Chapter 10

Friendship (my ass)

She was crying in her sleep. Her mumbling whispers woke me up in the middle of the night. Sounds so terrifying it sounded like a pig about to head for the slaughter house. "Well you shut up, Mary!" I exclaimed.

After all I was going to defeat a giant tomorrow and I needed all the rest I could get. Mary slept in the bed beside me. The sheets of her bed covering her body, only a little of her head was exposed. Her blond hair caught the silver moonlight and it glowed. Mary's face was covered in tears and snot. It wasn't a pretty sight, but with a face like that, it was hard to call her crying face ugly.

In fact, it was astonishing. I got out of bed, pulling the covers off me and walked over to hers. "Hey," I muttered. Mary gave another gurgled sob and I realized she was shivering under the covers that covered her body.

"Don't…please don't…" she murmured repeatedly.

"Hey," I said again and proceeded to prod her hard in the ribs. Mary did not stir neither did she seem to hear me. It was as if she was stuck in a terrible hole unable to escape, unable to get out.

What was with this situation…what was I suppose to do…

I had no clue.

"Don't!" Mary cried out again and I did the next best thing I could think off.

I walked back to my bed and pulled the sheets over me.

I was sleeping.

We woke out to the cries of the villagers. Mary dressed with a grunt and I grab my sword from the side.

"Well this is a surprise," I said as we exited the hut. There before me stood the villagers. They were all holding weapons, young and old alike and the head stood very still in front of the whole horde.

"Stay still," the head told me and I grunted, holding out my sword that I have kept by my side. Mary was terribly shocked and angered, the pink lady was about to explode.

"Calm down," I told her and she snapped at me. "This is ridiculous!" she said, before turning to the villages.

"What is the meaning of this!" she shouted. I gave a loud sigh and plunge my sword into the ground.

"So what's your back story," I asked the head, who ignored me and was staring Mary down.

"You cannot allow the chosen one to kill the Giant," he said and the villagers advances forward with their weapons. "You must leave the village at once; I would make it so if you refuse."

"This comes as a surprise," I said loudly, and again the head ignored me. I turned and found Darren the elf looking at me with fearful eyes. His brother was beside him, holding a small twisted dagger with reluctant eyes.

"This is a mission your ancestors have given us!" Mary shouted at the head. "We have to kill the giant!"

"Over my dead body," the head muttered and with a raise of his hands the weapons the villagers were holding rushed forward. Mary cried out in horror and I stood up. The spears pierced my chest and the knives my stomach.

"Ooo, tickly," I said, laughing, pulling one of the knives out from my stomach. A puddle of blood gushed out and spreads out beneath my feet.

Somehow it didn't feel as painful as I thought it would.

"What have you done?!" Mary screamed at the villagers. The villagers cried out in horror as I took a step forward. The head's face was red and he was looking at me with fearful and furious eyes.

"You must leave at once," he told me and snatched the dagger from Darren's hand.

"Father," Darren whispered fearfully. He turned his head and his eyes met mine. They were screaming for me to leave but I stood still. The pain that I couldn't feel earlier was hitting me slowly and it spread out quite evenly.

"You have sinned!" Mary shouted at the villagers.

"We have warned you," the villagers shouted. Mary raised her hammer and I stopped her putting my hands out. I stood up with much difficulty and the blood that came out from my ribs flowed out even more.

I must have looked intimidating as the village head took a step back.

"Well, you have stabbed me, and it hurt, so can somebody explain the situation to me," I asked, smiling. Darren winced and the head flashed the dagger in my direction.

"You have to die," he told me, "For the sake of the village, for the sake of our lives."

"What is the meaning of this!?" Mary shouted at the villagers once more, "You all know the elders laws are absolute, everything that disrupts the balance must be killed."

"The giant must not be killed," the head whispered and I caught his words.

"Your ancestors decreed that the giant be killed!' Mary shouted.

"Shut up you ignorant girl, you who have lived for a tenth of my life would never know anything about the situation our villagers have come to face. History always changes, fate moves, you are unfit to tell us what is right or wrong. The elder's laws may be absolute but the pride of our village would never let the laws change our decision. Your arrival in the village has disrupted our balance, so I urge you to leave now."

"HAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA…"

"What-"

"Ladies and gentlemen, we present to you the idiocy of pride," I shouted, sitting on the ground with a thud and grabbing my injured bloodied chest.

"What are you doing?" Mary exclaimed aspirated.

"I refuse to move," I said.

The head looked at me with furious eyes. He waved the dagger at my direction.

"I have warned you!" he shouted. The villagers broke out in murmurs and Mary slapped her hand to her forehead.

"And I told you I'm not moving," I said. There was a defeating noise of dagger hitting bone and I winced. The dagger which the head was holding was now undoubtedly sticking into my chest. I felt my broken ribs crying out for medical attention but still I beheld that sickening smile.

"So, are you going to poke me with your little knives, spears or daggers knowing I can't die, or are you going to let me kill this giant?"

"You!" Darren shouted at me, not in anger but in shock.

The head held out his hand to stop his son.

"Fine, stay there," he whispered, "But you would not last long."

