Excerpt: Until Her Heart Stops

Chapter 13: Colors

If you can't see a blue sky, open up your blue umbrella. Isn't that great? The canvas is yours. A white flag is only raised when one has given up. But now let it be crimson. Like the beckoning matador.

If you say you can only paint
Dreamless pictures
How many times must I paint over the canvas?
A white flag is only raised
When you've given up
I'm a color you don't know now.

Hikaru Utada -- "Colors"

"Oh, I know already, Tristan. Because my mom is going to be there waiting for us to come in the house. If I know my mother, she had went out and bought you all new outfits and everything. New white outfits." Did she just say new white outfits? Yes! I knew someone in this place had to of wanted to help me out. Kyung Mi disappeared within the rainbow pool and I stepped into it too. I couldn't get the souls' song out of my head. I kept thinking of what they had wanted me to do. They had wanted me to paint the stars in the sky. I didn't know whether I should have taken that literally or metaphorically. What would I paint it with...? I wanted to help them out just like Kyung Mi did... I started riding the euphoric mist. We all made it through safe and sound, and now we were in in the backyard.

The lights were all shut off and I practically ran towards the back door and swung it open. Kyung Mi was right. Her mother was standing at the door practically waiting for us. She had four sets of clothes folded on the glass table.

“You guys better hurry,” her mother said, pointing out of the door. “Kyung Mi, I don't think you have time to... get clean like you've wanted to.” She had to force that 'clean' out of her mouth.

“What's the rush?” I said, not moving towards my clothes. Elon pulled his white t-shirt off with no hesitation, which made Kyung Mi wave her hands in front of her and she blushed. Like, she really turned red.

“Stop that, Elon! For the good that is everything walk into the living room and do that, jeez!” Elon looked at Kyung Mi causally and put his new clean shirt on.

“Jeez, she acts like I took off my pants or something, which I was gonna do anyway...”
“NO!” Kyung Mi, Fei and I yelled at the same time. I looked towards her mother, who looked a little unsure of something. I walked towards my stack of clothes and sweatdropped hard.

“How... Nice. These are the same exact clothes that I'm wearing... Except... They're in white...” I tried to laugh, but this wasn't really funny. “Do they glow too, like this outfit?”

“Of course they do,” Ae Cha said. “I've perfected the way of sowing. I guessed you all's sizes and it seems that I've got them right.” Wow. She was good. I thought Kyung Mi said that her mother bought all of these clothes. “They're all the same things as what you've been wearing, only they're in solid white. I figured that would make it harder for you guys to stick out inside of Ethereal.” Without any of us knowing, Kyung Mi and Fei managed to sneak past us and change their clothes in more “private” areas. Elon just thought that was good for him and put his white jeans on and eventually put his white sneakers on. He stuffed his old clothes inside of his new white bag and threw the old one in the trash can. Next thing I know, this huge explosion nearly knocked my off my feat. I had stumbled a bit, but Elon and Ae Cha kept their balance like they were use to stuff going off like that.

“The hell was that?” Elon began. He looked sharp in white. “That sounded like Gale's cannons going off. Damn that was a loud explosion The kids outside can get in trouble for causing something that loud and disturbing the peace like that, can't they?” Elon leisurely walked towards her refrigerator and pulled out an apple juice box. He was scarfing it down, and I thought he was going to be done with it in two seconds.

“That was Gale's cannons going off,” Ae Cha said grimly. Elon spit his apple juice out of his mouth. That's a funny thing too, because the apple juice he spit out—soul in it and all—landed on me!

“Elon!” I exclaimed. Now I really needed to change. The outfit I had been wearing did go through a lot of abuse. Elon looked at me with widened eyes.

“Why would Gale be shooting their cannons...?” Elon asked himself. “Unless...”

“Yes, Elon, while you guys were in the tent, there was the report of a winged C'la vie running around Ethereal. They haven't ID'd her yet, but she's killed a lot of students going to Ethereal. She even managed to get into the city's wiring and she's blowing up the academy from the outside. Is that the woman you guys are looking for? Is that...” her voice cracked. “Maylea?” Elon and I looked at each other.

“You go find Kyung Mi and Fei, now!” I ordered. Elon ran out of the kitchen. I furiously took off my shirt and put on the new white one. Ae Cha just looked at me and she knew that I was frantic. I can't believe I was actually changing in front of a woman right now, but all I was focused on was saving Maylea. What the hell was her problem? She was killing innocent people! She was sending them to that place! I couldn't bare the thought of Maylea being a cold blooded killer.

“What are you planing on doing now, Tristan?” I pulled up my pants, and gave her a serious look. I didn't really know what I wanted to do. There was another explosion, but it couldn't shake me up. I ran towards the threshold of the kitchen and looked over my shoulder.

“I'm going to save her! That can't be Maylea you're talking about! It just can't be!” I turned around, and the others were looking at me, just as confused as I was. Kyung Mi didn't even know Maylea, and she knew that something was wrong with this picture. Okay, I'd admit it. I was in love with Maylea. I was in love with the old Maylea that had saved me from everything I ran into. That was the Maylea that I wanted to spend my Afterlife with. I'd trade everything for that, and now she was running around and killing people? For what? What justice was that?! They could see the frustration in my face, and then suddenly Kyung Mi put her hand out.

“I'm not that much of a fighter,” she began. “But guys... promise me that we'll all come out alive in this one, okay? I've never fought someone from the academy before... A Guardian Angel in general... I'm scared. But I know I can do this...” Her hand started trembling as her voice started cracking. “I'm trying... I'm trying to learn how to smile when I'm sad so I don't make other people sad... Is it working Tristan? I'm I... doing a good job of it?” she paused, lucid tears sliding down her face. Her smile was unsteady, but there was something in her eyes that wanted to prove to me that she was okay.

What could I tell her? She was obviously hurting... and it was clearly visible for everyone to see. I bit my lip, my own eyes tearing up. I hated seeing other people cry, especially girls. But what I hated more was the fact that she was crying and didn't even know half of the story herself. She wasn't crying because she just decided to cry. This went deeper than Maylea and those souls back in that place we slept in. She was hurting on the inside, and it was an eternal hurt. Did I really want her to come into battle with us? I put my hand on top of her hand, holding back my tears. Her hand was cold to the touch and it wouldn't stop shaking...

“Kyung Mi, I'm sure you do fine,” I whispered. It was all I could do. If I told her she couldn't come with us, I'm not sure what she might have done. “I promise to come back here unharmed...” Elon put his hand over mine, glancing the other way like he couldn't feel anything. I tapped his left pistol with his left hand.

“I'm in. I'll win, guarantee. I don't plan on being beaten by one of them. I am one of them. One of the best, and I'll show them what happens when they betray me.” He glanced at Kyung Mi, who had tears streaming down her face. “Don't worry kid, I'll protect you. No one will get to you as long as I'm still standing.” Kyung Mi nodded her head, her smile getting even more unsteady.

“Even soldiers cry,” Fei added, putting his hands amongst ours. “I entrust you three with my life. This old bag of bones have gone long distances without breaking or spilling out. Kyung Mi, you shouldn't be ashamed of crying. Everyone can be overcome with feelings and emotions in some point of their lives. I once learned from a writer that tears are the symbol of the inability of the soul to restrain its emotion and retain its self command. Tears show that you have a soul.” Oh man... Now I was crying a little bit. Having a soul was a good thing. I looked at everyone and lifted my hand in the air.