• I'll never leave your side.


    A chilly gust of wind danced through the streets of an unnamed city, carelessly winding down a main stretch of asphalt as the orange sun rose above the bleak horizon. The playful breeze raced along the side of a tall, dilapidated building, eventually colliding with a pile of dead leaves. Twenty years ago, this month would have been included in the season of spring; however, with all the unexpected changes and results of excessive radiation, seasons were irrelevant.

    As the orange-dyed leaves rolled about upon the concrete, they dispersed accordingly, and behind them, they had been concealing a cracked, grimy basement window.

    The morning sunlight shot through the semi-transparent barrier, concentrating most of its luminosity toward the open hole that presumably held responsibility for the jagged crevice that formed from its center; this ray of light traversed through the musky space within the basement and fell upon a figure bound to a support beam.

    His blond hair shimmered in the sun. The brightness the yellow of his locks provided contrasted greatly with the shadowed room.

    He felt the warmth upon his head and he stirred, tenderly shifting his body toward the source of light. His eyes slowly opened; his vibrant emerald green spheres glowed under the sun's rays, stealing the attention from the remainder of his face, which was spattered with his own blood.