A/N: Well, here's the seventh chapter of life in hell. Hope you guys have as much fun with this as I did.

Disclaimer: I don't own Madoka Magica.

Warnings: Another thing in this chapter

Pairings: Quack

3 Days Later

"Madoka, I'm not asking. You need to go home, rest, be normal for a while."

"But if I go, then who'll look after Homura-chan?"

"I'll do it, just go home for a few hours for god's sake."

"But-"

"Madoka, you haven't left the building in three days. We're all starting to worry about you."

"I can't just-"

"Madoka, this isn't and argument you're going to win, understand? I'll look after Homura. I'll make sure she doesn't do anything reckless."

"But her next therapy session is in less than-"

"Oh please, she isn't responding to therapy anyway Madoka. I doubt missing one session will make much difference."

"But every bit counts!"

"Nobody knows that better than me Madoka, but you can't let this dominate your life. Now, I'm not saying it again, go home."

"But-"

"Don't make me call security."

Madoka clenched her fists. Yuko was a dear friend to her, but dear god he was a pest sometimes. She didn't have anything more important than Homura to pay attention to at the moment. Everything else was a distraction.

"Although, I suppose he is right. I've been flat-out for days, and that can't be healthy. And I left my phone on the bench at home. Oh crap! Sayaka's probably worried sick. What on earth am I gonna tell her?"

Yuko meanwhile, had walked back into the room that Homura was now living in and started collecting Madoka's belongings. He was also trying to engage in some form of small talk with Homura.

"How's it going Akemi-san?"

No response.

"And here I thought we were friends," he joked, still receiving no response. Sighing dramatically, he collected the last of Madoka's things and dumped them in her arms.

"I don't want to see you back here until at least tomorrow. Understood?"

"Okay! Alright I get it already."

"Just making sure. You have a bad habit of ignoring me on occasion."

Madoka poked her tongue out at him, and he laughed.

"Get out of her piglet."

"Hey! What did I say about calling me that?"

Another laugh. "It never ceases to amaze me how easy it is to get to you."

Madoka pouted, and started down the hallway.

"Oh what, so I don't get a goodbye kiss."

"You'll be lucky if I even call you later."

"Whatever. You want me."

"He wishes," Madoka though, rolling her eyes to the ceiling.

Meanwhile, Yuko had sat down beside Homura and was trying to start a conversation.

"So, Akemi-san, have any interests."

Nothing.

"I heard you used to be a painter. What kind of things did you do?"

Homura still said nothing. She simple continued staring out the window at the skyscraper across the street from the institute.

Yuko sighed. "This isn't going anywhere fast. Oh well, I guess I'll just have to sit it out then."

He looked sadly at the ravenette. What sadness the girl must be feeling, Yuko couldn't even begin to imagine. And so he sat, and he watched.

"Well, I guess I should have seen this coming."

Madoka looked at the small number on her phone. Nearly two-hundred missed calls, over fifty text messages and around the same amount of voicemails.

"She really needs to get a life," Madoka thought, dreading the response she would receive as she clicked the call-back icon on the phone.

Silently, she put the phone to her ear and listened to the dial tone. It was less than a second before she was answered.

"Hello-"

"Madoka Kaname! What the hell, I've been worried sick for days! You didn't cal, or text! I had the police on the phone twice!"

Madoka cringed. It was worse than she had expected.

"Didn't have the decency to let me know that you were still alive, I mean come on! Three days it's been Madoka! Three days! Don't you dare try and explain this away with some bullshit excuse! I know your game!"

She sighed at her friend's antics, but said nothing. She knew from years of experience that when Sayaka went into rant mode, it was a fool's errand to try and interrupt her.

"I only found out you were alive yesterday! I was told by a police officer down the street! What the hell is going on at that madhouse you work at?!

Madoka frowned. She hated it when Sayaka insulted her job and her patients, so she chose that moment to interrupt.

"Sayaka, shut up and listen to me!"

Sayaka fell silent for a moment, and Madoka took advantage of it.

"You know full well that I have a demanding job! There were two incidents at the institute the other day and the whole staff body has been flat-out ever since! And to top all of that off, I have a new patient who has a very demanding condition, that I'm not even fully sure what is! So if you think that you've been having a stressful time, come trade places with me for a day and see how much you like it."

Sayaka did not respond immediately.

"Now, I was calling because I was forced to take a bit of time off and I wanted to hang out with you and Hitomi."

"Well you're in luck then, we're both down town right now. Meet us at that funky little café down town."

"Kay then, I'll be there in about half an hour."

"See you then piglet."

Madoka groaned and ended the call. Being Sayaka's friend was a very demanding job sometimes. It required both tolerance and a great measure of patience. Madoka was, fortunately, in possession of a great deal of both of these.

She walked back to her room and opened her cupboard. She picked out some clothes. Her favourite lime-green sweater and some dark blue denim jeans to compliment the green stripes. She pulled on the clothes, and grabbed her cap and glasses. She checked her appearance in the mirror, and, satisfied with how she looked, departed the apartment.

It took her a little over twenty minutes to walk all the way to the café Sayaka had referred to. It was a quiet, out of the way little place run by some old friends of theirs. The food was good, and the people were friendly. That was all Madoka really needed to keep her coming back to a place.

"Hey! Madoka!"

Madoka saw Sayaka waving from beside Hitomi, sitting at one of the little covered tables outside the café. She walked over and sat in the spare seat beside Hitomi, facing Sayaka.

"Hey guys."

"Hey Madoka."

"Hello Madoka."

Sayaka yawned, and stretched. "So, how's it been then?"

"Exhausting."

"I guessed. So how did they get you to take time off?"

