"What is it"?
Audrey immediately closed the distance, pressing her lips onto his cheek.
Hoshimi flinched slightly, at the warm sensation on his cheek, the heat spreading out from her slightly dried lips came rushing into him.
Then she started gnawing at his cheek like a feral animal, biting onto his flesh until it bled.
A scorching sensation went through his face, like boiling water being poured directly over where his cheek once was.
Blood dripped down his chin.
She stumbled backwards, his torn flesh still in her mouth as she stared straight at him with pitch black eyes.
"I'm going to kill all of you".
Her eyes went pale to a dark green as she gazed at the red crimson on her hands. Her entire body shook, a mad shudder that started from her fingers and ran through her limbs. A whimper, small and snapped, escaped from her lips, followed by a strangulated sob.
Audre spoke in gasps, her voice raw, rather than words, only scratched gasps were let out. Her eyes, still fixed on the blood, began to well up with tears, running the scarlet into an abstract blur. She backed up on her elbows, pushing herself away from sight of her own bloody hands, as if they didn't belong to her. Her head jerked up, eyes opening wide in horror, as she encountered Hoshimi's shattered cheek. "Hoshimi.. I- I didn't."
Hoshimi, his hand automatically going up to his rapidly bleeding cheek, sensed the searing pain, he exhaled. It was raw, a chunk of flesh torn off, the sting of his own blood mixing with the lingering heat of Audrey's bite. His violet eyes, though, revealed nothing. They were tranquil, assessing the girl now curled on the ground, shuddering.
"Vitae Core," he muttered under his breath, the soft glow surrounding his hand on the verge of being impossible to see as the torn muscle and skin on his cheek began to heal into a new, higher scar.
Hoshimi stared at Audrey. "What're you just sitting there for, looking like that"? he asked, his voice without anger or shock, but only observation.
Audrey winced, her head shaking violently back and forth. "Why? I don't want this-, this isn't like me". Her cry was desperate, her face contorted in anguish, far removed from the snarl of predator she had unleashed mere moments before. She looked from her bleeding palms to Hoshimi's scarred cheek.
"We'll need to find a solution for that problem soon enough," Hoshimi continued, running his fingers over the small scar on his cheek. "That was not you, Audrey. That was her. And she meant what she said." His eyes flashed a cold glint in their violet depths then it relaxed suddenly. "But, I don't want you to worry about anything Audrey, you've already gone through enough, I'll find a way to save you somehow , just worry about your own happiness for now, that's what matters most".
Audrey breathed wildly grasping at her own arms. "Why? Aren't you afraid of me? I don't want to ruin everybody else's life anymore, I don't want to". She looked up at him, her emerald-green eyes pleading, pleading. "See what I've done to you, Lady Bleu would never forgive me for this".
Hoshimi's expression was still unreadable, though his eyes did seem to relax ever so slightly as he looked at the actual despair in Audrey's. "Don't worry about that, don't worry about hurting anyone at all, I will subdue you if you ever get out of hand, don't be afraid of anything, just tell me where you want to go next."
"I-I". Audrey stopped dead in her path as she looked down at the floor, sunlight still filtering through the windows, mildly scorching the back of her head. "I want," her voice whispered in quick gasps. I just want to go back to school, I just want a normal school life, I just want friends, the only thing I want to complain about is studying, I just want a highschool romance, I just want something normal for once".
"Stand up, Audrey," Hoshimi commanded, his voice firm, unyielding. "We don't have time for this. Let's go to school today". He held out his hand, a soft smile rested on his lips.
"How in the world can we possibly do that"? She twiddled her thumbs, her expression serious. "I'm under house arrest, remember"?
"I told you, Audrey". Hoshimi smiled, stroking the back of her head softly. "You don't have to worry about a thing".
Hoshimi turned to regard Audrey once more, his smile now vanished, replaced by a calculating glint in his eye. "House arrest would mean they're monitoring the doors, the windows, and probably attempting to catch our mana signatures. But there's ways to get around surveillance, particularly if they're using standard witch-detection techniques." He went to a nearby, thickly draped window and drew aside the rich velvet. Outside, the immaculately kept gardens lay, appearing deserted.
"Buuuut, didn't I tell you? I can simply let my step mother pull strings," Hoshimi declared, his eyes roving over the grounds. "Connections really do determine power, don't you think so?
But am I not a burden to you, Hoshimi"? She glared at him, her eyes quivering ever so minimally. "You've only ever been kind to me yet…. Yet I've given you nothing in return, I assumed you wanted to find some use for me. I assumed that I was needed, but I've not even done anything to help you".
"Don't you worry about a thing, I'll get you to school, don't you want to have a normal life"? He stood her up from the floor, with a gentle smile on his face, a smile that reached his eyes. "You're not a burden, you'll never be one".
Audrey held onto his hand, her finger nails digging into his skin. "Thank you". Her lips were still quivering, the edges of her mouth still shaking. "For everything you've done".
Hoshimi dug his hands into his pockets, wiping the blood off his lips and took out his phone, dialing a number as his phone beeped once, then twice and then answered.
