Chapter Text
Things can’t get worse than that, can they?
Her thoughts probably weren’t the most uncommon someone could have while sitting next to an unconscious middle schooler in a high school nurse’s office, but the reason why was truly surreal, in Miko’s opinion.
In an attempt to distract herself from her thoughts - as well as the uncomfortable seating of a wooden stool and the pervasive smell of antiseptics - she reread the collection of posters and diagrams above the nurse’s desk to her side for the eighth time. This was about as entertaining and effective as you’d expect, and her mind quickly drifted back to the incident of a few hours ago.
How do these monsters even end up like that? What kind of perverted world could exist, that a human centipede with a cube head could happen to be living in a high school gym’s storage room? And those… things it sat on! That was a new dimension of horror that was just, really not needed!
If she had been anyone else, she would’ve still been shaking - if even conscious - but having dealt with monsters worse than her imagination for over a month, she could at least make herself look like she wasn’t scared out of her mind. Like she’d been nearly every waking and unwaking moment for far, far too long.
If she felt the urge to close the curtains around the bed, as well as the window behind her, just to make sure nothing could peek in, you could hardly blame her. She got the feeling though, that if she turned around or got up to do so, it would be inviting something to appear there.
Miko let out a soft, tense sigh. Why? What could she have possibly done in her past life to deserve this? Why was she the only one forced to live this nightmare hiding beneath the surface?
That’s not quite right, though, she corrected herself, as I’ve just found out, I’m not completely alone. For better or worse, I don’t know.
Looking at little miss mushroom on the bed, sleeping peacefully like she didn’t nearly get them both eaten alive by the most twisted squatter ever, Miko was incredibly envious. If only my biggest worries were tiny old guys and getting choked by a taller girl.
With the sunlight streaming in through the window, competing with the fluorescent lights that seemed specifically armed to stab the eyes of any patient with a headache, Yuria chose that moment to wake up, take one look at Miko, and panic.
Miko chose to ignore that.
“Oh, good. You’re awake.” Miko said, contrary to her inner monologue.
The response she got was even further panic, now with a bonus expression that said “I’m looking at a shambling corpse that is actively trying to eat my soul.”
“Y-You killed me!”
“Are you sure about that?”
With that parting jab, Miko stopped ignoring Yuria’s reaction, starting to feel a little guilty. I shouldn’t be blaming her. I probably would have done the same in her shoes - no, definitely. She must’ve thought I was trying to kill her for sharing this curse, or something like that. I finally found someone I can talk to, and I immediately put her in a chokehold. I don’t know if I can make it up to her, but maybe…
“H-Hey...”
Miko trailed off, still thinking. Wait. As much as I want someone to talk to, she can only see the little guys and the ghouls. Just knowing about the worse ones could put her in danger. Plus, I’m not sure she could handle knowing the truth if she’s getting scared by a high schooler…
With her mind made up, Miko was about to try to brush the events of the day off like they’d never happened - though she knew it probably wouldn’t work - when she got an image in her head. In it, she saw Yuria making a dramatic pose at a shambling corpse, with some sort of giant amalgamation of birds behind it, screaming as it reached its clawed wings towards her.
No. If Yuria keeps going like this, she’s going to get herself killed. She needs to know, she needs to learn how to survive. The moment she started seeing was the moment I stopped being able to protect her.
Miko spoke up again, looking away. “Okay, I-I know this was one of the worst introductions I could have possibly had, and I’m really sorry for choking you, but I had a good reason.”
Yuria froze, looking like she wanted to either run, scream, or run while screaming. “I g-got it. You don’t want anyone to know about your power. I won’t tell. I won’t get in your way either.”
“No, that’s not it at all! I was honestly really excited to find someone else who can see, it’s just… You seem to have a weaker curse than me. You’re only seeing part of the other world.”
Some of Yuria’s tension dissipated, and she finally met Miko’s eyes. “What? You mean… Were you trying to tell me being an exorcist would be too dangerous for me, by beating me thoroughly both spiritually and physically? You…” Yuria clenched her jaw, and was about to continue, when Miko interrupted her.
“No. I was trying to-” Miko blinked. “Wait, what do you mean I beat you spiritually?”
“What do you mean, what do you mean? You broke The Godmother’s rosary from across the room without even blinking!”
Oh. So that’s why she didn’t react the way she should’ve.
“Okay.” Miko continued. “Um, It would probably be easier to explain everything with a picture, could you give me a second?”
Yuria blinked a few times. “Uh, sure?” She answered out of reflex.
Grabbing her bag and taking a notebook and pen out, she scribbled for a while, the shaky hands and heavy breathing that appeared partway through revealing her thoughts on her art. Finished, she held it up.
On it, there were two stick figures: one tall, one wearing oversized mushrooms on their head. Clearly, little effort was put into them. The smaller was surrounded by small dots on the floor, and had a quote bubble above their head: “I CAN SEE THEM!”
Behind them, was a drawing that would look right at home on the wall of a psychiatric ward; a monster drawn in shaky, jerking lines, with a fleshy, emaciated, insectile body that sat on a very large, very disgusting pair of… a certain something, and had one giant eye that spun wildly in its socket, the other socket empty.
