• The Birdcage

    I felt like I was trapped. Trapped like a bird in a birdcage. Falling into the dark abyss of eternal sleep. My body ached and my chest felt like it was on fire. Finally sweet death would come to take me away.
    I could hear voices whispering around me. I knew they were not whispers for that samurai doesn’t know the meaning of whisper. I felt teardrops on my cheek, and knew that Saki must have been there. I prayed she’d look away, perhaps fall back into one of her peaceful sleeps.
    I don’t want her to be here when I breath my last. Shay, please take her away. My mind whispered as sharp pain stabbed my eye socket, and blood poured down my cheek. I heard Kaito yelling again, louder this time, and I knew instantly that he was angry with himself.
    To my right I could hear quiet sobs, and knew that Shay blamed himself for what happened. He didn’t do this. It was that creature pretending to be him that is at fault. I can still feel the bitter cold of his fingers as they pushed behind my right eye, into the socket. I can still hear the snapping of the veins and the optical nerve attached to the back of the eye inside my head. The unbearable pain as my eye was removed from my body. The feeling of the warm liquid life running down my face, onto my shirt. The squishing sound of the eye as it entered the creature’s mouth. These noises would haunt me forever. The last thing I remembered was Kaito holding me up as I slipped into my birdcage of horrid memories.
    “Fayt! Fayt!” I could hear Moki calling my name. The pink rabbit like creature’s voice crying from somewhere near my left side. “Please don’t die!” I heard him cry multiple times, as I managed to twitch my index finger. I wanted to pet him to tell him good-bye, but my body was in too much pain to respond to my commands.
    I heard Kaito scream in rage, and felt the vibrations as his fist pounded against the walls. I wanted to call out to him, but my voice had vanished. Saki’s sweet smell filled my senses as I felt a weight on my chest. I knew she had thrown herself over my dying body in a sign of desperation to keep me alive. What she didn’t know was that it was too late, I was to depart from this world, and soon. Shay’s voice spoke from my right and the weight was removed from my chest.
    Slowly I found the last bit of strength I had and opened my remaining eye to look at my friends. Shay cried out and Saki gasped. Kaito ran to my side and lifted my upper body up. Moki bounced around on me limp legs as I continued to look at my friends.
    “Fayt! Please don’t leave us! We need you.”
    I couldn’t tell who had spoken for my senses were fading faster then expected. Soon death’s cool hands would take hold of me and carry me into the dark abyss. I slowly held my hand out asking for Kaito’s. “I’m going to g-give you my last bit of magic. You…must continue on, and kill…that monster.”
    My words came out in gasps as our clasped hands began to glow a faint blue. I could feel my magic slowly flowing into his hand as my body began to grow colder. As the last of my magic faded, my hand slipped from his, and my eye closed. I no longer had the strength to keep my eyes open. I was able to smile, knowing that even being gone from this world, I would still live on inside of my friends.
    Slowly I began to sink into the dark abyss, back to the birdcage for lost souls.