Hanabi

Chapter 33: Practicing

They ran as fast as they could, stepping on leaves and tree roots, trying not to fall and keep their speed. Tomomi felt like her heart was trying to crawl its way up and escape through her mouth, it pounded painfully in her chest as her breath went heavier and heavier, her feet hurting, but she couldn’t stop. She was holding Mami’s wrist and she could feel the blonde so tired, almost giving up.

Suddenly she realized they were alone. Haruna and Rina disappeared in the darkness, she couldn’t hear their steps and shouts anymore. When she looked at Mami, the blonde had one of her hands up on her chest, as if it hurt to breathe. But they couldn’t stop running. If they stopped running, they were going to die.

Then Tomomi looked at the path in front of her again, but they weren’t in the woods anymore. They were at the backyard of Mami’s house, but still running. She didn’t even want to know how that happened, all she knew was that they were in danger and she had to do something, she had to take Mami somewhere far away from it. She called for Haruna, but there was no answer. Rina didn’t respond to her either, there was no sign of any of them.

She shut her eyes for a second, and when she opened them they were already into the house and she had Akai with her. Mami’s wrist was still safe under the grasp of her left hand, and the katana was heavy in her right one. The intensity of that feeling, that panic inside of her chest, all of it was almost making her cry. It didn’t matter if she had a katana or not, she didn’t feel safe and she didn’t feel strong enough to do anything.

They crossed the living room door, and were back into the forest. She looked around her for any sign of Sojobou but he wasn’t anywhere either. They were completely alone. Tomomi couldn’t count on anyone else to help, she was the only one who could take Mami out of that place.

But she was forced to stop on her tracks when one of the shadows of the forest moved in front of them. The shadow was moving closer, and it had the disfigured form of an abnormally tall man with arms too long for his body. It took another step towards them and Tomomi tried to run back and take Mami away.

But Mami wasn’t there anymore.

There were shadows moving all around her and the blonde had vanished from her side, leaving her alone with fear ringing in her ears and guilt burdening her chest, because she knew what happened. She knew it, and it was her fault. She held the katana with both of her hands, shaking uncontrollably.

The last thing she heard was a piercing scream, and her eyes opened at the same time her body jumped and she sat up in a jolt, looking around her frantically.

There weren’t any disfigured shadows, just a pale light helping her to distinguish Mami’s bedroom.

- Hey. - she turned to her side promptly by hearing that voice, the same voice that screamed, and it was Mami’s. The blonde was slowly sitting up and staring at her with disheveled hair and rubbing her face, her eyes sleepy and concerned at the same time. - What happened?

It was a dream. Just a dream, a nightmare, nothing more. However, before she could tell that to Mami and say everything was fine, she noticed the blonde was staring very fixedly at some point past her.