Chapter 1: Migraine
The Sunlight streamed through the threadbare curtains and streaked across my bedroom floor. I squinted as one found my eyes, and a headache sprouted in my head. I lumbered out of bed and decided to skip a shower this morning because I would be late for school. I opened my bedroom door and walked into the kitchen. I had left the TV on last night and the news had suddenly changed to a live report on another police raid on a house with an infamous killer. But this time, I missed the initial entry so all I was watching at the time was the removal of the killer's body.
I proceeded to watch the camera men get shoved out of the way, to make room for the body of the killer itself, while I poured a bowl of cereal with milk and grabbed an apple in a lackadaisical way. I walked into the living room, sat on the couch and ate my cereal while I watched the news report. A reporter avoided a police guard and ran up to one of the armed soldiers carrying the body and she burst out with questions: "Why can't we see the bodies of these killers? Why are the body bags so small? Why are there reports of screaming girls when the shooting starts? Why won't you answer any of my que-?"
I flinched, spilling milk all over myself. The reporter's head was suddenly cut off her body and her blood coated the camera lens, blocking the view. The audio that followed was horrifying. Soldiers shouted that the killer was still alive and they also shouted in pain. Civilians screamed in terror and gunshots rang out from the background. But soon, the sounds all disappeared.
I assumed that whoever or whatever killed the soldiers and policemen had killed them all. All I heard was silence, partial camera static where the camera had been dropped and the unmistakable dripping sound of fresh blood. I heard footsteps that sounded like they were stepping through a puddle. They grew fainter and I knew that they were fading into the distance. I turned the TV off before the screens could switch back to the anchorman. I finished my partly spilt cereal, changed into my school uniform and ran to school. Only able to nourish my headache by rubbing my temples...
I decided to take a detour from my usual route to school to stop by a local drugstore. I purchased a bottle of aspirin and a bottle of water. After palming two aspirin and chugging the bottle of water, I continued to trudge to school. I let my mind go blank as the water spread a cool and soothing relief of pain from my mind. I pocketed the aspirin bottle and discarded the empty water bottle in a recycle bin. I walked along and continued to press the pain out of my temples but the presence of pain had suddenly moved to the middles of the sides of my head. It felt like someone was stabbing me in the head; from the inside.
My thoughts came back to me and I brought the memory of this mornings news alert. They hardly ever allow the press anywhere near the police raids and often use more force to keep the cameras off the murders and their victims. The body outlines of the labeled killers are surprisingly small, the only thing i can come up with is that the killers are very young or the stretchers were mixed up with one of the victims. Either way you look at it, the entire news broadcast seemed a little suspicious and weird. Why would the police or the government be so secretive about random murders of entire households?
"Wake up Sora!" the voice that greeted me was energetic and upbeat.
"Oh, hi Yumi. I was hoping for a morning without that shrill voice of yours today." I grasped my forehead and grimaced as the pain set in.
"Hey, that's rude! My voice isn't that shrill!" I turned to see the small, slender build of Yumi Asaki, my childhood friend. Her face was distorted with anger, normally it was serene and almost cute. Her pinkish hair was short and her school uniform showcased her cliché skinny high school girl figure. Her eyes were red from possible lack of sleep and for the real shade of her iris. She walked faster when she realized I was staring for too long.
"Pervert! Quit looking at my face like that!" she stormed off, rounding a corner and almost disappearing.
"Well excuse me if I thought you looked attractive for once!" my shout sent a wave of pain through my head. Yumi suddenly poked her head around the corner and looked at me curiously.
"You really think I look attractive?" her eyes seemed to sparkle as she talked.
"Yeah I do, ouch, but only when you're happy. When you're mad, it takes points off your cuteness level." I spoke while fighting back new waves of pain. When was the aspirin going to kick in?
"Oh, do you have a headache Sora? If you said that earlier then I might have shut up and left you in peace." she looked at me apologetically.
"No it's fine. Besides, I like talking to you in the morning. It gets my day off to a good start." I attempted a smile. Yumi's face changed and she continued walking.
"I'm going on ahead to school since you're getting a little too romantic for my taste." she disappeared from sight.
I finally came up to the school and strode to the front door. After meandering through the numerous underclassmen I came to my locker. I entered the combination and retrieved my school bag. I never needed to bring it home because I always get my homework done before I leave school and it's such a pain having to keep up with it. So I decided to leave it at school one day. And its given me less to manage and a few envious looks from students with lower grades than mine. I passed a clock and realized that I had no time to sleep on the roof today. I strode up two flights of stairs and down to the third classroom on the right. Other students were already seated and talking in groups.
I was just about to walk into class when I noticed that the areas on the sides of my head were swollen and hard, like a bone was slightly protruding from my head. I ignored any significance of this and opened the door.
I fall asleep in class a lot, so I wasn't too alarmed about the sudden jolt of my friend's hand on my shoulder. "Wake up Sora! Just because you finished all of today's work yesterday doesn't mean you have to ignore the teacher."
I raised my head and faced my wake up call with lazy eyes. My friend was looking down on me with eyes filled with anger. I spoke after siting up. "Kazuya, just because you have a crush on the new young teacher doesn't mean you have to disturb my rest because I disrespect her so often." I turned and looked Miss Nakura over. She was wearing a dress shirt and a black skirt that touched her shins. Her short black hair framed brown eyes that scanned over a class roster. She looked like she had forgotten to take role of the class beforehand.
