BXBX NOVEL Chapter 96 - Colourless
* Stray Kids [Tower of god Ending Song] SLUMP (Korean Version) Extended Edit *
***
"Hi honey!" a beautiful young girl called out to a young teen who was sitting on a bench in the plaza, under a red maple tree. "Sorry I made you wait, the line was longer than expected."
The girl was considered a beauty in every aspect. Her sparkling blue eyes and long black hair made many necks snap towards her, in admiration more than anything.
The boy wasn\'t any less impressive as he had sparkling pale skin that reflected off the warm sun rays, medium length bright brown hair, and two deep orange eyes that made most people lose themselves in their mystery.
"Uhm, it\'s alright." he replied with an emotionless expression, yet the girl didn\'t seem to mind.
"Here," said the girl as she handed him an ice-cream cone, "I bought you a strawberry one since it\'s my favourite haha!"
The girl looked awfully happy whereas the boy was completely expressionless. To most people, the scene looked rather confusing so they kept just walking instead of staring at the couple.
"So what are you up to tonight?" the girl asked casually.
"Uh, I have to help my mom with her work," the boy muttered with same expressionless face, "she\'s been having some troubles lately."
"Aw your so cute!" the girl\'s heart was melting at how loving and caring her boyfriend was.
She\'s only met him about two weeks ago in a grocery store, yet she instantly fell in love.
At first, she was so scared to ask someone as handsome as he is out, but after observing for a while, she realized how socially awkward he is, and at the same time, he was the cutest thing. That alone easily qualified to snatch her heart.
After she\'s gotten to know him, she realized that he wasn\'t lacking in confidence, he just didn\'t like to talk much. And when he did, one can tell it\'s not a habit of his.
"Ian," the girl muttered softly, "it\'s been about two weeks of us dating, when can I come to your house? You know- um, you can introduce me to your mother and um, you know..." her face was a deep shade of red that she looked like a rose soaked in blood.
"Uh, we can go now if you want, my mom already knows we\'re dating." Ian said quietly surprising the poor girl.
"SHE KNOWS??" she screamed almost dropping her own ice-cream cone, before hurriedly covering her mouth with her empty hand.
"Uhm," Ian nodded and continued to chew the ice-cream nonchalantly. "Diana, may I ask you a question?"
"Uhm, what is it?" Diana replied after getting herself back together. "And please stop chewing on that, it makes my head and teeth ache."
"What is it like being a normal human and living a normal life?" Ian asked with same expressionless face while licking instead of chewing on the ice cream.
"Err, what- what do you mean, Ian?"
"I mean..." Ian took a second to look up at the sky and try to gather his thoughts, "how\'s it like being able to live a life of freedom, not guided by the restraints of fate, being ignorant to what\'s happening all around you, and more importantly... not seeking answers to the Infinite questions in your mind?"
Diana took a second to digest the question. It wasn\'t the first time she had suspected that Ian was hiding something.
But his question just now told her that he wasn\'t feeling at ease, he wasn\'t happy, but he wasn\'t sad either, he was just... lost and confused.
Getting closer and closer to Ian, Diana finally hugged him tightly.
Unbeknownst to her, this was Ian\'s first \'real\' hug, ever. He felt invaded. In his silent internal panick he wanted to push her away, yet he didn\'t, because at the same time he felt something strange inside of him.
A small torch lit up inside his empty vessel.
"Can I show you something?" Ian asked Diana quietly.
"Of course," she answered rather curiously. It was the first time Ian had offered to share something with her, other than money.
Extending his two fingers towards her forehead made Diana rather confused, but the moment his cold yet tender fingers touched her forehead her face turned warm red. Not even she knew why.
"Are you ready?" Ian whispered. And to that, Diana nodded.
For a few seconds Diana didn\'t feel anything, but a moment later, Ian\'s fingers glowed faint orange that only she could see and then all of a sudden, the world lost all of its colours.
Focusing hard on her breathing and trying harder not to scream or faint, Diana looked past her boyfriend\'s hand and towards the now colourless world.
She could see people walking yet they all seemed rather dull. Above everyone\'s heads, she could see numbers and letters floating midair.
It took her a couple of seconds to realize that these weren\'t their ages as it was going down rather than going up.
"Is that their lifespan?" Diana was terrified at the idea, and even more when realized she couldn\'t make a sound. Her mouth was moving and all, but no sound was being generated.
However Ian\'s nod implied that he\'d heard her which made her calm down a little bit. "Are you ready for phase two?" Ian\'s voice came from inside her mind.
Seeing her nod even though she was shaking made him think about it twice, however, looking on top of her head at the numbers flowing midair, he decided to proceed with it.
As the glow of his fingers intensified, the world seemed to loose more colours even though that was impossible, and at the same time Diana started to hear noises.
NOISE NOISE NOISE NOISE!!
Widening her eyes in surprise at the intensity of the noise that made her ears bleed she wanted nothing more than to jump and run away.
Noticing her distress, Ian quickly retracted his hand back to his side. "Are you okay?"
Even though he talked like he always does, Diana didn\'t react. "Diana?" he muttered again.
The girl\'s eyes were blinking slowly and her breathing was normal, yet he could tell she wasn\'t feeling good.
Focusing his eyes on her face and allowing his eyes to glow with their deep orange made him widen his eyes in surprise for the first time in his life.
