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SPIDER & CHAPTER OO1, a shard of a vase
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The only real sound in my bedroom was the fan. Its metal arms brring, around and around, so fast that they became a blur of motion. Pure white, like a halo of metal. Its face twisted, left to right, and then back to its starting position― the faintest of breezes following in its wake. The temperature in the night was warm, and the air felt thick and gooey, like sap from a tree, cupped in my palms, seeping between the cracks in my fingers. My lights were off, the only illumination was the rapid flickering of my laptop, its charging light blinking. On. Off. On. Off. The moon did not glow, not this close to the city, you could hardly see anything in the sky because of the near-constant smog. It helped the heat, encasing it within the cement and concrete earth, so it became a bubble of city sounds and thirty-one-degree temperatures.
Faintly, like a far-off siren, I could hear my mother talk downstairs. Her voice was low― too low for me to understand. Her words were blurry, like the meaning had been smudged, ink blotted by water, and the lines and curves of the symbols had melted away into Rorschach test papers. She spoke quietly most days, like noise was a sin. Her noise was. To be non-Hasegawa in our household was sinful enough, stepping onto the holy ground as a cursed creature― feeling the warmth beneath your feet. She knew she didn't belong in this house. She remained, regardless. There was a strength in that, however foolish.
"Hikaru?" I was lying on my bed, my feet kicking in the air, my chin pressing into the pillow. The voice was familiar, although unwelcome, and a knife formed in the pit of my stomach, twisting in my gut. "Are you awake?"
I lifted my head, looking towards the door. It was open, the door handle was a shiny silver, and my sister's hand gripped it tightly. Himari was barely taller than me, but in the darkness, her height was towering. She was not frightening, but upon her features was a shadow, like she held a secret under her tongue. "Go away, Himari." I don't remember my mouth moving, but the sound carried nonetheless, and it was hot and spiteful and tasted like salt.
