II. BRANDY, YOU'RE A FINE GIRL.
THE CAMPING NIGHT
Kenji howled with laughter, his baritone voice echoing down the mountain. "This is so cool! Holy shit!"
"No, Kenji, it's not! She's pissed off!" Megumi snapped, eyes stinging with tears.
"Did you really see her?" Michiru leaned towards Megumi. "Did you really, Megu?"
"She's really pissed off, you guys…" Megumi curled into Yamato's hold, who finally decided to glance over his shoulder and into the dark cave. Megumi looked over her shoulder again, following Yamato's gaze. "What?"
Yamato looked to Kenji with a devious grin, and the supernatural enthusiast returned it with glee.
"Let's go find her!" Kenji stood up and grabbed a flashlight in one hand and his Svedka bottle in the other.
"No! No, don't fucking make her angrier, Kenji!" Megumi snapped as Yamato let her go and stood up as well. "This is the part where we do as she says and leave!"
"Come on, you know this is all just for fun anyway, Megu," Yamato said, leaning over to smile at her. "Let's just go apologize."
Michiru stood up and followed Kenji, voice trembling. "Wait, you guys! I really think we should just go home...!"
Megumi turned around to watch her friends disappearing in the cave's darkness. She was determined to not go in there. She turned back around and faced the woods in front of her.
After just seconds, she was enveloped with a strong sense of fear—true terror. She stared into the woods, apprehensive. Someone was out there—was it the woman? Someone else…? She couldn't tell… All she knew with certainty was she was being watched with what felt like thousands of eyes.
She looked around her, checking over her shoulder repeatedly in suspicion of someone—no, something—sneaking up behind her. The shift in the air, the soft breaths, the footfalls that mixed in her heartbeat... But every time she looked, nothing was there.
But something had to be. She felt it… She was being watched… by more than one being.
With shaky knees, she stood as quickly as she could.
Yamato had the keys to the car. Civilization was a good few kilometers out, so walking in the night... with this going on...
"You… you guys?" she yelled after them as she found the strength to run to the cave. "Wait!"
THE KUWABARA HOUSEHOLD
"Thanks for having me over," Megumi said quietly as she took off her black kitten heels at the front door.
"Hey, Kazu!" Shizuru called as she walked into the living room.
Megumi took in the nice wood floors and beige walls of the home as she walked into the small hallway. It was quite cute and nice, reminded her of Mom and Dad's home back in the suburbs of Tokyo.
She scanned over the family pictures on the wall, some were a younger Kuwabara with a little boy and others were school photos of them separately… One portrait in particular stuck out to Megumi: a woman with light brown, orange-tinted hair and familiar eyes. Her portrait was framed in black.
A voice called from the stairs, dragging Megumi's attention away from the picture. "Yeah?"
As Megumi stepped into the living room, she glanced over to the stairs, finding the little boy with orange-brown hair from the photos all grown up. He was a handsome young man and she smiled up at him before bowing her head a little.
As she raised her head, she noticed the strange look on his face. Like he smelled something bad and saw something creepy all in one.
"This is my coworker." Shizuru nodded to the ebony haired girl, who was confused at the boy's expression. "Ijiri, Megumi. Iriji, this is my younger brother, Kazuma."
"It's… nice to meet you," Megumi said softly, slightly offended.
Kazuma quickly fixed his expression and gave her a welcoming smile. "Nice to meet you!"
"Send Yukina on down, yeah?" Shizuru said, headed towards the kitchen. "The girls will be here soon."
"Sure. Don't be too loud, Sis." Kazuma turned around, waving her off. "I have a mock exam tomorrow."
"Uh-huh, you got it," she replied.
Megumi slowly followed Shizuru into the kitchen to find the brunette pulling the cork off a bottle of red wine.
"What's your poison?" Shizuru asked, nodding to the full bottle.
"Oh… uh…" Megumi glanced around the kitchen. "Brandy?"
Shizuru smirked and went to the pantry. "Kazuma likes to say we're our own little liquor shop." She opened the door and bent down to pull out a bottle of dirty gold. "Ah, figured we'd have some."
