Work Text:
𝑳𝒖𝒄𝒊𝒆𝒍𝒍𝒆
Afternoon sunlight penetrated through the open window frame. The curtains were blown by the wind and disturbed above the small bed. Leaning on the edge of the bed, with her body sliding to the floor and her head nestled on the soft duvet was Lucielle.
It was late afternoon, well past one o'clock. She covered her shoulders with her purple-purple pastel headphones and massaged her eyes. A nonchalant exhale escaped from her lips. A rather significant heat was coming from the laptop that was open on her lap, indicating many hours of continuous work.
As soon as she turned off the laptop and set it aside, Lucielle's phone vibrated again. She reached for it and picked it up:
"I'm here."
On the other end of the line came the voice of her best friend Cery:
"Hey, meet me at the mall later, okay?"
"At the shopping mall, or at the claw machines area?" Lucielle asked with a chuckle. She knew that her friend had invited her there only because the girl had her eyes on a guy who would show up at the arcade often lately.
"You know it! Shall we meet at three o'clock?"
"Sounds good... But I'm a little tired..."
Sniffing Lucielle's intention to retreat, Cery said immediately:
"Let's go. I've read your tarot for today. Undoubtedly, you would meet the destiny of your life there. So you must come! Don't let fate slip out of your hand."
"Absolutely." Lucielle replied with a laugh. "Your tarot cards never say anything good about my love life."
"They do, this time!" Cery gave a solid reply. "I'll see you at the entrance then!"
Lucielle could only agree. It's good to hang out once in a while. She had spent too much time sitting in her room getting her work done. And it was another day off. While others were out on dates, or having fun with friends, she chose to lull in her room for the day.
Lucielle was just an ordinary office worker, living in a tiny apartment full of plush toys that she had won from claw machines. Besides from work, she just hung around at home holding her computer or phone, or spent time and pennies on claw machines at the arcade. Sometimes she got bored and really lonely, but in any case, life still went on. She did not have big ambitions. She just stood outside of this ever changing life, watching others live theirs, as if she was just an observer.
Perhaps all she was waiting for was a magical adventure. An encounter by chance. Something only happened once in a lifetime.
Alternatively, it could be that her wishful thinking came from having read and watched far too much fiction.
She reflected on what Cery had just said, about meeting her destiny today. Then she laughed at her nonsense thoughts. The fate Cery refers to may be a special edition plushie. If so, that would be nice.
It was more than three o'clock in the afternoon. Lucielle stood under a tree outside the building rebuilt from the old structure. What was now the city's largest commercial building nonetheless held remnants of the past. That's how Linkon was — a modern place where the past met the present. Lucielle impatiently glanced at the watch before shifting her gaze to both sides of the wide road ahead of her.
She did not see Cery. But Lucielle's attention was drawn to someone at once. On the opposite side on the same sidewalk, a slender figure stood out from the crowd. Dark curls tinged with purple glow intertwined, resting down his brow and eyes were firmly looking in her direction. Lucielle let go of a heartbeat. The whole street froze and the only thing moving was the stranger's footsteps heading in this direction.
He came to a halt in front of Lucielle. The thin lips curled up into a smile. If someone had painted a dream, it would be exactly like this. Because this was so unreal. Why would there be such a perfect shaped person? Lucielle only dared to look up once, and their eyes met.
"There you are!"
A soft voice spoke, drowning out all the noise in the street, birds singing in the trees and rustling leaves. It was as if the only sound in the universe. Lucielle was perplexed. This was a man she had never seen before, but he gave the impression that he had known her for a long, long time.
Just as she was about to say something, Lucielle heard a loud call of her name from another side. Turning her head, she caught sight of Cery walking happily towards her.
Lucielle raised a hand to wave. Then when she returned to the stranger earlier, he was long gone.
"How long did you wait? Today's bus was running a little late." Cery moved over to stand beside her. "But... What are you looking at?"
