PB Chapter One - Mitsuki Makoto

by Juan Wolfaardt

Beyond the glass of the window beside me, I see many houses and trees stretching along the town, lit a bright yellowish orange colour by the bright sun shining through the thick yellow smoke clouds in the polluted orange sky. Orange and black is all I really see: the rooftops, the dark casted shadows. My name is Mitsuki Makoto and my dream is to become a musician. I hate school, it wasted every second of my life I could be spending doing what I love. Well, at least it's my final year. I looked away from the window towards all the students in the class. I could see them all since I was located at the back left of the class, unless you had to look at me from the front, then it would be your right. Everyone seemed to be doing their own thing, some were sleeping on their arms, others were playing with their pencils, then there's the very few that were actually paying attention to that babbling moron in front of the class. One of them was that new girl, Kara, Kali, Kaga, can't remember her name. She arrived this morning only, didn't say a word. As I looked at her, she turned her hair and looked me straight in the eye. She was in the centre desk at the back so we were both looking sideways. I tried looking away for a while and looking back to check if she was still staring at me. Each time, she was till staring at me. Her face seemed very calm, no signs of anger, shyness, nothing.

"Hey, Makoto!" a sudden voice called to me. I flung forwards quickly and saw Toura standing in front of me with both his hand on my desk. Toura is my friend, we've been friends since we were little. His real name is Toura Makoto, but we call each other by our last names not to get confused. I was about to ask what he was doing when I realised that everyone else was out of their seats and moving around the class. The teacher was gone too. I was so captivated by that new girl's stare that I didn't hear the bell ring. I looked up in front of me. The first thing I noticed was the bright orange sunlight shining on Toura's face.

"Hey!" he started, "Why don't we have some band practice this recess!"

I wasn't too sure why he wanted to go now all of a sudden, "Okay... Sure." I replied.

"Cool." he said as he left my desk and walked towards the door. Once he was out, I got up and grabbed my lunch from my bag next to my desk. As I moved out of my desk, I noticed that girl starring at me again. It was really starting to annoy me. I walked down the row of desks to the front and turned right when I reached the bottom. I continued walking towards the classroom door, her annoying stares were following me all the way until I was out.

"What the hell does she want with me?!" I thought to myself as I got out.

"She's new here, isn't she?" a sudden voice from my right said. It was a girl’s voice. I looked to my right and saw no one, only the dark corridor, later lit further on by the bright orange sunlight shining through the windows. I looked down and saw Mikoto. Haruko Mikoto is the female class representative for our class. I'm the male one. She looks up at me with her usual grumpy face that I've seen so many times before and tells me, "She was checking you out real hard. Remember though, now isn't the time to get involved with other girls, we have to finish preparing for the school's cultural festival first!"

She's so cute with that bossy tone of hers, bossing me around.

"You hearing me?" she said impatiently. I had to snap out of my trance quickly.

"Yeah, I hear you. Don't worry, I'm not interested in her anyway."

"Good." she replied with a satisfied smile on her face. With that, she walked past me and it to the class. I stood there for a while, then remembered that Toura was waiting for me by the music room. I quickly dashed towards the stairs that weren't too far away from me. I ran up and when I reached the top, I took a turn to my left and ran up the next set. I did the same when I reached the top of that set. I could hear the music coming from the music room. I ran up the last set of orange-lit stairs and straight in to the music room that was next to them. I opened the door and ran in.

"Sorry I'm late!" I apologized loudly. I looked up after I realised I wasn't getting any replies. No one was there, but I could still hear the music. I walked forwards towards the instruments where the music was coming from. The guitars were on their stands, facing me. I approached the drumming kit at the back and saw a radio playing our mix tape loudly. It was hidden nicely behind the drums on the floor.

"I wonder if he did this on purpose." I thought, then switched off the radio. I walked back to the orange-lit door and walked out it. I closed it behind me and headed down the stairs again towards my class. I was feeling slightly annoyed at that time. As I got down the last set, I noticed my classroom's door was shut closed. I walked up to it and opened it. Inside, I saw the teacher writing on the chalk board and all the students looking up to the board and back down again as they were writing off. Everyone stopped and looked at me, including the teacher.

