The Zero Countdown

Chapter 22: Dream

The serrated knife in his hands weighs heavily than his soul, forced of casting the life of a little girl who gained all the freedom in the world, yet imprisoned in the shackles of time that bounded her perception towards the value she could no longer see from being alive.

But even if Elyon's resolve is steeled in his core and his desire to win the game overrides his darkened heart, still, he couldn't bring to hurt Madela let alone stab him with a blade.

"I can't... No matter what your age had reached in the span of countless years, all I see before my very eyes is a lost girl who yearned for truth than a predefined repeating loop you never sought." Elyon can't deny he wavered in his resolution. His legs are trembling and his arms shake faster than his beating chest, wondering what he and the rest did to deserve such a spiteful end.

Except, little did he know that the hesitation he stubbornly retained was the one that save not only him but also the girl who lost her way. She hid the guilt in her eyes and explicitly grinned in a conspicuous manner, remembering the fateful past that changed her from halting the flow of time towards her alone.

"Heh... You truly are the man who is worthy of my death... But what can you do before me?!" Madela deftly drew out a pair of shears under her skirt, the same exact technique she learned from her mother.

And without delay, she stepped her left foot on the bed and the other toppled the table, to which she takes a leap towards him spilling the tea all over the mat.

Elyon instinctively ducked his head lower where Madela's shears aim at, briskly holding her wrist and pushing him away with everything he has.

However, he forgot that he's fighting a child and so she went flying over the shelves, heavy books fell over her head but a small bump won't hinder her decision to give it her all as well.

"No...!" Elyon was worried about her, although his apprehensions disappeared when she emerged and stood on her own supporting her posterior with her grip by the mirror protruding on the wall.

"You're more brave and strong than you think! Use that knife you have and fight me! I hate it when they underestimate me because I'm a child... I'll show them I can be whoever I want." Madela surpassed Elyon's stubbornness as she ran to him bearing the intent of slaughtering him.

Despite her battered state and disadvantaged fighting style of a nimble assassin, she confronts Elyon like a warrior putting her existence on the line.

She slipped past behind him but due to the small space in the room, Elyon somehow managed to evade Madela's strikes because of her small limp arms, and again, he gripped her wrist and threw her at the shelves in the corner, refusing to take away what is left of the girl who dreamt of tomorrow more than anyone else.

In the back of Elyon's mind, he once again faced the reality of an unfairly, unjust, and cruel world, for there he stood bullying a little girl who couldn't do anything other than disposing of what she become.

"Your silence means you're thinking this game is rigged and you view this situation as a child getting thrashed by a soulless adult, am I correct?" Madela wipes the blood dripping from her nostril. Her legs started wobbling, yet she still persisted in her cause.

"But why? Is there really no other way? I kept lying to myself that I can... And I'll remain weak and fool so whether you like it or not, I won't kill you, but I'll also keep myself alive!" Elyon never backs down on his word. He never wavered and instead, his goals have changed, persisting like how his adversary seeks the same.

"As I already said... Questions aren't gonna answer your problems! Only actions speak louder than the trumpet of the heavens. Take action, or else..."

Little Madela's well aware Elyon would never conform from her request, so she brought out her last card that shall twist the very entanglement of time she herself couldn't change.

"Is that...?!" Elyon could see a strange device in Madela's hands that has a red button on it. He had seen enough movies and fiction to inherently figure out what it was for.

"See this apparatus I have? Long story short, once I push the button, this entire place will blow up, incinerating the rest of us and most of all, repeating the cycle again until you never escape the loop of time forever... I who stand above the ages of time will be the victor, the rest of humanity becomes my prisoner below the heavens."

Madela was so desperate that she allegedly planted bombs all over the shop because she anticipated fighting back with her frailty could spell her downfall.

"You're bluffing. There's no way that's real. Stop this at once." Elyon stayed on his ground, deluding himself of the truth that her device doesn't work.

Of course, Madela laughs at how naive he can get and said, "Ha! You wanna find out? I'll start counting starting to ten... We'll play our own countdown here and I will eradicate us all at the mark of zero!"

"No, you can't. You'll also die along the way, breaking the distortion that you unleashed upon this accursed world." Elyon entered a state of adrenaline rush. His heart started beating fast, he's sweating buckets analyzing whether Madela was lying or she's serious in the conclusion she had chosen.

