Chapter 10- Steve Has a Low Self-Esteem

"Oh my golly gracious!"

Hayden set her pen down. She had been tucked over her list of names for the last ten minutes. A voice was ringing in her head again. Not the satanic hisses of congratulations. But the squeaky, high-pitched speech of someone familiar. Hollyn.

"This is so much fun. Oh my golly gracious!"

It was the voice of Hollyn from just the weekend before, when she and Hayden both went shopping at their city commercial center. They arrived at three in the afternoon and left at nine. Had the best time ever parading the sidewalks, laughing at each other and how the Starbucks workers spelled their names wrong on their coffee cups: Hallon and Payton.

Back in the present, Hayden shook her head. She shouldn't think about life before the mansion as she wrote this list. It was all up to her. Who of her friends die first. Who of her friends die last.

Hollyn's voice disappeared from her head and was replaced by Night's.

"Give me your answers on the English homework."

It was a voice of Night from school. The stern demanding. Hayden's constant answer to the command: "Tell me you love me."

Night would roll her eyes. "I love you. Whatever. Give me your answers!"

Back in the present, Hayden shook Night's voice out of her head. She shouldn't think about life before the mansion as she wrote this list. It was all up to her. Who of her friends die first. Who of her friends die last.

Night's voice disappeared from her head and was replaced by Nevelyn's.

Now, by this point in time, Hayden should have been worried about hearing all these voices, but she didn't seem to mind. She'd always been a little messed up in the head.

"OMG, Hayden! I'll make you beautiful!"

It was a voice of Nevelyn from Hollyn's birthday party. Nevelyn made it her mission to make Hayden "beautiful". (Is that even possible?) She had Hayden sit down in a desk chair and burned her hair with a device used to burn and forever damage hair. Then, she covered Hayden's face with layers of contaminated drugstore makeup that did not match her olive skin color.

"No… no… please don't!" was Hayden's unheard protest. She wound up with a terrible skin disease that stuck around for two weeks.

Back in the present, Hayden shook Nevelyn's voice out of her head. She shouldn't think about life before the mansion as she wrote this list. It was all up to her. Who of her friends die first. Who of her friends die last. (God bless copy-and-paste)

Nevelyn's voice disappeared from her head and was replaced by Stevie's.

"Hello there, Hayden."

This voice was different from the others. It wasn't from any point in her almost-empty social history. It was just Stevie's slinky voice echoing in her ears. Eternally greeting her.

Back outside Hayden's greatly disturbed psyche, she shook Stevie's creepy voice out of her head.

It was replaced by Roberto's voice.

"Ciao, Hayden! I had another dream about you last night." He was sitting next to her in homeroom with a tissue held up to his bleeding lip, trying to smile. Hayden wanted to faint.

Back in reality, Hayden slammed her face against the table where she was sitting. "Get out of my head, Roberto!" she ordered. Everyone in the room looked up, saw it was just Hayden talking to herself again, and returned to whatever they were doing.

Hayden shouldn't think about life before the mansion as she wrote this list. It was all up to her. Who of her friends die first. Who of her friends die last.

No other voices entered her head. Good for her.

She ignored her past and scribbled more names.

A couple minutes later, Hayden took up her finished list and approached Feliciano sternly. He was having a less-than-productive conversation with Stevie at the dining table.

"I finished it faster than I thought. I guess I'm a heartless monster as well," she said. She folded the list three times and placed it in his outstretched hand. "I hope I did it correctly."

Feliciano gave her a big, fake smile. "I'm-a sure you did."

Hayden half-smiled. It felt wrong. "Alright, then. I'll leave you two back to your conversation." She walked away, thinking. How could Feliciano be taking this all so lightly? He just asked me for a list of people to kill!

She made her way to Konstantin, who was sitting in one of the beds (Francis's bed actually) with a whole serving dish full of lo mein and dumplings and other Asian foods.

"Hey Hayden," he said, "Want some?" He held out the dish for her.

"Ew. No."

Konstantin smiled. "Haha! More for me!" He swallowed a handful of food.

"How can you eat all of that?" Hayden bitched, "Have you any idea what will happen to your body?"

Konstantin grabbed his oversized tummy. "Nothing it hadn't already done to it."

Hayden blinked twice. "You're fat. Hey… anyway, you never really explained why you… and Roberto and Wonho… even came to this hell-house?"

"I hadn't told you yet?"

"Perhaps you have, I'm bad with my memory."

"B-but you're so smart. How could you be…?"

"Just shut up and tell me again!"

Konstantin set his food plate down and leaned back. "Roberto was freaking out because he discovered you were missing. He dragged Asian guy and me into this really."

Hayden blushed. "Roberto was freaking out because of me?"

