“You're still going to show up tomorrow even after what happened during lunch?”
“Yeah. Hey, um.. I have to go now, Yukio. I’ll see you tomorrow at school.”
“Oh, alright. See you.” Haruto hung up the phone once Yukio was done speaking. It was currently 7:08 PM in Japan, Haruto promised he would watch a movie with his little sisters earlier in the day, they had to go to bed at 8:45 so he had to do it as soon as possible.
“Were you talking with your new friend? Is there a girl you like? Did you make tons of new friends? Tell me, tell me!” His sister Yuki kept on coming up with questions, he didn’t know exactly how to answer them all. It was getting overwhelming, so he decided to change the topic.
“Remember, it’s already getting late so let’s choose a movie,” Haruto said, trying to get Yuki to stop asking questions. They ended up deciding to play a board game instead because they couldn’t find anything interesting to watch.
“I win, great game my children!” Haruto’s mother said, she was clearly happy about winning against her children in the game.
“Yuki and Tsuki, it’s time for bed now. Haruto, you can rest in your room.” Haruto’s sisters were upset about having to go to sleep, but they listened to their mom. As for Haruto, he didn’t really know what to do so he just went to sleep too, a little extra sleep wouldn’t hurt. Once he went to sleep, he fell asleep immediately, but it also felt like he woke up immediately when he opened his eyes to something strange.
“It’s dark, it’s not even the morning—” Haruto paused with a look of pure confusion. “This isn’t my room, what is this place?” Haruto continued.
“...” Haruto heard a small sound, a very low voice, he couldn’t understand what he had just heard. That is until he hears something in the distance.
“WHO’S THERE!” Haruto shouted out. All he saw was a large shadow.
“r….a….l” The little voice was hard to figure out.
“What?” Haruto walked closer, trying to understand what he heard.
“I’m…” Haruto wandered closer.
“I’m real.”
“What do you mean ‘you’re real’?” He said getting even closer, but now hearing stomps coming towards him.
“I’m real..” Haruto was puzzled at this point. He saw something come at him at a sudden quick speed.
“...”
“ Ì̺̫̞̟̼̃̀̔͐͛̈̈͛̈́̆͜͡͝_̮̅͠'̮̜͈̣̙͙ͨͣͯ͒͂͊͂͜͝M̴̢̛̭̜̖͌̅̐ Ŕ̘̥̄ͨͮͣ͂Ȇ̠̔͠_̡̡͔͙̠͙͔͍̺̦̇̑̑́͌̉́̽͜A̛͔͖̪ͥ͗ͯͤ͌͑ͣ̐̔̀͌̕͟L̤” The six-eyed creature pounced at him, stabbing him with it’s arm, he felt it, screamed, until he hit headboard.
“GET AWAY!” He said, trembling.
“Oh, it was a dream..?” As he said that, he winced, “But if it was a dream.. why does it hurt.” He said, beginning to panic. He coughed up some blood. Haruto slowly removed his thin, medium-sized blanket.
“...” He looked at his stomach, terrified. It was bleeding, it wasn’t as deep as it was in the nightmare, but it was very real. The door opened.
“Honey, it’s time to–” His mom stopped, she immediately knew something was wrong. Haruto covered it up with his blanket and pulled his shirt back down as soon as his mom entered the room.
“Haruto, are you doing ok?” His mother said, worryingly
“Yeah, nothing's wrong. I’ll be in here getting ready.” There were some hints of the fact that he was far from ok from the way he spoke and the way he looked. His mother decided to leave it there though.
“OK, I’m just checking. Try to be in the dining room in about 10 minutes.” His mom said as she began to exit his room.
“Will do.” After she left he let out another cough. It was a good thing that the bathroom was right across from his room. He opened the door to check if there was anyone there, then he took his clothes and a jacket and quickly ran over to the bathroom. ‘Hopefully nobody saw.’ He locked the door and unbuttoned his nightwear carefully. Haruto grabbed the bandages from the medicine cabinet and began to wrap it around the stab wound.
“How the hell did I actually get this… there’s absolutely no possible way that a nightmare could actually cause physical harm…” Haruto muttered. After slowing down the bleeding and putting on the bandages, he put his school uniform on and went into the dining room.
“Good morning, everyone.” Haruto said, trying to hide the pain that he felt. He sat down, but he didn’t eat. It would probably be pretty painful, he thought. He’s never been stabbed before so he doesn’t know what he should and shouldn’t do about it.
“Haruto, are you sure you’re ok? You’re not eating.” His mother said worryingly.
“Yeah– I’m just not hungry. Tsuki, Yuki, want my leftover rice?” Haruto asked his two little sisters.
“Sure!” Surprisingly both Yuki and Tsuki said it at the same time. After that, he gave both of them half and half.
“I think I’ll leave early, love you.” He said as he quickly walked out the door.
“Be careful, son.” His mother said right before Haruto walked out the door. As soon as Haruto closed the door and started walking, he let out a few coughs. It hurt a lot because of the stab wound. ‘Hopefully we don’t do anything too extreme in P.E. today, it would hurt like hell if we did.’ After thinking that, he immediately went to doubting that some miracle would happen and they wouldn’t do something extreme.
“Morning, Bushida!” Yukio yelled out, quickly closing the distance between him and Haruto.
“Oh, good morning Yukio.” He was glad to see Yukio, the pain was still just as bad though.
“Heard that we’ll be doing some basketball to start off the year!” Yukio said with joy, it was apparent that he had a burning passion for basketball.
“...that sounds fun.” Haruto is fond of basketball, but with his current condition, it’ll be painful.
“You good, Bushida?” Yukio said, he was pretty concerned about Haruto. All Haruto did was nod his head. After that, the first bell rang.
