Doris Qian

Doris

English 9

26/11/19

The Smile

Today is 29/9/2019, a regular day. I was taking a bus to go back home. When I get off the bus, I

tripped. My whole body lying on the ground, facing down. I feel a bit dizzy because of the trip.

When I look up, there is a woman in front of me. Her long hair blows with the wind and her eyes

and lips are slightly widened with surprise. She smiles. My eyes suddenly turn black. The crowd

becomes noisy. Why is the smile so familiar? I tried to raise my head again, but the only thing I

can see blurry is her chin. That is the last thing I see.

I have my own conscious again. What just happened? Did I faint or died because of a trip from

the bus? There is nothing else except black in my sight, or my sight is not even a sight and the

color is not even a color. There are NOTHING around me.

The coldness comes straight into me, needling my bone. I trembled. I breathe some air to warm

my hands. I look around and am in a house now. “Hans, it’s time to go.” Someone calls. I walk

out and there are a few people standing in the yard. They’re all looking at me. A woman and a

little boy walk forward and stand in front of me. Their eyes are full of tears, looking in me

maunfuly. “Good luck going on the battlefield, we will be waiting for your news'' the woman

says. “Daddy come back safe! Hold my hand and play games with me!” Yes. I remember. I am
going to be a soldier and fight for the country, and the woman and the boy are my wife and child.

I can feel something sad. I’ve never seen this situation before, why can I put myself into this and

have the sad feeling? I want to go and hug both of them softly. “I will come back again and be

safe, I will come back and see you smile again, I promise.” The words flow out from my heart.

Tears run down from the woman’s face. “You make this promise again,'' I can’t tell if she is

happy or sad from her tone. Promise again? I don’t remember I said anything like this to her. The

woman didn’t say anything else. She goes back to the house and take some thick clothes and

food. She put her hand on my shoulder. “Once you’ve made the promise, please keep it.” She

smiles at me, “come back and see this.” My body warms up in the cold winter, a little light

shines in my heart. I can’t move my sight away. “...!” I was about to call her name.

Again, I found myself in that empty space. This time, there is something in here. Looks like little

fragments of glass, they are shining. Something show up in the fragments. I try to see clearly

what is in there. As they become clearer, they look like images and videos, I can see people

moving. I see myself in one of them. “I” am standing there, a woman is smiling at me with tears

in her eyes. It the thing that happened just now. What makes me come to this same space? I

remembered her name. She’s Elena. I start thinking. I need to find some commonalities between

the same things that happened. Last time I was in my world, taking the bus, and then I tripped,

seeing a woman smiling at me. Ah, that smile is so beautiful. Beautiful smile. Wait, I saw this

smile somewhere else. Elena. I found out it’s the same person. I am seeing Elena in different

space, and I think her smile is the link that send me another. What’s the point of her doing this

and who is she? Different thoughts take over all of my brain, twisting together. I look up to the

fragments, try to find some clue there. “Me”, surrounded by flowers. Elena stands beside me. I
kissed her. That was a wedding with Elena, she is my wife. More images show up in the

fragments, there are me and Elena working hard together, reading, dancing together, she cooks

for me when I come back from work and at last, the baby of us. Watch until here, I deeply

moved. I can feel the fate between me and Elena being stronger and stronger. The next fragment

shows a little boy. He is running, and then come to me. He holds my hand. I can remember that

he is my son, Lucas. I try to reach to the fragment. The moment my fingertips touch it, I have the

same feeling of transferring space.

It’s too bright. I slowly opened my eyes. I am on the street, the scorching sun is launching

burning rays to me. I am standing. People wearing dark green uniforms are standing so ordered

beside me. Suddenly, someone shouts something and the people around me started to move

forward. “Hey Hans, move!” A voice comes from behind. I move automatically in a way that

soldiers walk. I remembered everything. I am a soldier. I just jumped space again and now I am

walking with the other soldiers. We start to walk down a slope. There are trunks full with

supplies. “Lucas, come back!” I heard a woman called. The voice is Elena’s! I hurriedly turn

back. It is Elena, she is chasing her child, which is our child. I grinned, feeling relieved.

“Daddy--daddy!” My heart beat. My boy is running toward me. He looks excited and trying to

reach my hand. I reach my hand to him too. I feel a lump in my throat. I want to hug him, I want

to say I love you. Elena comes near to me. I look up. She looks deeply into me. Her smile

contains love, worry and mournful, spilling out. I know I am going to fall into the space when

she smiles. Why can’t I see her smile longer every time?

This time when I opened my eyes, there is an unclear shadow in a whole bright space. The

shadow turns. It’s Elena. She can come to this space too? No, it is just a shadow. The shadow is
so black, on the position of the eyes, it’s two empty white wholes, there are black crumbs

surrounding the shadow, it has a sense of danger. “How… dare… … ” voice cracking from

Elena’s shadow. Twinkling beads drop form her empty eye. She cried, I don’t know what I did

wrong. My heart ache. I don’t want to make her feel hurt, especially from me. “I’m sorry but

please you tell me what I’ve done to make you feel so hurt” I ask, “I would never want to hurt

you.” “You never want to hurt me?” She look down “you don’t even remember?” She sigh.

