Hey guys, so this is the chapter where you learn of what happened to Ari. Before you do though, go to youtube and watch Kagerou Days by Jubyphonic p. It will help you get the picture a lot better. Plus it's an amazing song.
Enjoy.
Ten years ago (5 years old)
"Ari! Can you take Fang and I to the park?" I plead, giving my strongest puppy dog eyes.
My seven-year old brother sighs. It's his birthday today, and the last thing he probably wants to do is take is annoying little sister and her friend to the park.
"You have to ask mom, not me. I'm not in charge."
"Fine." I grumble. "Hey mom! Can Fang and I go to the park?!" I yell at the top of my lungs up the stairs. I wait impatiently for her response while Ari winces.
"As long as Ari goes with you!" She calls back just as loud. I grin at him. He frowns a little.
"I don't think we should go Max."
"But you said if mom said yes, and she said yes." I wine.
His eyes flick away from mine. "I just don't think we should go. I've been having these weird dreams." His eyebrows crinkle like he's trying to remember something important.
"What," I set my hands on my hips and lean forward slightly, a little smirk playing on my young lips. "you getting scared of a little nightmare?"
He shakes his head and rolls his eyes. "Fine. Go get your boyfriend." I stick my tongue out at him and run out the door to the next house. I walk in without hesitation and call into it.
"Fang, come on! Ari's taking us to the park!"
His dark head of hair pops out over the banister. "Really? Sweet." He disappears and then reappears at the bottom of the stairs a second later.
We run out of the house together and meet my brother in the driveway. Together we set off down the street.
The park is like an island in the middle of a bunch of roads and intersections. It's almost always busy. It's a small town, but some how, we have more cars driving around than people who live here.
We cross the street easily and when out feet hit grass, we take off in a sprint for the swing set. I claim the first one and Fang easily claims the second. Ari scowls and takes a seat on the ground staring up at the sky.
It's an azure blue and there are no clouds in the wide expanse.
"I hate summer." He grumbles picking at the mulch.
I laugh at him. "Why?"
"It's too hot. I don't know why I had to be born in this month. It kind of gets sickening. Can we go home now?" He asks shielding his eyes. I roll mine.
We couldn't have been there for more than five minutes and already the hazy air did seem to be suffocating.
"Fine." I jump off my swing on the up lift and Fang follows as silent as ever. "And we just got here too." I mutter so he doesn't know that I really did want to leave the sweltering heat behind.
I see a black blob dart into a bush beside the road and gasp.
"Kitty!" I squeal in joy and run to the over grown hedge.
I crouch beside in and make kissing sounds, trying to coax her out. The she cat pokes her head between the leaves and I quickly scoop her up.
"Ari, look!" I turn in glee to my brother and his eyes widen, recognition sparking behind them. I stand up.
"Max!"
But my attention is drawn back to the cat as she struggles in my grasp. She kicks off my arms, leaving long scratch marks, but I reach forward still. She lands in the street and darts forward. I go to chase after her and hear a loud horn as my foot hits the gravel.
"Max!" Then a hand wraps around my wrist, yanking me back, while a body continues to hurdle past. The next hand hits my chest and shoves, tipping the boy and his body backwards.
Time slows as my hair catches the wind and it blows in front of my face. Through the strands, I see him falling, falling, falling.
I watch my brother turn his head to look at me.
He smiles. I reach out to him, my mouth open with a silent scream and time speeds up. The giant truck hits him and his blood flies everywhere.
On the ground, on the sign beside me, on the truck, and all over the front of my shirt and jeans. The smell of cooper and metallic invade my nose, as suffocating as the heat was just moments before.
My hands, covered in the scarlet that came from his body, come up to my mouth and it mixes with the tears streaming from my horror filled eyes.
Red was everywhere.
I take a step towards my brother's mangled body but a small hand wraps around my arm, pulling me back.
My hands drop from my blood coated lips, trying to pull away, not taking my eyes off the unrecognizable boy laying on the concrete.
The hand tugs me backward again, and through the ringing in my ears, I hear a voice in my ear. "No." It tells me.
Fang.
Skinny arms wrap around my dainty waist as I continue to struggle.
"No." Again.
I push at his arms around me and kick at his shins. He doesn't let go.
My mouth moves but no words make it past my trembling lips. The only good it does is get the salty taste of tears and blood on my tongue, like rust and metal.
He buries his face between my shoulder blades and my shirt gets wet. At first I think it's more blood, like the kind seeping into the road and staining it red, staining the truck red. Staining my hands red. But it's not.
It's the tears of my best friend.
"Stop it!" He screams into my shirt, his voice shaking hysterically .
I stop.
Now
I wake up with a gasp, clutching the blankets on either side of my legs. It does little to slow my racing heart. I touch my face under my wide set eyes to find them wet.
I sniff and wipe fiercely at the dampness.
I throw up over the edge of the bed.
I have been having this dream every night since he died. Every night, I watch my brother die again and again.
Every time, I try to save him, try going a different way, a different path, but it always ends the same. Ari dead, and me waking up, trying to hold in my screams, rocking, trying not to wake to person next to me.
But it always goes back to that truck. That damn truck.
I grit my teeth as a sob escapes my lips.
Fang wakes up then, enveloping me in his warm arms, and right then, it feels so very wrong.
I struggle against his arms, much like that day, as more sobs rake my body. I want nothing more than to escape.
Why wont he just let me go?
I turn in his arms, facing him now, and use both my arms and legs to push away from him. The force breaks his grip and I fall to the floor, barely missing my puddle of vomit.
Fang catches me just as I take the first few steps and I'm in his arms again.
"Let me gooo!" I sob, struggling in his arms.
I hit his chest hard in desperation, most likely leaving bruises. I don't want him to see me like this. I'm finally braking.
