Chapter 5: Haunted
Asuka couldn't sleep.
Maybe it was the incessant sobbing that always seemed to pervade her borrowed home. She hated it as she hated everything that reminded her of her own sadness. Maybe it was that: the pain of deep sorrow, rooted in her psyche ever since...
No, she thought. I refuse to believe that ever had any effect. I'm stronger than that. Stronger than her. This is stupid, just go to sleep.
"It's not that easy, Asuka."
The startled girl bolted upright and frantically searched the room with her eyes. Nothing. There was no one there, but that voice had been as clear as anyone's.
"I know. Silly girl. Why won't you accept the truth?"
Asuka knew that voice well. Hearing it again after so many nights of telling herself it would never return sent an icy wave of fear down through her body. It couldn't be, yet it was. As the realization set in, Asuka froze, as paralyzed as the little child she was when last they had met.
"My poor little doll."
Long lost words whisper slowly to me
Still can't find what keeps me here
When all this time I've been so hollow inside…
"No..."
Asuka was trembling now. At the foot of her bed sat a figure cloaked in a white hospital gown. Her back was turned, but even without seeing her do it Asuka knew she was cradling...it. That abomination, that little monster, that fake. The copy of her, born not of human flesh but of fear and hatred.
"Don't be afraid, Asuka. I won't let that girl hurt you." As she softly cooed those words, her finger moved in a slow arc and came to rest on Asuka, pointing like the cold hand of Death. It had much the same effect; Asuka shrunk back from the venomous barb, fatally stung.
Watching me, wanting me
I can feel you pull me down
Fearing you, loving you
I won't let you pull me down
"No...please..."
The hand came back to rest upon the doll held so tenderly, so lovingly. "Be quiet. Can't you see you're disturbing my daughter?"
"Mother...please...listen to me..."
The figure moved not.
"Please..." Tears flowed freely down Asuka's face; the sobs that shook her body grew more frequent. "Mother, just give me a chance...just hear me out, just this once..."
The figure moved not.
"Please," she continued, shaking, "I'll be a good girl. I'll do whatever you want me to do. I'll be perfect for you, mama. But please, listen to me."
The figure moved not.
"Mama," she choked, "please...please, don't ignore me! Don't leave me again!"
The figure moved, imperceptibly shifting its weight to hunch more closely toward its precious baby. "We don't need her, Asuka. We don't need anyone. We don't need to live in the same world as them. Die with me, Asuka."
"NO!"
She had heard those words spoken long ago, just days before her mother hung herself. Asuka ran in, happy to have found something to justify her existence and wanting to share it with her, but it was too late. She was dead.
She was dead.
"You...you're not alive. You're not real." Asuka's voice struggled to stay strong. "You don't exist."
"You're right. I am dead. Because of you."
"Mama...no..."
"Now join me."
A dying whisper escaped her lips. "Please...don't kill me..."
Hunting you, I can smell you…alive
Your heart pounding in my head…
"What's the matter, little girl? You said you'd do anything for me. You're a liar."
"No! That's not true! I just..."
"You deceived me. You hate me, don't you?"
"No, mother, I..."
"I don't need you anymore. I never needed you. You are nothing. Die with me!"
"No..." Her frail voice faded. "Don't do this, mama...don't kill me again..."
Watching me, wanting me
I can feel you pull me down
Saving me, raping me
Watching meThe figure finally turned to face her. As soon as it did, Asuka wished it hadn't. Its eyes were burning coals set in a skeletal mask of death and decay, searing through her own, deep into her soul. The peeled flesh surrounding its bony gash of a mouth retracted into a shrieking malicious sneer. "DIE WITH ME!"
Asuka's scream burst open her eyes to reveal darkness, blurry through her tear-streaked vision but devoid of that ghastly specter and its doll. She clutched her pillow tightly and held it close. "Mama..." she whispered to the empty room. "Please don't leave me."
Watching me, wanting me
I can feel you pull me down
Fearing you, loving you
I won't let you pull me down.