Tao explains many things to him as they seek refuge in the Lower Wing. They spend their days sitting on the brick wall that divide the Lower Wing from the Outside with a pitcher of lemonade between them as Tao tries to tell Kai everything he knows.

“The pills are to regulate the way you think,” Tao says, drawing circles in the dust on the bricks. “Everyone has two made especially for them. Yours are yellow and red. The yellow one does indeed speed up the processes of your brain, but it also, in a way, filters it. Information necessary to your survival passes through that ‘filter,’ but any excess thought is discarded. That’s for the Daytime. The red one slows down the speed at which your brain functions at. This is to stop your dreams from being too active, thus making them harder to remember. Dreams are messages sent to the human mind from the subconscious part of their brain, and they tend to give people ideas that they normally would not even think of. That’s what the Government is scared of.”

“What? Individual thought?” Kai asks.

Tao nods solemnly. “Exactly that.”

“People disappear all the time, you know. You just don’t notice, partially because your mind has been trained to ignore anything out of the norm and partially because the pill forces you to not notice. Deviation is a problem, Kai. And the Government is scared of that.”

“Why do people disappear?”

“Because—well—they’re deviations. They’re different.”

Uniformity. That is the number one law of Cadeau.

“What do I have to do with all this though?” Kai asks finally, after days and days of explanation and confusion. “If what you said is true, the Government takes people away all the time, but you don’t go around rescuing all of them. Why should I be any different?”

Tao chews thoughtfully on his apple and swallows, before beginning slowly, “What’s different about you is that… you seem to possess individual thought without any prompting. The other deviations—or problems, whatever you want to call them—they were mistakes made by the Government. The Government miscalculated the chemicals needed in their pills and that was what resulted into them thinking differently from the bulk of the mass. So basically, it was the Government’s problem. It was their problem, and they flew into damage control immediately, eliminating that person.”

Tao bites off another chunk of the apple and waves it around, looking Kai up and down.

“But you were not a mistake made by the Government. You somehow found a way to break out of the solid titanium box they built for you from day one without any outside assistance. The Government didn’t even know a person like you existed, until your thought waves showed a considerable amount of difference from the previous graphs. It was the first time it had happened, and the Government didn’t know what else to do but to pull you away from the public.”

“Thought waves?”

“Yeah. The Government monitors the minds of every individual through these thought waves. They’re a bit like sound waves, and every person has a unique thought wave. It never changes though, because a person’s thought process doesn’t change. Or at least it’s not supposed to, not if the Government can help it. Your thought wave must have shown some sort of shifting, and they found you by tracking down the wave.”

“Then… wouldn’t they be able to find us here?”

“It’s a lot harder for the Government to find people in the Lower Wing, mainly because the Lower Wingers don’t take the pills. In other words, the workings of our mind aren’t controlled about the government, so our thought waves change every second—the only thing controlling us is probably the stories and rumors that spread faster than wildfire. It’s almost impossible to find someone unless the Government takes special care to monitor the pattern in which the thought waves change.”

Kai glances at Tao’s dark eyes and realizes with a start that his own eyes had been growing progressively darker over the days. It didn’t flash white anymore, and the original green color seemed like an old figment of his imagination.

“It’s much easier taking all this in now than before, huh?”

“Yeah.”

“That’s proof that the pills aren’t in effect anymore. Congratulations, you’re finally learning to think on your own.

They’re on the run again.

One afternoon, Kai and Tao hear screaming in the streets from their spot on the brick wall. The Government is conducting raids in the Lower Wing.

Corpses littered the streets of the Lower Wing.

Nothing seems real until Kai sees the body of the lady Tao had called Mother. There’s a wound in her chest, blood still trickling from it like escaping snakes.

Suddenly, reality sees to crash into him like a speeding train without brakes, and it knocks the wind out of him. For a second, he couldn’t see anything but the blossoming crimson on her previously pure white frock. Stained with the unforgettable signature of Death, the image is embedded on the back of his eyelids, and he can’t seem to think of anything else but the dead eyes staring straight back at him.

Tao doesn’t say anything and walks away.

“Have you heard of the Infinite Monkey Theorem?”

“The what?”

“The Infinite Monkey Theorem. It states that if you put an infinite amount of monkeys in a room with a typewriter, and give them an infinite amount of time, one day, one of them will produce the complete works of Shakespeare.”

