Yoo~~
I know it's been a while since I don't update here. I hope someone still want to read it...
As it is the actual beginning of the fic, it took me sometime to settle the atmosphere and how I would do what I had to do... It was hard... ;.;
Yuki88: I hope you like my story too^^ I suppose you're right o/ Sorry for the long wait o/
Stv_wong: You guessed right too \o/ huahuah Awnn Did you really read my story again? *.* Please don't be afraid, it is just a story ><
XxRoByNxX78: Thank you! I hope you like this one^^
Gekiragakuen: Hey o/ Thank you for reading and I hope you like this one too =]
Thank you to everyone who read it o/
This is not proofread, though a friend gave me few tips. Thank you Ren for the help o/
The cry of a lonely star
Chapter 1
Silent love
The sunlight was passing through the curtains and a strong and warm beam was caressing her skin. She shifted on her bed wondering why it was so bright when it was so early in the morning. But deepening her thought, wasn't she sleeping for a long time now? Slowly opening her eyes, she looked around her room just to find it was a mess. It had been a mess since her friend went missing a week before. It was really worrying her; especially after what happened. When a person is missing for more than 72 hours, it could mean three things: the person ran away, or got kidnapped or... She didn't want to consider the last one. There were so many things she wanted to do and say...
With a sigh, she rolled out her bed, checking helplessly her phone. The hope insisted on plaster her. What if her friend had sent her a message in her sleep? Then, they could back to their everyday routine. Her friend could smile brightly at her again; or they could enjoy each other company. All she wanted was to have back her precious friend. She was so deep in brooding her sorrows that she didn't notice the lateness of the time. Without rush to pass another meaningless day at school, she dressed herself slackly.
Only when she dragged herself into her house’s kitchen that she noticed that she was alone at home. Her breakfast was on the table, beside a brief note from her mother. She approached the table, completely disinterested in eating that meal, and read the short note. ‘Dear, I didn’t want to wake you. Papa and I will arrive late today, sorry. Please eat the breakfast. Love, mama’ The girl sighed looking at the kitchen clock. She was late, but she didn’t care. After save the food in the fridge, she found her way to school.
The more she was approaching the school grounds, the more it was becoming desert. It was a bit unusual, but she let it go, since it already passed the entrance hour. She faced the school’s closed gate and wondered why she was still coming to attend classes. Despite the fact that was a very prestigious school, for wealthy family kids, a great percentage of the docent members were arrogant whippersnappers. They all wore a mask of kindness to show off how great they were, but inside they were corrupted monsters. She knew that the other percentage was truly kindhearted people, but the abusive ones were the dominant. And the teachers couldn’t do a thing about it, because it was those kid’s families that paid great donations to the school. Shaking her head to wipe off those thoughts, she tried to open the gate. It was strangely locked.
Looking around to find a way to get in, she wondered why they locked the gates. They never lock the gates. For a slight moment, the steady atmosphere blew a light breeze on her face. She turned to face the wind’s direction and saw a tree which the branches went over the school ground walls. Without procrastinate she ran to the tree, climbed up and carefully crossed the wall through a yielding branch. With a loud thud, she landed gracelessly. Standing up as fast as she could, the girl removed the dust from her clothes and rushed to the school’s front door.
Another intriguing think was that the courtyard was empty. Besides, a strange silence was reigning over the land. Placing her foot on the first hung of the ladder, she noticed that the door was closed. Forcing her entrance looking through the glasses’ window, the emptiness of the hallway made her finally think that there was something awful happening. Finding the door also locked, she shook her head remembering a window near the dining hall she always used when late. It was a secret between her and her… With a light shake of head she made that thought go away; she didn’t want to remember that kind of thing in such situation.
