Hiroshima Book Two
E. Mendell
Copyright 2014 E. Mendell
Table of Contents
Sinister History
Two
Three
Four
Five
Six
About the Author
Connect with E. Mendell
- Sinister History -
The dream came again. It is of a woman crying. She was lying in a puddle of blood with a deep wound in her stomach. “Don’t come!” She cried, her voice cracking and hollow. Her hands were covering her face and the floor around her was speckled in what appeared to be stars. They sparkled beautifully as the girl began to scream. “Don’t come! Don’t come!”
“No!” Hiro shouted, pounding on the glass wall that separated him from the woman. “Anna! No! I’m sorry. I’m sorry!” He hammered on the glass, but it wouldn’t break. The dream faded and Hiro felt himself being shook back and forth briskly. His golden eyes flew open and he stared into the silver eyes of Soul.
“What’s happened?” Soul asked, looking at Hiro in fear. “You were talking in your sleep. It was scary.”
Hiro stared at Soul’s silver eyes. Her long blond hair was a frizzy mess and she wore the same white and blue polka dot pajamas she wore the other day. Hiro stared at her. “What… What did I say?” He whispered in blank fear.
“Well,” said Soul, sitting back as Hiro propped himself up on his elbows. “You were practically shouting ‘I’m sorry’ and you also kept saying a girl’s name.”
Hiro felt caught. He placed a hand over his eyes. “Anna,” he murmured.
“Yeah, that was the name,” said Soul, nodding. “Who is she?”
Hiro sat up, leaning forward and placing his head in his hands. His black hair was a mess and the silver strands could hardly be seen. “She was the last person whose name I learned,” he whispered. “And… it was my fault that she died.”
~ One ~
It was a beautiful summer morning. The day after Hiro saved Soul from being taken captive by a man named Enimito. He had trapped her in an underground parking lot. Hiro still wasn’t sure how Enimito had known about Soul. All he knew was that he had saved Soul by chance. Because of her illness, Soul’s heart had begun to fail. Hiro had had little time to get her out of the parking lot and stop the attack. She was now living in his house and knew a little about what Hiro was.
An experiment. He was a weapon with no feelings other than fear, pain, and sorrow. Hiro was more machine than man, but he wouldn’t tell Soul more than that. The young girl was already in enough trouble. With her heart sickness plaguing her and now her unexpected involvement with Hiro’s history, she was in danger. Hiro opened his house to her, since Soul was an orphan, but mostly so he could guard her. He hadn’t told her this. As far as Soul knew he was just being kind. And as far as Hiro knew Soul was just an ill orphan. Neither of them knew how wrong they really were.
That morning, as Hiro left to check on their surroundings, Soul sat on the mattress that lay on the floor. She was eating bread with honey and looking at the laptop that lay in the center of the floor. Hiro’s home was tiny. It consisted of one main room and a bathroom off to the right.
Hiro hadn’t said anything more about Anna as he gave Soul her breakfast and left, pulling on his black jacket as he shut the door. Now Soul was alone, wondering what Hiro had been dreaming about. He had kept shouting Anna’s name and saying he was sorry. Soul knew enough about dreams to be sure that a lot of them had to do with past experiences. She wondered who Anna was. Hiro said it had been the last person whose name he learned, but he also said it was his fault she died. So… what had he done? How had he killed her?
Soul chewed the bread slowly with honey drizzling down her chin. She wiped it away licked it off her thumb. There was another reason she was worried that morning. Hiro might not have been aware of it, but there were many stories going around the city about him, both good and bad. It seemed the older the stories were the worse they got. The more recent ones were really sweet, but Soul didn’t focus on those.
When she was young her mother had told her about the mysterious individual that lived in their neighborhood. He was known as the dark man with golden eyes. Soul had never thought she would meet him. It was three years later that her parents were killed, and then four more years passed before she saw Hiro. Soul would not have recognized him had he not glanced in her direction so she could see his golden eyes.
The mysterious wanderer had looked at her, but he hadn’t seemed to access that she was there. She had been hiding beside a bush after all. He probably thought she was odd, which wouldn’t surprise her. Now Soul wondered if Hiro would ever remember that day. Had he even thought anything of her after seeing her standing alone? Had it puzzled him at all?
Soul shook her head and ate more bread. She was pretty sure Hiro hadn’t thought about her. Even back when she first saw him she had been nothing but a skinny, pale blond in old pajamas. With a sigh, Soul convinced herself Hiro would not remember that day.
Hiro was thinking about that same day while he sat alone on his favorite bench. He sat back with his arms stretched across the top of the bench. His golden eyes were on the sky as he recalled the weird day. He had been on his way to get more supplies and happened to look over to see a blond girl standing beside a bush looking over at him. She had stared at him in surprise so Hiro had looked away without a word.
