[Authors Note] Hey everyone! I'm back with the first installment of Down Into My Shadow in quite a long while. This is Jozei – I changed my Pen Name to MuffinxXxSyndrome cause on the other sites I used Jozei or my name on, I copped a lot of harassment, so this will be my pen name until everything cools down T_T . Anyway, I'm sorry about my lack of updating anything for quite a long time. I won't bore you with any reasons or excuses, cause I'm sure it's the story you're here for, haha. This chapter seems a bit small – at least to me it does, but I checked it through word-check and it came up with a normal amount of words for a chapter. For all of those who have been asking about the M rating I've put on all of my work, this chapter will start hinting at it. Anyway, please enjoy, and please let me know what you think of the story so far – I'm hoping some feedback will help me get back into the Soul Eater stage of writing.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN: Ripple
Sunlight filtered in through the window of Serah's bedroom, inflicting irritation to the young woman who currently remained in the bed beneath the window. For the most part, there was nothing that should bother Serah, aside from the sunlight that was shining brightly onto her sleepy face. However, as she groggily opened her eyes to stare up at the ceiling above her head, she was left feeling a little frustrated. It wasn't so much the sunlight – in fact, it didn't register to her that the blinding light was even shining on her. While she liked hanging out with Maka whenever the opportunity arose, she wasn't comfortable with the events of the afternoon beforehand.
"Why did I agree to that?" Serah asked herself, her tone dripping with a weariness that was unrelated to the fact that she'd just woken up. Her fingertips shifted within the sheets of the bed slightly as she tried to straighten her thoughts, however her irritation was proving to be a problem with thought-arrangements – In fact, the more she tried to rearrange her thoughts, the more frustrated she became.
Letting out a breath after what seemed like a few minutes, Serah dragged herself out of bed with as little care as she could manage. No evident pain shot through her body as she placed her weight on her injured leg. The stab-wound was still a little tender if she placed too much weight on her leg, however, the skin had sewn itself shut, and all that was left was the large scab of dried weep and crusted blood – Not that there was very much she could do about that. All her injuries she'd left unbandaged when she went to sleep last night, and it seemed her decision had done her a world of good; the gashes to the palms of her hands were practically just large, and ugly scabs, and the gash along her arm had healed further than she thought it would have. That meant she could have a shower like a normal person, instead of sponge baths, like she'd been doing. And she decided she needed a shower – after all, it might relieve the frustration that continued to build up on her.
Grabbing a pair of black leggings, long sleeved, orange shirt, and denim shorts before she left the room, Serah found herself with her gaze upon the floor as she walked – She couldn't seem to shake the frustration from her, no matter how hard she tried. She just found herself returning to the same train of thought; Why did she agree to that? She disliked the fact that she couldn't stop thinking about yesterday's events, but there was nothing else she could really think about. It was like the whole predicament had jammed her thinking processes, forcing her to just remember that unfortunate event like it was on replay in her head. Serah guessed, after all the knocks to her head over the past week, she'd probably sustained some form of brain damage. She couldn't help but sigh at her thoughts, as she stepped into the bathroom, and shut the door.
The room was veiled in a pitch darkness, until Serah's fingers found the light switch and pressed it; A fluorescent light flickered a few times, before illuminating the room with a bright glow of burning white. The room was mostly empty, aside from a bathtub along the wall to the right, with a cabled shower head attached to the wall, and a sink sitting innocently next to the bathtub. The room was coloured in an arrangement of artichoke green walls and chocolate brown floor, which made one feel more claustrophobic than normal. The mirror that lined the wall around the bath tub didn't help the situation. Tossing the clothes onto the sink, Serah gently turned the cold water on as she then began to strip down. A warm shower would be better for her injuries, but as Serah gingerly climbed into the shower of cold water, she found her frustration beginning to leave her as she cooled down. She didn't bother to pull the curtain around – She didn't live with anyone; Realistically she could walk around the house naked if she wanted to, and it wouldn't matter.
