Two days. It was all they had left. Two days. Since Jason already claimed the night before for themselves, Mallie claimed the night after that. It was as if they were children again.
Just a nice sleepover between best friends. That's what Mallie wanted to believe. That it was just a good old time, like any other... But she knew the real reason she was here. She knew because she had saw it with her own eyes a year before. In two days Francine will die, or the world will end and everyone will die. To Mallie, it was the last time she'd truly have her best friend.
She watched as Francine chatted, as if nothing was wrong, Mallie was only half listening though. She remembered Yahmada's advice. To be nice, to not fight with her or think of what's to come. We just don't have the time for it anymore.
Mallie looked to her best friend and asked politely, running her fingers through her hair.
"Francine do you have a hair pin I could borrow?"
"I think so, hold on."
As Francine rummaged through her drawer, her hand closed around something else. A key. She took it out and looked at it then to her Music box, quickly she turned it upside down where the secret compartment was hidden inside. She opened it and found three pictures inside.
"Oh my god... Mallie look! The Phantom pictures!"
"From when we were kids?" Mallie raised an eyebrow curious.
"Yeah, here, I'll show you."
Francine sat beside her best friend on the bed and they looked at the pictures, one of Hannah with two eyes, another of Sebastian dusting while Ciel stood near him holding a little girl who once had been Francine. And the last one, of Mallie sitting on a bannister, Francine in the picture beside her, both of them wearing nearly the same outfit.
Mallie stared at the younger versions of Francine as all their memories came back to her. Her best friend.
"All our little adventures, our fun days together. Every last minute of our lives... Looking back... We took them for granted..." Mallie's eyes filled with tears. Francine knew what was coming next.
"Mal..."
"Francine, I don't want you to die!"
"Oh for heaven's sake, I'm not going to die! There's always a loophole in everything. I'll find it. I will be fine and the world will be f-"
"Francine, don't talk to me like I'm a child afraid of a simple nightmare, you and I saw the world end with our own eyes! The day after tomorrow either you die or the world dies! Don't you DARE expect me to be calm when any which way we look at this... I lose my best friend..."
"Mallie. I am not going to-"
"People are falling dead left and right! It hasn't stopped raining for a week! Francine... Francine I'm so scared!"
Francine held her frightened friend closely as she wept.
"I'm scared too, Mallie. But everything will be fine. I'm not planning on dying."
"No one plans to die, Francine..." Mallie whispered as she clung to her lifelong friend. Francine was glad that Mallie couldn't see the fear and tears in her own eyes as she hugged tighter.
"I suppose you're right, Mallie Faustus."
They turned out the light and Mallie continued to cry to her friend. They both knew attempting to pretend that it was another day, like the ones in the pictures, was completely pointless. This could be their last night before the end. And there was no way that could be celebrated. Francine knew that as she listened to her friend cry and the music play.