Konstantin gave her a smirk. "Feeling special?"

"I never thought that he even like me…"

He raised an eyebrow. "You never thought that? Really?"

"That was a lie."

"Thought so."

Across the room, Stevie quickly ended her conversation with Feliciano when she spontaneously reached out and pulled the curl coming off his red-brown hair. He quickly silenced and sat back in his chair uncomfortably. She took this as her cue to leave.

She made her way to Alfred who was sitting at one of the chairs, eating Chinese food.

"Does that taste yummy in your mouth?" she asked curiously.

"Yeah," Alfred mumbled, face stuffed with his lunch, "It tastes yummy in my stomach, too."

"I have a belly button."

"Everyone does, I think."

"Can I see yours?"

Alfred swallowed and looked at Stevie, confused. "No-one's ever asked to see it before."

"I care about it," Stevie whined.

Alfred lifted up his shirt, revealing a tight set of abs and a perfectly sculpted navel. It's surprising that he has a nice stomach considering all the crap he eats.

Stevie clapped her hands happily and cheered, "It's beautiful, Alfred!"

Alfred gave her a huge grin. "You think so? I guess, you're right. It's one great belly button."

Stevie sat down next to him and put her hands between her knees. "I feel sorry for my belly button. I mean, Imagine being a belly button. Always hidden in the dark. Always lonely without being noticed."

This made Alfred sad. "Dudette, you're like totally right. Poor belly button." He proceeded to poke his belly button jovially. "I'll always be here for you, dude!"

Stevie nodded approvingly. She won't be happy until the whole world acknowledges their belly buttons. It was her dream for society.

Now! Going onto the third group. If you forgot already, that group was Blythe… I mean, Night, Francis, Kiku, Ivan, Wonho, and Ludwig. And they were going to the third floor.

They were spread out across the third floor, which really only was the piano room and the library.

Francis, Wonho, and Ludwig were drifting among the bookshelves of the library, reading the spines of the books.

"Han Yongun's The Silence of the Lover," Wonho read, "We had to read that at my school. This library has everything."

"Ah, yes," Francis said rubbing his stubbly chin, "The best of literature comes from my home. See! The Book of Pity and Death by Pierre Loti, À la recherché du temps perdu by Marcel Proust, Les Misérables by Victor Hugo. France is the literature capital of the world!"

Ludwig rolled his eyes. "If you say so, cheese-eater. But the literature of Germany isn't so bad either."

Francis flipped his long blond hair. "Say what you wish, Ludwig, mon ami. But, you know what I say is la vérité, ."

"Ja, ja!"

Wonho watched in wonder. Who arethese people?

At this time, Ivan and Kiku were both in the piano room. Kiku was standing over the piano itself. "I feer rike… there's something in this room that… is armost famiriar."

"I think you are crazy, Kiku," Ivan said bluntly. He was searching through the drawers in the room, "Almost familiar? How could it be at all familiar?"

"I'm sensing the mood, Ivan," Kiku replied, "And the mood is terring me that something bad wirr and arready did happen in this room."

"You are crazy."

Night was sitting against the wall in the hallway, thinking about her crushing hunger. She hadn't eaten in sixty-nine minutes.

"I'm going down to the fortress to get some food," Night called into the library.

No-one heard. So no-one replied.

Night flipped her bangs, bored. "Whatever. I take that as a 'yes'." She marched downstairs to the second floor.

Standing there at the bottom of the staircase, around a corner, waiting. Was the monster himself. Making his debut in this chapter.

"Damn…" Night muttered. She had left her made-in-Taiwan samurai sword back on the third floor. "I don't give a shit. I can kick his ass anyway."

No, she couldn't. The monster, somehow telling she was unarmed, kicked her. She skidded across the floor and only stopped when the wall made her stop.

Her chest and general torso hit the wall hard, knocked the breath out of her. She felt all her blood rush through her neck and to her head, pounding hard against her ears. She had no more energy.

"I can't go on like this…" she moaned, "How can I ever…" Then, it occurred to her. The bathroom on the first floor with the disappointing non-alcoholic beer. The onigiri Hollyn had eaten made her feel stronger. Maybe it could work… now.

Ignoring her extreme pain (she was an athlete anyway) Night raced down to the first floor. The monster gave a sigh of annoyance and followed after her.

She ran to the bathroom and to the toilet. Surprisingly, the monster didn't follow her there. Perhaps he thought she needed privacy. Huh. For a monster, he could be refreshingly polite.

Night fumbled through her pockets and found just enough of those HETA coins to pay for one onigiri serving.

She ate it quickly though all the chewing hurt her broken head.

HP Restored To 805 appeared over her. The pain left Night's head and chest. She felt overwhelmed with ninja super powers.

