Blood within the snow

Two characters on different sides of a war talk about the snow and what it hides

Look at the world! Can't you see it? A blanket of white is covering the ground! How could you see this beautiful covered in magnificent white, a world so soft and pure as snow, and let blood smear the surface? How could you see a world of white and decide to paint red and black upon it? 

I can see the snow, the softening and dampening effect of it on the world. I can see the magnificence and purity of it. But how can I admire such a beautiful thing when I can see the mud it tries to hide? How can I admire a thing so cold, so deceiving? I agree with you that our world looks beautiful all dressed in white, but it is stopping life from growing and blooming. This beautiful phenomenon silently kills and covers up its sin with more beautiful snow. 

How can you say that? The world has worked so hard to show you this stunning power it possesses. The snow isn't just cold to the touch, it can be built with, it can be shaped into a place that keeps warm. The snow can be melted and serve as water to lessen thirst. How can you look around you at this beautiful coat of white trying to show you the power of our world, our God, and still only focus on the scars it decorates? 

Because those scars are fresh wounds that haven't been able to close. Because the snow is just a way to hide the bodies of those the world has killed, the life it has taken as the snow does now. The snow itself was never the problem, it is beautiful, magnificent as you have said, but it is used by people to cover up sins that haven't been accounted for. It is important to focus on the beauty of life, I agree with you, but that should never be used as an excuse to ignore the problems of that same world. 

I don't understand how you could possibly still blame the world for all the cruelty it holds when it's apologising right in front of your face. How could you respond to the soft apology of the white snow with the red of blood? How could tainting the purity of the world possibly solve anything? What do you think it'll prove or reveal to the people of our world when you take away the beauty nature has presented them? 

I didn't taint the snow. 

What? How could you think you're not to blame for the smears of red within the white? I watched you let the blood drip, I witnessed the sins you committed, I was there Zyr. You committed those sins against me too! 

Im sorry

Now you're sorry? What for? You didn't do anything right? You never tainted our world right?

I am far from innocent, I know that and admit it, but I can’t look at the world in this state without seeing the sins it covers up. I saw the crimes they buried within the icy white of the snow. I saw the bodies hidden away from the people where they would never dare to look. I saw the life possible without the cold, I saw the truth hidden by this silence the snow has forced upon us. I know who caused all of this and I think you know it too. Our leaders, our heroes, aren’t good, River. 

I don't believe you

I can show you, will you let me? 

Why should I? You're a murderer, a villain. You've attacked people, my classmates, my friends, you’ve attacked me. Give me one good reason I should listen to you.

Because I know you. Believe it or not, I do. I know you are optimistic, I know you want to see the best in others. I know you focus on the positive, but no matter how much you focus on the good, it can't erase the bad. I know you don't want to hear what I have to say, know you don't want to believe it, but you also want to make this world better. You want to be a hero,  to help people, bring safety to this land. You can't improve a world if you don't know its flaws. 

You're making yourself sound like a good person, a hero, like you're not actively participating in making this world worse. I know the world isn't perfect, but just because the snow is making it seem like there aren't corpses buried beneath it, it doesn't excuse you adding new ones on top of it.

I already told you that's not what I'm doing. I know I'm not a good person, I'm not one of you heroes and if that makes me a villain so be it, but let me be clear: I never killed anyone who didn't deserve it. 

Who didn’t deserve it? And who gave you the power and authority to make that call? How do you decide if someone deserves to die or not? 

I don’t choose, they do, their actions and decisions do. 

And what about all those innocent students? What about my friend who I know you took from me?

What friend?

Ash.

...

Your silence speaks louder than your words. 

I'd tell you I never hurt Ash, I never took them away, I saved them. But I doubt you'd listen to those words.

Because they are lies.

They are not, but I fear I can't convince you of that without bringing Ash in danger. 

So you're asking me to trust you, to hear you out, but the moment I ask you a question you threaten to hurt my friend? How is that a fair offer? How can you call that an honest conversation?

I'm not threatening your friend, I'm protecting them, which I'm guessing you won't believe either.

Then help me believe it! Give me something, anything, that helps prove your story is true. Give me facts I can base my opinion on. 

And if I do that, will you believe me?

I don't know, but right now I certainly don’t believe you. 

