omari

Two Days Left

---Welcome to White Space. You have been living here for as long as you can remember.---

Nieta felt her identity return. The white blanket. The black laptop. The black cat, all of it. White Space as far as the eye could see. What nonsense was she dreaming of now? Acting like she was a good friend after all she had done. Taking the lead again? And failing, of course. Stupid.

Nieta looked back to her jump rope, it had some knots in it now. She opened the door to the Neighbor's Room.

"Nieta!" Aubrey chimed. "See? I told you all that Nieta always shows up when we need her!"

"See Basil? No need to worry." Kel chimed in. "Basil was about to cry without you."

"I was not! Pollen just got into my eye..." Basil's eyes were indeed teary.

"Come on, let's go find Hero, where else can we search? Do you know, Nieta?" Kel asked.

"Rolling Woods. I think I saw him head that way."

"The forest where the leaves are storm clouds? Another place you're afraid of, huh? Aubrey looked upset at another hardship.

"It's alright. I can do it. I'll keep you safe." Nieta considered her own words. Were they hers? They sounded...

Wrong.

Another adventure like the others. Another one she had seen before, just like Otherworld. This one was the Rolling Woods, where it rained under the leaves, and lightning flashed. The main idea would be catching lightning in bottles to light their way forward in the dark patches. They would fight Lightning Bugs and Flash Bulb flowers on their way deeper in while completing pieces of a "circuit". A racing circuit, that is, and then drive a go-kart through a finish line that Aubrey couldn't break. There they would fight off a Dire Crocowire, the guardian to the path to Heartland. Unlike the cloud-keeping trees all around, it was more like a big city, with a single transmission tower in the center. It didn't hold any power lines itself, instead it was a decoration and viewing platform, like the Tokyo Tower. This was the land where everyone was a magical girl, yet only one didn't pretend like her magical and mundane identities were different. The party would go to ask her, Sweetheart, for help finding Hero. Only to find her in the middle of a fluster, organizing this and that one way or another. She was working on the perfect acceptance for Captain Spaceboy's letter. If it wasn't perfect, then he would never, ever accept after all. Besides, they were already close friends, if the timing of everything wasn't just right, then they could ruin a good thing. The party would of course help her put everything together to speed things along.

There was another break in the system by then end of it all. Sweetheart would continue to get more disinterested in everything that the party brought her, until the stage was fully set, and she began talking at a faster and faster clip how love wasn't a magical girl's real power. Friendship was, after all. She'd lose all her power if she accepted, so she was far better off this way, and that she was happy to execute her duty as a magical girl. No, not happy, but HAPPY. Aubrey wouldn't allow her to throw her chance at love away, and led the charge in a fight, where Nieta was disgusted to learn how to COPY a sad, crying face. It would be her and Basil's SAD that would finally break the mood, and allow Sweetheart to own up to her own feelings without just paving over them. Just in time to meet with Captain Spaceboy. They would take his new ship, the Mercury Retrograde, somewhere where they could talk privately.

The second break happened when Nieta found a hole under the stage Sweetheart had once prepared. If it were solely up to her, she would have left well enough alone. But it wasn't, now was it?

Nieta was falling. Longer than she had ever fallen, into the dark. Into the deep places of the world. Into piles upon stacks of books. Now to the floor of a library, the shelves of which spread on seemingly endlessly. The world she knew was built on top of the shelves, which had roots like trees at the bottom. This was one of the places that should have stayed in the dark, not broken into the light.

"Oh..? It is rare to see the Dreamer here..."

Nieta whipped around. Another dark, misshapen entity. A thing that seemed like a cross between a vulture and a raggedy, moth-eaten coat. Nieta gave him a look and perused the shelves.

"Are you lost? Or trying to become lost?"

Nieta picked up a book. The words drew a picture of a girl watching her father and friends build a treehouse.

"I would say you already are. You are the Dreamer, but this is hardly your Dream, is it?"

Nieta replaced a book about a girl falling asleep next to her friend on the couch, recounting his warmth.

"Caring for someone else's things is a noble goal, but at which point does grasping something tight become holding something in front of you?"

Another book, this one was about a girl playing the same piece on the piano again and again. Her brother wanted something but it would simply have to wait.

"How many layers has his world been plastered over hers? I'm curious if she'll ever see her own dreams again."

This book was about a moment shared in secret, where a girl and a boy she liked got to hold one another.

"Then again, if you're here, I suppose you are already well on your way. You hold something very precious in your hands, Dreamer, but is it truly the most precious thing he made? Would he throw it away for something, or someone, else? It could very well be. It could even be the place he once wished to go. What will you find, Dreamer?" The vulture man faded as Nieta reached for another book in between two roots, trying to pay him as little mind as possible.

A girl was frustrated. A boy in the room had scratched on another note. It was clear he was listening to her playing the piano and not his own playing. He was slacking off again. She wasn't allowed to do that, he couldn't be either. He would have to start again. This time alone, she had schoolwork to do. She hadn't seen the tall boy in a week or two. Nieta shut the book and went to replace it, instead finding a face on the other side. Dark red hair and reddish eyes could be seen, and she knew he was wearing an apron besides. Nieta reached in and clasped a hand. When she pulled it out, she noticed the fingers were bleeding all over her. Those weren't Hero's red eyes anymore, it was the single crimson eye of Something. It pulled her through the bookshelf, into the dark. Images of the neck of a violin accompanied a sharp pain and a gurgled groan. On the neck of the violin was embossed gold wording.

"Nieta, LTD."

