Who are you?
Sleep is a requirement for a fully functioning brain and a fully functioning body. Hanayo once again deprived herself of sleep last night, and like last time, it was because she was too afraid to sleep. Her eyes shown just how little sleep she had gotten, dark circles began to appear under her eyes and her eyes were red with exhaustion.
Her glasses were barely hanging on her face, leaning to one side. Her jacket was unbuttoned, with the bow around her neck not on straight. Her hair even showed signs of not being properly brushed.
Hanayo continued to slowly drudge to the club room. The hallways as Otonokizaka were filled, as usual. Today's classes were boring as usual, but she refused to sleep for fear of Freddy appearing again. Ever since Kokoro died, it's been the only thing preventing her from sleeping.
She entered the club room and saw everyone had already beaten her here. Ever since the Love Live, the school idol club had become EXTREMELY popular. Most every girl who signed up for Otonokizaka signed up for the school idol club. Hanayo had so much crap to do the first day back, mostly greeting the hundreds of people who wanted to join. There's an actual rule now about how many can be in the club.
Everything aside, Alisa was talking with some of the club members about their next live. Hanayo would likely not be participating due to exhaustion. It was packed in here, as usual. "Alisa." Hanayo yawned. "Have you seen Maki or Rin today?" Umi was also missing, but she didn't notice it yet.
"No not yet. Have you seen Yukiho?" She asked her in response.
Hanayo shook her head lightly.
Alisa sighed. "Okay." She returned her attention to the club. Hanayo sat down in her usual chair. She pulled out her phone and texted Maki again.
Seriously, where is she? Hanayo thought to herself. As she went to hit send on her phone, it began to ring. "Huh?" She wondered out loud. Maki was calling her. "Hello?" Hanayo answered her phone.
"Hanayo…" Maki sighed. "Don't panic. But last night, Rin was admitted to the hospital in critical condition."
Hanayo was about to gasp, but realized she might attract the attention of the other students.
"She had a serious allergic reaction to something last night and when she was brought in, she couldn't breathe."
"That's why you're not here." Hanayo realised why Maki wasn't here today. "Is she okay?" She whispered, hoping to not get anyone's attention.
"She's being released now, but. She's in serious shock." Maki told her. "I think we should have kept her another day, but she insisted on leaving."
Hanayo looked around before returning to her call. "Do you know where she's at?"
"On her way to the McDonald's™ with her mom I think." Maki admitted.
"Meet me there." Hanayo told her.
"Okay." Maki replied hanging up the phone. Hanayo turned to Alisa.
"I got to go now." She told her.
Suddenly, Alisa looked extremely offended. "What? You're leaving me alone here?"
"Sorry, I got to go." Hanayo apologised as she began to rush out of the room.
"Wait!" Alisa called out just as Hanayo left. She looked around the room that was quickly filling up to capacity. "Crap." She groaned.
…
About ten minutes later at the local Mickey D's.
Hanayo rushed across town as fast as she could. School had officially let out and plenty of students had left and were on their way home. Normally Hanayo would be apart of this wave of students, but since Rin was not feeling great, she was.
Downtown Tokyo was always packed at around this time, so the local McDonald's was overflowing with people. As much as she wasn't going to admit it, Hanayo actually wanted Super Size to make a come back because then she could Super Size the amount of rice she gets. But ignoring that, she hurried past the double golden arches and into the million dollar fast-food sandwich dispensary.
Upon her arrival, it smelled the way a McDonald's usually smelled. Freedom fries (French fries without the mention of France) filled the air with its greasy must and a freshly mopped floor shone in like black ice in the winter. Children crying to their mothers about how much they NEED that toy and day old chicken nuggets were on the fryer.
Hanayo looked around for Rin. She was hoping she was still here. "Rin." She meekly called out. She was too tired to continue with this crap. She sighed. Damnit. Maybe I should just go home. She thought to herself.
"Kayo-chin." Rin called out from behind her. Hanayo popped up with excitement. She turned around and saw Rin standing before her.
She wanted to show just how happy she was, but she was in public. Hanayo noticed she wasn't in the greatest condition. Her clothes were the same from last night, and her skin was still red in some places. "Rin. You're okay."
