“Hey, Kotohime...” I croak out in a scratchy voice, my throat feeling rough and parched like sandpaper from a combination of thirst and grogginess. When she doesn’t reply, as painful as it might be to my throat, I raise the volume of my voice, “... Hey Kotohime, wake up. This isn’t your room, you know.”
Come to think of it, I don’t think she even has a room.
When she doesn’t reply to that, I carefully slip a hand in between the back of her head and my shoulder, keeping her head gently suspended as I wriggle myself out from under her, before lowering it onto the soft surface of the mattress. Bringing a hand up to my head and massaging my temples as I sit up, I let out a small sigh, looking down at the girl still lying down on the bed, blissfully unaware of the trouble she’s causing me right now.
Really, when is she going to stop causing me problems like this? Even my little sister wasn’t this troublesome to have around back when she was just a toddler. Sitting at the edge of the bed, I lean over her body, reaching out with a hand, almost hesitantly, to touch her cheek. Feeling a little malicious, I pinch a part of it, tugging at her cheek, though not too hard. I can’t believe how heavy a sleeper she is. Though, I didn’t expect her to be narcoleptic...
I freeze when I see her eyelids twitch, letting go of her cheek. Slowly, they flutter open, blinking a few times in the light of the room. I move slightly to the side as she begins to sit up, her fiery hair still in a wild mess about her head. She looks straight ahead, then, to either sides, and up at the ceiling, like she’s in some unfamiliar place. Finally while her head turns about, scanning the entirety of the room, Kotohime’s eyes fall upon me, and her head stops there.
Immediately, I realize that something is wrong with her; her eyes stare ahead emptily, her pupils rapidly contracting and dilating.
(
http://tindeck.com/listen/pmlt)
“Koto--” I begin, immediately sensing danger.
She says nothing, only bringing a finger to her lips to quiet me. With a blank, unreadable expression on her face, she leans forward, reaching out with her hands. I take a sharp breath as I feel her white fingertips on my neck, those slim, narrow fingers wrapping themselves around my throat. Stricken with paralysis, I watch on as her fingers and thumbs tighten around my neck, hard enough to dig in, but not enough to cut off oxygen intake. I attempt to back away, but her hands follow me, staying firmly gripped around my throat. I try to say something to her, but nothing comes out when I meet those eyes of hers, staring dreamily into nothing.
“Kkkgght.” A hiss comes from those delicate lips, as if to imitate the sound of something hard cracking, and then, Kotohime releases her grip on my throat, letting her hands fall to the mattress below. She leans back, and puts on a smile. No, that couldn’t be called a smile. Only her lips are smiling. The rest of her face hasn’t changed at all. Her eyes are unblinking, her face is stiff and unmoving, and those pupils of hers haven’t stopped shaking at all. I flinch when she pushes herself forward again, freezing up as she puts her head next to mine, her lips close to my ear.
“Broken~” she whispers into it, and giggles.
I shove her, nearly falling to the floor as I hurry to get off the bed. Clumsily managing to stand on my two feet, I start to stumble back, away from the bed, until I’ve backed into the wall, feeling its cool touch on my palms. Kotohime... she... fell back like a ragdoll, the moment I pushed her. She’s lying on the bed again, her limbs in disarray. My heart pounding like crazy, but not for the same reason it was when I woke up, I slowly approach the bed, glancing down at the girl. Her eyes are closed, and her chest steadily rises up and down, like she’s just gone back to sleep.
Or... maybe she was never awake in the first place?
Damn it! What the hell is wrong with her, anyway!" That... that wasn’t normal. No, hardly anything about her can be called normal, but this -- this was even more abnormal. I clutch my face with a hand, gritting my teeth. Damn it, damn it, damn it. Even if... even if I asked A, she would probably just give me the same bullshit answer she gave me last time when I asked about her. “Not something I should be the one to tell you” my ass. If we ever meet in person, I’m going to
force her to tell me just what in the world is wrong with--
I stop my racing thought, blinking rapidly. I shake my head. What the hell am I getting so worked up for? Why in the world would I want to know that? As soon as Yuuka and the rest find a way to get back to their world, she’ll be gone as well, won’t she? Then, it doesn’t have to be my problem. Is it something that I should really want to know about? It’s not. It’s not something that I should concern myself with, right..."
Yes, that’s right.
It’s not my problem.
I don’t... I don’t need to--
An image of a white feather flashes across my eyes. --know. I don’t need to know. I don’t need to know!
“Shit!” I curse out loud, stumbling to the wall and pushing against it with a hand for support, beginning to inch toward the door.
My head hurts, and my heart feels heavy. It must be the room. It’s suffocating in here. I need to get out of here. Hurrying toward the door, I manage to catch the doorknob after a few flustered grabs for it, turning it and pulling the door open. Taking hurried steps out from it, I shut the door behind me quickly, as though there’s a monster chasing me from behind. Immediately, I feel relieved, my back stuck to the wall as I slide down it, sitting on the floor. Breathing heavily, I shake my head, and after a few seconds, I uneasily stand up.
Right, there’s going to be a party tonight...
Anything to take my mind off what happened is fine.
With weak steps I head toward the living room. In the middle of the hall, I see Kana standing in the way, her gloved hands folded together in front of her apron. She wears the same bright and cheery smile as usual, and normally it’s a nice sight, but right now it just reminds me of the “smile” that Kotohime put on just now.
“You look pale, master,” she says innocently. “Did something happen?”
...She can see and hear everything that goes on in this house, so of course she knows that something happened. Irritating. That’s somehow irritating. Is she... is she mocking me right now? No, no... it’s just a show of concern, right? Even if she already knows what happened, she’s just showing concern for me, so it’s alright. Right? Isn’t that right?
“Nothing...” I say, my voice coming out shaky. “Nothing, really. Did the party start yet...?”
“Ah, well, no, not yet,” she says with a knowing grin, “But... something else did.”
“...Something else?”
She steps to the side, directing her hand toward the living room like she’s some kind of guide. “Come right this way and you’ll see what I mean, master.”
With a wary glance in the direction she’s pointing, I begin to move forward again, walking past the smiling maid and out into the living room. Upon entering, I immediately realize what’s she’s talking about at just a glance of the scene before me: Yuuka stands at one side of the room, dressed in her pajamas with her arms folded together haughtily, with a wide grin on her face, and on the other side of the room, Muse stands surrounded by those luminescent pink crosses, their sharp tips pointed at the woman opposite her. Kurumi and Elly are seated at the sofa, huddled together and shaking.
“Oh goddamn it,” I mutter.
Kana giggles softly.
[ ] Attempt to defuse the situation.
[ ] Fuck it, go grab a drink and something to eat.