Osana's classmates have been disappearing all week. Not one by one, no, heaven forbid, but in twos and threes, before classes, during lunch, and after classes. The ginger remembers nodding a polite hello to Takamine Beshi several minutes before classes started, and then never seeing her again. Ren Juku and Daidaiyama Hana were also absent for morning classes. Lunch brought the vanishing of Zaishi Yaku and Dubidu Sukubi, and by the time everyone was dismissed from school, Hikitsuri Gaku and Atsu Daku were gone, gone without a trace.
That was Monday, and now, three students remained: Aishi Ayano, who had sunk further into her cold demeanour, Najimi Osana, a walking, twitchy mass of nerves, and Soma Riku, the drama club kid that spent most of his class time silently rocking from side to side.
Fukahori-sensei was anxious too, watching her students leave with eyes full of fear. Osana often returned the older woman's gaze, understanding her terror. She, too, feared she wouldn't return to the classroom.
The other classes were spreading rumours about Class 2-1 and actively avoiding the survivors(because that's what they were, Osana realized Wednesday night, holding back tears as she stared, wide-eyed, into the darkness) for fear of bringing a 'curse' down upon themselves and their classmates.
It was Tuesday that Ayano started sitting with the ginger during lunch, the pair not quite speaking, not quite ignoring each other, and it was Thursday that Ayano joined a very stressed Osana on a rooftop bench ten minutes before the warning bell rang, hair soaking wet, looking pleased with herself.
Thursday was the day the Basu twins were found, mutilated and haphazardly forced into a single trash bag, under the Confession Tree.
Class 2-2 entered a kind of panic, sticking together in a large clump as a sort of 'self-isolation,' refusing to converse with anyone outside of their class. Fear was- Fear was rampant in the school, and Osana was . . . Osana was sick of it.
She'd lost both of her very best friends in just under two years, both under mysterious circumstances, and . . . . well. If she snapped and someone died, it wasn't quite her fault.
(Her arms burned and her eyes ran, but it wasn't enough.)