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BREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
The Suzuki siblings’ alarm rang through their room. Mari groaned as she rose from her bed.
“Whoever decided to start the school day before noon was a monster” she grumbled.
She looked at her brother. He was still fast asleep. Well, it didn’t matter right now. She needed far more time to get ready than he did. So she turned off the alarm and headed for the bathroom. One shower, hair dry, makeup and outfit selection later, she was ready for the day and feeling – slightly – better. She glanced into her room. Sunny was up! That was good, he normally needed her to wake him. But he wasn’t getting ready… he was staring at the old photo album Basil had given them.
“Good morning, little brother” Mari smiled.
“Huh- oh. Mornin’ morning Mari” Sunny mumbled. Mari noticed bags under Sunny’s eyes.
“You have trouble sleeping again?”
Sunny nodded.
“Too much to think about?” Mari laughed “I remember my first year of middle school. It’s a big deal.”
“Not that, it’s… never mind.”
Mari knelt down and grabbed Sunny’s hand. “Sunny, you know you can always talk to your big sister, right?”
Sunny nodded slowly.
“So, tell me what’s going on. I promise, I’ll do my best to help, no matter how silly or unimportant you might think it is.”
“Y-you have to promise not to laugh…” Sunny said.
“Cross my heart” Mari replied.
“Okay… so…”
Sunny walked through the school doors. “Sunny!” Aubrey called to him from the locker section. “You accepted my love letter! That mean’s we’re going on a date right?”
Sunny nodded in affirmation. Aubrey squealed and followed behind Sunny as he made his way to his locker. Then, another Aubrey appeared. “I love you Sunny” she said “please go out with me!”
Then another.
Then another.
Mari tried to hold back her laughter. “So what’s the problem?” she asked “too many cute girls?”
“No” Sunny shook his head. “At some point, they all notice each other, and then they… um…”
“They what?”
“…They beat each other to death with baseball bats…”
“Oh. Oh, wow.”
“Yeah.”
“That’s… that’s an intense dream, Sunny” Mari put an arm around her brother to sooth him.
“What do you think it means?” he asked.
“I don’t know for sure… but I think it’s probably just your brain reacting to your body going through changes…”
“What does that mean?”
“Umm” Mari really didn’t want to answer that. “why don’t you ask dad later.”
“Okay.”
Mari breathed a sigh of relief. Crisis averted.
“Hey, Mari?”
“Yes, Sunny?”
“Have… have you ever had a dream like that?”
Mari stared into space. A memory came back to her. A memory of a dream from years ago.
“Mari!” Hero held out a paper embossed in red hearts. “Please! Accept my heartfelt confession!”
“Hero, I…”
“Wait, Mari!” a voice from behind her cried out. She whirled around to see another Hero standing before her. “I made you a home-made lunch with all the love in my heart!” he smiled as he held up a bento box. “Please, let’s eat it together on a picnic date!”
“Mari!” another Hero appeared, holding a bouquet of flowers. “Please, go to the school dance with me!”
“No” another cried “She should go to the movies with me!”
“No way” said yet another Hero “She should go out with me! I’ll pledge my undying love!”
“You’re all wrong!” a hero in a pinstripe suit called “she should go out with me! I’ll make enough money to take care of her every need!”
“You bastard! You’ll never date Mari!” One of the Heros grabbed a frying pan and brained his nearest compatriot. The unfortunate Hero crumpled to floor with a bloodied head.
Mari tried to say something as she saw the other Heros readying weapons. Kitchen knives, cleavers, meat tenderizers… But no matter what she tried to say, nothing came out of her mouth. She couldn’t talk, she couldn’t move. She was helpless. Then, they all charged at each other. She couldn’t see anything as their bodies twisted and shattered under the blows. By the time the dust cleared, the Heros were all lying in a bloody pile in the school hallway.
Whatever spell had gripped Mari finally lifted, and she ran to the pile, hoping to find one that was still alive. She called his name, checked their pulses, but nothing happened. They were all dead.
“You… you idiots” she cried “I would have gone out with all of you!”
“Nope!” Mari forced the memory back into her subconscious “Can’t say that I have!”