Diamond slowly crawled across the floor until he was sitting, leaning his back against the cold metal wall. He was breathing heavily, his chest still heaving, but little by little the tears began to subside.
He brought a hand to his head, awkwardly massaging his temple; it ached, perhaps from stress, perhaps from fear. The silence of the room weighed more than any words.
Minutes passed. Diamond ended up burying his head between his knees, seeking solace in the darkness. Everything felt still, dull... and yet, every tiny sound—distant footsteps, a door, a muffled voice—resonated within his chest like an echo.
He was alone. Completely alone.
He didn't know what the future held, or even if he would ever see anyone again. He tried to close his eyes, to rest, but sleep wouldn't come. He was too accustomed to constant stimulation: the music, the games, the cheerful chats with his friends.
Now there was only silence
And in that silence, the memory of fear and confusion kept him awake.
After what seemed like hours, the door burst open.
Diamond jerked his head up, startled, blinking at the light in the hallway. For a moment, his heart filled with hope.
He stood up awkwardly and approached the guard, clutching the fabric of his uniform with both hands.
"Are you taking me out now?" he asked with a small, trembling smile. "See, I'm not the one who did it?"
The guard looked at him coldly, with no trace of compassion.
"We found something that belonged to Vic in your bedroom," he replied firmly.
Diamond's smile slowly faded.
"We were friends..." he murmured. "Maybe he lent me a book, or..."
"No," the guard interrupted. "It was a stuffed animal. A shark."
Diamond's eyes widened in horror. The same stuffed animal Tri had given him that morning
"No! Tri gave me that, you're all mistaken..." he quickly denied, feeling panic creep up his chest.
The guard shook his head silently, closing his eyes for a moment, as if mourning the inevitable.
"What... what's going to happen now?" Diamond whispered, his voice breaking, barely audible.
The guard didn't answer right away. He just took a step back, looking at another colleague waiting outside the cell.
And in that silence, Diamond understood that something much worse was about to happen.
"We're going to kick you off the ship," the guard said finally.
Diamond looked at him, and his face completely shattered. The tears returned, thicker, more desperate, but they no longer came from fear... but from a deep sadness.
"At the ship's next stop?" he asked in a thread of a voice, searching for a glimmer of hope.
The guard shook his head slowly.
"Ceramic dolls are not allowed on the ship. Your expulsion is immediate."
Diamond stared at him, bewildered, his heart pounding in his chest.
"How...? But we're miles above the ground..." he whispered, not understanding
The guard didn't respond. Silently, he took his arm firmly and began to drag him out of the room.
"Uh... no! No! Where are you taking me?!" Diamond cried, resisting, his voice breaking with sobs. "Tri! Tri, help me!"
His cry echoed through the ship's metal corridors, bouncing off the walls like a sad, lost echo.
And right up to the last moment, as they dragged him toward an uncertain fate... Diamond still believed that Tri would come to save him.
"I'm not a ceramic doll, I promise!" Diamond squealed as they dragged him down the corridor. "Do all the tests you want on me! Cut open my abdomen and check my cotton stuffing! But please don't hurt me!"
His words were choked by sobs. Every step was a struggle; boots pounded the metal floor as the guard, much larger than him, held him by the chest and his clothes. Diamond kicked and screamed, but no one came to his aid.
"Please! I'm not made of ceramic!" he continued to scream, his voice growing more and more ragged.
Finally, they reached the boarding and disembarking area. The guard signaled to the employee monitoring the control panel.
With a mechanical squeak, the doors began to open.
The air became a roar. A violent current surged through the corridor, and Diamond's light body was jerked toward nothingness, pulled by the pressure of the vacuum.
The guard barely managed to grab him by the chest; his firm grip was the only thing preventing the small doll from being swallowed by the sky. Diamond clung to his arm, terrified, feeling the wind tear him from the ship as if he were prey caught in the claws of an invisible beast.
The guard raised his arm into nothingness, leaving Diamond suspended over the void.
There were a few seconds of silence.
Diamond stopped crying, paralyzed by fear. The guard fell silent as well. Between them, an instant of hesitation... a fleeting thought... a sigh.
And then, nothing.
The guard's fingers parted.
Diamond fell
Vertigo hit him like an invisible bat, stealing his breath, making his body spin uncontrollably as the roar of the air enveloped him.
The guard didn't want to look. He turned and walked away, his shadow disappearing into the cold lights of the corridor.
Meanwhile, Diamond was falling, and in the current he saw something between the still-open doors: Tri.
"Tri!" Diamond shouted, his voice carried away by the wind.
For a second he thought his friend would help him, but then Tri pulled off his hood. From his pocket he pulled something out... a ceramic heart, shiny, with fine cracks that reflected the light from the ship.
Diamond recognized it.
Vic's heart.
Tri held it up to his eyes, and then, with cruel slowness, brought it to his mouth. He bit into it. He swallowed it.
Diamond's eyes opened wide, unable to make a sound.
The hatches closed, and the ship drifted away, becoming a tiny dot against the dark sea of sky.
Diamond kept falling, the image of Tri seared into his pupils.
Diamond fell face down into nothingness.
The tears that escaped his eyes weighed almost nothing, and they hung behind him like a glittering trail, a fleeting trail of light lost in the darkness.
Now it all made sense.
Tri was the ceramic doll that had killed Vic. It had left the blue pendant—the one Diamond had given it—at the crime scene to frame him. And the stuffed animal that Diamond had given it that morning... it was just another piece in the game, one more piece of evidence to seal its fate.
As the wind howled in his ears, all Diamond could think about was how stupid he had been.
How he hadn't seen it before... how he hadn't understood until the very last moment.
But no—it wasn't that he couldn't see it.
It was that he didn't want to.
And there is none so blind as he who refuses to look
Diamond felt the emptiness around him fill with memories.
He saw the first time he met Tri, Vic's last smile, the games, the laughter, his small room, the objects he loved so much... It all faded into thin air, slipping through his hands like sand, as if the happiness he had once felt had been nothing more than an illusion.
The wind enveloped him, carrying away his breath, his warmth, his voice. And then, everything went black.
The impact with the ground made him bounce to the side, his cloth body jerking with a dull thud.
He closed his eyes, unable to move, as the silence devoured him.
His last thought was barely a whisper in his mind:
Is this... the end?
...
Comments (0)
See all