Title: Ring Around the Rosy
Fandom: Detective Conan/Case Closed
Author: katiesparks
Rating: T, for graphicness and character death
Summary: "I hope one day we can all get away from these lies and I hope that the ones left behind can remember what we were all working for in the beginning"
Warning: Apocalypse is closer than you think. This is no joke; accounts of this illness are real, derived from Europe's Black Death. And the Black Death is still out there, be careful, everyone. (Note: Symptoms are real but estimated death time and the thing about it only being transferred in air and dying after five minutes is fictional, as there was not enough information to accurately determine such things.)
---
I write this with the hope someone might find this and take heed after I'm gone. It's not anything special and I know it's hard to read, as my hand is trembling from the fever. I don't have long now. But this is the truth and that's all that matters. This is an account of how it happened to me. In the wrong hands this won't make any sense but if read by someone who knows everything, it might mean the world. I leave you with a warning, be careful or the next corpse could be yours.
'Ring around the rosy,'
The witches painted red circles on the children's hands
It was a Monday when the disease claimed its first victim.
It was on the news, I remember, that morning. Weeks ago I would've been able to tell you the exact time but the fever had chased things like that away. Now time is counted by the breaths I take. Really the disease had probably claimed victims before this one but I don't know of them and it was this boy's death that started The Panic. He was about twelve with brown hair and golden eyes. His name was Nodomo Naikuda and he had been admitted to the hospital for forgetting to eat to the point of starvation. He was soon well and was about to go home when he suddenly died, no real warning, other than a red ring that, in a hour's time, spread over his whole hand, decomposing the flesh and making it fall off in big, bloody, chunks all the way to the bone. He passed out after the first chunk fell off and never woke up, dying peacefully in his sleep. The doctors were afraid and shut down schools and businesses until they knew what was going on.
The next to die were any people that Naikuda-kun had seen in the last five days, including his classmates. All died with the same symptoms, a red ring somewhere on their body that killed in an hour's time. After them came any people they had seen and so on and so forth. It spread rapidly and no one was safe.
I was worried, but I didn't know these people, so I couldn't catch it. All I needed to do was stay inside and I would be safe. The disease only traveled through air and, without a body to enter, died within five minutes. Our groceries were delivered to us and we always waited six minutes before opening the door to get them.
Then one of the Detective Boys died. The first to go was Ayumi. Poor little Ayumi. She had called over the phone to Conan and asked to be told his and Haibara's secret, she was so weak sounding and Conan and I knew she didn't have long. Conan asked me to leave the room and promised to tell me another time. He told me he didn't want to make two girls cry at once. I left, though I had half a mind to eavesdrop on them, I knew it would be wrong. During Ayumi's sickness Haibara sat with her, whispering sweet nothings until she was gone. Haibara knew that she was going to die, she seemed almost happy about it. She called for me over the phone.
"Mouri-chan, I wanted to apologize for my coldness towards you. You reminded of my sister and I couldn't deal with that. But now I finally get the see my sister again. I hope you find what you're looking for. I've never been religious before, but so close to death I feel it couldn't hurt to start. So pray for me and I'll pray for you, and maybe will both make it to a better place, away from these lies. And tell Conan-kun I'm sorry I couldn't help him and that I'll pray for him too, though I'm sure he'd make it there without my help. Goodbye, Mouri-chan. Tell them to burn my body, if they can."
Agasa Hakase, Mitsuiko and Genta all died right after that, hours apart from each other. Conan got a phone call from Agasa and came back crying, we heard of the other's deaths from their parents. The parents always followed their children. I knew we were next.
People had begun to go crazy and no one was allowed to leave the city. You could enter, but you could never leave. The people had gone into a crazed frenzy, called The Panic by most. They said that the disease hadn't moved outside of Tokyo yet and I was happy. At least some of us would remain; Hattori-kun, Kazuha-chan, Shinichi's parents, they were all safe.
'Pocket full of posies.'
The children made crowns of flowers to wear as they danced and sang.
People were resorting to anything now, putting flowers in their pockets to warn off infection like the Europeans had done during the Black Death. But I'm pretty sure they didn't actually think it would save them, but they would do anything.
I don't know when my mom died, I just know she did. She was the first of us to go though, I know that much. After her went dad and that's when I began making plans. I wrote my will and Conan wrote his too. We crushed up lots of flowers and chlorine tablets and put them and our wills inside a sealed bottle. Between the flowers and the poison, we thought it would kill the disease and made a big neon pink sign that read 'Open please!' and set it next to our wills on the table, right where they would see it if they came in.
Conan became sick after that and since I knew there was no hope I was going to survive anyways, I sat next to him. He told me his secret and I cried a little, but not much, he and I would meet later, I knew. After Haibara's call I became religious myself, she was right about their being no better time. I decided to tell him what Haibara had told me.
"I hope you find what you're looking for. I've never been religious before, but so close to death I feel it couldn't hurt to start. So pray for me and I'll pray for you, and maybe will both make it to a better place, away from these lies."
He smiled and said that he would pray for me until the moment he died. A few minutes after that he was gone and I could feel the fever already rushing over me. I moved him over and lay in bed next to him, hugging his already dead body close.
'Ashes, ashes,'
The girls danced and sang as the boys added more bodies to the fire.
I remembered in my delusion that they had started burning the bodies a few weeks ago to prevent the spread and I was glad, I'd asked them in my will to spread my ashes over what was left of the restaurant Shinichi and me had gone to that night. I think he wrote the same thing, but I can't be sure, the fever takes away all grasps on reality. I was too tried to go check. The disease had settled in Conan's right arm and for me it had started rotting away my neck. That was lucky; the pain wouldn't last the full hour, in that case. The disease would eat away my esophagus and I would suffocate. It wouldn't be long now. I had let Conan lay in my bed as he died, it was more comfortable than his and I knew I would follow him shortly, and I wanted to die in my room. I reached over and brushed his hair out of his face.
"Maybe this is the way that it was meant to be, maybe it wasn't, but that doesn't change anything. So I can only hope that this wish will be heard. I hope you got to where you were going and found what you were searching for, away from all these lies. I hope one day we can all get away from these lies and I hope that the ones left behind can remember what we were all working for in the beginning."
'They all fall down...'
They danced until their feet rotted away and sang until their heads fell off their corpses.
"Ring around rosy,
Pocket full of posies.
Ashes, Ashes,
They all fall down.'