Louder, louder, the intensity of the noise matches only the smell.
The girl moves mechanically, leaving her blood behind her. Her hands claw for freedom.
The cold grips her. Swallowing. Settling atop her small body, crushing.
She now knows she can scream.
Kaito swung his arm. Him and Len watched the stone fly, skidding across the waves before sinking into the depths of the green-gray body of water. A ghostly silhouette flickered over the ripples.
Len rubbed his eyes. Afterward, he has a prettier view of the still-very-ugly river, watching it slink under the bridge as it carried an array of decaying twigs. It seemed to shrink, to get closer to the riverbed every year. The trees around it were white and dry. A couple of geese fluttered around the bank, poking around fruitlessly.
On the street behind them, cars seemed so fast, so loud, creating such nasty perfumes of exhaust. Rin preferred to watch traffic. She was sitting on the rail, craning her neck up, gnawing on a bare popsicle stick. Every so often she would grin and holler, "punch-buggy red!" Then she would hop off of her seat and grab one of the boys. She had one hell of a left hook.
Kaito threw another stone, this time high over his head. It flew into a shrub. It was a casual mistake, but he turned away and started stretching so that he could avoid showing his embarrassment.
"Rinto does it best," he said, "but you guys are better than me at any rate."
"No, Len began, his voice falling in unison with Rin as she said, "Hell yea we are."
Kaito smirked. "Not better at Mario Kart, though."
At which point Rin tossed the stick at his face. "I told you I had a headache. It's not the same as a win!"
The blue-haired lad took it in stride, as he was good-natured and humble. That was how Len knew he had nothing to do with the dead girl.
"I'd ask for a rematch, but I don't think you guys want me back in the Game Room. Everyone left it in such a state. So I feel bad." Kaito leaned against the rail as well. He and Rin knew that it was reinforced by concrete and they had no concerns about it. Len watched in the corner of his eye as a shadow halted at this rail, barely a foot behind his sister. He reached behind his head and scratched his neck.
"It's okay, dude. You left, like, napkins." Rin dismissed his concerns while licking her palm, which was clearly still sticky. Her tongue was still cherry red.
"My mom would have butchered me if I let you guys do that!" The shadow rose up on top of the rail, standing at the edge. It's pause was wretched and drawn out. It seemed to make no noise, or else the cars really were too loud. The crumble of gravel, and the roar of engines, they silenced this person's final moments.
It turned its head toward him. He saw the motion, felt the cold of its empty gaze. Out of the grey, shadow shape, came a face. He was a gnarled, dirt-caked man with wild eyes all yellow and blood-shot. His winter jacket was torn to the seams, exposing a grimy sweater. Thick globs of blood clung to his wiry beard. Snowflakes bombarded every visible hair on his head. Not a sound escaped him, but there were words. He knew what he was saying then, what he was thinking on the edge of that world. "It's too cold."
Then the man plummeted, fading out of sight like smoke. The water down below continued in a lazy stream, unbroken by the fall. Len forgot long ago how deep the river was, but the fall alone was certainly not enough to kill someone. It was more likely to break a layer of ice. If someone sank through that, they could succumb to hypothermia, or drown. He didn't remember how long that took. His nails dug harder into his hairline.
"Our mom doesn't really go in there that much," the blonde shrugged, dropping her hands back on her knees. She squinted up at the sun. The bill of her white snapback was still not enough to protect her eyes. It was high noon.
"It must be nice," Kaito sighed, dragging his knuckles over his shining forehead. "Privacy, I mean. Huh, Len?"
"What?" Len turned back to his friend.
"Stop staring into space," Rin barked. Oh, how she wished she still had something to throw at him - he could see it in her face.
"I wasn't - it's fine. It isn't really private since everyone goes in there." Len clenched his teeth.
"True, true. Was it fun, though? Last night?"
"It felt weird having a birthday party." Len smiled sheepishly as he pulled a nice, flat stone from his pocket. He set it down on the flat top of the rail and waited.
Kaito was focused - he even leaned forward, just a little. "Your folks don't usually do that?"
