“Did Shinra do it?”

“Yeah.”

Reeve looked away from him. It seemed he was determined not to show any signs of emotion.

“If you hate me then you can do whatever you like to me.”

Denzel shook his head.

* * *

It was Sunday. When I woke up, I was in my new home in the Fifth Sector. There was a mattress that I was sure wasn’t there yesterday. Denzel went to sleep on it. Next to his pillow was a memo and a piece of sweet bread.

“I’m at the office. I’ll come to see how you’re doing once in a while. Don’t go too far. Everyone is very nerve-racked just now so it’s dangerous. More importantly, it would be very hard to find you. You’re a pretty important boy. P.S. I borrowed the mattress from the neighbour so please make sure to return it. – Arkham.”

The imagery of the Seventh Sector falling down was shown on the TV many times. The announcement from Shinra that Midgar was safe now could also be heard repeatedly. My parents might be dead so even though they say it’s safe, I couldn’t agree with them. I really wonder if everyone will be able to live in happiness together because it’s safe. Will I be able to blend in with them? Just as Denzel was about to eat his bread, he noticed the cream jutting out of it. Anger surged in him. He smashed the bread onto the TV then flew out of his house.

It was quiet. In the centre of Midgar he could see the highrise building of Shinra. Mother and father might be alive and have gone to work together there.

During this hour, Denzel’s parents must be busy. That’s why they can’t come out. Since this area is Shinra residence then maybe some of their friends are around. Denzel wasn’t very good talking with grownup strangers but, he was going to pull up his courage and try.

First he made for the house to the right and rang the doorbell. There was no answer. He tried opening the door.

The house wasn’t locked so he peered in and said, “Hello?”

He waited for a little while but no answer came. It seemed Arkham borrowed the mattress from this house. Denzel was wondering if they’re no different from a thief since they just borrowed it at will. Are they going to be forced to live on as thieves or something?

Denzel moved onto the left house. The house opposite. A house further in. Everyone was on the lookout there. He went to go have a look at another house further away. Most of the houses had a piece of paper on their door with a contact address written on it if anyone was looking for shelter.

No one was there. It didn’t seem possible that his parents were at their office. If they were, they would have come here. Even if it was impossible for Denzel’s father to come, his mother would certainly have.

The hope he held onto was shattered as he walked away. Before he knew it, Denzel noticed he had lost his way. He couldn’t remember how he got here. Tears fell from his face but anger stood out more than his sorrow.

He stopped and sat on the road. His bottom hit something hard. It was the small model of one of Shinra’s airships. Some kid must have dropped it.

He threw away the model as he thought out loud.

“I hate everyone!”

The sound of glass breaking in a residential area echoed as a girl’s voice followed.

“Who did that!”

Before he realized what he had done, an old lady from a house in front of him came out. She wasn’t really an old lady but to Denzel, he couldn’t tell the age of any lady.

“Did you do this?!”, the old lady said holding onto the model Shinra airship.

Denzel nodded with a guilty face.

“Why…” the old lady was about to ask.

“Are you crying?”

Denzel shook his head to deny it but he couldn’t hide his tears.

“Where’s your home?”

He was angry that he couldn’t answer her. More tears came flowing down his face.

“Come inside.”

The inside of Ruvie’s home was very different to Denzel’s and felt very comfortable. The wallpaper was a pattern full of flowers while the cushions and sofa also had the same pattern. There was some artificial flowers for decoration but it was a room that gave a sense of warmth and tranquility. Denzel looked at Ruvie who was now sitting on the sofa. She was struggling to patch up the shattered glass window with a vinyl bag.

“When my son is back, I’ll make him fix it properly. This should do for now.”

“Miss Ruvie, I’m sorry…”

“If it wasn’t for such times I would have had a hold of your neck shouting and taken you to see your parents.”

“My mum and dad, they’re…”

“Don’t tell me they just left you behind and ran away.”

“They were in the Seventh Sector.”

Ruvie stopped what she was doing, squatted down and held Denzel.

After he calmed down, she told him they were going out.