"You're late." he said angrily. Most of the students continued with what they were doing before.

"Sorry..." I said as I walked in and past all the desks on my left. I could see them all looking around me at the boards as I walked pas them. Once I reached the end, I felt a little better and headed towards my desk at the back. All of them continued except for one. She was looking at me again. I tried to ignore it as I sat down at my desk and got my work out of my school bag.

"Why am I late? It was still recess just a second ago!"

Later that afternoon, when school came out, Mikoto came to me at my desk while I was packing away my books.

"I hope you don't think you're going home now!" she said in that bossy tone of hers.

"No, no! I know, I know!" I replied, trying to convince her that it wasn’t my intention to leave, which it actually was.

"Just an hour, Makoto. Please, just until Friday, then we're done and the class next door will take over for the weekend."

That sounded almost too good to be true.

"It's okay." I said, "I don't mind."

I got up from my desk and followed her out the class.

"Alright" she started again, "First we need to get all the chairs in class 2-A upstairs to hall."

"All of them?!" I replied, shocked.

"Yes, all of them."

"Alone?"

"Yes alon..." she paused and went a little red.

"What?" I asked.

"N-Nothing, let's just go!"

We began walking. It was quiet, she was red, and I was feeling a little uneasy. I had to break the silence.

"Why isn't there anyone else helping us?" I asked.

"Because, we're the only two that offered. And presides, we, as senior class reps, have to set an example to the rest of the school."

"Yeah, but..."

"No buts!"

We walked in silence for a bit longer, then reached the class.

"What about this class?" I asked.

"What do you mean?"

"Aren't there going to be students in here tomorrow?"

"No, they've been move to another class in the meantime."

"Oh!"

"Stop standing around with your mouth open like an idiot and come help me!" she shouted angrily at me from inside the class. It sounded very sexy. I decided to go in too and help her. She managed to stack two chairs on top of each other without my help and pick them up. She left so long while I was busy stacking up my fifth one.

"Wait up!" I shouted, running out the class holding five stacked chairs.

"Is tow really all you can handle?" I said, trying to joke with her. I should've known better.

"What?!" she yelled back angrily, "Of course it is, I'm a girl, I'm not as strong as a guy like you."

"Yes you are." I replied, thinking back to the time she used to still bully me when we were young.

"No, I'm not. It's unladylike to be stronger than a man."

"Yeah, it's unladylike to yell like a maniac too." Oops, I shouldn't have said that. Surprisingly, all she did was change colours. We carried on like that for an entire hour, back and forth, carrying chairs and stacking desks. After we finished, we headed home. Our houses were in the same direction so we walked together, as usual. It was nice being able to spend time with Mikoto again. We didn't really get to talk as much as we did that day, with all the school work and other things keeping us occupied.

The following morning I left extra early.

"You need to be here early tomorrow!" I recalled Mikoto telling me on our way home yesterday, "We still have a few things we need to do."

So, in order to stay on her good side, I decided to leave early. On my way to school, I spotted Kagura, Toura's girlfriend, entering his house.

"Doesn't she need to be at school today?" I thought as I watched her close the fencing leading in to his garden behind her.

"Well, it is still quite early..." I thought, looking up in to the dull blue sky above me. I noticed that there weren't any clouds in the sky this time. It's unusual, the sky’s usually full of them. I looked back at down to Toura's house and saw Kagura still standing there by the fence, on the pavement that leads to his front door.

"Hey, Kagura!" I yelled, waving at her. She didn't respond. The dull scenery was slowly lit in a bright orange light coming from the sun. I looked up again and saw the dark orange sky begin to fill up with thick yellow clouds of polluted smoke. This is how things usually look. I looked down again at Kagura still standing there.

"Hey, Kagura! You coming to school today?" I shouted.

"Mitsuki-senpai." I heard a boy's voice call behind me.

"Who are you walking to?" he continues. I flung around in fright and saw Touma standing behind me. Touma is a junior in my high school. He entered this year only, along with Kana. I looked behind me to see if Kagura was still standing there, she was gone. All I saw was Toura's biggish house lit up by the bright morning orange sunlight.

"There's no one there, senpai." Touma said. I looked at him again.