He turned around and begun to head back to his hut. The villagers followed suit, some looking at me with disdain faces, others looking in Mary with scorn. I watch them leave, wincing a few times when sharp pains from my wounds hit me hard.

"You ok," I asked Mary, who was looking at me in a whole new light.

"You're scaring me," I told her.

"You are an idiot," she said and sat down beside me propping her hammer on the ground.

"Your dress is going to get dirty," I told her and she grunted.

"I don't care," she told me.

I do remember faintly her reminding me to hang her dress up so that it wouldn't get dirty.

"You liar," I whispered.

Track 5: it was called pink/black

"What are you doing, Kayo?" I asked the enigmatic girl one day. She was up on the roof, close to the edge staring down. She had a long string and a camera. A wind blew past and her skirt flapped. I bend down to catch a glimpse of her panties but was shocked to find that she wore shorts. Slightly disappointed yet fascinated I walked over to her.

"Measuring the distance from here to the ground." She told me without any hesitation what's so ever.

"Want an orange to prove that velocity helps with gravity?" I asked, handing her my dessert and she took it from me, peeling it open and popping one slice into her mouth. I propped myself on the ledge of the roof, and stared at her as she lowered the long string slowly but surely down.

"You're beautiful Kayo," I whispered.

A long howling wind blew past, Kayo did not respond.

Her short hair shifted past her paled face. Her dark eyes were staring hard at the ground that lay below. Slowly she put her hand gripping the orange out. Almost systematically, she released her fingers one by one and the orange dropped. It smashed silently, its juices rolling out.

"We die like that," she whispered.

"Hmm…really?" I whispered.

Another long howling wind blew past, her hair ruffled and I took in a deep breath.

"…"

There wasn't anything to say really.

Perhaps the most memorable times I spent with Kayo were the ones in our little club room. Most times were spent in silence. Where she would read a book and I would talk. Others we would spend looking up various ways to die.

I never knew that there were so many creative ways to die.

And others were awkward.

One day, Kayo asked me,

"Darren what do you think of your Dad?"

Those words were weird, kind of strained, kind of sad. What was I to think of my Dad? I loved him, I cherished him; there was nothing else to think.

So I answered the simplest way I could.

"I love him, his my Dad," I told her.

Kayo looked at me, and for the first time those lifeless eyes of hers were filled with something I could not explain. "Your weird Darren," she told me and went on reading her book.

"Weird?" I asked.

Kayo did not answer and I sighed, resting my head on the table. My eyes always wandering back to her. The hours pasts and soon it was evening. An orange reddish glow came in from the outside and shone in the classroom. An almost nostalgic feeling washed over me.

"What do you think of evenings, Kayo?" I asked her unconsciously.

Kayo looked at me and shrugged.

"What do you think of it?" she asked me.

"It's evening, nothing else," I told her.

Kayo banged her head hard of the table. I jumped and found her laughing. She was laughing hard and tears were rolling out of her eyes. Her laughter was different from the ones she had before. This one wasn't forced, wasn't strain.

A blush formed on my face and only deepened when Kayo pulled her head away from her table and rubbed her eyes.

"You're weird, Darren," she told me.

Her smile was bright and vibrant, something I have not seen before.

Before I could stop myself, the words I never wanted to say came out from my mouth.

"I love you Kayo."

There was a deep silence, one that was uncomfortable and had a feeling of death to it.

"I don't know what to say," Kayo whispered, her face was bright red hot. It looked pink, too pink. She was looking at the ground. I rubbed my head, blushing even harder. For the first time in my life…I realized that a girl was blushing…blushing because of me.

"No or yes?" I whispered.

"I don't know what to say," Kayo answered again this time standing up.

"How do you feel about me?" I exclaimed, standing up too. Kayo blushed grew deeper until her cheeks were puffed up and pink. Her fist was clenched at her sides. She was vulnerable, scared. Her cold, mysterious had been wiped clean, replaced by that of something she did not know.

"I love you Kayo Asano!" I shouted.

Kayo stepped backwards, her chair falling on the ground with a thud.

"You don't understand!" she shouted. I looked up and was shocked to see tears in her eyes.

"Kayo?" I whispered, reaching out to touch her. I grab her hand and held it tight.

"Don't," she whispered and tried to pull her hands away.

"I love you, Kayo," my desperation was growing, my hands getting tighter. I was afraid, afraid that she would slip past me. Slip off to another world, slip off and never come back. I was afraid of her death, afraid of her suicide, afraid of this club.

"Don't die," I told her and Kayo pulled her hands away. Her blush had disappeared replaced with a cold smirk that she always bore.

"I don't love you."

The words stabbed like a thousand needles.

She was lying. I knew she was lying but yet the words stung.

"One day Jack and Jill went up the hill," I told Mary whose eye brows twitched.

"Stop with the children's poetry would you!"

"Come on, sing after me," I told her.

"I wished I could just hit you with my hammer and-"

"Ah, it's so painful~"

Mary gave a frustrated sigh and continued the nursery line.

"To fetch a pail of water," she grumbled.

"I can't hear you?"

"TO FETCH A PAIL OF WATER!" she screamed and I nodded in approval.