Quickly making her way to the spot, all that steady and silence atmosphere was letting her uneasy. The window was closet, like everything in that school seemed to be on that day. Forcing the window up, it easily opened as always. Climbing struggling a bit, the girl finally stepped into the building. But, as soon as she did, her head hurt painfully while she heard someone calling her name inside it. It lasted a second and was followed by a strange smell. An endurable unpleasant smell. She couldn’t say what exactly, though it was a bit familiar. That was when she perceived a slop of a viscous red liquid coming from the dining hall door gap. Though it frightened her, she approached the door and opened it carefully.
The girl wished she had never approached the place. The view stunned her. Her stomach churned in disgust with the grotesque scene; and for the first time in days she was grateful she didn’t take the breakfast. The viscous red liquid happened to be blood and it was from the corpses around the room. She instantly recognized the employees responsible for the kitchen related works. They seemed twisted and had cuts all over their bodies, especially on the neck. Most of the tables were turned and spread like there was a fight.
The woman on the farthest left corner was the one who always served her the meat of the day at lunch time; she also was one of the cookers. She had a huge cut on the neck which was still spilling blood, small cuts on both arms and on her torso. Few meters away from that woman to the right, a man was on a turned table laid on his stomach with arms pending and his life viscous fluid dripping off in a decomposed rhythm through his hands. He was the cooker assistant and always helped with the heavy objects in the entire dining hall. She knew that because there were only two men that worked in there, the assistant cooker and cleaner; and this last one was lying on the floor facing the ceiling with glassy eyes on the other side of the room. He also had a cut on his neck, but a huge cut on his thorax dragged more attention. On a turned chair next a counter was the school nutritionist, a woman, she recalled always think funny of this fact, who was always complaining about the bad feeding habits of the students. She recognized the other four women, all kitchen helpers, by the hair style, the way the nails were painted, a clover tattoo on the hand and skin tone; because their faces or were turned to the other side or to the floor, or were unrecognizable by uncountable cuts, like someone wanted to slice them into small pieces. They all looked like they fought for their lives. She covered her mouth with a hand and tried to not throw up.
Still trying to control her sickening, she heard a sob. Looking at its direction she saw on the floor a trail of blood leading to the kitchen. While she was approaching the kitchen door, the sobs started to get loud. The girl sneaked into the room, trying to not be noticed by the sobbing voice. Underneath the counter, she found a crying girl with short hair covered in blood hugging a body. Also in her hand was a cleaver dirty with the red fluid. It startled her in a way that she ended up making a noise. The crying girl awakens from her catatonic state. Still hugging the body, she raises the hand holding the cleaver and threats the terrified girl. The other widened her eyes and rose up her hands. In this new position, she recognized the body.
“Akimoto-sensei!” The girl shouted trying to lean closer. The threatening girl swung the cleaver towards her. She stopped again in the previous position.
“Back…!” This was all the threatening girl could say with a painful and angry expression. Then, the girl decided to make a different approaching.
“Wait!” She started. “I will not harm you. See?” The girl swung her empty hands. “I’m disarmed. My name is Kashiwagi Yuki. What is yours?” She said placing a hand over her chest. The other girl hugged again Akimoto’s unmoving body and leaned down the cleaver.
“Mi… Miya… zawa Sa… Sae…” The girl said between sobs, but looked like it was more than that. Yuki pondered a bit. She had already heard about that student, Miyazawa Sae. She was a girl with a mental illness and needed special treatment. Though Yuki didn’t know what illness was, Miyazawa needed whole day supervision. And Akimoto was the teacher assigned to that task.
“Sae-san… What happened here?” Yuki asked praying that the girl could say intelligible lines.
“Sayaka… sensei… tried to… to kill… me…” Sae said restarting to cry and sob heavily. Yuki’s jaw dropped, she couldn’t help it.
~-~-~-~-
A fancy limousine stopped in front of the school gates. An almost expressionless driver stepped out the car and headed to the passenger back door. His mistress jumped out of her seat when he opened the door for her. The girl then looked at him, smiled energetically like she used to and thanked him. The man's hard expression softened a bit with her gesture and his lips made a singular curve of a smile. He loved that girl like she was his own daughter. He was in charge to take care of her since her birth. And having being birth with a mental illness didn't make her family love her less.
