The Broken Doll

Chapter 13

Yuri, Astral, Dark, and Shing were once again in the room, but this time, all of Yuma's friends joined them. Cathy, Kotori, and Anna were all horrified, and the boys were trying not to cry (aside from Shark, of course).

"How did this happen?" Shark asked calmly even though inside, he was mourning.

Yuri started to explain. He didn't leave out a single detail, even when Cathy started wailing in despair and Shing started crying. They were only lucky that both Akari and Haru were out for the morning. When he was done, Shark nodded.

"So, this is because of her?" Kotori asked, pointing to Shing while she comforted Cat. She herself tried to be strong.

"I didn't want to do it!" Shing wailed into her hands. "H-he did it him-himself...!"

Kotori didn't blame her, but it still didn't quell the flame of anger that rose in her chest. Her anger was directed toward Shing, who allowed herself to become cursed in the first place, and toward Yuma, who decided to do this without telling anyone. Why would he do such a thing? Still, what was done was done. There wasn't anything anyone could do about it, and pointing blame would only make things worse.

"We need to tell his family members," Shark said despite the protests of Shing. "Then we gotta call the funeral home for the preparation." He pointed to Yuri. "Take care of everyone here while I call his sister and the funeral home. You look the most cool-headed." With that, he turned back and went down to the living room to wait.

Everyone sat in silence aside from a few sniffles. Shing looked around at all of Yuma's friends. How was she supposed to get along with them? More than likely, they blamed her for everything that happened up until this point. Was there any point to even trying to befriend them? She remembered Yuma's last wish. He wanted her to make friends, but that was easier said than done, especially with her mentality that no one would even want to be her friend.

Something shiny caught her eye. The Emperor's Key was lying on the ground, exactly where Yuma left it before he left. Shing stood up to grab it.

Astral looked up and caught the movement. He saw her trying to grab what once belonged to Yuma and immediately snatched it out of her reach. Holding it close to his heart, he glared at the girl. "This is mine."

"Is it? Was it ever yours?" Shing replied blankly. 

"Of course it was. It was made for..." He trailed off. It was made for the right person to hold. Yuma was that right person, and now, he was gone. Truly gone, never to come back. He would never give him a smile and tell him that he was feeling the flow.

He would feel nothing anymore.

"I will not let you taint the one thing Yuma and I shared," the Astral Being hissed. "I will never let you touch it!"

Before they could get into another argument, everyone heard Akari running up to the room. The moment she entered, her face twisted into an expression of pure horror and despair. 

"Yuma!" she called, rushing to her brother's side. "Yuma, wake up! This isn't a game!"

The others around her solemnly watched her vain attempts to wake her dead brother up. Eventually, Akari stopped trying and hugged him close, trying to fight tears. The others gathered around to comfort the young woman. Shing, however, stayed outside the tight circle, as did Astral. They both shared a glance, glared at each other, and left the room to separate rooms. 

Dark watched this and face palmed. His brother usually never acted like this! He was calm and collected! The other half glared at the dead body, but he couldn't bring himself to blame the boy anymore. He was dead; therefore, he didn't need anymore acknowledgement. No matter how many times he tried to forget Yuma, though, the boy always seemed to pop back into his mind. That was probably because of Astral, who was still thinking about him and his free spirit that the Astral Being seemed to love so much.