Chapter 24

Sonoko held the eyes closed for long seconds. The cold, sharp air lashed to her face, but she did not have time for fear, all she felt was awkward rolling in the stomach and the fast beating heart. Whoa, felt like it moved into my neck! Not to mention the skirt, which one did a wild dance around her waist.

'Who cares, that my skirt is around my neck or I'm chilled to the bone! Oh, God, let me survive this in one piece!'

To be honest: floating in the air, like you would be in the unending space could be quite depressing, when you can have only one thought: death.

After a long falling, came the big splash! The impact felt like thousands of pinpricks, far worse than falling into a huge carpet filled with broken glass-shards. The reason of that was a small lake at the bottom of the abyss - the two kids had fallen into it's water.

'Well, it could have been worse... maybe if I had time to remember... making the form of a ball would have saved my skin to get red and my arms and legs to get hurt...'

These swirled in Sonoko's mind, while she was trying to reach surface. She was average in swimming, but this time had easier job with the help of the ascensional power of the water.

So she reached surface within a few seconds, then she could see clearly again. This cold shower seemed refreshing to her whole body and senses.

And now Sonoko caught sight of Riki at the lake-shore, the boy was currently shaking the water out of his sneakers.

"It feels good to have a bath finally, I know. But you can come out now." said Riki in a monotonic voice, without taking a glance at the other.

Sonoko obeyed him without any words and was on the point to swim out of the lake. But as she reached the edge... she could go on shore, but it was too high and steep. The soil was covered by sharp stones and everything looked so wet and muddied. So the girl had to stop and think out something; and that was the minute, when Riki stepped up to the lake-shore and helped her out.

"Oh, thank you." nodded the girl a bit shyly, in the minute she knew herself out of the water.

"I have never believed that we'll survive this action with Kinji."

Now it was her turn to shake the water out of her shoes and clothes, just like Riki did before.

Riki just shrugged the shoulders for an answer and remained in one place.

'Oh, boy... He's a sparer again... last time I lived in Japan, words were free for the present.'

As the circumstances calmed down a bit, Sonoko felt her body as cold as she would be dead by now. This feeling was a sudden coming one, but also that enduring. Really, they were standing right in the middle of an unknown forest, completely drenched and to top it all, the wind started to blew stronger than before.

'It's a wonder we aren't sick already... Catching the good old cold... would be like a punch in the face in the press of such game...'

Not only that, something was still missing.

"Rumiko!" Sonoko shouted as she woke up to that reason.

"Where's Rumiko? We've left her behind!" She looked around immediately and searched for a way to go back, up to the top, back to the mansion to find the third member of their trio. If there would be but one road upwards - unfortunately, she did not find any. They both could obviously see the bare, rocky hill, which stood in one place like a huge, unshakable fortress.

"We have to go back!" Sonoko was not the type, who gave up so easily. She turned unto Riki and said to him. "We can't let Rumiko to be Kinji's victim!"

Sonoko was so eager to help her best friend, that she did not feel cold anymore. Moreover, she stood confused and her thoughts were prancing in her head like butterflies.

As the girl paced up and down for a whole minute, Riki had enough fast.

"Calm down, okay?!" he shouted at Sonoko, Who severely attacked back.

"You say it, the one who doesn't have friends to fight for!"

And now it was said out. Sonoko would willingly take it back, if it was not too late. After these words were out, she realized only then, that maybe… this statement was quite rough.

'And this is the way to thank him, why he did not leave you in shit and saved your ass, huh? Good show, girl!'

Riki could do all the opposite of these doings after all.

'And that's the second time you hurt him!'

Not enough, that Sonoko lied to him about pair-game and now she had preconceptions against the boy. What, if lying had not been necessary and Riki had joined them, because the girls saved his life?

'I bet you noticed, he started to accept you and Rumiko. This lone wolf finally had his pack.'

Sonoko felt very cheap, like she committed something irremissible. Was she too proud? Or too coward? In any way soever, she could not order her mouth to say at least a silent apology or something. Just waited for the other's reaction, just like she did not dare to look into Riki's eyes. When Riki started speaking - against what she expected - he did not act belligerently at all.