"Nothing..." Lucielle shook her head and said. "I’ve just met a very strange person..."
Lucielle paused. How could she put it into words; that she had just met a picturesque beauty?; that he had just vanished without a trace in a split second? She must have been dizzy and she blamed all the milk coffee she had had for the day.
She took another glance at the street, before stepping inside the building in deep thought.
𝑹𝒂𝒇𝒂𝒚𝒆𝒍
Rafayel darted a gaze across the busy street, where sunlight fell alternately through the foliage, covering her with a soothing aura.
He had found her. In the world where she was truly alive.
Rafayel's mind was as deep as the ocean. Somewhere in the raging waves laid the memory of another land. In that place, she slept soundly, for eternity.
Year 9451,
After a series of catastrophic disasters many millennia ago, the entire world was submerged in seawater.
A new species appeared. They resembled humans but possessed fish tails, with strength and longevity far exceeding those of humans. They were Lemurians.
Humanity entered a new life form. They drifted into slumber inside peculiar cocoons kept in the lowest depths of the ocean. In anticipation of the day the human eventually awoke, the Lemurians watched over them.
However, nobody had ever awakened. The cocoons that the ocean cherished for thousands of years began to rot, eventually dying out.
Those humans’ eyes would never be able to open again…
*
* *
Reaching out to the glass, Rafayel removed the black seaweed that was holding the cocoon in place. They purposefully obscured the lovely sleeping girl who was drifting in an oceanic dream. He brushed the moss off the metal board attached to the cocoon to the side.
Lucielle Caelum
81000xxxxxx
Her face was pale, but relaxed as if she were just taking a long nap. Not a scratch, unscathed by the outer world. She was the best preserved specimen that the Lemurians had recovered from an ancient natural disaster. And she was one of the humans placed in Rafayel’s care here.
Rafayel approached the cocoon until his nose came into contact with the glass. He had been to this place thousands and thousands of times, watching her fall asleep and sketching her dreams. Perhaps she was dreaming of the world in which she had lived, where people could walk with two feet on the ground. Little did she know, what awaited her when she woke up was the darkness of the ocean.
Rafayel consequently created innumerable illustrations of the lands, or stories that he had learned about the ancient world. When she woke up, she would see them. She herself would tell him her story before slipping into this never-ending slumber. Rafayel allowed himself the autonomy to envisage her life, her family, her friends. He was daydreaming of a Lucielle he had not ever met.
For millennia when his eyes were only on her, Rafayel had fallen in love.
Yet, despite all their attempts to awaken humans, the Lemurians never succeeded. Eventually, the cocoons were unable to support the inhabitants within.They collapsed, and the tide carried the frail human bodies away, transforming them into bubbles that soared skyward, as though their souls yearned to rise above the waves once more. One after another, slowly, they were all gone.
Except for this only left.
"There is nothing we can do for humans anymore."
"They are too fragile for the world today."
"Let’s give up..."
The Lemurians voiced. But Rafayel, and he alone, had not given up. He assembled a group of other distinguished Lemurians and constructed a machine, before it was too late.
"Must you do this, Lord Rafayel?"
"Lemurian cannot be without a leader. Please reconsider your decision!"
"There is instability with this machine. Once you go back to the past, chances are you won't be able to return here..."
The discussions echoed across the vast sea as they carried on. Rafayel was adamant, though. Prison is when you have to live in darkness and yearn for what you never had. Going back to when it all began and preventing that event of doom was the only way. No matter how dangerous it was, he had to give it a try.
On the day of his departure, he came to see her one last time.
The cocoon that held her did not last much longer. Having to watch her vanish was as if watching himself die. Rafayel's slender hand touched her face behind the glass as he said farewell.
"I'll find you."
And then, he went. The gears of the machine turned, forming countless rolling waves, and then the ocean disappeared. She disappeared.
*
* *
He found her in the third millennium. As vivid as his dream came true.
There were only three hundred and sixty-four days remaining before her world began to crumble.
-The End?-