"Yes, I can. Now let's start with 10, 9, 8..." She's started her backward count, each second was like an ephemeral moment that synchronized with their breath.

"Cease this foolishness at once!" Elyon exclaimed, the little girl had no regrets.,

"The fate you so believe changes, this is what you chose, so 7, 6, 5..." Madela lowers her thumb finger on the device in her hand each time a second passes.

The fleeting moment lasted as if minutes for Elyon who's stuck in a dilemma between hypocrisy and justice. His chest burst forth wanting to escape his prison flesh. His mind is in a haze, a clouded perception blurry his decision that he eventually had to choose one conclusion for the girl who never deserves a fatal end.

As the remaining seconds expire, the twisted time crumbles from its core, leaving only the empty shell of what is left from the existence she had denied.

"3, 2, 1—"

Everything Madela has been keeping for unfolded in a blink of an eye, she has pushed the red button at the last count, along with the serrated knife stabbing right inside her heart, blood gushes out of her as Elyon pushes the blade deeper in hopes of ending her life as quickly as possible to free her from mortal suffering.

"You liar...! The bomb wasn't real, you forced me into committing this..." Elyon closes his eyes, he could hear the overflowing gore trickling like a surge of a river down a mountain.

"There is no other way... My fate of death is sealed the moment I took this power upon myself. So go onwards a future you seek and remember... Never regret, never hesitate... I thank you for everything that you did for me, Elyon." Madela's mouth started letting out the redness of her remaining seconds. She's cold and sad, her world slowly falls apart, destiny played her well.

"But I never did anything for you—"

Just as Elyon wails out the pain and grudge he has against the Unknown Entity, blaming the malevolent being that forced them inside a game, he suddenly felt as if the world turned upside-down.

The landscape was like a lucid dream he couldn't fathom until he realizes he encroaches a domain inside a reality that Madela once withstood.

From nothingness shines forth the illumination of truth, Elyon found himself standing in the same room, but this time, Madela isn't around except for her mother Saya, together with a man who should be her husband wearing his police uniform whilst waxing his hair in the mirror, preparing his presentability for his work.

However, Elyon notices Saya's belly is quite big as she rubs her hands on her tum, a genuine smile on her face could be seen traced—it was then he understood what's going on.

"I really can't wait to become a mother, my dream is finally coming true." Saya expresses what she feels. Her husband leans over and kissed her tummy, and then her forehead before arming himself with his equipment.

"And I'll be a father of our daughter too. I promise I'll protect you and her even if I have to sacrifice myself. That's the reason why I became police—to defend the people and my family." The man confidently declared that as long as he's by their side, no harm could befall them.

"I really love you dear!" They shared a long passionate embrace together, the husband left Saya so he can go to his station but then, she unexpectedly felt pain in her chest and later she held her belly out, and the moment she stoops to the bed, she knew it's already the time and yet she's still not prepared.

"Am I already giving birth?! No... I should call my husband and..."

However, the fleeting dream gradually dispersed like a fragile cloud, Elyon was sent to a different place but this time, he's in a hospital outside an emergency where Saya's being kept.

Her husband's sobbing near the ER's entrance. He's pathetically on the floor, keeping his legs on his chest thigh as his hands wrap around his knees, trembling for the small mistake that led to a bigger problem he couldn't change.

"I was seconds away from her... Why I didn't turn around before leaving Saya behind?!" He regretted his decisions to the point he started banging his head in the wall, to which luckily a doctor came out of the ER and prevented him from committing self-harm.

"Sir, sir! Hurting yourself won't do any good." The doctor implied.

Saya's husband came up in a jerk and pushed the doctor on the wall instead.

"What happened to my wife?! Tell me, is she fine?! Can Saya still be saved...?"

Not only did he see his wife unconscious on the floor when he came back home, but he's forced to accept that his first daughter is between Saya's legs, not moving or breathing like her mother.

"We have both good and bad news, sir..." The doctor slightly lowered his head, indicating the severity of what happened upon Saya.

"Just tell me everything! Please..." Saya's husband was so desperate he weep before the doctor about to deliver him the news.

In all of the events that led to such an immutable future, Elyon stayed strong, witnessing the origin of Madela with his open heart as he continues to venture into the clouded mystery of her past.