"Yeah, I thought I saw Kagura standing there." I replied. I walked on past him and he followed on after me. He's always looked up to me and Toura for some reason.

"Hey senpai, have you heard?" he started as he walked up next to me. I looked down at him since he was short, "What?"

"Kana and I are going out." he said with a proud voice. As his senpai, I felt obliged to strangle him at that point, but I realised I had to let go of old memories.

"Really? That's nice." I replied.

"She's a little stupid though." he started, "She gets upset over simple shit! It pisses me off a little sometimes."

I was the one beginning to get pissed, but I needed to stay calm and set a good example.

"She's a sensitive girl, you know. She and Amaya were good friends and she didn't take it well when Amaya died." I said.

"Yeah I guess." he replied, "By the way, Toura-senpai had been acting really strange lately, is he alright?"

I recalled Toura asking me to go to band practise yesterday, "Yeah, he seemed fine to me yesterday." I said. He didn't reply.

"What was he doing that was strange?" I decided to ask.

"I saw him talking to himself on a bench on my way to here this morning, then just went crazy. You know, got up and ran away screaming and shit."

That didn't sound right. Toura really seemed fine to me, I wondered for a while if he was really fine, then decided to forget it.

"You don't think he's on drugs do you?" he asked, looking up at me.

"No!" I replied, slightly angry, "Not Toura, he wouldn't do such a thing."

"But still" he started again, "Just think about it, he's already gone missing, then he decides to show up in a strange place and go all crazy for no reason. Plus, I haven't seen Kagura-senpai for a while either. I wonder where they went."

"That's enough!" I shouted, "Toura's fine, so is Kagura, so just drop it already!"

He didn't reply, just walked on ahead of me. Touma was different, he never used to be like that, and now he was going out with Kana too. I thought it'd be best if I met up with her again, just to make sure everything's okay. By the time I got to school, Touma was already gone. I walked through the gate and looked at the large orange lit school building. A window reflected the bright light of the sun in to my eyes. I moved away and looked at the window. There she was, again, starring at me.

"What the hell does that stupid girl want with me?!"

The following day was weekend. Finally, I was done with the damn festival preparations. It was still early in the morning and I decided to go check out the festival I worked so hard to prepare for. It's boring alone though, so I decided to give Mikoto a call.

"Maybe she'd like to come with me..."

I got my phone and called her. It rang for a while, then she answered, "Hello?"

"Hey!" I replied.

"It's Makoto, I was thinking you'd maybe want to go check out that festival we worked so hard to prepare for?"

"No, I wouldn't." he bluntly replied. For some reason, I wasn't expecting that.

"H-How come?" I asked.

"I'm busy, that's why. I don't have time for you or that stupid festival! Is there anything else?"

"N-No. Bye." I replied and hung up.

"Well, that was disappointing!" I thought as I laid down on my bed. I looked out the window on my right and saw the usual sight, except for the car pulling up in front of our house. My mother climbed out of it. I jumped up in surprise, she usually only came back from work around four. I turned and looked at me bedside clock, it was five in the afternoon.

"I must've fallen asleep." I thought to myself as I got off my bed. I headed to my bedroom door and opened it. As I got out, I could hear knocking on the door downstairs. I walked across the hallway to the stairs and down them, straight to the front door. I unlocked and opened it, and to my surprise, my father was standing there instead of my mother. Though something wasn't right, he was crying.

"W-What's wrong?" I asked, pulling him in, "Where's Mom?"

"She's gone!" he sobbed out loudly and dropped everything he was carrying. He walked past me and went to go sit in the lounge. I could hear his loud crying from the front door. I turned around to face the stairs and walked forwards, the crying got more clear on my left as I got closer to the stairs. I looked at him from the stairs and asked, "What do you mean?"

He looked at me with his red, wet face.

"What the hell do you mean she's gone?!" I yelled impatiently. He didn't answer, just looked back down and continued sobbing. I wasn't to sure what was going on at the time and stormed up the stairs, looking down at them. The lights above me shone warmly on my back, casting my shadow on the stairs I was running up.