"Hey, are you free now"?
"FINALLY, you're actually calling me"! The woman's voice rung out, causing him to slightly flinch.
He let out a sigh, placing the phone on speaker mode rather than placing it beside his ear. "I have something to ask of you".
"Anything! If it is for my baby, then I'll do anything for you. Come on, just tell me what you want"!
Audrey's face contorted, took a step back. "Is that really the vice principal? She sounded so mature before."
"I would like to take Audrey outside, she says that she'd like to go to school, so I would like you to take away her house arrest, preferably school closing time.".
"Hmm…". Reina went quiet. "Illegal trespassing of property and false imprisonment escape, with all of this effort, you'd better give something in return for all the effort I'm about to give".
"I'll call you big sis for a week". Hoshimi answered flatly.
"Make it two weeks".
"Fine".
Hold up your end of the bargain, my little cutie patootie." Her sultry voice came out in wisps before suddenly returning to its usual hardness as her voice rang out again. "Or else I'll beat your ass myself. I'll take away Audrey's tracking at night, go take her out at 1, latest time you can get back to the estate is at 5. If you get caught, that's not my problem".
The cold, damp air of 1 AM clung to Hoshimi's face as they materialized on what appeared to be a meticulously maintained school campus. The high school, a sprawling collection of brick and glass buildings, stood silent under the pale glow of distant streetlights. The manicured lawns, usually bustling with students, stretched empty into the darkness. A faint hum of mana, almost imperceptible, shimmered around them.
Audrey spun slowly around, wide-eyed, the natural, childlike wonder for once taking the place of the other, guarded expression. Her white t-shirt and jeans, Adrian's second-hand hand-me-downs, both fitting perfectly into this fictional world. "This- this is a school, I haven't been here since…well since mom died," she breathed, her voice an exhalation of excitement. "It's so quiet here, it's sort of scary."
Hoshimi, with his hands already in his pockets, scanned the vacant grounds with that same detached assessment. "It's one o'clock, Audrey. Everyone's asleep. We've four hours before we return, you should make the best of it while it lasts, you don't know when you'll be able to get out here again."
Her shoulders dropped, a fleeting flash of disappointment. "Oh. Right." She took a deep breath, the scent of damp earth and unopened jasmine night in her nostrils. And then, with a sudden, determined flash in her emerald eyes, she rose. "Never mind! Come on!" She took Hoshimi's hand in hers, her fingers surprisingly warm against his, and moved him along at a happy rush of energy. "Let's look for a classroom, I know this place like the back of my hand!"
[She looks more happy than she did when we were at the zoo, perhaps the animal enclosures reminded her too much of herself]
They crept silently down the empty corridors, their footsteps gently ringing on the very shiny linoleum. Audrey peered into one classroom, head tilted, imagining the scene. "This one would be history," she breathed, gazing at a dusty whiteboard marked with faded dates. "And this one would be science! Look at all the beakers!" She jumped on her toes, thrill rising up.
Hoshimi watched her, a subtle, barely audible tilt of his head. He had not seen her so vulnerable in a long time. The white scar on his cheek throbbed and slowly healed, a silent reminder of the whimsical power that still lingered in her. [Who knew that she could be like this]
"Hey, Hoshimi! Let's pretend we're at school!" Audrey towed him into an empty classroom and jammed him into a desk. Then sat down in the desk across from him, grinning at him with an impish glint in her eyes. "Okay, so, what's lesson one? Oh! A quiz! What is the square root of 144?"
Hoshimi blinked hard at her gravity and hesitated for a moment to think. "Twelve," he answered nonchalantly.
Audrey wailed melodramatically, her lip puffing out in a fake pout. "No fair, you cheated! Okay, next question: what's your favorite subject?"
He paused, a flicker of something unreadable in his violet eyes. "I've never really gone to school either, I was homeschooled by my stepmother, even then I was never really good at memorizing things, so I don't have a favorite subject."
"Boring!" she declared, then giggled. "Mine's definitely not history. All those dates and names. But I guess... mana theory wouldn't be so bad. If it wasn't all about how much of a weapon you are." She jumped up and leaned against the open window, the cold air brushing past her face, her eyes flickering a black shade. "Hoshimi"..
"What is it?"
"Would you rather have a hundred friends or five friends"?
"That's obvious, no? I would rather have a hundred, the more connections the better".
Audrey's cheeks pouted as she flicked his forehead with surprising strength. "You're not reading past the lines, I would rather have five friends instead, having a hundred means you barely have any time for each of them. Having a tightly knitted friend group means that you care a lot about each other".
Her smile faltered a moment, her eyes clouding, a shadow flashing across them before she blinked it away. "Anyway! On the topic of friends. You're my first classmate here. We should hang out, right?"
They wandered into the school gymnasium, the massive room thick with an eerie silence. Audrey skipped across the very highly polished wooden floor, her laughter ringing off the high ceilings. "This is where they do sports! I always wanted to play basketball!" She picked up a rogue ball, ineptly dribbling it before it bounced off her foot and rolled away.