"Yeah. I think I am." Rin smiled. Her mom watched the interaction, finishing her fish filet sandwich.
"What happened to you. Maki said you were in the hospital last night." Hanayo panicked.
"I don't know, everyone's calling me crazy but I had a dream that I was being attacked by a cat guy and then I had an allergic reaction to it." Rin quickly told Hanayo.
"Was he burned? Did he have a red and green sweater? Does he have claws for a hand?" Hanayo realised how much she was panicking and was making a scene. Just behind her, Maki made an entrance into the eating establishment.
Rin knodded.
Hanayo's face began to tear up.
"No, Kayo-chin, don't cry. It's alright, I'm still alive." Rin tried to get Hanayo to calm down. Hanayo dropped her whole head onto Rin's chest and began to cry. "Kayo-chin…"
"You were really lucky you know." Maki told them finally getting into the conversation.
"Maki-chan." Rin uttered.
"If you hadn't have woken up, he would have killed you… the same way he killed Kokoro." Maki told her, grimacing at the thought of Kokoro.
Hanayo turned her attention to the red head.
"We shouldn't talk here. We should go somewhere else before you cause a scene." Maki told them. From behind her, the door opened. A door opened. She turned around to see who had come in, it was the leader of muse, Honoka.
"Honoka. What are you doing here?" Hanayo asked her.
"Oh. I came here to get some coffee, me and Yukiho spent all night researching." She yawned. "I'm tired, so I came by Mickey D's to get some food." She suddenly noticed Hanayo was crying. "Ummm. Why are you crying?" Honoka asked.
"What?" Hanayo realised she was crying in public. She wiped the tears from her eyes. "Nothing. Rin… She almost… umm."
Maki interjected. "I'll explain later. Let's just get somewhere private for now." Maki told them.
"Okay then." Honoka replied, not quite understanding what's happening. "I can call Umi and Kotori and see if they can come along." She smiled.
"Right. Come on you two." Maki confirmed telling Hanayo and Rin to come with her.
"Okay. Mom I'm going with them." Rin told her mom.
She sighed, wiping the sauce from her mouth. "Okay fine. Just don't go near anymore cats." She worried a lot about her, especially considering that she almost died a few hours ago.
Rin took Hanayo's hand. "Okay, let's go Kayo-chin." Hanayo nodded as Rin pulled her outside the store.
The streets were just as packed as the restaurant was. People all along the streets, some yelling at one another and others buying things from each other. Maki lead everyone along the sidewalks, likely to her ride.
Maki was in front with Honoka next to her, Rin and Hanayo followed closely behind.
Hanayo kept closely to Rin as they walked. Her eyes drooped from exhaustion and she laid her head against Rin's shoulders. Rin clearly didn't mind.
Maki was leading them somewhere, probably out of town.
"So Maki. Where are we going?" Honoka asked.
"Back to my place, we'll have room to do basically whatever we want."
"And I'll bet Nico's over there too." Honoka smiled.
Maki shrugged her off. "Anyway, what were you doing last night?"
"Told you already, was researching this Freddy Krueger guy." She explained. "It was weird, I even had to have Yukiho help me."
"What did you find?"
"Well... It's what we didn't find that's interesting."
"What?"
"Anything." Honoka told her. Hanayo and Rin moved closer.
"What do you mean?"
"Well. It's almost as if he never existed. His very name turns up no results on the internet." Honoka told them.
"So that means…"
"We have to look even deeper to find out anything on him." Honoka told them. "I even tried searching up a list of people burned alive named Freddy. Nothing."
Maki thought to herself for a moment. "Maybe we should go see Eli. She might know some better way to search up this Freddy Krueger guy."
Honoka agreed. "Great idea. By the way, has anyone seen Umi or Kotori today?"
Maki looked back at them. "I thought they were with you." she sighed. "Damnit." Maki groaned to herself. "Whatever, I our ride is over here somewhere." She gestured to the car pulling up, an SUV with her father in the driver's seat. "Someone call Eli, let her know we're coming." she told them opening the back door to the car.
Honoka chuckled. "Uhm phrasing."
"Just shut up and get in the car." Maki told them climbing into black SUV that her father was driving.
…
About twenty minutes later.