"Sae-chan, good morning!" A known voice greeted, making Sae's heart skip a beat. The girl looked at the voice's direction to see its owner. Her smile grew, making she look more stupid than she already looked like.
"Sayaka-sensei!" Sae run to the woman and jumped onto her. It was basically their morning routine. Sayaka caught her, making them hug. She was already used with the girl's behavior, since one of the illness features was having the mind of a child.
"I entrust this child to you once more, Akimoto-sensei." The driver said in his deep voice. The teacher smiled at him. Then he bowed in respect, got in the car and drove away.
"Let's go inside, Sae-chan." Sayaka said holding Sae's hand, for the girl's delight. She nodded frantically tightening her grip on her teacher's hand.
The two walked through the school courtyard observing the movement around them. The students were arriving at school. Some were arriving by walking, others were being driven and others were arriving in their own cars. The ones who had any kind of club activity were already at school. In a far distance they could see few of the sports clubs having their activity. But Sae didn’t care about this at all; for her it was more than enough being there with her teacher.
Sayaka led her to inside the building through the front door. She tried to recall the morning activities while crossing the hallway. The first thing to do on that day of the week was to go to the library to get a literature book to practice the reading, then find a place where the younger could read aloud. Usually this place is the dining hall. At this time of day, the place is only frequented by employees. Sae concentrated only on the warmth coming from the hand holding hers. When she realized, they were already in front of the library’s door.
The younger girl particularly liked that day of the week. She loved the books Sayaka chose for the reading time; she loved to read. As soon as they stepped in the room filled with bookshelves, the teacher released her student’s hand and walked towards the bookshelf she knew that where the book she was planning to make Sae read that day was in.
Sae didn't get bothered with that parting because on the farthest corner of the room, near the window, she sighted two friendly figures. The one with a bow on the head noticed Sae looking at them and waved. The girl smiled widely.
"Takamina! Acchan!" Sae yelled innocently happy and waving back. The girl beside the one with the bow looked at her and smiled back. Still smiling, the bow girl leaned her index finger near her mouth, making an asking silence movement. Sae widened her eyes as if remembering something important and took her both hands to her mouth and bowed few times, apologizing. This gesture made the two sat girls laugh silently. With that, Sae approached. She didn't notice that the others in the place were looking at her reprehensibly.
"Ohayou, Sae-chan!" The bow girl greeted whispering gently. Sae liked those two. They were ones of the fewest that treated her normally, not like she was a freak.
"'Hayou, Takamina!" She greeted back with the smile that never faded.
"How's your day going?" The other one asked in a low tone, but still cheerfully.
"Good, Acchan! Today papa, mama and bothers took breakfast together! And Sayaka-sensei is beautiful today too and I hope she gets a nice book today!" Sae answered almost without a pause to breath. Acchan exchanged an understanding look with Takamina.
"That's great, Sae-chan!" Before Takamina could say anything else, Sayaka approached with a book in hands. "Ohayou, Akimoto-sensei."
"Ohayou, Takahashi-san, Maeda-san." The teacher greeted the students. She used to be the literature teacher before be assigned to be full time with Miyazawa Sae. In the end she quite enjoyed the teenager company. "Sae-chan, let's go. I got the book." Sae nodded energetically. "Excuse us." To Sae's excitement once more, Sayaka held her hand. She waved a goodbye to her two friends, who waved back happily.
Back again on the corridors, the two found it with more students than before. They walked hand in hand silently until they reach their destiny. Sayaka looked at her wristwatch, there was still time until the bell ring and send everyone to their respective classroom. Few students greeted the teacher since she was very popular due to her sympathy and her rigorousness when teaching.
Without notice, Sae found herself facing the closed dining hall door. She never expected she was so deep in memorize Sayaka's warm touch on her hand. The teacher opened the door, making an ample ambient with different sizes tables neatly organized appear in front of her student's eyes. The two found the kitchen employees sat on a large table discussing what meal they would cook for the day.