I break his hold again, I don't know how, but I do. I make it to the bathroom and lock the door before he could catch me a third time. I crawl into the dry bath tub and bite down hard on a towel to keep my screams silent.
After an hour, there are no more tears to spill, so I just sit there trembling.
I take a deep calming breath and crawl out of the tub, not strong enough to be on my feet.
I reach under the sink and pull out blank music sheets, a pen, and a secret stash of soda.
I set to work on writing my feelings, thoughts, and dreams and turning them into music.
I rake my fingers through my hair a million times, chew my lip until it's a bloody mess, until finally, I finish. All around me is crumpled sheets of paper and crushed soda cans.
I drag myself to my feet, unsteady, not sure if I will fall.
When I open the door, Fang is waiting there, watching me, studying me, trying to figure out what I might do. I notice that he has bags under his eyes.
Finally, he opens his arms and my legs finally give out. I collapse into him, papers scattering and I hug him tightly. I do not cry though, I was done crying, sick of it.
He pulls me down to the floor with him and just holds me. He doesn't say anything, and I notice a purple and blue bruise under his eye. I brush it with my fingers and he shivers.
"Sorry." My whisper is horse and raspy.
He just shrugs.
"Can they play it?" I ask gesturing the scattered papers and he picks them up. He nods after a moment.
"Good."
We stay that way until there is a knock on the door, telling us we need to leave to the stage, though it's several hours before the concert.
I don't see Gazzy, or Iggy, or Nudge, or even Fang until we are all on stage together, curtains about to open. The don't say anything as they go over their new music.
We go through the regular song list for the crowd, me trying to be as upbeat as usual.
When the audience becomes quiet after the last song, I let my somber attitude show some.
"Hey, guys. I know some of you had noticed I don't have as much energy as I usually have, so I have a present for you guys." Some cheers from the crowd. I smile a little.
"Well, today is a special day, and I wrote this song just this morning, so let's try to celebrate. Happy Birthday Ari. I call this Heat Haze Days."
And the music starts with me nodding my head to the beat.
(Kagerou Days is the name of the song but the english translation is Heat Haze Days. Please read lyrics, it will help you understand. Don't forget to watch it on youtube.)
August 15th at 12:30 noon
I don't see a cloud above
The sun is shining down
What a pretty day
.
So sick of this summer heat
I can't beat away the haze,
The rays are giving away
And spending all my time having conversations sitting next to you
.
"Hey but I... don't really like the summer time."
And as you're petting on that cat you said such a daring thing right from under your breath
Ah, as that cat ran away
You tried to chase it in the end
Jumping right out in front of a traffic light
That poured out a shade of red, bright red
.
Crashing in and breaking you to bits
That truck heard a scream a little bit to late
Blood dripping everywhere and choking your smell of hair
I breath in a gulp of air and I just can't take it!
Are these lies? The heat is mocking me
"What you see is exactly what your gonna get!"
.
And with the blue sky I hear crickets cry
And I fall right back into another dark sleep
.
Sitting up in my bed I can hear ticking clocks
The shock will mock my ever ringing head
I look to see the time
.
August 14th at 12 somthin' noon
I don't see a cloud above
The sun is shining down
And yet I hear a cry of a cricket singing loudly in my head
.
"Hey, but I.. I really have to wonder why."
"Cause in the dream I had last night we sat in the same old park we are sitting in now..."
"Hey, I think the two of us should leave."
.
But stepping slightly off the path
Their heads turned up towards the sky and
Gaping pointing struggling to keep away a scream
.
Stabbing holes and splitting you in two
The beam made seem as it fell straight from the sky
Ringing an old wind chime and shaking a passerby then filling the air
Until they his those park trees
Are these lies? The heat is mocking me
"Bet you wish you were asleep, but it's not a dream!"
.
Vision is blurred away and keeping my thoughts at bay
I swear you stood there while keeping such a dark smile!
.
Endlessly I see that over heated haze
And again the laughing will repeat on through the days
.
You've been dying for the past ten years
We are trapped in cycles and the end is never clear
.
But a story is a story all the same
And today like any has an ending so to say
Far away and out beyond that scorching summer day...
.
CRASHING IN and hitting ME instead of you
I push you aside to nearly dodge a truck
Blood dripping everywhere and choking my smell of hair
You breath in a gulp of air and just can't take it!
Are these lies? Haven't you heard him say
"What you see is exactly what you're gonna to get."
.
Maybe this summer day has finally gone away
But that's all I'll say so this is where it ends now!
.
August 14th and sitting alone on a bed a girl awakes repeating just the same
Muttering again...
"Guess I failed again.." as she sat all alone and held a cat still cradled in her arms.
.
The song finished with that last upbeat note that didn't at all fit the lyrics. I let my bangs fall in front of my face, trying to hide my moist eyes and, once again shaking body.
I had figured it all out, though I always knew. By him saving me, I go through it again and again trying in vain to save him, I'm living in a cycle. The only way for me to save him, would be me to die instead.
But he chose not to live in the cycle I am currently living.
Because the whole stadium is quiet, you can hear the faint splash of my tears hitting the stage.
Then the cheers start and rise up.
I raise my head and look at all my fans with my mouth slightly open. Then I tilt my head to the side and smile, eyes closing on damp cheeks.
I let out a breathy laugh, that echoes around the speakers.
I thank them over and over for listening until my friends and I exit the stage.
No one mentions my tears. I'm grateful. The only acknowledgment that something was wrong, were Fang's gentle brush of fingers on my wrist as he passes me.
That was the first night that I slept all the way through.
So that's it, let me know what you think. Please.
The story is far from over though, what about Fang? The FAX will be coming soon.
-Fantasy