~*~*~*~
"Usagi? Is that you?" The door clicked open quietly, cautiously, and Ikuko peered round it, eyes widening a bit at her daughter's position on the floor. "Hi, darling…" She murmured softly, pushing the door open the rest of the way and stepping inside, setting a tray down on a small table and helping her frail daughter back to her feet. "Come on sweetie, let's get you back into bed…"
Once the small blonde was settled amidst her crescent-moon patterned sheets and coverlets, her mother brought the tray she'd been carrying over to her. "Here, darling, take your pills." A variety of pills were set in front of her, along with a glass of water, and numbly Usagi placed them in her mouth one by one and swallowed. A bowl of soup was pushed towards her. "Here, baby, you eat this, and then Mommy will come back and take the tray back, alright? You just call if you need anything." Ikuko spoke as if she was talking to a much younger child, smoothing Usagi's unkempt hair before stepping away and leaving the room, closing the door quietly behind her.
"How is she?" Her husband asked solemnly, slowly closing his arms around her.
"Poor darling…She just…hasn't been the same, since Seiya died. I know the doctors say she'll recover someday…But it's been two years. When is this going to stop…When is my poor baby going to be able to live again?"
~*~*~*~
Outside the Tsukino residence, a small group of girls paused on their way home from school, just gazing silently at the house for a long moment.
"You know…" A redhead said finally, holding the skirt of her school uniform down so that the wind wouldn't blow it upwards. "I hear that she went a little crazy…After Kou-sama died." She spoke in a hushed whisper, as though the crazy Tsukino girl that lived in there could hear her.
"Yeah! I even hear she talks to herself as if he's there with her…Even when she's alone in the room." The three girls exchanged mildly frightened looks, spooked by the thought in a delicious, scare-yourself sort of way.
"Well…I heard…" The quieter of the three began awkwardly, blushing as she tugged at the vest of her uniform. "They say that she'll touch herself…As if she and Kou-sama were, well…"
The other two digested this tidbit with surprise and near-malicious glee. "Really?"
"Yes, I heard it from Shingo. He says that sometimes at night he can hear her, ano, moaning, right through the wall."
"Wow…I guess she's really crazy."
"That's what they say…" They began to walk again, falling silent and reflecting.
"She's so strange…"
~*~*~*~
Usagi listened to the hushed conversation outside her window with unnaturally sensitive ears, scoffing, stirring a spoon through her untouched soup. "They don't know what they're talking about, do they, Seiya?" She demanded angrily of her empty room. "They have no idea. They're just jealous. They are!" Slowly the door creaked open and her mother peered in, a frightened look on her face.
"Usagi…Who are you talking to?" She asked softly.
"Shut up!" The bowl of soup was flung at the door in sudden rage, fury written across the weak blonde's face. "QUIT LOOKING AT ME LIKE THAT! YOU DON'T KNOW HIM! YOU DON'T KNOW US! NOBODY UNDERSTANDS! Seiya and I love each other, and I'm tired of you standing in our way!"
Blinded with hatred, she saw only Queen Serenity, not the tired, gentle woman who'd put up with so much over the past few years, fumbling under her pillow and withdrawing a shiny metal object.
~*~*~*~
Three shots ran out, Usagi watching with grim satisfaction as the bodies of her parents and brother hit the floor one by one. Smirking, she raised the gun again, this time resting the barrel against her own temple.
"Ai shiteru, Sei-chan," She singsonged sweetly as she pulled the trigger.
"…"
Moments later, she collapsed to her knees, pressing a hand to the gushing wound in her head, recalling the words she'd heard in her last dream.
"She cannot die now, I've fixed it as such…"
Death wasn't coming. Death would never come.
She knew it, as blood ran down her hand, as she looked from prone body to prone body, as she smelled the stench of death waft slowly though the air.
"I hate you, Mother!" She screamed at the ceiling in anguish. "I hate you!"
"She just hasn't been the same since Seiya died…"
"I heard that she went a little crazy, after Kou-sama died…"
"Wow…I guess she's really crazy."
"That's what they say…""She's so strange…"
Was it all a dream, then? What in the name of God!? Was she even truly Sailor Moon, or was that all a result of her "craziness", too?! Was she really the Moon Princess? It sounded so ludicrous, suddenly…
But if it was all dreamed up, shouldn't she be dead…?
Usagi reached up and pressed her hand to the gun wound again, then pulled it away and looked at it.
…No blood…
There was no wound.
//Was it a vision, or a waking dream?
Fled is that music:—Do I wake or sleep?//
-John Keats.
…Well, that's the end, folks…*Peers around her warily* I'm sure few of you expected it. Please review, and, er…Can someone hug me? ^^:;; Chibi Angel's frightened, that's all…*Coughs* No flames, pleaaaase..