The White Queen

A lone voice.

A desperate cry.

Nothing made sense as he stared at the girl trembling before him, head held down.

The one that had the name of White.

Which just so happened to coincide with his Black.

Towering over her, he watched the girl take out something from her pocket.

Thinking it was a Pokéball she had under there, he quickly held his gun up. He didn't want to include harmless Pokémon in this.

What he didn't expect was for her to pull out a gun which looked like his, except white. The gun pinned him against the wall, and she could kill him any moment.

What he further didn't expect was the expression of pure boredom on her face. The gun was lowered, and a smirk could be seen on her face.

As she walked away, she didn't even glance back at the boy which she had just surprised.

The boy was left with a gun in his face, and even though he hadn't been shot, felt like he had a hole in his heart.

…………………………………………………………………………………………

Black jumped from shock at the dream he just had. It seemed so realistic…why?

Shaking his head, he went to put on clothes and go downstairs.

That girl…who was she? It seemed too real to be fake, and the girl seemed too familiar to be a stranger.

Black swallowed down his breakfast.

He slung his backpack over his shoulder, and headed out.

………………………………………………………………………………………….

Black stared at the girl in front of him.

The teacher was introducing her to them, saying how she came from a faraway place. Too faraway, the girl had commented later.

The girl noticed him, and smiled.

It wasn't a normal smile.

It was one filled with deceit and lies.

Yet for some reason, Black thought he should trust this girl.

She was different; the other girls talk about who was better looking, or who was more popular.

She stood far away from the crowd, often leaning against a tree and staring out into space. Rumors soon fly around, saying how she was purposely being different, and how she wanted attention.

Black didn't believe that. It was like in his dream. She was just bored.

Bored, huh? As she stood there with her head held high and her true personality showing, Black couldn't help but feel awed.

Why he did, he didn't know.

……………………………………………………………………………………………..

"Where are you going?" A voice stops him from leaving to go home at the end of the day.

The boy looks around; there is no one in sight except for him and White.

"When someone asks you a question, you should answer it. Tell me, where are you going?"

Black was dumbfounded. Why was she asking him such a question?

"…I'm going home?" He replied tentatively, as if that answer could be wrong in any way.

"Would you care to play a game of chess?"

His eyebrows rise at the mention of what she said. Chess?

"Why would I care to play chess?"

"Why would you not?" The girl's voice is clear and rings through his head. Why should he not, he wonders.

"…Excuse me, but I have to go; please pardon me."

The girl only smirks, nods her head, and points out the door.

The first thought through his head after that, was how she was like a queen.

Not as in majestic, or powerful; as in a person who controlled pawns at her very will, as in someone who could throw away anything. Someone who didn't have any attachments, and someone who didn't care about what pawns thought.

He went home, never letting the thought of White disappear in his head.

…………………………………………………………………………………

He decides that chess would be fun. The next day, he finds himself playing chess with her. To his surprise, she loses every time, and doesn't care really.

He then plays again.

……………………………………………………………………………………

He notices that every time she plays, she picks white. When asked, she just says how the queen piece reminds her of herself.

Truly like a queen, vain and arrogant, she says. Yet there is a twinkle in her eyes as she says this, making Black wonder if she was just toying with him as a pawn.

……………………………………………………………………………………….

They play chess everyday, with White losing every time.

She doesn't complain; Black wonders if she was purposely doing this.

The time they spend together forms a bond between them. Only the game of chess could describe their relationship.

She was the white queen; more versatile, easily bored. She could change direction, or pretend to get hurt just for amusement. More free than the king, more devious too….

He was the black king, easily conquering with the intention to win, yet with only a limited area of movement; for didn't the girl in front of him trick him into playing with her?

He notices that even though the priority was the king, she would never let her queen be captured.

……………………………………………………………………………………

He ends up falling for her. He couldn't help it. She caught him in her trap. As she sits there, with no expression on her face, some strands of hair fall. Black wants to reach for them, yet she would say that she didn't like to be touched; just another queen-like feature of hers.

She wins for the first time that day, by forcing the king into checkmate.

Black thought the chess pieces represented them; the white queen always had the black king cornered. Each of his chess matches were useless; for she had trapped him.

He may have won the battles, but she won the war.
………………………………………………………………………………………..

He tried to gather up the courage to confess. It had already been six months since they had first played a game of chess.

The night before, he had a nightmare.

A nightmare that had shown itself once before, an image of a majestic-figure pinning him to the wall with a pure-white gun.

He wakes up sweating.

But this time, he couldn't remember who the girl was. His memory gets weaker.

…………………………………………………………………………………….

In the morning, his mother wakes him up to go to school.

There is a girl with a cold demeanor, hiding her true intent to create mischief and entertain herself.

He forgets the girl's name.

The girl seems sad; he does too.

Yet, his eyes follow her around for the rest of the day.

She doesn't sense anything different. She appears the same, often forgetting people.

………………………………………………………………………………………

The teacher announces that the girl is going away.

At this time, the girl just looks around confusedly.

He feels hurt for some reason he can't remember.

She does too.

Yet, when the teacher asked her to say goodbye to her classmates, she couldn't remember their names.

When she looked at Black, her eyes lingered for a moment before she shook her head and walked away.

………………………………………………………………………………………..

It's been a year since that girl left. Black doesn't recall her name.

Everyone around him keeps on saying how much he must've missed White.

He doesn't understand.

He didn't remember much anymore, and they couldn't figure out why. They just assumed it was him in denial though.
……………………………………………………………………………………………..

He walks past a lone house in the woods. He finds it strange that there is one.

About to walk past it, he notices some black and white chess pieces.

For some reason, he scoops the pieces up, and takes the board game with him.

It reminded him of something…what it was, he couldn't remember.
…………………………………………………………………………………………

When his mother told him they were moving, he didn't want to go. He said that there was too many precious memories here. When questioned about them, he stares off into space, hoping that in the atmosphere was something which could tell him about the someone he was forgetting.

His mother looks at him with sad eyes, and shakes her head.
…………………………………………………………………………………………………

When they reach the new city, he notes that it doesn't look that different.

When asked why he was holding chess pieces, he shrugged. His eyes searched the crowd in hope that someone there might trigger his memory.

When his eyes fall on a brown-haired girl who started smirking, his mood brightened up for some reason.

He walks down, and stands next to her.

The teacher resumed his lesson, and the boy sits next to the girl.

He notes how she looks so much like a queen.

She notes how he looks like a king.

When school ends, he stops her before leaving.

He holds his hand out, asking if he could know her name.

She only smirks, and says that she could tell, but he would probably already know.

And he does.

The scene is familiar to both of them, and for the first time in a year, they call each other by their names.

They slip into their regular routine, and soon sit in the middle of a forest, playing chess.

And for the first time ever, the black king caught the white queen.