"Ohayou!" Sae greeted all of them smiling and waving, entering on the room with Sayaka. The group greeted her back. They were all very fond of the girl.
"Ohayou, Sae-chan! Do you like roasted ribs?" Asked a slim woman approaching Sae, who was sitting at a table for six on a corner. She was the school nutritionist.
"I do, Ichinose-san!" Sae was already drooling over the food image she made on her mind. Now she couldn't wait for lunch time. Sayaka smiled at the sight of the smiling figure beside her.
"Good, because that is what we are going to have for lunch." The woman patted Sae's head and then made her way to the kitchen. The others followed her. Sae could hear them talking with the cleaner guy who often helped in the kitchen.
"Right. Here is today's book. Let's start reading the title." Sayaka said gently and putting the book on the table.
"Mou, let's just wait the ring bell." Sae whined clinging on the older's arm. Sayaka just smiled, letting the girl be. On this exactly moment a loud noisy sound echoed through the entire school, making Sae pout.
"It rang. So please start." Sayaka giggled. Still pouting, the younger sat correctly and sighed.
"The Can... Cantervi... Canterville Gho... Ghost. The Canterville Ghost." After reading the title, Sae looked anxiously at her teacher. It sounded like a scary story. Sae didn't like scary stories.
"Good. Don't be afraid of the words, okay?" Sae nodded. "Keep reading." She watched the girl open reluctantly the book and take a deep breath.
"'When Mr. Hiram B. Otis, the A... American Minister, bought Canterville Chase, e... every one told him he was doing a very foo... foolish thing, as there was no dou... doubt that the place was haun...haunted.'..." Sae started reading. After a few more lines, secureness grew inside her when she felt Sayaka's hand on her shoulder as an encouragement act.
Sae kept reading through a couple of hours, only stopping to sip on a glass of water; or when Sayaka helped her to say a word too difficult for her. The story ended up not being a scary one. It rather had funny moments, she also felt sorry for the ghost sometimes.
Everything was going smoothly when a scream in high pitch crossed the ambient followed by a really stinky smell. Voices started to run into Sae's mind. 'Please stop!','Please, don't do it!', 'NO!'. The voices were so loud that made her mind hurt. She stood up with her head between her hands and curling onto herself. Sayaka felt a sharp pain in her head and her heart skipped fast, almost like she was having a heart attack. She wanted to help Sae, but was struggling with her own body.
Suddenly, a woman came through the door kitchen, dragging in her steps with a cleaver in hand. She was giving a weird vibe and walking to Sayaka and Sae's direction. The woman swung the cleaver towards Sayaka, who dodged with difficulty and pushed her to the wall. The cleaver fell off the woman's hand and slid on the floor, stopping near a curled Sae in pain.
Sayaka tottered to another side of the dining hall holding her chest as if it would stop all her pain. Memories started to flash on her mind. She was confused. A girl was making an origami flower happily. The school headmaster was sitting behind his desk.
"Akimoto-sensei, since Umeda-sensei took a healthy license, I'll entrust you the duty to teach Miyazawa-san's daughter. This one in specific requires all time attention. She has a genetic syndrome called Turner syndrome. You know about it, right?" Said the headmaster. Sayaka nodded and approached the girl.
"Hello, I'm Akimoto Sayaka, your new teacher. What is your name?" Sayaka asked gently, sitting next to the girl.
"Oh! You is prettier than Ayaka-sensei! I'm Miyazawa Sae." Sae said smiling happily. Sayaka couldn't help but blush. It was so sincere that touched her deeply. But a student never made her blush before. "Here, Sayaka-sensei, for you." Sae stretched her hand, giving the flower she just made to her new teacher. Sayaka took the flower and kept it. She still had the beautiful red flower, it was on a drawer in her room and it made her smile every time she looked at it, no matter how she would be feeling at the moment.
