Despair's Insanity - an II x DR fic

KEC - 4

My alarm clock went off for at least the ninetieth time today, and I slammed my hand on the top to shut it up one more time. I felt like garbage- almost hungover from the headaches and noise yesterday held. It didn't hurt anymore, but my body was completely drained of energy. I just wanted to lay down for a little bit longer... but as my eyes began to close again, they opened up within a few seconds, and I saw Baseball standing next to my bed.

"Hey, you ok?"

"Not now," I groaned, trying to shoo him away and cover my face with the pillow. He didn't seem to budge though.

"Lifering- it's almost noon. You should really wake up by now! I tried making you breakfast- as a bit of a thank you for saving me... but it's been cold for hours now." He sounded concerned, sighing as I kept trying to sleep. "I don't know a lot about you- but this... can't be normal. I get that this motive sucked- I had a nightmare before I got stabbed about everyone I loved getting murdered for goodness sakes! But- aren't you the happy go lucky guy? The inspirational one?... we could need a bit of inspiration right now."

Inspiration? I would've hardly even considered what I did as inspirational, given the fact that I nearly blew a trial, and almost committed murder in front of the hypothetical victim. Baseball didn't know, nobody did, but I had a feeling the mere thoughts I had was going to haunt me. As my thoughts went back and forth, I began to realize something.

Last night, Bomb was talking. My head wasn't playing any music anymore, either... and Apple's 'Ghost Bow' situation didn't seem to affect her at all when I had been talking to her. Something happened. Something even worse? I hadn't seen Blueberry for that entire day. I rushed up, but suddenly got dizzy and fell right into Baseball's arm, which reached out to catch me. I got pulled closer to Baseball's shoulder.

"You look pretty rough, Lifering. Have you been doing ok?" He looked down at me with wide eyes, but I tried to brush him off as I brushed some hair out of my face.

"As ok as I usually am. I didn't get stabbed though, so can I say I'm really in poor shape?"

"Yes, you can." He paused. "Let me help you, ok? I'm strong enough- and I don't mind. You saved my life last night, so this is the least I could do."

The thought that I'd saved someone almost didn't cross my mind at all. I'd been so worried about other people being in danger, but I didn't really even want to think about what I did that day. Baseball may have been saved, but that didn't make anything better. The music was completely gone, and I could finally feel my inner filter coming back... I knew what I had to do.

"We need to find the body."

Baseball's face went pale, although he didn't say anything further. He led me to the door and we got out to see just about everyone in the hallway. I looked past the sea of confused faces and saw a glimpse of Trophy and Tissues, hugging each other for dear life, with Trophy actually smiling- something I don't think I'd ever seen him do.

I felt horrible. Tissues probably missed his night medicine, he almost died, and yet neither of them knew what I could've done... the guilt was distracted, if for a little bit, by Oj and Bomb approaching me and Baseball.

Oj started talking first. "Bomb and I got uncuffed while we'd been sleeping... I think you know what that means."

Bomb added a quick "e-ev-ry-ryone's still figuring it out... b-but- we need to find the body." I glanced them up and down, checking for anything off, and all I noticed was the fact that Oj's hand was tightly gripping the back of Bomb's... does Oj know how to hold someone's hand?

I didn't bother wasting any more time on that detail, though since Bomb didn't look too upset by it. "Did you notice anybody that's missing?..." I asked them with a brow raised. Baseball cleared his throat, nudging for me to listen to him. "Oh! I almost forgot about y-"