An Eternal Wish (ch3)

FOR MY $10+ PATRONS!

This is a bit of a short chapter.

Disclaimer: I do not own Shoujo Kageki Revue Starlight.

------------

													Chapter 3. The Atonement Of Sins

The pink desert stretches on farther than Maya's vision can ever hope to see.

When she'd first opened her eyes and found herself in this place, she'd thought the sand was pretty. Her clothes had been transformed into a simple white dress to combat the heat. But to her surprise, it wasn't as hot as she'd anticipated.

Rather, it's actually cold here.

The winds whip at her legs and arms which are exposed to the elements. Particles of hard sand and stone constantly cut at her skin, embedding themselves into her bare feet.

She walks, not knowing where to, but knowing she must go. A familiar script repeats itself in her mind and comes out in her voice.

"Let's meet here again next year, on the night of the Starlight Festival…"

She looks on ahead as she continues to walk across the barren pink wasteland.

"Starlight…"

Until she finally spots a tower, stark and white like bone, with two droplets of blood dangling above it.

"Being drawn by the light of the star."

That's what they are. Not drops of blood, but stars. It's their crimson color that tricks her. They shine brightly enough in their haunting glow that the haze encompasses the entire desert. They are what dyes the white sand pink.

She'd used to think it was pretty…

But now…

Maya has no choice but to walk toward that tower. It entices her, lures her with its eerie light.

She has no choice but to go. After all, this is the punishment she'd chosen for herself. So she could spare the others of their sins.

As she approaches the tower, drawn in by its terrifying beauty, her eyes glimpse small objects in the sand.

Stars. Once white, they've now been stained by that blood-red glow and turned pink like the sand.

Maya kneels and digs one out, then takes it with her.

"Who are you? I can't remember."

The words come to her without any thought for them, without any effort. The script of Starlight flows through her until it is no longer a script for a play, but rather, her reality.

This is who she is now. A slave to the stage, mindless and full of sin. A martyr.

She digs up another star, and another, then begins to stack them together beside the white tower. Her lips continue to produce limp, lifeless words.

"If you catch a small star, you've obtained a small bit of happiness."

She picks up another, and another, piling them all together to form a small tower of her own.

"If you catch a large star, you've obtained a large fortune."

She builds that tower of Starlight until it climbs high, halfway up the white tower. Now, each star she finds she carries with her as she climbs, adds it to the top, then climbs back down and repeats.

"If you catch both of them, you've caught an eternal wish."

The harsh winds continue slicing at her back, flaying pebbles of sand at her as the edges of the stars bruise her skin.

She builds her tower higher and higher, until she has nearly reached the top of the other. She sits in her bed of crimson stars and gazes up at the white above her, at the two red stars that dangle there. Watching, waiting.

She must catch them, both that small and large wish.

So she climbs back down, picks up yet another star, and ascends once again, the words of Starlight filling her head endlessly.

She must obtain those stars in order to have an eternal wish. Her wish would be to be free of this place.

When she has built her tower so that it nears the height of the other, she kneels on her bed of stars and gazes longingly up to those two in the sky. She reaches up her hands, pretending as though she can grasp them from here, even when she is still so far away…

But she's closer than she'd been just one star earlier.

She must obtain her wish and be free.

She must go back…

Back… to where? To whom...?

It's then when the jarring rattle of chains breaks the sky.

She doesn't know where it's coming from or how, but she sees it. A giant wrecking ball in the shape of a star is hurled towards her. A meteor.

It collides with her tower, an impact of terrifying power. It breaks her hard-built creation with ease, shatters all of her efforts to dust, and sends her far into the air like a falling star. For a moment, she is suspended looking at the sky.

"I remembered… Our dream will not come true."

She falls for an eternity until the hard sand catches her. Her tower rains down in pieces all around her and crumbles.

"My dream… will not come true…"

Her dream. Her wish. What was it again?

To… be free?

But how? If she is free, who will atone for their sins?

…Whose sins? She can't remember.

All she knows is she'd come here to atone for something.

She has to keep atoning. She has to.

So she gets up, swaying against the cold dry winds, and begins anew on her tower, gathering up the broken pieces. She rebuilds, climbs, ascends.

And then that chain comes down again, smashing it all to pieces. Her dreams explode right in front of her, and collapse right beneath her.

She falls again, already covered in scrapes and cuts and bruises. She feels the pain, but somehow it doesn't hurt.

She gets up again, and continues her task.

The script begins to blur in her mind. She can't recall the names anymore. But she understands that falling from that tower means being separated forever.

From who? She can't remember anymore.

All she can tell is that it was someone precious to her.

So she has to keep rebuilding. She has to keep trying to reach them, to reach that eternal wish…

And so it goes, the cruel fate of the one who had achieved Top Star and sacrificed herself to the stage.

So it goes.

An eternity of suffering for one who strives to obtain an eternal wish.

--------

A/N: Don't worry, the final chapter is much, much longer and more intense!