Marionette

Cosmos, Chapter Sixty - Furikaeru [振り返る]

When Amaya awoke, she was tired.

So tired in fact, that all she wanted to do was sleep.

It felt like she had awoken after running across the city all week, limbs wrecked, mind sluggish and her eyes didn't even want to open when she wanted them to. Too tired to move, and worse still, she was too exhausted to sleep, her sluggish thoughts were heavy and strangely painful to follow. Even the blankets that covered her weary form felt heavy against her body, and her head felt like somebody had jammed one of Daniel's obscenely weighted training balls right into her skull.

But what felt the heaviest of all, was the sunken feeling of her heart in her chest.

When she eventually pried her eyes open against their will, Amaya found that she was curled up in her attic room, tucked away in the egg chair with a set of hefty blankets she had left behind the last time she had wound up falling asleep there. It was remarkably bright for a cold winters day, remarkably quiet in spite of the swaying branches outside the sealed window.

And was it ever cold. Even bundled up in thick blankets, there was a piercing, almost painful chill that had seeped into Amaya's bones and made so much as moving almost unbearable.

It was definitely cold enough for snow, but it hadn't fallen yet. Instead, that same ice cold rain sprinkled down softly to chill the earth.

The sound of something heavy vibrating harshly against a wooden surface eventually drew Amaya's gaze from the window, to her phone she had dropped carelessly atop the small table when she'd curled up in the attic room for the night. Its screen was flashing notice of an incoming call, and in spite of how Amaya wanted nothing more than to ignore it, she didn't. The incessant rattling grated against her ears and tugged at her building headache.

'Hey! Maya-chan!' Greeted none other than Maehara the moment the albino had pressed "answer", loud enough for the girl to reluctantly decide putting him on loudspeaker might be a kinder option to her poor ears. 'I didn't wake you, did I? I mean, it's nearly lunch time!'

That explained why it was so bright already...

'What do you want, Hiroto-kun?' The exhausted girl questioned softly.

'Huh? What's wrong?' Her friend questioned. 'You alright? You sound like you've come down with the flu or something. That lazy ass is looking after you, right?'

'Answer the question, please.' Amaya pressed with a sigh.

'Oh. Well actually I was calling to ask how the big bad prank went! You got a recording of it all like you said you would, didn't you?' He continued brightly, causing Amaya to almost bury her face in her hands thanks to the unpleasant reminder. 'Was the look on his face worth it?'

'I ended up dismantling it...' The albino admitted after a moment.

'Aww... Okay then! Did I mess up somewhere with it? Did some of the balloons break early?'

'No, Hiroto-kun.'

'Just changed your mind, then?'

'...Not really.'

'Then what happened?'

And with a trembling breath, Amaya had no choice but to admit it.

Her friend was not going to let this drop without an actual answer right now.

'...He never turned up.'

There was no immediate answer in response, and Amaya had half wondered if she'd spoken too quietly.