This is based on a dream I had. It's pretty much exactly the same as the dream, so I can't really take credit. Then again, I haven't read it in a long time, so I don't even know if it's worth taking credit for anyway. But still... it might be good. Enjoy!
WHEN I WAKE
I had tried to climb over the rubble and wreckage, but that was when I'd stumbled, and fallen over broken alabaster for about twenty feet.
I couldn't understand. What on earth had happened? Where was everyone? Had the world come to an end?
I looked around me, and saw death. It wasn't that I could see it, really. I just felt it. And yet, I saw no bodies. I saw, in fact, no one, dead or alive. I saw my palace, the wonder of the world, a one hundred story dynasty come to ruin.
Now nothing but a mountain of broken stone.
The enormous waterfall before me was, thank goodness, still flowing. But it chilled me to my soul as I realized there was no noise coming from it.
There was no noise coming from anything.
"They are all dead, I suppose."
I swung around, ready for danger. I looked the man over, though, and he seemed alright. Not someone I would previously have trusted, for he was rough around the edges, but certainly, I thought, someone I could trust now. Mankind isn't trustworthy, but surely when no one else exists, two very different people could get along.
I spoke to him. "What has happened?"
He looked over the expanse of deadness, of fallen buildings, of the withering forest, and of the waterfall that seemed to fall in slow motion, making no sound.
"I was asleep, I supposed. I was very much hoping you could tell me what happened."
"I was asleep, as well. What could have happened so suddenly and silently as to not even wake us?"
"I surely couldn't say."
"Where can my husband be?"
He looked at me curiously, and suddenly realized.
"You are Princess Rhima."
"Yes," I said, looking down. "Yes, I was."
I was recently married to Prince Kard. He had loved me, and I had been obligated. He was a good man, and a good ruler.
He was now dead.
I looked at the palace that everyone had thought would last forever. Princess, yes. None of that mattered. I looked at the man next to me and realized that it would never matter again.
"My name is Kron," he offered.
"And are we the last?" I said, suddenly terrified.
"I have been roaming for three hours. You are the first living soul I have seen. Not an animal, not a plant, nothing. Nothing survives."
I wanted to cry. More than anything, I felt obligated to cry for the world I had once known that was now gone forever. I couldn't seem to, even as a matter of ceremony. The sorrow seemed too deep, even for the most violent weeping. All I could really do was what my companion Kron was doing.
Nothing.
"What are we supposed to do, now?"
"There must be others," he said, solidly. "We can't be the only two."
I looked closely at him, for the first time.
He was descended of the Orient, I realized, though it was hard to tell through the long beard and mustache. His hair was down to his waist, and looked as though it had been dyed grey. How curious. He stood a little taller than I, and had muscular features.
He was a warrior, I figured, and of the sort so good that he didn't have to display it. He hid his deadly talents. He, in fact, seemed to hide everything. I had never seen such a face. It was handsome, to be sure, but it revealed nothing. It barely revealed life. His eyes were beautiful and blue, but cold as a river.
He could have killed anyone by looking at them, and seemed to wish me no harm. I should have felt safe with him, but found that I didn't. He terrified me.
He motioned for me to follow him.
"I'm going towards Asilaia to look for life. You should follow me. We may very well be the last of our race."
We traveled for hours, saying very very little. He didn't seem eager to talk, and I was contemplating, and at the sane time concentrating very hard on not thinking.
Asylaia. I was reluctant to revisit it.
Asylaia was the largest city in the world. It was made up of the most advanced technology, and the costliest materials. It was teeming with merchants, upperclassmen, nobles, dukes, shieks, and rajahs. It was also teeming with bars, casinos, dark alleys, unchecked crime, commoners, poverty, scoundrels, miscreants, thieves, ruffians, and all that goes along with them.
I had always hated it. It was too busy, loud and crowded. The real places were nasty and perverted, and the tourist areas were fake.
However, Kron was correct. If anyone still lived, as we and we alone seemed to, it would be in the dark alleys of Asylaia.
Our journey ran into the nighttime hours, and Kron built a fire that seemed to slither in slow motion, and made not a sound. I laid my head on the cold ground, wondering if I would ever see another human face again but his. I knew that I would never see my husband again. I had been extremely fond of him. We used to sit on the meadow behind the West Courtyard watching the sun go down, dreaming of the morning. I would never again watch the sun go down with him.
I closed my eyes, hoping for sleep. “Things will be better when I wake.”
I woke up early. It was as if I had never gone to sleep.
“We have to make it there before the gates close,” I said to Kron.
“I doubt anyone will be closing the gates.”
We began our journey once again.
But we were interrupted.
I had no time to be overjoyed in discovering that we were not, in fact, the only living beings left on earth. They jumped out at us from up on a cliff, falling like birds of prey on us, screeching with ecstasy.
Kron reacted in a split second, but did not resist them for long. There were eight or nine of them, and for him not to fight… I deemed they must have been very good.