Atall apartment complex rose high above the city. On the 12th floor was a girl who had graduated from Otonokizaka High School last year. Her sister had just recently began attendance there, she was even the assistant club leader of the School Idol Research club. In a few years she might even be student council like she was.
Since she graduated from Otonokizaka, she went on to go to college in downtown Tokyo with Nozomi. She signed up for classes to be a lawyer while Nozomi on the other hand is attempting to be a teacher.
The apartment wasn't really anything special. Alisa was still in school, so the usual sounds of school idols playing loudly over the radio was especially absent. The only noise was coming from the TV. Evil Dead. BBC had a knack for putting on TV everyone loved, especially Eli. She loved everything that came on this channel.
The only thing she was doing right now was finishing the dishes from last night. She had spaghetti with Alisa last night. The spaghetti itself wasn't anything too special, just Italian sausage, tomato sauce and noodles.
As she finished the last of the dishes, she wiped the blonde streaks from her face. Her usual stay at home outfit was wet from the dish water.
Ding dong.
Her attention was drawn to the door bell. Oh, that must be Nozomi. She thought to herself. She quickly put away the last of the dishes and removed her yellow rubber glove.
She quickly made her way over to the door, opening the door gleefully.
"Nozomi!" She joyfully answered the door before realizing who was actually at the door.
"Hey Eli." Honoka said.
"Oh crap. It's you guys." Eli sighed. "Ummm. Can you come back later."
"Sorry Eli, but this is important." Maki told her. She sighed.
"Fine… come in." She groaned. Everyone followed Eli into her apartment. "Feel free to get a drink if you want… all I really got is Pepsi right now."
"Pepsi!" Rin cried out happily, letting go of Hanayo and rushing into the kitchen.
Hanayo let out a long and lungfull yawn when Rin let go of her. She accidentally ran into a wall. Eli suddenly took note of that. "Hey, are you okay?" Eli asked her.
Hanayo rubbed the sleep from her eyes. "Just… do you have any coffee?"
"There's a pot in there, feel free to use it." Eli told her in a very concerned tone.
Hanayo slowly wandered on into the kitchen. It was a basic kitchen, a simple light bulb on the ceiling. A white fridge and basic wooden counters. There was a aluminum coffee pot on the corner next to the microwave.
She opened a few cabinets looking for the coffee. After a few moments, she stumbled on Dunkin Donuts brand coffee grinds. "French Vanilla?" She questioned the flavor. "Whatever…"
She didn't care, it was coffee. She lazily poured a Shitload of coffee grinds into the pot, she wanted it to stay awake. It was going to make it the strongest it could be.
As she turned on the coffee pot, it began spewing of hot water into the beans and then right into the pot. "Great." Hanayo smiled. After a few moments, the coffee was done.
She poured the cup of Joe into a random coffee mug that was I the clean dishes rack next to the sink. She slurped down the first drink slowly.
"Mmmm." She said to herself. "That's good."
Bubbles popping.
"Hmm…" she wondered out loud. She looked down into her coffee. Bubbles were coming from the cup. "What's going on?"
More bubbles popping.
"What the…"
Bubbles suddenly turned into a face, Freddy's face, as it popped out and yelled at Hanayo. She dropped out in fear, screaming out in terror.
…
She suddenly shook her head around. Hanayo looked in front of her, she hadn't even made her cup yet. The coffee machine was still filling her cup. "Hurry up." Hanayo panicked. She grabbed the cup from the counter that she just finished making.
She hastily took the cup off the counter, she was shaking so much it caused some to come out. She quickly gulped down a big load of coffee.
"Ahhh, Damnit!" She cried out, realizing it was fresh and black. It burned her tongue and mouth. She realized it was a shitty idea to do that again, so this time she sipped down a little bit of coffee. "Better." She looked around. Maybe I should join everyone else.
Speaking of which.
Back in the living room, Eli had been getting caught up. So far, Maki explained to her how Kokoro started having weird dreams about Freddy, and then she did. Kokoro died, everyone suddenly started getting these Freddy dreams and now they want to find out who Freddy really was.