As the minutes passed, Serah drew her gaze to the mirror that lined the walls of the bathtub. Her own reflection stared back at her, as if mocking her for some reason. While she wasn't frustrated anymore – Thanks to the cold water – she wasn't exactly feeling energetic. Her gaze kept on shifting from her oddly coloured eyes, and to the overstretched skin of her stomach. While it was obvious to her that her skin was still several sizes too big for her, Serah could see that it was beginning to heal; The many stretch marks that lined her stomach had shrunk, just a little, and her skin seemed to fit a bit better on her, however she still couldn't feel any better about it. The skin around her thighs, and her bust wasn't much better; While her legs looked like she had an unhealthy level of cellulite, she had many stretch marks over her chest, making her feel more than self conscious. But amongst most things, today, it wasn't actually her overstretched skin that bothered her. It was her eyes; While she was never self conscious about her eyes, the events at Maka's place had given her more than a reason to be self conscious from now on. As Serah rest her head against the wall, she felt her eyes close as she drifted off into thought.
Black*Star's loud and obnoxious voice rang through the whole house with more volume than was necessary; Serah had a hard time maintaining a rather unphased disposition, despite the fact that she was under constant concerns that she'd soon be spotted by the self-righteous brat. She sat uncomfortably at the table in the lounge room, her fingers curled tightly around her Mango-juice as she looked from Maka over in the doorway, and to the energetic Patty that sat on the chair opposite Serah. She knew she didn't fit in with Maka and Soul's group of friends, but it was made blatantly obvious how much she didn't fit in at that very moment. Everyone was busy speaking with everyone else, and of course Serah felt like she may as well spend the rest of her life as a wallflower.
"Here! Everyone dig in!" Maka announced all of a sudden, catching Serah by surprise. As she looked up at the Scythe Meister, she saw that the young woman had placed what looked to be a huge plate of assorted foods; Miniature pies, pastries and everything else that fit in with such foods; Of course, with Serah's pickiness with food, due to her weight paranoia, there was nothing here that she felt comfortable eating without the fear of weight-gain. As she thought about it for a few moments, she found herself disliking Amanda's remark about her fretting a little more. While Serah was an appropriate build, sota speak, she felt she had more than enough right to be particular about what she ate.
It was understandable that since Maka was the host, she'd be busy doing Host-like things, however it didn't make Serah feel any better – if she had of known she'd be sitting here all alone like this, she'd have politely declined Maka's invitation. Of course, it wasn't like Serah was trying to make conversation with anyone, anyway.
"Oh! Wow!" Came a somewhat child-like voice all of a sudden, practically frightening Serah out of her skin; As she directed her gaze to where the voice had come from, she found herself face to face with the small, energetic Patty. The energetic blonde was leaning right over the large plate of food Maka'd brought out, to gaze at Serah's face at an uncomfortably close proximity; She was no further than a foot away from Serah's face, which of course caused the peach-haired woman to shrink back in alarm.
"Wh-what?" Serah managed to ask, blinking momentarily as Patty continued to lean closer to her.
"Patty – Stop it!" Liz barked from somewhere off to the right, however Patty spoke, as if her sister hadn't uttered a single word.
"Are your Eyes funny?" Patty asked, as if Serah was suddenly the most interesting thing she'd seen all day. Serah, unable to figure out what exactly was going on, frowned marginally as she stared at Patty.
"Y-yeah, they are." She answered, letting out a breath as the situation finally made sense to her.
"Can I see properly?" Patty asked simply, and it took Serah a few seconds to understand what the blonde was asking. Hesitating for just a moment, she let out a breath slowly as she raised her hands to pull her reading-glasses from her face.
"Sure." She spoke, wincing slightly as she felt a few strands of her hair get caught in the arm of her glasses. Blinking momentarily as Serah raised her head to look back at Patty, she found herself immediately regretting it at the young girl let out a delighted squeak.
"They're different Colours! That's so cool!" Patty announced, loud enough that Serah felt certain everyone in the building had heard.
"What'd you say?" Liz piped up all of a sudden, leaning over to see what Patty was staring at. Just as Patty's face lit up with curious delight, Liz adopted a similar expression as she then said "Hey! You're right! So you wear those glasses to hide it, do you?"
"Uh, no – Not really." Serah hedged, however all the colour drained from her face as she heard a vaguely familiar voice exclaim "What?!" from right next to her. Hesitantly looking at the person who'd spoken, Serah felt a cold chill shoot through her spine as she found herself face-to-face with none other, than Death The Kid. Horror shot across his face quickly, and as Serah bit down on her bottom lip to keep that squeak from escaping her, she noticed that shakes had begun to take hold of the young man.