“Then let me show you”.

The scene in my sight changes. I see myself standing in the army, being ready to rush. I can’t

change anything, just watching. Me and the army are all holding guns. I look forward. The

cannons are ready too. I know in this time period I am on the battlefield. The ground is burned

into black. The horn of the war calls. All the soldiers rush to the front excluding me. In an

instant, blood splash everywhere, fire and smoke is everywhere. The sky is in a depressive dark

red color, combining with the charred land, such a scene of the end of the world. It seems as

though the Grim Reaper arrived, waving its sickle, giggling evilly. Wait, there is something that I

can see with my eyes. It is a human with wings. It is translucent. I can see it has a human body,

but there are angel halo on the head and wings. I thought it is angle because of the blond hair at

first, but then I see the horn on the head and the halo and wings are all black, so I think it is a

fallen angel. There is really angle and fallen angel in this world? I am confused, and scared. Why

is the fallen angle here? I see it flying around and at last stay around me. “I’ve heard you made a

wish to me” it whispered. “I” was shocked, looking at it and can not say a single word. The

fallen angle chuckles, “As long as you’d made the wish, I am going to make it for you. ” The

fallen angle take out a box. I have a unauspicious feeling. The fallen angel open the box, what’s
in there almost made me faint. A head of a woman is there. The lips are lifted in a weird curve,

make it look like a smile. blood still condensed there. The eye looks straight forward, showing

despair. The another thing in the box is a little hand. The fingers stiff and the blood vessels are

hanging outside. They are my wife’s smiling head and my son’s hand. “See, I’d bring you,” the

fallen angel says, “see the smile and hold the hands! You like it?” The fallen angel laughs,

showing its fangs. “My” eyes turn red rapidly. “Ahhhhhhh----” “I” forgot how to use a weapon,

unarmed and punch the fallen angel with hands. Of course that’s useless to a translucent, the

fallen angel just enjoys looking at me being crazy and being satisfied. The enemy in the

battlefield saw me punching the air, thinks I have a mental problem and easy to kill. The spear

pierce my chest. It is the last thing I see.

I was ready to die. At this time I suppose to die or go to another space. I try to move my fingers,

they can move! And all my body parts have perception. I feel like I’m in the air. I try to open my

eyes. My feeling was right, I am in this air. I’m flying up to the sky in a slow rate, the track I

pass through makes beautiful twinkling glitters. I look at my body, it is translucent, sunlight

shines through me, air blows between me. I guess I’m becoming a soul after death. A sound of

metal collision takes over my attention. From the parallel of my position, very far away, There is

a huge angel. He is fighting something. Who dare fight with the angel, wonder. The angel is

defending something, and what is in front of him is--Elena! She is fighting with the angel? The

first thought that comes to my mind is to protect her. But that “me” just shocked and stiff like a

stone. “Save her! Save her!” I’m yelling, the me can not hear me, he just watches from far away.

Elena is still fighting with the angel. She has something in her hand to fight already. Actually,

the thing she takes is a huge clock, and what the angel is doing is to fight it back. “Kuang!” The
sound of metal, Elena who is weak in normal days is waving a huge clock anf fighting with the

angel. When she escapes to a distance that the angel could not reach, she uses all of her power to

turn the hand of the clock. The clock of the world turns for only me and her.

“So do you remember now?” The black shadow of Elena appears again. “If you don’t

understand, I just made us time travel in that scene,” she is not as angry as last time, “I don’t

even know the complete useage, I just turn the hand and made us travel to the future and be alive

again.”

I’m suddenly awake. I realized I am still in the town that I live in and it is 2019. I am in the

original space, lying on the ground, facing down. All the things that happened is so realistic that I

can’t ignore them. I raise my head. What comes into my view is a woman’s face, she smiles at

me.

I burst into tears.

“Sorry… sorry… ” I cry.

“What are you talking about?” The woman keep her smile on her face, “it’s fine, you just fell in

front of me. Are you hurt?”

What? Were everything just happened all my imagination? My action pause, but I still try to

remind her,

“Elena, it’s me! I am so sorry. ”

“Wow, how can you know my name?” Elena is surprised.

“It’s me, your husband, Hans!” I am confused too. She made me go to every time period and

“Well, since you keep on mentioning it, I have to do it.” Elena tilt her head. Her sight is sick,

staring at nowhere. I don’t think the soul in her body is hers. It is something else, something

crazy and evil, it’s not the pure and positive Elena, it is not my love.

She raises the knife, the sunlight reflects on the blade.

“Puff” she stabbed in my stomach.

“Goo”, “Goo”, “Gezhi” the blade cut back and forth in my abdomen.

I grit my teeth to force myself not to make sounds. I deserve this. This is what I made my wife

and son suffered before. Sweat wet my whole body. I can feel my body getting cold. The things

in my sight fade. I’m losing my conscious.

The cold thing that drops on my face drag me back a little.

“I… I don’t want this… I don’t want this… ”

Elena cried, the cold things are her tears.

As she is saying the words, she cut her stomach in half.

“Just don’t left me, anything you do, I don’t mind, just don’t left me. ”

“I love you. ” She smiles.