Chapter Six
By Tallulah
The sky was slowly clouding, like a bruise, and the air was thin and hot and smelt of coming rain, and the breeze was getting stronger, flicking at Mew and Indigo's hair as they stood in the street.
"What do you mean, she's gone?" Mew said. "She's part of your personality. She can't have gone."
"Well, she is. It – did something to her –"
"Oh, the monster again." Mew let go of Indigo's hand, and rubbed her palm down her dress. "You're really losing it. Your dumb lies are even scaring you now, huh?"
"Shut up. I've got better things to do than listen to you, Miyazaki."
She spoke the name like an insult, and it slapped Mew's already blistered feelings. Rage burst through her, tore out of her like she was made of paper. She grabbed Indigo's shoulders, and screamed, "You shut up! You ruined my life! You killed him! You fucking whore, you dirty evil bitch, admit it! SAY YOU DID IT!" She started to sob, the tears hot as the anger, shook Indigo back and forth. "Say it! Please say it!"
"I didn't do it!"
"You did!"
"I didn't! No. I did."
Indigo's voice had become deeper, darker, on that last sentence. Dark as blood.
Mew let go of her.
"Hah…I said so…" she said, but suddenly she was scared – this was the killer – this was an actual killer – and she'd killed Yo-Yo –
"I didn't," Indigo said, her voice shaking, her face sickly-white. "Mew – it's – it's –
"It's in my head…"
She whimpered, suddenly, a small, childish sound, and pressed a hand to her mouth.
"What do you mean, it's in your head?" Mew said.
"It's – it's watching my thoughts – it's trying to get in where Scarlet was –"
"I – I think we should get somewhere safe." Mew swallowed. She shouldn't believe this, she should tell Indigo she was nuts – which she was – but –
It's in my head –
And there was Yo-Yo's blood under her fingernails –
"Where?" Indigo whispered. "You idiot, there isn't anywhere safe."
"Okay – look, I know this is probably dumb, but do you actually have any friends? Someone who could put us up for the night, at least?"
"Us?"
"Well, I – I don't have anywhere else to go. And I don't want to be out on the streets…do you?"
Indigo watched her a moment.
"You're not my friend," she said at last.
"Uh, likewise. This is only because I don't want to be turned into chop suey, okay?"
"Okay, fine. I'll work with you for now."
"So? Where do we go?"
"Follow me."
"I don't think the others'll be happy," Kell said, chewing her lip. "They aren't exactly keen on you two, seeing as you two were around when Shar bought it. So if I put you up, you gotta keep quiet. Get it?"
"Sure. Thanks." Indigo grinned, shakily. "We'll go up onto one of the empty floors in this place, 'kay?"
"Good."
Their voices and the clack of their skates echoed through the huge warehouse as Kell led them towards a flight of metal steps going up to the nearest balcony.
"And I saw that monster. But I don't think it killed Yo-Yo. From what I heard. So if either of you even think about hurting any of my gang…" Kell turned to face them, the red light from the bar sign burning her eyes. "I know a lot about pain, and trust me, I'm happy to show you. Get it?"
Mew swallowed, and nodded.
"If I get a chance I'll try and bring you some food, but I can't promise anything." Kell led them up the stairs, their skates rattling on the metal surface. "Okay – go up the next flight, then lurk in one of the empty offices. Should be okay there."
"Why did we have to ask her?" Mew whispered as they carried on climbing steps. "She's creepy –"
"She's my friend, I trust her, she knows I'm telling the truth and she's got a huge HQ. Next question."
Mew stuck out her tongue at Indigo's back as they kept climbing. Since when did Chloe Sumner get so damn cocky?
Finally they reached the next floor, and crept off the balcony through a rotted door and into an empty office, filled with millions of dusty work stations. Most of the furniture had vanished long ago, but there were still a few battered desks and torn chairs dotted around. There was one window, narrow, running round the top of the wall, but it was so grimy the light could hardly get through, so they stood in dusk.
"Ick," Mew muttered as her skates left scratches along the dusty floor.
"Don't moan," Indigo snapped. Her teeth were gritted, and her face was oddly shiny.
"What's your problem?"
