A cross hung firmly on the wall. Chist watched over everything, cast in a dim light, from the window to his right to the bed on his left.
Ayumu watied patiently in the dark, holding in her arms a rifle, like a newborn she didn't quite know how to handle. This would make quite a weird story when she told her friends this weekend. "It all started when my parents told me to take some initiative..."
A sound of flapping seized her ears, eyes, and fingers. Outside her window, the white moonlit leaves of the awkward cherry tree danced as the creature below tickled the trunk. She poised the gun to her shoulder. How do you know the safety's off? she wondered. Cold wind flowed through her open window to the open door across her room, blowing her hair and freezing her heart. Chill splashed her face, hardening those exhuasted eyes, slapping her cheeks awake like a bitch that needs reminding...
The creature creeps further.
Ayumu has no fear. Ayumu knows God, who gave man dominion over the animals of the earth. She sits patiently. If anything tries trespassing on man, it soon learns its place. I did cock this correctly, right?
Something twisted upward into view, gleaning moonlight off its smooth surface. More and more of it came up, the flapping outside deafening to keep to keep its heavy body afloat. Ayumu couldn't shoot the thing. She couldn't even try. No one has dominion over such a beast, and who would pretend to?
It was Chiyo-chan.
"Why are you flying again, Chiyo-chan?" asked Ayumu. She was somewhat accustomed to such strange encounters.
The girl stepped onto Ayumu's window sill, left foot-right, slowing her pig-tails to a flutter and then to rest.
"Good evening, Osaka," she said.
Ayumu said nothing back. Sitting up on her bed, letting the frosty night breeze blow over her and strip her body of warmth and security, watching this girl trespass into her home, all made her feel like a kid, having one of those nightmares about the Crypt Keeper.
Chiyo stretched her thin, pale legs to the floor. Her feet were bare, sprawling into the carpet which seemed to thicken and grow around them. The carpet below Ayumu lay flat and dull as it should be. Chiyo's hair swayed back and forth with each step - not through inertial laws or by the current of air, but by its own will. The serpants licked at her head, emenating sounds of love. "Hsss..." they whispered to Ayumu, so sweetly.
Chiyo drew her face down into Ayumu's. "I have something to tell you," the little girl said. She grasped the body of Ayumu's gun, pried it gently from her fingers. Ayumu wouldn't resist. It clanked against the wall and posititioned neetly against this bed, standing in the corner. Ayumu felt the warmth of Chiyo's nose against her own. Their eyes locked perfectly, brown into brown.
Ayumu felt the fright of a childhood nightmare welling inside her. Something would happen, and she couldn't stop it. She has no authority over earth or animals or other people, or even her own life, or mind, or body. That was when Chiyo began to crawl, up Ayumu's knees, right leg, left leg. Her lips parted and drew closer to Ayumu, who felt the moist warmth of the child's breath. Huff, huff, she went as she reverted to this infentile adavism. Another left leg rubbed its soft, young flesh against Ayumu's, and another right. Right, left, and now the older girl felt Chiyo resting all six of those legs in her lap.
Clouds must have covered the moon, for the last light died from the cherry tree. Christ, crucifed on the wall above them, was blind. Chiyo's fangs didn't blisten behind her grin. Neither did the drool streaming from her segmented mandibles. Here in the dark, these things have dominion.
"I can't wait to tell you." Chiyo warbled.
The understanding between friends transcends mere words. Tears are far more powerful. Thus, Ayumu didn't say a word.
She listened to Chyo-chan.
And the little girl said, "I just saved a bunch of money on my car insurance by switching to Geiko."
"But you can't drive yet," Ayumu cried out in her sleep. Freshly awoken, a dream still seems real. She stared at the ceiling of her small room, afraid to move withing the little bed in the corner. But it was all a dream, right? When the daze past, she felt beside the bed. No weapon lay against the frame. Where would I have gotten a gun? My parents don't want me taking initiative. She checked the window: sealed shut, as it always was. Ayumu lay all alone.
She rolled over. The layer of sweat on her body would soon dry, and once it did, she could sleep again. Morning arrived in a few hours, at which point she would take a shower and forget her trouble.
"Damn," Ayumu muttered as she faded again out of consciousness, "I'm gettin' sick of these creepy dreams."
"As am I," said Chiyo-chan, and they both fell asleep.
THER END