Overgrown Melody (In My Heart)

The End is Near

After a warm embrace, we broke apart. Ena looked at the alternate version of myself, and smiled. "I'm going tell them... Everything." She said staring at him directly. He looked down and slightly nodded. Ena stood up and looked directly at us. "Here's our story." she said, a glimmer of desperation filling her eyes.

"Growing up things were as normal as they could be, for us anyway. We had parents that were there half of the time... and occasionally we had fun times. However things changed. I began to notice as Akito got older he began to loose interest in a lot of things. He got frustrated and gave up as soon as he tried... Our parents began to notice, and couldn't cope with Akito's apparent 'uselessness'... I tried to defend him, but my father never stood for anything less than perfect, causing Akito to suffer from even more frustration. Eventually, dad gave up. He couldn't stand us anymore, and began to drink. Mom was against it at first, but slowly she became a drunken mess as well." Everyone fell silent.

"From then on... If Akito or I ever messed up, my father would personally deal with it. With his fists. Thinking about it makes my head spin... He had a personal philosophy about violence towards women, so he physically attacked Akito, and mentally abused me. I began to see Akito, despite being younger than me, as the only person I could depend on for solace." She said, triggering some memories from the past. I looked to the ground. So this is what would've happened to us if I didn't get into music. "After so many years of trying, Akito gave up. He confided in me and warned me not to complain to him anymore. He was around 13 or so at the time. I was broken, and begged him to stay. He said that he didn't care about out parents... Or me... Anymore. Then he ran off.. running." Ena said, her voice sounded weak. My alternate self, or rather the Akito in which she was referring to began to tear up.

"That was the first of many times he ran away. I am still not sure what he did during his time away... He'd have to explain that.." She said looking toward him. "However, I felt desperate. I couldn't take the mental burden of everything on my own. I felt abandoned. I couldn't wrap my head around why he would leave. Something in me snapped. The next time he was brought back to us I took everything out of his room and locked him in there during the nights. He ended up escaping through the windows... I felt like I was going crazy." She explained, leading up to the point where I came into the scene. "Then the last time he ran away happened. Now I have no idea what happened... But I know that this person is the brother I knew, and you're someone else... Despite looking and sounding exactly like him..." Ena said pointing her finger at me. "To be honest... I don't really want to know who you are, because I already trust you." She said, to my surprise.

An came over to Ena and the alternate version of myself. She hugged them, and soon Toya and Kohane joined her. "I never knew..." An said tightening her grip of the embrace. Toya looked bothered, like he couldn't stand the thought of the alternate version of myself being hurt. I smiled. I knew that he and this world's Akito were fated to be together, despite Toya's declaration. I'd rather him be with the one he was meant to be with, rather than me, who has their own Toya waiting for me. It's not like he was verbally saying it, but I could tell he really cared. For now I'll bask in my selfishness and keep him to myself. Just until I leave, I needed him to cope with my own ignorance.

I watched as they all hugged each other, sensing that I didn't belong. I could feel myself fading away, but I still had an uncompleted goal here. I couldn't let myself leave without Toya's dad being in prison. I persisted the feeling and continued on. "Hey guys..! We need to..." I felt my head fall backwards. I could barely catch a glimpse of Toya running over to me.  My exhaustion caught up with me. I could only hoped that I hadn't left that world. I was so close to doing so, but Toya's embrace had awaken me. "Akito... You must be tired..." He said, lifting my head up with his hand on the back of it. "I looked over to see the rest of the group concerned kneeling by my side. "I just need to rest a bit... Please don't let me go..." I uttered before passing out yet again.