Tales From The Kronos

Neige and Sepide walked into the hospital, or so they thought. To their surprise, they ended up in a city made of paper and plastic. Neige recognized one of the houses, it looked exactly like the one where he found Silva just in a better state than when he first found it.

"Silva, such a poor soul." Said a voice sounding exactly like Silv, coming from the sky "When she was born, her parents were in shock! She was blind! What did they do to deserve such a burden? They'll have to take care of a disabled child."

Neige headed toward the house, his shaking hand was on the handle for a moment until he finally dared to open the door, afraid to see what would lie behind.

Three characters made of paper were in the room. One of them was exactly like Silva, while the other were her parents. She looked very young, around eight years old maybe.

"Papa, Mama, I need more red paint."

"Why do you need it? You can't see the colors..." The father said with an impatient voice.

"But Papa, the harmony, it's such a beautiful thing!"

"Your father is right, if you want something, work for it."

"But Mama, how do I do that?"

The girl argued with her parents for a while until the father slapped his daughter violently.

"Never argue back Silva."

"Yes Papa... Can I go play outside?"

"So you can get in trouble? What will happen if a car hits you?"

"But I'll be careful..."

"Silva, what did I say about arguing?"

Silva's figure stepped back and shyly answered to her father.

"Sorry Papa..."

The girl went inside her room. Once Neige made sure she did, he punched the paper figures without holding back.

"Hey, don't break my craft!" Yelled the voice from the sky.

"You better give Silva back, or else pieces of paper won't be the only things I break!"

The voice stayed silent at Neige's threat while Sepide went inside Silva's room. Her friend quickly followed her inside to find the little Silva in the center of it. A red liquid was falling down from her wrist, she used it to paint on a piece of paper that she glued to her wall.

"It hurts... But it's alright... At least I can..."

Silva fell unconscious on the floor. Neige went inside to catch her but the room suddenly caught fire before he could. The smoke burned their lungs, forcing them to go out of the room. The figure of Silva and her parents were now in the living room. She looked older, maybe around twelve. Her father was holding a ruler in his hand and hit her wrist. He seemed to purposefully hit the place where she harmed herself, forcing her face to contort in pain.

"You useless brat, can't even do anything by herself."

Despite the pain, Silva's eyes were empty. She accepted her punishment without thinking. Her parents saw how ineffective it became and searched for a better way to punish her.

"You have some weird things drawn in your room, is that what you paint?"

"Yes, father..."

"You enjoy them?"

"Yes, father..."

The man had a sinister grin on his face and put his ruler down before taking his lighter on the table.

"I'm going to burn half of it, if you ever disobey, I burn the rest."

"What? No, you can't!"

Silva suddenly reacted with despair in her eyes, finally satisfying her parents.

"Should have thought about it before."

Her father walked toward her room but Silva pushed him back. Her parents looked at her in horror while Silva was petrified by her own actions.

"Silva Nilla, what did you just do?"

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to!" Silva took the ruler from the table and handed it to her parents with tears in her eyes "Please punish me, please humiliate me, please treat me like I deserve to be treated but don't burn my art... It's all I have!"

Her father took her arm forcefully and led her outside with rage on his face.

"I'm going to make sure you don't ever see your art again."

He threw his daughter inside the bunker that was lying outside. They kept it in case of nuclear warfare but never used it. They figured it was the best place to keep Silva until she calmed down.

"You're going to stay here for a week! We'll see if you still keep behaving like that!"

Neige and Sepide went into the bunker before Silva's father closed it. The dust flying in the air made it hard to breathe. The voice from above spoke again, taking a falsely sad voice.

"Poor girl, she was supposed to stay a week but I guess her parent forgot her for four years... Don't worry though, even Silva agrees with her punishment."

Silva was standing in front of the door of the bunker, touching the hard cold steel it was made of.

"Please... Just punish me..."

"Alas, no one punished her." The voice continued with her sarcastic tone "Imagine spending your sixteenth birthday in a bunker, how sad. By the way Neige, you already came here right? You saved her after all. Do you remember why her world ended?"

Neige searched in his old memories. It wasn't easy since the leader mentioned it once after they came back from this world. The dot suddenly connected when he saw the bunker they were in and realized what happened.

"A sudden war. A nuclear attack from a country led to another."

"Good boy! You deserve a sugar cube! Or maybe it's good girl in your case?" Mockingly asked the voice, infuriating Neige even more.

"Do you ever shut-"

Neige was interrupted by the sounds of knocks on the door. They seemed panicked and in a hurry, yelling Silva's name.

"Silva? Our love? Can you open the door?"

Silva woke up from the ground she was sleeping on. She barely had the energy to even come to them but managed to speak up.

"Father..? What is it..."

"Silva, there's no need to explain! You have to open!"

"But... It's my punishment..."

"You're not punished anymore, you can open. If we stay outside we'll die, and you don't want your loving parents to die, right?"

The voice from her father was getting more desperate. Silva lifelessly blew from her nose and continued speaking with an empty voice.

"I'll open..."

"Really? I love you Silva!"

"... If you beg..."

Silva's parents stayed silent at the words from their daughter. They seemed to hesitate for a while until her father started talking.

"I beg of you Silva, I'm sorry for what I did. We were horrible to you but it will change, we'll get you all the paint in the world we promise!"

"Why are you apologizing? Say it out loud..."

Silva's father appeared to be scared of the cold words that her daughter uttered but still went with her demands.

"I apologize because... We were horrible parents and you didn't deserve any of that!"

Silva stayed silent for a moment. A vicious grin appeared on her face as she talk in a smug and cold voice.

"It felt good... I hope you'll die slowly..."

"Silva? What did you just say?"

The girl returned to sleep, ignoring the demands from her parents.

"Silva! I knew you were a bad child! We had no intention of keeping you anyway, you probably ate most of the food there! We would have thrown you outside anyway!"

Her eyes closed slowly, getting all the sleep she wanted. Neige and Sepide looked at Silva with while the voice from the sky came again.

"How horrible! She killed her parents! But you're friends, right? You'll still accept her I imagine."

"Of course." Answered Neige without any hesitation "I know her for long enough to know that she has a great heart. It's not her fault if she had a horrible life!"

"He's right!" Agreed Sepide "She's a great friend and doesn't deserve what happened to her!"

"Fucking friends." The voice muttered to herself "Why can't I ever make them stop?"

Silv stopped talking, leaving the scene silent. Silva opened the door of her bunker. A few days seemed to have passed since her parent came to her. When she took a step outside she stumbled on the body of her parents. She softly clenched her fist and got down to take them both in her arms with tears in her eyes.

"I wanted to love you... Papa... Mama..."

The scene stopped, leaving Neige and Sepide in a white and clear room.

"So, did that make you like me more?" Said Silv trying to imitate Silva.

"Like you more? You're the worst person on earth. Even the anomaly is better than you. You resort to cheap tactics!" Neige angrily said to Silv's voice.

"Yeah, you're horrible! Using Silva's past to make us hate her won't work!"

"Actually I'm satisfied, you can leave."

"Wha-"

A bright light blinded Neige and Sepide. When they were able to open their eyes again they were outside of the hospital, where Lucie was already. She ran toward them and asked them almost instantly.

"Where are Silv and your friend?"

Neige looked at the hospital behind them with an uncomfortable feeling in his chest.

"Silva... I hope you're alright."