"Why are we doing this?"

"Because I am bored," I told her.

Mary slumped.

"Little red riding hood," I muttered and Mary raised her fist to hit the back of my head lightly.

"We're in a whole load of trouble if we don't see this Giant," she told me suddenly and I moaned, settling into a more comfortable position.

"Does it hurt?" she asked me, when she pointed at my bloodied shirt.

"Use your common sense, woman,' I told her back.

These were our usual conversations, sometimes we bicker and others we sung nursery rhymes.

"I wish I could just see this Giant," I muttered and Mary nodded, standing up.

She was only greeted by a very unfriendly dagger that had landed on the ground beneath her, stirring up the soil. "It would seem that the villagers are keeping a watch on us," she told us and I sighed, slumping back into the ground.

The sky above me looked very blue and very blue it looked indeed.

Kayo Asano

Sitting in red

Staring at blue sky-haiku written in the 40th era

"What the hell am I doing?" Mary muttered and shifted closer towards me.

"Hey not too close, my blood going stain your dress," I told her. Mary silenced me by placing her hand on my mouth. "Listen Kayo, our lives are dispensable, all we need is to get the examinees to their test goal…if we die along the way, another A.I takes our place."

I saw a faint look in her eyes. She was afraid and yet she was determined. That faint look of somebody ready to die. "You stay here," I commanded and she shook her head.

"I would distract them; we have stalled for too long."

'Mary!" I shouted and held her dress tightly.

"It is my job," she told me and just as she was about to stand up. I pulled myself up and ram her to the ground. I landed on top of her and using all my strength made her stay down.

"What the fuck are you doing!?" she shouted at me, struggling to get up.

"You move and my fingers are going to enter your nose!" I shouted and Mary stopped immediately.

"What sort of threat is that?!"

"A very effective one," I said, licking my finger for good measure.

"Ok, stop, PLEASE STOP!"

I did, and got off her. We resumed our original position. My wounds were crying out in pain and Mary's dress was too.

"You play hero again and I'm killing you personally."

"So now what?" Mary asked me, fixing her dress.

An awkward silence passed by us and Mary suddenly turn to face me, "You don't want me to die?" she asked and I rubbed the back of my head.

Like I said, "You play hero again and I'm killing you personally!"

"I'm just doing my job," she whispered.

'Well, here's a rule for you missus Saliva, you would die if I die, you are not allowed to throw yourself before me and try to save me and all that bull crap,"

"Why?"

"Because you dying trying to save me; makes me look stupid."

"I AM GOING TO KILL YOU!" Mary shouted standing up. A dagger flew past and I stood up fast, swinging my arms I managed to deflect the dagger. It landed on the ground behind Mary missing her head by inches.

"What the bull load-"

"Run!" Mary shouted grabbing me. I cried out as she pulled my hands before leaping a few feet up into the air. A few spears shot past us and fell back to the ground again. We landed on the roof of one of the huts and the villagers were screaming at each other in anxiety.

"Bloody fuck!" I shouted as Mary and I leapt from one roof to another. Pain from the wounds shot through me each time we landed.

'Well isn't this great," I muttered to myself, pulling myself upward and leaping again. 'Here I am half dead with an angry mob chasing after me, not only that I got an A.I who wants to die for my sake."

"Shut up and move!" Mary shouted.

"Aye aye captain!" I shouted and before she could say anything, I grabbed her hand hard and this time leap pulling her forward.

"What are you doing, you're hurt!" she shouted.

"Well, didn't you say I cannot die," I shouted back and leapt again. We landed on another villager's roof but instead of supporting our weight, the weak roof collapsed and we were sent plunging downwards. Mary screamed and I cursed. We hit the ground hard and I screamed when pain like no other shot through me.

"They're there, catch them!" we heard the villagers cry.

"We got to go!" Mary shouted, forcing me up. I bit my lower lip and held on harder to her hand.

"Stop," I whispered.

"What are you talking about; we got to find this giant!"

"I said stop," I whispered.

I had enough, a smirk broke out on my face and I knew I looked evil just then. Mary took a step back when I stood up. She released my hand.

"Kayo?" she asked.

"You die and I'll meet you in hell," I told her and Mary eyes widened when I exited the hut. "Kayo!" she shouted.

There before me stood hundreds of villagers all we weapons out. They were staring at me with fear in their eyes and I was staring back at them. "Well you got me cornered," I told them.

"Kill her!" a villager shouted.

"Somebody gets the head!" another villager shouted.

These elves with the disgusting ears were starting to piss me off. I mean seriously man, since I step onto this land everything I met were more trails and test. Why can't everything run smoothly like water? Like water…

Speaking of water, when was the last time I had water?

Oh god, now I made myself thirsty.

The inconvenience of a human body was mortifying.

The murderous elves burst into the hut and I launched forward, hitting one of them in the face…hard. The elf whom I've punched fell back with a cry and I wrenched the spear from his hand, turned it with a final spin and pointed it at his neck.

It happened so fast that he didn't even have time to scream;

"This is a threat, not a compromise;" I told him, "Take me to the Giant, or your all freaking dead."