Repairing a Broken Soul

Chapter 21: Absent Gunshots

"They 'are' your friends right?"

"...Why do you only trust 'me' with your secret?"

Why didn't my alarm go off?

Shouldn't it have gone off by now? Or was it still night time? I opened my eyes and looked at my window to see that there was sunlight shinning through. It was Thursday…so my alarm should have gone off at six. Was the sun just out early? I rolled over and looked at my clock. "What the hell?!" I then yelped; sitting up. My clock was off! Unplugged from the wall, the screen, black!...So I poked it. Then I pressed the snooze button. But nothing happened—nothing at all. Slightly panicked, I searched for my cell phone. But if luck should have it, I couldn't find it anywhere nearby. So I looked out the window again and located the sun. It was high in the sky, just about in the middle. The placement of the star told me that it was about…"12:00?!" I gasped; jumping off the bed. I ran over to my door, opened it, and began storming over to Soul's room to wake him up since that was usually my job.

"I'm not in there at the moment."

I stopped near the dining table and looked left. Soul was…cooking? He was even wearing the apron he'd usually wear for kitchen things. I couldn't tell what he was making since he had his back to me. But I could smell bacon. Why was he making bacon at 12:00 in the afternoon? We were supposed to be in school! And he's standing there making…'bacon'?! "Sorry." I heard him say as he looked over his shoulder. "I unplugged your alarm clock earlier." He then said. My eye twitched slightly. He did 'what'?! "I thought that you needed more rest and thought it'd be best if we relaxed today" He set some pieces on a plate beside him, set the spatula down, and turned around; whiping his hands on his apron. I just looked at him with wide green eyes. We…weren't going to school?

"You mean we're…absent?"

"Huh?" Soul's crossed arms dropped to his side and he tilted his head slightly. "Absent? From school?" He then asked me. I nodded; still wide eyed. "Oh…yeah. There was school today." He said; glancing at the calendar to make sure he was right. "Yeah…today's Thursday. School is defiantly—"

"We skipped school?!" I shouted with my hands up high. He only looked at me with a lazy stare as my hands dropped back down. "Soul! I love school! How could you do this?!" He stood up straight, since he was leaning on the counter, and turned to tend to the bacon he had left on the pan. So I began walking over as he mumbled something about burning it, and slammed my hand on the counter next to his hand; causing him to take it away in fear that I had almost hit it. "Soul, I have never in my life, been absent from school. This is a huge deal for me. Maybe we can still get there and just be late!"

Soul never even looked at me. But he tapped my shoulder with his free hand. "You need to cool off." He muttered; keeping his crimson eyes on the bacon. "Every thing's fine Maka." He then said before looking at me. "I called us both in sick. So it's an excused absence." I opened my mouth argue again. But he held his right hand up and in my face to shut me up. He then looked at me with his not so usual thin and sweet—oddly enough—grin, though stopped to look at something else. That thing…was my hair. Part of my bangs was sticking up in a very bed headed manor. "Uh…go fix your hair while you wait, why don't you?"

"Fine." I said as I reached up to brush my hair down. He smiled again, but not as sweetly, and turned to keep cooking. I stood there for a moment to look at him and decided to stall. "Did you take your medicine?" I asked him after the moment I decided to use to watch him cook. Soul nodded and with his free hand and—still watching the food—poked my forehead just enough to push me back a little. "Right, right…the hair. Gotcha." I stumbled over to the bathroom and picked up my brush to comb through my sandy blond hair. And just as I struggled to keep my bangs down, I heard Soul's voice again.

"Do we have eggs?"

I peeked out of the bathroom and saw him looking over from the opened fridge. "I don't think so…" I told him before spotting the piece of bangs that sprang up and away from my forehead. "If we did, they'd be on the bottom shelf." I then said. He knelt down to search the bottom shelf as I used my fingers to mess with my bangs. That damned strand wouldn't stay down. I saw him look back over and shake his head. "Well then, we have no eggs."

"Damn." Soul cursed; standing up and shutting the fridge. "I can't make that recipe without eggs…" I lifted a brow as he shut off the stove and walked over to the coat rack where one of his older jackets hung. He untied the apron from the back, hung it, and then took the gray jacket before looking at me. "I'm going down to the market to get some. I'll be back in a bit."

"Oh…ok…" I breathed out before watching him leave. He didn't have his bike because of the night before. But the market wasn't too far away. He could easily get there, buy what he needed, and come back all in maybe fifteen or twenty minutes. So that gave me some time alone. 'I should use this time to get ready for school.' I thought as I left the bathroom. I walked into my room and opened my closet. Soul was already dressed, so if I was ready before he got back, I could drag him out the door and get to school just before third period ended.

