The Forgotten

Stay true to self

It's been weeks.

six weeks to be exact.

Mel hasn't woken up and the house hasn't been the same. 

The place was tense for the first two weeks and the air was strained.

Annika, Yuno and Hiroto took turns guarding Mel's room for fear it was the work of the organisation. It only took a lot of convincing from Amy, and the intervention of Mimi,  to get them to stop. 

After two weeks of tense expectations, Mel didn't seem to be waking up. The warehouse seemed empty.

They were all used to Mel's psychotic laughter that rings through the whole building, the disruptive sounds of explosions due to a failed attempt in her voodoo studies or even the not-so-appreciative scares she gives them by popping by through their shadows.

These months with her had been stressful, they all would admit, but deep down they knew it was helpful. Mel's presence was an everyday reminder they were not at the organisation and were, in fact, free.

This blaring fact and reality made them think back to the first time they met Mel. 

Hiroto pitied her, though looking back he discovered that was a rookie mistake, 'that girl is insane.', he thought with a shiver going down his spine.

Annika thought Mel lost her mind due to all the torture she had to put up with for six years in the organisation and she confirmed it when Mel decided to turn her skin purple when she accidentally took the last brown chocolate chip cookie she claimed to be hers.

'Never will I ever', Annika huffed at that memory still very sour.

Ray and Ari thought she was weird, creepy, and scary but these three months of her made those thoughts melt away. Now they can proudly say they see Mel as a DERANGED, weird and crazy girl with smarts so high, it can be traumatising being near her, but all in all, that madness was wielded by someone who would accompany them through the night whenever they had nightmares. 

Ari was, in fact, very appreciative of Mel for the times she woke up from her nightmare crying and having Mel pop up from a shadow at the corner of Ray and Ari's shared room to comfort her. Mel hummed lots of lullaby songs Ari has never heard of but they were enough to get her to go back to sleep.

Yuno thought, well, he didn't put too much thought into Mel's introduction into his life. He thought she was just a passing character into his very dead mellow life. Yuno had always seen things in black and white and it only became worse when his abusive parents sold him to the organisation at the age of five. He, therefore, didn't put too much thought into Mel and had only a passing thought of her as someone who was seeking attention and he would have been led to do so if Mel didn't have an encounter with him two months ago.

This had happened when Yuno had once again refused to eat dinner with all of them in their makeshift dining room. Amy was about to go give Yuno his meal in his room when Mel volunteered to do so. The others were a little bit worried that Mel would ruin whatever effort they were putting to get Yuno to get them to open to him but that notion was brought down when they found Yuno at the table the next day with them for breakfast.

Needless to say, he now sees her as someone who brought colour into his very dull empty life.

Amy has always seen Mel as that mischievous little sister. She had an opportunity to relate with Mel a lot cause they were cell neighbours. They would communicate through a little crack in the wall under their bed. Amy would look back to the time they first met and would giggle at its boldness of Mel.

With this, we can safely say that Mel being frozen had dealt a big blow to them but they still had the will to survive, and that will gave them some form of strength to heal in their own unique way. They wanted to be better when Mel came back and even though the little voice at the back of their heads asked the more logical question of, 'what if?', they refused to believe it.