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The Other Side

Akarui hops across the clouds until she gets to the only somewhat dim end of her town. It’s almost impossible to find a dark corner when living in the sunset. The sunset is its own world and it is simply called sunset. Everyone in Sunset is cheerful and happy with their lives. Everyone except one young fifteen year old girl, Akarui. Lately Akarui has gotten tired of the perfectly happy people, tired of the bright light that will never go away, sick of it all.
Sunset is in a different dimension than Earth, yet every night when the sun sets on Earth, these two dimensions connect with each other. Akarui longs to go to Earth. She wants to see what darkness and negativity is and what happens when people aren’t happy twenty four hours a day. It doesn’t seem normal to her for everyone to be so cheerful all the time.
Currently she’s in the only dim corner she could find. The light was giving her a headache and she didn’t want to hear excited people anymore. Akarui has a short red skirt on and an orange cream colored shirt as well as no shoes. You don’t wear shoes when living on clouds. Everyone wears bright colors here too.
She looks down through the clouds to Earth. They’re really close now because it’s almost time for the sun to go down. “Looking at Earth again?” Heion asks her in disgust.
“Yes I am, it’s amazing isn’t it,” Akarui replies. Heion is Akarui’s friend, not the kind of person she would imagine being friends with but she needed someone to talk to and pass the days with. Like the other people around Heion didn’t understand how Akarui felt. They were so satisfied with their lives that they didn’t wonder what Earth was like. But Akarui did wonder about Earth. She didn’t want to stay trapped in Sunset. That’s when she decided, Akarui was going to go to Earth tonight when the two worlds connected. “Heion, I’m leaving tonight,” she told her friend as she sat up.
“What are you talking about? You can’t get to Earth,” Heion says.
“Yes I can. I’m jumping there tonight when we’re right above it.”
“People are going to be looking for you. What if you die from jumping so far?”
“I have to land in one of those things they call lakes. And you’re going to tell the town I left.”
“How are you…”
“Quit asking questions Heion. You’re not going to keep me from leaving. You can come with me if you want,” Akarui offers.
“I’m staying here where it’s safe. I hear there are evil people on Earth, don’t get into trouble.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll be fine. I should go. I only have a few minutes.”
“I guess this is goodbye. I’ll tell them after you’ve left,” Heion assures her.
“Bye then,” Akarui waves and then runs off to find a spot where there’s a lake below. Nine minutes later she finally finds an edge of town where she sees a blue circle below next to some city. She assumes it’s a lake and then she jumps. The wind blows Akarui’s jaw length peachish orange hair back and she looks towards Earth with her wide open yellow eyes. Her arms and legs are stretched outward. Any second now she’ll have finally made it.
The water Akarui lands in is ice cold. A shiver runs down her spine. She’s never been in a lake before, but she doesn’t find it hard to stay afloat. Akarui slowly swims to land. Once she gets out of the lake she shakes her head in an attempt to get the water off and then heads towards the city she saw from above.
Everyone in the city looks at her strangely. Probably because she’s barefoot and soaking wet. Akarui looks up and notices that Sunset is gone. Instead the sky is black. There are also these sparkly things and a big white circle in the sky. She thinks this is their night. Akarui bets there’s a town in their night and day, just like she comes from the sunset.
As she’s looking at the sky she doesn’t realize that she’s about to run into someone. Her head hits his and she falls on her butt. “Oww,” Akarui says while rubbing her head.
“Are you alright?” the guy asks her.
“I’m fine.” Akarui takes his hand and he helps her up. The guy is much taller than she is. He has light brown hair and green eyes. “I’m Keitaro,” he tells her. “And you are?”
“The name’s Akarui,” she proudly says. Keitaro takes a closer look at her. He notices she’s soaked and missing her shoes. “Are you lost?” Keitaro questions her.
“Kind of. I’m… not from around here,” Akarui replies.
“Then where are you from?”
“Far away.”
“Trying to be mysterious?”
“No!” she glares at him. “You wouldn’t believe me.”
“Sure I would.”
“Well,” Akarui looks around. “I’m from up there,” she points up at the sky.
“Space?” Keitaro asks confused.
“No silly. The sunset.”
“You live in the sunset?”
“Obviously. There’s no air in space,” she laughs.
“It’s cold out tonight. Do you need somewhere to stay?”
“I suppose I do,” Akarui replies with an embarrassed grin on her face.
“You can stay with me then, at my apartment.”
“Thanks.”
“Sure, no problem.”
“Lets go.” She drags him by his arm down the sidewalk.
“Hey, slow down. You don’t even know where we’re going.” When they got to his apartment Keitaro showed her around. Akarui thought that people on Earth had strange looking homes. “Is this my bed?” she asked him when they got to his guest room.
“Yeah this is the room I have my friends stay in when they come over.”
“Good. Because I’m tired.” Akarui jumps onto the bed.
“We’ll get you some clothes tomorrow.”
“Something that’s not so bright,” she chimes in while making a face about her current clothes.
“You’re a strange one,” he tells her. “Anyways, goodnight Akarui.”
“ Good what?”
“It’s an Earth saying.” Keitaro turns off the light and leaves her to sleep.
The next day Keitaro and Akarui went shopping for clothes. All of the outfits she found were the opposite of what someone from Sunset would wear. She found a black skirt and a dark blue shirt, jeans and a red shirt as well as many other things that she didn’t wear in Sunset. Yet Keitaro couldn’t get her to wear shoes. Akarui loved the freedom of walking around barefoot.
“You really are from the Sunset aren’t you?”
