Chapter EightEclipse

The Present

"DAD!" Someone shouted. Was it me? I was pretty sure I heard my own voice. I glanced around, wanting to see some sort of sign that everything would be alright. But there was nothing. There was only darkness. Deep, everlasting darkness. I felt like crying. Where was I? What was this place? Who were they?

I swam faster in the darkness, groping and hunting and searching for any indication of life. I felt my lungs burst as I pushed myself to go faster. I couldn't breathe. Something in the darkness was keeping me from going back to the surface. I needed to get ou—

Then I heard the voices.

"Kyoko! Kyoko! KYOKO!"

They were calling me. They needed me to go back. Perhaps, if I thought hard enough…

"I'm here! Where are you—"


My eyes fluttered open. I was in a dark place. Not the darkness, per se, but somewhere pretty close. "Where's…Dad..?" I managed to choke out.

"Kyoko…" I turned around to see Ootori-senpai. He spoke with a voice older than his years. He was bruised and bloody from the small cuts on his arms. His face, though unscathed, looked grim and gloomy. His eyes had a flicker of emotion in them – worry, perhaps?

"Kyoko..." He continued, "We may have caught ourselves in a predicament."

"W-What exactly do you mean…?"

"We are lost." He replied matter-of-factly, as he ran a pale hand through his dark hair.

"…I don't understand." Lost? How could we be lost?

"Our souls…are currently not available right now." He laughed darkly.

I fought the urge to hug him and just cry…but of course, doing that would've been very embarrassing. I couldn't risk being humiliated for the rest of my teenage life—

"What about Suou-senpai and Fujioka-san?" I felt my eyes getting watery, but I ignored the feeling. I couldn't cry. I couldn't! I couldn't!

"Fortunately, they managed to escape. They dashed to the portal before it vanished…" He told me, his grey eyes still flickering with little emotion. "But the portal closed before you or I could enter…"

"W-Why?" I couldn't help it; the tears just fell from my face by themselves.

"I was rescuing you from them, but we reached the portal too late." He muttered softly, and then the emotion in his eyes snuffed out, like a candle on a windy day.

…He rescued me? He rescued me? I felt like such an idiot! It was my fault we were stuck here! Oh, Kami, Kami, Kami, KAMI!

You could've just left me there, senpai. The three of you would've been good enough. I sent my thoughts to him.

.

He didn't reply. Physically or mentally.

.Senpai? I tried again.

His thoughts were a jumbled up mess, and I only heard 'father, will, leave, protect.'