Off to Never, Neverland.
Kotori remained face first on the table. It hasn't even been an hour yet and it's already looking bad. Kokoa hadn't stopped tripping out on the floor in the other room, in fact it seemed like she was getting worse as time went on. It's entirely possible that Honoka tending to her helped her stay calm in this fucked up state. Kotarou did very little to actually help, it's not like he really could help anyway, so he more or less diverted his attention from his sister to Kotori.
There wasn't much this little boy could do to help his sister, in fact it seemed like every time he tried to help, he just made it worse. He didn't ignore her, per say, he just diverted his attention to the one that could actually help.
Of course, Kotori couldn't do much anyway. She knew that Kokoa just had to wait it out. Ironically, she herself just had to wait out Freddy. More correctly stating, she just had to wait until she fell asleep, then Kruger could claim another life.
She kept that to herself however. Didn't want to upset, or potentially give another victim to him, especially one who already lost 2 of his big sisters to him.
Kotarou sat on the couch, watching Kokoa descend into madness. It was pretty apparent that Kotori felt shitty for letting that happen. She stayed slumped over, leaning her head on her hands. Kotarou nudged at Kotori.
"Hey. Hey." He began talking.
Kotori turned to him. "What?" She asked him, confused as to what he wanted.
"I'm hungry." Kotarou told her.
"Oh, well… I don't know what we got." Kotori tried telling him, but felt too scared of what her mom might do if she started just wandering around the house after the lecture she just got.
"I'm hungry Kotori-nee-chan." Kotarou complained. Somehow Kokoa heard him.
"What? Food… I'm hungry." She giggled, still laying in a pile of candy wrappers.
Kotori sighed. "Yeah. I'll get you guys something to eat." Kotori left for the kitchen. Kotarou followed after her.
As Kotori started looking for whatever food she could give them, Kotarou began talking to her. "Why was your mom yelling at you?" He asked her.
"Ummm." She tried to come up a valid excuse someone his age would understand. "Reasons." She replied.
"What does that mean?" He asked her.
"Uh. You know." She paused. "Go sit down." She told him.
Kotarou didn't respond. He just did what she said and returned to the couch. Kotori did a little bit of maneuvering, microwaving and preparing and just managed to make a bit of a meal for the children. She brought the plate to the living room. She sat it down onto the coffee table.
Kotarou looked at his meal. A bunch of pizza rolls, microwavable chimichangas, leftover steak and mashed potatoes and what was probably dango. Without much commotion he simply thanked Kotori. Kokoa made her way over to the plate of food and began eating without a word. Needless to say, she was still hungry.
As Kotarou began eating, Kotori sighed and leaned back onto the couch. "Are you okay?" Kotarou asked her.
"Yeah. I'm fine." Kotori responded.
"Are you tired?" He asked while he continued to eat.
"So very." Kotori replied.
"Why don't you sleep?"
Kotori waited a moment before replying. "I. Am afraid to sleep."
"Why?"
"Because of what's been happening to muse."
"Like my sisters?" He asked her.
"Yeah." She sighed. "Just like your sisters."
"Are you worried about getting hurt?" He continued his barrage of questions.
Kotori tried avoiding the question. "I… have no idea. I'm worried that I'm gonna wind up like your sisters and just…"
Kotarou stopped eating as he scooted closer to her. Kotori was at first a little confused, especially when he leaned against her side. "You're going to be okay Kotori-nee-chan."
Kotori felt a little flattered knowing he was a little affectionate towards her. She rubbed the top of his head. "You looked up your sister a lot didn't you?"
He nodded.
"Bet she was your favorite in muse too huh?" Kotori asked.
To her surprise, he shook his head replying no.
"What?"
Kotarou had no shame in his response. "You were my favorite." Kotori turned red when she realized his statement.
"Oh wow. Uh, thank you." She replied. She eventually returned to her normal state. She pointed to the plate that Kokoa was still eating. "If you want something, you should probably eat it now."
Kotarou ignored her and stayed leaning against Kotori. She smiled.
"Okay fine, I guess not. More food for us then." She told him.
Kotori didn't realise it, but the kid was a little stressed out from the day. He fell asleep on her side pretty quick. Hopefully, the rest of the day would go pretty smoothly.
The surviving trio made their way down the road. Hanayo struggled to walk in a straight line down the sidewalk. She was so stressed out, it was having a negative impact on her physically. Not only that, but she was tired as hell. Freddy's been constantly haunting her every thought since this whole nightmare began, and it's only been getting worst since Nico and Maki were killed.
Rin was doing everything she could to keep her in a straight line back to her house.
"Kayo-chin. Kayo-chin, you got to stay awake." Rin told her.
"I'm trying…" Hanayo weakly replied.
Rin started to think of ways to engage her, get her to stay awake. Nothing came to mind. So she went onto the next logical step. Breaking the ice.
