AN: I'm sorry that this sucks :( But I've wanted to write something for this series so badly agh.
The bat was much heavier than he remembered. Colder too – he could feel the coldness of the metal reach down past his skin until it chilled his bones. He must have been out of shape. At one point, he was able to swing it for hours on end without breaking a sweat, but now… It dropped from his hand to the floor, where it landed with a thud. It rolled away from him, leaving a sticky red trail behind it.
It was over. They were all gone; the demon, the spies, all of the people who had dragged him out and tried to kill him. And yet, it wasn't.
It was still there.
His breath caught in his throat so hard he thought it was choke him. (God his throat hurt…) His hands shook, trembling at first, but then quavering so much that he felt as though he'd lost control of his limbs. It was there, watching, judging. If he could breathe, he would have laughed. They'd said they could make it go away, but he should have known better. It would never leave.
'Leave,' he wanted to say. To beg. He wanted to crawl out of his skin and leave his body behind, to curl up somewhere and be invisible just so that he wouldn't have to feel its eyes on the back of his head anymore. They had made him feel better, but they were all gone. He had the demon to thank for that, her and her followers.
Followers.
There was still one left.
Of course! Of course of course of course of course—
He reached for the bat despite the way his arms cried out in protest. He just had to get rid of the other one, the fake. One more and all the suffering would finally be over. He'd finally be free.
Love
"Fold!" The blond girl in the green dress threw her across the table, not bothering to make sure that none of them landed face up. She huffed and sat back in her chair, folding her arms tightly. Her round face was puffed with irritation. "Just take all my chips."
"Ha! Satoko-chan, you're giving up already?" The green-eyed girl sitting across from her flashed a mischievous grin. She faked a sigh, shaking her head. Only two people remained in the game, everyone else having folded after their umpteenth defeat. The pile of chips in the middle was practically a mountain.
"Don't let her beat you," a girl who could have been her mirror image said, laughing.
"What?" Satoko demanded, face going red. "Shion, you're not even playing!"
"Mii~ I've bet all my chips already," Rika Furude said in a small voice, looking down at the table. "I lost last round."
Satoko turned to stare at the girl next to her. "Rena! You haven't bet anything yet!"
Rena Ryuugu flashed her a vacant smile. "But these chips are so cute! Rena doesn't want to lose them." Only she would play poker without making any bets. Satoko just stared in disbelief before going back to her sulking. It was better not to get in between Rena and whatever random objects she had deemed as cute.
"Well, looks like it's just you and me then, Kei-chan," the green-eyed girl, Mion Sonozaki said. "Unless you want to give up like everyone else and let this old man win."
"Never!" Keiichi Maebara said. He took what was left of his chips and dumped them into the pile. "I've got a good hand this time, I can feel it!"
He'd said the same thing about his last few hands, only to be sorely disappointed. Not that a few losses would stop him. Keiichi would keep going until he faced absolute defeat, making his subsequent humiliation all the more entertaining. Mion just barely managed to contain a laugh. She had already picked out his punishment; it was only a matter of wrapping the round up. Shion shook her head. Her sister and all of her friends were so predictable.
"Sis, be nice this time," Shion said, winking.
"I'm always nice!" Mion scoffed. She pushed her chips towards the middle. "Fine then, I'm all in too."
Keiichi slapped his cards down onto the table, nearly scattering the chips everywhere. He'd had three queens and two fives. "Full house!"
Mion looked down at his cards, not saying anything.
"Aren't you going to play your hand?" Keiichi asked. He gave her a smirk that could have rivaled Satoko's usual smug look. "Or do you want to just admit defeat now?"
Shion snorted, turning to look out the window. If anything, her sister was trying to preserve the suspense. Really, Keiichi should have known better than to play against someone who had memorized the entire deck based off of the scratches on the back of the cards.
"Aha!" Mion slapped her own cards down with even more bravado than Keiichi had, if that was physically possible. The boy's face fell when he saw the row of spades. "Royal flush!"
Keiichi nearly upended his desk. "What? How is that even possible? You were cheating!"
"I was following our rules! Do whatever it takes to win!"
The two of them stood up from their chairs and started yelling, interrupted only by Satoko yelling at them both to shut up. Rika only looked back and forth between them, uttering a small "mii."
"Why don't you just admit you love each other already?" Shion asked, unable to resist. Both Mion and Keiichi stopped mid-rant, turning to face her with eyes as wide as saucers.
"Wh-what?" Mion spluttered. Her face went a deep, unflattering red. "D-don't say things like that!"