"My problem is this thing's a lot stronger than Scarlet was, and it's trying to break out, and if it does you'll be in the same position as your dead friend! Now shut up!" Indigo stormed on down the room until she reached one of the few remaining chairs, and slumped into it. "I didn't sleep too well last night. Don't disturb me."
Mew found another chair, and slammed herself into it. It creaked deeply, and she shuddered as the mildewy fabric seeped coldness through her stockings.
"If the monster's in your head," she said, "does that mean that – we're all safe as long as you can control it?"
She didn't believe in the monster – it had to be Chloe who'd done it –
But shit, it didn't matter who'd done it – what mattered was that it wasn't her –
"I don't think so," Indigo said. "It doesn't need someone to hide in. It can go on the streets itself just fine. It's still out there."
"Great."
"Sorry. Not much else I can say, is there?" Indigo turned to look at Mew. Her eyes were shadowed, and her lip pale from where she was biting it. "Why? Thought you didn't believe in the monster."
Mew swallowed, and shrugged. "Just – just wondered."
"Okay." Indigo squinted up at the window, then glanced at her watch. "Look, I know it's still early, but I'm damn tired. I want to sleep. Stop talking."
"What if it comes out of your head when you're asleep?"
"Scarlet couldn't. It shouldn't be able to either."
Indigo curled her feet up on the chair, and closed her eyes.
Mew glanced up at the window. Even through the dirt she could see it was still daylight. She couldn't sleep now. She was meant to be chilling in the garage with the others – with her friends –
Her friends who'd voted her out and told her she was a killer. No. No. She hadn't done it, she couldn't have done. She wouldn't do something like that.
The blood? The scratches?
Her knife?
"I'm not crazy," Mew whispered. "I'm not, I'm not, I didn't do it."
It's in my head –
Was that it?
The monster did exist, and had – had possessed her somehow?
It was trying to do that to Indigo –
Chloe's a liar.
But why would she lie about this?
Because she wants to hurt you.
Why?
Duh. Because she hates you for making her life a misery in school.
But – but –
She hates you. But that's okay, because you hate her, don't you? Don't you? Look at her –
Indigo sat, head resting on her curled-up knees, blue hair glinting in the dusky light. Mew stared, and felt that old irritation at Chloe flare up again. Stupid heavy ugly girl, with her scowling face and those scornful eyes. What had she called Mew? A ditzy little beauty queen? That had been ages ago, of course; when they'd first met –
Now she thinks you're the same, both rudies. But you're not, are you? You're way better than she is. She's not a proper rudie, not really, she doesn't understand about being a rudie, she's just ugly old Chloe Sumner and she shouldn't be here –
Behind Mew's eyes the world grew hotter, and the blood-darkness – and a faint echo of drumbeats – and a little girl, chanting something in a strange tongue –
The plain, spilling out around her. The scythe lies on the sandy ground, half-buried in dust. She picks it up, hefts it in her palm.
The darkness is growing thicker.
Indigo kept her eyes shut, wishing she could fall off the real world and into the darkness of sleep –
The darkness of something else, though, maybe, perhaps – that thing was all around her, clutching her head in its claws, waiting, waiting – it felt like the sea was trying to break through her skull.
How could she sleep?
Eventually she dozed. She could still feel her aching hips, jammed up against the back of the chair, and the sagginess of her tired body, but her mind was flicking through twisted images and she wasn't thinking any more, just watching them.
Scarlet lay at her feet, ripped to pieces, her cat-eyes dead as marbles. Indigo dropped down, shook her, tried to wake her up. She had to take her to school because Miyazaki was there and without Scarlet Chloe knew she couldn't face it. But Scarlet was dead. Blood was oozing out of her in little spits, over Chloe's hands.
"How could you?" she screamed. "Where are you? Damn it! Come out and fight!"
There it was. A dark figure, walking towards her from the shadows.
Chloe's brain kept twisting it into other things –
Click – a tall thing, claws tearing from its hand like branches, snickering as it bounded towards her –
Click – and the claws became a long, curved blade – Indigo's scythe – Indigo's scythe in Scarlet's bloodied hands – Scarlet giggled, her eyes glowing, her hair matted like an oil storm round her head –
Click – and it wasn't Scarlet, of course not, it was Miyazaki, her hair shiny, her school uniform spotted with blood, a pair of square-edged red sunglasses propped on her nose, and she raised the scythe and –
Indigo dived off the chair, landing heavily on the floor and the scythe blade slammed into the seat and it split.
