A familiar voice rang out from the speakers, “Are you alright in there?”

Eryi turned toward the two way window and guessed, “Freya?”

“Aha! You are correct, how did you know?”

Eryi thought, “I could notice that annoying voice anywhere.”

Eryi stood up as he asked, “Where is Andri?!”

His knees felt as light as a cloud and he fell to his knees. Eryi’s face churned with confusion and then he realised he had fallen on the person he had just murdered. He looked at their mangled face and asked, “A human?”

“No, a bug. They’re a kissing bug,” Freya said.

Eryi simply said, “Okay,” but in his heart he tried to convince himself that he should be sad.

“Something is wrong with me,” Eryi said internally. “I should feel sad, disgusted, angry at myself for even killing anything at all. But why do I feel nothing? I should be sad. I am sad! I am disgusted! I can’t feel anything at all, no, I do feel something. I have to feel something! Before Andri came along I couldn’t even hurt a fly, and yet… Who am I?”

Freya whispered to a soldier next to her, “Is something wrong with him? He’s just sitting there and staring.”

“He must have lost too much blood,” the soldier guessed.

Someone pressed on the mic beside Freya and she turned with wide eyes.

“What are you doing here? Wait, how did you even get here?”

Andri didn’t even care to glance Freya’s way and he spoke into the mic, “Eryi, can you stand?”

Eryi didn’t react and Andri’s smile became strained. Freya instinctively backed away and Andri tried again, “Eryi, can you stand?”

Once again, Eryi did not respond in any way, and Andri screamed into the mic, “Eryi!”

Eryi swung his head toward the two way window and he asked, “Andri?”

“Get up,” Andri demanded, with annoyance ridden in his voice.

Eryi did as he was told, and his legs felt like leaves below him, swaying with any slight disturbance. A door opened beside the window and Eryi walked through, meeting Andri’s gaze instantly.

Eryi asked, “Are you okay, Andri?”

Andri said with a smile, “I’m doing great.”

Andri grabbed Eryi by the arm and began leading him to the door, and just before they left Freya snapped out of her daze.

Freya cleared her throat and asked, “Where are you two going?”

The door closed behind the two teenagers and Freya was left utterly dumbstruck.

“They left?!”

Freya ran out of the room and reached for both of their collars to drag them back into the room so she could hold them there as she called for instruction, but before she could even graze their shirts Eryi turned around and grabbed her hands.

“Huh?”

Eryi pulled her arms down and slammed her nose into his knee. Andri laughed, grabbed Eryi’s hand, and then they ran down the hall. Eryi was still dizzy, having just gone through physical trauma, but he tried to ignore the fact that he felt incredibly ill.

Eryi asked, “Where are we?”

Andri said, “In the Snow Military’s fortress. It’s hidden in the mountains.”

Eryi exclaimed, “The mountains?”

Andri smiled and pulled Eryi right, sending them down another hall. This hall had windows, unlike any of the other halls. Outside of them was a forever snowy landscape surrounded by mountains. In the middle of the mountains, seemingly untouched by anything or anyone was Tempest. It looked so huge from up there that Eryi couldn’t believe his eyes. He had been so used to walking the same streets over and over and only looking one way that he hadn’t realised that he had never looked anywhere else. His whole life he had only gone one way, yet there were so many more paths for him to go down. Yet, why didn’t he?

“Small, isn’t it?”

Eryi turned to Andri and asked, “Huh?”

“Tempest. With the whole world surrounding it, it really puts into perspective how small and insignificant we are.”

Eryi couldn’t help but stare at Andri as he looked out the window with his empty smile and frozen eyes.

“I could have chosen any other path, and yet I chose to follow you.”

Andri turned to ask what Eryi meant, but Eryi ran his fingers through his light brown hair and pulled him into a deep kiss. The snow fluttered over the storm that was Tempest. In the streets people screamed red and thrusted up signs. They screamed over and over for justice that they would never receive, as Andri was right. Their voices were insignificant and small in the face of the mountains. Their opinions would disappear with the spring and soon they would all be forced to turn a blind eye from the blood stained snow as it melts into the soil.