Dread and Fear
"Oi, your phone is ringing…" Mizuki whispered in my ears, startling me a little.
Staying invisible even to me at the moment, she's relayed no warning about being back with me after her tour around the school. Thankfully, however, her manner of speech was unique enough to set her apart from everyone else. Thus making my shock last only a few fleeting seconds.
"Don't ever do that again," Warning her, I leaned against the open corridor window looking down the rest of the school campus.
Being on the highest floor, I had the perfect vantage point to pinpoint anyone I wanted, that is, as long as they went out of the school building for a quick breeze during recess.
"Did you see Hero anywhere?" Looking to my side as Mizuki undid her invisibility, I reached into my pocket to take out my ringing cell. "Maybe even Sakura and her gang of prima donnas?"
With a chewing motion of her jaws, she seemed quite pissed while picking at her own flesh. Even her pale lips were painted with blood that seamlessly gushed out of the inner side of her cheeks.
"Nothing here's worth a damn," turning her head, she glared into my eyes for a moment before opening her lips again which in turn flooded her skin with her own blood. "I want to, no! I need to feast on someone's negative emotions now!"
The chill I felt the very first time I saw her was creeping up my skin once again. Her silver eyes were slowly seeped with blood and reflected the image of a deep red blood moon. She was starving for a meal, and it was reflected in her entire being. Reaching out to her hair as it rose to the skies with a deep crimson aura, I caressed it lightly the same way I'd once been lovingly caressed by my mother.
"What a-are you?" Her eyes widened as my fingers combed through her air, but the very next moment she plastered a maniacal smile. "Nostalgia? The most fragrant of emotions, ahaha…"
Grabbing my hand, she bit down like a vampire trying to drain its victim. Although it pained me enough to make me pull away, I simply turned toward the sight of the campus to spy out Hero and the others. As the feeling of nostalgia was drained away completely, I felt an empty hole left inside my heart, yet finally noticing Hero and his goon Kenta near the school entrance I couldn't care less about those memories with my mother.
'She was a bitch in the end, and she got what she should've a long time ago.' Slowly drawing my hand away from Mizuki, I focused my vision on the duo to try and figure out more about them. 'S'yah! Nothing? I guess I haven't even introduced myself to them so they don't even know that I exist.'
Since the ability relied on the victim's rating towards me, I couldn't see anything about them without reaching out to the duo.
"Mizuki, if you're done eating can you follow those two around and see what they're up to?" I suggested, hoping to keep a low profile myself since it was my very first day back in school.
"Sure!" Beaming like a cheerleader, the phantom beside me seemed sated by her meal.
"Oh…Almost forgot," checking my phone, on the other hand, I noticed a few messages and a single missed call from an unknown number.
Reading the very first message, I noticed it was an apology for leaving me in the hospital and then bailing without saying anything. Then it read how the person had taken the liberty to grab my number with a missed call to their own phone while I was still unconscious in the hospital bed.
'Again, I'm sorry. From Akane if it wasn't clear…' Was the last message followed shortly by a missed call on my cell.
"I wonder where she is," I muttered to myself, trying to figure out why she never showed up for school today.
"Want me to look for her as well?" Flying out the window, Mizuki kept afloat before my line of sight on Hero and Kenta.
"I doubt she's in school. Wouldn't make sense for her to miss both track practice and classes. Better off not coming at all, don't you think?" Humming to my reply, Mizuki placed her thumb under her chin and mused for a second.
"Maybe we can check on her at her house later? Or we can hire someone to find her, but that'll cost us Malice and you'd have to promise not to question me too much about how I got the intel," both options sounded quite reasonable, thus giving her a nod, I decided to part for the time being.
'After school, we're visiting her house then back to our apartment if we don't find her there.' Suggesting the plan through the mental link we had, I headed back to the classroom so as to not stick out to anyone.
"Fuck…We need money too," feeling hungry myself after Mizuki had feasted on my vitality, I was once again reminded that we were absolutely broke. "Saki offered me dinner, maybe that's not such a bad idea for today after all?"
Visiting them for dinner might also help me understand what went wrong for Sakura to turn out so different from her mother. Either way, after spying on Hero, visiting Akane, and trying to figure out our next move, I hope Saki prepares enough chow for us to chow down.
'If only I had her number I could've told her I'd be visiting.' Making a mental note of grabbing her cell number, I made my way to the classroom and pretended to be the ideal student.
The rest of the school day went as well as it could've with nothing out of the ordinary happening, and me even avoiding a direct confrontation with Hero and the others. That is, until it was time to leave because waiting by the gates the two seemed tingling to make an acquaintance.
"Finally, I thought we'd never meet this new transfer," wearing that same arrogant smile as I remembered, Hero stood before me blocking my path.
'Great…' I thought glaring at Mizuki who had been looming above the two while following them. 'A warning would've been nice.'
"Anxiety's the best desert, why could I miss it?" smirking to herself, she flew back to my side.