Insomnia

Chapter 3: Eat Me

You had just made it, panting and only slightly sweaty, before Sora Chiyoye. You saw Tom - his name tag read Toshiaki - and avoided making eye contact, but he just kept staring in your direction.  You ignored him, and went to greet Sora, pretending that you hadn't literally walked into the building yourself a minute ago.

"Welcome Ms. Chiyoye, on behalf of-" she walked right into you.  She was smaller than you had expected, reaching to about your chin level.  She looked completely different than she had in past photographs, her hair was long and wild and round glasses emphasised the bags under her eyes, similar to yours.

She took a step and a half back, mumbling an apology. You smiled at her small and frail figure, then proceeded to lead her to the location of the book festival, where she would be signing books later for fans — hopefully yourself being one to walk away with autographs. "Ms. Chiyoye, I'm a huge fan of your works, my name is y/n l/n. I'd love to spend some time discussing your works."

The woman sat down in her chair, as her arms supported her weight as she sat, her sleeves rolled up, revealing skeletal arms and pale scars trailing up and down that didn't look like the result of self-harm, but had no other feasible explanation. "What would you like to know?" Her voice was quiet and as delicate as glass, threatening to smash into nothing but small shards and be broken forever.

"Well, for starters, I'm interested in hearing about how you get your ideas?" You had pulled a chair over to her and were now looking at her like a child on Christmas. She made eye contact, and you could've sworn you felt some type of force wind around and around your brain, making you have to suppress a shudder and making your vision tilt awkwardly.

"We are the same." Chiyoye's voice sounded clear, though her lips did not move as she spoke. She reached for your hand across the table, and traced its features gently with her nail. "What I dream, and what you dream, I write it down, you cannot, or your dream turns real, somewhere, sometime, haunts you, breaks you,"

You started feeling claustrophobic with your hand in hers, and there was no way she knew about Ayumu, unless she has someone too?  "Wait, wait, do you have-"

"You cannot speak of him."  She demanded, her eyes bore into you like steel, the blade of a knife.  You opened your mouth to speak, but found your throat dry, erupting into a series of coughs, making your eyes water and your head spin.  At that moment, Chiyoye let go of your hand and stood up, waving someone closer from the other end of the library.

You felt a slip of paper being placed into your pocket before someone led you away from the area, then before long giving you a cup of water.  When your head stopped spinning, you could see that the person was Tom, and you became frustrated.  You went back to the direction of Chiyoye, craving answers, but Tom wouldn't let you, keeping an iron grip on your wrist.

"Let go!" You demanded, but he shook his head and tried to pull you back. 

"You need to take a moment, you should miss out the book signing, I know you're a big fan and all, but I think-"

"Oh piss off what you think, you never leave me alone," you snapped, "this is more important than you, I can finally get rid of Ayumu!"  As you said those words, the world tilted once again, your hearing went to static, and your legs gave way which sent you dropping down onto the cold floor. 

When you regained consciousness, you found yourself on your bed.  Had it all been another antic?  Another dream?  But no, you looked at your crumpled clothes and knew that someone had to have brung you home.  With sudden remembrance, your hand dug into your pocket, pulling out a piece of paper.  On it was written: 'CALL ME IF HE HURTS YOU', below this being a series of numbers, but through some form of liquid, water or sweat most likely, about four numbers were smudged beyond recognition. 

You grumbled and cursed Tom, it was probably when he was giving you water, your clothes must've gotten wet.  You sat up, then realised something, you hadn't dreamt anything.  You didn't even remember how you had gotten home, but you had assumed it was Tom.  But he probably would've done something creepy like take you to his place?  You felt for your phone in your pocket: empty.  You saw it was charging on your bedside table.

You clicked onto your contacts, and went to your recent missed calls.  You didn't have him added, but you knew which was Tom's number by how many times he had called you.  You waited about a second before he picked up, then you asked him, "how did I get home?" 

"Your boyfriend came to get you."  You pulled a face at this and your chest tightened.

"What do you mean?"

"Y/n, stop playing games, you should've just told me from the start you were already in a relationship."  With this, he hung up and wouldn't pick up any other calls.  This didn't answer your question at all.  You would've normally went to get coffee and think about who it could be, but since you had woken up it felt like all the missed years of sleep had been made up; you were wide awake. 

You went instead for water, and opened the kitchen cabinet to get a cup and put it on the counter... next to a piece of cake.  Comical letters on the plate, circling around the pink cake, spelt out 'EAT ME'.  You gave a dry laugh, this had to be another dream.  You'd take a bite and shrink, then knowing Ayumu you'd get eaten by a giant rat.  Nevertheless, you wanted to get it over with, and stabbed a fork into the soft cake.

You chewed it slowly, it was a good cake, then waited for a moment after you had swallowed.  Nothing happened.  You cautiously took another bite, and another, and another, until the whole piece was gone.  You put the fork down and stared at the letters on the plate.  Out of nowhere, you felt warmth against your back, two arms wrapping around your abdomen and trapping you, and another face on your right shoulder, and his hair tickled your face and you froze when he spoke.

"Happy birthday to me, eh, y/n?"

I AM SO SORRY IT TOOK SO LONG TO UPDATE.  I've been having some personal struggles, at home and in my social circle, worrying about the future and all that.  I'll continue to update this book, but I can't promise very fast updates.  Thanks to anyone who stuck around!!