She couldn't help but feel awkward here. Kuwabara's little brother didn't seem to like her and now Megumi couldn't think of any conversation to start with her coworker. She was beginning to think of excuses to head home as soon as possible. It was times like this she wished she was a teenager again so she could say her mother wanted her to come home right now immediately. Being in her twenties and living alone meant she was stuck to think of a believable, inoffensive excuse—and there weren't many.
The doorbell rang, and a soft, feminine voice from the living room called out. "I'll get it!"
"Ice?" Shizuru asked, finding a thick glass from one of the cupboards.
"Yes, please." Megumi smiled.
"Oh, a guest!" Another voice squealed in delight.
Megumi turned around to see the people she'd be spending the night with she couldn't find and excuse, and saw… Well, at least one seemed normal. But two girls, both with hair in the gradient of blue and eyes in the pools of red stood before her.
Contacts, she thought as she stared with wide eyes. And dye job. Totally contacts and dye job. Done by someone with a hell of a lot of talent because those were damn good dye jobs.
It was strange, though, seeing how the girls who adorned these extravagant and bright colors weren't the usual street punks that wore the look. Both girls wore stylish, frilly clothes—the one with the color of hair like blue cotton candy enjoyed high-waist khaki slacks and a forest green blouse.
She glanced to the girl with the mint blue hair, noting the pretty, pink cardigan and matching headband.
No way could they be delinquents… so why did they choose those colors? Were they in the Harajuku scene? It was getting popular…
"It's nice to meet you." Megumi broke out of her trance and gave a smile.
She glanced to the other girl with long, darker brown hair.
"Left to right." Shizuru said, standing next to Megumi and handing her the glass. "Keiko, Botan, and Yukina. This is Ijiri, Megumi, my coworker."
"Nice to meet you!" All three girls chimed around the same time.
Keiko heaved up a couple bags that had warmth emitting from them—Megumi could feel it from her seat. "Glad I brought extra! I didn't think we'd have a new friend over."
"Yeah, Megumi just got dumped so I invited her," Shizuru said blandly, passing the ebony haired girl by.
Megumi bristled and blushed. "H-hey!"
Shizuru sent a playful smirk her way as Keiko and Botan immediately rushed to Megumi.
"Oh, dear, how are you taking it?" Botan leaned against the counter next to Megumi, placing a consoling hand on her shoulder. "Do you want to send him prank calls?"
"Botan, honestly, you'd think you would have grown up by now," Keiko sighed, and Botan replied with a childish giggle. "It's like you never left Sarayashiki."
Megumi couldn't help but instantly forgive Kuwabara for her teasing as the brunette knew she would welcome the support.
"I'm handling it better than I thought." Megumi shrugged with a small smile.
"The best advice is to just avoid him!" Keiko huffed. "Trust me; cutting off all contact is the best thing to do."
"You did that for three years and literally the day Yusuke came back, you rushed into his arms," Shizuru commented as she picked up a Styrofoam bowl from the bag.
Keiko's eye twitched and she sent an irritated glance over her shoulder to Shizuru, who was now handing Megumi the bowl.
She took it with a playful, puckered smile as she watched Keiko's rebuttal. "Well… There needs to be people who don't turn back on their word!" She turned to Megumi and chided her with a pointed finger. "Out of sight, out of mind! It'll be hard at first, but it will be worth it."
Megumi laughed with Botan and Yukina.
"How long have you two been dating?" Megumi asked as everyone grabbed a bowl.
"On and off." Keiko shrugged. "Officially… about nine months, but I've known him since I was a child. Unfortunately."
"Year and a half," Megumi replied with a small laugh. "Met him when I first moved up here about three years ago."
"Aren't you from Tokyo?" Shizuru asked, twisting her noodles around her chopsticks.
"What would make you want to leave the city?" Yukina asked, breaking hers apart. "Kazuma went with me once and it was just bustling with life. There were just so many things to do there."
"I wanted to live with my grandmother because we were really close and she was close to passing away," Megumi replied as Botan handed her a pair. "She left me her house in her will so I could live here, otherwise I would have left back to Tokyo."
