Oh. Another chapter? So soon? Is the world ending? Nope, wait, not October 21st yet. Ah well. So, thank you, those who thought I was worthy enough to receive your praise / criticism / favoritism / hate. I appreciate all of it, and I embrace it all. Thus, I bring to you all a new chapter. Enjoy!
Disclaimer: D. Gray-Man... FUNimation needs to dub the other two seasons. Please?
4. In Which the First Rock Creates the Landslide
"This. This has to be the definition of Hell."
"I can't believe professor Lee made us study that whole packet! I doubt I'm even going to pass his class, that crazy bastard!"
Allen made his way through the buzz of college students. Most had their heads buried in books and surrounded by empty bottles of Mountain Dew. Others chatted with their friends as notes sprawled over the table. His own table, accompanied by no one, held his large books (excluding his Biology book, which was still held hostage by the notorious Lenalee Lee) and note-filled binders. He yawned as he sat down, placing two boxes of pizza beside him. He leafed through his notebook as a tray clattered in front of him.
"I thought I told you to sleep, but Lavi said you screamed bloody murder late last night."
He looked up from his textbook. Lenalee looked down at him with a look that could kill a rattlesnake by a heart attack. Regardless of how angry she looked, she sat across from him anyhow. He laughed sheepishly as she stabbed her food with her fork. He could only imagine her seeing the potato as his head, the fork bludgeoning him to death. She kept staring at him, eyebrows furrowed and mouth in a half-pout, half-frown position.
"I've been having nightmares," he said. "Just of me failing finals and getting evicted from the school. I am pretty sure it's just typical stress causing it." He smiled reassuringly as her glare deepened. "I'm telling the truth! You have to believe me!"
Why? asked a little voice in the back of his mind. Because she won't believe what is the truth?
No one could believe that, he argued.
Yet you told Lavi.
"I suppose," she said, breaking up his thoughts, "that you are telling me the truth." She rummaged through her bag and plopped his Biology book onto the table. "I swear, Allen, if you wear yourself out again, I will steal this book so you will fail your final. And you think I'm kidding, do you? 'Cause I'm not, you know. I really will steal it."
His mouth opened, then closed.
I don't want Lenalee involved.
"Lenalee," he said, "why were you crying last night? It wasn't because of me, right?"
She stared at him, long and hard, before she let her fork rest, still embedded into the remaining mashed potatoes. "I suppose I can tell you," she said, voice quiet. "I went to the doctor's yesterday, and they were doing a check-up. They said they found something abnormal in my chest, so they looked more into it, and..." She trailed off, eyes wandering around the busy lunchroom. "And they determined I have early stages of breast cancer."
The words stunned him as if he got harpooned by an Irukandji jellyfish. The words were maybe about an inch or two long on paper, yet they wielded the power of 40,000 times the force of gravity. A bead of sweat trailed down the side of his face as his slice of pizza slid out of his hand and landed back into the box. He struggled for words. He wanted to find words that would cheer her up, or even make the knowing that she could possibly die go away, but instead, with a dry mouth, the words "You... what...?" escaped with little feeling.
"Oh, that's terrible. I feel like I just came by at the wrong time."
The voice startled him. His head slowly turned to see the very girl giving him trouble. She had a dancing smile, but her eyes portrayed empathy for Lenalee. "I didn't mean to listen in," she added, "but I saw Allen, and I wanted to sit by him. My name is Road Camelot."
No. No, no, no, no, no, no! His eyes couldn't possibly stretch the skin any further as they widened. Her needling giggle seemed to only reach his ears as she smiled. No! No! No! Please, no!
"Oh!" Lenalee smiled a little as Allen's lungs felt like they fractured and began inhaling ice instead of the much-needed oxygen. "My name is Lenalee Lee. I'm sorry you had to hear that—I was just trying to get things off of my chest is all."
"No, I understand completely." Road placed her pink lunchbox beside the pizza boxes as she sat next to the frightened Allen. "It's good to have someone you trust enough to talk to whenever you learn something as terrible as that. Are you two good friends?"
"We are," Lenalee answered, nodding. "We only met this year, but I consider Allen to be one of my good friends."
