It was a strange experience, and I didn't really want to talk about it. I'll tell you about it, but I'll keep some details vague.
I can tell you that it was when I was in high school. I was a bright child, but the more I grew up, the more I felt my brother's brilliance. Oh, he was seven years older than me, so we were never, like, going through the school at the same time. By the time this story happened, my brother was already a promising white-collar businessman, ready to be promoted in any time.
But the thing was, our community was pretty close-knitted, you know? My school was the only high school in the area, which happened to be the best in the prefecture. As soon as I got in, the teachers already had some high expectations for me. My brother was never the student council, but he was the legendary shadow king of the school. Rumors said he defeated the famous school thug and blackmailed the dark informant in his first day. It was to the point that the original seven wonders of the school were forgotten, replaced by seven amazing accomplishments (among many) that he made.
Me? I pretty much blended into the background. It was kind of hard because we looked kinda similar. I wish I could dye my hair black or brown so I would blend more among my friends, but nah, Mom wouldn't allow it. And once she decided, no one could refuse it. Not even my brother. (I could swear he has a Mother complex, but our Mom is really, really pretty so I can't really blame him.)
My brother never told me anything though, like, who his current girlfriend was. I didn't bother to ask either.
That day, Mom was out on her routine check to the hospital. Dad was never really at home when Mom wasn't. Brother was on a business trip to another prefecture. I heard Mom saying that he was awesome for being entrusted with inter-prefecture business deal. She even clapped her hand in excitement, her long hair swaying as she said to me for about two hours about my brother.
I was too busy googling stuffs from homework and playing some cellphone games that I didn't realize the day had long passed. Just when I felt too hungry to stare at the screen, there were knocks on the door. I ignoring it for a while, hoping the person knocking would get a clue that there was no one else at home.
They didn't, though. Someone still knocked, more insistently. I was worried the neighbors would get annoyed and filed a complaint, and then I would get blamed by Dad, who liked his reputation clean. Grumbling, I walked downstairs and stood just before the front door.
"...Yeah?" I admit I'm not a good host in my house. I didn't peek out, the hole was a few centimeters higher than my eyes. I didn't bother to tiptoe.
"...Uhm, is L-elf at home?"
It was a girl's high pitched voice. I immediately thought it was my brother's girlfriend.
"Not yet," I replied, mind already wandering to Mom's stories about him.
"...Oh," came her disappointed reply. Weird. Very weird. It was late at night and his girlfriend came knocking to the house instead of his office dorm? She didn't know he was at the business trip either.
"I'm going to wait here until he comes," she said. There was a dragged sound as she stepped away from the door. There was a park just outside the house with benches. I figured she would wait there.
I brushed it off and went back upstairs. Brother would come back home in the morning, and he always went back here in the weekends. I supposed she knew that. All night long, though, was it even possible? It must be cold and dark outside; the street lamp nearby was broken last week and hadn't been replaced.
I paid no mind as I slept it off, forgetting even my hunger.
The call to my cellphone woke me up. The ringtone was different than usual that I thought it was the alarm clock I didn't notice I had set. "Urgh," groaning, sunlight rays peeked through the closed curtains as my left hand patted around the bed to find my cellphone.
"Hello?"
"Mikhail?" Brother? "I need you to come to my friend's funeral, right now."
"Huh?" I groaned. Very bothersome. "I just woke up, and..."
"It's important you go to his place right away. Use the train at 6.45, stop at Sakimori station, look for the house number 77."
"But-"
"Please. Right now."
The phone was cut off, the line dead beyond my ears. Please? Brother never used "please" on me. Ever. It sounded urgent, and I looked at the clock on my cellphone. 6.35 AM. If I ran, it only took five minutes to reach the station. I could make it.
I know, I know. I was protesting about my brother all along, right? But it was about his friend. I didn't even know he had a friend. He never brought one home, as far as I knew. I was curious, and it was Sunday, I had nothing else to do. I took off the hanging gakuran and wore it as I opened the front door.