"You're not good at this," Hoshimi remarked, easily picking up the ball.
"Hey!" she grumbled, but a genuine smile softened her reprimand. "It's my first time! Give me a break damn it." She then leaned against the hoop, facing him, her emerald eyes sparkling.
Hoshimi clutched the ball, jumping and shooting the ball into the hoop from mid-court from the other side of the court.
The ball flew by Audrey's face, her hair whipping in the breeze.
"You almost hit my face, you know? You bitch".
"It's my first time too, I can't help it".
"Mister natural born talent, what am I supposed to do with you". She crossed her arms. "So anyway, about that high school romance thing. What's it like? In the books, the boy will take the girl chocolates or flowers, and then they'll go out on a date to the movies or the carnival."
Hoshimi raised an eyebrow, a spark of humor in his eyes. "We've already been to the movies. And most of the stores are closed by now, where am I supposed to get flowers?
"Details, details!" Audrey gestured with her hand. "It's the idea that matters! So, if we were in a teen rom-com, what would you say to me right now?" She looked at him, her cheeks a bright pink with expectation.
Hoshimi paused, his faraway eyes scanning her agitated face. "What in the world am I supposed to even say"?
"Come on dude, something romantic".
Hoshimi's eyes narrowed, his jaw crooked as he sighed reluctantly. "Ohh, how marvelous you are, the moment I first laid my eyes on you, I fell for you at first sight. Your beauty, your immaculate features made me weak on my knees". He finished, his voice flat, but with a carefully modulated cadence, mimicking the dramatic lines of a romance novel.
Audrey's jaw dropped, her cheeks flushing a deeper crimson. She stared at him, speechless for a moment, before a small chuckle came out of her. "Wow, that was complete dogshit," she breathed. "That was the funniest thing I've ever heard come out of your mouth, you could be less sarcastic". She nudged his arm.
He reached out, his hand hovering for a moment, then gently took hers. "We should probably check out the library," he suggested, his voice low, pulling her toward the exit.
He put out his hand, pausing for an instant before enclosing hers, his fingers gently took hers. "We should go to the library," he murmured, leading her towards the door.
They spent a further hour in the empty library, moving silently between silent rows of books, speaking softly of the books banned within. Audrey found an old yearbook, leafing through faces smiling and forgotten, speculating on their lives. "They all look so happy," she sighed with a tinge of sadness in her voice. "Just normal kids." She took out another yearbook, an extremely old one that had not been touched for years, flipping the pages until she found the photo of a blonde little kid. "See Hoshimi, see this, this is what I looked like when I was a little kid, wasn't I just the most adorable"?
Hoshimi stepped nearer, his purple eyes sweeping the aged photograph. The girl on the photograph had large, inquiring green eyes, a soft, guileless smile, and the same sharp blonde hair that currently dropped down Audrey's back. It was her, certainly, unadorned by the years of brutality and the recent revelations.
"I guess you were," Hoshimi stated, his voice dull. "It looked like you had a whole lot more life in your eyes then."
Audrey's smile wavered, a passing shadow of wistfulness replacing her former eagerness. She traced the line of the child in the photograph with a trembling finger. "Yeah," she said quietly, her eyes distant. "Before… before it all. Before I discovered that I wasn't even me." Her green eyes flashed, a dark, jagged black taking the place of the green for a moment, like ink seeping into clear water. "I can't believe that I was living another person's life".
Hoshimi's hand flashed out automatically and landed softly on her arm. The scar on her cheek, a new thin, raised line, was cold under his palm. "Audrey," he said, his voice softer than usual. "The picture is of you. Your memories are yours. What he attempted to do, trying to bring back someone. None of that changes who you are. You are Audrey. Not Domino." He looked into her eyes, trying to transmit a reassuring calm that he did not really have.
Audrey swallowed hard, her gaze still struggling. "But... what if she was me? What if I'm just living her life, wearing her face?" She hugged the yearbook tightly to her chest, as if it held the answer to her deepest fears. "This normal school life, these friends... is it for me, or for her?"
"It's for you," Hoshimi affirmed, his thumb running along her arm. "You're the one experiencing it now. You're the one who wanted this. Her desires are muddled, but the choices are yours. You choose to make friends, you choose to enjoy this moment."
A small, genuine laugh escaped Audrey, and the battle in her eyes seemed to subside, the green grasping tighter. She closed the yearbook, her hands still tracing the creased cover. "But you're right. I did make this decision. I decided to come with you." She looked up at him, a flicker of that feeling of adventure rekindled. "So, where did you get homeschooled, anyway? Did your 'big sis' have you do all the household chores and give you work, too?"
"She's my step mom, not my sister, she just wants to desperately feel younger, that's why she's making me call her that". He paused. "She really cared for me when I was younger, she always did the housework". He smiled slightly.
The air suddenly shifted, Hoshimi felt mana start to huddle and bunch up, his eyes widened as a cold breeze ran down his spine. "Audrey, let's move, there must be a Rogue Witch here".