"Really," Road replied, eyes sliding a glance over to the shrinking boy. He picked up a piece of pizza and forced it into his mouth, despite his stomach wanting to reject any form of food substance. He needed an excuse to not talk. If he talked, the fear would leak out, and Lenalee would immediately know something was wrong. The smaller girl tittered a little as she unzipped her lunchbox. A vast array of colorful candy greeted them. "Would you like one?" she offered, holding up a black-wrapped piece of hard candy. "They're really good."
"Oh, thank you." Lenalee took the piece of candy and unwrapped it. Allen noticed the hint of malevolence riddled in Road's eyes as Lenalee chewed it. "How do you know Allen?"
"We met not too long ago under strange circumstances," she answered, elbowing him. "He hit me with his car, even. You know his car's grill is really rusty, yeah?"
The two laughed as if Road just told a joke. Allen wanted to become an ant, crawl into the pizza box, and wait until someone tossed it out to the garbage. Not the most pleasing of all deaths, but it sure beat the current situation he was in. "Actually," she said after their hardy laugh, "we're study partners. He's teaching me well in English while I explain to him difficult concepts in Biology. It's like a trade-off of sorts. Right, Allen?" She nudged him with her elbow, only rougher this time. "Tell her how much you suck at figuring out ATP production of certain processes."
He tried his best to laugh; it actually sounded rather good. "I do suck," he falsely admitted. "But, then again, you can't even read words with five syllables in them without great difficulty." He swallowed down the bile of fear. "Why are you here, Road? I thought you were supposed to be out shopping or stabbing yourself to death out of boredom."
It was scary how, as they chatted, it truly sounded like a group of friends joking around. However, the underlying context between him and Road were far from jokes. Lenalee was the one left out, smiling and laughing despite the practical death sentence she received the other day. His smile nearly faltered as the childish voice answered, "I just really wanted to see you, you know? But," she turned her attention to Lenalee, "I want to ask—will they have any form of treatment to get the cancer out of you? I just met you, and I think you're too nice to..." she trailed off.
"They said since they caught it early, they'll more than likely be able to treat it and defeat it." She sighed as she finished her mashed potatoes and started eating her slice of chocolate cake. "It's just the slight percentage that they won't be able to do anything that is scaring me. I guess I shouldn't think about it too much right now. I have to finish finals first." She blinked as a small, vibrating noise caught her attention. She picked up her cellphone. "Oh, that's Komui, probably wanting coffee. I'll see you two later! It was nice to meet you, Road."
"See you, Lenalee! It was nice to meet you, too!" Road waved as the Chinese girl left the desperate Allen behind with her. Her hand dropped back down to her side as her attention focused on him. "So that's the girl you like, hm? She's got such a cute name! I'm so jealous. And she's super pretty, too! You picked a really good one, Allen."
"What do you want?" he asked bitterly. "Haven't you tormented me enough?"
"Oh, am I bothering you that much?" She laughed. "I'm being honest, though, when I say I just wanted to see you. You are just too adorable to not see everyday! And, besides, I wanted to take a look-see around this school. Just to get familiar with it, you know?"
"No," he said, "I don't know."
He rose from his seat as he finished the last bit of his pizza crust and tossed the boxes into the trash. He strode across the cafeteria after collecting his books, Road following behind him with her twirling umbrella. The sky was spotless and hosted no clouds, so he wondered why she brought it along with her. He stepped down the stairs and crossed the hub of the college. He stopped and grabbed her by the shoulders. "Why are you still following me?"
She looked surprised for a moment, but the surprise gave way into a smirk. "I'll always follow you," she replied, grasping a hand that held her still. "Because you absolutely cannot hide from me. I'll follow you 'til the end of the Earth, Allen, because I'm bored and you are absolutely adorable when you writhe from your nightmares."
"Wait..." His eyes widened as she took him by the hand. "What?"
She only giggled as she let him go, then danced through the park, skirt twirling with her. Fellow college students eyed her while she danced and laughed. She stopped twirling for a moment, facing Allen, and winked before skipping the rest of the way. He stared after her, one hand still in front of him, as if expecting her to come back and take his hand again. He forced it down back by his side. Somehow she got into his dorm undetected at night, possibly through that door she had. The thought made him shudder. He really didn't want her creeping the way she did.
