Slice Of Life: F*cked Up Version

Yay! More Children

After telling Haskell I'll be gone for a while, they insisted on coming with so they came along. Much to my annoyance. Kinume leads the way, walking a far way out into the field.

"Ceil where are we going?"

"I'll tell you when we get there." This is pretty much how it went the whole time we're walking, I often heard Kinume giggling to herself which caused me to laugh as well. I wonder why Haskell hasn't asked me about Kinume yet, maybe they think she's a work friend.

"In here," Kinume speaks up and points towards a cave. It reeks like literal death, I'm going to throw up. However, Haskell has already beaten me to it and emptying the contents of her stomach onto a poor, innocent blush. Curse my weak stomach, I feel disgusting. I look to Kinume to see she isn't bothered by the smell at all but actually looks really concerned for us.

"How are you not throwing up?" I ask her and immediately regret opening my mouth, my chest tightens, my mouth dries out and I throw up all over the ground.

"I can't smell anything, but maybe we should go back. If it's that bad out here you won't want to go inside." It's worse inside?! What the heck is in here that Kinume needs help with?

"Ceil, why are we here?" Haskell seems to have recovered and is looking at me with a disgusted look.

"There's something in here that we have to get." Haskell pulls a face.

"Really? It's not worth dying for." I sort of agreeing this stench feels like poison. I turn to Kinume, silently asking for help.

"There's a girl in there. She needs serious help, but to get to her you'll need to go into the cavern." There's a person in there?!

"Haskell, stay out here, I have to get whoever's in there!"

"Wait!" I jump into the cavern, adrenaline pumping through me. It's not enough to block out the stench though and I gag the whole way through. Kinume was right, somehow it keeps getting worse the more I go in. I finally see something in the darkness. There's a lump but I can't tell what the heck it is. I pick it up with ease and hope that this is the girl. I run out of the cave and proceed to hiss at the sunlight. This day is sucking so far. I hear Haskell gasp and begin to gag again. I look down and almost drop the girl in shock. It's a child, but she looks, it's impossible to describe. Her skin is tight around her bones and is somehow sinking in past them, you can see every individual bone.

"What the fu-"

"Quickly! Follow me!" Kinume's voice cuts me off. I glance towards her and she shows confidence, it makes you want to listen to her.

"C' mon Haskell, move it or lose it!" I begin to run after Kinume and I hear Haskell's footsteps behind me, they're eerily quiet. They're probably still trying to understand what's going on. Kinume leads us to a house, it's rather nice actually but rather isolated.

"Go inside, it's my house, just like her on the couch to your left." I nod and open the door. To my left there is a couch like she said, I lie the girl down on it and step back. Alright, first of all, check on Haskell, they've been way too quiet.

"Haskell? How are you holding up?" Haskell is silent then clings onto my side. They aren't crying but they seem really shaken up, not that I blame them.

"What's wrong with her?" I hear them whisper, don't they remember I'm like 95% deaf in both ears? I wouldn't have heard them if I wasn't paying attention.

"A lot of things, but we're here now." I may say that but I have no idea what I'm doing. Calling a hospital seems like a great idea but being the dumbass I am, I did a movie cliche of leaving it at home. I'm really losing my mind if I'm being this stupid.

"Thank you for helping her." I jump at Kinume's voice, I didn't even hear her. Haskell looks at me funnily as I turn to face Kinume.

"Uh right, but can you give me some details, please? I am very confused." Kinume continues smiling, does she ever stop? It's kind of weird but also comforting...I can't decide whether I like it or not.

"Her name's Mirai..." Kinume drifts off, it seems like she wants to say more but feels hesitant. She glances at Haskell for a moment, then back towards me.

"How old is she?" Kinume asks, gesturing to Haskell.

"Actually Haskell is non-binary and they're turning 17." Kinume looks a little surprised by my answer.

"Sorry about that. They don't quite look 17 do they?" I look down at Haskell, Kinume has a partial point, Haskell looks a lot smaller than your usual 17-year-old but that's mainly because of malnutrition despite my best efforts. Haskell looks rather pale and scared they're really shaken up huh? I rub their shoulders in an attempt at comfort.

"You didn't explain anything else Kinume." Kinume remains quiet then begins to speak.

"She's also from the facility, she only recently got out like yourself." She's what?! This little girl was also in the facility?! I turn back around to look at the girl, I mean Mirai. I feel worse every time I see her, she looks hollow like everything has been taken out from inside her and they only left the shell. But looking at her I can see a multitude of scars, faint and barely noticeable because of her pale skin.

"What's that?" I ask, now noticing something shining on Mirai's body. She's wearing a beautiful necklace. It's a jewel in the shape of a teardrop that has a multitude of colours constantly swirling within it. It shines softly, it gives you a feeling of looking into something deeper, deeper than what I could understand. Oh no, I'm getting existential crisis' DISENGAGE! DISENGAGE!

"Don't take it away from her. Unless she asks you to...it's a very important keepsake." Haskell now looks rather curiously at the necklace. They reach out to touch it before I even notice their hand moving.

"Haskell wait!" Her finger touches the crystal and the jewel glows brighter, the colours seeming to have stars within them are swirling around even more. Then it dies down and nothing else happens. We stand there in silence, unsure as to what happened. Then Kinume points towards Haskell's chest.

"Haskell look!" I turn towards where Kinume is pointing and underneath the skin of their chest is a soft glow. Haskell looks utterly confused and scared that something was happening to them. Suddenly they double over in what looks to be a pain, curling up into a ball, gasping for air, clutching the clothes around her chest. I rush over and bring them into my arms, trying to comfort them. What is happening?! This is why we don't touch weird things!

"Kinume! Do you know what's happening?" When I turned to Kinume, I saw something for a split second. Like an image flickered, she changed and was back to normal. My eyes are going crazy. I don't know how but she's completely composed and kneels down next to me and looks into my eyes.

"Deep breaths Ceil, Haskell isn't physically hurt. I'm not completely sure what's happening but it has to do with Mirai. Just keep comforting them, they'll need to ride this out, Mirai might be trying to wake up." Wake up? Whatever, I don't care about that right now. I continue to try and comfort Haskell, but it hurts so much. I feel like crying for them, but I don't because that's not what they need right now. Kinume is comforting me as well, making sure I'm staying strong. Eventually, it stops, Haskell is left gasping for breath, silent tears streaming down their face.

"Haskell? Can you hear me?" Haskell nods and leans up to fully hug me.

"It hurts, it hurt so much." They repeat it over and over again, clinging to me. Today has been a very emotionally draining day and it had started off so normal too. I turn to Kinume but she's standing over Mirai, relief surrounding her. I would get up as well but Haskell feels more important right now. After a while, I rise to my feet along with Haskell, but Haskell collapses against me immediately. I catch them while they mumble something about 'feeling weak', so I drag them to the side of the couch. I wasn't ready to see Mirai though, but she was awake. She had pink eyes, her left eyes devoid of a pupil and extremely dark, however, the right eye was...it's hard to describe. Alive, yet devoid of any emotion, simply staring at me. It was awkward until I saw my perfect opportunity. I placed Haskell on the couch and everyone was watching me as I walked towards the fireplace. I turned around. Tension and silence hung in the air.

"Why don't we just relax and turn on the radio? Would you like am or fm?" I then turned the radio on top of the fireplace on and YMCA begins screaming through it. Chaos soon ensued. My job was complete.