Polar

Crimson

AN: Warning for unsettling things, blood, violence, intrusive thoughts, minor self harm
...yeah it's getting angsty

"...Suitcase? Suitcase, are you listening?"

Nickel's voice snapped her back to reality, as she stared back up at the silver-haired boy in front of her. "Huh? Oh, sorry..."

Nickel huffed softly, his hands on his hips. "As I was saying, you're still coming with us to eat lunch in the courtyard today, right?"

"Your choices, opinions and feelings are just as valid as anyone else's."

Taco's words to her from yesterday still rang in her head loud and clear. The small girl's hands curled into tight fists as she stared at Nickel. "No."

"What?" Nickel's voice raised slightly. "Why not?"

"No particular reason. I just don't want to." She glanced to the side. "I was actually thinking of sitting with Balloon today."

"Balloon?" Nickel folded his arms. "Didn't I tell you that I don't like him?"

"And did I ever tell you I hate how you're such a bitch to him?"

Baseball gasped softly from his spot next to Nickel, the silver-haired boy taking a step back in shock. "...what did you say?"

"You heard me! I'm sick of you telling me who I can hang out with!" Suitcase screamed. Her shouting was getting the attention of several other students who were making their morning commute, who began crowding around her, but she didn't care. "I'm allowed to hang out with other people besides you! You can't control me! I'm not your damned puppet! If I want to hang out with Balloon, I'm gonna hang out with him, and you can't do jack shit about it!"

"I'm just trying to protect you!" Nickel exclaimed, taking a step closer. "Balloon can't be trusted, Suitcase! He's..."

Suitcase couldn't hear the rest of Nickel's sentence. The world seemed to just dissolve around her, into a place that was nowhere, but at the same time felt like somewhere she was familiar with. Everybody was gone, disappeared, and in front of her...

She couldn't make it out completely; it was a deformed, constantly moving figure that had Nickel's voice, that kept shouting and screaming things that made her head hurt, made her want to grab chunks of hair and tear it off her skull. Suitcase gritted her teeth, her fists clenching tighter, Nickel's voice pounding in her head, coursing through her entire body and making it shake violently. All sorts of emotions began to flood through her, more than she was able to process, but she was able to pinpoint one out of the swarm of them.

Anger. Red-hot, boiling anger.

"SHUT UP!" She screamed, lunging forward and swinging her face right at the figure, the image distorting and revealing Nickel's stunned face, blood dripping down his nose and onto his shirt.

She knew that she should back away and say something, anything, but instead, Suitcase grabbed his shirt and slammed him down to the ground, leaping on him and delivering punch after punch, blow after blow. The voices in her head were screaming at her at full volume, her fists becoming stained red with her "friend's" blood, but she didn't care.

She couldn't bring herself to anymore.

"Suitcase! Suitcase, stop!" Suitcase felt someone yank her backwards, pulling her back to reality. Baseball was kneeling down at Nickel's side, trying to help the latter, who was all beaten and bruised. The scrawny girl trembled, staring at her bloodied hands.

What the hell did she just do?

She could hear whoever grabbed her say something, but the words refused to click in her brain. She didn't care to hear them anyways; she just shoved them away and ran off in the other direction, her heart pounding in her chest and tears streaming down her face.