Madoka frowned. "Yuko-san threatened to call security."

Sayaka laughed. "Oh man, wow he is so good to you. I don't get why you too don't just give it up and date already."

"Sayaka, come on. I told you that's never going to happen."

"Why not, he's a great guy."

"There are two problems with that."

"And those would be?"

"One, half of the time I feel like murdering him and two, the fact that he is a guy!"

Sayaka roared with laughter, contrasting with Hitomi, who was looking quietly uncomfortable with the discussion of her friend's sexual orientation.

Sayaka calmed down after a few seconds, and looked at Madoka with tears in her eyes. "Oh man, I love teasing you about that."

"That's not nice Sayaka. You shouldn't kid with me about that, you know how difficult it is for me to find someone."

"Alright, geez I'm sorry. Calm down okay."

"So what big developments have you had at work recently Madoka?" Hitomi asked, not too ambiguously trying to change the subject.

Madoka sighed. "Well, it's like I always say. I'm strictly not allowed to give you the details, but it's not been a pretty week."

"Oh yeah, you mentioned something about incidents on the phone."

"Yeah. They all started the day we got our new patient."

"Oh yeah? Who's the guy?"

"Well actually it's a girl. You might've seen her on the news this week, her names Homura-" Madoka clapped a hand over her mouth. "Oh crap, so much for confidentiality."

But the second she saw the look on Sayaka's face, all thoughts of confidentiality were thrown out the window.

"So you're telling me… that you've been absent from society for the last week… to take care of that… monster?"

"Sayaka calm down," Hitomi tried to console her friend to no avail.

Madoka on the other hand, only just realised what Sayaka meant. Her friend Kyousuke was one of the eleven victims that Homura had put in the hospital. The initial report apparently stated that the boy would never be able to move his arms again.

"How can you even sit there and look me in the face, knowing that you're helping the person who did that to Kyousuke?" Sayaka was on her feet by this stage.

"Sayaka, it's not like that. You don't understand the situation!"

"DON'T tell me that I don't get it! Don't tell me how it is! You're helping that freak then you're just as bad as her."

"Sayaka!" Hitomi was on her feet, trying to restrain Sayaka now. Madoka was on her feet too, with tears in her eyes.

"Don't you ever call her a freak again."

"Oh, I'm so sorry for insulting you precious freak of a patient."

"I said DON'T!"

"Hey Madoka, do me a favour. In your next therapy session with little miss freak, could you just kill her-"

Madoka crossed the distance between her and Sayaka in a single step, and connected her fist with Sayaka's face. Hitomi, who had been restraining the blue-haired girl from doing something stupid, stepped back when this happened and let Sayaka fall to the floor with a thud.

"You have no right," Madoka said, glaring through a haze of tears at the blue girl on the ground before her. "You have no right to say anything… anything bad about her."

And the Madoka was gone. Off, running down the street, sobbing.

Hitomit fidgeted awkwardly. Everyone outside the restaurant was staring at them, and they were even turning heads from the other side of the street.

"Oh why does this sort of thing always happen when I'm with them?"

Hitomi recovered her purse from beside her chair.

"I'm going home Sayaka," she said promptly, and walked off without so much as a goodbye.

Yuko walked slowly back to Homura Akemi's ward. Last time he checked, the ravenette was sleeping, so he'd left to get a cup of coffee. He approached the door, swiped his card and pushed it open.

Upon entering the room, he could instantly see that something was very wrong. Homura's bed was empty, and there was broken glass all over the floor, Homura herself was huddled in a quaking ball in the corner, sobbing quietly.

"Hey, Akemi-san. What's wrong-" Before he could finish a sharp pain ripped through his back. He cried out anddropped his coffee. The mug smashed, as he fell to the floor, groping at the source of the pain, and withdrew his hand sticky with blood.

A hand suddenly gripped his hair, and pulled him upright. He noted the face of Misaka Aren, a high security patient from the wing that Homura had originally been in.

"M-Misa-" A sharp tug of his hair, and he shut up. She pulled him back, exposing his throat. Yuko screamed, although it came out more like a gurgle.

He coughed blood up into his attacker's face, but this did not seem to bother her. She just widened her maniacal grin and drove her instrument, whatever it was, into his thigh muscle.

Homura was sobbing, and repeating the one word over and over. "No, no, no, no, no…"

Misaka slashed Yuko's stomach and watched the blood spray everywhere with satisfaction.

"No, no, no, no…"

Misaka raised the blade to Yuko's throat and drew it across in a mocking fashion, not quite piercing the skin.

"No, no, no, no!"

She pressed the knife just hard enough to draw blood from the long-since unconscious Yuko.

"No! No! NO! NO!"

In an instant, she flipped the knife round and dug the instrument into Yuko's throat. The blood spay covered Homura all the way on the other side of the room.

"NO! NO! NO!"

Misaka pulled a piece of rag from somewhere on her person, and soaked it in Yuko's blood. She walked over to the wall and started to paint those same obscene symbols, spelling out the same one word.

"NO!" Homura screamed and burst into tears as Misaka finished her message, and yanked the knife from Yuko's neck. She positioned it above her own breast, and grinned maniacally as she drive it straight through her heart. She fell to the floor dead beside Yuko, the grin still plastered on her face, her cold, dead eyes staring straight into Homura's own.

And Homura once again screamed, a scream that remained unanswered by anyone living or dead.

A/N: I feel like Gen Urobuchi, bullying Sayaka like that. Hehe, it's a true fact! So, as you can see, all characters are dispensable (especially Sayaka) so next chapter will be fun. Some more suicide, a funeral and more arguing amongst friends. Until next time, R&R everyone.