"Oh no – Serah-" Liz began quickly, however she was drowned out as Death The Kid suddenly burst into a nervous fit Serah'd only seen twice in her time at the Academy.
"Why are your eyes different colours?!" Death the Kid suddenly wailed, and before Serah knew what had happened, he'd grabbed her by the shoulders and proceeded to shake her slightly. "Doesn't it bother you that your eyes are all wrong?! How can they be diff-"
"Cut it out, Kid!" Liz snapped, however in amongst the sounds of Kid's nervous fit, all Serah could hear was Patty laughing, and the faint sounds of Black*Star's obnoxious voice. Serah's gnawing at her bottom lip had become forceful enough where she could taste blood, however she ignored it as she could only feel a form of humiliation begin to overcome her. As Death The Kid's shaking of her shoulders grew more forceful, however, Liz rose to her feet, and finally pried her Meister from Serah with a little difficulty. Her face was burning with warmth as she heard Liz begin to speak, however Serah's body acted at it's own accord, and before Serah knew what had happened, she was walking down the steps of Maka's house, and making her way back to her own home.
Serah opened her eyes slowly as the chill of the water finally began to make her body ache, staring ahead at the reflection of her blue and green eyes. She once again let out a breath as she thought on that question she kept on asking herself. Why did she agree to it? Probably, because she didn't think it was a big deal to humor the little one. And all because of that, she felt humiliated; it also took all of her strength not to burst into tears in the middle of that unsightly event. Letting out another breath as she straightened up and turned the water off, Serah climbed out of the bathtub carefully, and grabbed her green towel hanging from the rail next to the sink.
She hoped her horrible luck wouldn't make her one day of recuperation into a disaster again.
Finally dressed and organised, Serah looked down at the book she scarcely read the day before as she walked into the kitchen. The book was sitting upon the counter next to the fridge, discarded roughly in her haste to hide in her bedroom the afternoon before. Her glasses were also discarded here in a similar fashion, however they were sitting upon the book, an unfolded arm hanging over the edge of the book, and threatening to fall to the tiled floor. While she stared down at the glasses silently, she found herself wondering if it was even worth the bother of wearing them; She didn't feel like reading anything, so she didn't need them – and if she did decide to wear them, she wasn't sure if it would be out of habit, or a self-conscious problem she began to experience due to the afternoon before.
Deciding to neglect her habits, Serah picked up her purse and keys from the counter to leave for a walk, leaving her 'brand new' glasses sitting precariously upon the book. Some fresh air would probably help her just get over her bad mood; However she knew in the back of her mind, that the topic of her eyes would of course be a tender one for her; At least for the next couple of days.
Locking the door behind her, Serah began to make her way towards the centre of Downtown Death City. She didn't eat anything for dinner, and of course she didn't have any breakfast, either. This guaranteed that there wouldn't be any 'safe' food for her to eat; In fact, Serah wasn't even sure if she had any food in her house at all. She was missing her MP3 player, however for the first time in a very long while, Serah just couldn't be bothered in listening to any music; Maybe when she got back home after her walk, she'd make some lunch and just drone out like she usually did whenever something upset her.
However, Serah's thoughts were cut short as she noticed a group of three forms walking in her direction. Liz and Patty were dressed in their usual outfits of red and denim, and their Meister standing between them was in his ever-normal clothes. However, something seemed to stick out of place; Serah wasn't sure of what it was, but she didn't really pay any attention to it as the three noticed she was there. A look much like the one Death The Kid wore yesterday began to appear and as he came to a dead halt, his two companions turned to look at him. As Serah blinked, ignoring the rather apologetic look Liz was now casting her, she finally noticed what was odd about the situation; Well, more odd than the fact that Death The Kid was about to have another nervous fit about her eyes. His socks, undoubtedly the same pair, were slightly mismatching colours, as if he was half asleep when he got organised, and mixed one of his socks with an already worn one. As she began to walk past the trio, she saw from the corner of her eye that Death the Kid had opened his mouth to speak. She chose this moment, to mention one thing to the Grim Reaper's son before he turned to pounce on her once again.
"Your socks don't match."