Ail

"Okay, we're all set to go!" Ian exclaimed, after getting everything prepared onstage.

I can't believe I'm going to play in front of so many people... I thought, looking over all the people in the auditorium.

"Ya nervous, Ail?" Gui asked me, getting his guitar ready.

"Yeah, sort of."

"Don't be, man! You'll do great!"

"By the way, Ail..." Rud said, sitting at his drums behind me. "...where's your pal? Isn't he coming to watch, too?"

"Oh, Tear? He had something to do; he'll be here in a bit."

Although she's taking a while... What's she doing, anyway?

"You mind if I start then?" Ian asked me, preparing the mic.

"Go ahead. I'm sure he'll be here soon."

Ian coughed. "Hey everyone!" He exclaimed to the audience. "We're the school band, GRIS! This is our last performance, but for the sake of our lost band member, as well as for all our fans, we'll play with all our heart and soul!"

The auidence started to cheer.

"YEAH!!!" "Go, GRIS!" "Who's that blue-haired guy?" "Isn't that Ail?"

"Alright, our first song will be..."

Before Ian could finish, someone forcefully opened the auditorium doors; loud enough for everyone to hear.

Isn't that...?

She rushed through the room, shoving people out of her way in the process. She then climbed up on stage and took the mic from Ian.

"Chelsea?! What're you..."

"Listen, everyone!" She yelled, sweating and gasping for air. "Please listen to me!"

"Huh?" "What's that?" "What is she doing?"

"R-Raena... Raena's come back!"

Wait... what?

At that statement, the once rowdy crowd had quieted down. We all did nothing but gasp for a while.

"Raena?" "The girl who drowned a few people at the Lake of Death?" "Didn't she die?" "Is she messing with us?"

"Chelsea... what are you talking about?" I asked her, not fully understanding the situation.

At that moment, the crowd turned their attention to the back of the room, as someone else had arrived.

A shy girl with pale green hair and blue eyes, clad in her usual azure sweatshirt. She looked as out of breath as Chelsea.

"Ah, your pal Tear has finally arrived." Gui said to me.

"That's her!" Chelsea yelled out through the mic again. "That's Raena!"

"W-what!? What are you talking about?!"

"I know it's hard to believe, Ail. But I saw it with my own eyes! Her without that disguise..."

"Disguise?"

"Hey, calm down." Ian said to her. "Tear's a boy. There's no way he could b-..."

Chelsea jumped off the stage before Ian could finish.

"It was a mistake for you to come here!" Chelsea said to Tear, walking toward her. "I'm not afraid of you; not when there's so many people here."

"N-no, I..." Tear trembled, hugging herself in fear.

"Hey, stop!" I jumped off the stage, and ran up to them. "Chelsea, Tear couldn't possibly be Raena..."

"Oh, yeah? Well, look at this!" Chelsea lifted her sweatshirt off of her, causing all the onlookers to gasp in astonishment.

"A-ah..." Tear did nothing but sob.

"See; she's clearly a girl! She disguised herself as a boy so no one would know she was Raena!"

"Even if she is a girl, that doesn't automatically make her Raena." I said to her calmly. "She probably has another reason for hiding her gender."

"A-Ail..." Tear said to me, wearing an expression that made it hard to tell what her mood was.

"You... You aren't surprised by this?" Chelsea asked me questioningly. "Alright then, let me show you something else..."

Chelsea started pulling on Tear's hair.

"N-no! Don't!" Tear shouted, trying to pull Chelsea's arms away.

"Stop it! You're hurting her!"

Before I could do anything, Chelsea did it. She pulled out... Tear's green hair. It took me a while to figure out what had just happened; it had seemed almost surreal.

When I came back to my senses, I realized Chelsea was actually holding a wig. With the removal of said wig, Tear's real hair flowed out.

It was long, and... turquoise.

N-no way... It can't be...

"N-NO!" Tear curled up in a ball, shaking more than before. She tried to cover her hair, to no avail.

"It really is Raena!" "She had us all fooled!" "We have to stop her before she does anything else!"

The crowd gathered around Tear.

