Marionette

Skies, Chapter Twenty Six- Gomen'nasai [ごめんなさい]

A sea of voices rung out through the darkness.

Familiar voices she'd begun to recognize, those of which had become increasingly normal the more she heard them.

The darkness was as comforting as it was smothering, a strange combination that didn't quite make sense.

It was comforting in the sense that all the pain, both physical and emotional were pushed away by the darkness, and she could rest for the first time in what felt like months.

She didn't want to leave this pocket of darkness - the world outside hurt too much.

She couldn't do anything to change the world outside, so she wanted to stay in this world where there was nothing that could hurt her.

But that sea of voices wouldn't let her.

They swam in and out of the darkness, much like she was underwater, and they above the surface.

Obscured by a sound-dulling sea.

And yet the darkness didn't feel like water - It didn't feel like she was submerged beneath terror itself.

Most of the voices called her name, or variations of her name.

Katsuragi-san, Maya-chan, Amaya-san, and one called her Amay.

And yet the one voice she found herself wanting to hear most of all wasn't there.

Was it worth living through all that pain when nothing she would do truly made any difference?

Was it worth it all, when she was almost certain she was going to end up being exactly like that shell of her mother?

In spite of her doubts and her fears, the one little voice that called her 'Amay' was crying.

She could hear that clearly.

She tried to look through the darkness in the direction of the little voice that belonged to her sister.

And slowly, she found herself drifting out of the darkness.

Slowly, she began to wake up.

The sensations of the conscious world were vastly different to what she'd expected, even though she awoke greatly disorientated.

The air smelled completely different to what she was used to - Almost artificial. Her whole body felt sluggish and numb, and what was worse was that her mind seemed to work in a similar manner.

The faint sounds of slow, rhythmic beeping came to her slow notice as she lay there with her eyes closed, tugging at her confusion for just a few seconds.

At least until she realized she'd heard that same beeping recently.

That of a heart-monitor.

It was that, combined with the artificial, chemical-like smell that painted a very simple picture of where she was right now.

She managed to open her eyes slightly to find her sluggish thoughts confirmed for her.

Amaya found herself lying in a Hospital bed, in a little cubicle very similar to the one Reiko had been put in the Monday just been.

The light was dim, giving the impression of late evening.

She turned her head slightly, her eyes scanning the cubicle around her.

No sign of anyone around, and apart from the one monitor connected to her, she couldn't hear any signs of movement.

Everything was silent.