But, apparently, he had no choice on the matter.
His thoughts wandered back to Lenalee—sad, disease-struck Lenalee who had what seemed to be a normal conversation with the demonic-girl, Road. After all the time that passed, he still couldn't believe she, of all people, would be diagnosed with breast cancer. She couldn't die. Not her, not the college student wanting to become a doctor, not the girl who had a brother from Hell, not her and her heartfelt smiles whenever she saw him. Of all the people in the world, Lenalee was the last he wanted to have such a terrible thing happen.
The knowing depressed him, so he tried to focus on more happy things. But, as it seemed the past few days, there really were no happy things to think about. Only finals, the nightmares, the sociopathic immortal girl who had a thing for him, and his sleep deprivation took up his mind. He wished with every molecule in his body that he never decided to go out to his house that rainy night.
It was too late now. She wasn't, as she informed him, going to leave him alone.
The sky rumbled with dark clouds. It started to rain.
~X~
"I did it."
She snickered as she crossed the streets and disappeared through the hole—or door—in the ground, which returned her back to her personal realm. She guffawed as she skipped down the halls, doll shoes tapping on the floor and making small echoes reverberate around the realm. Her umbrella yanked itself out of her hands and glared at her. "Mistress Road, lero," it said, "you have got to stop playing with me, lero! I don't approve of it one bit, lero!"
"Oh, be quiet, Lero," she replied, entering her playroom. Dolls and toys of various shapes and sizes greeted her with creepy smiles. She picked up a white teddy bear and snuggled it. "Oh, I can't believe I did it! I can't believe how easy it is going to be! Finally, after all this time waiting, I can say that we really will rid this world full of wimps!"
The umbrella looked confused. "What are you talking about, lero?"
She giggled as she plopped herself on a beach-ball colored beanbag chair. Fuzzy pillows almost slipped off as she bounced on it. "What I mean is that I have found a candidate to fill in as the role as the Fourteenth, and there is no way that this plan can fail! I just love how a plan just comes together! I do have to thank that Lenalee girl, however. Without her, this plan would have never formed. And now she's the catalyst." Her grin widened. "Since he loves her, there is no way he can refuse. Especially when he finds out..."
Her sentence hung in the air as the plastic phone, which rested on a small table, started ringing. Her finger flicked, making the phone come to her and land gently in her palm. "Hello?"
"Road, you make it difficult to give you presents when you are in hiding all the time."
"It's not hiding, silly, it's merely resting!" She giggled. "Where are you?"
"On the corner of Main and Central. Bring a coat—it's downpouring out here."
She tossed the phone against the wall, making it disappear into a plume of black dust and severed hands. Her shoes turned to cute pink boots and her shirt turned into a complementary pink jacket as she twirled Lero. "Looks like I'm not done with you yet!" she beamed as she left her room. The hallway shortened as walked, pressing a hand against the wall. The door split open, making her jump lightly into the street. People walked by as if they saw nothing. Because, it was true—they saw nothing.
A person stood on his heels and leaned against the pole. Rain made people evacuate the sidewalks and into the busy shops, but not him—no, he preferred to stay out in the rain. He raised his eyes as the stomping of her boots caught his attention. He smiled. "Long time no see, Road."
"Tyki!" She leaped over a puddle to give him a bone-crushing hug. "It has been a long time. Where have you been?"
"The river, more or less." He rummaged through his pocket, then pulled out a small vial. "Here, from yours truly. I know you hate taking time out of your schedule to go down there."
"It's because it always whispers," she muttered, taking the vial out of his hands. "Always, always. 'Bring me the Fourteenth.' I have tried, time and time again, but all of those experiments failed. It's as if the river wants nothing but wimpy human blood these days." She popped open the vial and chugged it, not wanting to taste the bitterness it held. "Speaking of which, how well is it surviving? I know its been through a bad dry spell down there."
