He slowly sank into the chair, facing her prone form, coming to rest with a sigh, leaning on his knees. He hung his head, slowly breathing, thinking of something, anything to say. Elizabeth just couldn't be let be. She needed to hear something. He know he did.
"You...You miss them, don't you?"
No response.
"I...You know I was close to them too. I know what you're dealing with more than you realize."
Nothing.
"I...Lost my parents too. My dad, long time ago. He's MIA on some godforsaken world the State sent him on an op to. Momma...Momma died fighting Blood Raiders to capture that bastard Karsoth. That's the hardest one, my momma. She raised me, taught me, showed me the world, and was the scariest damn Admiral the Khanid Navy ever had. I thought she was invincible...She obviously wasn't. It scared me, man. Scared me good. Enough to send me to the State and join the Navy to try and get myself killed in some battle somewhere so I wouldn't have to deal with it...And I wasn't any older than you, girl. I really wasn't."
She shifted at that. He could barely just see one of her ice-blue eyes peeking out at him through her hair. At least she was listening.
"I faked my age and a degree so I could get a commission as a fighter pilot. I was reckless, I was dangerous, I was an asshole, girl. I was the worst scum on the face of the cluster. I got drunk to not be depressed, I fucked everything female in sight, and I just...I was destroying myself..."
Elizabeth shifted around.
"But, y'know what? I met some people. I met your parents. Your mother...she was like my older sister. Always took care of me. Cleaned me up after bar-fights, yelled some sense into me. So caring, but, damn she was scary. And your father? Jovial old bro, always knocked my ass out if I got to be too much trouble. They cleaned me up. Helped me get somewhat normal. They did a lot for me. Helped me be human again. I had a lot more time to think properly when I wasn't drunk off my ass. And...well, I grew up. I realized a few things. And y'know what? You can thank your parents for that."
She finally brushed the hair out of her face, sitting up slowly on the bed. Finally, a response.
"It hurts, Trensk...They're not here...they'll never be here again..."
"They're here. Lizza, they never left you."
"How?"
He sighed. "While I was thinking, I figured something out. Capsuleers just came around, and immortality was a huge thing then. But I had already thought of true immortality."
"And?"
"And...True immortality isn't through some cybernetics. It's through love."
"Love?"
"Love."
"How?"
"Well, when you love someone, it leaves a mark on the soul, on the spirit. It influences everything around you. Love makes you realize what's gone. Love makes you realize what's there. Without love, you'd never remember your parents. But you do, and your parent's love is with you too. Their love for you never leaves you, Elizabeth. They cared for you so much, in life and beyond, and that'll always stay. Without love, you wouldn't remember them, and without love, they'd fade away into nothing. They'd just...poof. Gone. But they're not. They're still with you. It took me years to realize that. Years too long. I don't want you to suffer like I did before I learned that. My parent's aren't gone. They're still with me. And so are yours."
She just stared at him.
"Without the love of your parents, I would've self-destructed at 18 and died in some godforsaken fireball, or died of alcohol poisioning, or murdered. Without their love, I wouldn't be here. And without the love of my own parents, I wouldn't be the person I was. And you, Lizza, without your parent's love, you would probably be lost to time forever, just another nameless orphan in the State. Without their love, you wouldn't be so goddamn intelligent, your desires and motivations stoked and encouraged. You wouldn't have grown. And you wouldn't be strong. Their love of you is your fuel, girl, remember that."
Silence. But then...
"Trensk?"
"Yeah?"
"Thanks. I just...I know I don't say much. I'm scared to. And I know you're not too good at talking, either-" he frowned at that. "-but I know that I should at least thank you properly...I was just...dropped on your doorstep one day, and you had to deal with me...but...You've done so much for me...so..Thank you. Seriously."
Trensk smiled softly. "No problem, Lizza...Now go back to sleep, you have school in the morning, you nut."
A visible roll of her eyes preceded a plop back into her previous lying position. "Night, Trensk."
He smiled as he exited. "Night, Elizabeth."
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Topic: Immortality (An Entry for the Amore Tank Your Hearts Contest) (Read 711 times)