Chapter 10
Maka could hear voices, although everything around her was black. She felt like she was floating, almost falling, through space as she tried to make sense of everything. In the distance she could hear footsteps, followed by yelling, eventually leading to a throbbing pain in her head. Annoyed, she made to move her arm and was shocked to find that she had no arm, or body, bewildered she looked around the blank zone to gain a sense of knowing, only to have the throbbing in her head increase exponentially.
The voices were getting closer now, the yelling louder, and the throbbing that much more painful for her. Desperately, Maka shot through the dark space, trying to get to the voices to find help and hopefully, a way to stop this fierce headache. There was a sharp stinging pain in the place where her left arm should've been, then everthing faded once more.
The room that Maka woke up in was not familiar to her, most likely because it was not her house that she was in. Maka glanced around anxiously to find herself alone, and very confused. She furiously racked her brain for any clues that might lead to how she ended up in this, expensive looking, house. In a small, hesitant movement, the blonde haired girl attempted to raise herself into a sitting position and was shocked to find that her entire body ached and groaned in protest.
Had she been in some kind of accident? Once more the girl attempted to piece together the puzzle, ending in another futile attempt. With a small groan Maka hoisted her legs off of the comfy bed and assessed her body. Shock radiated her body as she felt the wind leave her chest in one big whoosh, Maka felt the white hot tears flood to her eyes at once as she scanned the numerous violet marks that painted her skin in various places. Gingerly she ran her fingeer over a particularly large one, the tears now began cascasding down her cheeks in two small streams.
Maka clamped a hand over her mouth to stifle a sob and she shook her head. Why was she crying? What were those marks? Was she captured and tortured? Why are tears flowing when she doesn't feel sad?
Questions ran through Maka's head frantically as she tried to get ahold of herself, in a few short minutes she had managed to dull her sobbing down to a few tears and nervous hiccups while she scanned the room once more. Pulling the robe over her body completely, she proceeded to painfully stand herself and walked to the large door across the room.
The doorknob turned before she had even gotten halfway and she found herself facing the sharply dressed reaper she knew as Death the Kid. In two long strides, Maka was hugging the surprised reaper, ignoring the pain she felt in her aching bones.
"Kid! Finally! I thought I had been captured or something, thank goodness a familiar face is here though!" Maka said happily as she let him go and stepped away from him.
The reaper was stunned for a second but straightened his tie and looked to Maka, "Yes, well, you must've had some wild dreams then because you've been living in the Manor with us for about a year now. I would hope that you wouldn't forget how hospitable we've been to you since you were transferred here that is..." Kid trailed, not meeting Maka's eyes.
Maka's head was racing as she took in this information, suddenly, images of times that she had spent at the manor with Kid and the girls came flooding into her head like liquid. He was right, she had been living with them, suddenly her happy mood was feeling rather guilty.
With a small voice Maka said, "Y-yeah. I guess the dream was so real that I believed it for a second...I remember now though!" She smiled.
"What did you dream about?" The reaper asked curiously.
The girl lifted a hand to her mouth and pondered this quietly before laughing, "I actually can't remember right now. Sorry." She laughed embarrassedly.
"Right. Well, I just came to call you to breakfast. Don't take too long." Kid said briskly, his hand on the door.
With a small tug on the reapers jacket, Maka stopped him. "Kid..." She said in a small voice.
"What is it?" Kid said.
Typical of Kid, I suppose. Maka thought to herself. Always so formal. Or was he? Everythings still kind of fuzzy...
"These marks on my skin...Where did I get them?" Maka asked, a tight feeling suddenly enveloping her chest.
Kid didn't say anything at first. Then he brushed Maka's hand off gently and didn't meet her eyes before saying, "You got them in the accident you were in when you were younger. You know, the one where your mother died." Kid muttered in a quiet voice . "Don't be much longer to breakfast."
Then she was alone. Alone and as confused as ever.