“Looks like we have to go our separate ways.” Haruto said.
“Yeah, wish I had the same homeroom as you and Kuroki. It would definitely be pretty fun with all three of us there! Anyways, I’ll see you later in P.E.” Yukio said in response prior to running off.
“See you..” Haruto replied. Still, Haruto had no idea who Kuroki was. He tried to distract his mind from the pain from the wound.
“Good morning, class. Please get your textbooks out and turn to page…” After the words his teacher spoke, he just zoned out. The rest was distorted. He felt dizzy.
“B…i..a..!”
“Bu…hi…a!” He heard a voice that sounded like it was calling him.
“Bushida!” Haruto’s head popped up, he fell asleep or fainted. He didn’t know, Haruto stared at his teacher blankly, with no idea what just happened.
“Bushida, please do not fall asleep in class again. Make sure you pay attention and keep your head up.” Said his teacher, reminding him of what to do and what not to do.
“Yes ma’am.” He looked around and noticed everybody staring at him and heard some snickering from behind him. ‘Great, you fell asleep in class and now they’re talking about you. Again.’ He sat up straight, but it also hurt at the same time. Haruto continued getting more and more anxious as his classmates continued to talk about him behind his back. It didn’t help that his table partner wouldn’t even bother talking to him.
“OK, class. It’s now time to pack up your belongings and be ready to go when the bell rings.” Everyone listened and packed up. When the bell rang Haruto already knew that hell was going to be coming. All he hoped was that nobody would notice.
“Bushida! What’s up!” Yukio came running over with his head down, trying to avoid getting caught sprinting in the hallways.
“Oh, hi Yukio.” Said Haruto in a quiet tone.
“Ready for some basketball? Though I’m pretty sure today we’re just learning how to dribble and guard.” Said Yukio.
“Off topic, but I honestly wish I just had the same classmates for the whole school day so that it wouldn’t be so many of them making fun of me.” Complained Haruto.
“Don’t worry about them, I’ve got your back. I’m pretty sure you’ll be able to make new friends later on in the school year.”
“I hope so..” After the words Haruto had just spoken, he started coughing quite a bit.
“Bushida, you ok? Those sounded like some pretty bad coughs.” Yukio patted Haruto’s back.
“Yeah, everything’s ok. Probably just allergies.” Haruto said in response after quickly wiping the blood from his mouth, hiding his slightly bloody hand behind his back.
“Alright, if you say so.” Yukio said, with an unsure tone.
When the two boys entered the locker room, Haruto realized that he would have to take off his shirt. Why was this a problem? Haruto hadn't changed his bandages in a few hours, and by the time they got to P.E., it was very bloody. When he pulled his P.E. uniform out, he hid his bandages in it and quickly went over to the bathroom stalls, making sure nobody saw. But, there was a problem. Somebody did see Haruto swipe the bandages out of his bag, but the person kept quiet about it. Haruto took a deep breath in, and a deep breath out before removing his bandages. He began to slowly remove it, his heart rate went up from the sight of the wound. ‘It’s ok Haruto, just don’t let anybody see it. It’ll heal up in no time!’ Haruto thought. Even though he knew that it was just a lie he told himself to feel better. After he was done he walked out of the bathroom stall, he left the locker room along with Yukio and listened to the instructions of their P.E. instructor.
“Now that everybody knows what to do, go ahead and choose your partners!”
“Yukio, want to work together?” Haruto said as he walked towards Yukio.
“Sure, though I’m kind of worried about Kuroki. Doubt anyone would willingly go work with her. I’m sure she’ll be fine though. You stay here, I’ll go and get the ball.” Haruto stayed, listening to Yukio. Something he still couldn’t get off of his mind was who Kuroki was. Yukio talks about her quite a bit, but never says what she looks like.
“Back, shall we get to practicing?” Yukio said in an unserious manner. Haruto nodded.
“First of all, I need to know this. Have you ever played basketball before? Do you know how to shoot the ball into the hoop properly?” Yukio questioned.
“Yeah, I played this quite a bit back in Osaka.” Haruto replied.
“Sweet! Let’s start then!” Yukio was excited to practice with Haruto, but there was an issue. With all the movement Haruto was doing, he began to feel very uneasy. As if he was going to pass out.
“Hey Bushida, are you sure you’re ok?” Yukio said as he caught the ball.
“Yeah.. just a little.. tired.” Haruto said while panting, he just hoped that Yukio wouldn’t catch onto what was going on with Haruto.
“Hey losers! Catch!” A classmate yelled out right after throwing his basketball at Haruto. Because his classmate waited to say that, Haruto was caught off guard, getting hit in the stomach pretty hard. Suddenly everyone was staring, but this time it was mostly fear. Haruto collapsed, trying to cover his stomach.
“HE’S BLEEDING! ALL I DI….S…..LL……..!” It was all distorted as Haruto began to blackout.
“What the hell happened..?” Haruto muttered quietly, slowly opening his eyes. He saw a white ceiling, when he looked to his right he saw other beds. He realized that he was in the nurse’s office, his shirt was unbuttoned, and his old bandages were replaced.
“...” Haruto tried to sit up, but it hurt to do so.
“You’re awake, that’s a relief. Yukio, you may come in now.” The nurse said while walking towards Haruto.
“How long was I out..?” Haruto said, though it may have been kind of hard to understand what he said.
“For about thirty minutes.” Right after the nurse replied, the door slammed open.
“Bushida..” It was Yukio who came in.
“What the..
“WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?!” Yukio shouted.
“I–”
“That wasn’t from the damn ball.” Yukio continued.
“Listen.. it–”
“I saw it. I saw you take those bandages out. Right before you went into the bathroom stall.”
“...”
.
.
.
.
–CHAPTER 2 END–
Comments (0)
See all