The Truth in his Eyes

“Are we the only people here?”

Was what she asked of me yesterday night. Seeing as the night was no longer young, I convinced her to wait until the next morning, and we’ll talk about it.

That “next morning” became the here and now, and I have decided to move out to a different scenery before I dove head on into explaining the brief history of what had transpired in the still-not-so-distant past.

We are positioned just behind my house, or in other words, in my backyard which is also at the eastern edge of the floating island. We moved here not just for a change of scenery or pace, but so that Mythria could get a glimpse of the ruined World below.

“Whoaaa, there’s a lot of clouds below us. I didn’t know there was such a view here..!”

She was always easy to please, but I wasn’t exactly trying to do that at the time.

“Will I fall if I jumped off from here?”

Common sense dictated the answer to be a massive YES, but not for this floating island where most things are far from the ordinary.

“No. Your ‘view’ would just end up upside down.”

“Hmm..? what does that mean?”

She tilted her head with a finger on her chin.

“It would be easier for you to just try it.”

And so she did. It took her a few tries before she could actually push through with the idea of “jumping” because…. Well, what if I was lying and she actually fell down? That would likely end any ordinary person’s life. Every time it looked like she was ready to jump, she’d pull back with cold sweat running down her forehead and nape. I would also see her shiver a little, which was kind of cute. Imagining her >.< face was funny, and so I let her keep at it for a bit longer.

What pushed her into actually jumping was none other than myself. I gave her a demonstration, and naturally, she saw that it was as I had said.

“Wooaahhh…!!”

She could be seen with eyes sparkling out of curiosity with reddened cheeks as blood from the excitement rushed to her head. The sky, which one would normally have to look at from above, was then at a direction anybody could only describe as being “below”. The ruined World, on the other hand, was situated above us; replacing the sky that used to be there.

It was the magnificent work of Gravity, which kept anything and everything within the floating island attached and connected to the ground from which it originates.

“How are we not falling?! Say, say, how?!”

She tugged at my clothes, making small, restless jumping movements as if she was dancing. Of course, not knowing how to explain the logic to her, I scratched at my temples.

“Deep inside the soil, there is this small oval-shaped thing that produces a force that gently pulls everything to it. This force is what they call gravity.”

She nodded not once, but twice with eyes still full of vigor. She then resumed,

“But why does everything here look so desolated?”

She looked around everywhere, only to see nothing. No buildings resembling a house. No gardens, forests, or anything that gives away any semblance of life. Well, except for the body of water that continues to run through various channels ( which powers the entire island )

“That’s because this side of the island is not meant for anyone or anything to live on. This part instead provides the support needed by everything else above.”

I explained, omitting as many troublesome details as possible. Mythria nodded, satisfied with what I said so far.

I waved my hand at her, signaling that I wanted to come back up to the upper layer of the island from which she quickly agreed to.

We were once again located at the very edge of the island where the view of the ruined World below expanded seemingly eternally, except there were too many clouds for us to really see much.

“I can’t see much…”

Mythria strained her eyes, to no avail.

“Give it a few minutes. The clouds should clear up soon.”

And so, we spent the next five minutes in utter silence with only the touch of the wind and the aroma of the soil ( which was carried by the air ) accompanying us. After that…

“Ah, I can see it. It’s so big..! It’s nothing like this place where we are now. It’s much, much larger! So large that it looks like it just stretches out endlessly!!”

Mouth agape, she witnessed the World below unfold before her very eyes. As the clouds steered away from us, the visibility got better, and we could now bask in the ruined World’s full glory.

One could clearly see numerous mountains here and there, while some parts of the World was filled with what seemed like bodies of water both small and large. Hints of a massive nation could be seen from the west, where one could see countless small dots resembling houses and establishments. A third of the World was in shambles; there was virtually no land that remained intact, to the point it seemed as if something massive punched a large hole into the World. There was, however, countless small remains of land scattered around in mid-air, unmoving. It was a World devoid of any colors. One which was entirely incapable of hosting life. A world which had died not too long ago.

In a matter of a few moments, Mythria’s eyes, which were then filled with excitement, became full of sorrow and pity. From her perspective, it was the first time she had seen such a massive World unfold before her. A chunk of land far more massive than the one our feet were connected to, and yet, it was already hopeless. Too hopeless for her to even aim for a journey.

I was not too far, but I was still behind her at the time. She spun herself around to face me, and with eyes now filled with something I could only describe as disappointment, she asked.

“Is there nothing we can do…? I… want to bring colors back to that World.”

I answered with “It’s too late now. This world cannot be revived.”

I then exhaled a big one, before telling her,

“To answer your question yesterday night, yes. We are alone. Not just on this island. We are the only two remaining semblance of intelligent life in the World.”

I then proceeded to look at the ground right below me, unable to face Mythria’s gaze.

“It wasn’t exactly my fault, but I could have done something. Yet, I did nothing and let the World be destroyed. You are free to hate me.”

Mythria moved not an inch. She instead showed me a determined expression; her eyes piercing straight at me with resolve.

“I will decide how I feel after you’ve told me everything.”

She gave me a warm smile afterward.