Explosion

<Chapter 3>

Explosion

Hermes, known for his mischief and packages, landed in front of Galilei.

Mercury greeted her brother with energy.

"Um.. What a Surprise.. Galilei muttered.

Hermes looked at him with disgrace and hints of a hurt feeling.

Hermes started to walk towards the two. Galilei, now 28-years-old, pressured himself not to say anything, and just decided to smile.

Hermes stared at him like he had two heads.

'Hey, sis, tell him to stop that.. It's even worse than his way of saying hi..' He whispered to Mercury.

"No, do that yourself. I'm here to play with the better brother! Not...--" The mouth Hermes blocked never got to finish its sentence.

"He's not even your real brother! Think about my feelings too!" Hermes growled.

"NO." Mercury replied.

Hermes turned around, and with one flap of his wings, sped off without saying goodbye.

"Hey, Galilei, let's do something."

"Hmm?"

"Well...

Let's experiment with Hydrargyrum!!" Mercury requested with glee.

"Albeit young, you are already good enough at handling it. We really have no need to play around with that sword of yours." Galilei sighed.

[Hydrargyrum: A sword made of liquid Mercury shaped in the planet's symbol.]

"It's boring to do nothing, though.."

"Fine. I'll watch you swing around a chunk of liquid again for the fifth time this week, I guess.."

The two walked to an empty building.

'If I use Hydrargyrum on anything other than the things I want to kill, they will disappear into shattered bits of glass anyways. This helps with minimal damage to surroundings, I guess..'

"Hey, don't aim your sword at me. Ever." Galilei warned.

"As if I would.."

I gracefully danced with Hydrargyrum as Galilei sat cringing in the corner.

"What, I think I'm doing well! I mastered the healing dance "Dance of River's Valley" a long time ago.."

"More like 'Dance of Doom's Last Words..'"

"Hey!!"

Just then, something started beeping.

Ever so slowly.

Gradually speeding up,

"What is tha----"

The building exploded.

Galilei sped to protect Mercury, hurling the child outside.

"Ow.."

She landed on a bush a few feet away, looking up to see piles of debris falling in the distance.

"There's no way…

N.. No way that building just exploded.."

There were never any problems with the abandoned building before, after all.

'It just...

Disappeared…'

"Galileo!!!!"

A few days had passed, and Mercury had hidden the news from everyone.

"What happened to that journal keeper of ours? He sucks at doing his job." A random person muttered to their friend.

Everything moved as usual. The school still stood shining white, and the students went to their classes as if it were just another day.

Just then, a teacher rushed in to Mercury's class with a worried expression.

"As you all may know, an explosion happened recently."

I cringed.

"And so, we will take a pop-quiz related to combustibles and why we should not touch them." The teacher exclaimed.

":O"

Half of the kids in the class facepalmed.

"Did anyone die?" Saturn deadpanned.

'Yes, someone did..' Mercury thinks to herself.

"No, not that the teachers know of. Anyways, here's your test--" Our teacher brushed the topic off.

Mercury stood up and left the room.

'You see, there is this cloud I love.

It's the perfect place to stare down at the desolate galaxy below.

Hermes had left me a note earlier in the day, writing not to look for him.

Should I leave?

Someone would take my spot anyways..

So no one would notice..?'

Mercury looked down.

The next planet fell a few feet away.

'There's not even gravity, so I'll be fine..'

She hopped off the cloud into the spiral below.