Shion rolled her eyes, smiling innocently. "Everyone already knows. Right Kei-chan?" She walked to stand behind him, wrapping her arms around him from behind, her eyes on her sister the entire time. Even though she couldn't see the boy's face, she knew he must have been just as red as Mion.
"Shion! Stop that!"
Shion laughed, leaning in to kiss the boy's cheek. "Well, I'll see you all later!"
"Are you going to see-?" Mion stopped herself before she could finish the sentence. She covered her mouth, eyes going wide. Subtle.
Satoko looked over at her, lost. "Where are you going?"
Shion forced herself to keep smiling innocently, though she felt as though she'd been punched in the gut. Lying to Satoko never got easier, but it was necessary.
"I have to do some shopping; I didn't get around to it this weekend." She faked a laugh, hoping it was convincing enough. The blonde girl raised an eyebrow, but said nothing, turning her attention back to the game.
Dr. Irie was already waiting by the time she got there. He called out to her, waving enthusiastically. Irie had a habit of assuming that everyone was as near-sighted as he was, and that no one would be able to see him from a distance if he wasn't waving like a crazy person.
"Shion-san! I was expecting you!" He said. No, really? "Right this way."
She followed him into the clinic, where she was immediately hit by a blast of air conditioning. The doctor had never been able to get used to the heat in Hinamizawa. Some summers it was nearly impossible for people to leave their homes. Still, Shion would take it over Okinomiya any day.
Irie chattered on as they made their way to the basement, most of it about the baseball team he managed. He bragged about their victories all the way there.
"You know, the team misses their manager," he said. "You're still free to come back any time you want."
The team didn't know who I really was, she almost said, but caught herself. "Don't feel like it, sorry!"
The doors slid open, but before she could step inside, Irie moved in front of her. He scratched the back of his neck, looking down at his shoes; all traces of his previous cheerfulness gone. Shion stopped, looking at him in confusion.
"Would you mind cutting this visit a bit short?" He took a deep breath, still not facing her. "I'm going to be working with him today."
Shion shifted her weight from one foot to the other, the tote bag on her arm bumping against her leg. Cut it short? Weren't they short enough already? At first, he had allowed her to visit every day, but because of 'complications' it became a few times a week. Eventually, Irie changed that to twice a month. And now…
Why should she have to spend less time with him? The doctor had him at the clinic twenty-four seven, and he still hadn't made any progress. If there were any complications, they were his fault, not hers.
"I thought you said you were getting closer to fixing him," she said, eyes narrowing.
Irie threw his hands up and took a step back, smiling sheepishly. "Well, that was how it seemed at first. This is all very complicated, you have to understand."
"No it isn't! You fixed Satoko, didn't you?"
Irie's weak smile wavered. "That was different. She wasn't in level five when she started receiving treatment…most of her medicine is preventative. Satoshi is…" he trailed off with a sigh. "Just try to finish quickly."
"'For never was a story of more woe, than this of Juliet and her Romeo.'" Shion closed the book and leaned back in her seat with a sigh. "Wasn't that a good story, Satoshi-kun?" It was pointless to talk to him, she knew, but it was easy to pretend that he was listening. Normally, she could imagine his voice responding to everything. She could see his sad smile, silently apologizing that he couldn't reach out and rub her head like he always used to.
The only answer was the beeping of his heart monitor.
Her hand itched to reach out and grab his, to feel their fingers lace together, but she stayed seated. Irie had reminded her time and time again that this wouldn't be the same Satoshi-kun she loved. He was a ghost of his former self, the color gone from his face, his body weak. His hair had thinned a bit too. If it wasn't for the monitors and machines he was hooked up to, she would have thought he was dying.
He was deteriorating. Tears stung the back of her eyes like needles. If only she'd been able to protect him earlier…there was no way she would let him end up in that condition. She would have been able to keep him safe. There was no telling what kind of experiments the manager was using on him to have him in such terrible condition.
Against Irie's warnings, she reached out to smooth his hair out of his face. A small bit of it came out in her hands. Did he notice? Did he know she was there at all?
She traced a finger down the side of his face, trying to swallow down the lump growing in her throat. His face twitched.
"You…" she gasped, pulling her hand back as though he had burned her. Her green eyes went wide. "Satoshi-kun?" Her voice was shaking, as were her hands. The tears poured down her face, but she no longer cared. Did it mean that he was really there with her?
He twitched again, his fingers flexing before returning to their relaxed position. Shion gasped and covered her mouth. Excitement flowed through her like electricity. Her Satoshi-kun…he was there. He was there for her.
"It's okay," she whispered, reaching for his hand and squeezing it. "I'll get you out of here."
AN: Once again, that was pretty bad. But agh.