Now eased into the groove of the conversation, Megumi was enjoying the company and was truly glad she decided to come. Not only were the conversations easy, but not one ghoul or monster was creeping around the corner. The woman didn't appear once.
The girls were talking and enjoying themselves, getting to know each other and creating simple banter that was usually directed at Megumi—who actually enjoyed being the center of attention. Attention that wasn't malicious, vengeful.
Because the girls treated her like one of their own—like they were never not friends. They were so welcoming and inviting and playful. It was nice to talk to them, to have friends again.
The camping trip ruined her social life, slowly but surely. She and Michiru weren't that close anymore, which included her seeing less of Kenji. And now that Yamato broke up with her…
An hour, some wine, liquor, and five Styrofoam bowls in the trash later, the group gathered on the couch as a cheesy action movie played on the big screen in front of them. Megumi curled between Botan and Shizuru at the foot of the couch with the bottle of Brandy in hand. Keiko and Yukina sat behind them on the couch, laughing at the corny lines and guarding the bowl of chips and other salty snacks from Megumi and Botan.
"Keiko. Keiko," Megumi called through her laughter, reaching a hand out above her head behind her.
Keiko grasped it in laughter. "Yeah?"
"I loved that ramen, it's so delicious—where'd you get it?"
"My parents shop."
"It was so delicious… but I don't know if I'll ever be able to eat it again."
"Why? Why can't you eat it again...?" Keiko asked, leaning over Shizuru's head. "Ah! Yamato dumping you isn't the end of the world, Megumi!" Again, she pointed the chiding finger. "We're better off without men anyway! I long for the day we don't need them to reproduce."
"Amen," Shizuru snorted, holding up her drink, and Megumi quickly slammed her glass into Shizuru's in agreement.
Botan climbed onto Megumi, clinking her glass in. "A-women."
Megumi laughed loudly, and Shizuru heaved a sigh at the horrible joke. The girls' screaming laughter had been going on for a good forty-five minutes now, and Kazuma was bound to trudge down the stairs to complain any minute now, but Shizuru would deal with that when the time came.
Right now, Megumi was feeling better, and she liked to see her friends happy.
"But… that's not why," Megumi laughed, rubbing her burning nose.
"Oh? Then what's wrong with it?"
"I'm going to get another view of it tomorrow morning when I have my face shoved in the porcelain throne."
Botan and Keiko squealed, with the former kicking her feet in the air like a child and forgetting that she had a thick glass of her own liquid to worry about spilling. Wine splashed on Megumi's black leggings but she didn't mind—the stain couldn't be seen.
"I'm so sorry!" Botan gasped, still unable to stop laughing.
"I wear black all the time," Megumi reassured her and placed a consoling hand on Botan's arm. "Mainly to match my soul but also to make sure I don't have to buy new clothes when this happens."
As Botan laughed, Megumi paused and looked over her shoulder to Keiko.
"Yukina." Megumi glanced over her shoulder. "You hold your wine better than me and I'm so much older than you… right…?" She paused and looked at the girl in confusion. Sometimes people looked much younger than they were and she didn't want to offend the girl if she was older. "I'm older than you, right?"
The girls burst into snickers. Yukina spoke through hers. "Yes, of course, Megumi! You're definitely older than I am."
Megumi nodded, leaning against Botan as the blue-haired woman covered her face with her free hand, still laughing. Megumi didn't know why that was so funny to everyone. Were they really that drunk…? Or was that some sort of inside joke…?
Megumi pushed it aside, just glad she was fitting in with the girls. She was having a good time for the first time since that night. No night terrors, no being stalking, harassing, scaring, or taunting her. The woman didn't appear.
She poured the liquid down her throat again, numb to the usual sharpness.
She felt warm and safe with them. There was like a blanket of security wrapped around her, protecting her from the threats that plagued her daily life. She felt it most next to her person and she leaned her head on Botan's shoulder with a smile as they continued making fun of the corny special effects and lines.
"This is something stupid that Yusuke would totally be into," Keiko sighed as the main man uttered some try-hard, over-used line that was so cliché the nineteen-eighties called and asked for their lingo back.