“Uh… what does that mean?”

“It means that anything’s possible. That’s why you’re here.”

“Excuse me?” Kai looks affronted as he scowls at Tao.

Tao laughs, “I don’t mean it that way, no. What I mean is that, anything’s possible, which is why you exist. You possess the perception and clarity that others don’t have and never will have. Not in the Upper Wing, not in the Lower Wing, not even in half of the Government. You’re a deviation, Kai, a glitch in their system. A mistake made not by those who think they’re God, but God himself.

Tao’s eyes seem to glint in the moonlight.

Kai sees his parents. He thinks they might’ve seen him too.

He gasps when they appear outside of the Supermarket they always go to, and their eyes sweep past him. He knows he should duck and hide, because no one, no one, was to see him, but he seems to have frozen on spot, losing the capability to move.

Father’s eyes lock on his for a fleeting second before he looks away, like nothing has happened. Mother tugs on Father’s arm and the two of them walk away from him.

Kai can’t help but feel that it will be the last time he sees them. Something akin to grief fills his chest and drowns his lungs and heart.

“The Hourglass. This is the entrance to it.”

Kai and Tao stop in front of a discreet door, nothing out of the ordinary. Sandwiched between two larger doors, it’s easily missed by the public.

“Are you sure?”

Tao nods. “I’ve been through here before. Out of curiousity.”

“And?”

“I’m not sure I want to again.”

“I don’t get it. If I’m a ‘glitch’ as you had so kindly put it, and well, glitches like me don’t happen often, then what are you?”

“Me? Oh, I’m just an Archangel sent by God to punish those who act out of their place and think they have divine powers.”

Kai shoots Tao an unimpressed look.

“What?” Tao laughs good-naturedly. It’s a nice sound. “It’s true.”

“One day—soon, I believe—you’ll have to go through these doors,” Tao says as they stroll down the deadened streets during Nighttime. It wasn’t uncommon for Kai to be awake during then anymore.

“Why?”

“Because you have to stop the Government.”

Kai swallows, staring at Tao uncomprehendingly.

“And I’m supposed to do that how?”

“It’s really not that hard.”

Tao’s tone is thoughtful, almost detached, and Kai feels a little scared. Fear also wasn’t uncommon anymore.

“You just have to break the hourglass.”

“How?”

“Oh, you’ll know. But don’t worry; the time hasn’t come yet.”

“Aren’t Archangels supposed to be by God’s side?” Kai says teasingly. “What are you doing away from Heaven for so long?”

“Don’t worry, I’ll be returning there soon.”

Kai freezes. “What?”

Tao glances at Kai’s expression and starts laughing, slinging an arm around Kai’s shoulders, an unfamiliar gesture, but nice all the same.

“Well, that’s going to happen sometime, you know. Me leaving you.”

It happens, just like Tao said it would, and it happens much too fast.

One moment, Tao is turning around to glare at Kai for one of his frequent bigoted comments, and the next, his dark eyes grow wide in alarm and he’s shoving Kai behind him.

“Wh—”

The words die in Kai’s throat as he sees an army of dark, hooded figure floating eerily towards them.

He glances at Tao, swallowing at the sight of his stiff back and tightly clenched jaw. At that moment, he feels like he can understand finally understand the enigma that had been Tao.

“Tao,” Kai begins, his words spilling out almost like a plead. “Tao.”

“Go,” Tao says simply.

“I can’t ju—”

“Go!” Tao snarls. “I can handle them. You need to break the Hourglass.”

“Please, Kai,” he says when Kai doesn’t budge, voice gentler. “Who knows how many universes we have to wait until we find another you.”

“I don’t—”

“Multiple universes theory, remember?”

“But,” Kai lowers his eyes, “but I can’t do it alone.”

“Yes, you can.”

The conviction and blind faith in Tao’s voice makes Kai look up, and the expression on his face is fierce and beautiful.

“You can break the Hourglass without me, Kai. Besides, I don’t think I want to return there.”

Kai is silent, simply looking at Tao with an unfamiliar feeling bubbling somewhere in his chest, and he nods. Something in his eyes burn. He begins to back away.

“Oh, and Kai?” Tao says before Kai turns around. “I hope you’ve found what you were waiting for.”

He gives Kai a wan smile just as the first of the hooded figure lunges.

