strangers talking { down } // kou

Winter has a cruel howl.

I had almost forgotten about the feeling of ice driving itself into my iron skin. Of course, the worst case was buried when the three of us huddled by the fire and did out besy to keep warm and the case still comes into play now with me and my mother now. We're one of the lucky few.

Winter has a cruel howl, and that case is illustrated to me every year. For there are always the ones with lesser fortune, without fire or a roof over their heads. It gets so cold, hell seems to freeze over and lose itself beneath layers of snow and ice; there is no way a child or homeless lersin has a chance of survival. Their veins turn to ice and I find myself having to work overtime.

"Ripred save your soul."

I catch my breath fogging in silver mist before me. The graveyard's too small for all the bodies, I need to dig beyond regular boundaries. My shovel sinks through the snow and into the hardening ground.

"Hey, you! What do you think you're doing? You can't dig there!"

I turn, spotting a lithe and skinny girl scrambling over the fence, desperstion in her voice. I scoff, wondering if this another stupid kid playing games with the dead.

"And why not?" I ask, question cold as the ice surrounding us.

She points at the ruined ground as if I've committed mortal sin for simply doing what puts food on my family's table. As she speaks, my facial expression passes through phases, going from one plagued with annoyance to one with a million questions. I've never been one to protect people and save their skin, I've only ever been strong enough to pick up the pieces when it's too late. On any other day, I probably would've commended her. However, out here in this winter wasteland surrounded by nothing but ice and death, I just want to get on with my job and not guess how many wounded souls she may or may not have saved with some purple flowers.

Her second tangent catches my attention, bringing a sigh from my lips as my breath materialises in silver smoke. I look around, mind flashing back to each nameless grave I've dug. "I'd like to think they wouldn't haunt me, I went through the trouble of putting 'em all here after all." I let the revelation hang in the air between us, words forming a silver tattoo in space.

"Besides, if you'd seen what I'd seen, you'd know that the dead ain't in no state to haunt anyone."

I bury my shovel into the ground.