Nieta was in White Space. She ran her hands through hair in some pantomime of frustration. She didn't bother looking around, she just made her own noose. Again. It was time for her to die. Again. Her dreams have been getting stronger lately. Was she really not needed after all this time?

Nieta gave her last few gasps.

---Two days left---

Mari woke to a small, nervous knock on the door. She would have barely heard it if she hadn't just woken up. The newest sounds are the loudest in the morning. She groggily tumbled out of bed and went downstairs. The thunderstorm had long passed and it was a clear day. Mari went up to the door and opened it. It wasn't Kel this time. A boy in an olive polo with a flower in his hair smiled sheepishly on the other side. He had a white egret orchid in each hand.

"G-good morning, Mari! Er... I mean, good afternoon!" He tried his best to smile.

"Basil? Oh. Good afternoon, is it already that late?"

"Haha... Yeah... I wanted to come earlier but Kel tried to drag me out for something. I didn't really... Want to. Not while he and Aubrey were fighting. But I did hear him through the door. He said you wanted to see me and that you were moving?"

"Ah... Yeah. We are."

"I guess I did see the sign out front... Haha..." Basil looked a little crestfallen.

"But Kel is right, I do want to talk to you. Maybe we can go somewhere and talk? Maybe about why you gave your photo album to Aubrey? It's important to you all, but it does have your name on it!"

"Um... I can tell you, but it might take awhile and I have to give this to... I won't ask you to come along."

"It's okay, I'll come with you." Mari stepped outside, and Basil flustered back and forth a moment before acquiescing. The pair walked to the cemetery. There was no smell of wet grass, the midday sun had dried everything by the time the two arrived. Basil placed one of the orchids by the headstone, replacing a slightly withered one.

"You have a lot of those around, don't you? Is it hard to grow?"

"Oh!" Basil was snapped from reverie. "No, not at all, it's actually surprisingly easy, and they multiply well."

"Ah, is that why you chose this flower to give to Sunny?"

"...No, not entirely... It means 'My thoughts will follow you into your dreams'. I thought it was a good sentiment for him." Basil's smile sank a bit and he stared intently at the headstone. "Sunny always liked to daydream and show me pictures of the places he saw in his mind. He showed you too, right?"

"I found some of his drawings a few years ago. Stuff like a ladder into space and a forest made of pinwheels."

"Yeah! Or a spider forest, or an endless highway under the ocean. Haha! I often wished I could go on adventures in his daydreams with him. He said I was always there, but I wanted to really follow him. I really just wanted to follow him anywhere, I think. I feel kind of bad for saying it, since Aubrey is the one who introduced me to you guys, but sometimes I think Sunny was my best friend. He always listened to me whenever I needed it." Basil sniffled. "I really miss him. Ever since the accident, Kel and Aubrey just kept fighting more and more. If I hung out with one of them, they would talk about how much the other annoyed them, and I can't help but think that Sunny heard this all the time and was able to let them vent. I guess I'm not as good at it though, they stopped coming to see me before too long."

"That one might be my fault. I was busy but I should have been there to help you guys with your friendship when I could. So you and Aubrey and Hero and Kel could all be together."

"Us? What about you? You're our friend too. Aren't you?"

The words stabbed into Mari's heart. She was just a caretaker, that was her role.  When did she start saying that to herself? Yesterday?

"Mari? You're my friend, right? All the memories we had with everyone? Like going to the beach or our first day in the treehouse, you were with us all. Ah, now all of a sudden I wish I had my photo album."

"Photo album, right! Why did you give it to Aubrey?"

"... I wanted it to be safe. Aubrey was always really gentle with it. I don't see her very much anymore but I feel like... She would care for it."

"She didn't look like she wanted it."

"Yeah... But I can't have it right now."

"Why not?"

Basil made an unsure face and picked up his other blooming orchid. "Come on, let's go to our old hangout spot by the lake. I need to go put a new flower there too."

The streets were calm, not many people were out today, except for four children playing in the park. A blonde, an energetic kid playing keep-away from a girl with a bow, and a boy with short black hair who seemed happy to watch with a book in hand. Mari had missed it at first, but a tall boy was leaned over, snoring as though on someone's shoulder next to him.

Mari blinked and it was all gone.

"The entrance is just around here, remem-?" Basil was cut off by a growling shout.

"BACK OFF!!"

It was Aubrey's voice. Basil and Mari exchanged a look and ran as fast as they could into the small secret grove. The narrow path through overgrown bushes gave way to ancient road signs, the last guardians of a small lake with a pier. Standing on the pier was Aubrey, back to the lake. In front of her was Kel, the two looked like they were about to come to blows.

"Not until you return Basil's album!" Kel seemed determined to have it back.

"I told you, I'm not some thug!"

"Well you're sure acting like one! Bullying and stealing and-!"

Kel set his jaw and looked to a stack of books that were on the pier, he began to flip through them all.

"Get your hands off of those!" Aubrey pushed Kel back. Mari saw the next actions play out as if in slow motion. She couldn't make it in time, she was still too far.

Kel rose and pushed her back hard. Aubrey stumbled back two steps, then slipped from the pier just as Basil and Mari arrived.

"Kel! How could you!?" Basil shouted at his friend.

"I didn't think I'd push her that far... I was just... Looking for your album..." Kel's voice was halting and unsure.

"I gave it to her, you jerk!"

"What..? But... But I heard you..."

Mari was scanning the water as she overheard Basil scolding Kel. She couldn't focus on that right now, she was looking for a sign, anything. Aubrey wasn't the strongest swimmer, but she could swim, at least. She would come up any second now.

"Aubrey..." Mari pleaded.