"You have to understand! When we go back to the mansion, my brother kills both of us." he was not that friendly either, only a kind of a raw fact. And what is more: Riki said 'us', not 'you'.

'Lucky bastard! He wants you to be by his side! Don't screw up again, idiot!'

"Rumiko would want the same." Riki added that a bit more gently.

Unfortunately, this comfort had no effect for the girl. She felt even more guilt, than ever. And Riki was speaking of Rumiko, like she would have been already dead. Knowing this possibility, Sonoko became shattered, felt like being lost in a huge, endless space in her heart.

That was the minute, when she had enough of everything - including her classmate, like he would be the person, who killed Rumiko with his words.

She wanted to shout into the boy's face immediately: Since when are you such a wise-guy?!

But instead of that she said another thing aloud:

"I'm impressed, that you are willing to comfort people."

"Why? 'Cause I'm a fucking robot with zero percent emotion?" asked Riki back primly and cool.

Sonoko held her tongue and swallowed her next coming thoughts.

'That was my last chance, wasn't it? Why can't I just sink like a ship in the ocean? Knowing that this one here hates me and I have to work together with him...'

What could she do? Sonoko just went after the boy, who set forth into the deep forest without turning back.

"Sonoko!" The called one lost in her mind for a while, now she returned to the reality for the voice of the other.

"Sonoko!"

"What?" she asked.

"Hurry up! Or, you don't wanna come?" she heard Riki not far from her, but the boy remained in the cloaking of green leaves and bushes.

Was that Sonoko's new chance? Maybe Riki was not that angry, when he was talking to her. Or does him? The far idea of a trap floated over Sonoko's head like Damocles' legendary swords. The girl shook her head. How can she ever trust if she had nothing, but such dark thoughts? So she stopped wondering and ran after her mate, while she decided: the best thing to put all her proud and every discontent aside, the time has come to make a clean breast of their common affair. Last time Sonoko did such thing, when she found herself in a friend triangle of Amika-Rena and herself and she tried to explain both of them, that she has one best friend by now: and this was Rena.

The girl barely caught up with Riki, immediately started speaking with one breath:

"Look, I feel terrible and you have to know, that I didn't want to lie about the pair game and others, I just thought... you know, I'm always very cautious and I feared that you might attack us in our back, no matter that we helped you... remember your action after the first solo-SMS... so... I really appreciate your efforts, that you try to save me and..."

Riki stopped with a sudden movement and took a look at her puzzled face. That was the time, when the girl could not continue speaking. All the words were just part of her skimble-skamble speech. Sonoko fell her eyes and turned crimson.

"I just... my goal is not to hurt you every time... I want to make my things good somehow... and..." words were coming pretty slowly when required.

"If you agree of course..."

She really did not understand, why she was doing this. Riki was a complete stranger, they did not ever changed a word this far since their common classmate years. They were not in the same social stratum anyway. Sonoko could say as a middle-class: we have, what we need but nothing more - oppositely with Riki, who was born into the world of luxury and rolling in wealth - the world is mine for a flick! Sonoko was sure, that only Emperor Yoshiro and the members of the Shogunate were bigger than Riki's family. That tradition was still alive in the Empire of the Rising Sun, that people in different social level isolated themselves from each other and lived their lives like the other group would have never existed.

Back in the forest...

Riki remained silent. Again. As a sign, that he heard Sonoko but ignored the talk he heightened the pace of walking. But the girl was a hobby athlete, made a one-hour-running every day and was also a member of the school's girl football team (many people said, that she can handle the ball, like few of the boys there). That's why Riki's attempt to leave Sonoko a bit behind, failed.

"And if we dwell on this topic a bit more... why did you save me at the mansion, even though you wanted to kill me right at the start?" asked the girl persistently.

Riki groaned and shook his head. If there would be daytime, the other could see a small, pink flush on his face, but as the night ruled the sky at the moment, Sonoko sensed only one thing. Riki stopped and she noticed that too late. The encounter was inevitable.

"Do you know the saying, that beggars cannot be choosers?" Riki suddenly asked, like nothing had happened.

"Er... yes..." came the answer.

"So don't be a chooser!"