The park was very empty as I passed it; I couldn't even see a bird or stray cat. Weird, they were usually very noisy in the morning. The street was empty, the sky was dull grey, and I felt disturbed by the haughtiness. Come to think of it, my brother's voice was a little different. I assumed it was him because he called me "Mikhail", but there was a static sound disturbing the whole call. And after the line was cut off, my phone was dead. Without any "beep" sound signaling the end of the line.
And the weird woman last night, where was she? There was no one in the park. Maybe she got home, it had to be. The woman knocking door... Why would she knocked on the door when there was a doorbell? And how could I... How could I hear it from the second floor?
The sky. It was cloudy. But when I was awake, there was sunlight, right? Right?
I felt drenched in cold sweat, the hair on my nape bristled and I couldn't even seem to reach the corner of the street; my steps felt so, so heavy, like being dragged on by lead. I felt scared, too scared to even look down to the ground.
But I finally reached the corner somehow, and there were people. A lot of people, right in front of the station. I breathed lighter. So light I was huffing by the time I bought a ticket. Thank goodness I made it in time to the 6.45 train. Cool, right? The station was just around the corner of my blocks.
I just.
I just tried to blank my mind, severely hoping that I was doing the right thing by following the instructions. There was a popular idol face winking at me from the train's ad platform, and I felt the knot inside my chest loosened up a little as I stepped inside the train.
"77..." I looked around as I walked right after I got off. It was my brother's friend's funeral. I was expecting people in black suits or dresses paying their condolescences to the family. I looked at my grey-yellow hoodie too. Yeah, not the outfit one would wear to a funeral. I didn't even have a chance to brush my teeth. At least I managed to pull a gakuran over my hoodie. It was black. I hoped I looked proper.
80... 79... There it was, the 77th. It was just right by the Shinto shrine, and I sighed the breath I didn't realize I was holding. Just the sight of the shrine gate was enough to make me feel really calmer.
I hesitated a bit, peeking beyong the front gate inside the traditional looking veranda. There were clothes hanging in the side yard, I took it as a good sign. Still, there was no funeral formalities in sight. I was wondering what to do, when a woman slid the front door open. She fixed her shoe, but then she realized I was there in an instant.
"L-elf...?"
My brother's name. So this was the correct house, I thought.
"Uhm, no. I'm his brother, Mikhail."
"Oh!" She covered his mouth, and smiled. "You have the same hair. Your eyes though..." she trailed off. I saw her looking sad for a bit. She was prettier when she smiled, the twinkle in her green eyes looked similar to my Mom. Maybe girls were like that. "And L-elf certainly isn't a high schooler anymore," she said, laughing a bit.
"I came here to... pay my visit. My brother told me..."
"Oh! How nice of you. Come on in. He would be happy to know L-elf sent you here," she smiled and stepped aside, welcoming me inside the house. When I came in, it looked somewhat like a tea ceremony house. So traditional. I figured the wooden building in the side was a dojo too. We walked quite a distance to a small room where there was a small shrine dedicated to the deceased person. I paid my respect, and then looked at the picture.
I frowned. I didn't inherit my blue eyes from anyone in the family, but here he was, smiling in the picture with a pair of eyes very much like mine. I was startled at the stark similarities.
"I'm sorry, but... my brother told me to go to his... funeral."
"Eh?" The woman gasped, her reddish brunet bangs swayed as she turned to me. "But it happened years ago... And your brother showed up at his funeral, so he should've known."
"What?" My eyes widened, I suppose. The strange crawling feeling came back to the nape of my neck. "But I was specifically told to come right away to his friend's funeral..."
The woman chuckled. "Friend, huh? Funny, they were always bickering, and neither would admit it, but I suppose in someplace I didn't see, they had become friends..."
"No, that's not what I'm talking about..." But even if I explained she might not have understood. I took out my cellphone urgently, meaning to ask my brother what the meaning of all this, when it suddenly rang. I looked at the caller ID and excused myself from the woman on the house.