Happy moments flash on the teacher's eyes. She liked to see her student smiling. She liked the way Sae looked at her. Because of her genetic syndrome, she had to pass through countless surgeries to look like a normal teen, but she was born with beautiful traces. At the beginning, she thought it would be terrible and boring to stay with a single student all time, without a break, but she ended up enjoying. She enjoyed Sae's company. She enjoyed Sae, her illness wasn't a problem. Even if loved Sae, the girl was her student and nothing could happen between them. Nothing would. She decided. After all, Sae was her student. Work comes first.
Feeling a soft hit on her feet, Sae opened her eyes and sighted the huge knife she ever saw in her life. The pain and the voices decreased and she could her a low growl. Looking up, the school nutritionist was on top of Sayaka, with hands on her neck, strangling the teacher. For the first time in her life, she lost her smile. The fear of losing her beloved teacher made Sae grab the huge knife and ran to their direction. Without noticing, Sae passed through the others who were oddly coming out of the kitchen.
Sayaka was starting to become purple, and Sae knew what that meant. She already saw that in movies. Without a second thought, Sae struck a blow on the assaulter's neck. A dark red warm fluid gushed out when she took the now weapon off of the woman's neck. Before she could fell on Sayaka's body, the girl grabbed the body and threw it aside. The shaking body overturned a table and few chairs, and stopped on a turned chair, floundering a bit before finally stop moving.
Upon hearing more growls, Sae turned to their direction, praying that whatever was making Sayaka struggle would go away soon, because she looked like she was in pain. Her face was all twisted and small tears were rolling down her tight shut eyes.
Sae saw the kitchen employees approaching slowly. They seemed to have difficulty in walk, as they looked like they were just dragging their foot one after another. She widened her eyes while noticing their appearance was different from a couple hours ago. Their entire body seemed a bit swollen; their skin were green-grayish with most veins in dark green, and had lubricous shine. Their eyes were in a deathly glassily yellow tone and their hair looked wet. She ran to another side of the room, since they seemed so close. She needed time to process everything.
The group followed her in their own pace. Seeing no choice, Sae started to swing aimlessly the cleaver toward the things that her friends became, at first with eyes shut. Every time her strike hit a thing, it would groan loud and she could feel warm drops spilling on her. Opening her eyes, she saw four of what used to be kitchen helpers on the floor, or on tables, with their torso full of cuts or transfigured faces. She was now full of blood and breathing hard.
Sae was shaking trying to send oxygen to all her body cell's when a pair of strong cold hands grabbed her neck. Without much choice, she hit the hands with the cleaver, making it loose their grip. Struggling, she managed to free herself. In an automatic movement, she strongly stroke the assaulter's chest, making a deep cut that gushed blood on her. It was the cleaner guy. She liked him, he sometimes give her snacks, even when it wasn't the right time. Well, not anymore. As her body was still in attack mode, her arms swung once more, striking the man's neck. He fell on the floor facing the ceiling with a silent thud.
Running to another corner of the room, Sae only wanted to breath. She overthrew tables and chairs to slow down the attackers, but their already slow walk didn't seem to had decrease. Instead, they looked faster now. There were only two, a man and a woman. And the woman reached her first. Sae swung the cleaver countless times towards the woman's face and torso and a final blow on her neck, making her struggle and fall on a turned table. With a sudden flow of courage, she dashed towards the guy and stroke on his belly, making his entrails slip out of his body. Then cut his neck, and threw him on a table. He landed facing down, already unmoving.
With all of them out of combat, Sae returned to Sayaka. The woman was motionless on the floor, only when Sae approached she started to stand up. Sae smiled and rushed to her beloved teacher, with the cleaver still in hand. But a growl came out of Sayaka, making Sae confuse. Yet a pair of cold hands reached her neck, the hold was strong. The tears restarted to flow down her cheeks when Sae looked into Sayaka's eyes. Their were glassily yellow. Sae started to sob and the air was missing her. She knew what she had to do, she couldn't find the strength to do it, yet...