"Is your boyfriend a meat head?" Megumi snorted. "He sounds like a meat head."
"Only the biggest one in all three realms," Keiko replied.
Megumi snorted at the strange reply, figuring the reference to heaven and hell, and yawned. "I'm going to use that from now on. That's clever."
Botan smiled and leaned her head atop Megumi's. "You can't be tuckered out; it's not even midnight yet!"
"I'm not sleepy," Megumi replied with a smile, downing the rest of her brandy. "My head's just really heavy and I can't feel my legs."
"Seriously, I can't understand the appeal of this plot," Keiko sighed. "It's just an explosion and barrage of bullets every five minutes."
"Yusuke piss you off before you got here, I take it?" Shizuru asked. "You've been griping all night."
"Ah, let her gripe!" Megumi waved it off with a big smile. "If it's one thing I can get behind, it's complaining about useless boyfriends."
"Like, honestly!" Keiko continued. "I told him he could work for my parent's diner but does he listen? No!" She slammed a handful of chips in her mouth. "It's not a handout, Yusuke! It's a great business plan. Once my parents hand me the shop, it can be in both our names—"
"Every word out of your mouth about him is a complaint, but you still talk about marrying him," Shizuru noted.
Keiko's face flushed a bright red. "That's if he can get his financials straight—I can't deal with him and ignorant business choices."
"All they're good for is complaining about," Megumi sighed. "Yamato never once did laundry. A grown man! Couldn't clean or cook to save his life! A grown man!" she groaned, earning a cackle from Botan and Keiko—who must have known the feeling all too well. "I'm not your mom, Yamato! Do the fucking dishes; they're yours! Take out trash—and separate the recycling for once! We have separate trash cans for a reason."
"So, Keiko," Shizuru continued. "Are you really thinking about it? Marrying him?"
Keiko gave Shizuru a long stare before sighing. "I... I don't know. If he gets his act together, then it would make me feel more secure."
"You know he's got a good heart, Keiko," Shizuru reminded her, to which Keiko nodded.
"A good heart doesn't keep a roof over your head and food on the table." Megumi sloppily shoved a pointed finger at Keiko. "Put your foot down! If he really loves you, he'll straighten up his financials."
"He's got the most horrible way of showing love, Megumi," Keiko groaned. "He thinks sneaking his ramen into the movie theater and not getting caught by the ushers is exciting! That's a big date night."
"Out of all the things he could find exciting..." Shizuru laughed.
As Megumi and Keiko continued ranting and bemoaning their love lives, they couldn't help but laugh along the way. But through the laughter and venting, Megumi relished the night, thankful to be around the girls. She didn't want the night to end.
Megumi awoke on the floor, head gently rested in the nook of Botan's arm and torso. She and Botan were curled under the kotatsu's warmth from the waist down. She groaned as she tried lifting her head up.
"You up, too?" Shizuru's quiet grunt could be heard from the couch.
With heavy, burning eyes, Megumi looked up to find her coworker's head on the armrest with one arm over her eyes. Megumi tried blinking away the pain, but her contacts were already upset at her.
"Yeah… no headache yet…" Megumi responded quietly, reaching for her purse for her eye drops. "But the minute I step outside into the devil's sun, it'll spike…"
Yukina and Keiko had fallen asleep on the love-seat, the two still in a peaceful slumber.
"Do you know what time it is?" Megumi asked, and Shizuru lifted her arm to glance at the watch on her wrist.
"Almost noon."
"Ah…" Megumi sighed. "I should probably get home and check on Tobio…"
"Dog?"
Megumi shook her head. "Cat. He gets cranky and bitter when you leave him alone for too long."
Shizuru let her arm fall and her hand clasped Megumi's shoulder. Giving it a tight squeeze, Shizuru gave a soft grin.
"Had a good night, huh?"
Megumi grinned. "Yeah. It was really nice… took my mind off so many things. Thanks so much for inviting me."
"I know the girls all like you, so you should hang out again sometime. We always spend time together when we find openings in our schedules."