Thinking back, Hiro realized the girl had indeed been Soul. But why had she been standing beside the bush like a stalker? Was she an orphan then as well? Hiro wasn’t sure how long the girl had been without parents. He wondered if she had been hiding from her parents and possibly spying on them, but he dismissed that theory. It wasn’t likely, since the house she had been watching at that time was his.
“I didn’t think that was weird,” Hiro wondered. His expression now twisted into a confused frown as he looked at the sky. “Why the heck was she watching my house?” Fate was a funny thing and it apparently liked to mess with Hiro. It had been a year since they had first seen each other and yet neither had realized it. Hiro was baffled over why fate had decided to twist their lives just enough that they would meet. It was a little worrying and Hiro began to think about the girl’s age all over again. She looked young and frail because of her heart condition, but it was possible she was older than she acted.
Hiro passed a hand over his face. Why had he taken her in again? She could have been old enough to care for herself! When he was looking up information about her he could have checked her age, but he had already read her real name enough. To wash her name from his mind he continued to call her Soul, because whenever he learned someone’s name they would die a terrible death. Normally Hiro did not get involved, but he was always there, or happened to walk by at the wrong moment.
Hiro shut his eyes then stood up. He had to talk to Soul and find out more about her and her parents. He walked back down the hill, following the sidewalk that was lined with bushes. All around him were beautiful white houses and gardens circled by white picket fences. It was gorgeous and peaceful, filled with the fragrance of spring flowers and fresh cut grass. The people were nice and would acknowledge him when he walked by. They always greeted him with smiles, which Hiro felt he didn’t deserve. He had done a lot in the village, but he never learned anyone’s name. The last thing he wanted was to kill someone else just by learning their name. He would still smile and wave, but today his actions felt hollow. His fake smile was heavy upon his face. He caught himself wondering what real happiness felt like. The emotion was foreign. Something he would never know because of the scientists that turned him into a weapon.
As Hiro came to his house he wondered if Soul would
even want to talk to him. She had looked shaken after waking him from his nightmare. Hiro couldn’t blame her of course. Had he been in her place he’d be a little frazzled too. After all, he had accidentally confessed that Anna’s death had been his fault. She probably thought he was some kind of homicidal maniac that was hiding out in the neighborhood. Shrugging to himself, Hiro knocked before opening the door. He gave a start when he found the lights were on and Soul was sitting at his laptop.
“What are you doing?” He asked as Soul jumped and stared at him in terror.
“Email!” She cried, quickly exiting out of every window she had had up. Hiro crossed the room in two steps and snatched the laptop from her. He looked at it before narrowing his eyes. “Doing a little studying?” He asked, glancing down at Soul with an eyebrow arched.
Soul ducked her head and crawled away, sitting down on the mattress with her ankles crossed and her hands folded. “Sorry,” she whispered. “I had nothing else to do and I wanted to see if there was anything about you online.”
“Did you enjoy all the fun stories?” Hiro asked. He sat cross-legged in the middle of the room and read the story Soul had been in the middle of. It was a very dark story, to which Hiro gave a gloomy look. He lifted his eyes to watch Soul who was studying the floor, wringing her fingers together as she tried to think of a response.
“No,” she whispered at last, lowering his head with her shoulders hunched. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have looked for your history.”
“I told you that you wouldn’t enjoy it,” Hiro said. He shook his head and closed out the last windows, then checked the history to see what else Soul had looked up. She actually had been on email, which made Hiro pout. “At least you didn’t fully lie,” he murmured.
“I was only going to check my email then look for some movies to watch,” whispered Soul.
Hiro shrugged. “How old are you, Soul?” He asked.
“Eighteen,” murmured Soul.
Hiro looked up at her quickly. “You’re eighteen?” He demanded.
Soul nodded. “Because of my health I look younger,” she said, rubbing her arms and looking at her hands. “My parents were scared I would die before I turned twenty, which is still possible, but they wanted me to look and act my age. I couldn’t. I tried to wear makeup and act like a mature woman, but I was unable to. I hated makeup and it was not like me to act mature. All in all I failed, even after they died.”
Hiro was quiet for a moment. He thought over her story before speaking again. “How long ago did they die?”
“When I was thirteen.”
“Do you remember them well?”
“Yes, very well.”
“How did they die?”
Soul didn’t answer. Hiro lifted his head to look at Soul and saw she was looking intensely at her fingers. It was clear she didn’t want to answer, but Hiro could tell by the tremble in her fingers that the reason she didn’t want to tell him was because it was extremely important.
“How did they die, Soul?” Hiro asked with gravity. “You know a lot about me now, so you owe me an answer.”
Soul bit her lip. She couldn’t argue with him about that. With a painful expression, she looked at Hiro. It seemed like she was gong to cry. “I…” she began quietly. “I thought you knew.”
Hiro shook his head. “How would I know that?” He asked. “I never met your parents.”
Soul chewed her lip, looking away. “Well,” she whispered. “Hiro… it was you who killed them.”