Someone screams when Tao leaps to meet its strike. As Kai sprints down the serpentine alleyways and passes the spot where he had first met Tao (It’s a different language), he realizes that it was probably him.

“You know, I feel really fortunate to be living in this universe.”

Kai turns his head to stare at Tao, who was lying on his back next to Kai.

“Are you serious?” Kai asks with disbelief, eyebrows disappearing into his bangs.

“Yeah.” Tao shifts to meet Kai’s eyes. “Who knows how many more universes we have to wait until we find another you.”

“The time hasn’t come yet.”

Kai stands in front of the door, hands trembling as he shoves them into his pocket. He takes a deep breath and closes his eyes, trying to conjure up a calming memory, something happy, something nice, something warm.

Tao’s face swims in his mind, and pain hits him in the gut without warning.

He’s never felt this sort of pain before. It’s neither stinging, nor sharp. Instead, it’s like a dull burn that he knows will never leave once it settles in his chest.

Miasma that kills with every inhale.

He opens his eyes and reaches towards the door.

It swings open upon contact, and he stares shocked at his hands and the looming darkness in front of him.

Tao had said that it would be easy, but he didn’t expect it to be this easy.

Kai takes another deep breath and steps into the darkness. His feet doesn’t hit solid ground, and he screams as he’s into a vacuum, and suddenly, he’s falling.

He wakes up to a blinding whiteness and a cinch in his back. He groggily rubs his eyes and looks around blearily, taking in the ethereal beauty of the place. It was an underground cave, stalagmites of every color hanging from the ceiling and protruding from the walls. Kai notices that the crystals glow at his touch.

He groans and twists around, starting when he sees the Hourglass shining softly, the light pulsing with his heartbeat.

His heart aches at the thought of destroying something so beautiful.

Kai takes tentative steps towards it and hesitantly places a hand on the glass. It’s warm, and it’s almost like Tao’s hand when he’s pulling Kai to safety.

That was what Tao was, Kai realizes. Safety.

The burning in his eyes return, and for the first time in his life, tears spill out of his eyes and down his cheeks. A hand reaches up to touch the tear tracks lightly. There’s an indescribable pain in his chest, and it’s blocking out all other feeling.

The image of the Hourglass is blurring through the screen of tears, and Kai sees instead the smiling faces of Mother, Father, Tao’s mother, Tao’s father, Tao’s brothers and sisters, and finally Tao himself.

Something inside Kai shatters into a million pieces, the fragments piercing his very soul.

He screams.

⚜⚜⚜

Ah, but he does speak, people would say as they retell stories of the mystical Archangel atop the bell tower. He speaks alright.

How does he sound like?

Well, they say his very voice is the embodiment of raw pain. It’s what loss sounds like, what tears breaking one’s heart sounds like.

Does it hurt listening to him?

Yes, yes, of course it does. It hurts, because it’s so beautiful. His voice tells tales of heartbreak, and of love and, of a friendship so, so pure.

⚜⚜⚜

The first crack in the Hourglass appears when Kai’s tear makes contact with the glowing glass.

Light begins pouring out, and the sands liquefy. It’s almost as if the stars themselves have descended from the sky and melted at the sound of Kai’s pain.

The light engulfs him, and it spreads. It spreads beyond the cave, and beyond that door in the Lower Wing, and beyond the Upper Wing, and finally into Outside. It spreads across the world, basking them in a radiance that brought with it memories of a better time and promises of a tomorrow.

Kai closes his eyes.

“Oh, and Kai? I hope you’ve found what you were waiting for.”

⚜⚜⚜

“Legends have it that atop the bell tower, at the outskirts of the city, resides an Archangel. He holds with him a gold watch as ancient as time itself. It is said that when the minute hand strikes twelve, what the Archangel had been waiting for eternity would appear. But, those who have seen it claim that it stays eternally at eleven, never moving back or forward.”

“Wait! Does that mean whatever he’s waiting for will never appear?!”

“I don’t know. Perhaps, he realized that it would never come if he just waited, and began looking for it himself, instead. What do you think, Tao?”

fin.

____________________________________

A/N: Welp. I forgot to post this yesterday lol /shot. Um. I hope the plot isn't too lame? Editing the headcannon right now. Won't take too long, lol. Follow me on Tumblr?