Chapter 9- Hollyn Talks To Her Sushi

"I swear, this time ve vill get something fulfilled!"

It was the next day. The night before Ivan let Roberto stay in his bed, and Konstantin and Wonho slept on the floor.

Well, anyway, it was the next day. Everyone was gathered around the dining table. Ludwig was standing while everyone else was sitting. He was lecturing and screaming again.

Roberto whispered to Hayden, "What makes him in charge?"

Hayden rolled her eyes crossly and turned her back to him. "I'm trying to listen here, Roberto."

He sighed irritably and repeated the question to Night.

"Oh… I don't know," Night mumbled back, "But, he seems like a jerk to me."

Ludwig slammed a fist into the table, making everyone jump. "Ve vill go out again and get something figured out! I realize you idiots are too easily distracted vhen vith your usual groups. So I've decided to mix things up."

"What is he talking about?" Hollyn asked herself quietly.

"For Christ's sake, Hollyn! You're such a baka!" Hayden muttered, "Ludwig is simply explaining to us that when we were in our old groups, we were too easily distracted. He chose to change the groups around, so, if we are lucky, we could actually get something accomplished."

"No need to be mean…" Hollyn whined pathetically, "I was just confused."

"You're just a stupid baka," Hayden sighed.

Hollyn first looked offended. Then, her frown turned into a huge grin. "You already used the word 'baka' in your last insult," she pointed out teasingly, "You're out of insult ideas, aren't ya?"

Hayden closed her eyes, exasperatedly. Took a deep breath and: "Baka! Baka! Baka! Baka! Baka! Baka! Baka! Baka! Baka! Baka! Baka! Baka! Baka! Baka! Baka! Baka! Baka! Baka! Baka! Baka! Baka! Baka! Baka! Baka! Baka! Baka! Baka! Baka! Baka! Baka! Baka!"

Each man looked up in surprise.

"Whoa… déjà vu…" Alfred breathed. Then, he tried to pat himself on the back for using a foreign-sounding word. It was sad to watch.

Hayden noticed all the eyes staring at her. "What do you mean by déjà vu?"

Francis cleared his throat sexily. "Déjà vu is a French term. Déjà meaning 'already'. Vu meaning 'I had seen'. Hence, I had already seen."

"I'm not stupid, Francis," Hayden retorted sharply, "I'm a straight-A honor student. I'm the president of the math team and music club and a member of the National Honor Society, Spanish Honor Society, service club, Youth in Government, drama club, the Youth Leadership Society, and anime club. I have an un-weighted GPA of 4.0. I earned a composite score of thirty-four on the fucking ACT. I am the top of my class. I KNOW what déjà vu means!"

"So why did you ask?" Francis asked innocently, blinking like a teenaged girl.

"How come it is déjà vu?"

Every man looked at a blushing Arthur who then set his head down on the table and gestured nonchalantly at Alfred. "You… you can tell them."

Alfred smiled triumphantly. "Weeeell! Artie here was trying to get me drunk for some reason, so he totally took me to the bar for drinks. Because, dude, I'm the hero I didn't get drunk at all. But, Artie got totally wasted yo. So… dude had this little spaz attack with him screaming the word baka at me over and over and over. What a loser, right?"

"Right!" Stevie applauded as if on cue.

"Idiot," Hayden snapped (at Alfred), "He didn't have a spaz attack because he's a loser. It's simply because, when the body takes in alcohol, the levels of…"

"Hey, Hayden?" Night spoke up.

"Huh?"

"Shut up."

"Okay."

Roberto's face turned red. He began to talk to himself inside of his head. So Hayden is in love with a drunk. That's not like her. Hayden always bitches whenever I ask to copy her homework. Imagine what would happen if I got wasted or something. There's something in this house making her unlike how she really is. Actually, there wasn't anything supernatural in the house making Hayden act stranger than normal. No… Arthur was there.

"CAN VE PLEASE GET BACK ON TOPIC?!" Ludwig shouted.

"I'm-a listening to you, Ludwig!" Feliciano answered him just as loudly.

"Calm down, West," Gilbert said (I just realized I barely put him in the story, my apologies), "It's fine. They can figure out vhat they need eventually."

Ludwig shook his head. "Vill they?"

"I am awesome."

