11 January 1979
Jenova strode through the tunnels and caves of Mt. Nibel, taking detours to avoid disturbing the occasional dragon. Having an oversized reptile with wings that were nowhere near enough to be capable of flight following after would be annoying.
A gust of wind hit Jenova when she made it out into a flat, open area. A bandersnatch lay against a dead tree, its gray fur blended with a dull yellow coating the bottom of the gnarled trunk. It lifted its head and sniffed.
Jenova approached the wolf and held out her hand for it to sniff. It recognized her scent and leaned into her touch. Jenova kneeled and scratched behind its ears.
"It's been a while, Bat," she murmured. Bat closed his one eye. He had lost the other one, the right, years ago after refusing to run from a fight with a Nibel dragon. The left eye was completely clouded with a milky white color; he couldn't see out of it anymore. Jenova had let him loose in Mt. Nibel after bringing him from the North Continent. Bat had become a companion of Jenova's, though now he didn't move much anymore except to eat and drink. His old age of twelve and blindness discouraged him from any movement. Old Bat was also getting stiff joints, the injuries of the many brawls he had had coming back. Most of them were around the shoulder areas.
Jenova was surprised that Bat didn't have any form of arthritis yet, but it seemed like it was going to take hold of him soon. She was going to have to visit him more often, maybe even bring him home.
Bat yawned and licked his chops. He rolled onto his back, waving his wide, stocky legs in the air. Jenova rubbed his belly and Bat froze for a second before relaxing. A low, happy growl escaped from him. That habit hadn't gone away.
The two sat in comfortable silence with Bat's head on Jenova's lap. Jenova stood and reluctantly got ready to leave.
"See you again soon." She rubbed Bat's cheeks and gave him one last pat on the head before returning home. Her vision blurred part of the way, black spots dancing in random intervals. The sleepless nights were catching up. She quickened her pace. Going to sleep was something she didn't want to do.
Cloud was nestled in the corner. Mrs. Strife bunched up her pillow and part of the blanket and wedged Cloud between that and the wall. That would be the only thing keeping him from falling off the bed in case he moved around in his sleep.
Mrs. Strife had finally built up the courage to go downstairs at night. She still didn't know what exactly to expect, and she had nothing to defend herself with. Her only plan was to get to the knife drawer before Jenova did if anything happened.
Mrs. Strife turned the kitchen light on and stood in front of the drawer. She stared a hole into the side of the stairs, waiting for Jenova to come down.
Mrs. Strife was close to giving up until she heard the front door open. She saw a shadow stumble through before shutting the door and falling onto the couch. Mrs. Strife's curiosity led her forward, but she stopped a few feet away.
Jenova slumped forward clutched her head between her hands, panting heavily.
"...are you okay?" Mrs. Strife whispered.
Jenova sat up, looking forward. "Well enough."
"You sound tired..."
"It's expected for someone that hasn't slept in the past three months."
"Are you sick? Do you need some kind of medicine? I-I can try to help with that." Mrs. Strife's whispering hastened. She was genuinely concerned for Jenova.
"I stayed awake on purpose."
"Why?" Who in their right mind would do that?
"To stop the turtles from flying. The scarecrow wished for a brain, and the tin woodman a heart. Humpty Dumpty never explained the rest of the poem. He deserved to fall off of that wall."
That made absolutely no sense to Mrs. Strife. "But I'm pretty sure that won't happen anymore since you've stayed awake so long."
"Oh, they'll come back. Toasters don't like being dipped in water." Jenova faced Mrs. Strife, that terrifying grin revealing abnormally long teeth.
Mrs. Strife backed up until her back hit the counter. Jenova couldn't look at her without turning her body around.
Instead of that, Jenova turned her head until it was completely backwards. Mrs. Strife even heard the bones popping.
"Have you any idea why a raven is like a writing desk?"
"N-no?" Mrs. Strife was starting to panic.
"I wouldn't know, either. It's not like Edgar Allan Poe wrote on both of them."
Jenova didn't move. Mrs. Strife expected her to somehow appear in the kitchen.
"'Somehow' seems to be a satisfactory answer to you." How did she do that?
"One question at a time, human."
"How are you able to-to move halfway across the room in a split second?"
Mrs. Strife regretted asking when Jenova's head swiveled into a normal position and Jenova stood. Mrs. Strife slid the drawer open and took a knife when Jenova started walking. The knife pointed towards Jenova, who rapidly closed the distance between them.
"Ever wondered why anything with a mind of its own is wary of the dark and shadows?" Mrs. Strife slowly shook her head.
"Because anything can come out from them," Jenova said dangerously.
Jenova muttered "Silens" before wrenching the knife from Mrs. Strife's grasp. Mrs. Strife tried to scream, but no sound came out. After backing up towards the stairs, Jenova said "Vos" before going up.
Mrs. Strife sat down and rocked herself a little. In the back of her mind, she swore she heard laughing.
Jenova locked the door and leaned against it, sliding down onto her knees with her face pressed against the door. With her left hand, she dug her nails into the wood, dragging her nails down to the floor, creating new marks to join the old ones littered everywhere in her room. Her right hand tightened around the knife she had taken from the human.
That stupid human. Jenova had gotten really close to killing her that time. It took a lot of restraint to stop and leave. She had felt like spilling someone else's blood after forcing herself into insomnia for so long. Blood lust was possibly the only thing keeping her weakened, starved body from collapsing.
Fuck it. Jenova dug the knife into her left arm as deep as she could before quickly slashing downwards. Blood pooled on the floor. She then did the same to her neck, this time from left to right.
It wasn't unusual for her to try different suicide attempts to satiate her morbid obsession of death. It didn't really count as suicide, since she couldn't die, but it was like a more severe form of self-mutilation. She had stopped sleeping for three months (though that hasn't 'killed' her before) and stopped eating nearly a week ago. The roots and tips of her hair had turned so dark they were black. There were only a few patches of silver left.
Jenova stabbed herself a few more times, putting all of her concentration in staving off the healing before everything faded to black.
Notes:
Started: 2013年2月17日 （日）
Finished: That same day
Super fast, but super short. Fitting some fluff in would've been extremely out of place. I swear this fic is bipolar.
"Edgar Allan Poe wrote on both of them" - Believe it or not, I got that from a YouTube comment. It was on a video titled Alice in Wonderland in 30 Seconds (or something like that) which showed a bunch of clips of the Mad Hatter asking the raven question throughout the video. Somebody had commented that they were similar because Edgar Allan Poe wrote on both of them. He/she won the internets that day. (Edit: After reading the first review for this chapter and after looking it up, it turns out that there wasn't ever supposed to be an answer to that riddle. Though if there was, Poe would be a good possible answer.)
Bat the bandersnatch isn't a one-time character.
Mrs. Strife still has a lot of questions she wants answered.