"Our Dad was strict," Rin explained.
"Strict like mine?" Kaito joked, and it was a clear, simple joke - he wanted a firm bridge built between them. He wanted to create something pleasant.
"Just strict. It was fun - I thought everyone was going to eat the cake, but I guess banana isn't a national favorite." Len winced when she spoke, feeling her force the conversation the way a superhero forces metal in their hands. Finally, she noticed the stone and picked it up, holding it between her fingers. Her pink nail polish was beginning to chip in the corners.
Kaito never noticed the awkward feeling, but he was eager to follow her into a new topic. Len liked that he took initiative, he really did. He was the one who gathered most of their throwing stones.
It would be nicer if he was just a little bit more like that blue-haired boy. Or like anyone else. If he could manage himself better, and stop...seeing things.
He ignored another shadow that paced around them.
"We're hooooome!" Rin called, slamming the front door. She kicked off her converse. They bounced along the wall and landed in a wild pile with her rain boots and Adidas. She gasped at the air-conditioning, her skin a glistening red.
Rinto's footfalls thundered out of the kitchen. "Sssh!" He hissed. All of his hair was pulled into a small man-bun on the top of his head, something uncharacteristic and almost unusual on him. His tank-top was drenched in olive oil.
Rin's brow quirked, but she didn't say anything as she brushed past him.
"I take it you were having fun here?" Len asked softly, tugging his sneakers off. Geez, his feet ached after a twenty minute walk. In the distance, he heard the dreaded clock, and underneath that sound, something bubbled. The pot must be screaming, overflowing with boiling water.
Oh. So that's what he's doing.
His question was never verbally answered, but he didn't mind."Where did you guys go?" Rinto folded his arms and attempted to look casual, in charge. But in the end he was just being goofy.
"We went to the Gas Station, for popsicles." With his shoes finally off and dropped aside, Len sprang to his feet.
"With Kaito and Neru?"
"Mmm, Neru said it was too hot to stand outside all day."
"Were you on the bridge?" Rinto frowned. "You know it's dangerous to play around there. Think of the collision back in March, and then there was that incident of the homeless guy."
Len opened he eyes a bit wider, his eyebrows snapping up. "Seriously," he laughed, without cracking a smile.
But Rinto gave a serious nod, so confident, so sure he was in the right."Yeah, I figured you were aware. Don't go to places like that." Don't go to places where the dead go.
This is like we're six years old again, and the house is dark, but the TV is bright and The Shining is playing, again, and I can feel his clammy palms over my eyes when the twins are crooning "Come and play with us…" and I can't watch, and I don't know if I want to watch, and I think those girls were dead in the hall and I think I'm scared but I don't know. His spirit stung.
Len spat them out, the words that felt inconsequential next to his frustration, "Learn to shut up."
"What?" Rinto stuck out his hand - which the younger brother slapped away, and the thick sound of rejection echoed in the house.
"It's different for them. I can't ask them to stop talking, because that's all they have left, but you," Len let his voice drop to the lowest pitch that it could go, "you should stop talking about things you don't understand."
Then Rinto clamped his mouth. The lively spark in his eye fell away. He reached up to tighten the bun on his head. Maybe he was bothered by the loose clump that fell against his nape.
Rin's head popped up from around the corner. "Your spaghetti's boiling over," She announced, waving a red pair of tongs for some emphasis. She squinted at both of them, grimacing at Len. Ultimately, she turned to Rinto and gestured for him to come.
Len turned back to the TV, where daytime provided just enough light to see a hazy copy of himself there. He hated the look of it.
They used to have a big fat Panasonic, where they watched tapes on late Saturday nights.
Rin would be curled up in Lily's lap, and the boys sat with them, and Dad sat on the sofa. When the film was funny, everyone would laugh. As nighttime grew darker, and the lull of sleep grew stronger, they would be sent off to bed. That was what it used to be, at any rate.
After some time, their mother and sister wouldn't be there. It would be Dad with a beer, glaring. It would be a room clotted with silence, which he relished more than the Saturday tradition.
But oh, well, whatever.