"It's a little different from the usual orange-lit wood I see." I thought, "Wait, who put on the lights." I looked up at the bright shining lights as I got up the stairs. I then looked ahead of me out the window at the end of the hallway. It was dark outside. Everything was black, except for the little dots of the city lights shining. I walked quickly to me room, opened the door and stormed in to see the time. I looked at the small round white clock hung up on against the wall on my right. It was already past seven.

"What the hell's going on?" I thought as I walked towards my bed. The door suddenly slammed closed behind me and I got a fright. I looked back quickly at the door. Was it my dad? What was he thinking? I couldn't hear footsteps though so I decided to go take look who it was. I opened the door and looked out, no one was there. Only the scent of cooking food, coming from the kitchen downstairs. I ran out my room and down the stairs towards the loud crying sound. As I reached the bottom I quickly looked to my left. There she was, my mother was standing in there kitchen, cooking supper for us like she does every night. I looked to my right, "Hey dad, I found mom! I found her! She's in the kitchen!" I yelled.

"It's about time! I was beginning to get hungry!" he said happily, sitting on the couch, reading his newspaper with his legs crossed. But I could still hear the loud crying, it was near. It was right behind me, getting closer. I turned around quickly to see, then it stopped. I was facing the empty kitchen. My mother was gone and it was dead quiet. I turned around and looked in to the lounge, no one was there. Only the bright orange sunlight shining through the windows on to the furniture.

"Hey Makoto, wake up!" I opened my eyes and jumped up quickly. I looked around me, it was a dream. I was in my class, at my desk with Mikoto standing in front of me.

"What day is it?" I asked in a panic.

"I-It's Wednesday, why?" she replied. So it really was just a dream.

After helping with the festival preparations that afternoon, I decided to head on home. Though I saw Kana standing outside by the gate, so I ran down to greet her.

"Hello, Makoto." she said in her usual gentle tone as I arrived.

"Hey." I replied, "How you been?"

"Okay." she replied. We began walking home. It was quiet, I had to think of something to say to her.

"I hear you and Touma are going out now?"

"Yeah, we are." she replied.

"How's he like?"

"He's changed a little, more manly now, a little rough, but still okay."

"How do you mean rough?"

"N-Nothing, you know, that's just how boys become when they enter high school. They need to prove they as good as the rest."

"Well, not really..."

"He looks up to, Makoto, and Toura-kun too. So please, be patient with him if he seems a little arrogant."

It's like she knew everything that happened this morning.

"S-Sure." I replied. We walked on quietly for a little while.

"I miss Amaya." she said.

"Still? She was my little sister, yet you seem to miss her more!" I replied, trying to cheer her up. She was really gloomy that day, it's unlike her.

"Are you sure everything’s okay? With you and Touma I mean." I asked. She looked up to me, "Yes, we're fine."

"I take it you two will be going to the festival this Friday?" I asked to break the awkward mood.

"No." she replied.

"Why not?"

"He's dealing then. Maybe I can convince him to go on Saturday."

"D-Dealing?! What do you mean he's dealing."

"Didn't you know? He deals for the money only though, he's not a druggie."

"How the hell can you be going out with a fucking dealer?!" I shouted angrily and stopped walking. She walked on ahead of me a little, then stopped and looked back at me.

"We need the money. I'm pregnant, Makoto." she said in her gentle voice. I couldn't believe my ears. I couldn't believe how ignorant I've become to the people around me. Where did Toura and Kagura go? Why is Mikoto so angry with me lately? Why is that new girls staring at me all the time? What happened to Touma? Why is Kana allowing him to do this to her? All these questions had answers I was too stupid to find. That night, I decided, the next day, I would find out everything.

The following morning I left early again. I decided that I'd fund out what the new girl wants first. As I walked past Toura's house I noticed that I was the only one going to school.

"Maybe it's because I left so early, that everyone's still busy getting ready." I thought as I stopped to look at Toura’s house. I continued forwards, slowly looking in front of me. I stopped as I saw Kagura standing in front of me. She was a few meters away from me.

"Hey Kagura!" I started, "Where's Toura--"

She looked up at me. Her face was beaten and swollen. Pieces of skin were hanging from her face and I could see the bits of flesh sticking out from her cheeks and her jaw. There was blood all over her body and face. I closed my eyes and rubbed them to make sure I wasn't seeing things. As I reopened them, she came running towards me, screaming. I got scared and fell back.

