Chapter 2, Part 1
RAIN, RAIN, GO AWAY
Given everything that happened yesterday, I feel surprisingly good. I still have a bit of a headache, so I take some painkillers for it. I fix myself some breakfast, take a shower, and get ready to visit Sayori. After I walk down the street and get to Sayori's house, I stop before I knock; I hear something inside.
I hear Sayori crying.
I knock on the door. "Sayori? Are you alright?"
"Oh, um..." I hear her sniffling and blow her nose. "Yeah, everything's alright. One second." After a few seconds, I hear the locks turning, and then Sayori opens the door. I know she's not alright; I can see the redness in her eyes and face from crying. Sayori looks me in the eyes, shakes her head, and begins to cry again as she suddenly gives me a tight hug. It takes me a second to realize what happened, but I then hug her back. I rub my hand on her back.
"It's alright Sayori," I whisper in her ear "I'm here for you."
"I.. I want to go in.. But I want to stay here... Just for a bit longer" Sayori tries to find time to speak in between her sobs, and her grip on me tightens.
"Whatever you need." I still can't understand what's wrong; but all that I care is that Sayori knows that I'm here for her. After Sayori lets go of me, we go inside and sit on the couch next to each other. Sayori leans in to me, and rests in my lap. She's still crying, but she's calmed down. We stay like this for about a half hour before Sayori finally takes a deep breath, and stops crying. She sits back up, and looks me in the eyes again; tears still on her cheeks.
"Shin... I'm..." Sayori pauses. "I'm really glad you came over... Because.." She stops completely this time. I rest my hand on her shoulder.
"Hey, it's okay, take your time Sayori, I'm listening."
"The truth is..." Sayori takes another deep breath, and closes her eyes. "I've been really, really sad for the past couple of weeks. And... I was at the point where I just wanted it to stop. I just wanted to stop feeling this way.. I just want to stop feeling at all!" Sayori starts to cry again; but I pull her in to a hug once more. I close my eyes; and I remember what I saw during my visions.
I'm not letting that happen.
Sayori pulls back from our hug.
"I'm going to go get some more tissues.." She gets up, and walks off to the bathroom. I pull out my phone. I text Natsuki, Yuri, and Monika to let them know what's going on. Natsuki and Yuri are the only ones to reply, however. I'm not surprised, though, after what happened between Monika and I. I know I probably should have asked Sayori, but I just acted on instinct. I only felt like she needed to know she was cared about. Sayori comes back with a box of tissues, and just before she sits back down, there's a knock on the door. It's probably Natsuki; since she only lives just down the block. She probably ran here. Sayori walks over to the door, and opens it. Before Sayori even has time to greet her, Natsuki gives Sayori a big, sudden hug. Sayori looks at me, and smiles with tears in her eyes.
"Shin told us." Natsuki lets go of Sayori, and lets herself in. "As soon I saw the text, I ran over here as fast as I could." I can tell she did run, she was breathing pretty heavily.
After Natsuki, Sayori and I talk for a while, Yuri finally knocks on the door. I get up to let her in this time.
"Shin, I'm so glad you told us." Yuri gives me a brief- albeit warm- hug. "I don't know what we would have done if something happened to Sayori."
"I don't know what I would have done either." I notion Yuri to come in and sit on the couch with the rest of us. "I'm just... Glad we caught it before..." I nod to myself. "No. I don't even want to think about it."
"I understand." Yuri walks past me as I close the door behind her.
"I was actually hoping to make a phonecall, would you mind if I stepped out for a minute to take care of it?" I reach into my pocket for my phone.
"Of course not." Yuri smiles and goes to join Sayori and Natsuki. I walk outside, and call Sayori's parents to let them know about everything that's going on as well. They tell me they'll arrange to come get her and take her to the emergency room on Tuesday. I know Sayori won't like it, but I just can't live with the guilt if something happened to her and I didn't do anything to even try to stop it. I hang up the phone, and poke my head inside.
"Yuri, Natsuki, I need to talk to you for a minute." I notion them to come outside with me. They get up, and join me. "I called Sayori's parents, and they said that they're taking her to the hospital Tuesday to figure out something to resolve this. But..." I let out a sigh. "I don't feel comfortable leaving her by herself. Not in this state. I hate to ask this of you, but... Could you guys stay over here with her until then?"
"I have an idea!" Natsuki blurts out, and grabs both Yuri and I's attention.
We return inside, all beaming at Sayori.
"What... What did you guys talk about?" Sayori looks at us, realizing something's going on.
"SLEEPOVER!" Natsuki yells out, and Sayori lights up.