“I knew you didn’t believe me.”
“I guess not.”
“How old are you Keitaro?”
“Eighteen. Why do you ask?”
“I want to know everything about any Earth dweller I meet,” she explains.
“You sure are curious.”
“Yeah.” Akarui gets quiet and stares off at the sky. She’s only been on Earth for a day and for some odd reason she already misses Sunset. She wanted to get away so badly and now she’s not sure. When she looks around and listens more carefully she can hear people arguing and can see other peoples’ unhappy faces. It was like a wave of negativity. She didn’t realize that it would be so strong. She began to actually miss home. Akarui starts to wonder what Heion’s doing right now. Probably looking at their orange, pink, and slightly reddish sky. “I miss my home Keitaro.”
“I never did ask why you came here.”
“I was tired of Sunset. I had a desire to see Earth and now I already want to go back.”
“Umm.. I’m not sure how you get back up there. If you’re able to, you should go back for a visit,” he advises her.
“Maybe I will go back for a visit. Can we go eat first? I’m starving,” Akarui looks up at him.
“Sure. I can make you some spaghetti back at my apartment,” he replies.
“What’s that?”
Keitaro laughs, “It’s a kind of food. You’ll just have to eat some.”
Keitaro and Akarui go back to his apartment with the bags of clothes they bought. Akarui puts on some light blue jeans, a red t-shirt, and a black hoodie. “What do you think?” she asks when she come’s into the kitchen after putting on her new clothes.
“You look good,” he tells her. “Dinner’s ready. You can sit over there by they counter.”
“Okay.” Akarui sits down on the stool, by the counter that’s outside his kitchen. Keitaro gets himself a plate and sits down with her. When they’re both done he says he has to get some groceries and leaves. Akarui tries to think of a way to get home after he leaves. Then she remembers that these apartments are in some tall building, and there are starirs leading to the roof. Maybe she can jump home from there. The sun should be setting in only a few minutes.
Akarui leaves the apartment and finds the stairs. She runs up them all the way to the top floor. At the top floor she stops to catch her breath. After catching her breath Akarui continues up the stairs. She dashes out onto the rooftop in time for the sunset. Akarui walks near the edge, bends down and jumps up for the sky. She ends up jumping quite high but isn’t even close to getting up there. Pretty soon she’s mindlessly jumping for the sky. Though she never makes it.
“Hey! What are you doing up here?” a security guard yells at her from the stairs. He runs over and grabs her arm. “Let go. I have to get home,” Akarui replies.
“You’re not going anywhere. This is a restricted area. Now come with me.”
“No!” she shouts. Akarui kicks his leg and tries to pull away. The security guard still doesn’t let go. “I’m calling the police missy. Besides, I’ve never seen you here before.” He holds onto Akarui with one hand and pulls out his phone and calls the police with the other. When the police get there and lead her to their car, she sees Keitaro running over. “I was only trying to go home,” Akarui says to him.
An hour later Akarui’s sitting in a jail cell. She heard the metal door clang shut when they took her here in handcuffs. Her freedom was gone and now she didn’t have control of her own destiny. Maybe she should have listened to what Heion told her about Earth. She would no longer see daylight on Earth or Sunset. Sunset was apparently now out of reach anyways. Akarui curls up into a ball on the cold grey cement. Tears slowly roll down her cheeks while she whimpers quietly.
Back on Sunset Heion is worrying about Akarui. Akarui doesn’t think as logically as she should and Heion senses she’s in trouble. Unfortunately, Heion now had to recklessly jump into that lake too. She knows there won’t be any jumping back up here. Being born with blond hair and crystal blue eyes she also figures she will blend in with Earth people better. As the two dimensions become one, Heion jumps.
Just like Akarui before her, Heion falls into the ice cold water and swims to shore. The second she gets to shore she bolts off in search of Akarui. After a few minutes she runs into someone. “Watch where you’re going!” Heion angrily yells at him.
“Sorry,” Keitaro apologizes. Then he looks at the girl in front of him and instantly recognizes the soaked hair and clothes along with the missing shoes. “This is exactly what I needed,” Keitaro says to himself.
“Out of my way.” Heion tells him.
“No wait,” he grabs her arm. “Someone you might know is in trouble.”
“I don’t know anyone here,” Heion attempts to explain.
“You’re from the sunset, right?” he doesn’t wait for her reply. “Well another girl like you, Akarui is in trouble. She was trying to get home and the cops thought she was doing something else. She’s in jail. Maybe you can come up with a cover story for the cops,” Keitaro describes the situation.
“That idiot can’t keep her mouth shut can she.” Heion grabs Keitaro and drags him with her just like Akarui did when she had first arrived. The two girls don’t realize how much alike they really are. Eventually Keitaro slows her down and they go to the city jail. They’re standing at a counter with Heion trying to get the police to believe her story about Akarui losing something and being on the roof looking for it. “Look lady,” the cop starts. “I don’t care what your friend was trying to do. The only way she’s leaving here is if one of you pays the five-hundred dollar bail.”
“Fine.” Keitaro reluctantly pulls out his checks, fills one out and hands it to him. The other cop goes to let Akarui out. Akarui runs to Heion and Keitaro at full speed and hugs them both. “I thought I was stuck here for good,” she exclaims.
“Well, because of you, we’re both stuck in this world for good,” Heion speaks up.
“Lets make the most of it,” Akarui says. “Besides they have cool clothes here and Keitaro makes delicious food.” Keitaro can only laugh as they all walk back into the world they shall all share from now on.