However, his "feeling" of surprise only lasted a second before a faint orange aura enveloped him returning him back to his old emotionless self.
Focusing at Diana\'s face again, he could hear some sort of static noise in her mind. Another look above her head showed a number that has drastically changed.
Before he had touched her, her countdown was at 68 years; 2 months; and 5 days. Now however, the numbers were at 36 seconds.
Ian\'s vision blurred bright orange as he saw what seemed like a distant vision of a car that came crashing where he\'s sitting right now.
Widening his eyes again, he took a hold of the girl\'s arm, grabbing her while running away from the bench.
Looking back at the still confused girl with empty looking eyes, he could see the numbers go back up to 68 years; 2 months; and 5 days.
6, 5, 4, 3...
Looking back at the bench, he could hear a squeaking noise as the tires of a taxi trying their best to stop the car in its tracks but to no avail.
The car crashed into the bench and to the stores behind it, killing a couple of people on the spot and injuring many others.
Looking back at Diana who was still looking like a malfunctioned robot whom even the crashing car\'s noise didn\'t wake her up, he touched her forehead again.
Just as he did he could hear the noise in her mind. It was like an alien high frequency wave that was trying to destroy her brain cells from the inside out.
Looking up above her head, he saw the numbers quickly changing from years to months. Months to days and back to seconds.
Ian was about to envelope her with his aura but as he was trying to do so, the aura covered his own body for a second before fading away and relieving him from his concerns and revering him back to his emotionless expression.
With his dead fish-like orange eyes, he watched as Diana\'s body started to shake like a leaf, only to turn bright orange all of a sudden.
No one else but him seemed to notice the current events unfolding.
He watched as her eyes turned into a pure orange glow that almost covered her face.
The girl, no the soulless doll now, floated midair and was slowly devoured by the glow till nothing was left.
Looking at the spot were she was standing just a second ago, the boy felt a cold breeze envelope his soul and extinguish the recently lit torch, switching the vessel back to it\'s colourless and lifeless self.
Looking up the sky, he sighed as he decided to take a stroll away from the panicking crowd and newly arrived ambulances.
Unbeknownst to anyone but Ian, a beautiful and loving girl on this day was gone and... forgotten. Not even her parents at their own house remembered her anymore.
Every action she\'s ever done, every friend she\'s ever made, all of her achievements, and most importantly she... was no more.
Walking silently in the city that was still under heavy constructions, Ian wanted to be sad. Or rather "feel" anything at all towards the missing girl. Yet, he felt nothing.
He had lost someone dear after all. He had heard and seen people cry after losing someone they care about.
He knew that a part of him had developed "feelings" towards the girl, albeit for a few seconds, yet now that part was gone.
He couldn\'t care less about a dead girl that no one even remembers anymore.
"Oh, you who accept this burden,
"You shall live the life of the dead,
"Observe the world behind a colourless veil,
"Unbounded by the weaknesses of the living,
"Waiting patiently for the absolute archon to descend..."
Ian was muttering to himself subconsciously while walking alone.
"How will I know though? When and if the archon has descended? Am I just supposed to-"
Ian stopped abruptly as a running boy collided with him, almost causing both of them to fall and hit the ground. But the other boy (girl?) held him between her arms to stop their fall.
"Oh I\'m so sorry, are you alright?" the boy, or rather the girl stopped and apologized. "I was so focused on my date with Liam tonight that I didn\'t pay much attention to my surroundings I\'m so sorry."
The girl had short brown locks and light pink eyes. And if it wasn\'t for her outfit, anyone would have thought she was a boy because of her build.
"Uhm," Ian just nodded and continued walking with the same emotionless face. Although this time, he had a little bit of confusion mixed with his features.
Thinking that his attitude was because of her, the girl didn\'t let him go and talked him into accompanying her to an ice-cream store nearby.
A few minutes after, Ian was waving goodbye to the girl that gave her name as Lizzy, while carrying his second strawberry ice-cream cone of the day.
"Um, I was sure I made it so that no one can see me, let alone collide or touch me..." Ian was confused since with his powers, he could make it so that people just \'ignore\' and moreover \'avoid\' his presence.
He could rob a bank without a single soul even realising. Yet that girl... not only did she see him, but she was able to touch him.
Watching her take a sharp turn and disappearing behind a big building, Ian shrugged his shoulders, ever so slightly, and kept on walking with the cone in hand.
...
Reaching his home and knocking on the door, Ian was greeted by a woman that looked in her mid thirties and had a beaming smile on her face.
"Finally home, my dear!" she said while giving him a quick hug.
She was one of the researchers that had trapped him and conducted various experiments on him.
A normal person would have wanted revenge, yet he couldn\'t care less. Revenge and anger weren\'t things he\'d ever care about. All he wanted was to live a normal life.
That\'s exactly why he had used his powers to turn her into \'his mother\'.
He had basically changed and played around with her memories so that she forgot everything that had happened before and implanted new memories in her mind.
Now she thinks, or rather "knows" that Ian is her only son and she loves him as such.
Even though he knew it wasn\'t ideal, he wanted to at least have a taste of what a real life might be like, before his fate came true.
Yet, no matter how hard he tries, life seems always dull and fake. Always.... so colourless.