Imperfect Life: Arc 7

Chapter 23

The next morning, Crys woke up on her bed with a headache. She vaguely remembered the furious shouting from last night, but most of it was thankfully a blur. She groaned as she got out of bed and started getting ready for school.

"And then I passed out again." Crys finished explaining. She had just run through what had happened last night while walking with Brandon to school. "I guess I got on his nerves too much, or something." She added on with a forced laugh.

"So, you just told him about the Mecha-Werewolf and The Pack?" Brandon asked.

"Well, not much." Crys replied, sounding a bit out of it still. "I didn't go into any detail."

"Good." Brandon replied. "I mean, there's not much about The Pack, and it doesn't matter as much as the other stuff, but the Mecha-Werewolf..."

"Yeah..." Crys replied, a bit solemnly.

"At least Emma and Tomas are safe, right?" Brandon said, trying to be optimistic.

"For now." Crys replied. "I don't know what else I can do. He threatened to go after Emma since the Mecha-Werewolf had taken her hostage at the dance, but I think I managed to convince him that she didn't know anything. As for Tomas, I don't think he's really mentioned him much... except for when he was talking about Karen..." She trailed off, feeling somewhat bad now that she was thinking back to her and Seinhou's previous interrogation.

"Well... uh..." Brandon struggled to find something else to say. "Maybe we should just worry about school for now. We're almost there, anyways."

Crys frowned. "I guess you're right." She said, glumly. She was not looking forward to the school day whatsoever.

As the two friends walked down the hall towards their first class of the day, Crys couldn't help but listen in on some of the conversations others were having as she passed by.

"I'm telling you, I saw The Werewolf outside my apartment! She was on the roof just outside, I swear!"

"Man, Connor is such a wuss. I can't believe he'd just give up like that."

"Those guys are weird. They never talk to anyone else."

"I've got a turkey sandwich for lunch."

"You can't escape me, Crys."
"I'm failing math. I got a 40 on my last test."

"Did you catch the new episode last night?"

Crys stopped for a moment, freezing in place with a look of sheer concern on her face. She spun around and looked back down the hall intently.

Brandon kept walking a few steps before realizing Crys had fallen behind. He paused before going back to where Crys was.

"Why'd you stop?" Brandon asked, confused.

"I thought..." Crys trailed off, still looking around.

"What?"

"I thought I heard him."

"Here?"

"But I don't see him anywhere..."

"Maybe you're just hearing things?"

"I-I don't know... Maybe...?"

"Come on Crys, let's get to class."

"Yeah..."

Both friends started walking back down the hallway.

"He wouldn't just appear in broad daylight, would he?" Crys asked, sounding concerned.

Brandon shrugged. "I don't know." He said, uncertain.

"No, he wouldn't. Definitely. Especially not in a school, I mean, that would be ridiculous. He doesn't want anyone to know he exists, so showing up in such a public place would be stupid... yeah, no, yeah, I'm just hearing things." Crys convinced herself. "Maybe I'm just tired. I mean, waking up and passing back out the way I have been can't be good for me, right? ... Right?"