Okay, listen, I can't tell you about Ash, but I can tell you about the snow, share my opinion and the facts I learned. I want to help you understand, believe me. I want you to see the truth and yes, Ash plays a big role in that story, but as much as you see me as the villain, I won't risk their safety for you to, potentially, believe me. 

I will not stop hunting you until I am certain Ash is safe, until they can confirm to me they're safe, you realise that right?

I don't doubt it. 

So you're willing to be hunted and chased just so you don't risk helping me find Ash?

I am willing to bear the burden of my choice to keep them safe.

You speak of safety while you're out there letting blood marks taint the snow as if you didn't take away the safety you claim to protect, that of people. 

As I said before, I didn't taint the snow with blood I spilled. 

You've said that already. 

Okay, let me explain-

Why should I?

Because you just said you wanted to be provided with a reason to believe me. You want to know more, right? Then you're gonna have to shut up and listen to me while attempting to believe what I'm saying.

Alright, go on, give me a reason to trust your word.

The blood you see upon the snow isn't new blood, but rather old blood. 

Huh?

Come on, give me a moment, I need to explain this well if I want a chance at being believed.

Okay, okay, I'll let you finish.

As I was trying to say, the blood you see now is blood of the bodies buried underneath the snow. It is the blood of older crimes bleeding through the perfect surface. I admit I helped it to the surface, I let that blood drip onto to perfect layer of white, I dug it up from underneath that silencing coat of ice. The snow doesn’t make the world anew again, it doesn’t make this world better, it just hides the harm done in the past. Those people buried underneath the layer of so-called perfect snow didn’t deserve their fate, they didn’t deserve to end up dead and they certainly don’t deserve to be a crime hidden away. The snow isn't some natural miracle, it's a way for people to hide away their sins in flawless white, an excuse for people to stay ignorant. I refuse to watch by as the lives of people who fought to right the wrongs done to this world get destroyed, thrown away, hidden, isolated in the cold of snow. This blood has streaked a perfect innocence that never existed. It shows the nightmares beneath its surface. Nightmares the heroes created, deaths they caused. 

The heroes raised me, they are not bad people like you say they are. Those people were murdered by villains, not heroes. Heroes don’t kill people. 

They do. Those people were my friends, they were viewed as villains, but they didn’t deserve to be killed! Nobody deserves that. 

No. You’re lying. I don’t believe you. Heroes don’t resolve to murder. 

Then why would they hide the people that were killed with snow? Why would they refuse to talk about the victims? Why would they not celebrate and honour the people that died for their cause? 

They can’t control the snow. The bodies weren’t buried deliberately. 

We both know they can control the snow. They have people with power over natures elements. You are one of them. You can control the water, you can take away the snow and reveal the truth. 

No. No, this was a gift from God. This wasn’t a persons doing, it can’t have been. 

Look in the snow. 

No, because that would mean..

It would mean the heroes aren’t innocent? It would prove I’m right? 

I don’t know. I just don’t know anymore. Heroes are good people, we save people and stop villains from hurting them. The heroes would never kill anyone. Heroes don’t kill. 

Look around you, there is blood within the snow, River. You have the power to take away the cover that is hiding the truth. But you’re not doing so. 

No, I can’t believe this, I won’t believe it. 

You have a good heart, River. You are a better hero than any of them. Remove the snow, River. You need to see it. 

I don’t want to.

You have to. For your parents, for your friends, for Ash. 

… For Ash. 

They look so.. broken.

I know. 

How could this possibly have happened? How could heroes be murderers? This can’t be what it means to be a hero. I don’t want to be that kind of hero. How could God just let this happen? 

Sometimes mistakes need to be mended by those who made them and those who stood by watching. You were born to be the hero this world needs. You can be a different kind of hero. 

I don’t know how. I was raised by these people. I grew up admiring them. I never saw it. How could I not have seen it? 

We’ll find a way. 

I don’t think I can do this with you. I need to figure out how deep this goes, I need to find a way to fix it. 

That isn’t something you have to do alone. 

No, I need to do this by myself. I was prophesied to become a great hero. I need to figure out what that means. 

-----

You’ll be the greatest hero ever known, River. I trust you will find a way to make things right. I just hope you’ll survive it. You needed to see the truth, but I hope it won’t erase the beauty you saw in the snow. The blood is a flower blooming to life in this deadly cold, but I hope you won’t forget the flowers that bloomed before it, the love that flourished in you. You were born to be our saviour, please don’t forget to save yourself. 

Be safe, my friend.