Madness
"Soul, you still haven't learned have you?" Damn, the demon is still speaking inside my mind. Didn't it ever know when to shut up?
"We've had this discussion before, out of the question." I replied back to the demon, pushing my back up against the wall to get a better view out the window. Man, I was starting to talk to myself again, totally uncool.
"But think of the power. Think of the fears that you may get rid of." I could see the red demon's face in my mind, sitting on the stool of the piano. I could already tell that this wouldn't go down well. The last time I'd played piano was for.. "Yes, remember.."
"Hey Soul." Maka had taken a seat in front of me one night as I was at the table eating my bag of chips. She had seemed oddly inquisitive that day, and I couldn't even begin to imagine what she wanted from me.
"Hey." I skipped senseless chat that day, mostly because of the look on Maka's face, "What is it?"
"I've always wanted to know something."
"Shoot."
"Why is it that we have a piano in here and you don't even play it?" She motioned her hand over to the piano across the room. It had been there ever since I had agreed to move in, and brought my limited possessions with me. It was interesting to know she didn't bother to ask until now. "I mean, I figured you knew how to play, but I haven't heard you once."
"I've never had to." This was her question?
Maka nodded as she asked, "Would you.. Play it for me?" I caught her hesitation in the question.
What an odd question. Why would Maka want me to play the piano for her? It hardly seemed the appropriate time to be playing the piano. I raised my eyebrows as I replied, "This isn't really the time for it now."
"Come on Soul, you could think of a better excuse than that." She called me out on account of the terrible excuse. It was pretty lousy, when I had thought about it. At the time it didn't even cross my mind.
I would like to think I played Maka the piano for the reason to prevent myself from being even more lame on the account of the excuse. But that was just what it was, an excuse. Maybe there was another reason why I had decided that I should play piano for Maka. She just seemed so.. Enthused about it. What was it to me to get in the way of her happiness? After all it was just one song, not to mention the bag of chips had been gone for a while now.
"Fine, fine." I sighed, and slowly walked over to the piano. Maka followed after me, taking a seat on the couch and looking up at me with those big eyes of hers. "Have anything in particular you want me to play?"
She shook her head, her pig-tails moving slightly side to side as she did. "No. Anything will do."
"I'll play you a song I wrote myself.." I said it within one single breath. The fact of the matter was I hadn't played since years before, it was a miracle that I got through it. Each key had a particular spot within the composure and for a moment I was lost in the music, but there was a person I was thinking of the whole time..
"Dude, not cool." I scowled as I pulled myself out of the memory. The demon was obviously pleased with the progress he could see he was making in me.
"You still remember," He grinned from ear-to-ear, "You still fear."
I was not going to let this demon see any further into my mind, I promised myself at that point. He was obviously assuming the things only a passerby could observe on any soul, he didn't know me. "Fear what? That I'm going to have to have to make up a song on the spot again?"
"-For Maka. You fear that something will happen to her. I mean, you have always had a soft spot for her, haven't you?" The demon laughed, it's laughter echoed inside my brain and I was forced to close my eyes. Why couldn't the damn bastard give up already? It sensed my hesitation, that much I was sure of. "Now, now. Have I upset you?"
"No. I don't think I want to soul-search myself tonight however." I was exhausted, not tired, but sick of this demon's damned voice and reasoning. There wasn't anything that he knew that I didn't know myself. But he was right, everything that he was saying was spot on. For a demon dwelling inside a weapon's head tells no lies, especially when it comes to feelings.
"Why? Let's take this conversation a little further-"
"Soul? Are you still awake?" A voice shattered the inner-workings of my mind as I looked up to see Maka's silhouette in the doorway. Once again her timing never ceased to amaze me.
"Oh, Maka. Yeah, I'm still awake." I tried to prod the inner reaches of my mind for the demon, but felt that he was nowhere within detection. Maka's figure came closer and the moon provided the light needed to see her. She had a look of clear worry on her face, which considering the circumstance was slightly odd. "You don't have a book in your hand. I was almost sure you were going to Maka Chop me for keeping you up."
"Has something.. Been bothering you?" Never ceases to speak her mind too.
"If there was I wouldn't tell you." My voice stayed monotone and the noises of the crickets outside made the silence that followed it even more dreary.
I was just about to close my eyes again when I felt Maka sit on the bed next to me. She sure was being persistent, why couldn't she just leave me alone? Although it was better having her here than that demon. But I wasn't just about to let what that demon assumed about my weakness being true. I wouldn't give in like that, not cool.
"Soul, were you talking to yourself?"
Damn, I didn't bother to look over at Maka while I rustled the back of my head to buy me some time for a good response. It was completely out of the question to tell her that I was still fighting the demon, it would be completely useless in bothering her with the fact. I'd have to think of something swift and cocky, something to make sure Maka didn't worry at all. "You could say that, the only difference is I wasn't talking to my dolls like you do."
"Maka chop!"
The book hit me straight onto the back of my skull and my head thudded onto the side of the bed. I was pretty sure the hit had given me a nosebleed too. The dull pain in the back of my head though was worth it, I fought back the urge to make another comment.
Maka huffed several times next to me on the bed, not saying a word. I pulled myself up from my painful state of mind to look over at her, "I knew you wouldn't be able to resist from hitting me at least one time tonight." I grinned.
She merely sighed and looked back over at me, with that steady nonchalant look on her face. "Soul," Damn, it was never a good sign when she decided she wants to speak my name in every sentence, "I was thinking. The madness at this school is supposedly increasing, and yet there has been no incidents of it occurring so far. What if- What if somehow it gets to me?"
My whole plan of making sure Maka didn't worry wasn't working. I raised my eyebrows when I replied, "That's what you're worried about?"
"What if I can't control myself anymore-?"
"Don't think like that Maka. I know more than anyone else that the madness won't get to you that easily." I tried to control my breathing, but my heart continued to beat away at the thought. "And if you ever start losing it, you'll be damn sure I'll be with you. You're my meister after all."
Maka smiled for the first time tonight and I knew I must have done something right. It was so uncool to get caught in a wave of emotions like that, I made note to not do that in the future. But there must have been something about my blunt honesty that made her smile like that at me.
"Hey, can I stay here for the night?" The question came out of her mouth, probably even as unexpected as it was to me.
"Uh, sure." I couldn't think straight, and Maka proceeded in closing her eyes.
It seemed like forever that I sat there thinking, and staring up at the moon. Maka's breaths beside me had become rhythmic and I was sure that she was asleep. What was bothering me at the current moment was why Maka would bring up madness at this time, right when I was about to give into it. Sometimes things just work out that way.
"You'll never have to worry about the madness." I whispered, closing my eyes and drawing that cold night to an end.
"But you do."