"But what would you think in my place?" Sonoko held on."You would find this change also suspicious, or not?"

"You know what? If I knew before, that you are such a tattler, I would have left you in that mansion." growled the boy - mainly to himself - but Sonoko heard that.

"Really?" she laughed "because you didn't have any opportunity to listening my 'tattlery' before, right?"

Then she changed voice.

"Seriously, why did you save me?"

"Don't think I did it, because I sympathize with you or something. I saved you, 'cause..."

Riki took a short pause, then finally said out.

"I want you to owe me again. That's why. I like, when people owe me." no matter, how much he was trying to hide the smile on his face, Sonoko saw it.

"Look at that! You smile!"

During this conversation, they continued walking.

"Ooh, Mr.. Pokerface-robot is smiling. What a sensation." said the boy ironically.

"No!" Sonoko explained immediately, how she meant "You look good with that. Thus you're not so sour and unpleasant."

It was maybe the effect of nighttime, that she said out things so openly. Riki took on his 'I'm deathly serious' mask for an answer, after that, he tried to make a more stern face, as serious he just could. This was the way they were coming along. Wordless, everybody in their own mind.

Like nothing happened, Sonoko realized, how much tired she was. She did not sleep a minute since yesterday and ate very few, so the hunger greeted her stomach like a distant and unwelcome relative. Always running, always watching. And the cold water on her clothes, on her bare skin felt really cold. There was something in the lungs, too, probably the sign of an upcoming illness. Her feet were moving, like they would belong to another creature.

Sonoko did not have the clue, where will be their destination or how long were they going; and to be honest, her lips were to tired to open up and ask.

She had not got many energy left, and those she used to walk like a zombie. She could barely keep the eyes open and use the ears to listen to the noise in the background.

The girl want only a soft, warm bed.

This game... killing each other... Kinji's attack... Rumiko is missing... bullshit.

'She can't die, Iku is taking care of her, in every minute of every hours. As Lyx does the same with me. Our angels know: we die together or we're both going to escape!'

But after an unknown amount of time, they still were still on the move. Only trees, bushes and thicket from every direction: in front of them, behind them, on the left and on the right. It was extremely boring and tiring.

'My toe is burning, my knees are stinging, limbs... hurting... arms... tingling... oh, God, if I had to take another step...'

At last she finished thinking in this worn-out condition. She had a last idea, according to which: no matter, what happens, she was going to lie down to the soil and sleep. That was the minute, she walked at Riki again.

"Why did we stop?" Sonoko asked and yawned.

"This is a perfect hiding for the night." said the boy and ignored the little crash.

"What is perfect?" Sonoko did not understand, what Riki was talking about, but she goggled her eyes into the dark, hopefully to see something.

"Follow me!"

Riki guided her to a small cave, which was covered by runner plants and the whole surface seemed way green from the moss, that the cave could be seen as a part of the bushes around.

It was extremely dark in there, but the students had a good use of the light in their watches now. The cave had only one, long way ahead, and also empty.

The rocky walls glanced from something looked like slime mixed with thin path of leaking water out of the stones. Strange noises could be heard, too - sounded like mouse peep - these were coming from the direction of the loft.

"Bats." said Riki as they headed more deeper into the cave. He might thought, Sonoko will took the news with screams and 'Ew'-s, but nothing happened.

"And this cave is a five star hotel for snakes, frogs and other reptiles." sighed the girl wearily.

She had no exceptional wish, only one thing...

'I want to sleeeep, dammit!'

Soon they had found the end of the path. It was dry, free from bats and reptiles. The most perfect place, where a student could rest in the midst of such a killing-game. As fast as Sonoko laid down to the ground, she fell asleep immediately. She saw some pictures and heard some voices in her dreams about Riki, as he planed to kill her - but she did not want to wake up.

'Never mind. If someone kills me, then I'll have more time to rest.'

This time she did not let herself to bother by any noises in the outside world.

She woke up once, because she heard a deep whirring and something that sounded like thunder a bit later.

But she was way too tired than finding out these sound-sources, so the girl immediately fell asleep again on her hands, which she used as pillows.

[Number of students: 17]