I tried so hard to write something involving cheeriness and rain but this came out instead…

Two exams down, one to go :D

Spoiler free!

Sora ran through the rain as fast as he could, only to discover that she had already gone.

Can’t

It was raining that day, the sky flinging sheets of grey water to the sodden ground. He ran on, his little feet getting wetter with each splashing step. He was so out of breath but he didn’t stop. He had to get there. What the others had said couldn’t be true. They had made a mistake! She wouldn’t have just gone!

His sandals no match for the slippery mud, he tripped and fell, landing on his stomach and smothering himself in mud. Biting his lip until he felt for sure there wouldn’t be any tears, he pushed himself up and carried on running. He flew past everyone, ignoring them as they called out and asked where he was off to in such a hurry.

They didn’t understand.

Eventually he reached her house. He leaned on the fence as he caught his breath, eyes squeezed shut so he could delay the revelation a little bit longer.

He bravely opened his eyes and looked at her house.

It was empty, the door swinging open in the breeze. He ran in, calling out to her just in case she was still hiding under the stairs like she always did when they played hide and seek. But she never called back. He ran upstairs, not caring about the mud and water he tracked around with him. Her family wouldn’t mind. She wouldn’t mind.

But she wasn’t there.

“No,” he was whispering the word over and over. Each time it quavered a little more. “No.”

He threw open the door to her bedroom. For a moment, he watched her turn and smile at him like she always did. But it wasn’t real this time; he was only watching a sunlit memory. Her room was white and empty, all the things that made it hers removed without a trace.

Why had she gone? He couldn’t stop the tears then. He didn’t understand. She hadn’t even said goodbye properly. She’d said I’ll see you tomorrow! She’d waved and smiled at him, a promise made. They were supposed to play together every day. He backed out her room, trying to feel angry but only feeling his heart sink further into sorrow. He turned and fled her house, going back out into the rain, sobbing miserably. He ran all the way home, his head bowed and his teeth clenched so no one around would hear his tears.

Why wasn’t she where she was supposed to be?

He ran home to his mother’s arms, soaking wet and shivering. Not even as his mother’s warmth seeped into his small body did he feel less sorrow.

“Naminé’s gone!” he cried, clinging to his mother who hugged and comforted him. “She’s gone and I don’t know how to find her!”

His mother sat down and held him on her lap. “It happens sometimes. Friends go far away even though we don’t want them to, and we can’t always go after them.”

“That’s not fair!”

“I know. But that’s how it is sometimes. You can’t do anything about it.”

Sora had never liked can’t.