"Mew, what the hell –" Indigo kicked out at Mew's legs, and the other girl lost her balance, her skates flew out from under her and she landed on her hands and knees, still clutching the scythe.
"Mew!"
Indigo stared into the other girl's eyes. For a moment they seemed – shinier – animal eyes – but then Mew blinked, and her eyes were normal, cute brown eyes like dark amber beads. "What? What happened?"
"You just tried to hack me to bits."
Mew stared at Indigo, then at the scythe, and then started to whimper, a low, trembling sound like an injured animal.
"That must've been what happened to your friend," Indigo said. "It's trying to get into your head, just like it is with me. Only I've had practice because of Scarlet."
"I – I –"
"Don't panic. You gotta keep your mind strong."
"Don't panic?" Mew shrieked. "Are you mad? It made me kill him! I did it! I did it – I –"
Indigo shook her, biting down a sense of smugness that Miyazaki was going to pieces like this. "So you believe it exists now?"
"I – yeah – I think –"
"You think?"
"How – how do I know you didn't make me do that just now?"
"What, have you gut me with my own scythe? I'm not that crazy."
Mew scowled, like a child. "Could have been you wanted me to think –"
"Mew, can we just get over this whole I'm-a-killer thing? You're the one who killed that guy. And I was in hospital at the time. That can be proved if you want. Now trust me."
Mew sniffed, her lip trembling now. "Why – why should I trust you? I don't like you –"
"I don't like you. And you're the one who pushed me around so I think I'm being damn nice making this offer. But it's either that or sooner or later we'll be dead."
Mew took a deep breath, and then let it out, sending her hair flickering away from her face, and picked at the lace hem on her dress for a few moments. Then she saw the blood spots on it, and shuddered, and dropped it, and looked up at Indigo.
"All right," she said. "I'll trust you."
Indigo grinned. Wow. Miyazaki was actually humbling herself here.
"Great," she said. "Look. Shall I explain where this monster came from in the first place?"
"All right."
It sat in the alley.
Its skin was torn and aching from where the girl's scythe had struck it. Too hard to attack like this. Easier to get others to do it.
The minds were spots of colour. It could see them, and it could reach into them.
One girl – her mind a cool, sharp blue – had smears of music wriggling through her brain still. You could always get in, when they'd listened.
The other one –
It held a scarlet thread in its mental hands – and it could climb up, hand over hand, into the purple mind. The scarlet writhed and twisted, trying to snap free, but it could grip until time ended.
If the indigo mind wasn't constantly pushing away. Too used to doing it, that was the problem.
But it could still keep trying.
It picked at the mind like someone chipping at a scab.
Indigo opened her mouth to speak, keeping her eyes on Mew as she did. The girl looked scared, but curious as well.
Miyazaki never looked scared. A foot sticking out as Chloe walked – a crash – the floor hit her stomach, and her lunch tray went flying – "Oops. Tripped over your big feet?"
Indigo frowned. She didn't want to dwell on the past like this. The present shit was a lot more important.
But Miyazaki was good at screwing up anything important – like the time Chloe had to give a speech on the Periodic Table – she'd sprained her wrist so couldn't sit the written exam – and Miyazaki had spent the whole time whispering and giggling and making fun of Chloe's voice – until she'd run out of the room in tears of fury and – then she couldn't remember what had happened –
But so what? This wasn't important!
"Indigo?" Mew said. "Like, can you still talk?"
"Like, were you born that ugly?"
"Like, do you have a brain in there?"
"Like, how do you get your hair to look so manky?"
That little bitch – she deserves everything she gets –
Indigo grabbed the scythe from Mew's hands, and raised it –
"No!" Desperately, she tried to open her fingers – drop the scythe – drop it –
Punish her – punish her –
This was so much worse than Scarlet had ever been – she and Scarlet were equals – this thing was hotter, darker, it would drown her in seas of lava, she couldn't fight back –
Someone slapped her, drove their elbow into her stomach, and snatched the scythe back – Miyazaki – like she'd done so many times before –
Indigo sprawled across the floor, trembling.
