Clara -
Momma...
Sing for me softly, love: your song for tomorrow,
And tell my name's the one that’s hidden in there, somewhere.
And dream for me anything;
But, dream it in color about when all--the sun's still rising, and we don’t care...
...Do you feel us falling? 'Cause I can feel us falling...
I would sleep like a dog, if you had never have said: this is the world coming down on your head.
If you're so smart, explain this, Clarissa.
And I was awake and I was crying and I was alone in a bedroom and--and, Mom, where are you, Momma--Mom, are you, wait; what, Mom--
And...now I was actually awake. For real this time. I shot a hand up to feel my face carefully--making sure my sunglasses were still here. They were. My pants were still on, too, so that was cool.
I sighed in relief, sweating slightly. Okay...now, where was I?
I was...what? In a bathroom stall. A school bathroom, graffiti long etched into the peeling paint.
Cool enough. Next to figure out: why I was here.
Before I could think that one through, a familiar emptiness flied through my head, and I got cold chills as realization hit me. I sat up straight, busting out of the deserted stall. Only a single thing was on my mind as I ripped off my sunglasses and assessed myself in a lipstick-stained mirror.
I stopped dead when I saw my reflection.
Now buzz, buzz, buzz;
Doc, there's a hole where something was.
Doc, there's a hole where something was.
My hand ghosted over my "bad" eye, dipping into an empty socket where a round piece of glass should have rested. On the sagging eyelid sat a bar-code. A brand. I touched it tenderly, my eye burning as raw skin brushed against my rotting socket. It hadn't been washed out properly since I'd fallen asleep, I could tell.
Ew.
I assessed it all calmly, familiarizing myself with my new tattoo. Pink scars around the lid were covered nicely by this new addition, which fit me just fine.
Would I be a faggot to say I was worried a this point, Jimmy?
Yes, Clara.
Right. Then, I wasn't. I was completely calm as m head whipped around, and tears pricked a m eyes, and I tried to figure out why I couldn't remember anything.
"H-Hello?" I called aloud, cursing the weakness in my voice.
What was I doing? God, I was such a cunt. "He! Who in hell is here?" I corrected myself slamming open the bathroom door and having a piercing scream meeting my ears. A girl ran directly into me almost simultaneously.
It was Alice, and she was crying, and mumbling shit I couldn't understand through her tears and too-thick accent. "Whoa, whoa; c'mere, kid." I grabbed her shoulders lightly and held her slightly aloft from myself, examining her.
My voice was as soft as I could make it when I spoke again, "What happened, girly?" I stooped down to her height, focusing to make out her next words.
"'I--'Ik-k-kari! Zhe is d...d-dead...!" she sobbed harder as my eyes landed on what must have been Hikari's corpse. Blood red. Mangled.
Above it, written in a sloppy, confused scrawl was "The Liar Must Die".
It was then that I decided to stop thinking: I patted the back of Alice's head comfortingly, "It's all good, kid. It's okay." I whispered.
And I tried real hard to believe myself.
