Blood Flower

Chapter 9

BZZZT! BZZZT!
The sound of Natsuki’s phone buzzing jolted her up, gasping for air.
“Hello?” She tried to sound like she hadn’t almost drowned in the bathtub.
“We need your help.” Monika’s voice rang through the speaker. “Can you look for the page with sheet music in Portrait of Markov? Irina's copy, not Sayori's. Then head to the place called Valentina Dereschal Park. We found our next clue.”
“Damn it! I was trying to take a bath,” she yelled. “Whatever. I’ll dry off and send it to you. How exactly am I going to help you?”
This time, Irina spoke. “We took a break and Monika played a song, which made Libitina realize that dark music probably meant the song in the special book. So please, send the—"
"I know, I know, I know, I'm not a baby, you don't have to repeat every single thing to me, goddammit!" She promptly hung up, barely able to contain her excitement.
Maybe she wasn't as useless as she thought herself to be.

***
Barely a minute had passed when Yuri's phone lit up. A Parfait Girls profile picture flashed on her screen.
"Natsuki," everyone said in unison. Yuri opened the message. It was an image of some sheet music, and a text that read, I'll be there in half an hour.
"Katarina's Lullaby," Monika read aloud. "The piece seems simple enough, nothing complex or out of my skill set."
She began to walk towards the piano, when Sayori pulled her back. "Wait, don't play yet."
The group turned to stare at her. She continued to talk. "It said to...wait until it starts to glow. Irina, what does it mean by that?"
"The flowers only bloom and glow in the presence of the Third Eye. It'll take around ten minutes to do so, starting from the time the Eximinae is in its vicinity. Which should be right about...now."
The flowers started to turn bright red. Yuri gasped as they began to emit a faint glow. Each flower swayed gently with the wind in perfect synchronization. Monika quickly hopped onstage and started to play.
Irina lost her balance. What was happening to her?
She could hear someone whispering in her ear. It was barely audible; she just knew there was sound. 
"Can you hear that?" Irina asked. The girls shook their heads.

Irina.
A flat is for the North.
E flat is for the South.
F minor is for the West.
D flat is for the East.
Tell your friends.

"Monika. Do you know the chords of the song?" Irina yelled.
"I mean, they get pretty obvious later on. It just repeats. Verses are the same, refrain too, chorus…"
"I heard someone. They told me that the different chords represented a different  direction." She repeated the words the voice told her. "This probably refers to back and forth and back you go. But what are we going to mo—"
They were thrown to the ground by a fearsome tremor. Monika stared in horror as the flowers began to shoot seven feet into the sky. She would have wanted to look at it more, but a red mist was fogging up her vision.
When they could see clearly again, Irina looked up at the flowers. They had moved around, and looked like a giant maze.

"I'm guessing this is the start of the maze," Sayori said.
"Okay. Go north, then east, then south. Do it twice," Monika said, looking up from the sheet music. "Then west, south, north. After that, north, south, east, west, and repeat that part. So do all of that twice. Lastly, go east."
Libitina looked bewildered. "I can't remember all that…"
"Don't worry, I did," Yuri said quickly. "Just follow my lead."
Together, the four of them prowled through the labyrinth's twists and turns, carefully avoiding tripping on overgrown stems.
Sayori huffed as they finished. "God, that was really tiring. At least it's over and we're out of it."
"But…" Libitina began. "We're just back where we started."

***
Kai had been watching CB flip burgers for half an hour already.
"God, CB, what's with all the patties?" he said exasperatedly.
CB shrugged. "It's the festival day tomorrow. Markov treats us to one every year so we have something to look forward to."
Lying down on his steel bed, Kai's heart ached as he thought back to the school festival with his friends.