From its mutilated, drooling, bloodied mouth came a speech bubble spiked like it could be weaponized, filled with the words: “ D O Y O U S E E ? ! ? “
“I’ve only been able to see monsters for about a month.” Miko faltered. I don’t have any magic powers whatsoever, and I couldn’t have broken your rosary if I wanted to. This,” she taps the notebook. “Is what actually happened in that room. Knocking you out was the only way to save us I could think of in time.
“And monsters like this are more common than you’d think. I’m lucky if I can go a single day without seeing one as terrifying as this. If you’ve been as open about your sight as you were with me, I honestly don’t know how you’ve survived this long. But I do know that you need to stop now."
Yuria stared at her for a time, with her mouth partially open and her face twisted with a variety of emotions.
“Just drop the act already.” She demanded. “I already know about how you overpowered The Godmother and drove her off. You can’t trick me, and you didn’t even need to! What could you even get out of making this up, and what on earth is wrong with your imagination?”
“I’m sorry about what happened to your godmother, but I’m pretty sure I’ve never met her, and I’m positive I’ve never driven anybody off! Also, this isn’t my imagination, this—!“ Miko refuted.
“Are you actually pretending you don’t even—“
“Look, there’s absolutely no way this is my imagination.” Miko interrupted. “Every rosary I’ve put on has broken the moment they get close - other people’s rosaries too. People who can't see the monsters have still seen them break, like Hana and that one old lady that sold me some. There’s no possible way—.”
Yuria stood up and clenched her fists. “What did you just call The—“
Raising her voice, Miko looked her in the eye. “There’s no rosary, or charm, or ritual, or anything in this world that will even slow them, forget about exorcisms! If you want to survive there’s something you need to understand. We aren’t living in some exorcist shonen manga. We’re living in the most messed-up horror movie anyone’s ever thought of!”
Yuria relaxes and waits a moment before answering. “I get it.”
Miko looked away, still tense. “I’m so sorry you ha—“
“I get that having spiritual awareness doesn’t mean you can’t also be delusional.”
Miko’s eyes widened and she froze that way. Slowly, she turned back.
“I’m starting to think you actually believe what you’re saying. But you need to wake up to reality. If these ‘monsters’ were everywhere, if they could kill people, why aren’t we seeing people dying for no reason in the news all the time? The reason I’ve survived this long is because there’s nothing to survive against.
“I’m not going to throw away my dreams because of your imagination.”
Yuria got up to leave, paying little attention to Miko’s quivering lip.
“That- What? No! I don’t know why the monsters leave normal people alone, but if they weren’t real, how did your prayer beads break in the storage room? Please, I’m trying to help you! If you keep trying to fight, you’ll just get the attention of something no one can stop, and it’ll kill you!”
Yuria froze for a moment, before shaking her head and speaking. “You’re delusional, but I’ve gotta admit; you have a talent for breaking prayer beads.”
With that said, she walked out of the room. If you looked closely, however, you could see a slight jerkiness in her walk, a slight tremble in her arms.
The door shut behind her.
Miko choked back a sob, alone in an empty room.
I probably won’t be alone for long though. I never am.
As the final bell rang and Yuria walked out into the light of day, she made it clear in her stride and her ignorance of her fellow students surrounding her that she cared more about the speed of her exit than where she was heading.
What the heck was that? She asked herself, as well as the universe if it was listening. Seriously, what the heck?? That picture was way worse than what she could’ve come up with based on the monsters alone. Did she get it from a horror movie? What were her parents thinking, letting her watch something like that? There’s no way it could’ve been anything PG. And seriously, trying to drag me into her nightmare too? There’s no way that monster exists. Absolutely none at all.
She tapped her foot impatiently as she waited for the light at the intersection to turn green. At least it was aimed at me and not someone who hadn’t been a medium their whole life. They might have believed her!
Yuria scoffed at the idea as she crossed, drawing a strange look from a teenager crossing the other way. I’ll have to keep an eye on her. I don’t want to know what she’d do if she got her hands on someone else.
The bustle of a city and the numerous passers by served to muffle the next few minutes of her slandering as she walked. The crowd could not, however, hide from her a creature clinging to a coin someone dropped at the bottom of an apartment complex’s stairway. She stopped and scoffed again, this time getting a concerned look from an old lady who likely missed the ‘s’.
Okay, seriously, how did she manage to turn something this tiny and stupid into a universe of lovecraftian knock— Whoa!
A sudden gust nearly blew Yuria off of her feet, and she flailed her arms wildly trying to regain her balance, dropping her bag in the process but barely managing not to fall over. She brushed her hands through her now windswept hair in an attempt to regain some semblance of order, grumbling under her breath all the while.
If I seriously came that close to being knocked over by a stiff breeze, I’d better get to sleep on time tonight. I already spent hours awake last night thinking I’d finally found someone to talk to, I’m not wasting any more on her.
Grabbing her bag, she looked forward to face planting in bed, ignoring the clattering of a suddenly unmolested coin as walked the last few blocks to her home.