"Yeah, definitely!" Megumi smiled excitedly.
"Before you leave, there's a little note of paper on the table over there. Has our numbers in case you ever want to reach us or just talk, you know?"
Megumi glanced to the kotatsu and picked the little paper off the wood with a smile. Her eyes began to sting—and this time it wasn't from the contacts. She blinked away the tears quickly.
They were all so nice to be around… She really needed people like them to be with her. Especially nowadays.
"Thank you for inviting me, really." Megumi found herself holding the numbers to her chest. "I really appreciate it."
"You're fun to be around," Shizuru said simply. "Everyone here likes you, Ijiri."
"You can call me Megumi..." Megumi blinked away a few more tears before turning around to smile to Shizuru. "Because I like you all too!"
Just as Megumi predicted, the moment she stepped out of the Kuwabara household and into the early afternoon sun her headache spiked. And boy, did it spike…
She squinted and groaned her entire way home, ready to crawl into her bed with Tobio and sleep off the hangover. She sighed with relief when she stepped inside her house. Taking off her heels, she locked the door behind her and called out for her cat.
The black ball of fluff trotted down the wood stairs and across the matching floor to his owner with little patters from his short, stubby legs filling the air.
"You're not mad at me for staying out so long?" she cooed tiredly, reaching for him.
He stopped a few feet away and grumbled, his tail gently thumping against the floor.
"Oh, come on," she groaned. "I finally made some friends! Be happy for me, Tobio."
He grumbled again and turned away from her, walking towards the kitchen.
"I left you food, Tobio," she mumbled, following the cat to his bowl to find he'd eaten it. "…Fine."
When she opened the pantry, the dry food spilled onto the floor with the opening door. She glared down at the fat ball of fluff that was now rubbing himself against her leg, purring loudly.
"I'm still thinking about getting you neutered, you know…" she mumbled, to which he rubbed against her leg harder in reply. She begrudgingly cleaned up the mess, put out more food for him, and headed to the stairs.
But of course, he didn't want the food he whined for. He followed her to the stairs and she looked down at him again. He was spiking her headache, and he knew he was.
"I'm closing the door when I get up there, and I'm not getting back up, got it?"
The Persian munchkin replied with a small meow and she scooped him up. She traveled back up the stairs and passed by the guest room, the bathroom, and then finally reached her room. She groaned as she remembered she left the curtains open and squinted in pain at the bright light shining in her room.
Setting Tobio on the bed, she closed the curtains and rubbed her temples, hoping for the headache to go away, begging it mentally. At least she didn't feel like vomiting yet. She would shower later; she didn't want to stand up anymore.
Just change clothes and crawl into bed, she thought to herself as she picked up a few pieces of clothing off her wood floor. Standing next to her nightstand, she saw the little red flash of the answering machine.
She pressed the play button as she began taking off her black leggings.
The automated voice machine played. One message at seven thirty-three A.M.
Just as Megumi began to pull on her fleece pajama pants, she paused at the gut-wrenching sobs that cried out from the machine. Stunned, she paused and stared at the black device on the chestnut wood in horror, immediately placing the voice.
"Megumi!" Michiru's voice cried over the machine, almost incoherent. "Megumi… Megumi, please call me. Megumi, oh god… Something bad happened. Megu, please call and tell me you're alright…"
Her mind reeled instantly, remembering that none of the ghouls or monsters were there to haunt her last night… The woman didn't appear to her last night…
She lunged for the phone and called Michiru, but the rings went to voice mail. Megumi quickly changed into a hoodie and jeans and grabbed sunglasses to keep the sun's rays from frying her eyes and brain any further. She took a couple of aspirins and left her house.
She showed up at Michiru's apartment complex, finding it empty. She feared the worst—Michiru was dead inside. Michiru was dead and it was her fault—if she hadn't been out then this never would have happened. When she knocked on the neighbor's door, they informed her that an ambulance took off a while ago.
She must have been calling from the local hospital. Thanking the neighbor, she hurried across town again. At the information desk, Michiru's name wasn't registered.