They were going to look for his house. The two of them walked holding hands. When Denzel reached the age of six, he had stopped holding hands with his parents. It didn’t look cool. But now, he didn’t want to let go no matter what happened he thought to himself.

At headquarters, the Shinra was dealing with the matters of giving residents a place to stay. Families were given shelter in Junon or Costa Del Sol. Ruvie remained behind explaining that if she was going to be alone where she went then it would be best if she stayed at her own home. Eventually, they found Denzel’s house.

“Thank you very much. And about the glass… I’m sorry.”

Ruvie nodded silently. Denzel opened the door and went inside as Ruvie peered in.

“What are you planning to do with a house that doesn’t have anything? Come to my house, OK?”

And that was how Denzel came to live with Ruvie.

When the No. 1 Mako Reactor was destroyed, Ruvie knew that times were going to be hard so she bought lots of food. The storage shed in her back garden was full of canned food.

“There’s no need to worry when you’re prepared.”

Ruvie was busy everyday. Cleaning the inside of the house, cleaning the outside surrounding areas, preparing food and sewing. Besides sewing, Denzel helped with everything. Before he went to sleep, he read a book. Ruvie on the other hand, read a thick book that looked difficult to read. When she was asked if it was good or not he wouldn’t answer. He was told it belonged to her son. Ruvie had been reading the book for over five years now thinking that she might be able to understand what her son’s work was like. She laughed when she realized the book was like something she read it so that she could fall asleep.

Ruvie leant Denzel a monster encyclopedia which she said would be useful for him to read. It was another thing that belonged to her son and he seemed to have read it when he was Denzel’s age. All the monsters that was illustrated in full colour had a description next to them. All pages had the same thing written on them. If you come across a monster, run away then let an adult know. Denzel

wondered if, that’s if, he met a monster just now would all he have to do is let Ruvie know. But Ruvie didn’t seem like she could fight. He wondered if he’ll end up fighting it himself. Could he do it? Could he win?

He thought that he wasn’t any use. That’s why his parents left him and went away.

* * *

The sunlight grew strong and Denzel was soaked with sweat.

“Man… It’s so hot.” Reeve said to Johnny.

Denzel took out a handkerchief to wipe away his sweat.

“That’s quite a cute pattern. Like a girl’s.”

“It is. ” Denzel said staring at his handkerchief.

* * *

One morning when Denzel woke up, Ruvie was there holding a shirt by the collar.

“Wear this. I made this for you but I didn’t have many patterns to make use of.”

On the white shirt were patterns with lots of small pink flowers. It was something that Denzel would usually not be too keen to wear but he happily changed into it.

“This is something I made because I had too much cloth. Have it.” Ruvie said holding out a handkerchief that had the same pattern.

It seemed she had lots of extra cloth because there were many of the same handkerchief. Denzel took one and folded it neatly into his rear pocket.

“And…”, Ruvie’s smile disappeared, “How should I say this…”

Denzel wondered what she was going to say. The words that he didn’t want to hear the most came floating to his mind. Get out. His body shook with anxiety at the thought.

“Lets go outside.”

Ruvie went outside into the back garden. Denzel hesitated but followed. Walking over the thickly spread out earth, Denzel went over to stand next to Ruvie. Ruvie stood gazing at the sky.

Denzel too gazed up at the sky. There was a great black spot in the sky. It was a very bad omen. During the day, the sky was white and blue. Everything besides that was no different from the gloom or worries.

“I don’t know anything about it but, it seems it’s called Meteo. It’s said that once it impacts with this planet, everything will be over.”

Ruvie went over to the storage shed and took out two cans of food handing them to Denzel.

“Just how are we going to prepare ourselves with these things.”

That day, Ruvie didn’t clean, sew or do anything else. She just sat on the sofa thinking.

When something came to mind, she went on the phone. It seems no one answered. Denzel thought she must have been calling her son as he cleaned the interiors and outside. He also wanted to ask about the impact of Meteo but he couldn’t bring himself to ask about it. As night fell, Ruvie began to clean as if to say she was back to reality. Denzel, the way you clean isn’t any good. What on earth have you been looking at? It was the usual Ruvie again.

