Subject Zero: Mirrors (Book 2)

Chapter 13: Lonesome

Wednesday, May 22, 1985
11:30a.m.
Norwood's High School

Third Person's POV
It was lunchtime for Klaus. He was having a rough time finding anywhere to sit and who to sit with, since Naomi and Alio were caught sneaking to Klaus' lunchtime (they did that so he wouldn't be lonely. But now he was).

He was standing by the door, holding his lunchbox. A few students were staring at him, some recalling his disappearance in late November and early December of last year, while others were silently judging him for his condition, vitiligo.

While scanning the cafeteria for somewhere to sit, he spotted a few of his classmates. He almost immediately went up to them to approach them.

     "Hey...!" he greeted, seeing the few classmates stare at him. "Um, can I sit here?"

One of them looked at the others, then back at him. "Sorry, you shouldn't sit here..."

     "We were just about to leave anyway," said one of the others.

Klaus looked at them with a sort of disappointed expression on his face. "Oh..."

The classmates stood up, gathering up their belongings. He figured he knew the real reason why they didn't allow him to sit with them.

     "Hope you don't mind," one said as she walked away.

Klaus turned and watched as they all walked away, and heard one of them saying to the others: "I feel bad. But I don't want to catch his condition or go missing, like him."

He sighed, about to sit down at the now empty table, but once he knew people were staring at him, he decided to walk out as well.

Just momentarily, he was sitting on a bench on the side of the school, alone, with no one around to judge and whisper about him. The only downside was the fact that the forest was behind the school, on his left, so he was paranoid enough.

As soon as he opened his lunchbox, he heard a "psst!" coming from the forest. He immediately froze and didn't even look to see what it was, and just closed his lunchbox and stood up, about to head indoors.

But when he turned around, he heard a soft voice say, "Hello!" as Mizuki popped up from around the corner.

Klaus jumped and stepped back, falling; Mizuki's appearance was too sudden for him.

     "Oh! Are you all right?" she asked as she reached out her hands to help him up.

He stared at her bandaged, six fingered hands for a moment before he grabbed them, allowing her to help him.

     "Uh, yeah, I guess... You just scared me," said Klaus, answering her previous question.

     "I see. I apologize."

Klaus noticed she was carrying a small satchel, which she didn't have the last two times he'd seen her.

Mizuki looked around, twisting and turning, trying to spot something. She then looked at Klaus and asked, "Do you not have anyone to sit with?"

He shook his head in response.

Mizuki tilted her head to the right, staring at the boy. Then she walked over to the bench and sat down. "I will sit with you!"