Escape - Chapter 23.1
Chapter 23.1
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[Damian – Side Story]
Everyone has one. An annoying, same-aged next-door neighbor they’re inextricably linked to. For me, it was Adeline.
“Hey, are you that wannabe guard?”
Bang, bang. I remember the fourteen-year-old girl who barged in after abruptly knocking on my door, hands on her hips, yelling.
“Who are you?”
“Your destined rival.”
“What?”
“You’re my rival. Starting today.”
Her brown hair, which flowed softly down to her waist, her round, cute eyes in her snow-white face… One peaceful Sunday afternoon, the girl who’d just moved in next door arbitrarily declared herself my destined rival. That was my first encounter with Adeline.
“Damian, come out! Let’s have a shooting match!”
“Get lost.”
“Oh. Are you scared you’ll lose? Are you running away?”
“Just consider yourself the winner.”
Her dream was to become the captain of the Guard, also known as the Watchers. And that was the reason she kept following me around. To get a higher score than me in the virtual training.
“Ugh, why are you so good? Where did you learn?”
“My parents.”
“Huh? Wait, were your parents in the Guard?”
“Yeah.”
“…The world is so unfair.”
At the time, I received a pretty high score in the Serpiente virtual combat training, but it was simply due to the influence of my parents, who had been in the Guard. Irresponsible parents who were dispatched ‘outside’ and died. Unaware of that, or perhaps aware, the girl who played pew pew with a toy gun behind the classroom, not even knowing what the Guard was, pestered me relentlessly every single day.
“I’m gonna be the strooooongest Guard member.”
“Whatever.”
“I’ll make you my subordinate later.”
“Don’t need it.”
“Aw, playing hard to get again.”
She was a ridiculously persistent girl, like a wall that wouldn’t budge no matter how much you pushed against it. Same age. Next-door neighbors. Same school. Same class. Despite my attempts to deny it, these commonalities were undeniable, and she effortlessly crossed the walls I built, under the guise of ‘next-door friend.’
Yes, perhaps Adeline could have remained just another childhood friend. If it hadn’t been for the anniversary of my parents’ death, which came around a year later.
On that anniversary, I was terribly ill. My whole body burned with fever, and I was plagued by nightmares throughout the night. I was too sick to even go to the charnel house, but it didn’t really matter since my parents weren’t actually in that box of ashes anyway. I was utterly alone. So, I ran away without a second thought. I didn’t even have the energy to actively flee, so I simply buried myself in the darkness. I didn’t take any medicine because no one would care even if I died like this.
However, on that day, my judgment proved wrong. It seemed there was at least one person in the world who cared about me. And that person persistently banged on my door until I woke from my nightmare.
“Hey, why didn’t you tell me?”
That was the first thing she said, her eyes bloodshot, as I opened the door, my body heavy with exhaustion. Adeline, who had come all the way to my house after I didn’t show up at school, looked dejected as she questioned me.
“I’m the only one who looks clueless. All those times I talked about my parents, about the Guard, why didn’t you just smack me and tell me?”
She was funny. She was angry that I hadn’t hit her. Then she came in and forced me to eat the awful porridge she made and gave me medicine. The porridge tasted horrible.
“Whoa, look at you burning up! Hey, lie down! I’ll do the dishes too!”
She stayed with me all day. Even when I told her to leave, she wouldn’t. She even read me a story while I was tossing and turning from the fever. It was ridiculous. Who did she think was the child?
The book was about a girl who followed a rabbit into a strange land. She said it was her favorite fairy tale. It was absurd that she was reading her favorite fairy tale to me, supposedly for my benefit.
“Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?”
“That depends a good deal on where you want to get to.”
“I don’t much care where—”
“Then it doesn’t matter which way you go.”
Alice added as an explanation.
“—so long as I get *somewhere*.”
“Oh, you’re sure to do that,” said the Cat, “if you only walk long enough.”
It was a stupid story. Yet, why did it feel so comforting? Perhaps I, too, was lost.
I fell asleep without realizing it and woke up just before lights-out. I still vividly remember the shock of seeing her, the girl I assumed would have gone home, sitting by my bed.