As Yuria opened the door of her family’s apartment, most reasonable people would have looked to the room at the end of the beige-painted hallway and wondered, “Why is that blonde lady on the couch wearing neon rainbow arm and leg warmers when it’s not even cold out?” Yuria, however, had been begrudgingly forced to get used to it ages ago. She was about to announce her arrival, when the woman beat her to it.
“Yuria! My pal, my friendo, my buddy, how’s it hangin’?” She grinned as she rushed to the door, picking Yuria up in a bear hug.
Yuria hissed as she pushed an intruding face away, and spat out some of the woman’s hair that swung into her mouth. “Mom, oh my gosh, you sound so stupid! Please, for the love of everything holy, at least try to pretend that you’re a somewhat functional adult! I’ll never understand how someone like you managed to keep a respectable job!
“What!” Yuria’s mother exclaimed as she set Yuria down and put her hands on her hips. “You know what happens when my little friendos try to diss me, don’t you?” Slowly, she reached towards Yuria’s hair, showing all the warning signs of “Incoming Noogie”. When Yuria occupied her hands with an attempt to stave off the coming doom, the crafty woman used the opening to dart in and give her a peck on the forehead instead.
Well, at least she tried.
Instead, all she accomplished was getting her eye-searing neon rainbow hair ribbons hopelessly tangled in Yuria’s mushroom hair ties, to the point you couldn’t tell where one’s hair ended and the other’s began.
“AGAIN?!” Yuria raged. “This is like the twentieth time, mom! Those things are a safety hazard, and I mean physically, not just visually!”
“Sorry, sorry!” She brushed it off. “Don’t worry, I’ll get these off in a—“
“You absolutely won’t!” She yelped as her mother pulled on the ribbons. “The last time you tried, you nearly ripped my head off!”
“Oh, don’t worry about that, I’ve been practicing!” She lied.
“Don’t you da— Ack! Dad! Dad help, mom’s trying to make me bald again!”
From the living room at the end of the hallway, a reedy stick of a brown-haired man appeared, wearing a short, tousled hairdo, a dopey grin, and a fancy orange apron that said “My wife is the breadwinner in this household”.
Not literally, though.
“I wouldn’t want to tangle with her, personally, but I’m always happy to see how inseparable you and your mother are.” He contributed in a raspy voice.
Yuria immediately stopped struggling. “Get it over with. Nothing could possibly be as painful as the toxic waste that just invaded my ears.” She got a chuckle, a snort, and a particularly painful tug on her hair out of her parents with that comment.
“Okay, okay, I’m coming. Let go for a second please, Ayako.” Yuria’s father relented, coming over and untangling them with at least a modicum of delicacy and competence. Once freed, Yuria took a few large steps backward, positioning her father in between herself and her tormentor. Then she looked up and realized who she was standing next to, and took a few more.
Ayako pouted at her husband. “Hey, I had that totally under control, Yian” she whined.
“Sure you did.” Yian placated with the utmost insincerity.
Turning around, he addressed Yuria, who braced herself for another verbal infection.
“So, Yuria. We got a call from the school about how you got brought into the nurse’s office, unconscious. Are you having trouble with bullies?” He flexed an imaginary bicep. “Because if you are, your old man could—“
“Dad, you have literally gotten beat up by a middle schooler. Don’t even think about it. Besides, the girl waited by my bed to apologize the whole time I was out. I probably don’t need to worry about her anymore. And if it does happen again, she’s the one getting knocked out. She only got me because I wasn’t paying attention, got it?” She insisted.
He tousled her hair. “Got it.” He sounded honest, but Yuria suspected otherwise.
Her mother grabbed onto her father’s arm in glee, peeking her head over his shoulder as he strained under the minimal weight. “That’s my little shroom! So precious, not even the bullies can stand to see her hurt!” Her face suddenly went blank, and Yian winced as her grip tightened. “But also, if that girl tries anything, just tell me and you’ll never have to worry about her again.” Her signature cheer popped back onto her face, like it never left to begin with.”
Yuria rolled her eyes. “You’re overreacting. Why am I the only person here that doesn’t jump to the dumbest conclusions?” She said without the slightest hint of self-awareness. “You two really have nothing to worry about. She’s a thoughtless weirdo, not a bully.”
“Oh?” Ayako inquired. “Sounds like there’s a story there, eh?”
Yuria froze for half a moment, before turning her attention to her father without deigning to respond.
“So, what’s for dinner? I hope you didn’t decide to just grill me and call it a day.”
“Aww, why didn’t we think about that babe?” Ayako butted in. “She’s always so cute I could just gobble her up!”
“Now now, dear, it’s bad manners to talk about crime just before a meal.” Yian admonished.
Yuria huffed. “Numbskulls, both of you. Why do I even try?” She complained, barely managing to suppress the smirk threatening her face as the three walked to the kitchen, the day’s events far from her mind.
In her dreams that night, a grotesque, mutilated face loomed above her, barely visible as it drooled and screamed, and she suffocated in the dark.
She awoke in a cold sweat, with a lingering feeling of recognition.