"We know about all the people you've killed." Chelsea told her angrily. "But you won't be doing anymore killing, and we won't let you get away with what you've done!"

"G-gah!" Tear was picked up and grabbed tightly by someone in the mob. She did nothing but cry.

"You..." Chelsea slapped her in the face. "You'll pay for what you did to Taffy!"

Dang it... W-what do I do...?

Tear got slapped again.

Tear... Has she really been lying to me this whole time...?

... Am I really going to lose my best friend again?

I froze up, having no idea what to do in the situation...

"I-I'm not good at making friends. I couldn't even make any at my last school..."

"Thank you. You're the first person who's been this nice to me in a long time..."

"I don't care whether there are some strange things about you or not. I'll always like you, Ail."

"We'll be friends until the end of time... right, Ail?"

"Tear..." I said silently to myself.

"... If you truly value your friendship with Tear, always make sure to believe in him, okay?"

I had no idea what to do before. And right then, I still had no clue what to do. But...

"A-alone..." Tear uttered. "I-I'm always all alone..."

No matter how stupid it is, I have to do something!

"Let go of her!" I pushed the guy who was holding Tear away from her, and grabbed her hand.

"A-Ail?" Tear looked at me wide-eyed.

"Let's go."

"Wha?"

I ran out of the auditorium as fast as I could, dragging Tear along with me.

--

I somehow managed to make it passed the people who had tried to guard the hallway, but a mob of people started to follow us.

"A-Ail, why ar-..." Tear continued to look at me with a confused look.

"Not another word." I interrupted her. "Not until we find a place to hide."

I can't blame her for being confused, though. I have no idea what I'm doing, either...

I continued to run, Tear in tow, until the voices of the confused, angry mob had died down.

"Here should be fine." After noticing no one in plain sight, I opened a random door in front of me and went in. I found a cabinet in the room and opened it.

"This room..."

I frantically started taking out things from inside until there was enough space for us to fit, making sure not to make it look suspicious in the process.

"Phew, that should be good enough." I hope...

"This is our classroom, isn't it?" Tear asked.

"Really? What are the chances..." I replied, then brought Tear into the cabinet with me.

"A-Ail...!" She started to struggle a bit, so I had to make her sit down.

"Calm down. We should wait a bit first, then try to sort things out with everyone."

"... Why?"

"Why what?"

"What's the point of this? Why are you helping me, Ail? Someone like me..."

"There's no way I'd believe you did those things! I know you're not actually Raena." I took my hands off her shoulders. "I'm sure it's not too late to tell everyone it was just a misunderstanding..."

"But... my hair! Look at it!" She lifted up her hair for me to see. "My real hair... it's the same color as..."

"That's... just a coincidence, right?" I asked her, hoping my gut feeling at that point was wrong. "Right, Tear?"

"Tear... I wonder how long I've been using that fake name..."

"N-no..." I looked at her, wide-eyed. "I-it's not true... Y-you told me..."

"I-I'm sorry, but the truth is... The name 'Tear' is just an alias I made for myself. M-my real name... is Raena."

"T-that can't be..."

"So... you shouldn't help me anymore. 'kay?" She said, faking a smile.

"..."

"It's about time I paid for all the things I did." She stood up, speaking in an oddly monotonous voice. "I deserve to be punished..."

"... That's enough."

"Whatever they want to do to me, I deserve it. Whether it be more hatred, or torture, or prison, or dea-..."

"I SAID THAT'S ENOUGH!!!" I yelled, shocking her.

"B-but Ail, I'm... R-Raena..."

"... So what?"

"Huh?"

"Sure, whatever, you're Raena. I don't care." I said, standing up myself. "But there's no way I'll believe the way you've been acting toward me was a lie!"

"B-bu-..."

"Listen. Even if you really are Raena, there's no way I'd think you killed all of those people." I stated seriously. "I have no idea what actually happened, but I know for a fact you'd never do anything like that!"

"I-I..."

"So would you please tell me the truth, already? The real truth, this time."

"No, I can't! I don't want to put you in danger..."

