MAKI
There was a vein of time running through Maki's hands, verdant and angry. In one moment, her hands would be healed, in the next they would be bloody and raw and she would scream in pain until the sensation finally stopped, and her hands would return to normal again.
Maki sensed the other presence, her presence, at most times. Maki couldn't see her, most of the time, only a silhouette in the dark of the hospital room. Maki knew she had long red hair, and and wore all black. A slight, feminine figure. Maki knew who the woman was. What part of her she was. Maki tried to look at that part of her mind, but a scab came rushing forward like a shield. Something painful was sitting roosting in her memory; not one but dozens of glittering, malicious secrets. There were so many things Maki didn't want to know.
Sometimes the woman would whisper things to her, but most of it made no sense to Maki. The woman spoke in music as much as words, humming a rhythm to her. Maki felt strange. She knew these songs. They weren't muse songs but they were hers. Or muse songs from a different time, when Maki had held the meteor with her own two hands.
"Hum." The woman had told Maki, the night before Maki had snuck out. "Hum to your hands."
The madness of a long term hospital stay must be creeping in. What song? Any song. Maki hummed a tune to herself, a song she'd been playing with before she'd left for college. It buzzed in her throat, sweet and haunting. It was a piano piece, written as a duet, just for fun.
"Feel the song in your body." The ghost said. "Let your hands remember it."
The airiness of the song rushed into her body, swooning into the main melody and she imagined herself playing the song, how her fingers would move, how her body would hold the music, how she would dance across the floor.
Tingling ran up her fingers, through her hands. The green vein broke open wider, flowing like a river now. She saw her hands at the piano, back in the empty Otonokizaka music room. She'd played with such confidence, singing to herself. As if this was the most natural thing in the world for her hands to work.
And her hands moved, without pain, without pause, in the hospital room right there. Maki stared in amazement at her fingers. It was as if she was actually 15, at least her hands were.
"You'll need to hold it there, Maki." The woman said. "At least until you stop going backwards to the crash. You need to keep the music in your head."
Maki nodded. She didn't have anything better to do.
/
"You can leave whenever you want." The voice said, too sultry for a hospital room. "You don't have to wait here."
Maki opened her eyes. The woman sat on the edge of the bed. "Why?"
The woman hummed, and Maki saw images of Honoka in her mind's eye. "She needs to know. To see. It's crazy, right? I need to tell her."
"Yes." The woman patted her arm. "You should tell her right away."
Maki had snuck out. Sneaking out was easier, with the presence her mind, guiding her through the motions of leaving just the right way, almost dancing as she'd turned through hallways and down the staircase at just the right moment when a nurse turned a corner.
It was snowing outside, when Maki had finally gotten out of the maze of the hospital.
She wondered why she wasn't worried. She'd had the firm notion, that her father could, would smooth her departure from the hospital over for her. And now Maki truly believed that she would be fine. Better than fine. She breathed in the fresh outside air.
Everything was still, quiet, covered in a veil of snow. Trees held white glaze on their empty boughs. Thick, heavy snowflakes came down into the beams of the orange streetlights. Maki watched for several minutes. There were no cars. She heard no sounds besides the wet fall of snow. The empty winter street filled her with an indescribable feeling, like she'd seen into another part of the world.
The woman stood under the streetlight. Long red hair, down to her waist. She wore a dark coat. The light flickered. It was her. It was herself. Real but not real. She was older, maybe twenty-five, and carried herself with an almost regal bearing. This Maki had not been told "no" - or refused to accept no as an answer. Her face had a sheen to it, almost unearthly, as if she were lit from within. Her eyes seemed bigger, glowing like purple lamps. Her lips with a fullness to them, a pucker made from a savage expression as much as an expensive lip gloss.
An electric pulse went through Maki, like the one she'd felt in the hospital, in her hands, in her vision. The meteor's pulse. The energy was a piece of music, pushing Maki forward. The snowflakes were green, suddenly, the whole street was green.
Move with it, her other self said. Don't let the pulse push you. Hum along. Feel it.