"Meow~"

I looked over to the doorway and saw that Blair was trying to get my attention. "Oh, Blair have you been fed today?" I then asked her; realizing that Soul may have forgotten to do so. She went ahead and meowed again before turning to leave the doorway. I wasn't sure if that meant she hadn't or was, so I peeked out the door and eyed her food bowl by Soul's bedroom door. There was food in it, so Soul did his job. Most of the time I'd have to remind him. Or sometimes, Blair would be the one to remind him. As long as he lived in this apartment, Blair was his cat too.

I stepped back into my room and shut the door so I could have my privacy. Even if no one but the cat was here with me. I slipped out of my pajamas and put on a casual beige shirt and put a yellow sweater vest over it. But then I stopped to think. Was it skirt weather outside that day, or was it pants weather? I didn't want to put on a skirt and then step out into the freezing cold. So, looked out my window and eyed a few people on the street. Once a couple rounded a corner, I opened the window just enough to stick my arm out and feel.

"Oh, that's perfect skirt weather!"

I pulled my hand back inside, left the window open and hopped odd my bed. I landed right next to my dresser and opened the middle drawer to reveal my different pairs of skirts and shorts. I then pulled out my favorite plaid skirt that I hadn't worn since the first day at Shibusen, and put it on before shutting the drawer. I then walked over to my closet and knelt down to look at my shoes. The pair I liked to wear with the outfit I had on was my black boots with white straps. They didn't really match, but they looked good anyway.

I grabbed the boots and set them down next to my bedroom door. I was just going to slip them on once Soul got home. I didn't feel like wearing them while I waited. "Now…for my hair…" After stepping over to my desk, I sat down in the chair to stare into the mirror behind it. I wanted to do something different. Maybe wear my hair in a different way. I glanced down and pulled out the desk drawer to see many papers, a few hair ties, some clips, and an envelope—the same envelope I'd been hiding from Soul for the past three days.

Catching myself reaching for the letter, I stopped and grabbed a pair of hair ties that lied beside it. 'I don't even 'want' to know what that letter says…' I then thought; looking at myself in the mirror again. I tilted my head to the side, tugged on a chunk of hair, and then looked at the hair ties in my hand. 'I haven't worn my hair in pigtails in a long time…so long that Soul and the gang have never seen me with them. Well…beside's Black*Star…'

That's when I decided. I decided to put my hair up in twin pony tails like I used to. "Just for today…" I said to myself; shutting the drawer and all its contents—including the letter—out of my sight. I then set the hair ties on the desk top so I could comb my hair out. I eventually separated my hair from the back and grabbed one tie. I used it to wrap one side and pulled to tighten. Half my head was dressed up now and I looked incredibly stupid. So I used the other to tie the other side of my hair up. Then I fixed both pigtails to be…well…symmetrical so I wouldn't freak Kid out.

I looked like I was in elementary school again and I almost considered taking them down. But I decided not to, and looked away. I looked at a picture in a frame that was standing on my dresser. It was next to a few others. At the beach, we all took pictures of each other and the one I was looking at was one of Soul and I. It was when we had both fallen asleep on the same towel under Tsubaki's umbrella after a long day. I couldn't remember who took the picture. But I was sure it was either Liz or Patty.

Next to that one was a picture of Tsubaki and I. We had found a huge rock in the middle of the shoulder deep section of the ocean waters. Soul took the picture I believe. He was way over on the beach though, so you could barely tell what exactly he was taking a picture of. He could have been taking a picture of the ocean and the sunset, and just got us in the photo too. Or he could have taken a picture of us with the sunset in the background. The picture on the other side was a photo I took. Black*Star was hanging in a palm tree with his usual goofy grin while Tsubaki, in the bottom left corner, was making a slightly ashamed expression.

We took a ton of pictures. But I didn't have enough frames to make them all pretty. So I chose my favorites. Kid and the sisters were next on the frame list…I swear!

Outside the window I heard something that sounded like a garbage can getting knocked over; causing me to snap out of my daze and look over. "Ugh…raccoons maybe." I then muttered to myself; standing up and crawling across the bed to slide the window shut. It was either a raccoon or someone just looking for "treasure" in the garbage. Or someone was screwing around in the ally and accidently knocked the cans over. But that wasn't my thought after the next sound. It was a gunshot…echoing throughout the street and into my apartment, even when the window was shut.