Then, Night noticed the words above her change. Night has earned the power of sarcasm.

"Sarcasm?" Night asked herself, rolling her eyes, "That sounds sooo helpful."

She left the bathroom to face the monster, who was leisurely leaning against the wall just outside.

"Oh, look at you, big-shot!" Night bullied, "You look sooo cool, don't you?"

Night has used the power of sarcasm. The monster's figure flashed red with embarrassment. He covered his face with his hands and took a step back. Who knew the monster had such bad self-image issues? That's why all the other monsters picked on him. All those monsters in those magazines are so cool and modern and defiant. He was nothing. He would always be a nobody. He would never have a date for prom. So many feelings were coming to the surface, and Steve ran off, bawling about his pathetic life. If only the monster knew how beautiful he really is on both the outside and the inside, Night et al. wouldn't be in this crappy predicament.

Night tried to run after him to see where the hell he stays when he's not attacking them, but she tripped on her cleats' untied laces.

Night was victorious. 10 HETA found. "Only ten fucking HETAs?!" Night snapped and slogged up to the fortress slowly.

Hayden was being awkward with an eggroll Yao made when Night threw herself into the room. She was pretty tired from all that sarcasm.

"Nighty-night!" Hayden squealed, "You came back?"

Take both Arthur and Roberto away from her for just a few minutes… and she becomes Night-crazed all over again.

"No," Night mumbled sarcastically, "What are you talking about? I'm not back."

Night has used the power of sarcasm. She grew more tired. Decided to just collapse on the wooden floor. Asleep.

"Oh no, Nighty-night!" Hayden babied, "Your shoelaces aren't tied! You might trip!" Irony. She ran to her and fiddled with the laces for a few minutes.

Then, she realized Night was asleep.

"I love you, Night Moon," she said possessively. Hayden touched Night's hair lightly, stood up, and retreated to a dark corner where she could be emo.

Konstantin was watching this nearby. Was taking mental notes for Roberto later.

Yao came out of the kitchen area with his hands full of Chinese dishes. "Night back? I bring her good Chinese dishes to her for to of that on behalf of the for because eat." Yao needed to work on his English.

He set a plate of "yummy-yummy-ding-dong" next to her sleeping corpse, and soon enough, Night was awake and wolfing down the food.

"I glad to see you have appetite, Night. What happen to you? You look tired."

"I…" Night mumbled between swallows, "ot… at… awn… er."

"Ha!" Yao exclaimed, "You're pulling an Alfred!"

"No-one's pulling me!" From the other side of the room, Alfred set down his Chinese food and whined in protest.

Yao ignored him. "That's what we say when a person talks and eats at the same time."

"I don't do that!" Alfred objected.

Night ignored him. Swallowed. "Glad there's a term for that."

"Don't ignore me!"

Yao helped Night up to her feet and stood awkwardly in front of her. "Did you fight that monster or something?"

"I already said that."

"I did no understand. Did he run away?"

Night nodded, grinning. "It was so a badass!"

Yao smiled. "You is badass." He reached forward and took Night from behind the neck. Pulled her face closer and kissed her.

Hayden, who was watching from across the room, gasped, scrambled around the kitchen to find a knife, and loudly threatened to cut herself. No-one paid any attention, and she meekly set the knife back down. What a freak, right?

Night was so happy. She even forgot she had her own personal stalker. All she thought about was the badass Asian connected to her by the lip.

Hayden was so confused. She forgot the two guys who actually held feelings for her. All she thought about was the cruelty of her life.

Back on the third floor, no-one was missing Night. Rather, Ludwig had just found an analog alarm clock.

"Kiku! Ivan!" Ludwig called, "Come here. I found another alarm clock! Let us organize vhat ve are going to do!"

Kiku and Ivan rushed into the room.

"Ooo!" Francis exclaimed, "Can I be the one to break it?"

"Break it?" Kiku cried politely, "Why wourd we break it. We're just see more memories…"

"Memories?" Wonho asked, "What are you talking about?"

"Each time we break one of these ararm clocks, we see things," Kiku explained, "Farse memories. Not the past. Not the future."

"Oh," Wonho muttered.

"You understand?" Kiku asked.

"No."

"Do not worry, my little Asian friend," Ivan said sweetly, pulling out the water pipe he keeps in his pocket, "Let Ivan Braginski will show you." He slammed the pipe into the clock, shattering it.

Now! Let's snake into Francis's mind. To see what false memory he sees.

Real Francis approached Nevelyn who was lying in one of the beds. He looked down at her curiously. Perhaps she'd be naked. No such luck.

