WALLFLOWER REUNITED

chapter 8

Kyo got up early the next morning. Yawning as he stretched his arms and ran his fingers through his unruly hair, he looked out the window of the guest room.

Rain.

Hard, pouring, gray cloud, no sunlight rain.

It was going to be a gloomy day...Sunako must be happy.

Even as he walked down the hall, he could hear the clinging and clanging and singing coming from the kitchen. Kyo stood in the door way and watched as Sunako danced around the room with knives flying through the air in every direction yet never hitting the floor. She seemed so happy and...free.

"Hey," he said. His voice was still groggy from sleep.

"Hey," she answered, happier than she'd been in days. "I've made breakfast."

Kyo laughed. "I can tell,"

"Have a seat." Sunako said as she pointed at the table.

"I wouldn't dare not to." Kyo sat in his chair a the table across from Sunako as she piled some of his favorite foods on his plate. Oh, how gloomy worked for Sunako.

"Last night I had a major break through," she started, putting her spider decorated napkin in her lap.

Kyo looked up from his plate. "I didn't know you had writers' block." he said as he grabbed the pepper shaker that had bony figures wrapped around it for decoration.

"Well, sort of. I had two options," she explained. "Neither sounded right, though. But last night, just after it started raining, I realized that the only way this would work was if I the best friend was the killer and she killed of the love interest. "

Kyo nodded, taking it all in. "Interesting. You know, I've notice how your characters actually have a love interest now, and your old works don't."

Sunako locked eyes on him. "So?"

"Just saying," Kyo shrugged. "Horror doesn't need love, you know."

Sunako didn't break contact. "Of course I know."

"Okay,"

"Okay."

Kyo turned back to his plate with a small smirk. She was so funny sometimes. She didn't even see it herself.

"So, Gina?" he said, changing the subject. "Thoughts."

Sunako nodded and shrugged. "Cool girl."

"She reminds me of you sometimes," Kyo told her.

"Really? How?"

"Well, it seems she's the only one around, except for you, that fully understands the appeal of horror."

Sunako seemed thoughtful as she looked around. "How old is she?"

"She'll be fourteen in a few months," Kyo said, "Why?"

"That was the age I fully stopped caring," Sunako remembered fondly. "It was then that I was finally able to except myself as me. I had the best time, just living for me."

Kyo looked at her. The gloom was making her giddy, he knew, but she had this...glow about her. As far as he knew, she'd always been this way. Just living for herself and no one else. That was how he knew she was fully alive. That was why he wanted to be like her.

"You were fourteen? I never knew that."

Sunako nodded. "Yeah," she readily explain, "There was this...guy. He thought me that it didn't really matter. Looks, personality. You should never have to change yourself to please some one."