"Hey Kayo-chin." Rin asked her. "Do you want to go out on a date?" She asked, hoping she'd get a response. As usual, Hanayo kept on walking. "You know, go hang out with the delinquents behind KFC. That be pretty fun right?"
Hanayo only sighed.
She tried a slower approach. "Maybe since you're my girlfriend now we can try… um." She was drawing a blank.
Hanayo sighed. "Just stop. I never agreed to any of that, I never want to sleep again… but I need to." Hanayo moped. "If we survive this, then pick me up and carry me around like the perfect girlfriend all you want. But until then…"
"Kayo-chin…"
"Let me die in peace." Hanayo sighed.
Honoka didn't really say anything at all. She avoided communicating just in general. Likely just to make peace with herself.
Rin groaned. "Why am i the only one with positivity of any kind left?" She asked.
"Freddy sucked it out of us." Hanayo replied. Just as she said that, her glasses finally broke in half. The rims on both sides fell off her face and she was effectively blind again. She continued to walk as if it never happened. "And I can't see." She mumbled to herself.
Rin stopped and picked up the pieces. "Wait. Kayo-chin."
"Just stop already." Hanayo replied without emotion.
"No you need to stop." The redhead replied. "This is ridiculous. You're acting like he's already won-"
"Rin." Honoka stopped her. Everyone froze as she turned around to see what muse's leader had to say. "He has won. We're down to 5 people. I'm worried Umi isn't going to make it, so make it 4."
"Honoka!" Rin tried stopping her.
"On top of that, Kotori's mom knows. So does that pedophile psychiatrist. Someone's gonna blab about Freddy. Then he's gonna get out…" Honoka paused. "Then we're gonna fall asleep. Then we're gonna die."
Rin stopped. She didn't know what to say anymore. Out of everything that's happened, she always thought that good would still triumph over evil. That in the end, Kokoro would be avenged, that Nico and Maki, Eli and Nozomi, Yukiho and Umi, that none of their deaths would be in vain. Yet Honoka was right. It was only a matter of time.
They were going to die.
Rin sighed. "I don't want to die though."
Honoka just shook her head. "Neither do I. Yet here we are."
The mood was officially dead again. Rin looked around. She was almost home. She sighed as she thought about what she was going to do next. It just kept getting more and more hopeless as time went on.
As the group came around the corner, they came upon Rin's house. "I guess welcome home Rin." Honoka told her.
"Yeah thanks…" she groaned. "Guess I'll see you two tomorrow. If we make it that far anyway?" Rin asked them as she went up to her door.
"Yeah. See you then." Honoka replied weakly.
She back around to Hanayo. "Kayo-chin?"
Hanayo barely even noticed she was being talked to. "Oh. Yeah… see you tomorrow Rin."
Rin noticed she didn't particularly seem all too enthusiastic about anything at the moment. "Alright. See ya." She didn't go back inside yet.
Hanayo Honoka began their walk to their respective homes. Rin couldn't help but feel like something shitty was about to happen. As she turned around to enter her home, she heard a voice call out. "Rin." She turned back to the source of the noise. It was Hanayo. "I love you too."
Rin's heart dropped as her mood suddenly improved. She slowly smiled. "Then I'll see you tomorrow." She replied with optimism again.
Hanayo waved her goodbye. If nothing else. She had her. As Rin finally retreated to her own house, Hanayo looked back to Honoka. "Do you think we'll make it?"
"Well… do you?" Her leader asked her. Hanayo sighed as she kept walking. "I don't know." She paused. "I don't think so."
"Hey where are you going?" Honoka asked her friend who was abandoning her.
"I'm going home. I'm certain you can find your own way home." Hanayo replied.
"Wait. Don't go." Honoka called out. She followed after her. Hanayo couldn't see where she was going anyway, Honoka didn't want to let her walk home blind as a bat. "Hanayo wait Damnit!" She grabbed her.
Pow.
Honoka's biggest mistake was grabbing her. Hanayo had spun around quickly and slapped her across the face. "Hanayo-"
"Leave me alone, I don't need your help to get home…" Hanayo replied.
She began walking on. She may not have been able to see, but she knew her way home. Honoka stood there, baffled at what just happened. Hanayo had never hit anyone before, she had never even been violent. Come to think of it, she had never really swore either.
Hanayo continued on, walking on her own back home.
A few minutes later, and Hanayo was finally home. She didn't live too far away from Rin. Probably a big contributing factor to them becoming such good friends was their proximity to one another.
She came upon her front door with little to no hope. She really didn't have any chance of making it through the night, and he she knew it. She also knew her parents weren't going to be too pleased with her getting kicked out of school, she could always lie about how it happened though. Of course, that would probably just create more problems than it would solve.
She brushed away those thoughts as she entered her house. It was rather dark and empty seeming, despite the tv being on in the other room. She began her ascent to her room.
It didn't take long until she heard someone call her name. She responded with all the enthusiasm of a rock. "What?"