Unfortunately, no results as to who Freddy Krueger is is readily available. That's why they came to Eli. They also explained that Hanayo hasn't slept since she started having the Freddy dreams and that Nico's mom had been arrested on the suspicion that she killed Kokoro. They also told her how Rin had an allergic reaction to a cat and almost died last night.
Eli sat on a office chair in front of a desk with a computer on it, while Maki and Honoka sat on the couch in front of her. Rin remained leaning against a wall while they conversated, periodically adding her own opinions and explaining her side of the story.
Eli was somewhat dumbfounded by what she was hearing. "What the hell is Freddy Kruger anyway, is he some kinda boogeyman?"
"That's what we've come to you to find out." Maki told her. Hanayo finally joined the room, she sat down out of sight as she sipped down her coffee quietly.
"We know you have access to some deep part of the internet no one else does." Honoka said superstitiously.
"I keep telling you, if you want to play on the dark net, just Google how to get on it." Eli replied in an irritated tone.
"Yeah, but we don't know if it's legal or not, that's why we have you do it instead." Honoka told her.
Eli groaned out loud. "Geez you guys really got to stop bugging me like this. I do have things to be doing."
Ding dong.
"That's probably Nozomi." Eli said to herself.
"I'll answer it." Rin jumped. She hurried over to the door.
Eli sighed. "Well I guess I should get to work then." She mumbled firing up the internet.
"So how does this work?" Honoka asked.
"We just go through an onion router, that's literally it Honoka. You could have done this at home." She told her.
Honoka laughed. "Well at least this way, we get to see you again." Suddenly, Umi and Kotori appeared with Nico straggling closely behind. "Hey Umi- woah, what happened to your eyes."
Umi's eyes had what looked like dried blood stuck to the top of them. She looked angry, angrier than usual.
"I don't know." She growled.
Maki sighed. "I'm going to assume you had the dream, right?" Maki asked her.
"Dream, what the hell. Dreams are just literal figments of our imagination, they can't make blood come from your eyes." Umi barked back at Maki.
Meanwhile Eli continued her search.
"Alright, calm down Umi. Just tell us what happened." Maki told her slowly.
Umi took a deep breath. "Last night. Something tried to kill me in my dream, I woke up to find my eyes were bleeding and my hand was burned. I asked my mom about it, and she had no clue what to make of it. I called Nico and she gave me the same bullshit as last time."
"It's not bullshit, it's what I'm certain is happening." Nico defended herself.
"Yes, the boogeyman kills people while they sleep Nico. Real believable." Umi grunted in response.
Everyone remained silent for a moment.
Maki broke the silence.
"So, why's Nico and Kotori here… Or better yet, why are you here?" Maki asked.
"Honoka texted me thinking I was Eli. That's how I knew to come here to find you guys."
Maki glared at Honoka. "That explains why Eli was shocked to see us." Honoka smiled a guilty smile. "And what about Kotori and Nico?"
"Kotori came over to my place a little while before I left and I asked Nico to come over."
Knock knock.
"Great, everyone's coming over." Eli grumbled.
"I'll answer it." Hanayo yawned as she stood up, placing her mug on the coffee table. She slowly wandered over to the front door as everyone else continued on with their conversations.
Hanayo reached for the door opening it slowly without first checking who it was. The door swung open and out came Nozomi. She stood in her usual casual attire. She was carrying a bag with her in one hand and held a dual ended vibrator in the other.
"Uh… Nozomi." Hanayo shyly uttered. Nozomi looked confused.
"What's going on here? Where's Elichi?" She said quickly hiding the massager in the bag, hoping to God no one saw that.
Hanayo mumbled. "Still inside." She tried to pretend she didn't just see what she just thought she saw. It would was a little disturbing to her to think that was happening in her friend group.
"Can I come in?" Nozomi asked. Hanayo nodded as she let herself in. Nozomi began her rather short journey to the living room where Eli and the rest of muse resided. "Eli?" She asked her as Eli remained fixated on the computer.
"Hey Nozomi." Honoka said standing up.
"Hey, what's going on?" Nozomi asked, confused as to what was happening.
"We were doing some research, and we needed Eli's help." Honoka explained. Hanayo felt like saying something. Anything along the lines of help me please would seem suspicious, but she was so tired, she just wouldn't care.
