Chapter Fourteen

We walked down a few more hallways in silence, he only slightly in front of me as he lead the way to wherever he deemed necessary—likely back to my room, but a girl can dream, right?

Kill him while you have the chance. Do it before he kills you.

He'll kill you, and you'll deserve it.

When I had first started hearing the voice, it had only been alone, but it had urged me constantly that I should injure Mizuri or my mother or my father, or even just people I passed on the streets. I had complained about it immediately to my parents, who took me to the psychologist, where I was nearly immediately diagnosed with schizophrenia instead of a rampant imagination.

My father had left us shortly after that.

"Hey, wait!" My steps faltered and I swung my head around just in time to barely see Usagi as she ran into me. I could feel myself falling backwards, but my back connected with something somewhat-soft too soon for it to be the ground.

We toppled to the ground in a heap, she landing on top of me and myself on top of Grimmjow.-and Grimmjow? Grimmjow landed with his face on the floor because, unlike myself, he didn't hear Usagi shouting at us.

"Well, now that I have your undivided attention," she began, breath coming in heavy gasps as she made no move to remove herself from the top of the heap, "I have some very important information for the two of you."

"And you had to do it by tackling me?" I demanded. I could hear Grimmjow screeching curse words into the floor, most likely aimed at Usagi but I had a feeling a few of them were aimed at myself.

"Well, no, but I had much too much momentum to do it any other way." She rolled off of the top of me and onto her feet, sticking her hand out to help me up as she regained her balance. "Anyways, information! Important!"

I latched onto her hand and she pulled me up off of Grimmjow, who immediately jumped up and rounded on Usagi.

"What the fuck is wrong with you, bitch!" It was more of a statement than a question, and it was shouted with such a ferocity that I flinched at every word. I wasn't entirely sure who is was aimed at, but Usagi simply greeted him with a bored look on her face.

"If you paid a little more attention to what was going on around you much rather than brooding in your own little pout-bubble, then you would have been able to pull Kaori out of the way and the only one that would have wound up on the ground would have been me. Think a little more, Grimmjow!"

Even though I hadn't necessarily been around him all that often, I could tell from his body language that his mind was elsewhere. Where it could have been, I had no idea.

"Anyways, important information—Aizen wants Kaori out of the room she's been staying in and instead stay in yours, Grimmjow. Don't ask why he chose you over me, but you're supposed to keep an eye on her and report back to him in case you find out anything . . . interesting. Although, I suppose he chose you over me because not only are you Espada, but apparently he has this weird idea that women constantly conspire together and keep secrets from men when they're in groups." Usagi shrugged and flipped her hands up in the air simultaneously, nearly hitting Grimmjow and myself in the face at the same time.

I had never heard Usagi ramble for so long before, and from her body language it was almost clear that she wasn't going to stop unless someone decided to interrupt her.

"Why does he want Kaori out?"

It looked like I was going to take on the role of the awkward third wheel at that point, and I was fine with that—more information could be gleaned that way, even if I couldn't quite ask any questions myself without drawing attention I had had just moments before.

"For reasons I cannot discuss in her presence." Well, there went the whole "awkward third wheel thing".

"And if she wasn't in your presence?" He said the last word with a sneer, almost as if he didn't approve of using words larger than six letters.

"Then I could obviously tell you and have nothing to do if you, uh, accidentally opened your mouth and told her at a later point in time when you were absolutely sure that no one else was around." Usagi's eyes flicked to me and she gave a little half-shrug-grimace, one shoulder going up as her mouth tried to smile and frown at the same time.

Something in the throne room had spooked Usagi, and it was coming out in her actions and speech. If Grimmjow couldn't see that something was obviously wrong, then he was an idiot.

But before I could point anything out to him, he grabbed me by my upper arm and suddenly, we were in front of a door instead of Usagi. It had been a sudden movement filled with my stomach flipping wind in my ears.

I blinked, confused. "Wha-"

"Just shut up and stay put," he said, letting go of my arm and opening the door. Before I could even think about moving my feet, he pushed me inside with his foot, sending me sprawling on the floor.

The door slammed behind me.

"Great," I mumbled as I pushed myself up off of the floor, my bag tangled around my body. "One second he's a mothering hen, and the next he's abusive and angry. He's worse than I am!"

I stood slowly, dusting off my knees as I looked around the room. I had been there before, but had never really had the chance to notice anything—not that there was much to notice. There was a door, which I knew led to the bedroom, but otherwise there was just a beaten up sofa pushed into the corner, parts of it stained with old blood.

Okay, ew.

Shadows flickered in my peripheral vision, but it was a normal occurrence when I lacked my meds. Honestly, I was surprised that it had taken so long for the hallucinations to begin to try and make themselves known to me—what had happened earlier concerning Usagi's teeth had been a tame precursor to things that would show themselves to me in a far, far worse manner.

Instead of focusing on what wasn't really there, I decided to remove my messenger bag from my body (once I untangled myself, of course) and set it the ground. Then, I sat on the ground myself in a corner near the door with my back up against the wall.

It was deadly silent in the room, and it didn't even have a window for me to look out of. Bars or no, it was the window I missed most from the old room, even just knowing I wouldn't be back in there for who knows how long for only a handful of minutes. I had grown attached to that room in the amount of time I had been in there.

Orders are orders, Kaori, and they are good little soldiers.

If it comes down to it, they'll kill you.

I looked down at my hands, piling them neatly in my lamb. They were trembling like earthquakes, just like I knew my whole body was. Hopefully, the tremors would wear off soon as the medication worked its way out of my system. When the time came, though, the tremors would be replaced with stronger voices and deeper hallucinations and delusions.

I would rather have the tremors coursing through my body.

Alrighty then! I think I'm back into the swing of things, so I'll be updating on Wednesdays and Fridays, especially since I now have a handful of buffer chapters just in case I get super busy (like I am this week, but I've already written five chapters?).

Thank you guys so much for the reviews!