"What the?!" I gasped as I spun around and looked out my window again. I didn't see anything in any visible alleyways. The only two I didn't see were the ones beside my apartment building. As I ran out of my room, I was beginning to think that it may have been Liz or Patty since they had to "protect" there territory. Someone suspicious could have been around and they just shot. Slamming the front door open, I charged out and began running down the stairs. Not even slowing down once, until I hit the bottom and stood im the entrance of the alleyway that was once Liz and Patty's turf. I looked around for anyone with a gun, or anyone hiding something suspiciously. I then stepped forward and with bare feet and, with my heart racing, I stepped on something liquidly and gross feeling. At first I thought it was blood and I could sense my heart racing even faster. My eyes slowly looked down to see what it was and I lifted my foot and saw exactly what it was I had stepped on.

"A-An egg?" I asked myself before looking around again. Broken eggs were lying almost everywhere on the ground nearby a plastic grocery bag. My eyes widened in fear. That gunshot…the eggs…and the letter. It all added up! Someone had shot Soul! And then they kidnapped him! My pupils began to shake at the thoughts. He was alone…and the person who killed his family took him! "I should have gone with him! I should have gone with him!" Shaking my head, I turned around to run up the stairs and call someone to help. But I stopped just as I was facing the other direction. He wasn't kidnapped like I thought…and he wasn't shot either. He was just sitting down on the ground and leaning on the alley wall; staring at the wall on the other side with wide, shocked and yet still lifeless crimson eyes.

"Soul?"

Stepping over a couple more broken eggs, I made my way over and knelt down beside him. I then set a hand on his shoulder and shook him a bit. Blinking, he came out of his daze and looked at me without moving his head too much. "Oh…it's Maka…" He then whispered mostly to himself. His eyes then fell to the ground. "I dropped the eggs…waste of money huh?"

"Soul what happened out here?" I asked him; eyeing the fallen garbage can next to him. So that sound that I heard before the gunshot was him getting attacked… "I-I heard a gunshot Soul!" I gasped. "Are you ok? What happened?" Soul blinked again and rose his head to look at the garbage can for a moment. He then looked at the sidewalk and pointed with a shaking finger. I followed his finger to where he was pointing and saw that it was just the area that he was pointing at, not a specific thing.

"There…" Soul began. "Someone attacked me right there." He dropped his hand and looked at the garbage again. "They pushed me into this can and pointed a gun in my face…but they didn't say a word." I looked at him as his eyes narrowed. "They shot the gun…though even at the close range, they missed me and ran off. They were wearing a hood so I didn't see their face…but the way they held that gun, I could tell it was a woman." His eyes began to shake like mine had only moments before. "The same hands…as…as 'her's' …the one who killed…"

As his voice began to choke up, I set a hand on his shoulder. "Soul…just breath ok." I then said; receiving a small nod in response. I was surprised though, on how well he was taking the situation and how well he was keeping his cool. But once I saw his eyes begin to shake I knew he was afraid for his life when the moment had happened. And when his voice began to choke up at the mention of his parents, I knew that if I wasn't careful, he could snap at any moment. "I-I'm going to look around—" I began to stand but he reached up and grabbed my hand.

"No don't." Soul said after doing so. "Don't even worry about it…I'm sure she's long gone by now." He used the wall and my hand to help himself stand and stepped away from the garbage can. "I never got to see her face…even during that night. All I saw was her shadow…all I heard was her demonic and twisted laugh…" His voice had turned into a growl. "Even if you were to go search for her…you'd never find her…"

"Yeah but—"

"Maka…"

My mouth snapped shut and I looked down in defeat. He hadn't faced me that whole time, but I could tell he was angry by the way his arms and fists were shaking. My eyes narrowed sadly at this and I kept my eyes on the ground. The Evans Family Murderer was still around…the rumors were actually true. Soul could have been killed and all I was doing was sitting around in my room and messing with my hair. That thought…made me want to cry…

"Hey, you should wear your hair like that more often." Soul said; causing me to look up from the ground. He was looking my way now, holding the garbage that once was a dozen eggs, a plastic bag and an egg carton. "It looks nice…really fits you." He then told me with a small, but very noticeable, grin; causing me to blush furiously. I stuttered out a "thank you" and with one last toss into the garbage, he set his hands in his pockets. "How 'bout we go out to lunch…" he then said. "The eggs are already ruined, I don't really have time to go back to the market either…I mean, by the time we'd go get them, come back and cook them, it'd be way past lunch time. It's already past lunch now…" I smiled as if he had just asked me out on a date.

"How about that café down the street?"

DISCLAIMER! Soul Eater does not belong to me...if it did, Soul would have attacked Maka and smothered her in "Cool Guy" love by now