The List

Part Two

I was drowning. My heart was racing, my breath coming rapidly. I could feel something wrapping around my neck.
'Leave me alone!' I try to yell, but my voice comes out in a choked whisper.
'who are you to decide who I love?' I hear his voice. Hikaru Paka. I struggle to escape from my binds. Everything around me is pitch black, and all I can see is myself.
'Help!' I gurgle. My hands fly up to my neck and I pull at the ropes choking me. But as soon as my hands touch what I had thought was ropes, I realise instantly what it is. Hair. A mirror appears in front of me and I see myself enfolded in a mass of platinum blond hair. It was her. Hannah. My first rival. I knew killing would break my mind and stain my soul. But never had I gotten nightmares over it. Or was this real? There was no way to determine whether this was real or not. They say you can't feel pain in dreams, and what I was feeling was undeniably pain. I could feel my neck swelling up, and the strands of her thin hair cut through my skin.
'I killed you!' I strain. I feel the hair start to tighten and I see her face appear next to me.
'Exactly.' Her voice is the same as ever, but completely different all at the same time. She has a hint of murderous intent, and this gives me an allusion of what she has planned. Only god can save me now.
'Goodbye Mizuki.' That's when everything including myself disappears.

I awake with a sweat in math class. Nobody is looking at me, which is a good thing. The teacher doesn't seem to have noticed I fell asleep. Suddenly the door flies open.
'Ama's dead! I saw her get killed! There was a tape I found near the bin! Inside it there was a knife and bloody clothes! I checked who the clothes belonged to and......' The girl who burst into the room trails off, looking directly at me. She starts to breathe heavily, and the class is listening in anticipation and there is an air of fear in the room.
'Continue Miss.' I don't hear her last name.
'Who did the clothes belong to?!' I turn to see Hikaru looking sad and desperate. Turning back to the girl I see her slowly raise a shaky hand and point at the murderer. At me. I hear gasps run through the class and I raise out of my chair.
'And the tape was the school security footage of her killing Ama.' The girl furthers her proof. For a moment I freeze, looking at Hikaru. He's looking at me with a shocked look and an aura reeking of betrayal and hurt.
'I'm sorry.' I say. Out of the corner of my eye I see the teacher lurch at me, to apprehend me for the cops to have. I move just in time. My movement was clumsy, and I knock another student out of their chair. I reach for my back pocket as the teacher gets up and comes at me again. I knew she had extensive military training before coming to be a teacher so there was no way I had a chance, but I had to try. As she reaches me I jump up and somehow do a manoeuvred flip landing behind her. I grab her arm, but she twists just in time to send me jolting back. I bare my teeth and swing out at her, pulling the knife from my back pocket. She tears it out of my hand and throws it at me. I shift slightly so that it passes by me and I remain untouched. I hear a gasp and a scream, and I turn my head. The knife had embedded itself in Hikaru's shoulder, and he was screaming out. The boy next to him is hyperventilating.
'Hikaru!' I cry out. Tears are streaming down his face as he looks at me, and I can see the look of pleading in his wet eyes. One more kill, then I'll be done. Lucky I have a spare knife in my shoe. Not the ideal place to keep it, but it's good enough. I lean down, faking giving up, putting my hands in the air. I hear the teacher come over to me and reach down to restrain me. Once she's close enough I pull my hands down and whip out the knife, stabbing directly upwards. I slowly stand up. I'm sweaty, and my hair is sticking to my face. Breathing heavily I can feel all eyes on me, but I look into my teachers eyes as her life bleeds away in my hands. I knew Hikaru would never forgive me.
'I killed Hannah, Ama, and our teacher. I'm crazy.' I say loudly, falling to my knees next to the dead body of my teacher.

