Young Writers Society

In those mere seconds, it dawned on me how I worried so much about these lights - Scarlet, Sunglow, and Silver. I had just met Scarlet for more or less a couple of days and here I was, worried he would be gone. I looked at him, stuck on the surface of the deep purple light, his own red light waning. What had he done to me to make me felt like this?

Realization hit me - he had done nothing. He only offered to help me and I, without knowing, confided myself on him. It was obvious when I asked him to kill my father - a silly favour, now that I thought about it, but at that time I was crying because of my father. He didn’t try to force me to accept his ideas. He argued with me and teased me but in the brief moment we had together, he treated me like a friend.

He meant something, then. Something courageous, something strong. I knew we could do much and much more together, and I couldn’t lose him like this. Not when our mission wasn’t over - wasn’t even started. I needed to save him to learn more from, and about, him. This was a one-time experience in life and I was not going to waste it like this.

Again, I tried to remember everything about the lights. I grabbed Sarah’s hand tightly, holding to her unwavering pose. We looked at each other, and knew, just knew, that we would do anything to save the lights - our friends. We spent time too little with them but we had known so much. We wanted more - we were hungry learners.

Everything Sarah told me about her light, Sunglow, played in my mind like an old movie. How the male cashier attacked her in the toilet, how she was badly hurt, and how Sunglow saved her after absorbing the bad light’s energy. I still hadn’t figure out how his father could miss something was wrong - I meant, it must be quite a while, must not it, for that to happen?

“I will buy you some time,” Sunglow said. Then, the waves of brightening and dimming of the deep purple light stopped. Scarlet and Silver who were moaning went quiet - they didn’t struggle. “In my weakening state, I could only freeze the time for a few minutes. Think fast.”Her voice was a bit odd to me - it was like a teaching asking her students something she already knew the answer for.

Freezing time! That was why Sarah’s father didn’t realize she was in the toilet a bit too long. I shook my head. Now wasn’t the time to figure unnecessary things out. I tried to think how everything had happened in Sarah’s story. My eyes widened, remembering I forgot, or overlooked, some of the important details in it.

Sunglow appeared from Sarah’s body. The black light did the same thing with the cashier. Again, I exchanged looks with Sarah. Her eyes were widened - I was sure she was thinking the same thing. I looked at Imran, and his eyes were still unsettled looking at his light, Silver. Well, that was understandable. He had known his light longer than we had.

“Sunglow,” Sarah said after receiving my nods, “you came out from my body. Can’t you go into my body without moving yourself? It’s like absorption, isn’t it?”

Sunglow hummed a firmer hum than Scarlet. “Yes, it is similar to that. Taking shelter in your body is more to making our energy similar with yours. We manipulate our light energy, so that it can blend with your life force. If you touch me, I might be able to enter your body through your hand. The process is not exactly literal moving, so it might work.”

“Do it,” Imran said, his voice a whisper. “It’s better than nothing.”

“Okay,” Sunglow said. “Put your hands on us.”

We abided her instruction and quickly put our hands on them. I could feel the warmth of their lights, hotter than usual. Were they evaporating? Was that what the purple light was doing to them?

The purple light’s ever changing brightness continued. Scarlet and Silver resumed their moaning, and were surprised when they found out our hands were on them - mine on Scarlet, Imran’s on Silver, and Sarah’s on Sunglow.

“Scarlet, Silver. Manipulate your energy to be similar with their life forces. It is the only way we can escape this trap,” Sunglow said, the royal flair of her voice soaring through.

Scarlet and Silver didn’t reply, but we could see their lights brightening and brightening, more than I had ever seen. They were getting smaller, but I saw my hand glowering. I looked at Imran’s and Sarah’s - they were in the same state. I felt Scarlet’s warmth coursing through my veins and blood, somehow calming me down, making me comfortable.

After a few seconds, they were gone. The purple light let out a a flash of whiteness for a second before disappearing. I fell back, exhausted with everything that had happened. Sarah followed suit while Imran leaned on the wall.

“Is it working?” he said, asking both of us. His breath was ragged - I sensed he was tired too.

I shook my head. “I don’t know,” I said. “Scarlet? Are you in there, in me?” It sounded wrong in so many levels but I didn’t know how to say it in other ways.

Silence. Nothing. I started to worry. “Scarlet? Scarlet?”

Imran and Sarah called their lights, and were happy when their lights replied back. They looked at me, watching me as I relentlessly called Scarlet, hoping he would reply to me. There was no answer. Sunglow expressed her confusion - she assumed Scarlet would be the one with the highest chance of succeeding and not this. Silver echoed her thought, and said she had known him to be one of the strongest light.

But he didn’t reply. “Scarlet!” I said, screaming. Tears started to form at the brink of my eyes. “Don’t you dare leave me!”

But there was no reply. Nothing at all. I didn’t know what had happened. Scarlet seemed to act like he was strong, and Sunglow had called hims Warrior. He couldn’t possibly fail like this. What had gone wrong? Did I not hold on to him firm enough? Was I... was I the one who caused this failure? My body started to tremble, and the silence that had reigned was too scary.

“Surprise!” A masculine voice said loudly from my body, feeling me with some sort of faint warmth. He chuckled. “I won’t dare to leave yo, Merah.”

I realized he was in there after all, and was keeping his quiet to worry me unnecessarily. Furiousness built in me, and I punched my chest a few times. “What the hell did you do just now? You freaked the crap out of me!”

He yawned. “I’m not feeling anything from that,” he said, playfulness in his voice. “I didn’t do anything, nothing at all.”

I smiled faintly. “Don’t do that again,” I said.

“Will do,” Scarlet said back.

I accepted Imran’s hand to stand up. Sarah followed the same. We cleared the dusts on our butts and went into the car with the mix of red, gold and silver lights coming with us, smiles plastering on our faces as we accomplished something, something, tonight. It might not seemed big in the plan, but we did find a way to save the lights, our friends. We had passed the first challenge in our mission, and we did it gloriously. I intended for this glory to continue.