"Hey-"

Luan was winning, yet losing the staring contest.

"Tell me."

With her presence, the bathroom knew no loneliness at the time being, and would be occupied for maybe an hour or two. It had no way of knowing that Luan would make this a frequent event, when she had even the energy to come and look. And then, she would no longer be able to come down and gaze at her reflection once the sight had burned into her brain. The sight of herself and the stitches on her head, left from that grave injury the drunken Luna had caused while she and Lynn had a heavy argument that escalated unnecessarily out of proportion.

"Why isn't she here?" Luan didn't understand why Luna hadn't accompanied the pick-up crew when it had been time for her to go home- the new home, actually. Nothing but oddly empty expressions surrounded her from left to right, too weird for it to have been a case of Luna getting cold feet to have come see her. Something was wrong here. She didn't open her eyes today in the comfort the day allowed her to have just to learn a new negative development. "Is she at home? T-tell me she's home..."

It would be hers only, never to be joined by Luna, it seemed. Luna, the eldest sister of that batch who would help in the girl matters, such as doing her hair, choosing a new color for her nails, the casual shopping. All the activities down the line that may have been, cut short by one mistake, and that was it. She deemed it unfair a punishment- Punishment? That wasn't the word she'd use, despite it coming from Aunt Rinn's lips, but that would have implied Luna could come back. And with that, for a while, Luan looked to the incoming days of sunshine.

But Luna had become a topic avoided. Just another name forgotten in due time, a person who might have repeated the same mistake if let in underneath the roof.

Luan thought she felt the warm embrace of Luna's hand on both of her shoulders. She could still feel them, she knew how soft but firm they were. Only, it was just an illusion of the mind, in the time she had a proper mind. All it was, and it was damn beautiful for a second. Beautiful, but nowhere close to ideal. If it was so that she had to remember Luna by, for years to come, then God help her.

Stare all you want, she's not going to appear outta thin air, her mind whispered away as a means to correct the imbalance between emotion and logic. What am I even doing? Playing myself stupidly... What for?

Could not go on like this. Time looking at reflections and fantasizing- Maybe it had been that she really was stupid if it went on and on again. Luan, a hopelessly dumb person who clung to the past, not far away from a rising sickness now.

It's unfair, and it's not even funny!

It's not even-

Liby fumbled and begged tearfully for Luna through a homemade nightmare up until Lacy shook her awake, and all that she had experienced had faded away in mere seconds, but the memories of Luan lived on to curse and chain Liby in a horrible manner, almost as if it had been passed down directly. She worked up a nasty sweat that left her pillow stained and quite reeking of that common post-physical education period she wish she had never been used to. "Oh!"

"Hey, what's on your mind?" Lacy, looking a tad out of character with her hair not set into a ponytail, had been all up in Liby's face, serving her duty as big (not older) sister here. "You alright?"

"I-" Poor girl didn't know what the right answer was. She could tell Lacy, and she could keep silent. Lacy/Lynn, whichever, might not have had the right advice to share upon Liby at whatever choice of dialogue was selected. She merely half-closed her eyes, second-guessing herself, but had her body react by itself; she shook her head and remained steadily silent to let Lacy see for herself.

"Nightmare, right? Is this about Lucy being absent?" Lacy vowed to get her hands on Lupa for this, leaving them here while she did God knows what back up north. "Cause, ergh..."

Liby snuggled herself up, arms wrapping around her knees once they folded upwards, giving Lacy her undivided attention; Lacy/Lynn wasn't one to have mush-mush feely moments, for she squirmed when she could, concentrated on either another dumb trophy or the training that earned her the one-way ticket to Winnersville. Tonight was of no opportunity to be any such victor, however.

"Man... I like Lucy, man," Lacy mumbled lowly, almost as if she felt guilty for enjoying the goth stepsister's presence. "I mean, not like that, obviously!" Lacy let out a goofy slip-up of a laugh, going red with silly embarrassment. "Y-you know what I mean!"

"I know, how do you think I feel about her?" Lu- Liby (oops, LOL) set her chin over her knees, in between that opening where it made her only uncomfortable, but she cared little. "You know, I never thought I'd bond with her, but we did... We did, over a silly contest that she won, and..." Her eyes went off Lacy. "She was going to go places, and I was going to support her every step of the way. She wrote poems and wanted me to give her a critique, and she had such talent! She..."

"Oh..." Lacy let her eyes fall. "You guys..."

"Yeah, Lynn..." Liby rubbed fingers around over her kneecaps. "S-sorry, I didn't mean to-"

"Eh, I was already awake," Lacy excused, gracefully moving away from the bedside. "You thirsty for a drink?"

"Uhh, sure, just some water is fine."

"Be right back," Lacy smiled, prancing out of the room to leave Liby to tend to her thoughts. And there were thoughts rattling in there, but silence everywhere- and out the door where darkness lurked on and forever. Lacy's footsteps faded away, but those had gone unnoticed to begin with. Liby turned the pillow over and returned to lie back down. She closed her eyes.

And far from here, there was a female corpse due to never open its eyes ever again.

Memories of the Past, Chapter VI