Anniversary

Beautifully sculpted golden coated wings glinted in the afternoon sunlight, both sporting delicate feathers, detailed each individually to depict the soft gentle presence they brought. The small nine carat gold pendant was no larger than an inch long, and may have seemed old and useless to the naked eye, but as pale delicate fingers closed around the figure of an angel, silent tear drops fell onto the soft grass below.

It was a beautiful afternoon, and the young man holding the pendant could faintly hear the sound of children laughing in the streets nearby, as they enjoyed the company of their friends like it was any other day. But this wasn't any other day, which was what lead him to such a place on what seemed like the perfect afternoon. The sun cast warm rays over the field, though not enough to burn anyone who found themselves underneath it, and a few soft clouds spotted the sky, allowing the sun to disappear for a moment or two before returning to light the world once more. A gentle breeze swayed the flowers surrounding the man as he knelt in the grass, his eyes fixed on the object in front of him. Hearing the sound of other people's happiness usually comforted him, but not today. It only made him feel worse as he was reminded that there was one other person who was no longer laughing.

Smooth grey stone sat in front of him, and even though his eyes were blurred with tears he could still make out the words carved into its surface, each one like a dagger through his chest.

Mana Stevens

07/05/1995 - 26/10/2012

Daughter, Sister, Best Friend

In Loving Memory

Atem couldn't stop the tears from cascading down his cheeks now, nor did he want to bother. It had been exactly a year since that terrible day, which cost his best friend her life. She wasn't alone, either. Atem was surrounded by identical grave stones, each with names carved into them, some strangers, some acquaintances. Colourful flowers dotted various stones, including the one Atem was in front of. What they all had in common, however, was their fate. Seemingly forgotten by the rest of the town, Atem could never forget the day their city was turned to rubble. The 26th of October had started out like any other day, he and Mana had walked to school together like they had done the past four years, talking about what their final exams were going to be like. They had only been weeks away from graduating high school and moving on to bigger and better things, but now Atem couldn't even begin to think of moving on without his friend, of going on the adventures they had dreamed of together. His fingers tightened around the pendant even more as he tried to ward off the horrible memories, but they flooded to the front of his mind in an instant, torturing his already broken heart.

"Do you think I'll get a good enough O.P. for the uni course I want?" Mana asked as she looked up at the clouds, not paying any attention to where she was going-as usual.

Atem chuckled and grabbed her arm to pull her out of the path of a power pole, before answering. "Mana, you're incredibly smart, of course you will." He gave her a reassuring smile as they slowly walked along the footpath, the school gates growing closer and closer with each step.

"But, what if I screw up? I've heard that kids have gone completely blank during these exams and gotten a zero!" She jumped in front of her friend, causing him to suddenly stop right in his tracks. He could see the obvious stress lines on her forehead, and he placed both of his hands on her shoulders.

"You want to know how to pass these exams?" he asked. She instantly nodded. "Just relax. Stressing out is what will cause you to fail." He dropped his hands and Mana sighed, before a ghost of a smile appeared. He returned her smile with a vibrant one of his own, and he grabbed her hand to gently tug her along, "Come on, or we'll be late for home class."

Atem put his head in his hands, she had been so close to graduating, and he had countless memories of her animatedly telling him how excited she was to get out of school and explore the great big world there was out there. She basically had her whole life planned out before her. Leave school, get a degree, travel the world until she finally found someone to spend the rest of her life with and settle down. He remembered thinking about how she'd meet a handsome foreigner in her travels and decide to live there permanently and marry away from home. He almost laughed when he remembered the spark of jealousy he would feel for someone he didn't even know existed. His only fear back then had been that she would leave him behind once she found a partner, but now that was the least of his worries.

"What's that?" Atem asked curiously, pointing to the shiny gold pendant Mana held in her hand.

The girl held it out to him so that he could have a look, "It was my mother's," she said gently. "Aunty Emma gave it to me this morning. She said that their father bought it for her when they were young, she has a similar one." Atem looked down at the pendant as he turned it over in his hands. It was in the figure of an Angel, her wings spread wide and hands clasped on her chest. Mana's mother had died of cancer quiet a few years ago, so he understood how much this small object would mean to his friend.

"It's beautiful," he murmured, before handing it back to her.