"Bad dry spell is right. If you want the Fourteenth, you best act quickly." His hand outstretched, letting the rain soak through his gloves. "There is no sign of the spell ending, and its getting dryer by the day. I'd say, right now, it's a puddle."
"A puddle?" She couldn't hide her disbelief. "The river is a puddle? I find that hard to believe."
"I wish I were kidding. I believe part of the problem is because of the lack of the Fourteenth. He or she is the one who controls the river in the first place. When the Earl killed him, he knew that, so he created the Arc, just in case. But it doesn't replace the power of the river." He pulled out a cigarette, lit it, then inhaled deeply. "Damn, I'm hungry. Does any of these places serve anything meaty? I've been having a craving with it for awhile."
"You need to stop smoking, Tyki. It makes your clothes smell terrible." She gagged as he exhaled. "I would say something about your health, but..."
"Why worry about health when I can live forever?" He grinned. "You want to get some food? My treat."
"Not right now," she said, eyes flickering over towards the taller buildings that made up the college. Tyki followed her gaze to the buildings, but didn't comment as she sighed. "You know, Tyki?" she said, hint of nostalgia reaching her tone. "I think humans may have something we don't sometimes. Something special, something I can't have. I just can't figure out what."
"It's called the beauty of mortality," he said, stubbing out his cigarette.
"No, that's not it."
"Hm?"
She sighed. "Food it is. Do you even have money, Tyki, or are you still a vagabond with sticky fingers?"
"Have you no faith in me?" He pulled out a wallet. "Yes, I have money. I wouldn't off to treat you otherwise. What are you in the mood for? Chocolate? Steak?"
"Salad."
He stared at her, mouth closed, eyes wide. "Are you sick?"
"No, just in the mood for salad." She skipped along. "We're being watched, and my profile says that I love candy. If I deceive our lip-reading spy, we'll be able to buy more time before they realize it is us. But by then, we'll already be gone." She giggled. "Come along, Tyki. We must not be late for our father-daughter date!"
"Don't you dare mistake me for Sheryl." He groaned at the name. "I wondered why you were standing in front of me this whole time. Where is said-spy, anyways?"
"Oh, he's hiding in the alleyway, blonde hair and all." She flapped her hand. "But, really, there is a great cafe down here that serves really, really good salad." She spun around. "He's actually been spying my new little friend, Allen Walker. I've been playing with him as my new toy, and a possibility for something greater. They pick up quick, the Leverrier clan, because they have Bookman's apprentice naively filling the government in with loads of information. If only he knew," she giggled, "what he was getting into."
"Who, Bookman's apprentice or this Allen Walker?"
She smiled deviously. "Both."
~X~
It hurts.
He stood still amongst a crowd of watchers. The ambulance rushed to the building as soon as possible, with chatter washing over their ears. A broken coffee cup. It dripped the brown liquid down the stairs, creating a stream over the concrete and marble. The glass spread over everywhere. Some blood was on it, too—wet and red and bright. He looked away from that.
It hurts so much.
The ambulance. Oh, how the lights and searing echo of its siren gave him a headache during exam week. He almost jumped every time it drove by. He never expected for him to see one up close, live and personal, paramedics and all. His Biology professor stood by the door, head buried in his hands. In any other situation, he would walk over to his professor and pat him on the shoulder. Yet his legs refused to move. On complete accident, walking through, he stumbled upon this large situation.
"Allen!" a voice shouted. "Allen!"
It hurts to breathe. Did she do this?
Or did I do this, her being guilty be association?
"Allen," a hand slapped onto his shoulder. "Allen. Where is she?"
The ambulance rushed away, older brother and all. The crowd started to disappear.
"Allen? Hey, are you in there? Answer me. Where did she go? Where are they taking her? Allen?"
Just now. Lenalee. She was...
"Hospital." His voice sputtered out the words. Rain ran down the lengths of his white hair. "She's going to... the hospital. It... doesn't sound good."
As pale as Death itself.
~X~
All right, chapter 4, finished. Thank you, reader! I wouldn't have finished this chapter without all of you reading this. I intend to finish chapter 5 by the end of next week. By then we should have a new chapter. Right? ...Right? ...is the troll coming to eat us again? Ah well. See you then. —Nobody Odd