"Bandaids Don't Fix Rope Scars"

~Chapter I~

Sayori hummed as she got ready for school. It was the beginning of December, so the weather was starting to get colder. She wore a coat over her blazer, since the weather was expected to be 16 degrees. She put on some new socks that were baby blue and had clouds on them. She then put on her shoes, grabbed her bag, checked her bow and straightened it, and then exited her house.

MC was there, waiting for her. This was the third time this week she wasn't late to school, which Sayori saw as a huge accomplishment. It was a snowy day, and the christmas lights on houses, despite being off, looked beautiful. As she and MC walked to school together, she knew that today was going to be a great day.

The school day went by quicker than usual, and when the final bell rang, Sayori slung her bag over her shoulder and made her way to the Literature Club.

"Hey guys! I'm here!" Sayori happily waved, and Natsuki and Yuri were sitting at some desks pushed together to make a larger table. Yuri gently smiled while Natsuki waved back.

"Hi, Sayori! Uh...where's MC? Shouldn't he be with you?" Natsuki said.

"He'll be here! He told me he was going to use the bathroom. But anyways, guess what I brought!" Sayori placed her bag on a chair and took out a Tupperware container that had cookies in them.

"Cookies! Wow, these look great!" Natsuki took one. She bit down on it, and she instantly ate the rest of the cookie.

"How did you make these?" Yuri asked, taking 2 and then sipping some of her green tea.

"I just didn't leave them in the oven for too long. The rest of the ingredients are about what you'd expect." Sayori said. "But if you really wanna know, I made copies of the recipe!" 

Sayori slipped two small sheets of paper to Yuri and Natsuki.

As the three girls were enjoying their desserts, MC walked in.

"Look who finally decided to show up!" Natsuki said with fake irritation. "Didja really have to take 20 minutes in the bathroom?" 

"Uh, no...I just went to pick up something from the cafe." MC held up a blueberry smoothie.

"Jealous! Give me some!" Sayori said.

"Uh, no! This is my smoothie! Get your own smoothie, dummy!" MC jokingly pushed her away.

Yuri giggled and put down her book. "So, what was everyone thinking about doing today? After all, this is the Literature Club." 

"Oh, I was thinking instead of poems today, we'd do some journaling. I heard that it's good for your mental health." Sayori said, pulling out notebooks that had everyone's favorite colors. Yuri got out a fountain pen and MC stared at it.

"Fancy pen there, Yuri. Where'd you get it?" MC asked.

"I got it at a craft store today. I'm learning how to sew so I can make a dress for this party. I'll see if I can invite you all, It's really just my younger brother's birthday party, but he wants it to be formal." Yuri explained.

"Huh, that's neat!" Natsuki said. "If you learn how, can you sew me a cat plushie?" 

"I'll see what I can do..." Yuri said.

"Alright, so there are no rules for this journaling session! Just write whatever is on your mind. You don't have to share it with the club, or me, if you really don't want to." Sayori said, pulling out a pen with a blue heart on the top.

Everyone got to work writing. Sayori looked up after a bit and saw Natsuki had a slight frown on her face while writing, but she paid no mind to it. After about 40 minutes, everyone exhausted their writing abilities, and Sayori collected the journals. 

"I see everyone wrote a lot today! So now why don't we all just relax." Sayori said while putting the journals in the closet so people wouldn't find them and read them. 

"Um, Sayori, could I talk to you after the club meeting? I-I just want to discuss my journal, that's all..." Natsuki said, looking down.

"Sure! I can do that!" Sayori said. 

As the clock slowly ticked to 4:00, everyone left, except for Natsuki, who was waiting over in the corner reading manga.

Sayori sat next to her and looked at her. Natsuki looked up and closed her manga.

"So I heard you wanted to talk?" Sayori asked.

"Y-yeah...I don't want you to read my journal, but I just wanted to tell you that my dad kind of...punched me a little too hard yesterday..." Natsuki pushed her sock down to reveal a giant bruise running all along her lower leg.

"It hurts so much, but I don't want to go to the nurse, because then she'll ask how I got it, and then I'll probably have to be put somewhere until my dad fucking deals with his stupid fucking cigarette and alcohol habits..." Natsuki continued venting, tears slowly forming in he eyes.

"Oh...Is that why you looked so angry while writing?" Sayori asked with a melancholy expression on her face.

"Y-you saw that?" Natsuki said, a shocked look on her face.

"Yeah, but I didn't want to ask because I wanted to respect your privacy. Look, the nurse probably won't ask, but if she does, just say you don't want to talk about it. I don't want that bruise to get worse if it's something more." Sayori said sadly.

"I...I just hate my home life so much..." Natsuki said, aggressively rubbing tears from her face.

"Come here..." Sayori gently hugged Natsuki. "Listen, it's gonna be okay. Just think of stuff other than your dad. Think of your manga, how good you are at baking, your poetry...anything but your dad."

After a while, Sayori let go of Natsuki. "Do you want me to walk you to the nurse?"

"Mhm..." Natsuki said.

Without saying anything, the two girls walked to the nurse, Natsuki hugging her arms to her stomach the whole way there. When they got there, Sayori smiled gently and nodded encouragingly at Natsuki before waving and leaving the school.

When Sayori got home, she went upstairs and sat on her bed, playing games on her phone until she got a text from Natsuki about 40 minutes later. 

"I just got back home. Nurse said there wasn't anything I should be too worried about, but I should jusy come back and see her if it gets worse"

"*just"

Sayori smiled and sighed with relief that Natsuki was going to be okay. She logged off her game and went to go make dinner, since her parents were on a date night and it was just her and her older brother. Before that, she noticed her hair was messy, so she went to the bathroom to brush it.

As she finished brushing her hair, she looked in horror at her mirror and saw a rope scar on her neck. She thought it was pen ink at first, but every time she scrubbed it, the scar burned so bad. 

She ran to the kitchen to get her mind off it, but as she was cooking, it still burnt. After she ate dinner, she considered telling her parents, but she was worried they would think she tried to hang herself. 

She suddenly got a ding from a program she made so she could talk to Monika. Her file was still corrupted, so the program would crash occasionally, but this time it seemed like it was running super smoothly. 

The message read, 

"LET ME OUT"