I stared down at my feet in horror, not exactly sure what to say. Broken glass was splayed across the floor, and blood was streaming through my fingers and hitting the floor in grim cadence.
"Soul! Where the hell did you put my Birthday present from Death?"
"Um, which one, Maka? You got lots of presents, you know, because everybody loves you and wants to be your friend. . ." The look in her eyes indicated that I had nowhere to hide, and that she had a suspicion of what was going on.
"The one from Death; there's only one, idiot! My beautiful crystal book." Her eyes brightened upon hearing herself say "book."
"Well, you see, the book is, well Black Star and I thought it would make a great soccer ball, and then we realized that it was made of crystal, so. . . What I mean to say is that crystal breaks." Searing anger built up into her eyes, which had begun to flash red.
"You did what?!" She approached me quivering, her hand raising.
"No please, let's not get carried away. . ." Her hand was well above her head, suspended in the air as if by its own accord. Her eyes were now permanently fixated red, and her whole body was strung tightly out in stress.
"MAKAAAAAAAAAAA," I tried to evade her, but it was no use. "CHOP!" A grim tendril of darkness pervaded my senses, and I'm not sure if I passed out or died, although I am assuming that I passed out. Friggin' book worm.
I woke up in a cold sweat, and realized that it was dark outside. I took a sideway glance at the clock pinned to the wall. "3:24 A.M." Those losers had thrown a party without me! Idiots, everyone knows that I am the life of the party; except that I'm not and I would typically revert to the back of the room and play Gothic music on the piano to display how mysterious I am. What can I say, mysterious is not an easy task to pull off. Brushing myself, I pulled myself from off the floor, and bumped into something solid. I whirred around my head a full 180 degrees, hurting my neck slightly. I nearly shrieked out in terror. Standing right behind me I found a warped human being, whose appearance was so sinister that I was sure that somewhere Medusa was laughing. Its pale face was basically severed skin spread tightly across bone, which created the dull sensation that it was watching but yet where it needed eyes there lay two narrow slits, oozing with some type of red liquid which appeared to be the mixture of blood and. . .snot? Its mouth curled in a toothy grin, with blood stained fangs protruding outwards and piercing the creature's own gums. Its body was very thin, and mangled in a manner which is almost indescribable. Its shoulders were contorted so that the frame of the body was perpendicular to the head. Sorry, that's actually really repulsive; I might need a minute to process that. Before I could, it began to flicker, and disappeared.
I ran to our room with the two twin beds, and quickly jumped into one. Wrong move. I felt a trashing body under me, and soon felt tight slaps against my face, along with periodic kicks.
"Help! Rapist!"
"Shhh, Maka. It's just me: Soul."
"Rapist!"
"Yeah, not funny." She seemed to settle down.
"Soul get the hell off of me!" she yelled, attempting to swat me off of her. Her hand flew straight up my shirt, and its heat burned my cold exposed skin. Her hand settled down on my chest for just a second, and our eyes met. Suddenly she kicked me off the bed, and I was sent flying up to the ceiling. Alabaster cracked against my whole body, and I was sent tumbling toward the floor. Nothing was bleeding, luckily. Except my nose.
I looked at her, slightly dazed. Her eyes softened slightly, but soon tensed up again.
"Get the hell into your bed, and don't attempt anything ever again you creep!"
"Well, I wasn't the one who shot my hand into your shirt, although there isn't much to enjoy there, to be honest." Her eyes seemed to bore hole straight through me.
"You think it was intentional!"
"Of course it was," I crowed.
"You perv! I bet you enjoyed it!"
"I wouldn't go that far. But maybe a little."
"God, just be quiet and go to sleep! We have exams to take tomorrow, and every time you fail my faith in you as my weapon goes down little by little. You make me look bad!"
"Well, actually when you think about it, Ms. Book Worm Cram Princess, you make everybody look bad when you ace the exams even though half the material wasn't covered in class."
"You mean the material covered while you're sleeping!"
"Whatever; I'm going to bed. I've been traumatized today. From a Maka Chop to being molested to. . ." I lost my voice. The same specter was hovering right above her, a ghastly smile spread across its face.
From its mouth trickled a rapid stream of deep black liquid, which pooled on top of Maka's head and began to pour down her face. As she spoke it made its way into her mouth, and soon her voice became a dull gurgle.
"First out," she laughed, a sinister smile spreading across her face. "First out." Where the liquid passed there was burnt skin, enflamed and painful to the eye. Her eyes became wider as she spoke. "First out." The way in which she carried herself, the uncontrollable splutters of laughter spilling from her mouth. That's not Maka.
"Maka! What are you talking about? What do you mean 'first out?'" As I spoke I noticed the liquid flowing down her neck and solidifying. Her voice became strained and hoarse as the fluid strangled her. Running up to her, I pressed my hand against the liquid, attempting to pull it away from her. Searing pain shot up my arm upon touching it. The phantasm above her began to laugh, the despicable sound pounding in my my teeth, I wrested the slippery liquid rope from around her neck, and threw it onto the ground where it simply flickered away. In less than a moment the creature was gone, yet the laughter remained. Immediately color flushed back into Maka's expression, and it took upon its former irritation.