"S... Sayaka..." She called her beloved teacher's name without a suffix for the first time. It made the grip on her neck loosen, but it wasn't enough. "I... L... Love... Y... You..." After the sudden confession, Sae gathered all her strength and stroke, trying to aim the stomach. Sae felt the flesh being teared. She would never forget that sensation. They both fell on the floor. The air finally found the way to Sae's lungs .
Sayaka returned to a motionless state. Her injury was bleeding. There was no turning back. Sae took her teacher in her arms, took off the hair of her face, just to give her on last look. Surprisingly, Sayaka's traces was backing to normal and she could see the dark green on the veins slowly fade away. The teacher opened her eyes and they were back to normal, back to that crystal trusty brown iris Sae loved so much. Sayaka smiled to the crying face of Sae.
"Sae..." It was so hard to speak. The girl looked at her surprised. How come she had turned into that thing and came back to normal?! "I... I like... Your smile... Better..." Sae was stunned. "Smile... For me... Only for me..." Sae knew what was happening, so she decided to do what Sayaka was asking. But it wasn't her best smile. "Come closer... I can't see you... Well..." Sae leaned down her head and their faces were only inches apart. "I... Love...you too..." Then Sae felt her heart beats fast and a warm on her lips. It was what adults do when they had deep romantic feelings for each other. That was what her mama told her. She move away her head to gaze Sayaka's eyes, but her smiled was a genuine one. Sayaka smiled back and felt her body flutter. Then, she wasn't there anymore.
Sae watched the color fade away from Sayaka's face. She knew she gave the first and the last kiss on the person she loved. She knew she would never hear her voice again. She would never hear her laugher again, or even make her laugh. She won't be able to see Sayaka blush every time she gave her a gift or when she say she is beautiful. She won't be able to feel sweet scent of her or the serious expression she always do when she is concentrated. It crushed her heart.
Then Sae cried. She cried with a smile on her face. She cried her heart out. When she thought she had dried out of tears, un uncomfortable feeling took over. Sae looked around and didn't like the mess. It only made her feel worse. So, she stood up, grabbed the once again and definitely motionless Sayaka's body and dragged it to the kitchen, making a trail of blood.
The kitchen was incredibly clean. The meat was on a stainless steel table half cut. Vegetables were sliced on large pots on a counter, crude rice was immersed in water on a large pot beside another pot with beans filled with water as well. Still dragging Sayaka, Sae went to the counter and sat on the floor under it. She pulled Sayaka to her arms and the tears backed again with sobs. She didn't know how long she was in that position until she heard a noise.
-~-~-~-~-
With wide eyes and agape mouth, Yuki didn't want to believe in that story. It was impossible right? Yet why would a illness girl lie to her? Also, Sae-san seemed so shaken. By her story, Yuki couldn't tell how was the rest of the school because Sae didn't left the dining hall after the incident.
"Come on, Sae-san. Let's go seek for others survivors. Don't you want to know if some other friend survived and get out of here?" Yuki tried to convince Sae. At the same time she wondered if the girl had someone else beside the teacher.
"No! I... I want to stay with Sayaka-sensei!" Sae insisted. She swore to herself she would starve to death holding her beloved teacher.
"I'm sure she wouldn't want it! I'm sure she wanted you to live! Come on, Sae-san!" Yuki tried again. Sae looked at Sayaka's pale face. Maybe that Kashiwagi Yuki was right. She closed her eyes and kissed the cooling Sayaka's forehead. A gesture that startled Yuki.
"Maybe you're right." Sae admitted. And suddenly two names blowed into her mind. "Takamina! Achhan!" She shouted, gently putting Sayaka aside.
"Do you know where they are?" Yuki wanted to know. It actually impressed her to know that the girl had a friend of her age in school.
"Library." Sae said fiercely while standing up.
TBC
Was it worth the wait? =]
Topic: The cry of a lonely star - Chapter 1: Silent Love (27/09/2013) UPDATED (Read 13799 times)