"Then… maybe it's Kenji," she offered before telling them his last name. She was directed to a room on the fifth floor, in the ICU. Sprinting down the hall, she found Michiru outside a room with two police officers.
The petite brunette was crying against the wall, holding herself.
"Michiru," Megumi called her name quietly, drawing everyone's attention.
"Ma'am, who are—" Michiru immediately cut off the taller officer.
"Megumi!" Michiru wailed and ran to her friend.
Megumi embraced the girl, feeling her chest heaving dramatically, tiredly, as she continued to cry.
"What happened?" Megumi asked, looking to the officers. "What's wrong?"
"Kenji…" Michiru sniffed, holding Megumi tighter. "Kenji… he fell from the balcony last night."
A wave of coldness, comparable to that of ice, swept over Megumi's body and her knees went limp. The two girls fell to the ground, Michiru too distraught to even try to keep them standing.
"The doctor said his one of his arms and a leg took a lot of the blow, but he still hit his head," one of the officers said, only to be cut off by Michiru.
"He won't wake up!" she sobbed. "His head was cracked wide open—he won't wake up!"
"He's in a coma?!" Megumi looked to the police officers, who both averted their eyes.
She did it. They did it. The woman called her underlings to… No… No, no.
"The doctor said he may not make it," Michiru continued. "He has—"
The room opened and a small group of nurses and two doctors came out, hastily wheeling a bed with them—with Kenji on it.
"Where are they taking him?!" Megumi turned around as if to follow them, but her legs wouldn't work.
"He has a brain hemorrhage!" Michiru said. "He has to go to surgery. Even then, he may not live…"
Megumi's breath began to match the hitch of Michiru's, and the cops tried to console the two girls. Michiru demanded for them to take their statements since she was convinced there was no way Kenji would try to kill himself. He had too much to live for: school, career, her.
She argued it wasn't an attempted suicide, and out of courtesy and to keep the brunette from sobbing any longer, the police complied and took down any information she gave them.
But still, as there was nobody who wanted to hurt Kenji and no motive, it was going to be ruled an attempted suicide.
Megumi stayed with Michiru in the waiting room, both of them wringing their wrists raw and taking deep breaths to keep from having another breakdown.
"You think it was the… spirits… don't you?" Megumi whispered a while into the surgery.
Michiru shook her head, eyes hitting the ground. "Don't start with that shit again, Megumi."
"If something happened last night—"
"I woke up and saw the sliding door open," Michiru asserted, glaring at her friend. "Ghosts didn't open it."
Megumi looked to her friend desperately. "That's why you called me, to make sure I was alright too…"
The brunette stared into her friend's eyes before lowering them to the floor again. "I called Yamato, too… He's okay. He's at his parents right now."
The rest of the sentence was left unsaid: he was down in Osaka. He wouldn't make it here tonight.
There was no point in pushing her any longer. Even if the ghouls and woman decided to show themselves to Michiru, even if Michiru saw something, she'd deny it. Just like they all denied everything strange since that night.
Megumi nodded slowly, silently thanking Michiru for making that phone call, and they sat in silence. The surgeon came out a while later, and the two girls prepared for the worst.
"He'll survive," the aging man said, and the two girls collapsed in relief, breath leaving their bodies in a heaving sigh. "For now. It's still possible for clotting—especially since his left arm and right leg are crushed, swelling of the brain…"
He listed off a little list, taking away their relief—faster than it came to them. But they had to look on the bright side—what little of it there was—Kenji was still alive.
"Will he wake up?" Michiru pressed.
"He may," he replied with a nod. "But we're unsure about when. It can be anywhere from a few days to months…" The doctor trailed off, leaving the unspoken words "If he survives for that long" lingering in the air around them.
The two waited for them to move Kenji from the post-operating room, but the recovery nurses informed them hours into the night that he would be kept until morning for observation.
Michiru encouraged her friend to go home and rest, and that she would call her tomorrow to update her. Megumi, though, was still looking at the ground from her seat.
"Megu?" Michiru tried again, but when there was no response, she grabbed her friend's arm and shook it gently. "Megu?"