"Makoto! Are you alright?" I looked up quickly and saw Kana standing in front of me, stretching her hand out to me. Kagura was gone and I was no longer alone, there were people everywhere, looking at me as if I just caused some sort of scene. I looked past Kana and saw Touma standing there, looking down on me, angrily. I got up by myself and looked back at him with the same eyes he game me.

"Come, you bitch! He's up, let's go! I don't have all damn day!" he shouted to Kana.

"Bye, Makoto." she said as she turned around and followed after Touma, who was walking away already. I couldn't bring myself to do anything about it, after all, everyone was looking.

I got to school and headed straight for my classroom. As I entered, I saw her, the new girl, standing at my desk, looking straight at me. Since I was feeling extremely angry at time, I tried to walk as calmly as I could to my desk.

As I got there, "What do you want?" I asked, "Why do you keep starring at me?" Her head was looking down at the floor. We stood there in silence for a while, the orange sunlight shone warmly on her back, casting her almost black shadow on to me. I looked at her, waiting for a response. The other students in the class didn't seem to take note of us, it was as if we didn't even exist. Just the two of us, alone in this "world" we've somehow created. Then her head slowly lifted. She looked my right in the eyes. Her eyes her horrible bloodshot and opened wide.

"H-He-He..." she started.

"What?" I shouted impatiently.

"H-He-Help me!" she said in a panicked voice.

"What do you want?" I shouted again, no one noticed us in our "world" we had somehow created. She grabbed my arm and began squeezing it tightly.

"H-He-Help me! Help! Help! Help me! Please!" she shouted over and over, digging her nails deep in to my arm. It started to bleed. I grabbed her arm, trying to pull it away from me when I felt something like a soft punch on my back.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?!" I snapped out my trans and saw Mikoto standing next to me, yelling at the girl. Mikoto slapped her that she let go of my arm and fell over my desk, on to the floor. She looked up immediately at me with big sad eyes. She looked as if she wanted to cry.

"Listen, Kagami! You leave Makoto the hell alone! He has enough problems as it is right now, he doesn't still need a freak like you hanging on to him too!" she yelled.

"So, her name is Kagami?" I thought, "Kagami, the mirror in which I saw my future reflection. One with no orange sunlight, one filled with chaos that I would desperately seek a way out of."

Mikoto didn't speak to me, she just left after that. Everyone else was looking at us. Kagami got up and walked to her desk.

"W-Wait!" I called to her.

"Sorry, Mitsuki-san. You'll just have to join me now." she said sadly as she went to her desk. I began to feel afraid of what might happen to me. I wanted to go speak to her, to try and find another solution to my life, but my body wouldn't left me. I got home that afternoon, I was greeted by a bright orange, empty house, no mother, no father, no Amaya. It felt as if things had always been that way, that I was always alone. I moved up slowly to my room, went in and closed the door behind me. I went to lie on my bed and look out the window at the black and orange city. And that's where I spent the rest of my day, alone.

I ran in through the school gates the following morning. I was being chased there, I know it!

"Who's there?!" I yelled, and looked back behind me, frightened. There was no one there. The skies were no longer the usual sorrowful orange and yellow they used to be, but now a fearful dark grey. It began to rain softly. I was out of breath from all the running. There was no one there, but I could feel their presence, creeping up on me slowly where I wasn't looking. I looked forwards and jumped back in fright that I fell. No one was there either. I was wet from the rain and the wet floor. I got up and scrambled in to the school building. I closed the doors behind me and looked out the windows at the school gate. My attention was drawn away from the gate as I noticed Touma kicking something angrily outside. He was shouting and carrying on. I went back outside in to the rain to see what he was up to. As I got out I saw Kana cowering on the floor, covering her head as he was kicking her in the stomach. Immediately, all my fears vanished and I was filled with rage. I ran as fast as I could towards Touma and tackled him to the ground. I pinned him down and started beating him in the face, over and over. Kana came up behind me and tried to pull me off, but I wouldn't let her. I was planning to give this little shit every bit of what he deserved. Unfortunately, I was the one to be tackled next. Three large boys were holding me down. Everything went quiet for me. One hit me in the stomach hard. The other two pulled me up and held me still. One punched me again. I looked in front of me as he moved aside. Mikoto came up to me and stopped in front of me with a serious face. The silence was broken, "I'm disappointed in you, Makoto." she said.

