Marionette

Skies, Chapter Eighteen - Kurukuru [クルクル]

The world spun and churned inside, a myriad of greys and blacks that struck pain into her heart.

The one thing she knew for sure was that her heart had cracked from the force behind those words.

Her one fear that her siblings would begin to reject her had started to come true, and there was no strength inside of her to keep those cracks from beginning to appear.

When does a dream become a nightmare?

And when does a creature become a monster?

The answers to these two questions is just the same, yet different at the same time.

And like every repitition of the questions barreling through her head, she felt like she just came to the same answer in the end, becoming truer and truer as time pressed on.

A dream becomes a nightmare when it's no longer pleasant for the dreamer to experience, as does a creature to a monster.

But Monsters only exist when someone elects to misunderstand them.

And Monsters are only created by Humans.

One elects to misunderstand, and therefore reject the very knowledge they once had of someone, forcing their image in their mind to take another.

It was just a matter of time before everyone else rejected her, now.

She was sure of it.

It felt like the waters of her inner world were about to drown her.

And it felt like this time, she couldn't keep her head above the surface anymore.

Somewhere in the few minutes after Yuta had made his view clear to Amaya in such an explosive manner, Reiko had released her embrace and stepped aside.

Reiko had pointed out that Amaya was bleeding, disappearing for just long enough to bring the medical kit they had stored in the bathroom, and she insisted that Amaya let her handle the dressing of the cut. Yukariko's belongings that Yuta had gone through were gathered up the very second that Amaya realized they were still scattered throughout Yuta's room and locked away in her room again.

After that, everything was a blur to Amaya.

Her grasp of time had been completely knocked off balance, and she could barely remember the motions she went through in the hours that followed.

Reiko was always close nearby, always in the same room as Amaya, following her into the next if it wasn't the bathroom or restroom, and always smiling kindly the whole time.

Nothing else resided within her head - Nothing else came to her conscious notice.

Just the repetitions of Yuta's words to her before a livid Karma had dragged him away.

Eventually Reiko had gotten a bit too tired again, and after making her something to eat, Amaya had ushered her into her room to rest.

Everything was silent, and there was nothing that she could do.

She couldn't bring herself to do watch anything to pass the time, and she didn't really have any hobbies.

So she just cleaned again out of a need to occupy her hands.

She needed to stay awake in case Yuta came back and needed dinner.

Though it had been hours since Karma had dragged him away.

The clock read 10.49pm.

It was still bright outside when Karma had dragged Yuta away, still within school hours.