Vertin x Schneider Reverse:1999

Dreaming

VERTIN'S POINT OF VIEW

WARNING: 

MENTIONS OF SUICIDE

I found myself in a deep slumber. There were no dreams, no color. 

Just a black, empty void of nothingness. 

I was floating in this empty void. 

What point was there in waking if Schneider wasn't there? 

It suddenly became all too unbearable. 

I needed something to distract me...

A flash of color emerged, and suddenly I was walking around the outside of the school I grew up in. 

The gates closed me in and I subconsciously reached my hands through the gate to grab a green frog. 

"Ah... I should show this to Sonetto." I held the frog in my hands, carefully caging it. 

I felt so much smaller, and so did my problems. My younger self was only worried about being caught by the teachers and practicing my arcanist skills. 

"Sonetto!" I called out. 

"Vertin! Where were you? You missed class again!" Sonetto scolded me. 

Sonetto was smaller and younger. Her attitude was the same. 

"Sonetto, look at this frog." I carefully placed the frog into her hands, and she stared at it curiously for a moment, until her expression fell. Sonetto gave it back to me. 

"I got it from the gate, I was busy trying to catch it." I smiled at Sonetto. 

"Stop showing me these useless things." Sonetto gave me a cold look. 

"Huh?" I thought she would be happy to see the frog...

"Don't do such trivial things, focus on your schooling. You know you're going to get punished by the teachers." Sonetto gave me a cold glare as if I reminded her of something she didn't want to see. 

I could tell she loved the outside world. I thought that giving her something from the outside would boost her spirits... 

Ah... It's all too overwhelming... I can never seem to do the right thing...

Images of Schneider passed through my unconscious mind. 

The day we met... her pitiful face when we had to fight each other... the misery in her eyes when she had to shoot me... holding her, bloody in my arms... when she arrived with an umbrella while I was lying in the rain... the time we held hands... the way we talked at the dinner... the sad expression as she watched her sister fade away... her orange scent... her distant expression as she... faded away in my arms...

I awoke with a gasp, tears streaming down my cheeks and sweat dribbling down my forehead. 

Sonetto lay asleep in a chair next to the hospital bed, her face painted with a worried expression, even as she slept. 

An orange scent filled my nose. 

"Schneider?!" I called out, hope filling my soul. 

I turned to see my caretaker eating an orange as she stared at a screen monitor. 

"Hmm? Oh, you're awake? Want an orange?" My caretaker offers me a piece. Just like Schneider did. When she handed me an orange. 

I accepted the orange, tears slipping from my eyes. 

"Timekeeper!" Sonetto embraced me as she awoke. 

She was so happy that I was awake. I couldn't feel the same. 

"Oh, timekeeper!" Sonetto smiled at me. "You were holding this when you passed out, it looks like the one that girl held... But I just wanted to be sure." Sonetto held Schneider's gun, handing it to me. 

"Ah... Yes... That's mine." I nodded. It's the last thing I have of her... Perhaps... This is a sign. I took the gun in my hands, the handle cold. 

Sonetto looked out of the window and my caretaker was busy writing a report on my health. 

The solution... is in my hands. 

I could feel the cold barrel of the gun press against my temple. 

It's already loaded...

"Pap!" I squeezed the trigger. 

Everyone in the room turned to me.