She jumped in surprise and looked around, confused. Finally, her eyes landed on Michiru, and she remembered where she was.
"Yeah?"
"You can go on home, okay?" Michiru said again. "Get some rest. I'll call you tomorrow to update you."
"Are you sure?" Megumi asked. "I don't want to leave you by yourself."
Michiru smiled. "I won't be alone. Kenji's still here."
With a small, unsure frown, Megumi replied. "Get some sleep, okay?"
With a long, tight hug between the two, Megumi set off for home. Unfortunately, the time it took to get there was long enough for her to actually ferment in guilt. It was her fault they went after Kenji, it had to be… She drove off the ghouls for the night and the woman tormented Kenji in her place.
If only she hadn't gone to the little gathering… he would still be alive.
Megumi kept herself composed until she was able to get to her house. The moment she stepped through the door, the dam broke again, and she bitterly wondered how much longer she could cry before her tear ducts were all dried up.
The home was quiet, empty, and dark. It wasn't until she made it to the stairs that she felt a familiar, unwanted presence. She gritted her teeth and ignored it, silently hoping they'd finish her off—follow through with what they tried to do to Kenji.
She passed by the guest room and paused. Fear bubbled in her stomach, and she reached for the door knob to close the door, not looking into the room. With the creak of the hinges came a thick, black mass from the room.
She screamed and jumped away, slipping on the wood floor and falling back.
Darkness. Black—she couldn't see—she couldn't feel anything. Was that it?
Had she died?
A soft purr came from her right, and her vision met eggshell white—the ceiling. She glanced over to Tobio, who had perched himself next to her, and then frantically back to the door.
Adrenaline still roaring through her, she gave a shaky sigh and picked up the cat before getting back on her feet. She quickly closed the door, then the bathroom's door, and then, when she reached her room, her door.
Paranoia took over her again, and she looked to the closet—it doubled as a full-length mirror. She quickly closed it and shed her clothes before hiding under the covers of her queen sized bed. The tubby cat curled up next to her, purring softly in hopes of comforting her, but all she could do now was shake in fear.
She was positive she was being watched. Not sure from where—by whom—but it was true. There was something lurking around every corner, waiting.
Would she be next? Michiru? Yamato?
When would it happen? They were dragging this out—toying with them, making them suffer. It was only fair payback, after all. She'd asked to be left alone; they disrespected her wishes.
Soon, she was able to drift into a light sleep. Every creak in the house, every shift in the wind, had her awake and checking over her shoulder, but sleep was ready and more than willing to claim her again when she deemed the noise wasn't a threat.
Once, Tobio began hissing, became defensive, and Megumi picked her head up from the pillows to look at the clock on her nightstand. A little after one in the morning…
She looked to Tobio, whose ears were bent back and fangs were bared. Paranoia returned quickly, adrenaline coursed through her again, and her eyes betrayed her. They landed on the mirrors that covered her closet doors. In it was—dimly in the night—her reflection, Tobio's, and behind her, leaning against the wall, was the woman's.
Had her shirt not been bloody and torn, showing the black lace lingerie underneath, the woman would almost have blended in to the white walls. She stood behind the bed, scowling, arms hanging leisurely at her sides.
Megumi stared at her in the mirror, sobs caught in her throat. She forgot how to breathe; all she could think—expect—was that she would be driven to kill herself too, just like Kenji. Would this be the night?
The woman pushed herself off the wall and Megumi tried choking back a sob that escaped her throat in fear.
Tobio inched away from her, but Megumi grabbed him tightly, pulled him under the covers with her.
The woman stepped closer, reaching the edge of the bed behind Megumi, and began reaching out a hand… and disappeared.
Shaking furiously, Megumi held an angry, hissing Tobio to her chest. In seconds, with her presence disappearing, Tobio began calming down. She pulled the duvet cover above her head and hid underneath them.
"What do I do, Tobio?" she cried, hiding her face in his fur, dampening it with her tears.
She didn't have the courage to come out from underneath the covers despite knowing they wouldn't do much to protect her. It was just the only place in her own home where her tormentors had yet to plague her.
