Paradox

Chapter Four

Phew, two chapters in one night... or morning xD  well, here's another chapter, I'm going to bed now XD  I should be working on something else, but what the heck :P  enjoy ^^

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Chapter Four

            “Don’t cry Chiwa,” Eliot’s voice said softly as he reached out a tender hand to wipe the tears from her eyes, his touch barely there, feeling like the tickle of wind.

            “Can I really see them again?” Chiwa asked, her voice cracking.

            “I think you can,” Eliot said, his light touch brushing against her face.  “Chiwa, please stop crying.”

            Blinking the tears from her eyes, she was able to make out his face.  He appeared to be around twenty, concern dancing in his strange eyes, nearly void of color.  There was a hint of gray in them, an almost silvery, but otherwise his eyes simply reflected that what was around him, changing their color slightly.  His caramel hair falling in his face, a few lone strands sticking up at odd angles.

            “Chiwa,” his features were still a little blurred, like a bad painting.  “Look Chiwa, you see where we are?” he asked, his fingers brushing some stray strands of her almost white hair from her face.

            “We’re surrounded by white,” Chiwa said once she had managed to get her trembling and sobbing under control, unable to remember the last time she had cried.  Thinking back, she realized she had been unable to shed a tear since the accident, and felt a little more at ease after a good cry, even if that sounded lame.

            “Well, we can’t go anywhere unless you take the ring,” Eliot said, taking her hands in his semi transparent ones.

            “Are you a ghost?” Chiwa gulped, noticing the Jelly’s core was gone from her hands.

            “No, I’m still not fully here, you see, all I know is what to do, not why....  It’s like a program written in my head, so please don’t get angry if I can’t explain everything.  The information is there, I just can’t get it,” Eliot said, making Chiwa look him in the eyes.

            “The ring,” Eliot released his grip on her hands, raising both of his, showing her the two identical rings, one on each hand.

            “I still don’t get what’s going on....  And aren’t you unlucky?” Chiwa asked nervously, picking at her nails, blushing when she realized Eliot was wearing no clothes, glad that he was semi transparent and that his lower half was virtually nonexistent.

            “Well, the ring is the final bond between you and God,” Eliot said, a solemn expression on his blurred face.  “If it gets destroyed, you’re out of Lacrimosa, but lucky for everyone, rings are harder to destroy than people.  But since people are fragile, they can get killed and if the person is killed, then the rings are wiped, meaning they go from this,” he turned his hands so she could see the markings and design of the identical rings.  “To plain rings, no markings, nothing at all.”

            “And I die,” he added, seeing her puzzled look.  “You see, we Jelly are in charge of keeping the rings safe, and their ring bearers as well, so think of me as your personal bodyguard if you wish,” he grinned, his figure shaking, the edges coming into slightly better focus.

            “And as for me being unlucky, that’s not a problem,” Eliot said softly, removing the ring from his right hand.  “Because, with God dying, some rules are deteriorating.  For instance, some bad things end up turning good, and good things bad, and I couldn’t just leave you after being through such a horrid experience, let the unlucky stick together,” he tried to cheer her up, not doing a very good job of it.