The red fluffy hat of his seems to have concealed the bundled up white hair of his, showing only part of the messy fringe had peeked out.
With his deep voice which he had tried his best to fake it he said.
“I am Santa Claus-”
“No- You’re Kobe…” I insisted
The next moment after he said that, I interrupted him before he could finish his sentence.
There is no way I could believe that. Every parts of him looks identical, he was Kobe!
He gave me a laugh, while lifting his chest upward and downward. However it was a hilarious sight especially he was wearing onto the thick red fluffy Santa suit.
The next thing before I could realize was his warm hand patting on my head. It was comfortable and warm like sitting next to the warm fireplace with a heavy snowfall outside.
“You are clumsy… “He laughed. Of course the way he said it in his faked deep voice does made me laughed back naturally.
“I wished to save you like earlier, but I couldn’t know whether will there be any next time…” He added seriously but yet still in his faked deep voice which made everything sentence he said sounded so funny.
However he seems like he really means his words
After a few second of thinking of means that could loosen this tensed up situation, I still couldn’t manage to find something suitable to reply.
I was ecstatic to see him once again. For which he who had himself bruised with injuries and collapsed in front of me, had returned back to me all of a sudden.
Once again, he laughed as he with his chest rising upward and downward.
“Ho! Ho! Ho! Young lady, what a fine set of dress you had there. It looks so lovely on you”
He complimented on my white dress. Wait! It’s more like he tried to divert away from the question on whether was he Kobe or not. But it’s no longer important right now.
Looking at this familiar guy who acting so weird that I couldn’t control myself but to try playing along together with him.
“Thank, but God isn’t fair to let me show it to the person I truly liked…” I replied
It could be better if I didn’t asked this weird question as it only reward me with quiet moment of him standing down there, trying to think of ways to continue.
He looked at me with his brown eyes, wait did he even went to the extent of getting a color contact lens?
“I’m sure he is fair-“
“At least to me” He added after pausing for a short moment.
With the warmth from his gloves on my forehead, I was reassured with a sense of security and warmth.
I couldn’t care about which strange world am I in
I couldn’t care how hard he tries to deny it
I couldn’t care how cold I felt as long as his warm hands are with me
I couldn’t care anymore, as long as I got the answer that he is safe at least.
“Audrey-“
He called out for my name gently like he always did.
“There will be time when I could no longer protect you. Therefore-“ He added
“No-“
I covered his mouth, preventing him from continue any further.
I wouldn’t wish to listen to something which is worst expected from him.
I wouldn’t wish to listen to something which I do not want to listen.
At the same time, tears which were welling from my eyes trickled down from my face. I was not able to stop it.
“Therefore, please continue to live on with your dreams…-“
This was the last thing he said before he disappeared away in the air along with the warmth feeling on my head.
The world around was once again, returning to a blinding white world, as if I was facing on a blank white screen.
There is no way which I could accept this, no freaking way!
If this is the world which lies ahead of me, then I shall open my eyes once more.
I shut my eyes tightly despite the tears which had overflow from my eyes. I was reluctant to believe this crap.
“No one is able to take you away, no one! NOT EVEN GOD!”
“This is merely a nightmare and everything would be fine after I opened my eyes”
With that, I opened my eyes.
Once again, the surrounding was all white and lonely. It was colorless and quiet as if there is no one out there. Looking down, my white dress was no longer there. Instead I was wearing onto a plain colorless one-pieced cloth.
It was light, at least lighter than my heavy mind.
Looking down at my leg which covered by the one-piece cloth, I could found myself on a bed, a plain white bed without any smell.
Looking from my thigh to my toes slowly, I realized that I was not the only one in this world of nothingness. There is another guy sitting right in front of me, looking at me deep into my eye as if that he had been looking at me long before I even woke up.
“Sorry” is the first word which I heard after waking up from that nightmare. But it is also the magical word which is about to spark the beginning of another nightmare, the nightmare for which I had feared all along.
“Sorry- I was too late”
It was Ken who had said that twice, in fact thrice as he was about to say it again. I looked around me and realized that I was in the hospital.
Without caring any further more, I dashed out of the room, trying to run away from this nightmare which was about to begin. Needles that stuck onto my skin were forcedly pulled out as I moved, staining the plain white cloth with crimson red spot that are growing bigger every moments.
There is no pain from it as I was already numbed with something much more painful. I couldn’t know where to run to or how to run to.
I just ran, because all I wished was to look at Kobe for one last time.
