Sorry for the wait! I was at my friend's house and didn't have access to my computer. Please enjoy!
Those cookies were good, and I said as much. As a result, I was invited over the next day for cookies and tea. I loved tea. At least, Shadow loved tea; I myself didn't particularly care for tea but I could tolerate it.
However, I ended up missing the invitation.
"Lorem ipsum docet," I mumbled to myself, holding my head in my hands and pressing my face to my knees. "Lorem ipsum docet. Lorem ipsum docet. Lorem ipsum docet lorem ipsum docet. Lorem... ipsum... docet?" I mumbled the words over and over. Within me, I felt Shadow writhe with wrath, twisting and turning and producing a feeling akin to nausea. Due to this nausea, I ended up vomiting ectoplasm into a hole I had dug prior to the episode at Shadow's insistence. (I was thankful for the hole after the fact.) The ectoplasm dissipated after a while, during which I panted as I struggled to breathe properly while I was thrown into my memories.
Pain.
The pain was unbearable. I screamed and thrashed, tears streaking down my left cheek as blood poured down the right side of my face. My left ankle was in tatters; whatever had attacked me had taken my foot with it. Trembling, I lowered my hands from my eyes. One hand was coated in blood; but the real horror was sitting three feet in front of me.
My own purple eye stared at me from its spot in the grass, looking for all the world like a toy I had dropped and abandoned. The white of my eye was stained pink, and my pupil had gone all grey and blank. But it was misshapen... almost as if something had taken a bite out of it. Bile rose within me and I expelled it to my right. As I whimpered, the grass rustled to my right- my blind side. Squeaking in fright, I tried to scramble away.
But there was something there, something green- and I fell through it.
I wailed in pain as I smashed into hard ground, stomach first. My left thumb and right middle and ring fingers made a sickening cracking sound as I hit the ground. Broken?
I stayed there until I heard footsteps. Mewling in fear, I shivered and looked up to see who had come. A black-haired boy with wolf ears, a fluffy tail, and one wide turquoise eye stood there, one pale greyish-white hand over his mouth in alarmed horror. His monochromatic camouflage shirt twitched as he stood there, horrified. Suddenly he seemed to snap out of it; he came forward, ignoring my whimpers as he reached his hands out, showing me he was empty-handed, and helped me into a standing position.
"Oh, you've fallen down, haven't you? Here, I'll help you get up." His voice was soft and kind, strangely sympathetic to my pain.
Crying out as I leaned too much onto my tattered ankle, the boy quickly pulled more of my weight onto him. I faintly noticed that he glowed- a ghost? But I was told they were all bad. Why was a ghost helping me? I felt the odd urge to tell this friendly ghost my name, so I did.
"Rose, huh? That's a nice name." The boy was practically carrying me, and in the distance I could see what I thought was a house. "My name is Shadow."
I woke up from my memories in tears with a black-haired ghost boy curled up around my front, holding me in a loose, comforting hug as I twitched my fingers and prosthetic foot.
[line break]
I didn't go to school on Monday. I spent both Sunday and Monday lying in my camp, letting Shadow fuss over me. However, on Tuesday, he urged me to attend school. He promised to stay close, and that promise gave me the strength to gather up my finished work, put on clean clothes, and even to eat. With that, I took my backpack and began to drift towards school. I was running later than usual, for I wandered into the sight of both Tucker and Sam.
"Rose!" Tucker came racing up, and it took all of my self-control not to flinch away from him as he fretted, checking me over and spouting questions left and right. "Are you okay? What happened? It's been three days!"
I gently removed his hands from my shoulders as I answered his questions in a soft voice. "I'm okay. Just some personal problems. I just... needed some rest."
Neither Tucker nor Sam seemed believe me, but they let the matter drop as they took up protective positions on either side of me, talking to me lightly and upholding my fragile mental state for the time being.
[line break]
Apparently, I looked so fragile and scared that no one dared to bother me. Not even my teachers called on me. That was for the best, though, for I could barely answer my own thoughts without breaking apart; I didn't dare try to answer anyone else's questions. Even so, I didn't miss the concerned looks my teachers gave me, nor did I miss the uneasy, searching looks my friends gave me during lunch where I picked at my lunch without truly eating any of it.
"Are you sure you're okay, Rose? You've been distant all day," Sam asked me softly as she walked with me to Science. I didn't answer her. "Please answer me, Rose."
Please answer her, Rosey. I'm... I'm worried about you.
Damn. I couldn't fight against Shadow's desperate words.
"I'm okay." I wouldn't look at her, instead averting my gaze to stare at the floor and hunching my shoulders to allow my hair to obscure my face. "Mental breakdown." Admitting that to her, even though I did it myself... it was almost enough to throw my back into another memory. But Shadow blocked it, protecting me in the only way he currently could. I didn't speak again, which Sam took as her cue.
"Do you want to talk about it?" Her voice was invitingly welcome, soft; it reminded me of Shadow's voice the day we first met.
"...I remembered things that would have been better left forgotten. Too much pain... a lot of fear... things that I never want to feel or experience again." With the exception of meeting Shadow, of course. That was one thing I didn't regret.
"Oh." A pause. And then, Sam said, "You can tell me about it if you want to. I'm here for you. We all are. We'll always be here to help you."
"Don't worry, Rose!" Shadow said from next to my bed. "Mom and Dad won't hurt you. I'm here for you!"
"Don't worry, Rose," Dad said as he patted my shoulder. "We'll always be here to help you."
I found a tear trickling down my cheek. I smiled sorrowfully and wiped it away. "...Thanks, Sam."
