It took a few seconds for my eyes to adjust to the dark atmosphere and I put out my hand, protecting myself from bumping into anything as I reached around and touched something soft and squishy (in case you were wondering, it was Yamato's cheek).
Pulling my hand back like it touched something poisonous, I yelped in surprise and someone seemed to move in front of me. "Calm down. It's just me," the person muttered, and although I couldn't see clearly, I saw him smirk a little.
"Haha, uh… sorry," I replied, and felt around the ground for a space to sit and once I did, I tucked my knees in and rested my head on my hands, "thanks… for earlier."
Yamato nodded in the darkness, turning his head to look at the door. "You're probably wondering why I knew you had laughter attacks," he said in a casual voice.
I blinked. How did I forget about that?
"Of course. I haven't told anyone about this. How did you know?"
"I figured out."
He says it so simply, like my sickness was obvious. But I had tried my hardest to hide it in every way possible, and I even sacrificed my hard-earned pocket money for it. That made me flare with anger a little inside.
"And how did you do that?" I snapped, suddenly having a feeling that Yamato may not be as nice as I thought.
He shrugged, explaining, "Every day after school, I see you walk into an alleyway to do whatever stuff you were going to do. At first I didn't care, but more often I saw you running to there, with something in your hand. It looked like some sort of a pill bottle so I followed you."
I shifted uneasily as he continued, "Although I never saw you take the medicine, I suspected that it was for yourself. And that was the day I saw you…"
He suddenly stopped. I fidgeted with my hands and for the first time ever, I appreciated the darkness. "Saw me what?" I finally said, anxiety running through my veins.
Yamato shook his head, murmuring in a low voice, "I saw you laughing. In the alleyway. And you didn't seem like laughing at anything particular. But that wasn't what caught my attention. No. You were laughing… but you were also smiling."
I wrinkled my nose, remembering what happened on that day in the alleyway. But strange… I didn't see him anywhere in the alleyway. Was he hiding? I thought, perplexed as I turned to face where Yamato was (or, at least where I thought he was).
"You weren't meant to see that. That's personal," I mumbled, a lump forming in my throat.
At least he wasn't the first to see me that way.
After that, I stayed seated while Yamato paced around in the small area of the storage room, a heavy silence hanging between us. I wanted to speak; wanted to tell him more about my sickness if, just in case, he had any wrong ideas about it but the words just wouldn't come out. I sighed, accidentally knocking over a timber bird from the shelf.
THUD!
RAWWWWArrraw..rrrawrr…
That made me freeze in place instantly.
What was that? Who's making the sound? Is it the other kids? AND WHY THE HECK DID YOU KNOCK OVER THAT YOU CLUMSY BI—!
My mind raced around wildly as I heard Yamato draw in a sharp breath. There were light sounds of paws padding on the ground, and another growl coming from outside the door. Something… was definitely there. And it didn't seem like a student.
"Shhh… don't move and don't make a sound," whispered Yamato in the blackness. He squatted down a little until the doorknob was in level with his chest.
I glared at him even though he couldn't see me. My body was already frozen with adrenaline and if anyone were to be quiet now, it should be him. The way he's breathing sounds like an elephant blowing their nose (do elephants even do that?) and I was sure the creature outside could hear it clearly. "The students outside must have hidden somewhere," Yamato noted, and somehow his voice still remained calm and collected, even in this situation.
"I hope the blonde hair girl gets eaten," I muttered under my breath and the other boy gave me a slight kick in the shoulder.
"Brat," I snarled, rubbing the sore spot where he kicked.
WwwwrooooF… GrrRRrrRr….!!
The terrible sound could be heard even closer to the door this time, and it seemed to burn my ears in the progress. This creature has a really bad voice. My mind thought as I saw Yamato tense. All of a sudden, a shrill, high-pitched cry echoed through the class and I winced at the volume of it. Who knew someone could scream that loud?!
I was about to yell at the person who was screaming but Yamato reached out to tap me on the arm, making me flinch. He pointed to a long, wooden object just a few centimeters beside me (idk if this really makes sense since it's so dark — how can Yamato see the wooden object? But whatever)
I didn't even need him to tell me what to do; I shuffled over and grabbed it by the base. It was an old baseball bat, with the top part being faintly scratched and chipped off. But this would still do as a weapon.
"When I count to 3, I'm going to open the door and we're going to burst out and try to distract the creature. You ready?" he said, placing his hand on the doorknob.
"WHAT?! Are you crazy?! We're going to get killed!" I half-whispered, half-shouted.
Yamato was out of his mind! He didn't even know what was out there, and it could be the same thing that killed Mrs. Jade.
"It's the only way! Look, it's not going to disappear by itself and there's people outside! We got to help," he argued, getting ready to push open the door.
"Yamato—,"
"1!"
"We need to thi—!"
"2!"
The door of the storage room swung open with a loud BANG! and cold air rushed in to bite at my skin. A few feet ahead of us, where desks and chairs have been smashed and toppled over, was an animal.
A monstrous-looking, furry animal.
It was a little bit smaller than a Kodiak bear but at least four or five times a human's size. The animal also looked like some sort of large wolf, with a shaggy grey coat and needle-like fangs that dripped slimy saliva. The animal was on top of a girl, whose hands were covering her face.
It whipped its ugly head to us, its green eyes studying our bodies and faces as if it were a detective on a case. But when it spotted the bat in my hand, it growled threateningly and started running towards us. "Hand me the bat! I'll distract it!" Yamato yelled, looking at me, "you help the girl!"
I was hesitant to give the bat to the other boy at first, but the wolf was coming at lightning speed so I threw it to him, and ducked to the side just in time before the animal crashed into the storage room. It gave an angry howl as it shook its head and started pacing towards Yamato, who banged the bat on the ground, luring it. I mouthed "careful", and he nodded before facing the wolf with a fierce expression on his face. I ran over to the girl on the ground, and upon closer look, I realized that she had blonde hair that almost seemed white in the lighting. But when she took her hands off her face, I scowled.
It was that blonde hair girl.
Part of me wanted to just leave her there, and let her defend for herself but then I thought of Yamato. He told me to help her. So… I guess I should.
I checked her for wounds and sadly, there was none. But the girl seemed too daze to notice it was me — the freak — helping her so she didn't scream or push me away when I lifted her up by the arm. Trying not to barf at her strong scent of perfume, I made her hook her arm around my neck as I supported her, trying to maintain balance. I looked around and noticed that under the teacher's desk it was still empty, so the girl could hide there. Together, we hobbled over to the desk (it was mostly me walking so I had to drag her) and I plopped the blonde hair girl down on the ground — not roughly, but not gently either. "Lima," she whispered, making herself comfy in the relatively big space.
I titled my head, glaring at her. "What?"
"Lima. My name," she slurred, batting her eyelashes, "thank you for saving me."
I nearly choked on my own spit. Did she hit her head or something? Why the heck… is she speaking like this?
I was about to say something back when I heard a cry of pain from the other side of the room. I whisked around, heart thumping in my chest when I saw Yamato slumped on the ground, not moving as the monster edged closer to him. It opened its jaws, strings of saliva dripping to the ground and I felt my vision go dark. Something stirred inside me, creating ripples on a water-like surface. The ripples were small at first but then it got bigger, and lasted longer.
I wanted that creature gone.