"Thank you for answering mein question, Gilbert." Ludwig rolled his Aryan-blue eyes.

"Always here for you, West."

After about funf minutes of screaming, people started listening to Ludwig again.

"So!" Ludwig called, "I have assigned new groups. Arthur, Nevelyn, Gilbert, Hollie, Roberto, and Matthew vill go to the fourth floor. Blythe, Francis, Kiku, Ivan, Vonho, and I vill go to the third floor. Yao, Hayley, Stevie, Feliciano, Konstantin, and Alfred will stay here and prepare us food and, perhaps, more beds. Eighteen Gott-damn people? I hope some of us die soon."

Hayden looked at Night with huge eyes. "I hope Night is the first to die, so I can eat her dead body."

Night and Roberto both smiled. Hayden really was her normal self. Arthur felt awkward.

"So… ve go now, ja?" Ludwig led everyone who was supposed to leave out of the room.

Now! Let's check in with Nevelyn and Hollyn's group first!

They were derping around the fourth floor, which is only two rooms- the bedroom with the hole in the floor and a study-storage-thingy room.

Arthur, Gilbert, and Matthew busied themselves in searching through bookcases, chests, and wardrobes. Nevelyn, Hollyn, and Roberto hung back.

Nevelyn sat on the ground in the bedroom and looked sad. "I miss my Francis," she whined.

"It's okay," Hollyn said kneeling down to touch Nevelyn's shoulder gently, "He's probably missing you back." He actually wasn't.

"I also miss Facebook."

"I thought Facebook was banned in your house."

"But I still miss it!" Nevelyn put her head in her lap. It hurt her neck, but she felt it looked like how she felt—tired and uncomfortable.

Roberto sat down next to Nevelyn. "I… I miss World of Warcraft…

Nevelyn's sat back up and glared at him. "No-one asked you, loser! Stop thinking only of yourself! You're so vain!" Then, she took out her makeup and hair stuff and groomed herself for the fifth time that day.

Hollyn, feeling awkward, stood up, left the bedroom, and entered the storage room. Something caught her eye. An over-sized sushi roll plastered into the wall in the corner. (yes, I know it's supposed to be a mochi.)

"Holy Rin Okumura! There's sushi in here!" She ran to it.

"Oh…" Arthur commented looking up from a book he was reading, "You found him…"

"It's a him?" Hollyn squealed delighted. Nevelyn and Roberto entered the room hurriedly.

"Sushi?" Nevelyn called happily. Sushi is yummy.

"A him sushi!" Hollyn replied.

"What makes it a him?" Roberto asked. He looked carefully at the sushi roll, scowling. Sushi is yucky to him.

Nevelyn grinned evilly. "A penis?" Then, the idea of a sushi roll with a penis made her feel like gagging.

Roberto smiled back at her, face red.

Hollyn screeched, "That's a naughty, naughty word, Nevey!"

"Seriously, what makes it a him?" Roberto asked again.

Arthur smirked from across the room. "You'll see."

Roberto scowled at him. Damn Brit.

Hollyn tried to retrieve the sushi roll, but it was stuck in the wall. "Why won't you come out, my little sushi friend?"

The roll then started to move. Wiggle-wiggle-wiggle-wiggle-wiggle. Trying to remove itself from the wall.

"Holy Death Scythe!" Hollyn yelped, surprised, "It's moving!"

Suddenly, she noticed a little face on the cute little sushi roll. His cute little eyes were squeezed shut, and his cute little mouth was in a cute little pout.

"Are you stuck, cute little sushi roll?" Hollyn asked him.

The cute little sushi roll just barely nodded.

Hollyn almost died awing.

Then, she turned to Arthur. "You couldn't get him out?" Arthur shrugged.

Gilbert spoke up. "West tried to get him out a while ago. If West can't get him out, no-one can. The sushi is stuck in there."

Hollyn began to sniffle. Poor cute, little sushi roll.

Gilbert returned to his pointless searching.

Or… maybe there was a point.

After a few minutes of Hollyn's crying and Gilbert's searching: "Woo! I am so awesome! Look what I found!" He dug an analog alarm clock out of a chest.

"So what?" Roberto snapped, "It's just a clock."

Gilbert gave Arthur a wild grin. Matthew morphed into the room, stood in the doorway, and watched everyone.

"But we're not breaking it," Arthur said matter-of-factly.

"Why would we break it?" Roberto asked.

"EW! There's a cockroach!" Nevelyn shrieked. She took out a huge ass aerosol can of hairspray.

"Nooo!" Arthur, Gilbert, and Matthew all yelled.

She swung the can violently at the clock and the poor cockroach.

Suddenly, everything froze. Hollyn looked around, confused. The lights dimmed, and everything turned a dark orange.

"What's going on?" Hollyn asked herself.

Suddenly, everything turned black. And when the lights returned (still dark orange) she was standing in the basement where Alfred battled the monster. But the monster was gone. It was just Alfred, Ivan, and Night… and another Hollyn.

Real Hollyn gasped and looked down at herself. She was there, all right. How could there be two of her? She was about to tackle her imposter when something caught her eye. (Hollyn was über-ADD. Obviously.)

Lying on the ground was Stevie. Covered in blood. A huge, gory gash was seeping bodily juices from her chest and stomach cavities. Her glassy eyes were wide open, without blinking. Her red lips were moving, but no sound was coming out.

"What is it, Stevie?" Real Hollyn asked gently. She kneeled down next to her, but Stevie didn't even acknowledge her. What a jerk.

"Wait!" Hollyn told herself, "Perhaps this isn't really what's going on. I watched an anime like this. This is probably just a memory or something. That's why everything is orange. But… I don't remember this." She stepped back, confused. Decided to watch.

"What is it, Stevie?" Imposter Hollyn asked gently. She kneeled down next to her, and Stevie turned her head slightly to see her better.

"I…" Stevie coughed twice, blood erupted from her lips. Gross. "I… I have boobies."

Imposter Hollyn started to cry.

Ivan kneeled down next to Hollyn and looked at Stevie with big eyes. "I'm so... sorry, Stevie."

Stevie raised her bruised eyebrows. "I should be sorry. I… I let all of you fight the battles for me. I was useless. I wanted to help… but I… I…" she paused. "W…why are you… sorry?"

"I promised you," Ivan explained, "I told you I wouldn't let you die… I promised you…"

"I don't remember…" then Stevie's eyes grew even huger with terror, "I'm dying?!"

"No," he lied.

Stevie nodded faintly. There was a loud crack from her neck. She screamed in pain, blood venting from her open mouth. Then, her scream turned into an aching whimper. Then, silence.

Ivan stood up abruptly and marched out of the room, hiding his face in his scarf. Alfred and Night stood there for a few moments, then left also. But Imposter Hollyn stayed with Stevie, bawling.

Real Hollyn started to cry as well. "Stevie?" she called out. Imposter Hollyn meekly closed Stevie's eyes like in all the movies. "Stevie! STEVIE!"

Then, everything turned black.

And she was transported back to reality.

Back in reality! Hollyn collapsed to the floor, unconscious.

"Hollyn!" Roberto exclaimed catching her just before her head hit the ground. He wrote this down in his mental notebook: I saved Hollyn's life. She owes me a lot.

Her face was white, and her lips were blue. Just add black and her face would be the Estonian flag. Sorry. That was random.

Roberto set Hollyn carefully on the ground.

"What's wrong with Hollyn?" Nevelyn demanded running up to her fallen body. Arthur, Gilbert, and Matthew followed her lead. They gathered around her.

"What are we going to do?" Arthur asked nervously. If he let Hollyn die, Hayden would never forgive him.

"It's not like she's going to die, Arthur," Gilbert stated mockingly, "She only fainted. She must have seen one of those false memories."

"False memories?" Nevelyn looked at him anxiously, "Did you see them, too?"

Gilbert's face turned red. He didn't want to answer. "I am awesome. What did you see?"

"I saw… I saw… you know what? I'm fucking crazy. Just forget it!"

"I'm guessing Hollyn saw something pretty disturbing." Arthur rubbed his chin thoughtfully. It was, like, so sexy, ohmigod.

Roberto started slapping Hollyn's face gently. Shouting, "Hollyn? Hollyn? You hafta wake up now, Hollyn!"

Hollyn obviously heard him. Blink-blink. She lifted herself up on her elbows. "Stevie?" she asked, bleary-eyed.

Mamma mia! She's got amnesia. Roberto gasped. "No! It's Roberto!"

"Oh. Ew. Roberto."

Or not.

"What happened to you, Hollyn? Did you have one of those weird false memories?" Nevelyn asked pushing Roberto aside.

"I… I saw Stevie die."

"You did? Well, that's funny. Cuz I saw you die."

"You tell her but not me?" demanded Gilbert.

Nevelyn and Hollyn both ignored him.

"You saw me die? How? How did I die? The monster attacked Stevie. Was I attacked, too?"

Nevelyn gave her a disappointing smile. "Nah! You choked to death on a sushi roll."

"Oh."

Hollyn rubbed her eyes. "How long was I passed out?"

"Not for too long. Now, what happened with Stevie?"

"I… she just… was attacked by that THING. And she died."

Nevelyn smiled arrogantly. "Was I there?"

"What? No."

Nevelyn stood up huffily. "Figures! No-one ever remembers Nevelyn Rosita Latasha Kappa-Upsilon-Nu-Tao Maria Dawne the Third anymore." She marched to a corner and pouted.

"Guess so," laughed Gilbert evilly. He turned to Matthew and muttered under his breath, "I bet that loser Roberto had a memory about that Hayden chick."

"Alright," Matthew muttered back, but Gilbert didn't hear him.

"But… Arthur," Hollyn ventured, "these don't predict the future, right?"

"You're right," Arthur said, "As far as we've deduced, these do not predict the future, but they also aren't memories. We just call them 'false memories' until we know exactly what these stupid visions are."

"False memories? Huh. Glad there's a name for them." Hollyn turned to Roberto. "Did you see anything?"

"Yes." He paused dramatically. "I saw Hayden die."

Gilbert threw his fist into the air. "I called it! I'm so awesome!"

Hollyn grinned. "I could have guessed that, too. How did she die?"

"If you don't mind, I really don't feel like talking about it right now, okay?"

"Okay." The idea of Hayden dying made her smile.

"OMG, yousguys! My phone's working!" Nevelyn had stopped pouting. In her hand was her cell phone, turning on.

"We figured that out, too," Arthur said, "When we break a clock, our phones and watches work. I don't really get it. But, whatever…"

Nevelyn was fiddling away on her phone.

"You're telling someone about our situation, right?" Gilbert said.

"Hell no!" Nevelyn said, "That'd be stupid. I'm checking up on my Facebook page. Duh!"

Let's check up on another group, cool? How about the group staying in the fortress?

"I will prepare best food possible," Yao exclaimed, "You sit back and watch master work."

After a few minutes of "watching the master work", Yao commanded that they leave the kitchen area; Konstantin's panting/breathing was too distracting.

Feliciano approached Hayden solemnly. "Hey… Hey, Hayden?"

Hayden turned to look at him disdainfully. "What do you want from me, mango?"

"What?"

"Never mind. Continue."

Feliciano blinked. "Ve~ well, you-a seem to be the leader of your group of friends and…"

Hayden's cold, emotionless eyes brightened. "I do?"

"Sì," he continued patiently, "Well, I wanted to tell you something. Um… I was hoping you could-a give me a list."

"Oh, God. Not a list." Lists annoy the crap out of Hayden, no joke.

"Yes. A list of your friends, including Roberto, Konstantin, and Wonho. Have the list be in the order of having-the-most-potential-in-popular-society to having-the-least-potential-in-popular-society. You don't-a have to include yourself."

"Okay. That doesn't sound too bad. Why do you need it?"

"I-a was thinking… I might not be able to get all of you out. If I have to sacrifice someone for the good of the whole group, I want to sacrifice the one with the least-potential-in-popular-society. Does that make any sense?"

"Yes."

"Buon!"

"You're a monster. That's actually pretty heartless. But, I don't really mind. I'll have the list ready for you by tonight. Is that okay? But… what makes you think you have to get everyone out yourself? No offense, but you don't seem like the strongest in the group."

Feliciano turned away from Hayden with teary eyes. "I'm-a stronger than you think I am, Hayden." And he walked away.

Hayden shrugged and sat down to begin her list. And, of course, on the top of the list (i.e. the friend having the most potential in popular society) she scripted in a romantic scrawl: Night Moon. Then, she shivered. Just the name itself gave her chills.