iv. dear catastrophe waitress

***

I'm sorry that you seem to have the weight of the world over you
I cherish your smile
there's a word of peace on your lips
say it, and with tenderness I'll cherish you

***

They were worried that she was sick, but in an odd burst of academic fervor she had insisted on going to school that day, and had thrown on her uniform, skipping break feast so she would get there on time. A friend met her on the way, slowing her down.

They walked together, the perfect picture of schoolgirl friendship. Arm in arm, Edith (for that was the girl's name) pulled Nakuru along, yammering on about her latest family fiasco as Nakuru pretended to listen, nodding now and then, to establish her mode as "friend".

Edith's bouncy blonde curls bobbed along as the shorter girl moaned about her boyfriend, her mother, her cat...Nakuru tuned her out, instead, concentrating on just what the hell had happened last night.

It was no use. She couldn't puzzle out the Mystery of What Happened to Sakura and Tomoyo (as she had dubbed it), plus, her brain hurt; it was seven in the morning, afterall. So she skipped along with Edith, who had the annoying habit of calling her "Nikki" and wearing too much of that awful cloying perfume.

Her shoe had a pebble in it. "Just a minute," she told Edith, who nodded and waved over a few other girls and began to giggle and gossip.

Nakuru took her ugly brown loafer off, examining the inside. Ah, there it was. She flicked the small shard of rock out, and began to out her shoe back on...

What was that?

Nakuru knelt down again. The wires...something was dripping out from under the great mass of wires that the school was going to use to install the new computers that day. Sluggishly, it trickled out, until at least a few cups worth of the odd liquid was on the ground.

It was a deep red, Nakuru realized. Thick, and it stunk, like that rotting, decomposing sheep skin she had found last summer out in the fields...Oh god.

The wires were...they were...they were bleeding.

It sounded stupid, some rational part in Nakuru's mind whispered, but it wasn't at all...It was frightening, and it was just...there, god, why wasn't anyone else noticing this? Oh god oh god...had there been a murder? Nakuru tried to whip her head around, but her muscles had frozen and she couldn't move...

Slowly, the...the blood, for that's what it was (no use denying it), began to...well, in all honesty, it began to spell something...

Nakuru hadn't read kanji since forever (at least that's what it felt like), so it took her a few seconds to realize what the message said. Horrified, she slowly read the message...

Do you remember me?

Nakuru grabbed Edith's leg. Annoyed, Edith glanced down, disdain painted delicately on her features. "What is it?" she said crossly, and Nakuru pointed, hysterical...oh, god, why didn't she see it? It was right there, right in front of them...of course, Edith wouldn't have been able to read it, but the fact of the matter was that the wires were bleeding, and they had spelled something out. What was wrong with Edith and the other girls?

"Nikki," Edith said slowly, "Are you okay?" Her eyes were tinged with worry and...was that fear?

Nakuru jumped up, grabbing on to the blonde's shoulders and shaking them. "Don't you see it?!" she screamed, pointing to the blood. "Isn't it obvious? Oh god oh god," she began to wring her hands, "what if someone was murdered? We have to call the police!" she screamed at Edith, tears streaming down her face.

Edith knelt down, examining the hard gray concrete that Nakuru was pointing at. "I don't see anything," she said, confused, running her finger through the blood. "Nikki, there's nothing there!"

But Nakuru was running away now, running back to the direction of Eriol's home. She had left her brown knapsack on the ground, and the blood was seeping into it.

***

I'm sorry if the kids hold you in cool disregard
I know it's hard
Stick to what you know
You'll blow them all to the wall

Kaho set her teacup down. "Eriol," she said, her tear-stained face pale, "this can't be a coincidence."

Eriol was sitting on a pale blue and icy white patterned chair, his glasses glinting as the sun reflected off of them as he stared out of the large window in the drawing room. "I know," he said finally, his head slumping down as he removed his glasses and began to carefully polish them. "But I have no idea where she could be."

Kaho sniffed. "Was it...was it something we did, do you think?" She clutched the delicate porcelain teacup to her chest, her long fingers wrapped around it in the protective fashion a mother might guard her child.

Eriol looked up. "I..." he said, his voice fading away. He inhaled sharply. "I have no idea."

As these words were exchanged, the guardian in question was running through the thick green forest. Thin lines of blood decorated her legs, courtesy of the multiple pricker bushes she had ran through, and her shoes would never be the same. All over her uniform where smears of mud, and she had lost half of her tie a long time ago.

The image of the bloody writing would not leave her mind. Closing her eyes, she tripped over a large branch, and fell down into a large patch of mud.

"Damn it," she whispered pitifully. Brightly, she remembered that she had a few of those clean wipe things in her pocket, and her hand dove into it, grabbing one of them.

Happily, she opened it.

She screamed, flinging it down to the mud, grinding it under her shoe as she hurriedly stood up and ran as fast as she could, away from that thing.Written in a thin script, in an ink so red it could be mistaken for blood (or maybe it was?), was Do you remember me?

***

You'll soon be leaving this town to the clowns who worship
no one but themselves
no one but themselves

Edith sat at the wooden desk she normally shared with Nikki (their school was just so old-fashioned), head in hands, pen dangling from her lower lip as she chewed it. She was incredibly bored.

Patricia, the giggling, dumb princess of the school, walked up, and asked, "Hey, Edith, were's Nikki?"

"Huh?" Edith said. "Nikki who?"

***

You'll blow them all to the wall
when they realize what you've been working for
you've been working for
you've been working for

***

If that last part seemed confusing to you, don't worry. It's going to be an important plot point later on (oh dear, I'm giving away my story!) Anyway. I was watching Serial Experiments Lain before I wrote this, so...it may seem Lain-ish. Actually, it is Lain-ish. At least, that's what it's like to me.

As always (I'm beginning to sound like a broken record, aren't I?), please review!