"...Mom?" I asked, feeling a little relieved at the news of her presence. I should've tried calling her as soon as everything happened.
"Misha, come pick me at the hospital, we have to go to Dorssia hospital in the next prefecture. Your brother... He was on an car accident before boarding his plane this early morning, his condition is critical... Oh, Misha..."
Only by excusing myself shortly, I ran to the front door and went outside to the streets, calling the passing cab right away to Mom's hospital.
We arrived really fast, luck called it that we got on the earliest train and it took two hours. I had meal on the plane, and only after sipping some hot tea I realized I was famished since last night. My mother's hands were trembling. I didn't hate my brother, I never did. I wished he wouldn't be such an over-accomplishing, but I never wished him dead. I prayed that he would be safe.
But he had gone into a coma. The doctor said that today would be very critical. I forced Mom to sit on the corridor. And while sitting down myself, I heard a set of footsteps. Dragged footsteps. Where had I heard it before?
...Oh, right, it was last night, after the woman said she would be waiting. My hair stood up, feeling creepy and numb, and Mom didn't seem to notice anything.
"Not yet not yet not yet not yet?" the woman asked, and I didn't dare to look up. But she muttered it again, and again, and again, and I knew that somehow she had something to do with my brother's condition.
"Go away!" I shouted from the pit of my stomach, mustering all the energy. My Mom's hand was warm too, and I took comfort from that.
And what happened next, was that the figure I thought was a women, stayed stoned silent, then there were loud pops and cracks when she twisted her neck to stare at me with blood-stained eyes. I wanted to scream like a little girl, then, but I couldn't. It wasn't bravado; I was just too petrified by what was happening. Chills ran down my spine and I figured this wasn't human. Its hair was red, wildly tossed on his head, and its eyes shining menacing purple. And I would lose this staring contest anytime now.
Then...
There was another sound of footsteps. I looked to the direction, and I saw a boy of my age. Maybe older, but definitely a high schooler. He smiled at me, blue eyes sparkling, and I knew I saw him in a photo. It felt like tons of weights were lifted off of my shoulder, and when I turned around the non-human thing was gone
What happened?, I thought. Mom still didn't realize anything, and I felt a brush in my hair. The high schooler was acting like he was way taller, when he wasn't really, not much.
"You look a lot like him," the brunet figure said. I could still hear a hint of smile in that voice. "Please tell him not to make me worry so much, okay?"
Another ruffle in my hair, and everything felt like a gush of wind passed me and my Mom. Warm, so warm.
My brother eventually woke up from his coma. I told him everything that happened, and he said he didn't call me. I wanted to give him a proof, but when I checked to my phone log, there wasn't a log in that morning.
When I came to the point of the words that I heard at the very end of everything, my brother cried. A drop of tear got into overflowing stream, until his shoulders shook violently.
I didn't know my brother could look despaired, longing, regretful, remorseful, all at the same time. My mature, over-achieving, emotionless brother now made these expressions in front of me, and I felt heartbroken from the sight. Before he excused himself, I clearly heard a name escaping his lips in a hitched voice.
"Haruto..."
ハルエル
Disclaimer:
1. The story was blatantly taken from my favorite story in SayaInUnderworld blog. Just google the blog along with keywords: "the brother, the woman, the friend"
2. Naming L-elf's brother/son as Mikhail/Michael is gwynhafra86's idea. I still think L-elf's real name was "Mihaeru" thus Michael in Germany than Mikhail.
3. The characters belong to Kakumeiki Valvrave/VVV Committee
Trivia:
- Saki, Yamada, Senpai, Shoko, Liese, and A-drei are all in this story too, playing parts as someone else
- The "woman" is either genderbent or trap Q-vier. I considered making it A-drei so it can scream "ERUERUFUAAAA" XD But I figured it would disturb the whole mood
- Thank you for reading! I just thought I would share. This wasn't betaed and not originally mine, so sorry if it felt rushed.