Death the Kid stood in the hallway, pain coursing through his body as he fought the urge to, no matter how much he denied it, cry. In the smallest voice possible, the reaper allowed a sob to slither past his lips, then, in a swift movement, he stood up straight, fixed his jacket, and marched downt the hallway and to the kitchen. His weapons were already eating by the time he arrived and they took no notice of him until he sat down.
Liz looked up at him from her pancakes, deep bags under her eyes and a small smile on her face. "How is she doing?" She asked nervously.
Even Patty was quiet at this point, both of them had their eyes on him. He couldn't bring himself to meet their eyes. "She's fine. She doesn't seem to remember a thing, she couldn't even remember where her scars came from." Kid muttered.
A tear tracked down Liz's tan face but she paid no attention to it and neither did Kid. "That's good to hear. Did she say anything about the story we implanted into her head?"
Kid picked up a fork and began to cut his pancakes into eight slices. "No. The memory work my father performed on her seems to be working perfectly at the moment. No telling if it'll hold though, I need both of you to act normal, and follow the story we have to a T. Not one mistake." The reaper instructed.
The girls gave tired looking nods and continued what they were doing before he had arrived. Shortly after Kid had finished off his last slice of pancake, Maka stumble in looking dazed, but happy.
"Sorry guys, I got a little lost on my way here. I could never get used to all of these hallways and doors anyways." She laughed, giving the girls a small wave.
"Maka! Good morning! You slept for hours! Come on, there's still some food left here for you!" Liz said with a smile.
Patty lifted up her coloring crayons, "I have crayons too! We could color if you like!" She said in a high-pitched tone that sounded a little too happy to Kid.
"That sounds great you guys. Thanks so much!" Maka laughed as she made her way to the table.
Kid stood up suddenly and pulled out a chair for her. "Maka. I'll be retreating to my room now, I have some readings to attend to." He muttered, carrying his dishes over to the sink and darting out of the kitchen to his bedroom.
The black haired boy clutched the book he had been trying to read so hard that he tore through a few pages. Cursing under his breath he tossed the book aside and stood to face the door. A dull pain had been building inside of him ever since Maka had been brought back to the Manor. What else was to be expected though? Altering her memories and then lying to her about her family. What kind of monsters do they believe they are? The boy thought desperately. No. What kind of monsters are we?
Kid had never felt this way before, in a frantic attempt at venting some anger he aimed a kick at the end table he had carefully balanced his things on. Broken wood and various objects flew across the room, ruining his perfect symmetry he had slaved for hours to achieve. The pain had begun to intensify, moving upward from his chest to his heart, numbing every nerve in his body until he felt nothing but the harsh sadness and guilt towards the cruel things he was doing to his once good friend. Something hot and wet trailed down the reapers face but he didn't care, whether it be tears or blood he didn't care, anything was better than the crushing feeling inside.
Memories began panning through Kid's mind, the group of friends he once had at the birthday party he had thrown last year. Maka wearing the flowery sun dress he always loved to see her in, smiles on everyones faces, even Souls. The day that they had all played basketball, which Kids team won, of course. Maka had been on his team at that point too. But she didn't want to be, she always wanted to be on Souls team. Not his.
The pain had spread not only to his heart, but throughout his entire being at this point. Why was he thinking like this? Why are these thoughts filling his mind? In one last ditch effort to release all of his pain he swung his fist out at random, his hand colliding with something hard and sleek. There was a loud crashing sound followed by the small tinkling of glass, the reaper sank to the floor. Clutching his head in his hands Kid let out a loud, pained scream before he let the saddness take him.
"Did you guys hear that? It sounded like Kid." Maka said in a worried tone.
Liz and Patty laughed lightly next to her, "Oh don't worry about him, he's just talking to his dad. You know how they can get sometimes." Liz said, sticking her tongue out.
Maka smiled back at her but couldn't shake this uneasy feeling inside of her. Something was wrong and she needed to get to the bottom of it, she thought.
"I'm stuffed guys. I think I'll head back to my room now, I haven't been feeling really good ever since I got up and want to lie back down." Maka said in the best lying voice she could muster.