Nozomi joined the rest of the group.
"So what are we looking up?"
Suddenly, everyone who had a the dream spoke up. "Freddy Krueger."
Nozomi was surprised at the coordination that one took. "Did you all practice that one?" Nozomi asked.
Honoka shook her head. "I don't think so."
"Well… found something." Eli said. Her words echoed across the room like a gunshot. Everyone suddenly got closer to her, gathering around the computer like they did during the Love Live.
"Well, what is it." Nico practically yelled.
"Nothing too special. Just some leaked documents from a place called… Westin Hills Psychiatric Hospital." She said, reading it.
The patient experienced a similar dream to the rest of the bunch, dreaming of this, "Freddy Krueger" nonsense. The following morning he was found to have committed suicide in his room, just as the four other patients had.
I do not believe they are related, but I cannot dismiss that possibility.
We have looked into this Freddy Krueger character and found some records in the old Springwood Library. Fred Krueger was a man who died 20 years ago in a warehouse fire, believed to have been killed by the parents of his victims.
I believe this, Freddy, thing to be some form of way they are all coping with some bad deed they have all done, and it manifested itself in some common dream they all share. One of them must have heard of Freddy and spread this lie to the others.
I am unaware of anything that would cause such an incident to occur on such a large scale. UPDATE. Another interesting thing happened just moments ago, a mother brought her child in, saying he was experiencing this Freddy Krueger dream as well. I wonder what's causing it.
Perhaps the use of hypnocil would work best, once it gets approved, I believe it can be used to help treat these young children from their nightmares. At least for now.
Doctor Loomis
Eli finished reading the document. "Damn. That's the first one."
"First one, so what else is there?" Maki asked.
First one? Oh God there's more of that? Hanayo thought to herself. Maybe there's really something to Kokoro's death. Maybe Freddy is real. She tried to move back further than where she was, sipping down the last of her coffee. She needed more, but she was too interested in what was happening here to leave.
"Just a death certificate… right there, says burned alive." Eli said pointing to the section that read cause of death.
"Damn." Maki said to herself.
"Wait, what else can we dig up on this Freddy guy." Rin asked.
Eli scrolled past a few more pages. "Looks like another document from the doctor."
I'll bet it's just as gruesome as that last one. Hanayo thought to herself shivering.
In light of recent events, we have decided to quarantine the hundreds of children who state they saw this Freddy Krueger person.
We are currently housing them here at Weston Hills where they will remain indefinitely. No contact with the outside world will be permitted.
I hope that prescribing Hypnocil may help hinder this infectious disease known as Freddy Krueger, keep it under wraps whether the FDA says it's okay to use it or not.
UPDATE. Another death this morning. I'm prescribing the Hypnocil NOW. I believe we can stop this son of a bitch now if we work fast with this drug.
Doctor Loomis
"They mentioned Hypnocil." Honoka pointed out. "Like, twice that time. What is it?"
Maki had already googled it.
"Looks like it's a drug ment for suppressing dreams." Maki told them. "Seems like it was designed specifically to contain Freddy." Maki said voicing her own opinion.
Umi sighed. "Well, whatever the case, it seems like we should get some of this Hypnocil stuff. Might come in handy."
"Why?" Nozomi asked. Everyone in the room (except Eli, Nico and Honoka) sighed.
"You just got here, so I understand your ignorance, but Freddy Kruger is kinda the reason most of us can't sleep anymore." Hanayo weakly explained to Nozomi.
"Freddy Krueger you say." Nozomi said pulling her tarot cards from a random pocket. "Well let's see what the cards have to say." She smiled whipping out the first one.
Devil.
"That's kinda ominous." Honoka joked. "Do another one. See what comes up." Honoka once again joked.
Nozomi gladly obliged.
Death.
The room got silent. Nozomi sighed. "One thing about tarot card reading, is to never take it by face value. Perhaps something about Freddy is good. The cards will tell us all." She pulled out another one.
King.
"Hmm…" Nozomi mumbled to herself placing the cards back into her pocket. "Well. That's really ominous."
"Wow, even Nozomi's stumped by her own fortune telling." Honoka sarcastically remarked.
Eli continued to search through the documents on the darknet. She was looking to see if there was a way to get Hypnocil at the request of Maki.
Suddenly she found a sight which had Hypnocil on sale. "Looks like there's a website which sells all sorts of prescription drugs… actually it sells a lot of drugs of all kinds. Coke, meth, pot-"
Kotori suddenly jumped in. "I can get you pot for a discounted pri-" everyone's eyes suddenly turned on her. It got silent… really silent. "I mean… umm… I can… uhh, nevermind?" Kotori chuckled trying to fade away.
Maki sighed. "Alright, how much for the Hypnocil. Do you know?" She asked pulling her wallet out.
"From the looks of it, ¥10,000 a gram." Eli told her flat out.
Maki stopped. "It would be cheaper to have a cocaine addiction." She mumbled. Hanayo joined in again.
"Hey. Do you have any more coffee?" She asked.
"Go make another pot if you want." Eli told her. She returned her own attention to the computer. "Maki, if you're hellbent on getting this stuff, maybe you should just use whatever coin you have on you, there's an option for that." Eli told her.
"Maybe." Maki sighed. "Alright, thanks."
"No problem." Eli reassured. Suddenly, phone begins to ring.
Everyone's turns Nico's way. She checked her phone. It was her mom. "Hey, guys I'll be right back." She told them answering it.
…
Yazawa household.
5 minutes earlier.
Yuuko had been through than enough to make anyone piss their pants in anger, and fear. However today was pushing some boundaries. This morning was to walk from the police station to her house, which is about a 4 mile walk. On top of that, when she got home, she found her TV had exploded, and that hour's worth of chores awaited her.
Sit was to have a long talk with Nico.
Speaking of which, she completely forgot she was supposed to get Kokoa and Kotarou from school, so they both there for around an hour before Yuuko finally picked them up. She finally it home to see the house still looked like a pig stein.
She walked in the door,
"Go do your homework Kokoa." She told her daughter.
Kokoa walked back into the living room, grabbing her backpack in the process while grumbling about having to do homework.
She sighed. Great, now what do I do with you?
She decided it would probably be best to make dinner since it has been awhile since they last ate. She set Kotarou down on the floor. "Okay now go play somewhere. I'm gonna make dinner."
He nodded and wandered off.
Okay, now what to make? She wondered to herself. She could make something simple, like soup. Something healthy… naw. She looked around the pantry. 6 Cans of Pork n Beans, 1 box of stuffing, 8 cans of Chicken Noodle, 2 packages of Beef Flavoured Ramen, 3 Cans of tomato sauce, and assorted side dishes and flavorings.
Damnit.
She closed the pantry door. She was going to have to make something. She pulled the tomato sauce out and decided it was going to be Spaghetti night.
Before she could do anything, she had to wipe down the stove. She cleaned away all the crap with a sponge and wiped off the counters. She then set a pot full of water onto the stovetop and set it in high. That would be the spaghetti noodles.
Next she pulled out a frying pan and set it to medium heat. That would be the sauce with Italian sausage meatballs. I could make a sex joke here, but I'm deciding against it.
"Mom!" Kokoa called out from the living room.
"Not now." She replied. What kinda Asian can't do math. Her daughter, that's who.
She rolled the meatballs like usual, and tossed them onto the frying pan like wet paper towels. This was the usual, she'd make dinner, everyone would do homework. The girls would pick on Kotarou for a few hours, she'd finally give in and stop it.
Come to think of it, since Kokoro died, it seems like Kokoa had actually stopped picking on her brother. Kokoro obviously was never the cause of it, in fact Kokoro only ever joins the fiasco and never starts it. But for some reason, Kokoa didn't seem to want to anymore. Maybe there's a reason for it, probably because it's still kinda early to get back into the regular schedule, or maybe she just doesn't see any fun in it without Kokoro. Who knows. Nico usually never helped stop it, she usually joined the fun and made it worst.
Speaking of which, where the hell was she? She reached for the phone, a simple white plastic phone sitting on the wall. She quickly dialed Nico's number that she had memorized by heart.
After a few rings, she answered.
"Hello?"
"Nico, where are you?" She asked her.
"Ummm. Over at Eli's right now."
"Did you forget something?"
