Waves.
It was the sound of waves crashing on the beach that had
finally brought him to.
But the waves sounded wrong. They were too soft to be
water. Water rumbled along and hit the sand with a low,
grating thrum. This sounded more like oil. Like oil
slowly seeping in and out of the coarse sand.
But he did not care about how or why the waves sounded
wrong. His attentions were directed to a more immediate
concern.
The wind whispered in his ears, sounding for all the world
like the ephemeral babble of a billion souls. It tugged at
his unkempt brown hair, ruffled his soiled white school
uniform, played with his sand-filled socks. The wind felt
warm against his skin, like a summer's breeze, blowing in
from the sea. It carried with a vague copper smell with
it, a smell the boy did not usually associate with the
ocean. These facts he filed away as unimportant. His
attention was occupied with the person lying on the sand
before him.
His tear-filled eyes made it hard for him to stare at the
prone figure for too long, as feelings from deep within his
heart shook his nervous body.
Shinji cried, lost between pain and joy. His hands hung
loose around her throat, numb and disaffected. It was
over; his pain, his father, the Evangelions, they were all
in the past now. If anything, the images of depressions
now seemed like figments of his overactive imagination.
His memories had a sense of unrealness to them, like a haze
that prevented their full recollection.
His hands moved of their own accord, shivering with his
tears, caressing her face and lost in the touch of her
skin.
"Asuka," he finally choked out in a strangled whisper. His
heart was hopelessly lost to her, lost in hope and fear at
the same time.
"Who the hell is Asuka!!??" Shinji fell hard into the wet
sand as the girl he had been perched over suddenly sat
upright, her large red eyes reflecting the blood sky. Her
face screamed indignation, surprise . . . and betrayal.
"Who the hell is this Asuka, Shinji! You'd better start
explaining, Ikari, or mark my words as Rei Sohryuu
Katsuragi, I'll make you pay!
Shinji cried to the heavens, his voice hoarse beyond
despair, and collapsed unconscious.
=======
August 3, 2000
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