A bloody knife wound was dug into the side of her soft neck. Surrounding her were Imposter Francis, Hollyn, and Feliciano. Real Francis joined them.

Meanwhile, Hayden was being subdued across the room. Having been driven crazy after so much time in the house, she stabbed Nevelyn, her longtime friend, in the neck. She folded herself up in the corner, with her face in her lap. Arthur was kneeling next to her, crying over her utter insanity.

Nevelyn's eyes were closed, and her eyelids were blue.

"Nevey… Nevey…" Imposter Francis wept.

Hollyn was crying, too, and Imposter Francis put his arm around her shoulder and leaned on her. I mean, Hollyn was still a female, and Francis was still a gynophile. (Yes, I made that word up.)

"How did this happen?" Feliciano cried, looking at his hands, "We've been here for four months. We're almost out of food. We just watched Night, Roberto, Yao, Kiku, Konstantin, and Ivan die slowly and painfully. But, still! How could Hayden have become insane?" He turned his face away. (I just reveled a lot about their situation using dialogue. My creative writing teacher would be proud.)

Back to HaniOni land: "Nevelyn?" Hollyn asked through her yucky tears, "How did Hayden do this to you?"

Nevelyn just barely opened her eyes. "When Hayden saw Night die… I don't know… O…M…G… Hayden… is such... a loser!"

Hollyn nodded. She agreed. Most people would agree.

"Nevelyn…" Real Francis whispered, "Poor… poor Nevelyn."

Imposter Francis set his hand on Nevelyn's cheek, and she smiled. "Nevelyn? Are… are you happy? Are you comfortable? Is there anything I could do to make you feel… belter?"

Nevelyn scowled. "Dude, really? Am I happy? I'm fucking dying, you bastard. How could I be comfortable… I just got stabbed in the neck. This feels like shit!"

Imposter Francis recoiled. "Pardon, ungrateful bitch!"

Nevelyn's smile returned. "I was only JKing, you idiot. I am so happy right now. The only way I could be happier is if you…you kissed me right now."

Imposter Francis brought his lips to hers and kissed her.

And she died. But Francis continued to make out with her dead body. Can you say "necrophilia?"

Real Francis was shocked. "Nevelyn? How could you die? How could you have…?" He took a rose out of his cape pocket. And laid it on Nevelyn's huge chest.

Then, he returned to reality.

"Hayden…" he hissed sexily.

"Vhat did you see?" Ludwig asked.

"That bitch Hayden killed Nevelyn. I'm going to kill her!" He prepared to march out of the room to beat the crap out of her. But, Ludwig held him back.

"Not now, France!"

Wonho looked up in surprise. "France?"

"Francis! Vhat did you see, Vonho?"

He furrowed his little Asian eyebrows. "I did not see anything."

Ludwig attempted to smile. But, that failed. "I cannot see those false memories either. I am glad there is someone who cannot see them also."

Wonho shrugged. Turned to Francis. "How did Hayden kill Nevelyn?"

Francis wiped his manly tears. "She went crazy and stabbed her in the neck with a couteau. That bitch will pay." He rolled up his sexy sleeves and looked evil.

"Not now!" Ludwig screamed, "That is not the truth. It is not the future or the past. Ve have already decided that!"

"I still want to kill her!" Francis exclaimed. Black Francis.

Ivan, who was standing there the whole time, smiled, too. "I had bad memory as well."

Ludwig rolled his eyes. "Nobody cares, Ivan!" he said sharply.

A purple aura appeared around him again. His eyes grew dark and evil. The room grew cold. "Nobody cares about Ivan Braginski?" he asked dauntingly.

Francis shrieked like a real man. "No! No! Everybody cares about Ivan Braginski! I… I love you, Ivan Braginski!"

The aura fell and cold left.

"Well," Ivan cheered, "That is good. Everyone must love Mother Russia."

Wonho looked at Ivan confusedly. "Mother Russia?"

"Mother Ivan!"

Wonho gave him a small smile. "Mother Ivan?"

Ivan put his face in his hands. "It… it's a… term."

"I want to go back," Francis whined.

"Why?" Kiku asked. He had been quiet for a long time. During his false-memory-session, he saw something quite disturbing.

"I want to make sure Nevey is alive!"

"She's arive, trust me, Francis. But, if you want to go, I presume we can… wait, aren't we missing someone?"

Ludwig looked around angrily. "Blythe!"

"Night…" Kiku corrected him politely. He called out into the hallway, "Night? Are you there? Are you there?"

No answer.

"Perhaps she went back to my fortress," Ludwig suggested.

Ivan looked up at Ludwig suspiciously. "Or maybe she's…" Ivan gave a smile. "… dead."

"Let's not think rike that," Kiku spoke up, "Ret us go now."