Reflection
Drip, drip, drip ...
The taunting sound of drops, hitting the tiled floor echoed, bouncing off the tight, claustrophobic walls. The tap was loose. Clear, diamond drops of water leaked from the cylindrical shape, into the drain, hitting the sides of the scrubbed basin.
A different liquid, thicker, heavier, dripped in perfect symphony beside the water.
My, my, what happened here?
It's so unclean, so unpure.
Look here, here we have the bathtub, large enough for an adult to fit in. The taps are running, wasting so much water.
What a pity.
The hot water is steaming, but there is already cool water in the tub. It settles into a type of warm water, comforting and blanket-like. It sloshes around, out of the bathtub, onto the floor, and flowing into the drain. Along with another liquid. A thicker, heavier liquid. It's colouring the water, it's making the water dirty.
Let's look over here, see? There's a shape slumped along the edge of the bathtub. What is it, you ask? Let's see then ...
A person. Lain down, limp, over the pristine edge of the bathtub. Oh, look, that person made the water stained, and turned the taps on. It's a girl, and she's made the bathtub dirty, she's stained it.
What's her name? Who is she? Let's smooth her pink hair out of her face, there. Look! She has horns. White, bony horns connected to her skull. How abnormal, how inhumane, how freakish!
She has her eyes closed. She must be sleeping, do we want to disturb her? Yes, we do. We want to know who she is, don't we? Let's shake her shoulder to see if she wakes up. Why is she not responding? She must be in a deep sleep, then.
Wait, why is her arm covered in marker scrawlings? It's so ugly. They look like scars, red, criscrossed scars. The marker must have leaked a lot on her skin, because it's dripping off her arm. Into the bathtub, which is full of water. Oh, the water is stained red, marker red. Look, the marker's only just dripping into the water, one by one. They drop into the water, blossoming into red flowers, How pretty! And from such an ugly scrawl too.
We're getting bored watching the red flowers, aren't we? And the water's getting too red to see them anymore.
Let's go to the mirror. Oh, it's broken! The girl must have broken it. That's bad.
It's all cracked now, it's ruined. We can't see our reflection on it anymore. Bits of it have fallen off, onto the ground. Let's pick them up and put them together, shall we?
There, all done now. Wait, something's wrong with it. There's one piece missing. Where is it? We're going to look around the room to see if we can find it. Oh! Here it is, it's clutched in the girl's hand. Oh, she must have used her marker on this hand too. It's all red!
Oh, the marker's gone onto the piece of mirror too. This won't work. We can't put a red mirror onto a perfect one!
Let's go over here, and listen to the girl's thoughts. Oh, there isn't any. Strange.
Let's see ... oh, her heart's stopped beating. That's why she isn't moving. This girl's dead. We wonder how she died. We'd like to know, don't we?
Okay then. Let's see what happened, shall we?
Yes, yes, we shall. Let's go now.
Kill. Kill Kouta. Kill the girl. Kill them all.
These thoughts rotated crazily around Lucy's head, as she clutched it. Her mouth was moving, uttering cries of either help or anger. Everything seemed to stretch and disappear into a vortex, the nexus of madness. No, no, Lucy won't descend into madness. She was mad already.
Looney, looney, you belong to the looney bin!
Nyuu struggled to break into Lucy's mind, and take over. Lucy held, Lucy wouldn't lose to a pathetic little weakling.
Kill them because they treated you like rubbish. They stepped over you, and ignored you, you stupid little girl.
Lucy gritted her teeth, and looked through a haze of red as the boy ... Kouta stepped towards her and tried to reach out to her, calling her name. Why is he doing that? He doesn't care about her. He doesn't care!
Nyuu's presence tried to infiltrate, to control. But he's nice to me! He's nice to me, he's nice ...
Lucy shoved her away again, and tried to focus on the real world. She wanted to kill them, she wanted to kill them all. Her instincts told her to. They comanded her to.
Kill.
But she wanted to apologize. She wanted to apologize for what she did all those years ago, when they were children.
Children? What ... what children?
Lucy struck out, her hand hitting the wall and making a dent. Her knuckles glistened with blood. Kouta shouted. Yuka cried out.
Yuka... kill her. Kill that stupid little witch.
No, if she killed Yuka, Kouta would hate her. He would never forgive her. Ever.
Kouta finally reached her, and put out his hands to hold her jerking shoulders. 'Nyuu!'
His voice seemed a world away, a world away ... Lucy opened her eyes, not realizing she had closed them and stared at Kouta right in the eye.
Kouta's mind came to a standstill. Everything seemed to disppear into a black hole, and it was just him and Nyuu. No, not Nyuu. This wasn't Nyuu.
This was the girl he had met all those years ago, a lifetime away.
Kouta jerked. What? Where had that come from? What girl? He hadn't met a girl when he was a kid? At least, one that looked like Nyuu, anyway.
Lucy used this distraction to push Kouta away from her, using her vectors. She didn't want to hurt him, oh no. She just wanted to be out of his sight. She was too ashamed. She didn't deserve him. She didn't.
Kouta felt an invisible force hit him in trhe stomach, and he doubled over, gasping for breath. When he straightened up, still clutching his stomach, he was on the other side of the corridor. Yuka had placed a hand on his back, and was speaking to him, crying to him. What was she saying? Why was she crying? He looked over to Nyuu.
She wasn't there anymore.