"It nearly got me that time," she whispered. "We have got to be careful…we have to tell the others. Your gang, and the Love Shockers, and everyone. It's probably recovering from when I spiked it – but that doesn't mean it can't do this to anyone –"
It cursed. The indigo mind had locked now. It hung like a purple bubble, sealed, ready, watchful.
The blue mind was a possibility. But it was ready now too – frightened, but aware –
There were others. Other rudies had heard that music when it had been played. Two black minds had sat with the blue mind and listened – it could enter there –
But wait –
Footsteps outside the alleyway – footsteps from another mind. A dustier blue here. Emotions. Worry. Anger. Misery.
Weak feelings made this sort of thing easier.
It eased itself forward, the cut from the scythe sharp as it moved.
"Mew? Mew, you out here?"
Tab sighed. He'd been all round Tokyo-to, and there was no sign of her. Where could she have gone?
He'd asked the Noise Tanks – Mew's old gang – and they hadn't seen her. Surely she'd have gone back to them once she'd been kicked out? Or maybe she was frightened they'd hate her too, especially with one of their own members dead. Anyway, there'd been no sign of her in Benten-cho.
And he'd searched Kogane, and called in a favour from a Poison Jammer pal, and they hadn't seen her. They hadn't kidnapped her or chased her or even noticed her passing. And with the Poison Jammers' obsession with kidnapping beautiful women, she couldn't be there.
He hadn't asked the Love Shockers yet. He wasn't sure if he wanted to; they tended to look evil at anyone with a Y chromosome, i.e. him. But if Mew was in trouble –
Of course, there was the other possibility. That she'd run into – the other thing. The killer.
Oh, Mew…
That couldn't have happened. It couldn't. Mew couldn't be dead – Mew –
Okay, so he was getting a crush on Mew. At any other time he would have snickered at himself, but now the warm, sappy feelings swirling around him were just spurring him on – she had to be alive because people you were sappy about didn't die – they were warm and their skin pulsed with blood and they smiled and you went shivery –
He'd find Mew because she was wonderful and he had to find her. She was so sweet…so gentle…
Oh, is she?
Of course she is, he answered his mind. Why wouldn't she be?
His mind shrugged, and muttered several names. Ryu. Ken. Sam. Matt.
Tab glowered. Those jerks had made his life a misery all through school. But so what? What did they have to do with anything any more?
Ryu stuck out a foot, and sent him sprawling across the ground, the books in his arms flung away from him, the spines cracking –
And Mew giggled. "You're such a klutz. Tripped over your own flat feet, huh?"
What?
Tab froze.
Mew had never been there. What – how – how –
She's just like them.
He saw her, sitting at the back of the classroom, the sun falling onto her pretty face, passing notes round the desks, snickering, and he knew they were about him, and his face started to burn, hot damp blushing – and they saw, and laughed, and Sam poked him in the back and said, "What's with you? Got a crush on her?"
But that hadn't been about Mew! That had been some other girl!
But she did it to other people. She's just as bad as them.
"No she isn't!"
He'd yelled it, and his hands were fists and the bones ached from the anger squashing them.
Yes she is. Watch…
It slowly inched into the blue girl's mind, and took her memories, and breathed them out into the thick, stormy air, and they oozed into the other mind and the pain and confusion in it grew stronger –
"Chloe-chan! Wow, you actually look nice today!"
"Oops, did I trip you up?"
"Don't talk back to me, you're such a freak."
"Hey everyone, Chloe fancies Jyou! Chloe wants a boyfriend! Hah, fat chance –"
Mew's face, shining with cruelty, giggling, her mouth sharp, her eyes wide with joy –
Tab knew that sort of face, he'd hated it with every cell in his skinny, beaten-up body until one day he'd snapped and covered the school with tags and quit and ran out onto hot Shibuya streets –
"Mew…"
He'd hated it –
But he liked her – Mew –
A killer. Someone who does that can do anything. Keep looking, but when you find her you can smash her head in like you wanted to do to those guys all those years ago, huh, Taro? It'll be fun…
"Mew…"
He stumbled on down the street. The sky was rumpled and grey. There was a storm coming.