"But I will thank you for waking me for my next class." I shoved Kazuya and he tripped over a nearby desk.
"However, my next class is still in this room, so drool over Ms. Nakura during lunch break, ok?" Kazuya left without a word, defeated in logic and strength once again.
As history transitioned into English, I heard random conversations around the room. Actually listening to them made my head writhe in pain.
"How many?! How could you handle that?"
"I didn't, that's why I passed out."
"How could you lose it?! I trusted you!"
"Wow that's hilarious! Tell that joke again!"
"Give me some, please. I'll pay your sister back."
"That level was so annoying! I had to kill the guy twice!"
"I thought it was three times."
"Just tell him you like him."
All the random conversations in my head felt like they were wearing my brain down with sand paper. I massaged my head but ended up making the pain worse. I touched the sides of my head and felt blood. My pain made me pass out and I woke up to the feeling of the female class representative tapping me on the head with her notwbook, and making my headache worse.
Without thinking, I thought about pushing her off the ground and away from me with great force as I straightened and turned to face her. I suddenly felt more pain inside my head and I focused on the girl as I pushed her against the wall on the other side of the classroom, without moving from my seat or standing up. My eyes were wide with disbelief and horror.
The girl fell to the floor unconscious and with blood on the back of her head. The wall had a mark of a blood splatter where his head hit the wall. My eyes were wide with fear and amazement from the experience and from the sight of what was right in front of me: arms. Eight transparent arms extended from me and stretched across the room and held the janitor to the wall. My head suddenly throbbed with pain and the arms evaporated. The sides of my head seared with pain as if something was trying to stab out of my head.
I realized that school was over and I ran out of the classroom and tripped over myself in the hallway. I fought a migraine as I stumbled out of the school and on the sidewalk. I crouched for a while and the pain eventually disappeared and the natural tears of fear and pain streamed down my face. I stood, and allowed tears to run out of my eyes while I walked home.
My head felt like a sword was stuck in it and someone was slowly pulling it out. "Hey." I nearly fell over because of pain and surprise, I distinctly heard a voice and no one was around to speak it. I looked around the empty courtyard and staggered at the sudden turns of my head. The sides of my head burst with pain and blood flowed down the sides of my head. "You can't hide from me any longer so don't try to escape now." I heard the voice again, in my head. suddenly I blacked out. I felt nothing, like I had a blank page for a mind. But then I felt violent and wild, I realized that there was a hand on my shoulder.
I turned and suddenly my sight was returned to me. I looked at the hand on my shoulder and traced up her arm before resting my eyes on miss Nakura's face. Her eyes were soft and almost teary. She spoke to me with a tremulous voice. "Are you alright Mr. Yugami? You were frozen there for a few minutes and you were muttering in a scary voice." She looked concerned and caring at the same time. I pretended to scratch my head to hide the blood on one side of my head and kept my head turned to hide the rest. "I'm fine miss Nakura." I began. "I just feel bad because of a bad migraine I had this morning." I tried to be polite despite the rude gesture of walking away. Miss Nakura walked up beside me.
"But that's not the only thing that's bothering you is it? Your eyes look cold and blank, like a killer's. Not that I think you would ever arm anyone. It's just that you don't look fine despite what you say." She continued to talk as she walked beside me. My pain suddenly spiked and I felt the voice inside my head again.
"This woman annoys you doesn't she? Why don't you just kill her and feel better while you're at it?" The sinister voice whispered in my ear as I entered a black void in my mind. I felt cold and it was wet under my feet. I looked around and saw strange mannequin with gray bodies, horns on the sides of their heads and they all took freaky poses and standing positions. Someone stood in front of me with the same height as me and he wore the same school uniform. The only difference between me and him was the layer of bandages that covered his entire face and head. He spoke and took a few steps forward.
"Why are you so peaceful? If you killed all those who annoy you it would be easier on you wouldn't it? I'd go as far as to say that you would even enjoy killing them. What do you think, Sora?" The one in front of me stopped two feet in front of me and seemed to stare me directly in the eyes.
"Why are you talking to me? Why are you in my head? How are you in my head to begin with?" I was angry and I wanted to fall asleep. I only wanted to have a good day but suddenly my day took a turn for the worst and then this guy showed up.
"I am who you should be Sora! I am everything you have ever wanted to think, say and do in your entire life. I am what your life has led up to becoming in the end!" The voice grew in intensity and passion toward the end.
"SHUT UP! DON'T ACT LIKE YOU KNOW ME!" I yelled but I suddenly ended up on the ground with my cheek fresh with pain.
"WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU!?" miss Nakura had slapped me and helped me up to my feet.
"Miss Nakura?"
"Yes?"
"Why did you slap me?"
"Well, you were freaking me out when you were talking to yourself."
"Was I really that creepy?"
"Well yes, especially when you shouted at me!"
Miss Nakura rambled on about how weird I was and how she wanted to treat me to sushi as payment for slapping me. I ignored her because I was too busy reprimanding myself for yelling at her. When she neared the end of her proposal, I ran. I continued running until I couldn't hear miss Nakura cry out for me to come back.
Once I was far away enough, I fell to my knees as pain cracked through my skull. I was suddenly caught by someone just before I hit the sidewalk. The man wore a lab coat and smelled like blood and sterile work benches. Just like he always did. I faded into black just before I could thank him.