She smiled, "It is. Which is why I'm going to take good care of it." She took off the necklace she was wearing and swapped the pendant with the Angel, before placing it back around her neck so the pendant sat just below her collar bone.

Atem gave her a soft smile, "It looks great on you." She returned the smile, before grabbing his hand and pulling him up, announcing that they had to get to Geography. His own response had been a groan.

Atem's vision was now so blurred that he couldn't see the words etched into the grey stone clearly anymore, though it didn't ease the pain in his heart. Blurred or not, the words were still the same, and that would never change. There was nothing he could do to change the past, no matter how much he wanted to. Sometimes he wondered though, what would have happened if he hadn't left Mana in that classroom, if he had been there too when it all happened, but then he would need to pinch himself and say that it wasn't worth thinking about.

The sound of happy children playing in the street had blurred in his ears and now Atem could almost hear the terrifying screams and pleas for help that filled their city a year ago. They had only just rebuilt the town back to its former glory after it had been reduced to a pile of rubble, and the worst part was they never saw it coming.

Atem turned to look at his best friend when he heard a yawn, and smiled as he saw Mana sitting at her desk, drawing in her notebook. They were currently in Geography, and while their teacher was talking about possible ways to approach their oncoming assignment, he and Mana had been exchanging notes as usual to pas the time. She reached a hand out and placed a small square of paper on his desk, and he averted his eyes from her to look down at it. It had a sketch of a cupcake with arms and legs, grinning maniacally as it rode a skateboard down a very steep hill. He chuckled quietly and cast a glance in her direction, before turning back to the front and raising his hand.

"Yes, Sennen?" His teacher, Miss Amata turned to look at him, a whiteboard marker still poised at the board.

"May I go to the bathroom?" he asked, dropping his hand back down onto the desk where Mana's drawing was.

His teacher rolled her eyes, "Alright, but be back in three minutes, this is important." Atem nodded and stood up from his seat, relieved that he could at least have a moment away from this boring atmosphere. He didn't even have to look to know that Mana now had her hand up.

"Miss! I need to go, too!" She announced eagerly, waving her hand around desperately as Atem slowly and casually made his way to the door.

Their teacher crossed her arms as she turned her stare to Mana, "Well, I'm sure you can wait until Atem gets back," she said, finding satisfaction in the disappointment that crossed Mana's face. Atem cast a glance over his shoulder as he walked out the door, and Mana glared at him, poking her tongue out in the process. Atem chuckled and returned the childish gesture, before disappearing down the hallway.

If only Atem had known what he would return to. All these graves surrounding him were the result of what mother nature can conjure in the blink of an eye. One moment everything can seem like normal, peaceful even, then the next it could all be destroyed.

Atem breathed in the warm breeze that passed him once he had exited the building, enjoying being able to stretch his legs after a whole hour of sitting down. He had indeed needed to go to the bathroom, but once he had done so he decided it wouldn't hurt to take a moment to come outside to feel the warm sun on his back. He let out a sigh of content, before he turned to walk back into the building to face the last half hour of the lesson. As soon as he reached the doors however, the ground started to shake.

The most devastating earthquake to ever hit their city only lasted a matter of seconds, but it was enough to bring half of the building down, and throw Atem off of his feet. He let out a cry as he hit the ground, wide eyes staring up at the bricks that had fallen from their places. Fear suddenly coursed through him as he saw the stone wall to his right start to give in, and he rolled to the side, narrowly avoiding being squashed. The initial shock finished, and Atem was on his feet, dashing through the doors of the building back to the classroom. He had to dodge fallen debris as he went, jumping over concrete and brick, with his heart pounding in his chest, hoping that everybody was alright. When he was halfway down the hallway, the first aftershock hit. He had no time to react as the ceiling above him-already severely cracked from the initial shock-came crashing down on top of him, pressing him against the hard floor. Pain encased his right arm that was now stuck between two slates of concrete, and he soon discovered he had also landed on broken glass from one of the windows, as it sliced into his side.

