Hello, stranger. &
YURIKU
They're pulling her by her arms and she's screaming that they've got the wrong girl. She's not crazy, she really is a ninja, she didn't climb up the side of that building and kill the guy lying inside with his eyes wide open and a bullet in his head. They ignore her and put some kind of padded hand cuffs on her wrists and throw her into the back of a padded van like a tiny padded room and they lock her in and she's screaming and they're laughing at her. How can she not be crazy?
As the van drives off the police are swarming into the building. Three floors up in a bedroom with an open window and blowing curtains is a teenager lying in his bed with his eyes wide open and a bullet in his head. His silver hair is tainted crimson and the panic in his eyes causes a few of the investigators to break down and cry.
His mouth is ajar with words of distress on the tip of his tongue but he never got to say anything because the sound of the gun drowned his voice. Her voice is being drowned out by a piece of padded glass that keeps her separated from the people in white suits. They're almost there and she finally started to quiet down because her voice is dieing and her heart is breaking because she'll never get out of this one when his blood is on her hands.
She sees green grass and blue skies for a split second before she's inside white hallways and surrounded by people in white suits and masks. She wants to scream but it hurts to even breathe and she's out of tears—they're all running down her cheeks and their paths are drying up because they're old and useless now. There's nothing else to cry.
He's being brought into the morgue in a body bag that's stained with his blood. They can't find his parents or his brothers or sisters or a girlfriend or anyone who cares that this innocent life has died and won't be coming back. They unload him onto a cold metal table and a doctor comes over to take x-rays and do tests and remove the bullet that blew his brain apart. She looks into his eyes and the panic is lost and all that's left is cool blue orbs. She closes his eyes and wipes her own.
They're throwing her into another padded room with nothing but a pillow. She's wishing for a window or some kind of comfort in the outside world. After a few hours someone brings in a small plate of food and a piece of paper with some pictures on it. The person asks if she's seen any of these faces. She looks over the pictures and nods.
"Which one?" It's her best friend Sora. The person frowns but she can't see it behind the mask. "What about him?" The person asks, pointing to a boy on the end of the paper with pretty silver hair and beautiful blue eyes. She shakes her head and says no and the person seems to be getting mad. "His blood's on your hands."
"I picked up a newspaper and there was blood on it." The person leaves her to eat her meal that has no taste except the salt of tears and the bitterness of blood.
They've confirmed that the bullet in his head is what killed him and they've found the gun. It's beside his bed under where his hand was hanging. But it couldn't be suicide because they've already got a killer and she's crazy so that's the motive, right? They're starting to think they were wrong but the girl in the padded room at the asylum down the road is already going crazy and they can't let her go because what if she's already so crazy that she hurts someone else?
His funeral's set for the next week by the parents they've finally found. They don't seem to care that he's been killed and are happy to collect their money from the life insurance people. Just before they load him into a cold metal space in the wall they see slits on his writs and wonder if that's how it got on that newspaper and maybe that's why there were six empty beer bottles on the counter in his apartment.
On the day of his funeral the door to her padded room opens and she looks up, hoping it's finally time someone brings her something to eat. But it's not. It's someone she's never seen before and he's not wearing a suit or a mask and what if he gets her sick so she cowers in the corner and wants to yell to him to put on a suit but his pretty silver hair and beautiful blue eyes distract her and she smiles, remembering him from the lineup.
"Hello, stranger." And he smiles at her and she smiles back but the door opens and her head snaps around to the person in a white suit and a mask. They ask her what she's smiling at and her head snaps around yet again and he's gone and she suddenly feels sad that her stranger is gone and she's all alone again. She starts crying and the person leaves with her food so now she's hungry and lonely and crazy.
She's seeing dead people and they're seeing her back and she just want to go back in time and save him so maybe he'll save her. But that can't happen because now he's six feet under and inside his coffin a tear's rolling down his cheek and it's matching hers and she just wants to end it just like he did and be buried in that empty plot next to him so she can be with her stranger forever. That stranger who got her into this whole mess with a bullet to the head and some slit to his wrists and she can't even hold it against him.
"Goodbye, stranger."
&&END.
NOTE:
I don't own anything.