They had Kron surrounded, and I was being held by a laughing one, as I was obviously not dangerous. If they but knew who I was… but no. I no longer had a single coin to offer, nothing fine but the nightgown I now wore. There was a jeweled dagger I always kept beneath my pillow, but it was gone now, like everything else.
A leader emerged, jumping gloriously from the great height. He was smiling triumphantly, and yet, also benevolently, as if he, as well as being a scoundrel and a miscreant, was also a gentleman.
“And what have we?” he put his hands on his armored hips.
I looked him over with fascination. He was asian, with long flowing hair and a heavy looking helmet that came to a point. His eyes were piercing.
He motioned for Kron to be let go, and Kron strode over to him.
“What do you want?”
The asian man lifted his head. “What can you give me, son?”
His father?
“I am not going to give you anything! You never listen, do you? I told you… I told you years ago—“
“Oh, Kron. You cannot run anymore.”
“At least I’m running toward something.”
There was a pause, with them just staring at eachother fiercely.
I spoke up, elbowing my captor. “Let him go!”
Kron’s father walked over to me, taking my chin in his hand.
“And who are you?”
I hesitated. “…Rhima. My name is Rhima.”
“Princess Rhima?” he looked to his men, who seemed mildly impressed. He turned back to me, speaking smoothly. “And what has brought you so far from your palace unattended? And what has induced you to join party with my reckless son?”
“Surely you know?” I said.
He nodded.
“My name is Khrimson.”
“Very pleased to meet you.”
He laughed, looking at his men, and then to Kron. “You see, Kron? Smart. Wise. Polite civility is always an option, and you would do well to take note. This girl you have is the smartest thing you’ve ever done.”
“What do you want, father?”
“What, as I see very plainly, you are not yet ready to give me.” He darted his eyes toward his men. “Kashag, Elmont.”
And I watched helplessly in horror and confusion as they took hold of Kron… and shaved him, hair and beard. He was taking it rather well, I thought, but, my goodness! What gross incivility, what demented savageness! And, for all else, how weird.
Khrimson took my hand, and kissed it. “Lovely meeting. Lovely.”
And, soon as they’d come, they left.
How eccentric!
Kron said nothing in explanation. To be honest, I don’t think I wanted to know. Not because I thought it would be too terrible, simply because I plain and simply didn’t want to know. Some strange asiatic custom, perhaps. Whatever it was, I would never see those men again. I knew that, somehow.
We traveled on, and finally reached Asylaia at around dusk.
It was the most depressing, terrible sight I think I’d ever seen. Somehow worse than my palace, and I didn’t know why. It was dark, and the dilapitated buildings were illuminated by streetlamps that streaked imperfect light on a less than imperfect city. It was deserted. It was terrible.
“Come with me,” said Kron.
“Where?”
“To the Bergeron Inn. In any disaster, that is where the lower class go.”
I didn’t argue, for I hadn’t been in the lower class for years, and never was so very familiar with Asylaia anyway. I realized I almost trusted Kron by now, if for no other reason than because he was in bad graces with untrustworthy people.
We found the darklit Bergeron. Sure enough, there were darkly clothed, shady characters in every corner. Shady or not, I was glad they were still on the earth, and not just me. A youngish girl approached us. She was clothed rather gothicly, and had a tray of drinks in her hand and a blanket folded over one arm.
“Sshetcy donh bwvenhuvaye?”
“English, please. English,” said Kron.
She switched instantly. “We don’t have any rooms, sorry. We’re using them all for food storage. Everyone’s been sleeping in here, as you can see. Care for a drink? Supper? We certainly don’t have a food shortage, that’s certain.”
“Do you know what happened?” I asked, admittedly sounding rather pathetic.
“Heck, I don’t know.” She shrugged.
“What went on here?” Kron asked.
“Hey, I don’t know, ‘kay? I woke up, and I wasn’t even in bed; it was like I had been sleepwalking or something. Most are dead. Assumed dead, at least. We can’t find ninety-seven percent of anyone. The city was a wreck. Well, it… still is, as you can plainly see.”
“This is a nightmare,” I said, shaking my head.
“Yeah,” the girl said. “Yeah, it is.”
We sat down at a table and had supper. We spoke with some of the refugees. None of them had much of a different story than ours. I couldn’t account for it. It was all simply mystifying.
In the end of it, when we were given blankets and a spot on the floor, I felt nothing but dismal. Had anyone not suffered from this?
“I’m sorry,” said Kron, and it surprised me. It was honestly the most humanly compassionate thing he had said to me.
“So am I,” I answered. “You must have lost loved ones as well.”
“Yes,” he said, thoughtfully. “Long ago.”
“What will we do?”
“Start again.”
I yawned, and closed my eyes. “Things will be better in the morning.”
I stood on the highway, watching as a man in black with a seering smile approached me. He had a dagger in his hand, and evil in his eyes, but I was not afraid.
I closed my eyes, and realized they were already closed.
“Things will be better,” I said, relaxing. “Things will be better when I wake.”