"Come down here please." Her mother called for her.
Hanayo didn't care if she was sleeping right now or if this was real life. She descended back to the source of the noise. Hanayo wandered over to the kitchen where her mother was waiting.
"Yes mom?" She asked.
"What happened?" She asked her.
"With what?"
"You what. It." Her mother played the pronoun game. "You got kicked out of school?"
Hanayo couldn't really respond. She just stood there, accepting her inevitable defeat. "Mom…"
"You know what will happen when your father finds out." Her mother told her. Almost as if on cue, a car door slammed outside. Hanayo suddenly regained the ability to react and emote, and her face was terror. She turned to the noise knowing who it was. "Oh fuck. Just hide."
"Wait-"
"Just go, hurry before he gets in here." her mother tried rushing her.
Hanayo froze just long enough for the front door to come slamming open. "Hanayo!" A loud male voice echoed through the house.
She couldn't move.
Her father's attention suddenly snapped to her as he started entering the room. Her mother tried to defend her. "Calm down-"
She was grabbed faster than a bullet and shoved out of the way. Hanayo suddenly tried defending herself. "Mom. Wait dad, I can explain-" she was cut off by a pair of hands around her neck.
"Mind explaining why it is you were expelled from school?" Her father asked her.
She couldn't respond, even if she tried. She tried communicating that she could not breath by trying to release his hands. After a few more moments of the Shark Attack, she was dropped. She fell back onto the floor, stumbling around and watched as a hand came down across her face. She got sent back even further by that one than any hit she's received to date.
"No, I didn't-" another blow to her face knocked into a wall. "Stop!"
"What did you do huh? Drugs? Sleep with someone in class? Huh?" Another blow to her face. She was already turning purple from the bruises.
Her mother tried intervening again. "Stop it. You're hurting her." Before she could do anything else, he brought his fist to the side of her face so fast she dropped like a rock. Hanayo watched as her father suddenly left her alone and turned his attention to her mother.
"Shut the fuck up!" He yelled as he began curb stomping her for a few moments. When he stopped, her diaphragm stopped rising. Her hands twitched as she lay there in defeat.
Hanayo lost her ability to speak through her tears. "Mom... mom-"
Suddenly a volley of fists came down onto her. The first one instantly breaks her nose. The next one felt like it would remove her eye. She did her best to brace for a third one, but something stopped it. She could barely comprehend anything anymore. But it looked like something knocked him the fuck out.
She was quickly slipping out of reality, so much so, it seemed like it was Rin who came to save her. A pair of small and gentle hands grabbed her by the sides and tried lifting her up. She did her best to stand, but was having all kinds of trouble. Another person was trying to help her.
Hanayo didn't have her glasses anymore, so she couldn't see who it was coming to her aid, but she knew it wouldn't be bad. The two tried helping her along, but soon Hanayo dropped to her knees.
The two hands disappeared and she was left on the ground. She rolled over to her side and noticed no one was there. She tried to crawl her way out of her house and call for help, but no such luck. She made it to the door when she heard something coming down the stairs.
She turned her head to sound of the noise. "So… back again are we?" A demonic voice asked.
Hanayo went into full blown panic mode as she realized she was knocked out cold and left with him. She tried opening her door, but found it locked. "NO!"
The handle suddenly caught fire as she jumped away. Freddy's boots stopped just shy of her head.
"WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME?!" She screamed.
Freddy waved his hands as chains wrapped around her hands and feet. She was pulled up and held up for him to see.
"Some time alone with my own personal favourite idol." He told her. "In order for my grand scheme to come together, I need you my sweet Hanayo." He told her, dragging his glowing hot blades across her face.
"FUCK YOU!"
"See…" he said grabbing her face. "That's the spirit!" He enthusiastically cried as he slowly drove a blade into her temple. Hanayo screamed in pain as the blade went deeper into her cranium.
His laughs were nearly completely drowned out by her screams when suddenly. Emptiness.
Hanayo looked around. She felt smaller somehow. She looked around her living room and wondered what the hell was going on. She investigated and saw herself in her old clothes. She was a kid again. Why? Suddenly, a door opened.
"Oh Hanayo." She turned around, seeing her father. His sadistic smile.
Suddenly, she realized what this was. A dream she didn't want to have. She slowly back crawled away. This is the single most sadistic thing Freddy could have ever done to her.
Brought back an old memory, of a nightmare she had to live as a kid.
A/N. That's an interesting cliffhanger. What is it? Smart people could probably figure out in the first try.
More importantly, you've probably noticed I've been gone for a bit of time. I swear to God, I'm going to avoid letting a hiatus like that ever come up again. Almost 3 months? Fuck, I'm awesome. TL:DR, I went down to Fort Jackson.
My WordPress will probably be updated later to have a full story. Assuming I'm not too lazy after this.
Anyway.
Who's gonna bite the dust lads and gents? It's down to just a handful. What's his secret plan, find out next time.