It was night and the two of them sat side by side on the sofa reading the same book they always did.

Keeping her eyes on the book, Ruvie said, “Denzel. I plan to wait for the end here. If the planet is to die then it doesn’t matter where I am. Everywhere is the same. What are you going to do? If you’re going to go somewhere then I don’t mind if you take the food from the house and go. You’re still a child so I think you should decide where you want to be in the end.”

Denzel thought about what Ruvie said deeply. Then he asked the question he had been longing to ask during the day.

“Is it all right if I stayed here?”

Ruvie looked up from the book and smiled at Denzel.

Ever since then, Ruvie went about as she always did except she didn’t clean the outside. Cleaning the outside became Denzel’s job now.

He saw that construction had began on top of the Shinra building. Before long, a giant cannon was built on the top of the roof. Ruvie was told that Shinra was going to exterminate Meteo.

“That company is always wrong about something,” said Ruvie shaking her head sadly.

Eventually, the cannon was fired once in some odd direction and broke down, collapsing to the grounds. Not long after that, Shinra itself was attacked and was destroyed. Denzel was thinking to himself what on earth could the monster have been. He couldn’t imagine any monster that could destroy a building but decided against asking Ruvie. Meteo was in the sky as usual. In other areas, there was some huge disturbance but Denzel’s daily life remained peaceful.

There were times when he couldn’t suppress his thoughts about his parents and cried but, Ruvie always calmed him down by holding him.

If the end was to come while he slept with Ruvie then he didn’t mind.

What took Denzel’s peace was not the Meteo but the white waters that filled him with anger. As a result of the Life Stream that the planet released, it became the righteous power that destroyed the Meteo but that thick energy of life also brought destruction to mankind.

One fated day, Denzel was about to go to sleep with Ruvie. The sound of a strong wind blowing outside could be heard but it was too much of a noise to be just the wind. Before long, the whole house began shaking vigorously.

The end was here. It would be good if it was over quickly, thought Denzel to himself but time went by and the shaking grew even more vicious. The sound grew quieter down and changed as if a train was speeding pass their house. Denzel held on tightly to Ruvie shutting his eyes trying to bear it but five minutes was too much.

“Miss Ruvie, I’m scared.”

Just as Ruvie was getting up and was about to put the light on, the flower patterned curtains turned bright white. It was as if the whole house was engulfed in light.

“Cover yourself with the blanket.”

As Ruvie left the bedroom, the shaking grew very violent and the flowers on top of the chest of drawers fell to the ground. Denzel flew out of the bed and went after Ruvie.

Ruvie stood there staring at the living room window. It was the window that Denzel broke, patched up with vinyl. The vinyl was being inflated as if it was going to break apart. Ruvie ran over to the window and tried to suppress it with her two hands.

“Denzel! Go back to your room!”

Denzel was shaking. He couldn’t move as if his feet were stuck to the floor. It was me who broke the window. It must be my fault that something bad is happening. Ruvie left the window and rushed over to Denzel. He was violently pushed back into the bedroom. Just then, the vinyl shattered and bright rays of light came flooding into the house. Screaming, Ruvie closed the door.

“Miss Ruvie!”, Denzel cried as he grabbed the doorknob and tried to open the door.

“Denzel, stop it!”

“But-!” Denzel tried at the doorknob again.

Ruvie stood there with her back towards the door. Feet apart, she was using both her hands to keep the door closed.

“Keep it closed!”

Around Ruvie, many beams of light burst through the walls and reflected everywhere. It was as if a glowing snake was running wild in the room.

I didn’t think it was a monster from the monster encyclopedia. Run and tell an adult about it. No, in this house, I must stand and fight.

“Miss Ruvie!” he cried as the light attacked Ruvie. A short moan could be heard. The light changed its shape into what looked like a thin piece of rope, forcing its way through the gap between the wall and Ruvie into the bedroom.

Ruvie collapsed onto the floor as Denzel got thrust away unconscious.

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