Behind the Door

"What have I done…"

I can feel the dampness in my hair as I tear my hands through the black strands.

"Did you do something, Noa?"

On the couch next to me is the one responsible for throwing everything into chaos. Mira is currently occupied with a bundle of old flash cards from back in my middle school days.

"I took on a problem that I lack the power to solve…"

"That definitely sounds rough."

The rabbit looks back at the bundle of hundreds of terms from various subjects ranging from history to mathematics. She holds up one with an image of some kind of graph on the back.

"Will this 'systems of equations' thing be helpful?"

"Uhm…no…"

She scrunches up her face and flips through the cards before shoving another one in my face. My back cracks as I unnaturally bend it backwards and away from her hand.

"What about 'power of a product'?"

"I don't think I need to worry about applying an exponent to this…"

"Then what are these good for!?"

Mira puffs her cheeks and continues flipping through the cards that I insisted were important to memorise.

Honestly, this wouldn't be such a big problem if I could solve everything with basic algebra. As it stands, there are two primary concerns with the current organisation. One is the lack of feasibility related to costs of living. I'm not sure where I got the idea that it wouldn't be an issue, especially after the receipt from the grocery store earlier. Sure, many of those costs won't recur often, but that number still makes me sick.

The other issue is that my heart has not stopped running on high since she came out of the shower. I've never had this much exposure to a girl around my age, not to mention living with one. Just sitting next to her like this is a challenge and talking is worse. Mira may be better than a complete stranger in some ways, but her overall lack of shame makes her ten times worse in others. Something had to have been wrong with me before. I should have never been able to get this far.

A knock on the door causes both of us to jump.

"Another invasion!?"

"No, he wouldn't visit this la—H-Hey stop!"

The rabbit climbs over my lap to reach the side of my body not facing the door. She now has herself sandwiched between the arm rest and my body, using me as a shield from whatever is coming. I focus my entire brain on figuring out who the visitor might be, that's the only way that I can ignore how soft her small hands are.

"Noa, do something!"

"It's probably fine to do nothing…"

Solicitors really have too much time on their hands. I get up and head over to the peephole to at least confirm the ugly face on the other end.

"Ah…"

I'm not sure what to make of this. Something is there for sure, but I can't say that I was expecting the thing I'm looking at.

Curiosity must have gotten the better of her from my several seconds of silence, so Mira sneaks up behind me and whispers into my ear from behind. I'm too confused to even feel flustered.

"Who is it, Noa?"

"Mira, I need you to do me a favour."

"Hm?"

I crouch down in the entryway in front of the rabbit and take a deep breath.

"I need you to pinch my cheeks."

"Huh? Wouldn't that hurt?"

"Exactly. Make it hurt as much as possible."

Mira's concern is palpable as she looks around the room frantically for some kind of explanation. However, only my stone cold eyes give her a response.

"O-Okay! If you say so!"

"Give me all you've got!"

My eyes shut tightly and my face prepared for the pain, but I wasn't prepared for what comes first.

Her hands are warm. I can feel all of her delicate fingers against my cheek as Mira rubs around for a good spot to grip. Every single point of contact is sending a constant series of shocks from my face to the entire rest of my body. I'm supposed to be waking up, not being further entranced by the magic that is this girl's presence.

For some reason, Mira simply continues to feel around the flesh and bones of my cheeks. I open my eyes briefly to check on her progress, but my body immediately freezes up.

"Wha!?"

Barely any words left my mouth. I mean, how could they?

Mira's face is barely a hair's length away from mine. Her blue eyes are staring intently at my face while her fingers continue working. It would only take me leaning forward for our heads to collide at this distance, but this girl couldn't care less about how that fact damages my heart.

After a few seconds where I can't confirm to have been breathing, she grins and grips the loose skin on my cheeks.

"Take this!"

"OWOWOWOW!"

I feel pain less from the tugging itself and more from her nails digging holes into my face. In reality, my cheeks haven't even been deformed enough to inhibit my speech.

"Okay, that's enough!"

Her fingers slowly pull back and leave a stinging pain where they had previously felt nice to the touch. Mira continues to stare closely into my face with her head turned.

"Noa asks for some strange stuff."

"Trust me, it was important…"

That one will leave a mark, but we can still say mission accomplished. If I were dreaming, I should now be awake. Whatever the previous hallucination outside was can now be properly identified.

"Ah…"

Nope, it's still there. That thing that shouldn't be eyeing me from the other side of the lens continues to wait.

"Mira, can you do me another favour?"

"Is Noa being weird again?"

"This one is more normal. I need you to look through this hole and tell me what you see."

I take a step back and let the rabbit gaze through the glass in my stead. She has to stand on her toes to reach it, but has no problems looking at our sudden visitor.

"What do you see?"

"A bird?"

"So it wasn't just me…"

For some reason, a pigeon has placed itself in front of the peephole as the only visible entity. As far as I’m aware, we have no business with any of the hundreds of pigeons that roam around the city.

"Let's just leave it ther—"

We both jump as another knock shakes the door. I check the hole once again and the pigeon is still there waiting for us. Even as I have an eye on the bird, the door continues to rumble from successive hits.

"I guess we have no choice...Mira, stand back."

"O-Okay!"

The frightened rabbit moves back into the living room and peeks into the entryway from a safe distance.

"Alright, I'm opening it."

With my hand on the door knob, I slowly twist and let the cool night air flow into the apartment. The pigeon behind the glass appeared to be directly in front of the door, yet I didn't hear the flapping of wings. I didn't even see a bird until after I had the door opened enough to walk out. There on the concrete is a single grey bird with what appears to be paper in its mouth.

I crouch down to get at least a little closer to making eye contact.

"What are you doing here?"

No response, aside from it insistently pushing the paper towards me. I know that this thing understands me. Mira remembers everything I said while she was still a rabbit, so this thing should be no different. Whether it cares about my words or not, it seems to have only one mission.

"Fine, I'll take it…"

The creature doesn't flee as my hand grows closer, allowing me to freely grasp the paper in my hands.

"AHHH!"

A puff of smoke erupts at the slightest tug, pushing me back into the apartment suite along with a swarm of pigeons.

"What the…"

The soreness in my rear is easily ignored as I watch dozens of grey birds fly circles around my room. Mira has since thrown her body into the floor in an attempt to crawl under the couch, but obviously didn't get very far. The loud beating of wings continues for several seconds before the birds fly around me and back into the smoke.

As the mist subsides, the figure of a human man is revealed.

"I believe this is the Shepherd residence."