"This isn't the kind of example you should be setting."

My face end body was in pain was I was dragged by the boys in to the school building. Touma followed behind us. Him and I were now alone in the headmaster's office, waiting for him to arrive.

"What the hell were you thinking?" he mumbled to me.

"That's what I'd like to know." I replied, "How can you do that to a girl, especially one who's pregnant with your child!"

"What?!" he shouted angrily, "That bitch has said too much, I'm going to fucking kill her!"

"You lay another finger on her, and you'll be the dead one." I said.

"And what are you going to do like that? I was hoping you'd be able to help me! I looked up to you and Toura-senpai! Then that drug-addict fucks off with his girlfriend and you pretend like nothing happened!"

I didn't reply.

"I wanted you to help me, senpai, before I do the same with Kana."

I looked up at him with my beaten face and said, "Just leave her alone, please."

That afternoon, I decided to sit in my desk a little longer after everyone else had left. I looked in to the orange-lit classroom. The windows were open and the wind came gushing in every one and again, blowing the curtains around. Kagami had left too, without looking at me, without saying a word. I heard the classroom door open and Kana came in with a bandage on her hand. She walked to about the middle of the class and stopped. For the first time ever, I took note of pretty she had become over the years, since we were young. The wind came blowing through the window, blowing the curtains in to the class. Kana looked at me with her swaying hair and said to me with a smile on her face, "Thank you, Makoto." The wind blew the curtains in once more, and she was gone. I was alone again.

That night I decided I'd go to the festival and look for Mikoto. I didn't want to be alone anymore, anyone was fine for me. I entered the school gates, it was dark. I could hear the music and people talking far to my right. I looked in that direction and saw lights. I walked there to get away from the haunting darkness. As I arrived, I saw people everywhere, guys in suits, girls in kimonos, everyone was having fun. Even though I was surrounded by people, they all felt so distant from me. I was still alone. I turned to look at the dark school building. I decided to be strong and go look for Mikoto. I turned back and walked through the crowds of people. Luckily, I came across, Yuka. She's the drummer of our band. Luckily she saw me coming too.

"Hey Makoto, what's up?" she said cheerfully.

"Do you know where Mikoto is?" I asked without greeting back.

"Mikoto? She's inside, I think? Went to go get some stuff for one of the stalls here."

"At our class?"

"Yeah, she told me if I see you that I must tell you that she wants to have a word with you."

"Okay thanks, Yuka."

"Are you okay? I heard about you and Touma."

"I'm fine, don't worry." I said, looking back at her. She was gone. I looked back at the dark building and moved towards it as quickly as I could. I made my way along the building to the large glass doors at the entrance. I opened them, went in and closed them behind me again. I was alone in the dark school building, I looked around me, the corridors were darks with only some light from the lights where the festival was being held shining through the windows on to the walls in the distance. Other than that, all the classroom doors were open and the bright blue light of the moon could be seen shining through them. I was suddenly filled with fear of everything around me. I began walking slowly to my left, towards the stairs at the end of the dark corridor. I could feel the stares of the students from inside the empty classrooms. They were looking at me, no, down on me. As if I'm a bug they’d like to squash, but whenever I tried looking back at them, they were gone. The classes were, I only saw the bright blue moonlight shining off the tops of the desks. I continued walking, trying my best to ignore all the stares from the empty classrooms, then I heard a loud scream coming from down the corridor in front of me. I couldn't see who it was, it was too dark, but I could hear it was a girl's voice. I walked forwards a little then stopped. I could hear footsteps running towards me. Feeling nervous, I started moving back a little. Next thing, a girl ran straight in to me and fell back from the impact. She looked up at me. It was Kagami. She screamed again and scrambled to her feet and ran around me, pushing me aside and running away.