Atem could feel his heart pounding in his ears, and once the shaking stopped once again, he was alerted to the sound of cries for help. His chest tightened with fear, though less for himself than others. He desperately wished he could move, push this debris off of him so that he could help his classmates, but he was the one in need of help, and the pain he was in only increased as he lay stuck between slates of concrete. He could feel the cold dread seeping into his veins as another aftershock hit, causing the rest of the building to collapse around him, though he was already concealed enough not to gain any more severe injuries from the impact. He took one last fleeting attempt to pull his arm out of where it was stuck between slates of concrete, before he gave up and moved to his last resort, exerting his lungs with his desperate cry.

"Help!"

Atem turned his head to look at the gravestone beside Mana's. Anzu Mazaki, it read. Another classmate, though he hadn't known her very well, he knew that she was incredibly smart and quite the gifted dancer. That earthquake had taken so many lives he was surprised that he had even survived himself. All he could remember was fear clouding his mind and pain coursing through him, so much pain. The last aftershock had caused more debris to fall on top of him, making the weight of it even more unbearable. He couldn't remember how long he had been stuck there, as the sound of his classmates slowly died down until he could hear nothing, not even one cry for help. By that point he had come to the conclusion that help would never come, and that he would be stuck underneath this rubble, doomed to die from the crushing weight of the school walls on top of him.

Atem turned his head skyward, fresh tears still running down his face and dripping off of his chin. More prominent than the pain of being crushed by concrete and cut by glass, was the pain of finding out who had survived and who had not.

Atem let out a sigh of relief as warm hands grasped his shoulders, pulling him out of his concrete prison. There were people surrounding him now, trying to talk to him and ask various questions as he was carried over the paramedics standing away from the building. Despite their probing only one question came to his mind, and as he was placed down on the ground once more he reached his hand out towards the building, his words sounding rough through his dry throat.

"Mana-" he rasped, trying to look around, though his weak limbs protested at his efforts. "Where's Mana?" The rescue workers around him obviously did not know who he was talking about, but as the group moved to dig through the rubble again, one of them stayed, looking down at Atem with a guarded expression.

He gestured with his arm at the group of injured civilians around Atem, "These are all we found in this building that survived, the others all suffered fatal injuries. They're pulling the bodies out now." Atem moved to pull himself into a sitting position, fighting against the medic who tried to get him to lie back down. His frantic eyes ran over the figures surrounding him, all people of which he knew, but none of them resembled his friend. Atem had never felt a despair as deep as what he felt in that moment, and no person could have stopped him from pulling himself to his feet and painfully, desperately moving back over to the rubble. He could hear the alarmed voices behind him as the paramedic called out to him that he needed to rest, and as he pulled aching limbs forwards, his whole body screamed at him to stop, to fall to his knees and give up this torture, but he kept moving, until a rescue worker finally stopped him, placing his hands on Atem's shoulders and trying to get him to calm down.

The young man hadn't even realised that he'd been speaking at all, but he had been frantically calling out Mana's name, and as soon as the man stopped him, Atem fell to his knees, unable to comprehend the overwhelming fear that was encasing his whole being. He stared at the ground in front of him as the other man tried to speak him into co-operating, when another rescue worker walked past him, carrying a body wrapped in a blanket, stained with fresh blood. Atem didn't see the body however, all he saw was the pair of boots walk into his line of vision, followed by a small golden object falling to the ground. His eyes widened in shock as he stared at the small Angel pendant, still hanging off of the chain, but no longer attached to its owner. He desperately clawed at the ground where it lay, grasping it in his hand, before looking up and trying to find the man who had walked past him. He frantically looked around the team of rescue workers bustling about, but his eyes never found what he was looking for, and soon her was being pulled to his feet and dragged back over to the paramedics.

Atem finally gave in and allowed himself to be pulled away, his aching limbs finally relaxing and giving into the pain, apart from his hand, which was tightly grasping the small golden object, as warm tears fell down his cheeks, his eyes falling closed in utter defeat.

Atem sighed heavily and wiped his eyes. He only let his emotions out on rare occasions, but even now he wasn't planning on letting his walls down for very long. He placed his free hand on the smooth stone in front of him, murmuring to the cold inanimate object that represented his deceased friend.

"I'll never forget you, Mana."

Finally, he took a moment to collect his thoughts, and he stood, ready to try and move on from the devastating event. He turned to walk out of the cemetery and sighed, still grasping the Angel pendant in his hand; the last part of Mana that he had.