Do I Sound Like Her?

My feet were numb, pressed against the floorboards. I tried to breathe, but my lungs didn't work. My eyes were fixed on the floor even when I tried to look up. I tried breathing, but instead of air, my nostrils kept sucking in the rusty smell. The metallic taste filled my mouth. 

Darkness flowed towards me. I took a step back, and the corner of the slab dug into my spine. The thick fluid touched my toes; it was warm, too warm. 

The side of my stomach kept flaring and was burning from the inside out. I pressed my hand on the flames, but the skin roared even more. My legs gave out, and I fell into the red. My knees and my palms soaked with it. I bent forward, gasping. Tears rolled down my face and disappeared in it. I bit my lip, trying to stop the wails. 

I closed my eyes.

"Sora."

I opened my eyes.

He was looking at me. His eyes were open. His mouth was open. His head was tilted towards me. His... His voice rang in my ears. Calling me, yelling at me, telling me to stand up. I gasped. It wasn't true.

She had killed him.

I blinked. I wasn't looking at the floor anymore but at the kitchen sink. Water dripped onto a single plate lying in the basin. I was standing in the middle of the kitchen. My legs were cold, like I had been standing there a long time. The fluorescent light above the sink buzzed faintly, and one end of the bulb was darker than the other.

"H-how?"

Cloth rustled behind me. I stiffened. A silhouette moved in the doorway; it was slow, unhurried, or maybe unearthly. My heartbeat was too loud. I couldn't think. Whatever it was, it kept moving.

Something warm and soft settled on my shoulder. I didn't know what it was, but the warmth spread from that spot down my arm. I turned slowly.

A hand.

I covered my mouth and jerked back. It was the step-being. Her lips were bare, no colour on them. They weren't stretched yet.

"You seem to be awake." Her voice was low and then her lips stretched.

I nodded.

She moved past me to the sink and turned the tap. Water gushed out while she rinsed the plate. Her movements were ordinary. I stood still. I didn't know what to do with my hands. I didn't know what to do with any of me.

"You're still here?" She turned around, the plate still in her hand.

"I-I... How did I get here?" The words finally came out, fainter than I was expecting.

She stayed there, holding the plate. "Oh, you usually sleepwalk at this hour."

Sleepwalk? Me?

The clock above the door ticked. The sound kept getting louder. I hadn't noticed it before, but now I couldn't unhear it.

"And what are you doing here?" I tried blocking the ticking with my voice.

"Oh, I have a hard time adjusting to Japanese time," she laughed and turned to place the plate back in the rack as if this were a normal hour. Like this was normal.

She moved towards me; my breath hitched when she grabbed my arm. Her grip was light, unlike Father's. She started walking me towards my room. I let her lead me because I couldn't think of what else to do.

Thereafter, I don't remember much. 

But when I woke up, someone was standing next to my bed. It wasn't Ai-chan. It was the step-being. Still there. 'Had she been there the whole night?'

"Sora." Her hand moved in my hair. I stayed still. "Did you have a nightmare?"

I tried nodding, but my head was stuck. It wouldn't move. 

'Was that night real?' 

A shriek escaped my lips when she placed her hand on my forehead. Her palm was cold. Just like Ai-chan. My heart skipped a beat.

She sat down next to me. The mattress sank under her weight, and the whole bed tilted slightly toward her. She kept stroking my head while I stared at the ceiling. The air was thickening, going damp and dim at the edges of the room.

'Ai-chan? Did you possess her?'

No answer. Nothing came back. I looked at the step-being. She looked at me, and then there it was... that smile. I covered my eyes with my hands.

No.
Ai-chan can't possess her.
The step-being is stronger.
Ai-chan shouldn't possess her. 
The step-being is...

I moved onto my side, away from her. My heart was too rapid. 

"Sora, any breakfast request?"

Breakfast? Something for breakfast... Bread. Eggs. Cereal. Sandwich. I kept listing. There had to be more. Maybe...

"Sora."

The voice cracked the air. I blinked. My father was standing next to my bed. He grabbed my arm and pulled me upright.

"Come on, sleepyhead."

I sat still, waiting for them to leave. They didn't. They stood there, both of them, watching me with their smiles. My eyes kept moving – his face, her face, his, hers. Father leant closer, hands on my shoulders. 

His stare was too much. "Are you dizzy?"

"No," I mumbled.

He nodded and sat back. "Go on, go freshen up."

I scanned the room for Ai-chan. The walls were still. The air was still. Then something pressed against my neck. It was sharp and cold, dragged slowly across the skin.

My body moved before I understood what it was. I was standing. I looked behind me. My father held up an ice cube between two fingers and waved it. "Don't doze off, kiddo."

What a bothersome man.

Ai-chan stood next to me. She tilted her head and pointed at the step-being, then at my father. She and he—

"Sora."

My father grabbed my arm and started pulling me toward the door. Away from Ai-chan. I dragged my feet. The step-being moved to stand beside her, and I stopped resisting. I didn't want Ai-chan to be hurt.

The day was wrong. Stretched in the wrong places. The step-being and her husband stayed close to me, way too close. 

They were circling and appearing. A hand on my arm. Ice at my neck. My name dropped into the air whenever my eyes went towards Ai-chan.

At the table I stared at the grains of the wood. It blurred.

"He should rejoin school next week." I looked at my father.

"Yeah, the doctor said he should." I looked at the step-being.

"What do you think, Sora?" I looked at both of them.

The words came at me at the same time. The side of my stomach burnt. The mark flared. Ai-chan was just behind my father's shoulder, and then she wasn't.

I turned to find her, but something touched my arm. It was cold, but sweat broke across my forehead. The room had become too hot, the air pressing in from every direction.

"Sora!"

I looked at my father. I looked at her. The room swirled. Red flashed at the edges of my vision, pooling on the floor.

They are making this insane.

"Sora."

My body stood up. There was a loud thud when my hands hit the table. It kept ringing in my ears. "Go back to Europe!"

I heard the voice that came out... It sounded like hers. My vision blurred, their faces swirled, and then settled into something I didn't know.

"Soraa..."

Please stop.

Please stop.

pLEaSE StoP

I was in my room. My hands were locked over my head. Ai-chan stood in the corner. My father was on the floor beside me, his hand moving in slow circles on my back.

"I am sorry." 

He kept chanting the words as if I understood his weird accent.

The door opened. The step-being came in with a glass of water. She stopped beside my father, bent down, and placed the pill in his palm without a word.

My father held it out to me.

"Take this."

I looked at him. Then at her. Then at the pill. Then, at Ai-chan. She was standing in the corner, looking at me.

She is doing this.

"Come on."

You shouldn't. The step-being is making me weaker.

I looked at the pill. My father patted my shoulder. "Be a good boy."

I held my breath and swallowed it.

'I'm sorry, Ai-chan.'