haunted

baseball beatin'

haunted

chapter one: baseball beatin'

It had been a stupid, terrible idea.

The two of them were standing there in Naegi's shower stall, close enough to feel each other's breath on their necks. Sayaka's eyes were wide, choking on a cry that had died in the back of her throat. It was over. Her stupid, terrible plan was over. She'd been stabbed in the gut, and even if someone found her before she died, there was no way they'd be able to get help for her in time. She was going to die, and she realized she had no one to thank but herself.

Kuwata backed away from her, his eyes wide in shock. "I . . . I . . ."

Sayaka stared at him, unsure of what to think of him. She settled on pity. This hadn't been his idea, after all. If she hadn't invited him here, he probably would have just stayed in his room, and maybe this wouldn't have happened. She wouldn't be dying in a shower room with a broken wrist and a kitchen knife sticking out of her stomach. Kuwata wouldn't have panicked and killed her. Monokuma wouldn't have gotten his way. Their eyes met once more before he fled the bathroom.

She looked out into the room. Naegi's room.

Naegi . . .

Naegi's going to get blamed for this.

Sayaka decided she needed to do something as her vision began to get blurry. Naegi didn't deserve what was going to happen to him once she was found. He'd been trying to do right by her, even if she had been using him. She didn't want to die like that, leaving him high and dry to take the blame. Sayaka was fading quickly, but she wasn't going to let Naegi take the fall for Leon. She'd been wrong to stray down this path, and this was all she could do to make things right. She ran her hand over her wound – her fingers were coated with warm, sticky blood. It would have to do.

She scrawled her killer's name on the wall behind her. There.

Her vision was getting worse. She was losing a lot of blood. She could barely make out shapes anymore as she coughed up blood. Sayaka was too weak to move anymore. I'm sorry everyone . . . I'm sorry I couldn't get out of here to save you . . . I love you all . . . and I'm so sorry . . .

. . . I'm sorry . . .

Sayaka slumped to the floor and closed her eyes for the last time . . .

. . . and promptly opened them again.

Sayaka was confused. She wasn't in pain anymore; in fact, she felt fine. She stumbled to her feet, and it slowly began to dawn on her that something felt horribly wrong. Her body didn't hurt, but it didn't feel right. She looked down at her hands and froze.

They were transparent.

Sayaka stood there in shock as she realized what was going on. She spun around and screamed at the sight before her. At her feet, leaning against the wall of Naegi's shower, was her corpse, blood still oozing from her stomach. Sayaka fell on her behind and scrambled out into the bedroom, still screaming.

Sayaka Maizono was dead.

Was this the afterlife? Having to look at your own dead body? She grabbed her head and began to shake it. "No, no, no! This isn't real, this isn't real!" she wailed, feeling something that almost felt like tears streaming down her cheeks. This all had to be a nightmare! Everything was some sort of horrible bad dream! Monokuma and this horrible game and the love of her life hurting her and-

. . . the . . . love of my life?

Sayaka heard a grunting noise and turned to see Kuwata . . . no, Leon trying to clean up the room. She studied him for a moment. Love of my life? Where did that come from? They'd only met a few days ago when they'd woken up in the school and Monokuma told them they couldn't leave unless they killed someone, so why did she think . . .