Lucy ran away from Kouta, away from them all. It all.
Why didn't you kill that conniving little snake, Yuka? You stupid, stupid little girl! You aren't good for anything!
She was a coward. She couldn't face Kouta, after what she had done.
You killed his father, didn't you? And his sister. His dear little sister, all because she pushed you over. Stupid little girl.
Shut up! Lucy ran on and on, until she came to a door. She flung it open, and fell inside, panting, and ... crying?
Yes, crying. Tears rolled off her cheeks and dripped to the floor, wet, and loud. Her breath came in raggedy sobs, as her body trembled and shook. She closed the door with a bang, using her vectors to hold it closed, knowing Kouta would try and come in after her.
Kouta. Dear Kouta. Caring, gentle Kouta whom she had treated like dirt, and had flung away like a rotten piece of garbage.
Yes, sure enough, the door banged. A fist hammered on it as Kouta yelled through the door, fearing that Nyuu was hurt. 'Nyuu! Open up, Nyuu! What's wrong?'
Lucy ignored him. He was calling to Nyuu. He didn't want her. He wanted Nyuu. A red, searing jealousy tore through her body, pumping her blood, and making her eyes sting. No, he didn't want her, he wanted Nyuu. If that was the case, well, if he didn't want Lucy, she'd make sure he didn't have anything.
It didn't slip her mind once that she might be making the same mistake she did when they were children. She wiped her eyes with her fists, and watched the clear, salty liquid on her fingers, smeared with the blood that her hurt hand was now covered in.
She was dirty. Kouta deserved better than her. Lucy wiped her hands on her skirt, and stood up. The banging intensified behind her. The door would break soon. She had to act quickly. She could almost hear the wood splintering. Did Kouta want to get in that bad? Well, he would get in soon.
Lucy walked up to the mirror, and looked inside it. What she saw sickened her. It was a monster. Kouta didn't want a monster, he wanted Nyuu. Her mouth was bared in a snarl, and her hair was dishevelled. Her eyes were half-crazed, and that was what scared her most.
But Lucy wasn't scared. Scared was a human emotion. Lucy wasn't human. Her heart stung when she reminded herself of that. Why?
The banging on the door seemed far away now, now that her mind was head set on doing what she wanted to. What she deemed was right.
Kill them! Before you do it, kill them! Do it before it's too late!
Lucy blocked that voice from her mind. She hated that voice. She despised it.
Slaughter them all.
Its cackling, static-like quality blazed in her ears, and seared her mind. Lucy closed her eyes tightly, and just let everything happen.
After a shattering smash, she opened her eyes. The mirror was broken, and pieces littered the floor. She surveyed this for a second, looking like a solemn angel, her face serene, smooth.
A white hot, blinding pain struck her eyes. She howled, staggering backwards, clutching her face. She pressed the heels of her palms into her eyelids, but the pain only intensified. Everything was red, everything was coated red.
Now everything was black. She couldn't see anything. For a moment, a childish thought echoed through her pain-delirious head.
Who turned out the lights?
The voice was back, now, angrier and more controlling then ever.
You stupid witch! Why did you do that?
She held a tiny bit of satisfaction at the anger of that voice. Her head was blinded with pain, and there were small spots of pain on her face and neck, indicating that they were also cut with glass.
Blood poured down her throat, and her tongue recoiled at the foul taste. It dripped down her clothes, and onto the floor in thick streams. Most of it leaked from her eyes.
Lucy felt dizzy, and tried to turn around. Her feet slipped on the slippering ground, and a split second before she fell, she felt a giddy madness, circulating just outside her frame of mind. No! I won't let you in!
Her face his the ground, and she felt her nose break. She could feel no pain now. She was past pain. Warm liquid flowed over her mouth, into her mouth, and down her chin. Her hands struck the tiled floor, and one fell on a shard of glass. It cut her hand, and she gripped it, the pain slowly coming back, and fighting unconsciousness.
She was almost deaf now, everything seemed quieter.
Lucy got up on all fours, and crawled, feeling her way to the bathtub. She slumped on her side at its rim, its porcelain surface cutting into her side. She dropped her shard of glass into the tub, and felt with bloodstained hands for the tap. Her fingers left bloodied trails in the white perfection. Her knees slid on the tiled floor, and her hands went to the side. On of her nails caught on the towel rack, a section jutting out, and it tore her nail clean off. She screamed, loud and clear. Her mind was a catastrophe of pain, and half-contained anger and distraught.
She snatched her hand back, and knelt at the side of the tub, again. Now, Lucy found the taps, and turned them on. Hot water seared her nailess fingertip and she hissed, but keeping her hand there, fighting away the comforting, painless drone of sleep. And the possibility of waking up.
Her vectors were barely keeping the door closed, because of Lucy's quickly weakening body. The bathtub slowly filled up, and Lucy slumped her head over the edge, slwoly fading in and out of consciousness. Her hand clutched the shard of glass, and shakily, slashed cuts on her other arm. Scratches of pain infiltrated Lucy's brain, but no more than that.
What ... a- ooooo ... -lut!
She could feel the warm blood draining out of her wrist, her life's blood. Into the water. She was still now.
Nyuu's time to come out now.
Her dying thought, merged with Nyuu's cry.
'Kouta!'
Her heart stopped beating, and the water flowed serenely over the rim of the bathtub.
The door burst open, and Kouta screamed.
A lovely, lovely sound. Don't you think?