Without looking at her the girls smiled and waved her on. "Alright, we'll come check on you in a few minutes...Just as soon as I finish coloring this last spot on the giraffe." Liz said.
"NO NO NO NO NO! Sis! That was my spot to draw! You ruined my giraffe!" Patty cried, throwing her crayons down in anger.
"You said that I could color the left half, Patty!" Liz yelled back, throwing her crayons down next to her sisters.
Maka took advatage of this moment of bickering to slip out of the kitchen wordlessly and walk down the hallway, rubbing the sore spot on her thigh as she walked. The shinigami Manor was very beautiful, the most beautiful house she had ever seen in fact. Maka often found herself lost in the frequent paintings of symmetry that dotted the hallway walls. she would stare at each and every one in turn, going down this hallway and that hallway, until she was-
"Lost." Maka said out loud, tearing herself away from a particularily bright painting that caught her eye. "Oh no...Oh no oh no oh no." She muttered, surpressing the panicky feeling that was boiling up inside of her.
It might not have been so bad, if somebody knew where she was. The girls thought she was heading back to her room at the moment and probably wouldn't even check on her until Kid says something at dinner.
A small sliver of hope ran through her body. Kid. His room should be around here somewhere, maybe.
"If I could just find his room..." She said out loud in a scared voice. Peering around the corner she scanned the hallway for something she might find familiar. Her heart fell when she realized she had just come from that way. "This might take a while..." The scared girl said in a sad voice.
Maka couldn't count the amount of turns she had made as she waltzed around the art filled hallways, all she knew was that she was getting dizzy and could really use a nap. A stinging pain had been burning her arms and legs for most of the journey, her stomache churned whenever she thought about what is was that was hurting her.
How had her mother died? Did she have something to do with it? Why did she get transferred to Death City and where did she originally come from? Maka still couldn't figure out why such basic questions were drawing up blanks in her head when it was her own past she was asking about.
"The trauma of the accident probably stunted my memory...5 years ago..." Maka mumbled in a tired voice as she stumbled around a corner that she had already found at least ten times before. "Maybe I should just sleep in the hallway and hope that somebody finds me and brings me food." Maka gumbled in a defeated voice.
"Maka? What are you doing out here? The girls told me you were going back to your room around 3 hours ago." A cool voice came from behind her.
Maka spun around to find Kid staring warily at her from down the hallway. Joy flooded through her body momentarily before being replaced with confusion. Kids eyes were burning red and his right hand was heavily bandaged, a few red spot dotting the wrapping here and there. She reached out to him with her left hand so she could get a better look at the wound but all she groped was empty air. With a confused blink she looked to find Kid on the other side of the hallway, his eyes were watching her with a kind of cold stare that filled her with fear.
"Kid...What happened? Are you okay?" She asked in a trembling voice.
"Maka. Let me ask you this. Do you remember anything? Anything from yesterday?" He asked in an almost desperate sounding voice.
Maka stared at him and shook her head slightly. "I don't know what you're talking about Kid..What's this about?" She asked, her voiced laced with fear. Why is he acting like this? She thought frantically.
"Does the name, Soul, ring any bells, Maka?" He asked, his voice cracking when he said her name.
Maka felt a small twinge of happiness but it was gone before she could take it in. "No...No that name doesn't sound familiar. Not to me at least...Kid are you sure you're feeling alright? You don't look very good, maybe we should go to the academy and have Professor Stein look at-"
"I'm alright." Kid growled, catching the hurt look in Makas eyes he added. "I'm just tired. You're room is right there, by the way. You've been walking around it for about 15 minutes now. You should get some rest. Goodnight, Maka."
Then he was gone, leaving Maka once again alone and wondering just what in the world was going on in this house.
Alright guys, the second chapter tonight! I know this story has really taken a sharp turn and is progressing really fast compared to what I was writing in past chapters but I hope you guys will like this kind of twist I'm adding to it! I have decided that I'm going to make this a KiMa story only, since I can't really put Soul back in now. I am planning to wrap this up in a few chapters now, any reviews you may have would be greatly appreciated! Thanks! I'll see you guys soon!
~Misa(: