Chapter 11
Pain
Oh dear the school had really taken a toll from the earthquake, Miss Marie thought as she stumbled around in the school. The timer she had put on her phone had already gone off. She had tried to return to the classroom, but the floor was still collapsed. There was no way she could reach Patty if she didn't find that one particular hole in the ceiling.
And with her lack of orientation, she was running around in circles in the building.
As she wandered around, she couldn't figure out how the school had… it was odd the whole situation. She had looked inside of classrooms and the interactive boards and projectors were gone and replaced with blackboards. Not to forget the rules on the walls referred to Gallows Elementary School all the time.
She was lost both physically and mentally. The situation was odd and she couldn't wrap her mind around the situation. The school seemed like their dvhool structure-wise, but the interior was completely different. The curtains were completely different and ripped and old. How… just how could the school have changed this much? An earthquake couldn't have taken all the projectors and interactive boards. At least there should've been traces of them left. No marks on the ceiling were left from the projector.
Something had happened and she didn't know what it was, but it wasn't good.
She had found a stairway up another level and she was wandering around the seemingly endless corridors as earthquakes hit her continuously. It seemed like an earthquake hit her every half an hour or so. Her cell didn't give her any warnings of the earthquakes, it simply hit her out of nowhere. She simply wished her students were okay.
But she remained strong. Black*Star and Maka were strong and she knew they could take care of each other. Tsubaki was a tough cookie when the situation called for it. She simply hoped Liz wasn't alone in this awful place. She was surely scared out of her mind in this place. She needed to find her students fast! Especially Patty. She was worried sick for her. She had left her in quite a state. Patty was in need of emergency medical attention and with her useless phone she couldn't call for an ambulance. She needed to find her and carry her out until she found reception.
But first, she needed to find the hole leading into the office Patty had fallen down in.
Usually it would be easy finding a hole in the floor, but with the floor containing many holes and collapsed floors, it was hard to orientate herself around and for every hole she looked down, it didn't lead to Patty. She couldn't help but feel like… it could be because she was really bad when it came to finding her way around buildings. It had taken her a really long time to find her way around Shibusen High. The first couple of months she either had a teacher showing her the way or she tried to find the classroom with the help of a map, but it always ended with her running into a student who helped her find the classroom. She was bad when it came to orientation, but… she had this nagging feeling in her gut that the school moved. It was odd, but sometimes, she had the feeling that floors that were collapsed, they returned all good as if they hadn't been broken. She knew it was a crazy thought, but sometimes when she turned around after an earthquake or she backtracked, she found a new way to go which she was certain was broken before.
It was a useless thought. Of course floors couldn't return like that. It was just her imagination.
She had wandered through these corridors and her feet were killing her. If she knew she was going to walk as much as she had, she wouldn't have gone with her high heels.
And Joe… she was most likely running late for their date. She doubted he was still waiting for her. She couldn't contact him and he hadn't tried to contact her.
Miss Marie took a pause and she fished up her phone from her pocket, unlocking the screen and finding her background picture of her and Joe when they were younger. Young love.
After she and Stein had broken up, she had dated Joe and he had been everything Stein wasn't. He was romantic and he cared in a way Stein never had. Joe showed her affection and she ate it up, but they had been young and immature. They had gone their separate ways. She had found her way back to Stein, gotten her heart broken and now… Joe was back in her life like a bright shine of sunshine. The years had served them well and they were both more mature. He… he confessed his flaws and wished to get back together. And she had wanted the same as well. He had been healing to her. Healing her broken heart and sweeping her off of her feet. She loved him and she wanted to make their relationship work.
And she was running desperately late.
"I got to find Patty and the others." She placed her phone in the pocket and she continued searching. She moved her hands up to her face and used them as a megaphone. "Patty! Can you hear me!" Her voice echoed in the corridors. No reply.
She had wasted enough time already. She needed to find a way to Patty! She had to be scared out of her mind and worried about her. Thirty minutes had already passed four times over or more. Soon she had to find the hole leading to her—
She came to a stop when suddenly, a small child stood in her path. It was a child she didn't recognize. It was a girl with pink hair and a messy uneven cut in a long black dress and… it had to be the light coming in from the window because the child had an eerily cold blue aura around her.
"Hello little one," Miss Marie greeted calmly as she sunk down on her knees to reach the girl's eye-level. The girl remained quiet as she stood at the same spot. Strange. "Have you seen my students around here? Maybe a boy, quite loud and with blue spiky hair or perhaps a girl with long blonde hair?" The girl remained silent as she stared at her with unusual blank eyes. "Maybe you've seen a boy with white hair and red eyes or a girl with blonde hair in pigtails?"
The girl started to grin wide toward her, far too wide for her liking. It was simply the atmosphere unnerving her, a sweet child like her couldn't scare her away, but yet her stomach knotted. "Have you seen them? Have you seen Maka and Soul?"
"hunshues… hunshues… hunshues…" the girl gurgled. Miss Marie didn't know exactly what was wrong with the child, but her speech wasn't as developed as it should be judging from her age. It wasn't a lisp, and it wasn't because the child didn't know how to form words, it was something else entirely different.
Slowly Miss Marie took a couple of steps closer to the girl, remaining low on the ground to remain on her eye-level. Once she was closer up and clearly had a better view of the girl's mouth as she religiously kept on chanting the word, horror washed over her when she noticed her tongue was missing.
"Dear Lord…" Miss Marie murmured as she covered her mouth. "What happened to your tongue?"
As soon as she had finished her sentence, something within the girl seemed to snap. Her eyes widened, threatening to leave their sockets and her veins were clear in the whites of her eyes. Her gaze was transfixed on her and she didn't blink even once.
"Hunshue…" the girl exhaled quickly as if she had hissed out the word in anger.
"What is it? What is it you want?" Miss Marie had been on her way to comfortingly reach out toward her when the girl had gripped her wrist and twisted it away from her, locking her in a painful arm-lock. Miss Marie hissed in pain as she tried to slither out of the girl's grip, but her grip was strong. Far stronger she imagined a girl of her size would possess.
"Please… let go," Miss Marie pleaded.
The girl reached toward her, reaching out toward her mouth. Her fingers brushed her lips and strangely, her fingers pried Miss Marie's mouth open and her fingers gripped her tongue. Panic started to set in when she got a grip of her tongue and started to pull. Miss Marie groaned loudly as she tried to evade her when the young girl gripped her throat. Miss Marie gripped the young girl's wrist and she tried to rip her hand away from her throat and back out of the girl's grip at the same time just like one of her colleagues had taught her when Stein started going psychotic and could start strangling her. It had worked on him, and he was stronger, but as much as she tugged and tried to back out of the girl's small hand, she simply couldn't.
The young girl suddenly hissed loudly and she repelled from her, staring toward her waist as if it had personally offended her. Miss Marie breathed heavily as she sunk her hand in her pocket, the same spot the young girl stared at and pulled out her teacher's ID with the paper scrap from the ritual. The girl reacted immediately. She hissed loudly, saliva mixed with blood dripped form her mouth as her hands balled in anger. Her nose wrinkles and she throws her hand toward the side, pointing her index finger toward a classroom window. Suddenly, the light shifts and the child seemingly disappeared into the thin air!
As Miss Marie breathed heavily as she massaged her throat, she's baffled at… where had the child gone? She… she had just disappeared!
But… she had pointed toward the classroom.
What was she trying to tell her? Why had the girl tried to do with her tongue?
Chills ran down her spine as she shivered at the phantom of the girl's hand on her throat and fingers gripping her tongue. She had met difficult children before, but none of them had actually tried to strange her, or gripped her tongue for that matter! It was hard shaking off the chills from her skin or the phantom of the girl's hands. Miss Marie took deep breaths and she shook her upper body, allowing her arms to hang limp as she tried to shake off the unsettling sensation. She couldn't get rid of the sensation completely, but partially it disappeared; but the memory of what happened would never leave her.
She needed to keep on moving. She couldn't let one unsettling run in scare her. She had Patty she needed to return to and find the other kids. She was the adult and she was their homeroom teacher, she must find them and get Patty medical attention.
If only she could get reception she could turn on the GPS and the authorities could track them down!
But it didn't work. So now she had to work with what she had, and what had been presented in front of her, was the door the girl had pointed toward.
She went up to the door and she opened the door. It shrieked loudly and it certainly was in need of some oil. Tables and chairs were tumbled over and nothing seemingly stood out from the "usual" in this place. It was all a mess and looked abandoned.
Her eyes fluttered when she caught sight of a faint red glow behind a tumbled over table.
What was it?
She entered the classroom and the door clicked shut behind her. Slowly she made her way toward the red glow behind the table.
"Soul, is that you?" she asked. No response. "Black*Star?" she tried. It remained quiet. "Liz? Kid? Maka? Tsubaki?" She probed but she earned no sound.
She came to a stop in front of the table and she leaned over, a gasp tearing her throat when she came eye to eye to the bones of a child. Only bones remained and the school uniform was now stained and loose around the skeleton. From the school uniform, she could detect the bones were the remains of a male, possibly a high schooler.
Miss Marie could barely believe her eyes. What was a skeleton doing here?! It wasn't like the theatre departments props, not the corpses she could witness on TV. This… this was horrifying. The bones were… they had details she hadn't witnessed before. Could it possibly be… a child had come here to commit suicide? No. This was too crazy! She had never seen a corpse before, but no way would she run into a corpse here! This was utter madness—
In her panic, she hadn't quite registered that the bones were glowing a faint red, which grew in strength and a red ball of light gathered in the chest before it left the skeleton and floated up to her eye-level.
She gasped and she backpedalled.
What was this?! What was going on?! She hadn't seen any lamps or visual effect anywhere! What is going on?!
"Teacher… Teacher… TeAcHeR!" a voice echoed from the red orb floating in the air. There were no speakers or… but she was certain it came from the red ball of light. It… It… what was it?!
"Black*Star, this isn't funny," Miss Marie spoke with as much strength and authority she could muster. "I command you to come forward. This building is dangerous and we need to evacuate. Come forward now and I won't have to double your detention." She knew it was an empty threat. Black*Star didn't care about detention or extra homework, but what else was she going to say? She was aware she didn't have anything up her sleeves she could use to gain power. Black*Star might respect her as a person, but he certainly didn't respect her authority.
Black*Star nor the other students appeared around the corners laughing at her silliness.
"Teacher… kill… fucking teacher," the ball of red changed in strength as the voice talked.
"What are you?" Miss Marie asked as fear started to root in her heart. "What is going on here?"
"You teachers are the most vile creates on earth," the red orb spoke, completely ignoring her questions. "Whenever a student is bullied, beaten or abused, all you teachers do is turning a blind eye to it. Allowing the abuse to continue."
What was the red light saying? Of course teachers wouldn't allow one of their students to be abused! At least not any teachers at Shibusen High. She was aware some teachers turned a blind eye, but she was innocent. She wouldn't do that nor the other teachers or faculty members for that matter. Discrimination or bullying wasn't allowed.
"We don't do that. We don't turn a blind eye on a child in need of assistance," she stated.
Instead of it having a reassuring effect, it flared the fire. The red light flamed and grew brighter and the ground shook slightly from the power. The lights in the ceiling glimmered and swung.
"You all teachers are worthless!" the voice boomed. "You're all lying sack of shits who care more about your own ass than a child being abused in every way possible!"
This situation was crazy. This… this… force was the only thing she could describe it as. It certainly had a mind of its own. Had experience. And it wasn't good. But the most important fact, the floor wasn't shaking without a reason, somehow… the red force in front of her had to have caused it. It certainly didn't feel like an earthquake. Not a natural one she had experienced. This… this wasn't like anything she had experienced before.
"Not all teachers are like that," she cringed the moment her clumsy words had left her mouth.
And the effect was immediate.
Above her head was a loud creak and she only had a moment to look up when the cords to the lamp snapped. The lamp came crashing down on her head and brought her down to the floor. Pain erupted in her head and the warm glass shards were entangled in her hair and on the floor. Nausea crept on her and the floor seemingly tilted. Her stomach turned and she had to force herself from not puking. The glass rustled as she moved her head from under the long fluorescent lamp. The air left her lungs when a sudden weigh was pressing down on her shoulder and bicep.
"Oh god that hurts!" she gritted as she desperately tried to wiggle herself out from underneath it, but in vain. The edges of the lamp started to dig into her skin and draw blood.
"You stupid teachers are nothing but garbage that needs to be taken out." The red light spoke.
She gritted her teeth. "You're wrong. The teachers you had failed you, and I am sorry for you. Nobody deserves to be abused, especially not on the school grounds." She gave out a cry of pain when the weight on her shoulder grew heavier and a loud crack resonated in her head, but she had to keep going. "But you can't keep doing this. I've a student who is waiting for me to find a way to her and get her medical attention." Miss Marie coughed repeatedly, blood splattering on the floor and she breathed heavily.
Damn it, the lamp had to have broken a rib or two and it was probing her lung. Ugh, she was in so much pain!
Her hand balled, nails digging into the wooden floor. "Her leg is broken. She's alone and scared. She needs me."
The red light huffed loudly. "You teachers… simply now when you're held responsible for the children you neglect, you are only trying to save your own skin. You don't care about your student."
"You're wrong," she growled. "My students… they are like my own children. I love each and every one of them and I would never turn my back on them. I would give them my own life if I could keep them safe!"
The red light went silent. The growing pressure from the lamp halted.
"Then prove it," it spoke. "If I spare you, I will track down every single one of your students and kill them. And if I kill you, I will spare the kids."
"Then you better kill me right n—"
"LIAR!" it exclaimed and the voice shook from the power.
She cried audibly when the weight of the lamp pressed down on her, it was far too strong. It wasn't as if only one person stood on the lamp, but the whole class stood and jumped on top of it.
"You are only trying to save your own skin. You don't mean a single word you're saying! You're nothing but a damn coward! I will give you one more chance to save yourself before I'll have the light cut you into two pieces!"
"You heard me loud and clear before," she breathed heavily. "You won't hurt a single hair on their heads." Her voice was cut off when the pressure grew heavier and loudly her entire right ribcage cracked loudly. Pain washed over her to the sound of the red floating orb screaming loudly in agony. Energy left her body and her eyelids grew heavier. Soon she lost unconscious with one question ringing in her head.
…
…
… will her students be alright?
…
What kind of thought did Soul and Maka have? Trying to gain some sort of sleep in a haunted school like this one with dangers around every corner. Usually he could fall asleep at anywhere and at any moment, but as he lay in the unoccupied hospital bed next to Maka, hearing her calm breathing, he couldn't sleep. Maka had been beyond exhausted from all the spiritual input and had fallen asleep quickly. While sleep wasn't in his cards, it had been soothing listening to her regular breathing and watching her chest rise and fall for every breath she took. Simply looking at her and knowing they were both unharmed gave him some relaxation.
The moment when he thought Maka would wake up from her nap, he must've slumbered because the next moment he opened his eyes, she was already up and on her feet by the desk.
"You should've woken me up," he mumbled as he rubbed his eye from leftover sleep.
She turned to him and smiled kindly, eyes almost sparkling in the darkness as she turned to head over to him. He quizzically looked at a small shadow behind her. The shadow had arms and legs; shaped like a person, or rather a small child. He couldn't tell anything about it, the blackness was dense and he couldn't tell if it was a friend or foe.
"Maka look behind y—"
As if she had stepped on a trigger, metal wires erupted from the ground, walls, ceiling and the furnishing as if it had all been strung up now tightened and became a deadly weapon.
And Maka was standing in the middle of it.
"Maka—" He reached toward her when the metal wires sliced through her. Her warm blood splattered on his outstretched hand and face and the overwhelming smell of copper assaulted his nose. The flesh and her now severed body thudded on the floor and her blood stained the metal wires which had come to a halt.
Horror washed over him at the sight of her simply a moment ago had been alive and well and now… gone. Just like that. Without any preparations. She was gone—
He shook when a hand was suddenly placed on his shoulder. He whirled around too fast and slipped on his feet, falling down on the ground. Behind him was… Maka; sitting on her bed with her hand hovering in the air with shock written all over her face.
Now he wasn't getting it.
"What… you were— you were there and you were— and now you're—" he stuttered as he pointed in every direction.
"Are you okay?" Maka finally asked as her eyebrow rose questioningly at him.
"I— I…" he snorted and he shook his head in disbelief. "I must've had a nightmare."
"While you were sitting up?" she asked. "Soul, I had been calling your name but you didn't answer."
Had she? He hadn't even heard a single word she had said. He had… He had woken up and found her standing by the desk and the metal wires— exhaustion had to have finally broken him down and he must've fallen asleep sitting up.
"Soul, your head was straight up. It was clear you were awake but… you didn't say anything and…" her voice faltered. "What happened?"
Soul shrugged his shoulders. "I don't' honestly know. I was awake and then I must've fallen asleep because when I woke up, you were awake and standing by the desk and… I saw a small shadow beside you and the next thing I know you're…" he paused.
"I was… what?"
His hands tightened as a knot formed in his throat. The image of Maka being sliced apart still fresh on his mind and the horrifying sensation still hung on his skin, reminding him of the awful vision he had seen.
"… you died," he whispered.
Simply uttering the words made Maka visibly uneasy. She inhaled deeply and she averted her eyes as she squirmed. "So you had a hallucination," she concluded as she crossed her arms over her chest.
"I don't know."
"Soul…" she paused as her eyes fluttered shut. "I awoke because I felt a strange strong presence here. It…" gently she shook her head. "It was around you."
Soul raised his eyebrow. "So… you're saying I was in the process of being possessed by some crazy spirit?"
"No… not a spirit. This… I felt it coming from the tongue bag but… it's hard to explain, but it didn't feel as if it had a mind, so it couldn't be a ghost."
Soul pulled out the tongue bag and he looked at it. He didn't know what she was talking about because he could feel no energy coming from it. "Then what the hell was it because that wasn't pleasant."
"All I can describe it as it's… energy. The tongue gives off a certain bad energy and… you must've rested and relaxed your mind so then your mind must've been more affected by it."
"So… if I let down my guard I'll lose myself to this bad energy?"
"It's the only explanation I have to this." Maka held out her hand toward him. "Let me carry it."
"What? No!" Soul exclaimed as he pulled the tongue bag away from her hand. "You're already vulnerable having to sense all of these energies. How will you manage all of that with a source of bag energy on you?"
Maka rolled her eyes at him. "I'm not going to carry it all the time. We will take turns carrying it and once we feel we're starting to get effected, we will switch."
"I'm fine now. I can carry it. Just… keep an eye on me and if you feel it's starting to affect me again, you can have it."
"Fine." Maka lowered her hand and she jumped off the bed. "We should continue. We have found one tongue, maybe there are more out there we need to find."
"Yeah." Maka rounded the bed and she offered her hand to him, he accepted and she pulled him up on his feet. Her eyes lingered on his knuckles which had started to turn blue and the small cuts were already coagulated.
"I'm okay," Soul reassured.
"I know, it's just… I'm the one who did this to you and I didn't even help you clean your cuts."
"It's my fault for trying to stop you when you went psychotic."
"Still. At least I could've helped you clean them just like you took care of mine."
"It's cool," Soul smirked and he pulled his hand from hers, shoving them into his pockets. "I appreciate the thought, though."
"What does a thought do to heal wounds?"
"Certainly more than you think they do," immediately Soul cleared his throat and turned away from her, shielding his warm cheeks from her watchful eyes.
It had been such a long time ago since Maka showed anything toward him. Being avoided for months had left its mark on him and… having Maka show concern and compassion for him made his heart warm. Simply her words had a healing effect on him which no wound care could offer.
"We should really start going," Maka changed the subject to his relief.
"Yeah."
They exited the Nurse's Office and they started to head down the corridors once again. They didn't know exactly where they should start searching. They had no clue where another tongue could be or where their friends could be within their dimensions, but they continued. Maka had the idea if she tried to search for a similar bad energy, they could find it. So that was what they were doing. Every now and then Maka would halt, feeling all the different energies this place emitted choosing from all the bad vibes she got to follow the one that seemed the most similar to the tongue they had already found. Sometimes Maka would feel a very bad energy and they would head in the opposite direction immediately, and he didn't question her judgement. If she had a bad feeling about the tongue and managed to be around it, if she was met with an even worse sensation, he didn't want to know what it was!
They stumbled upon a staircase up another level, which was odd. When they had looked out of the window to the courtyard caged, they had seen three levels of windows. There wasn't supposed to be a fourth floor.
"Oh no…" Maka whispered as she jogged up the stairs.
"What?" Soul questioned as he was quick behind her.
"I sense bad energy up there, and I don't know what, but it concerns me."
"How can bad energy make you concerned?" Soul huffed as he swung his arms. Damn, he was doomed from the start. How in hell was he supposed to keep up with a track star! "Slowdown will you?!"
She didn't listen. She jogged up the stairs. The stairs went on and on and on. Soul didn't know how many floors they had run up. The stairway was continuous. He finally reached the end of the level and down was a wooden stairway attached to the ceiling which was now lowered and… the hatch was completely obliterated. The wooden pieces of what he thought were the remains of the hatchet was scattered on the floor and left was a huge hole in the ceiling. It was as if the whole had been cut up in a chaotic hurry by… a saw. Or rather…
A chain saw.
Instincts quickly kicked in and he hurried up the last stairs, following Maka up. "Maka!" he yelled her name as he reached the final level and found Maka standing in front of the railing to the large old bell; with a male student hanging from the bell in a noose.
"What… the… fuck?" Soul whispered.
"He must've committed suicide."
"Why?"
Maka shrugged her shoulders. "I… he couldn't take it anymore. He… he killed his friend and he was ashamed… he locked himself in the bell tower and he killed himself."
"How do you know?"
"I sense it from him. It's… it's as if he is whispering it repeatedly for himself. It's the only thing I can hear from him. How sorry he is and how scared and ashamed he is. He wanted to end it on his own terms instead of being caught and killed."
"Wow… that's awful."
Maka nodded and she visibly swallowed. "I've this strange feeling… the air is dense with bad energy but… it's as if it's being let out. As if it has been trapped inside of here and now… its being let out."
"Do you think it has anything to do with the hatchet?"
Maka nodded.
"The marks and how the hatchet is completely cut apart, I think the dude with the chainsaw we saw was here and did this."
"It's possible. But what I'm wondering is how the bad energy gathered here. It's not coming from the body and… it can't be a tongue because I don't feel any energy similar to that."
"What do you make of it?"
"I'm not sure, but whatever was in here and produced all this negative energy, it has left."
"And so should we too. I don't want to run into that dude or the source of this bad energy. It can't be good."
"Yeah, let's leave." Maka went down the stairs first and Soul threw the top of the bell tower one last glance. On the glass of the large clock window was blood smeared on the surface. He had no clue what had happened here, but it wasn't good.
He headed down the stairs after Maka, always two steps behind her. A heavy silence hung between them and they barely talked. Soul dutifully followed Maka two steps behind her as she occasionally stopped to sense the air. Maka would murmur something and she would choose one path to walk. They headed down another level to the second level and they headed down a corridor when Maka suddenly raised her arm, stopping him in her tracks.
"What's going on—"
"Something is coming," Maka spoke tensely.
His reaction was immediate, he grabbed a hold of her wrist and he started to drag her toward the nearest door.
"H-hold on."
"If someone is coming it can't be a friend," Soul snarled as he opened the door and dragged them both inside. He quietly closed the door after him and pulled them both down on the ground so the one heading down the corridor wouldn't see them from the window in the door.
"N-No." Maka shook her head as she gripped her temples. "I-I can feel the presence of a tongue along with the person and… this is the source of the same energy I felt up in the bell tower."
"If that is the case then we can't get involved. It has to be the chainsaw dude."
"I don't think so, this is different energy—"
Soul covered her mouth with his hand and she squealed against his hand, giving him an angry glare when the sound of footsteps resonated in the corridor. He didn't care. He would tie her up and gag her if it was what took to keep her safe.
The footsteps rung in the corridor and he held his breath as he kept on covering Maka's mouth. The figure reached the classroom and the shadow of the person casted against the window. Maka's eyes widened and she trashed, ripping his hand from her mouth and she catapulted against the door, looking out of the window. Before Soul could catch her, she ripped the door wide open.
"Kid!" Maka screamed, wearing the biggest smile on her face as she stared at the figure.
Soul's eyes grew wide when he stared at his classmate. His arms were covered in blood and the tongue bag hung from his hand. His nose… it was broken and blood was smeared over his mouth and chin. His hair was a mess. Never before had he seen him so… messy. Normally he would've freaked out from the blood on him and his hair would be fixed with his comb.
What the hell happened to him?
"I'm so glad to see you!" Maka screamed as she took a step forward. Soul hurried on his feet and he grabbed Maka's wrist, preventing her from going anywhere closer to him. He knew Kid. He wouldn't be this calm and collected when he was in this state. Something was off about him and he didn't trust him. Maka had said the figure had the same bad energy as the space up in the bell tower, as much as he didn't want to believe Kid could be… all he knew was Kid was different and he couldn't afford putting his trust in him and risk the chance of Maka ending up hurt.
Maka threw Soul a glare as she tried to free her wrist put his grip on her tightened.
"Soul… Maka…" Kid murmured as he raised his free hand, slapping his temple two times, not caring if he got blood in his hair.
"I'm so glad to see you! Have you met the others?" Maka asked.
"Others…" His head drunkenly tipped and a wide grin grew on his face. "Yeah… the others…"
"Have you seen them?" Maka repeated.
"No."
Soul gestured toward his bloody hands. "What the hell happened to you?"
Kid giggled and Soul had never heard his friend laugh like that. "I found this pile of meat and under a floor board I found this bag."
Pile… of flesh? No. It couldn't be…
"Where was it?" Soul quickly asked, Maka gave him a quizzical look.
"Donno."
"Was it on this floor?"
Kid nodded.
Bile turned in his stomach simply at the thought of Kid diving in… what kind of sick fuck had he become?
"What does the bag contain?"
"Curious, aren't we?" Kid smirked wide. Soul spluttered when Kid threw them the tongue bag and he caught it. "You take it." Kid turned away from them and started to walk away.
"Wait, Kid! Where are you going?"
He stopped and only turned his head slightly toward them. "Somewhere."
"Don't you want to come with us, we could go all together—"
Soul yanked at her arm and it successfully shut her up because she turned toward him and glared at him. "Go. We'll see each other again," Soul spoke and only earned an incredulous stare from Maka.
Kid didn't say another word. He started walking away from them, slightly wobbling and he raised his hand to beat at his temple again.
Maka let out an unbelievable exhale and she was going to go after him when his grip on her wrist tightened and he gently shook his head, advising her from pursuing. Her head snapped back toward Kid as he went away from them, disappearing into the darkness of the corridor.
"I can't believe you," Maka sneered, she ripped her wrist away from his grip and he let her go. "When we do find one of our friends you just let him go? What the hell is wrong with you! You know we all should stick together!"
Soul huffed. "Didn't you see how he was? He had blood on his hands."
"So what?! He's still our friend and we should all stick together if we want to get away from here."
Soul's jaw tightened as he stared at her glistering eyes and balled hands. Jealousy tugged at his heart because he knew exactly why Maka wanted him close to her.
He wasn't just her friend or study buddy. He was the one who she wanted to be stuck together at this place. She would trade him for any of their friends. He was nothing to her while to him, she was his everything. She meant more to him than his own life. All he wanted was for her to see him. Truly see him and yet… he had tried. God he had tried. And yet… it didn't matter. Even if she saw him, really saw him, her heart was somewhere else. What was left of his heart was to be smashed by hers, and gosh, watching her upset because he hindered her from being with the one she wanted to be with, it hurt. He didn't want to hurt her but… Kid wasn't in the right place and he wanted Maka miles away from him when he was in that condition.
She blinked her tears away before they could leave her eyes.
He tried to swallow down the knot of hurt forming in his throat. "I know you would've rather been stuck here with anyone else than me, and I know you would take the first of our friends to share this fucked up nightmare with."
She snapped toward him and her eyes were wide at the shock of his words. "… you aren't the worst person I could be with."
Soul snorted. "That's a kind way of saying I'm at the bottom of your list." He pocketed the tongue bag with the other one and he crossed his arms over his chest as he leaned against the wall. "But look, I know you're eager to find one of our friends so you won't have to be alone with me anymore, believe me I want us to go with Kid but he isn't in the right mind."
"But Kid is our friend."
"Maka I know." He was going to say it. "It's obvious you like him more than as a friend and I wouldn't want to keep him from you. If I was in your shoes, I would be angry and upset too."
Her mouth dropped and her eyes were wide in shock. "You… but how?"
With two simple words his heart cracked in his chest. She liked him. It was finally confirmed. It was Kid she liked. Black*Star had been wrong. He had tried to keep his hopes up, but it was all in vain. Maka liked Kid. Even though his heart was breaking and he felt like screaming and get it all out of his system, his face remained neutral. Unmoved. Complete unfazed and unknown to Maka of what pain he was in.
"It wasn't hard. You're always talking to him and studying with him. Not to mention you're always touching him and being near him. Anyone with a pair of eyes can see how much you like him."
She remained silent, backpedalling as if he had revealed her greatest and most protected secret.
"I know it sucks," he continued. "But he can't go with us. He is unstable and quite frankly… I fear he will hurt us."
"But it is Kid we are talking about! He wouldn't hurt a fly!"
"But this Kid would," Soul was quick to add. "You said he had the same energy as the one up in the bell tower. You saw how he looked. You know more than me that the Kid we know would never walk around with blood up to his elbows and blood smeared on his chin."
"So what? Kid is dirtier than normal but he still needs us.
Soul's eyes fluttered shut and he ran his hand through his hair. He had planned on never telling her, keeping it a secret but… she needed to know in order to let him go.
"I wasn't planning on telling you this, but I think you need to know."
"Need to know what?"
"You know when you had your first psychotic break. When I found you in the classroom with the flesh splattered against the blackboard?"
"Yes, the pile Kid must've referred to where he found the tongue bag."
"Yes, that pile." Soul inhaled a breath of courage. "Maka… when you were in your episode… you talked a lot and you mentioned…" he swallowed heavily. "You referred to the pile as Patty."
She inhaled sharply and she slapped her hands over her mouth, choking down a cry. "No." she shook her head as she lower her hands. "No. No. You're lying. No, no, no, no, no! It can't be Patty! She's— she's— somewhere here— alive!"
"Both you and I know you haven't been wrong with your spiritual sensing ability. That was Patty's corpse against the wall and Kid was digging around in her."
"No! No, no, no," she repeated and new tears welled up in her eyes and broke free. She backpedalled and she sunk down to the floor. She let out a cry of pain and sobbed as tears rolled down her cheeks. "It can't be… Patty can't be dead! Kid would've never—" her voice broke as she sobbed.
He hadn't been close to Patty, but she was a great girl. She knew how to liven things up and the few pranks he and her had pulled on Black*Star was fond memories. He could barely believe such a happy girl like her… she was gone, and he feared how he would break the news to Liz. Maka… she had known Patty far longer than he had. And they were quite close. They would occasionally have their sleepovers and all the girls always glowed with joy on Mondays when they returned to school. He couldn't imagine what pain she was in.
Sorrow grew in his throat and he kneeled down in front of her. He reached his hand out toward her and she flinched away.
"Don't touch me!" she cried out.
He pulled back his hand as if he had been burned, but he guessed he deserved it. In order to get her back on his side with the Kid matter on their hands, he had to break the news for her to see. He had inflicted that pain on her and now… He didn't know how they would continue working on the same page. Their partnership throughout this nightmare had been brittle and a work in progress and now… he was afraid she would do something reckless again. All he wanted was to keep her safe from harm, and now he could've inflicted the starting blow to her slow downfall that would lead to her death.
All he could do was stand beside her as she cried rivers, mourning for Patty and begging for Kid to be there. And in her mind, he knew she was cursing him and wishing he was gone.