"You don't look like you're sleeping," she scolded me sternly.
"Maka, are—are you… okay?" I stuttered, and suddenly realized that I had her hand tightly clenched in my left.
"Yeah, and let go you creep. I thought we had been over this." She brushed away my hand sharply, but something in her eye seemed to register the hand slightly differently.
"And what do you mean 'first out?'" I asked, trembling.
"What the actual hell are you talking about?" Her irritation was quickly becoming anger. "Look Soul, I don't know what the hell you want, but it's not friggin funny. Just shut the hell up and let me sleep."
"But, just a couple moments ago—" I trailed off. I could not bring myself to speak; for some reason I felt as though somebody had their hand tightly enclosed around my neck. I heard a voice, so low that I could hardly believe it was real.
"I'll kill her. Say a word and she's dead." It whispered, and something about the look of indifference on Maka's face told me she couldn't hear anything.
"Just a couple moments ago what?" she hissed, more menacing than the voice itself.
"No—nothing," I spluttered. Immediately the tension was released. Pulling up the thin sheets of my bed up above my head I shut the light.
"Soul." I could hear Maka's voice, which had taken upon a much softer note. "I know you're nervous about exams, but don't worry about it. I know you'll be fine. You're my weapon after all; I'll help you, I promise. . ." she began drifting off to sleep, and stopped midsentence. I relaxed, dismissing everything as hallucinations induced by the pressure of those damn tests; she's right. For the first time I guess I was nervous about exams. As the deep, merciful tendrils of sleep began to envelop my mind, they were interrupted by . . . a presence; I could feel something, some foreign part of me which I had never experienced before. Somehow though, just by thinking about Maka, I was able to rid myself off it, and I was overwhelmed by a peculiar warmth.
I woke up with the irritating sensation that there was a cat on my face. Opening my eyes, my suspicions were confirmed. "Blair!" I shouted, grabbing at her tail and flinging her across the room; she crashed against the wall with a soft thud. Scowling, she lifted herself up and began to approach me, her hat covering her eyes.
"Oh Soul" she purred, "I'll turn you into a pumpkin! A yummy, delicious pumpkin!" She cackled, and began licking herself in contentment. Just then Maka rushed into the room, and Blair immediately ran under the bed. Taking one look at her, I suddenly realized that she was dressed only in undergarments.
"Oh, hey. . . Maka." I mustered, severely distracted by the floor. "When did you decide to walk around like that, and why didn't you start that sooner?"
"You perv! Since when do you start waking up at 5:00 in the morning? Bet you had a suspicion about something, didn't you." Her voice quivered with anger.
"Hell no, Maka. You are not going to blame me for this one. I had no idea that your pre-exams ritual was walking around like that; now that is a weird-ass way of coping with stress. It helps me too, though." I flashed her my trademark annoying grin; from under the bed I could hear catty giggles.
"Gross, Soul! Now get up and get dressed so that we can start studying. Today we only have our Calculus exam." Again, her face brightened upon hearing herself say "Calculus."
"Oh do I friggin' have to?"
"Yup!"
"Oh look who perked up today, bet you're excited about these exams aren't you?"
"Oh sorry, I guess I should match your attitude shouldn't I?" She hunched over, shrugging. "Gawd, it's a tough life when you're too cool for school," she groaned, "why do I have to deal with this crap?" Suddenly, she returned back to Maka-ness, "so that you don't shame me into dropping out of school, that's why! Now get the hell up!"
Pulling myself out of bed, I got up and trudged toward the living room, where I threw myself down onto one of the chairs, mentally preparing myself to deal with Maka's passion about studying. I think I may have fallen asleep, or simply have been put into a boredom-induced coma. Anyway, upon regaining consciousness, I was welcomed by her excited chatter of Calculus.
". . . so by applying the chain rule twice, we are able to derive the velocity of the train. This demonstrates that the derivative of a displacement function is the velocity!"
"Oh my God, let's fangirl over it!" She sent me stern look. "Anyway, why the hell do Meisters and Weapons need to know Calculus? Ooh look, it's Asura," I groaned, "I bet if we calculate the acceleration at which he is coming toward us we can get him. Oh look, while I was getting out my calculator he killed me. Oh well." Suddenly we were overcome by the wafting aroma of freshly fried fish, and the crackling sound of oil. We were both hungry, as Kid had come over yesterday and ceremoniously burnt our non-symmetrical foods, which included everything except granola bars, which he ate. Blair was sitting on the counter, spooning grease onto two sizzling hunks of fish.
"Pum Pum Pumpkin . . . FISH!" she squealed. "I know Calculus," she meowed, "if I have two fishes, and I eat both of them," she spooned all the contents of the pan, oil and all into her mouth, "then I have. . ." She scratched her head, pondering it for a moment.
"ZERO!" we simultaneously yelled at her. Maka slumped over, fainting from disappointment. "Now look what you've done" I yelled at Blair, who conveniently leapt through the window and was gone. Sighing, I got up and went to the bathroom to brush my teeth. Attached to my toothbrush was a tiny piece of parchment, and upon reading it, I nearly shrieked out in horror. "Maka Albarn," it read, "First Out."