A/N: It's good to know that people stalk me for my Hikari torture. Hehe. Thank you loyal followers and friends. Please read and review if you can!
Warning for attempted self-harm. Yes, I said that. For prompt 14- chemical!
2. The Stale Scent
She doesn't recognize the voices around her at first and doesn't sit up in response to them, remaining almost entirely still and just trying to breathe. The deep lungfuls of air are like sharp bites with weird tastes in her mouth and yet she can't stop. She tries to stop and sit up and shivers. The room is chilly but when she sits up a curtain of hair follows her ears and she sees a pale-faced woman. Her brown eyes are big and Hikari is caught up in the urge to ask her what's wrong.
She sees the new woman for all of a few moments before her vision is almost covered by lines. Each gray and red, like a bloody, dirty spiderweb. Hikari sees them running over eyes and hands and down the leg and just the sight of them makes her stomach flip backwards and nausea run up her throat. The panic sets in and she can't explain why but her palms go up to her eyes before she can stop them and she presses-
Can't see, don't want to see, don't want to think-
She feels the woman's hands on her wrists and she kicks out without thinking. Don't they see the lines, don't they know they're bad, don't they-
Sharp pain rises in her neck, then she's drowning.
When she wakes again, she is alone and the room is dark.
Her head is calmer now, she is not panicked, a part of her remembers where she probably is. A hospital. She had collapsed from being sick, so sick. She remembers being sleepy, resting and hearing low murmurs around her ears and then falling down into that void. Then... then there is very little, little but for that woman, that empty woman who doesn't have any feeling or thoughts at all. Would she have become that way too, if she hadn't woken up?
Her thoughts hurt. They are so big and heavy, she thinks they will spill out of her ears and maybe take up the rest of the space between all of the lines so then she can't actually see things anymore.
In the dark, the lines are faded, almost wisps, traced over the wilting flowers and the vase holding them. The air is quiet and she wants to press her palms back over her eyes, finish what might have been started and she has no clue why she wants to do this but she thinks if she doesn't, something terrible and sad will happen and she's not sure what it is.
Does she want to know?
But as Hikari sits up to do so, the wind rustles through the open window and a paper flies from the table and onto her bed. She takes it between two fingers and drops it. She can barely read her big brother's name on it before her eyes water and she curls herself under the sheets.
"Well, you're a lot younger than I was expecting."
She peeks her head out. There is a woman there, hair flaming red and eyes like a gushing river. She's frowning, the expression not of anger but of curious interest. Hikari stares at her and shifts on the bed. The lines form, scrawling like her attempts at kanji. Reflexively, she ducks her head down.
Before Hikari can complete the motion, however, the woman has sat herself upon the bed, gripping Hikari's chin with thin, sharp fingers. "What are you looking away for?"
Her voice is icicles, melting icicles piercing Hikari's jaw without doing it and she is forced not to look away like she wants to and finally mumbles out. 'The lines... they're on your face..."
The woman snatches her hand away, affront on her lips. "I am not that old," she says and Hikari shakes her head, unconsciously reaching out and making to trace a pattern with her finger. The woman's other hand catches hers and she tuts. "No, no, not like that. You could have been more specific, no need to get violent about it." She smiles now and the expression is more predatory than kind.
"You could have killed me for a second there, little girl, and then where would we be?"