This time I really wake up. I'm in my room and my heart is racing. I blink a few times, my eyes adjusting to the light. I throw of my blankets and get out of bed. Yawning I head down the stairs, not bothering to make myself presentable. Once I go downstairs, I instantly regret it. The first thing I hear is voices, both familiar. One is Hikaru, one is Lila.
'I can't tell you the truth Hik. I'm sworn to secrecy.'
'So it was Mizuki who killed Hannah....' I wait for Lila's reply.
'....no.....' Lila replies. I let out a sigh of relief and head back up to my room to make myself look alive in the least. When I head back down the stairs everything is silent. Did Hikaru leave? Walking into the room, I look at Lila, and next to her, holding her hand is Hikaru. I look at their intertwined hands, then glance up at Lila. She must see something flash through my eyes because she instantly releases his hand and moves over a little.
'Oh, hey Mizuki.' Hikaru says, averting his eyes.
'Hikaru. Lila. You can't both possibly think I killed Hannah?' I shoot Lila a glare and she shakes her head.
'Going over the possible reasons you would have had to kill her, there is a slim chance you would have been the one to do it.' She looks down, and I hear her voice break. Hikaru and Lila had grown up as best friends, and they thought of each other as family. She hated lying to him.
'That's right. Oh Lila, I know how you hate thinking of Hannah, she was a great friend after all.' I sooth and sit in between them.
'Hey Mizuki, do you know who actually killed Hannah?' Hikaru asks curiously. I look at him and suddenly a plan rolls out in my mind, like a scroll. I know exactly what will happen if I say those words. But there is a risk to it.
'I do.....' I trail off, and he looks at me pleadingly. 'And it's the same person who will kill Ama in fourteen days. I don't know the details, but I know for sure if Ama is left alone for even a moment on the seventeenth of this month, she will die.' I inform the two. Out of the corner of my eye I see Lila give me a questioning look, but I ignore it.
'I'm sorry.' I say, faking sadness. I stare at Hikaru to see how he reacts. For a moment he just sits there, and I see tears well up in his beautiful brown eyes. He shuts them and breathes out heavily. Clenching his teeth, he squeezes his fists closed.
'I wont let that happen!' He says through clenched teeth. Perfect. He's doing exactly as I need him to. For this to work he will have to want to protect her with all his heart and soul. I had fourteen days to create my other persona, and Lila would know just how to do that.
'Lila, you know what to do.' I give her the signal we were supposed to use when we wanted to create a new student. She nods grimly and gets up, heading to her laptop.
'What's she know how to do?' Hikaru questions.
'I know who the killer is, but she is masked, with a fake name. I know for sure she's a student that goes to our school. Using her hacking skills, Lila's going to see if the cancelled profile on the student check matches up with the killer.'
'What's the killer's name? Like her pseudonym?' I look at him and smile.
'Yuno.' The iconic name. The definition of Yandere. I met her once. With both of us having pink hair and similar looks, it was the best option.
'Yuno....' He plays with the name a little and it gives me a surge of butterflies every time he says it.
'Well, I should be going, I told my friend I'd be back by 11, and its almost 12. Thank you Mizuki, it means the world that you'd put your own life on the line just to help me. Thank you.' After thanking me and Lila about a billion more times he finally leaves, so Lila and I can get to work creating Yuno.

Four days had passed since Yuno had beencreated. Now I had finished her costume. It was a little black dress, tightmight I add, with a little black masquerade mask to match. I put my pink hairup into two high ponytails and pull out two small strands. When they fall losethey stick to the side of my face. Looking in the mirror I look like acompletely different person. I would need to change my voice too, because nowHikaru knew it too well. Bounding down the stairs I make sure all lights, butthe computer rooms lights are off. I see Lila at her computer, typing away so Ienter the room loudly, to make my presence known. I walk over to where my blackboots were standing and slip into them. After a moment, Lila looks up.
'Wow Mizuki! You look like a totally different person!' She exclaims.'Familiar, but not recognisable in the least. If I didn't know that was youthen I would really believe you were Yuno, not Mizuki!' She gives me a thumbsup and a massive smile. I blush and nervously rub the back of my head.
'Thanks Lila.' I say.
'Of course, I love your costume to bits!' She grabs a camera. 'Now let's getthat photo!' It takes a few attempts, but I finally get the perfect photo.
'Yuno! This is it, the prize image!' Lila exclaims. This stuff really seems toexcite her.
'It's just an image.' I blush, which is something I do too much lately.
'No, this is the image you will be putting on the profile for Yuno!' Lila roarsgrabbing my dress by the top and yelling in my face.
'Just an image, are you stupid-!' She yells but shuts her mouth when thedoorbell rings.
'Coming!' She sings and gestures for me to run up the stairs. I run for my lifeas I hear the door open and Hikaru's voice comes. God damnit Hikaru, why now! Ihave to make it to my room, or else Hikaru will know that I, Mizuki Yama, amYuno! The girl who is going to kill his girlfriend! I tear off the clothes,even though I'm not fully up the stairs and slam the door once I'm in my room.I pull my hair out and shake my head around. Then I throw on some old clothesthat look like pyjamas and open the door, my costume hidden in my closet. Iopen the door to face Hikaru, who looks like he was about to knock.
'Oh, Mizuki, I was just about to knock....' He trails off, looking at me weirdly.
'What's wrong? You have a weird expression on your face.' I tell him, waving myhand in front of his face.
'Oh....' He turns red, like a tomato. 'Well, you just happen to look reallybeautiful right now, and those clothes, they make you look..... they make me wantto....... I want to see them on the floor.....Oh um......Sorry, I don't know what I'msaying.' When he spoke, he spoke really fast, but I understood most of what hesaid. He looked too embarrassed, so I pretended not to know what he just said.
'I'm sorry Hikaru, I didn't catch that, you were speaking really fast.' I smileat him and he looks relieved.
'Never mind.' He blushes.
'What was it you needed?' I ask him.
'Oh....Earlier, Lila called and said she'd almost finished removing thecancellation on the profile, and I was wondering when I could see it.' Behindhim I see Lila give me a thumbs up and walk down the stairs.
'Um, sure, you can see it now, we were just about to look over it anyway.' Ismile and grab his hand, leading him down to the room.
'Let me just get it open.' Lila says as we walk in.
'Ok.' I say and take a seat next to her. The only other seat is next to me andHikaru hesitates.
'Hmm, what are you waiting for Hikaru?' I ask him, and he blushes again, themoves to take a seat.
'Oh, okay....'