● Illusory ●

Chapter 6

I looked over at Seiko again, a sympathetic look coming to my face as I saw that tears were welling up in her eyes. I frowned, then without thinking, hugged her. It took me a moment to realize what I did before I froze up and my face became hot. Though, I didn't get to move because she then wrapped her arms around me and started to cry. I was honestly freaking out on the inside because one, I'm not used to being touched by people and it honestly feels a little weird (don't know if I've emphasized this enough) and two, I have no idea how to talk to people when they're down. Look, I can't even cheer myself up, so how can I help someone else? I'm probably going to sound either dumb or careless if I even try, but I should try.

"It's gonna be alright. Nadine's probably calling the police and they're gonna see what happened to Cyan, okay? Then, they're gonna go get the guy who thought it was a great idea to hurt Miss Layn and, uh, throw him in a disgusting jail cell," I said, attempting to at least cheer her up slightly. I couldn't tell if it worked though because she was still crying, and the only thing that I was sure of was that the side of my shirt was going to be wet.

"Look, I don't mean to ruin the sobfest but I'd like to know why the fire alarm went off and why there's no smoke coming from the building," I heard Garrot speak up, to which I felt like sticking my tongue out in disgust. Seiko broke away from me then, allowing me to stop feeling frozen up and awkward. Though, once I turned towards Garrot, I had to hold in my laughter from the sight of what he was wearing.

There, in front of me, he stood with big, fluffy, pastel pink bunny slippers covering his feet. His pants were of the same material, except they were baby blue and decorated with little cartoon ducks. Though his shirt was just a plain white one, fluffy, pink earmuffs hung around his shoulders, to which some of my laughter leaked out. The man looked at me, narrowing his eyes. "What's so funny, boy!?" he shouted, placing his hands on his hips.

My mind made me ignore his incorrect referral of me, but I broke out laughing, to which I could only point at his pajamas. Garrot looked down at them, then looked back at me, offended. "You got a problem with the pajamas my daughter bought for me?!" he growled, walking up to me. My laughing ceased, though my smile didn't.

"Not at all. I'm just not used to seeing a big, older man wearing stuff like that," I told him, before genuinely complimenting him, "I think it looks great on you."

Garrot narrowed his eyes for a moment, then huffed and turned to Nadine. I guess I'll take that as a 'thank you for the compliment my fine friend'. I don't even know why I complimented him in the first place. I guess I don't have the energy to be a jerk back to him today. "Now, can you please tell me and everyone else what's going on!?" Garrot asked Nadine, who was just putting her phone away. She sighed, just as Yuuko did.

"Just hold on. I'll announce it to everyone at once," Nadine told Garrot, before walking past him and standing in front of the crowd. She went ahead and announced the news about what had happened to Cyan, to which some of the members of the crowd became teary-eyed. I could see why. Cyan was pretty upbeat and exciting to be around. I guess now she's only another blooming flower crushed under the heel of either nature or a hateful member of humankind.

As Nadine went on about how she had called the police and that they were going to take care of everything, I saw Seiko take her sister's hand as she began to tremble, tears welling up in her eyes once again. "I should have stayed in the cafeteria," I heard her whisper, "I shouldn't have left. I never should have walked in that hallway."

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"Thank you! That'll be 3 bucks please!" the blonde girl in the kiosk before me spoke with cheeriness in her voice. Her tan skin appeared darker in the kiosk due to it being the shade, but despite her cheeriness her dirt brown eyes told me that she was secretly bored. I fumbled with my pocket for a moment before I pulled out the money Yuuko allowed me to borrow, since I'm cherishing the two dollars I have. I set the dollars on the counter and took the three water bottles I had ordered. There was no way I was walking this trail without water.