Her Echo

As long as we have each other... The world can set itself in flames. The screams forn help can be silence, the fear of my father can be conquered.

Peace, when we were young was awfully rare. Everyone who spoke to my mother cried, while us, who lived with her, seen her smile, seen her cries, laughter and anger, remain mute. Juna, for her family was the same...

Ella cried the most, Vile comfort her in his arms.

Me and Juna, we used to do this thing, were we compared who lost the most that day.

My father, my brother, my mother, my uncle, my auntie, I tell her.

Her mother, her father, her brother, her friends, her family, her house, her relatives... Her hope, her pride, - A drift in the wind. She called herself that constantly. I had Ella to lean on, my grandmother took us in, but Juna... She no longer had anyone in her life.

The Hikari family always been hated and suffered from that.

-Juna... If she never held my hand, pulling me to play with the other kids in the park, I wonder... Would you be living a better life?

-Blood...

-My hands are soaked in deaths...

-I'm at fault...

-This is my fault...

-If I was never born...

-Father...

-He went insane...

-Beacuse of me...

-My fault...

-This is my fault... This is my fault. This is my fault. This is my fault. This is my fault. This is my fault. This is my fault. This is my fault. This is my fault...!

October 12, 2046; Yellowstone Hospiital:

-"Juna!"

I shoot up, hand out to a pale white wall, the two enemies that attacked my school, no longer in sight. Juna... She's not here either. I called out to no one.

Next to me, is a machine, clear tubes plunging blood into my wrist. -A blood transfusion? Where the hell am I? - Twisting my neck to the right of me, a door that separates this room from the hallway.

Through the window beside me, the moon shines bright. Stars dazzle in the night. The clock above the door reads 4:00 am.

-I'm in a hospital... I need to relax.

-I lay back down, gaping at the ceiling, trying to recount what happened after I fell through the top floor at school.

Did I get up and fight? Is Juna safe? The adults handled it right, the real heroes. She's safe... She has to be. Ella probably zipped down and handle the rest. That's her job after all.

Yeah... She's safe... I just... I just need to wait until tomorrow.

October 13, 2046; Yellowstone Hospiital 7:51 am:

-"Thank you for you cooperation. This became an ongoing investigation, so please contact us once you are released or remember anything significant."

The detective left a sticky not, phone number written on it, on top of the coffee table, shutting the door behind him.

It's quite again...

All I hear is busy feet through the hallway and the sound of this machine keeping a constant watch on my heart rate. Wet metal and sanitizer... I hate this smell.

-The sun, it's chilly in here, but it rises, brighten the room in a dim fashion.

...Juna has to be awake by now. I wonder if she's handling everything okay. Apparently, we were attacked randomly. Detectives are still working to determine if the attack was a terrorist group or an out of file Villian apprehension.

Ella... She hasn't come to visit. Even if she's mad at me, I doubt she would just leave me be for this long. I wonder... Will me and Juna be discharged today?

I lay down, curling back up under my covers, falling asleep.

October 14, 2046; Yellowstone Hospiital 2:02 pm:

-"My name is Jeffrey Adams, I'm here to ask you a few questions."

A man who looks to be my age, facades a smile, holding a small notebook in his lap, sitting in the same chair as the detective did yesterday.

"I already told your friends yesterday... All can I recall are two strangers taking a girl. Juna... Did you hear anything about her?"

The man glances to the flowers below the hospital bed I lay in, looking back up at me out of a daze.

"Um, there's been some mistake. I'm no detective. I'm the state approved Hero Consoler. I'm here to check on your mental state after the tragedy, Mr. Norway."

-If there's a hero consoler here, then -"Wait? Where there any casualties?"

"Sorry, but I'm also in the dark here." Uncrossing his leg, the consoler moves his mini notebook, placing it on my bed, wide open. "These are the notes of everyone I spoke to in this hospital. That girl you mentioned, I'm not sure, but I can ask around if she's here are not."

I look through the list of names. He seems to have visit almost everyone who was in the room that day...

"Thank you... I appreciate it." I hand him his notebook.

"No problem at all. Same time tomorrow then."

Tomorow? How much longer do I have to stay here...

October 22, 2046; Yellowstone Hospiital 6:37 am:

-"Way to go, Zenith!" Clapping at my progress is my physical rehabilitation nurse, Nurse. Read. She's a spitting replica of the mother like figure, Ms. Jones.

For the better, Mr. Addams recommended Nurse Read that I get back into physical fitness during my stay here to lessen stress. For an entire week, I've been forced to run treadmills and lift weights as if I was back in school.

I met Komada the other day, he seems to be doing well, and this kid been here sitting in a chair watching my progress ever since I started. Soon this whole thing became a routine...

8:03 am:

-"Here, you been working yourself like a dog all day."