A few moments passed. "Oh shit, I was supposed to get Kokoa and Kotarou wasn't I?"
At least she knew what she was supposed to do. "Yeah, hurry up and get back here. Kokoa needs help with her homework, and I'm making dinner."
"Oh
"Uh, sure I can get back. Just give me a second."
…
"Guys, I got to go." Nico told everyone. "Maki, you wanna come?" She asked the redhead.
"Sorry, I think I got some negotiating to do with these guys on the darknet. See it I can get them to lower the cost a bit." She told her. "Maybe take Hanayo with you. She looks bored."
Suddenly, Hanayo sprung into action at the mention of her name. "What? I, uhm."
"Alright find, come with me if you wanna live." Nico told her. "Mom's making dinner, knowing her, she'll love the extra company."
"Wait hold on, I didn't agree to this." She protested.
"Then it's settled." Honoka spoke up for her. "You'll go eat dinner with Nico, Maki and Eli will buy illegal drugs from the internet. And the rest of us will sit around and loiter in Eli's house. Agreed?"
Basically everyone nodded.
Nozomi spoke up. "I'll make some tea."
Umi sighed. "Whatever." She agreed with them.
"What? I'm still saying no though." Hanayo told them.
"I'll go with you Kayo-chin." Rin told her with a large simple smile.
"Wait. I still don't want to go. I just want to lay down for a little while." She pleaded.
Everyone ignored her again. "Alright everyone, let's go." Nico told her and Rin. Hanayo struggled for a moment before Rin took her hand and dragged her off with Nico.
Maki watched the whole thing go down. She smiled as the three left. "Well that just happened." She mumbled. Eli sighed.
"Are you sure you really want this crap? It's not approved by any health administration." Eli told her.
"If you had these dreams, you would too." Maki told her.
Umi groaned. "You don't know the damn half of it."
…
Some time later.
The Yazawa house.
"I'm home mom." Nico called out.
Her mom sighed. "Finally. Dinner's about ready."
Nico entered in looking for the food. Hanayo followed closely after, clinging to Rin. The duo made themselves at home, leaving their shoes behind.
Nico's mom had already basically finished making dinner. The alluring smell of tomato sauce and sausage gave the kitchen a Italian kinda feel. Nico's mom had sweat running down her head from cooking the food, sleeves rolled up.
Kokoa carne rushing into the kitchen. "Sis!" She called out.
"Yeah, I'm back." Nico smiled, leaning back.
"Hey sis, I have no idea what to do with this." She told her showing her the paper with math equations on it.
Nico took one glance at the paper. "Ummm. Hanayo can do it."
She groaned to herself. "Please stop volunteering me for things." she was seriously too tired to keep doing this crap.
Rin gave her a shove. "There's a little girl help needs help doing her homework. Get to it."
Traitor. Hanayo thought to herself. She was just too tired to give a crap and finally gave up on resisting. "Fine…" she sighed with a defeated tone.
Kokoa grabbed her wrist and pulled her aside. "Please. Help me with this." She told her showing her the paper with math equations on it. Hanayo looked them over. 12 + 5 = ?. 10 x 2 = ?. 5 x ? = 15. Wow. It's actually simple. Wait. Can she seriously not do this on her own? Hanayo thought to herself.
"Well. Kokoa." She was trying to think a way to show her how to do the math without making her seem like a complete idiot. "You see, 5 + 2 is 7. Since there's 1 in front of the 2, add 10, it would be 17…"
Kokoa looked more lost than Hanayo was.
"Ummm. I'm not good at explaining math." Especially since I haven't slept for a few days.
Kokoa gave her a disappointed scowl. Clearly she was unamused by this bullfuckery. Hanayo gave out a long and tired yawn. She was actually getting angry at how tired she was.
"Dinner's ready." Nico's mom called out.
Suddenly Kokoa's expression suddenly changed dramatically, going from disappointed to super excited in about a second flat. Hanayo on the other hand felt like her brain was going to melt, food was not going to help her.
Moments later
"Thank you for the food." Everyone unanimously said.
Everyone gathered around the living room table. The Yazawa's were kind of on the poor side of the economic scale, so this is the best they could do for a dining room table. Hanayo sat next Nico and Rin, while Kokoa and Kotarou sat on either side of the their mother.