"What's wrong with her?" I thought, hoping I wouldn't encounter whatever she did. When I had finally reached the end of the corridor, just before I was about to go up the stairs that lead to my classroom, I stood on something soft and round, nearly slipping. I looked down to see what it was. It looked like a leg. I followed it up with my eyes to see where it lead. Sitting there, under the stairs, was Mikoto. She was quiet and looking at me with sad, pale eyes, a face that wanted me to ask if she was alright. Her right cheek was bent in a little. There were blood stains on her face, blood coming out of her mouth and blood all over the floor and the wall behind and next to her. I looked on in shock for a while.

"M-Mikoto?" I started. As I said that, her head tilted forwards and she fell sideways. She was dead. The moment killed the last bit of sanity that remained in me, so I ran and ran as fast as I could. The stares from the empty classrooms were laughing at me as if they had just pulled a prank on me. Soon, I ran in to a group of teachers. Without even thinking, I grabbed one's arm and began pulling him towards where Mikoto was.

"Hurry, hurry! She's dead! Help!" I continued to cry frantically pulling him along. The other teachers followed in panic. The stares from the empty classrooms were now quiet, doing their work, as if they're afraid of getting scolded by the teachers. I could feel my sanity return to me. I began to feel a little more secure,, knowing now that someone knows I actually exist. But then, I reached the staircase and she was no longer there. I pointed to where she was, speechless and the teachers began looking at me angrily. Mikoto was gone and so was all the blood.

"Do you think you're funny?" one of the teachers said to me angrily.

"No! She was right there! Mikoto was there!" I yelled. They just ignored me and walked away.

"Please, believe me!" I shouted again. They didn't hear me. I starred in shock at their backs as they left and soon they were gone. I was alone again. Where did my Mikoto go to?

I had only blinked my eyes and as I reopened them, I was sitting in my desk, in my class. It was Monday morning, the festival was over. Mikoto and Kagami weren't there. The teacher began the morning announcements as he always did, every morning. He spoke for a while but I wasn't listening. I couldn't think straight at that time and began panicking again when I realised that Toura wasn’t there either. I was the only one left. Everyone had abandoned me.

"They've all left me to suffer alone!"

"...and this is a very important announcement. Haruko Mikoto's dead body was found in the school building last night and Kagami has been missing since Friday." said the teacher. He then stopped and looked at me. The entire class all stopped what they were doing and looked at me too, each and every one of them.

"W-What do you want?" I asked, feeling afraid.

"Leave me alone!" I yelled as I jumped up out of my desk and ran out of the classroom as fast as I could. I ran straight towards the stairs and began running up them. They were no longer orange, but a dark grey from the rainy clouds outside. I continued to run up until I reached the top where the band room was and ran right past it. I could hear music coming from the band room but I didn't really take note of it. I continued running, being chased by something I couldn't see, but I could feel it right behind me. I got to the end of the corridor and turned left up the stairs that lead to the roof of the school building. As I started going up the stairs, it felt as if whatever was chasing me couldn't get through. I looked up ahead of me at the bright white light shining through under the door. I recalled Toura's face and the words he said to me as support when Amaya died. I grabbed the door handle and it flung open. I jumped out and shut the door behind me quickly. I was outside, on the roof of the school building. It was raining heavily. I looked out in front of me and saw Toura, Kagami and a little girl standing there. I couldn't see the little girl's face properly since it was covered up by her long black wet hair. I paused for a while and looked at them. They were all three looking right back at me.

"What's going on?" I asked, confused.

"Welcome, my friend!" said Toura cheerfully as he began walking towards me.

"We've been waiting here for you, Makoto." said Kagami happily. The little girl looked up and her hair gave way for her face to show itself. She had a pretty, pale-skinned face with bright brown eyes. She smiled at me.

I walked towards Toura and towards the rest of them. With every step I took closer, I could feel a bit of my sanity returning. I felt more free with each step.

"Come Mitsuki." said Toura to me, holding out his hand. Kagami was holding his and the little girl was holding hers. I took hold of his hand and there we stood, hand in hand on the roof of our school. We looked out ahead of us at the mist covering the entire city. Suddenly, the three of them began running forwards, dragging me along behind. But I slowly felt the urge to run with them. I started running too. We ran towards the edge of the school building and jumped off. I closed my eyes and my vision became white and pure. I felt that maybe it wasn't just me, but all of us, we were set free. Free from this hell they call.......

PB Chapter 1 - End