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Chapter 8: The Haunting
His stomach churned in protest, a great beast thrashing about inside it.
His head throbbed, a steady and painful beat.
He, himself, had curled up feebly the second Sissi fled from the room. She had been in such a haste, that she shoved Ulrich aside in the process. Odd just knew it, he royally screwed up this time.
Sissi didn't deserve that. She may have been a bitter and cruel girl, she may have even enjoyed picking on people 'lower' on the social latter then her, but she wasn't mean enough deserve a broken nose-
Because that's what he did-- wasn't it?…
He broke her nose.
--
Odd swallowed hard. He knew Ulrich was glaring at him but was glad his roommate choose not to say anything. Ulrich didn't even like Sissi (at all), so Odd knew that if he was mad-- what he done was bad, real bad.
Shaking faintly from fever and guilt, Odd picked his head up from the pillow.
"Can you…"
"I'm not apologizing for you, Odd."
Odd winced at his friend's harsh tone and shook his head numbly. "That's not what… I just…" He still couldn't believe he reacted like that. "Can you just see if she's… okay?" He stifled softly and looked to his roommate.
"Of course she's not okay! You broke her nose!"
He buried his face back into his pillow, muttering softly. "Did I?…"
He could hear the retreating footsteps of Ulrich and the slamming of the door.
--
How would he ever make things right?
Sissi had been angry--
But most of all she had been upset.
It had been painful but the throbbing didn't make itself clear until her father came storming into the infirmary. That was the biggest problem with being the principal's daughter, he was always just a holler away.
He spoke to Yolanda in very anxious tones.
It was if they had completely forgot that Sissi was even there. For a time she was okay with this, continuing to keep her head tilted back and her nose pinched. She thought it had stopped bleeding but wasn't really certain.
"Who did this to you Elisabeth?" He was speaking in that fatherly tone. It said that he would see to this problem, there was protectiveness in his words. Sissi just bit her lip though.
It was Odd, Odd Della Robbia.
It was all his fault! Deal with him severally daddy!
She kept her mouth shut. Odd deserved as much but then she probably shouldn't have been pretending to be someone she wasn't.
Her voice was muffled, from the lack of air passage in her nose, when she finally spoke. "It wasn't any-wone… I… rad into the walf." That was an extremely weak excuse and very poorly spoken. She frowned.
Sissi knew she could do better then that.
--
"Sissi are you- oh…"
Her head snapped around at the sound of that familiar voice, causing her to wince at a throb of pain. Her father was looking toward Ulrich as well, with a very questionable look.
Oh-no, he didn't think Ulrich did this to her, did he?
"Well young man what do you have to say for yourself?" He said rather sternly.
"Daddy, no." She grabbed his arm to pull his attention toward her. "It watn't Alrick's 'ault, it was Fadd." She squeezed her nose. "Odd." She said slower. That's right, it was what she should of said all along.
Odd deserved whatever he got for fracturing her perfect little nose!
"Della Robbia?"
Sissi nodded. Her and Odd could never be anymore then enemies now.
Just as it should be.
Odd's hair was limp with perspiration, his right hand fisted against his chest. The other was tucked under his pillow and dug into the sheets with nonexistent claws. One knee was bowed toward his stomach his other leg twisted in his blankets. He whimpered faintly, it was a soft mewing sound that fell on the deaf ears of his roommate.
He didn't sleep well that night and would not of slept at all if not for his fever. He was very twisted on the inside. His slumbering mind was haunted with familiar yet senseless images.
--
It was the forest region of Lyoko in all its green glory. But the monstrous trees seemed inconsistent-- slithering like snakes against a rusty colored sky. The scenery seemed desolate and very much dead. It seemed to flicker and the virtual air hissed around him.
He saw the other Lyoko warriors, the colors of their outfits stood out against the grass. Ulrich gestured a finger at him with a backwards flick of the wrist. "It was a secret Odd. You put her in danger."
Odd scarcely blinked but suddenly the elfin princess was in front of him. Her nose was inches from his own though he couldn't so much as feel her breath on his face. She hissed with all the poison he never expected to hear in the sweet girl's tone. "You hurt her!"
And suddenly they were gone. Just like flicking a switch.
In their place were Xana's monsters, chanting: "Your fault! Your fault!" Voices that sounded strangely like Nicholas and Herve. Slowly they faded… as Kiwi came floating over the masses. Swimming as if in water not air and thick white fog wafted around his paws and falling to the forest floor like rain.
Kiwi circled around Odd completely coating the area in white, before he as well disappeared into it.
Odd blindly moved forward having no idea where he was headed though his feet continued to carry him.
Then he knew.
She was a gray specter among all the white, her arms squeezed around her front gently as her lifeless eyes searched him out. "Is this what I was missing?" Her voice was cold and accusing. "Is this what you wanted to show me?"
"No… Sissi…"
"It's all your fault. You hurt me." She turned her back to him.
A sudden howling rose from the buzzing silence, a forceful push that sent the fog furling like a wave. For a vague moment Odd got the sensation that Sissi was standing on the edge of the digital void but then the wind pushed his feet out from under him. He slid down to his knees, claws sunk into the ground.
A glowing snaked around his shoulders and forced him to look up.
"Odd Della Robbia." Said the Scyphozoa.
--
Odd yelped, sitting up in bed.
"You are going to be so beautiful when you get older."
Soft fingers feathered across Sissi's young face. She smiled pleasantly up at the woman stroking her short raven hair. Her own small fingers pulling at her shirt bottom self-consciously. "Don't do that Elisabeth dear. You're very beautiful."
Her face was tilted upwards. "You'll have all the boy's caught in your kind eyes."
--
Sissi sat up stiffly and rubbed her eyes in the same manner. They were damp and cold making her feel rather insecure as she blinked in the direction of her clock. "Why'd you let me sleep in daddy?" She muttered to herself.
The previous day was fuzzy. Unimportant.
Her nose throbbed faintly and her eyes felt rather swollen. She probably looked horrid but for some strange reason she found she didn't care. She dug out her small pink diary and propped it open in front of her.
Her eyes welled up again, stinging and aching as she wrote small curving letters.
With out a single glance at the mirror, she dressed and left the room.
On her bed her dairy laid open-- four words as clear as rain:
It's that day again.
A/N: This is probably pathetic but I'm not really sure where I'm trying to go with this story… Ha! This chapter was awful, well whatever.