A girl, hair pitch black and short, ears pierced, nose pierced and bottom lip priced, place a drink next to me, while I did pushups.

I stop exercising, sitting on the floor, trying to catch my breath, picking up the drink. "Thanks... I needed this...." I gulp down half the bottle.

"Hey? Have you heard anything about when we get out of here?" She looks irritated, but I gain this feel that how she naturally looks.

"Dam, and here I thought you knew more than me..." I hand her the bottle back.

"In the dark too, huh. That kid void, barley knows anything either, same with Komada."

Void? "You mean that kid that been watching me for like a week?"

Her eyes slant down to me, clicking her tongue. "You're kidding, right? Do you not know my name too or something?"

Did I secretly develop amnesia? I met this girl before. No that's not possible, I would definitely remember a face like hers.

"Jerald was right, you two are full of yourselves. Rank 7, Veronica Smith, we literally been in the same class for years..."

She's one of the top ten... I have to admit, I never really cared. The only two to gain my attention in that class were Komada Koi and Nia Akashi.

She's much taller than me too... She has to be a senior now.

-"Wait, that kid, he's in our class too?" I thought only Juniors and seniors can qualify for top ten. He looks like he's a middle schooler.

"Rank ten, Jonathan Loo, he's new, so I don't expect you to know him. - Eck. You know what it's fine. My friends call me Vivi, let me know if you hear anything."

She been in my class for years, yet I never seem to notice her... Was I that much in my own mind? I never really took notice to anyone but those who approached us. Juna is the only friend that I need after all...

I should've asked if she seen her by chance.

October 24, 2046; Yellowstone Hospiital 2: 00 pm:

"Thirty-six days..."

I never gave it much thought, but this long... I been here for thirty-six days? That's already a month and a half. Ella haven't visited yet, there's still no news of Juna. At this point...

-"Your school is handling the damage cost, keeping you housed here into the situation is calmed for the media. You have to understand the casualties made and the critical condition your head principal is facing. So, I apologize, we need to hold you here until-

-"Juna..." Rain slaps the glass outside the window, my breath nearing cold, gazing at my consoler, hand balling up on my leg. "What about Juna..."

He darts his eyes away from mines. He's avoiding the subject. They haven't heard a single thing about her... Juna... She really was taking by that man... I wasn't hallucinating.

-"Just as Meniko Hatsumi's body, we were unable to locate Juna Hikari-

-"Bull shit!! You said she was here, you promised to tell me! Didn't you?"

-I sit back down after scattering paper and causing the coffee mug to spill over on the floor. Glass shattered all over, the storm outside crashing thunder. Silence and damp. The sky is much darker than yesterday.

-"I-I'll get someone to clean this up. Be right back."

The door shut. I'm left alone...

Juna location it hasn't... I cup my face in my hands, catching myself before I break down in tears. I can't lose to this feeling. She can't be gone. Juna... I can't lose her. I just... Can't.

-If I never met you... -A bad influence... -Let me fall alone? -I could never... -Drop it? -Why not? -Answer, now! - Reckless brat! -Can't be help...- A monster...-I told my daughter...-You're just like him! -A tyrant! -Out of control! -I'm sorry... -Just a child... -Don't... -Zenith! -Touch him... -Get away! -Not the same! -You monster!

-*"I'm going to make water balloons...."*

Loud in clear, trough the constant storm of screams, I hear your last joy filled voice.

-Water balloons... That's right... We never got to play that game together... Ha... Things happened so suddenly that night. And it happened again. Useless... Even now, I can't protect her.

-My shadow eats me, transporting me on top of the skyscraper. The rain here is much louder, but the screams, I can still hear them. My father's words...

-*"Take my hand..."*

Juna... Did you die?

-*"Fall alone?"*

Did you leave me behind?

*"I won't"* -

-"I won't let her fall without me..."

Don't leave me here... "Deal with these voices... Alone..."

I can't...

-When I came to my senses, my clothes are soaked, and the toes of my bare feet stands on the edge of the building.

-Just one more step... And I can end this all... I don't have to wake up the next day, without her.

-I take a step off. -Rain clutters my ears, wind canceling out the voices. I'm cradled in silence, eyes watching the very top of what soothed my soul shrink.

Like this, I can finally leave it all behind.... I no longer have to live with this guilt tearing me up on the inside. -I'm free. -She's free. -I can finally...

"Finally... Join you."

-My body cracks back, rushing in midair, hair rising in static. I open my eyes, seeing Ella leather jacket wave in slick black, slamming her feet on the windows beside us, tossing me and herself into the glass.

I tumble over carpet, hitting the side of a bed, Ella falling to her knees and hands.

"Are you..." She presses the button on her neck, deactivating her mask. "A fucking idiot!" She's soaked and out of breath, all while bawling her eyes out.