Everyone had a plate of spaghetti in front of them. Everyone also had a can of Pepsi with it (expect for Yuuko who had a Budweiser.)
"Let's eat." Rin smiled.
She was the only one to actually start eating however. The mood in the room was too stiff to really eat, Rin was just too stupid to really pick up on it. The Yazawa's all had a depression plastered on their face. Hanayo on the other hand was half asleep.
Kokoa almost started to cry when she realized something. "This was Kokoro's favorite dinner…"
The air in the room suddenly got stiff, anyone could pick up on the atmosphere change. It had only been a day, but her death still lingered on everyone's mind. Yuuko couldn't take a bite.
After a few moments of pure, dead and frightening silence. Someone had finally spoke up. "I have to… use the restroom." Hanayo told everyone. She said standing up already.
"Down the hall." Nico told her. She nodded and made her way down to the bathroom. She entered the restroom, the clean and white restroom.
What the hell. Why did Kokoa have to say that? Is she as stupid as Honoka chan? She sat on the toilet. She didn't actually have to go, but she just wanted to get away from the table. She didn't want to intrude too deeply into their family considering Kokoro only just died the day before.
She leaned back closing her eyes. She was too afraid to stay here, too tired to go home. She felt like her brain was going to melt if she didn't sleep though. She tried her best to relax, so far the coffee has been doing it's job. She hasn't actually fallen asleep since drinking it… yet.
She stretched. Am I going to die? She wondered. Am I going to suffer the same fate as Kokoro? The thought of it happening was way too real, the threat was too obvious. If she didn't do something to stop herself from sleeping, she was going to die. She was already convinced of that. Her best bet was for Maki to get the Hypnocil.
God I hope I'm not sleeping. She knew what would happen if she was sleeping. It had already happened a few times before. She doses off and suddenly Freddy appears and ruins it.
She stood back up. She really didn't want to stay in here any longer than she had to, then again she didn't want to go back in there anytime soon either, but she had to. As she exited the bathroom, she softly closed the door. She realized she forgot to flush it to seem less suspicious.
Crap… She thought to herself. She wanted to go back in and hide her embarrassment, but she knew she didn't have to hide her embarrassment, her exhausted face was doing that for her.
She sighed and decided against it and made her way back the table anyway. As she sat down, she could tell that dinner hadn't advanced much further than when she left. Everyone had at least started eating. She looked at her pop.
Zero caffeine.
That was helpful… "Excuse me. Mrs. Yazawa." She politely spoke up. "Do you have any coffee?" She asked her.
She looked back at her. "I don't know, you look like you need sleep, not coffee."
"Please…" Hanayo pleaded.
"Just give it to her mom." Nico realized that she was going to keep asking unless she got some, or at least Rin would for her. That's just kind of how they worked.
She sighed taking a drink from her Budweiser. "Fine. There's a pot in the kitchen, Folger's in the top pantry." She pointed to a spot in the kitchen.
Hanayo smiled. Thank you. She couldn't say out loud. She fixed her glasses and made her way to the kitchen. She opened up the pantry. These people are so nice. Why did Freddy have to happen to them. She thought to herself while beginning to make her fresh pot. It will only be a matter of time before Kokoa, Kotarou and Nico-chan die too… the morbid thought plagued her again.
She shook her head around. No. Please don't. Her thoughts were on the two little Yazawa's, she wasn't too worried about Nico because she's an adult, she could handle herself. It was the two younger Yazawa's she was scared for.
It may not have been in her place to worry about them, considering Nico was their older sister, but she was just that nice of a person. She took the full pot and poured a large cup full of the black gold.
She took a whiff of the drink. Strong AF. Excellent. She made her way back to the table to finish dinner, or at least start it.
…
A/N. There was a bit of a wait too that wasn't there? Sorry bout that. To make it up to you. Tomorrow, next chapter will be out… don't quote me on that.
Well Whenever the next one's out, there will be a completely custom book cover for this story. It was drawn by hand and edited, colored, shaded, etc. Via Autodesk sketchbook and Pixlr. It's not ready yet, but soon.
Anyway. Spoiler, next chapter someone will die. Any idea's?