Maki stilled herself. How did she move with it? She felt the beat, and buzzed her lips to the tune. She flexed her muscles, like she was about to dance. She leaned into the song, vocalizing it, stepping delicately to the side as the music swelled.
That's right. This is yours now. The energy is absolutely everywhere, in this town. You can do anything you want to.
Maki shook her head. That was… outrageous. The other self she'd seen in her dreams seemed half mad with the meteor's power.
You deserve this, Maki. Her other self said, coming closer. Maki could see the fur trim on the woman's coat, the elaborate eye makeup, the glint of jewelry on her neck. She smelled like something expensive and burning. She held Maki's face with her half-real hands, staring into her eyes. There was a flame lit in her violet eyes. You don't deserve to be pushed around by time, your father, fate. Don't you deserve autonomy? Don't you deserve all the world has to offer? Did you want to die in that train accident, become your father's doll in a hospital you don't care about? Or do you want to live?
Of course she deserved autonomy, Maki said to herself, in the empty town square.
Then take your power. She was so close. Her lips brushed against Maki's cheek. Were ghosts supposed to get this close? Maki felt like she would drown in her, overflow with this other person.
The woman kissed Maki.
Her lips were soft and tasted like strawberries and stung with chemicals. Maki looked up in shock. Her other self smiled, too cute for this and glinting with a dark feminine allure. She kissed her again, deeper this time, pulling Maki's hair, and Maki moaned a little despite herself. Her tongue brushed against Maki's lips, massaging them, probing her as if showing off her dexterity, and despite everything it felt so good and Maki swooned just a little. Was this what Maki would kiss like, in the future? Maki felt a strange twinge within herself, like some internal mechanism had been unlocked.
Like a door had been opened.
Like her other self had gotten in, somehow, deeper than before, with a hand clenched around herself -
She pushed herself away.
The woman looked ecstatic. The beam of the streetlamp gave her a sinister exaltation to her face. She licked her lips, as if she'd just eaten something she wasn't supposed to, and loved every second of it. Ask Honoka about her machine, she whispered in Maki's ear, hot breath tickling her. Ask Honoka what she's been up to.
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There would be several traffic accidents, the next day, in the square where Maki had tried out her new power. The hospital bed where Maki had stayed would be associated with strange healing, or strange untimely deaths, depending on the health of the patient.
In a few weeks, the hospital would be considered haunted.
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Honoka was sitting in the lab, half asleep at the computer. She looked exhausted, with bags under her eyes and hair pulled into a messy ponytail. Her eyeliner was smudged, and her cheeks were red, as if she'd been crying. The lab was covered in notes, half equation, half score.
"Honoka?" Maki didn't remember walking here. She was covered in snow.
"Maki?" Honoka looked up from the computer, eyes agape. "Maki? What… how… I thought you were… what are you doing here?:
Maki was flooded with a wave of deja vu. A lab. Snow. Honoka, ready to pass out. What am I doing here? Maki rushed to Honoka. She wrapped her arms around her, taking her in. She was so warm. Honoka still felt the same, held the same softness and firmness. "I… there's so much… I have so many things I want to tell you." She looked around. No presence, for no. No other self.
Ask Honoka what she's been up to, her other self had said. Maki shuddered.
"Your hands." Honoka was startled. "Maki, what happened…? I saw you yesterday, how is this even possible?"
"I…" Maki didn't know where to start. "The surgeon said I was recovering at a bizarre pace."
Honoka started crying in earnest. "Maki, are you sure… how? How? Is this a dream? This is too good to be a dream." Maki held onto her tighter. Honoka was so soft. Despite everything, Maki felt herself melting into Honoka, like the first time. Was there a better feeling in the world than this? "Are you… okay? Can you be here?"
Maki hummed to herself a little, just to keep the healing properties going. "Yeah. I should be able to." She nuzzled deeper in Honoka. Her eyes were starting to sting too. "I missed you so much, Honoka."
"Yeah." Honoka hiccuped. "Me too."
"Can we go home?" Maki needed to tell Honoka so many things. Ask so many things. Ask about the machine, her other self had said. Maki hummed to herself. She needed to know something about this.
"Yeah." Honoka held Maki tighter. "Let's go home. We can talk after we get some sleep."