Chapter 59: [59] Funeral
It was said that Players received the saddest possible burials.
They were the champions of humanity, people who put their lives in danger every single day for the sake of the world.
Yet, at the burials of most players, there was one guest who almost never made it. The most important guest of them all... their corpses.
Their corpses were often either lost in Eden, swimming in the belly of some monster, or completely obliterated beyond recovery. So most of the time, an empty casket was buried.
It was the same with today’s ceremony.
Vanessa’s burial.
The rain had come suddenly and unexpectedly. The bright skies turned ashen, the winds turbulent, and then the skies wept along with those that had gathered.
But even in the beating rain, no one left, no one moved an inch. The ceremony went on.
Darius stood at the very back, watching the funeral from a distance. From where he stood, he could not properly see or hear what was going on, and when the black umbrellas were open, his vision further worsened.
Darius should have been in the center of this funeral. Vanessa was not just his oldest friend, she was his betrothed. But it was for that very reason that he could not go.
He was grateful that he had even been allowed to attend the burial at all.
Vanessa died protecting him, all because he could not control his emotions. She gave her life to preserve his, when that was the promise he had made to her.
As the priest continued reciting words from the holy scriptures, Darius’ mind shifted to a time long gone.
__
"So we are betrothed now? Hehe, who would have thought that would happen?" A younger Vanessa sprinter through bright green grass as tall as her.
"Stop running Ness, you’re going to fall and cry." Darius grumpily complained.
She acted though all the time, but one good bonk on the head was all it took to turn her eyes watery.
"I never fall down, don’t lie!" She carved forward, running towards the edge of the cliff.
And then she fell.
Darius felt his heart snap in two, his bones locked up and blood pumped through his ears. But luckily for them, she had not fallen off.
Vaness stood up on shaky legs and sniffled. Her face was tight, and her fists balled into fists as she forced herself from crying, then she turned around fixing those big eyes on him.
"So, what do you think?" She smiled, a patch of dust marring her face.
"Huh?"
"Will I make a good wife?"
A gust of wind flew from beyond the cliff, causing her hair to billow to the side. Her teary eyes and wide smile fixed on him.
Darius stood as though frozen in time.
Throughout their time as friends, he had never seen her that way. Even when his father informed him of the betrothal, he had been irritated even.
Vanessa was callous, careless, and a ruffian.
He stared at her, intently, and it was as though he was seeing her for the first time...
Those rough brown strands of hair that glowed orange when the sun reflected on it, those amnesty eyes that out did the finest gemstones, those plump cheeks that tingled red from the fall.
Maybe the view of the mountain had caused him to turn poetic...
But in that moment, for the very first time, Vanessa caused something to tingle in his heart.
"I’ll protect you..."
’What am I saying?’
"As your betrothed I will protect you with all my heart!"
’Why does my chest feel tight? Why did I make that promise?’
Vanessa’s eyes widened slightly. Maybe it was at that moment that her feelings for him began to grow, Darius could not be sure.
But he remembered how she walked up to him and took his hands in hers, the goofy smile on her face doing little to dim her beauty.
"Then I’ll protect you too! We will both become players and protect each other!"
The children interlocked fingers.
"Pinky swear?"
Darius’ face blushed with embarrassment. Men don’t pinky swear. But he did it anyway...
"Pinky swear..."
<•••>
Darius raised his head to the rain to prevent his tears from rolling out, but they poured out anyway, hot tears that contrasted with the chill of the cold.
His heart felt as tight as it was that time, only that this time, grief was what raged within him. His entire body felt weak, his mind blind with a pain that no medicine could cure.
"I am useless..."
Two hundred players had entered Eden under his command.
Only ten made it out. He was the hero, and yet he had to be saved. There was nothing more disgraceful than that.
The burial came to a close shortly after, leaving the grave empty and silent. Only two people remained, Darius, and the man he had avoided all this while.
Darius clutched the flower he had brought tightly in his palms. They were violets, Vanessa’s favourites.
He steeled his heart and walked towards her grace, stopping beside Principal Harrison.
The man was kneeling beside the tombstone, standing wordlessly at the name etched into it.
Player Vanessa Thyril
[2008 - 2026]
Darius felt his nostril burn as he tried to hold back his tears.
"I-I’m sorry..." his voice broke. His shoulders trembled, and his knees threatened to give in.
"I am sorry I failed you, it’s all my fault." The tears rushed out without ceasing. "I should have been stronger, I should have given my life for you. You did not deserve this, you deserved someone better."
But the dead could not speak, so all Darius was left with was the silence and comfort of the beating rain.
He turned to Principal Harrison and went to his knees, bowing till his head touched the ground.
"Forgive me, Sir. I have failed you..."
Harrison was as still as a statue. His beards were rough and overgrown. It did not look like he had taken a shower in weeks.
Darius stood up and walked closer to the grave, he bowed before placing the flower beside it.
But as he stood up to leave...
"Take it." Harrison said in a voice so low that Darius wished he had not heard him.
He turned around, but Harrison still wouldn’t meet his gaze. His voice was a far cry from the warm, fatherly voice he often spoke to Darius in.
"You do not deserve to mourn her."
Darius felt something inside him break. He was right, what was he doing?
He picked up the flower, even though every move felt like dying, then he bowed once more, before walking out of the graveyard.
As Darius trodden through the rain, the bypassers gave him strange looks, filing out of the way as though he was diseased.
— Drinking this early?
— He doesn’t smell of alcohol. Kids these days do drugs you know?
Darius didn’t hear them, his mind was empty, all he wanted to do was walk, maybe until his legs broke, maybe that would distract him from the pain he felt inside.
He walked and walked until he could no longer remember how long he had been walking for. Night time had come, the rain remained, and so was the pain in his chest.
Then suddenly, someone placed an umbrella above his head. Darius lazily stared at it.
"You must have been through a lot..." Someone said in a sympathetic tone.
He turned around to see a girl standing next to him. She seemed about the same age as him, with light blue skin and scaly ears.
Her hair was pale blue and long. There were a few raindrops on it, but it just slid down it as though her hair was coated in wax.
"An Undie?"
"My name is Darya." A few seconds passed, the rain grew heavier, pelting down on the transparent umbrella.
"Leave me alone."
Darius turned to walk away when she held him with a gloved hand.
"Wait. I know what you have been through, how much you have suffered because of this unfair world."
"And?"
The woman frowned. He had lost someone precious to him, there should have been a rage burning within him, a fire that could not be quenched.
Yet, all she could see was a husk of who he once was.
Her green eyes crickled at the edges as she glanced at him from head to toe, letting out a breath.
"Don’t you want to grow stronger? Don’t you want to grow strong enough to make sure you never lose anyone again?!"
That was the entire reason she was alive. Darya wished to never experience the horrors of her past ever again.
Darius knocked her hand off his shoulder and stepped into the rain.
"I have nothing left to protect..."
The woman closed the umbrella, but the rain drops did not touch her skin, instead, they froze in the air all around them.
She stared at him with a conviction burning in her inhuman eyes, and then a cruel smile appeared on her face.
"Then what about revenge?"
Darius stopped.
"What is the name of your organization?"
She nodded as he met her gaze, then she walked up to him and placed a hand on his shoulder.
"Welcome to Evernight..."
Just as the words left her lips, their figures blurred, and they vanished, disappearing into the night.