The Story of a Bird and Spider || Clintasha

15

"There's a lot you learn when you have to grow up, whether it's through the coming-of-age process, or through some other event. Life lessons and morals seem to strike you in a different way after these experiences. You begin to understand the importance of something, or someone, or the small things in this world. Even the huge, never-ending universe.

"People have thoughts and ideas and emotions that change who they are, what the outcomes of something will be, how you'll affect others, yourself, or anything else. With each thing that happens, we see a tiny other thing in a new light. It can be a gradual change, or something so sudden you have to slow down and breathe before you can fully process it. Death can have that immediate change in a person, but it's not always a negative change.

"I still have a lot to learn. I still have a choice about what and how something changes next. I am no longer that young boy who lived in a world with four walls that surrounded me. No, I've knocked them down."

"A lot of unpleasant things occur to people all around the world every day. Rape, murder, and suicide, to name a few. Perhaps at this very second, a young, confused child is being kidnapped, held hostage for ransom money that the victim's parents would have to sell their lives to afford, and I'm sure they'd try.

"Something devastating happens everywhere, all the time. And because of that, those devastations become statistics.

"You lose your parents in a car accident, and you're most likely horrified. But as the rates increase, and more crashes happen, you see more "1-In-500 Families Lost On The Road" Did-You-Know facts. It becomes less of tragedy to an individual, because it happens in such mass.

"Those 499 survivors can try to be as sympathetic as they can, but the reaction wouldn't be nearly as heartbroken if they were personally close to the hypothetically deceased person.

"You hear about a hospital fire that killed hundreds of defenseless ill, and heroes we call doctors, nurses, and janitors. You may feel a pang of heartbreak, go into a brood for days on end, or even start a charity. But you can't mourn over each tragic death, because at some point, some amount limit you reach, they become only faces in a crowd.

"Monkey Sphere, Sympathy Circle, Empathy Link--whatever you want to call it--no human can personally care for everyone. That perfection cannot exist when over 7 billion people inhabit Earth. You learn this first hand when you become one of the countless faces of a disastrous event."

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42. Hungary: Budapest, Wednesday, August 19, 10:36

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"We made a deal," Katya snaps, turning on Ari. "We're sticking to it."

Raising his hands defensively, he says in turn, "I was just giving you an option out."

I have that option, she thinks dismally to herself, a scowl forming as she turns back around and continues to walk through the halls. Ari follows, his spirits low-- there's no way to stop the explosives from setting off, now that they've been triggered.

She starts to run, feeling the time ticking away, almost lazily as if to laugh in their faces. As she turns left, Ari shouts at her, telling her to go right. Skipping the heated argument, she begins to follow him, while trying to think of a plan to get him out with Emma.

He continues to sprint ahead, the regular lights beginning to slowly shut off, one by one behind them as they run on. Katya's palms become sweaty, and she says, "Don't let me forget to tell Natasha to... to use the ring. There's a code on the inside of the band. It... It opens something important." Ari quickly looks behind him, a look of confusion on his face. She adds, "Don't forget," with emphasis.