"Put me in danger? Do you realize what I just put myself through for your sake? I think it's kinda late to be saying things like that now, isn't it?"

"..." She said nothing for a moment, looking like she was thinking about something. "A-alright, I guess there isn't really much choice. I'll tell you... B-but..."

"But what?"

"Even to this day, I-I still can't believe what happened..."

"It's fine. I'm listening."

"A-alright..."

--

"Until recently, I've always lived in Neturus my whole life. But my family moved around a lot, because of their jobs, and I had to constantly change schools because of that. As a result, it was hard for me to make friends, especially knowing I wouldn't be with them for long. So when I made a very special friend and found out my parents wouldn't move around anymore, I was really happy..."

"That must be the friend you mentioned before... Assuming who you are, it must be..."

"... Taffy..."

"So, then what happened?"

"Taffy was really nice; she always did whatever she could to cheer me up when I was sad. However, I found out that she wasn't spending as much time with her other friend because of me..."

"... Chelsea."

"Yes. S-so, Taffy suggested we have a picnic together, just the three of us. T-that way, I could meet C-Chelsea..." At this point, she started to sob.

"Te-... Er, Raena." I put my hands on her shoulders again. "It's okay... You don't have to tell me if it's hard for you..."

"N-no, it's fine." She continued. "I never talked to Chelsea in person, but I saw her talking with Taffy and other students. I knew she was a nice person. But when we went to the L-Lake of Death..."

"I've been wondering for a while now; why exactly did Taffy decide to go there of all places? It seems like a strange place to have a picnic..."

"It's closeby the middle school I attended at the time, and she thought a 'haunted' place like that would be interesting... S-she was pretty optimistic about it..."

"I see..."

"I was scared to go, but when we had arrived and set everything up, everything seemed to be fine. The only thing left was to wait for Chelsea..." She covered her face. "T-that's when she..."

"What? What did she do?"

"Taffy decided to tease me, and looked down at the lake. I-I told her to stop, or she could fall in." Raena shook her head. "Then Chelsea came, and p-pushed her in!"

N-no way...

"I wanted to help Taffy, but I couldn't swim. I knew Taffy couldn't either, so I asked Chelsea... But she just stood there, telling me Taffy was dead... B-because of me..."

"What did you do?"

"Back then I was really scared, and couldn't think properly, so I ran away... That must've been when Chelsea told everyone about how I killed Taffy..."

"So Chelsea is the one that's been lying this whole time?!"

"N-no..."

"What do you mean?"

"Chelsea's a nice person, s-she wouldn't..."

"But you saw her push Taffy in, didn't you?"

"Y-yeah, but... The more I think about it, the more it seems like it didn't actually happen..." She explained. "That's why I came back in the first place; to find out the truth. E-even though I was scared... And now..."

Screams could be heard from out in the halls.

"Raena, where are you?!" "Show yourself!" "You can't hide from us!" "We'll make you pay for what you did!" "Come out!"

"R-Raena..." I said to her sourly.

"I have to go now."

"You can't!"

"I did a bad thing, so..."

"You did nothing wrong! You just told me..."

"There's nothing I can do. Not when I'm all alone..." Raena said bitterly. "N-no matter what I do, I'll always end up powerless and alone..."

She opened the cabinet, and walked toward the door.

"That isn't true."

"Huh?"

I grabbed her, and brought her into an embrace.

"A-Ail...!"

"Sure, you may not to be able to do anything on your own..."

"Exactly. So what do I do...?"

"But you're not alone. I'm here for you now, Raena!"

"E-eh?"

"The students, the teachers, and even the whole world can be against us now for all I care. I'll help you find the truth you're looking for, and I will prove your innocence!" I moved her back so I was facing her. "You just have to let me."

"Would you really want to do that much... for my sake?"

"No matter what happens, I'd do anything for your sake." I responded. "We're best friends, after all. Right?"

"A-Ail..." Tears started to pour down her face. "H-help me! I'm so afraid... I don't want to be alone ever again!" She placed her face on my shoulder, and cried into my sleeve.

"Of course." I won't let you suffer anymore, Raena. I promise...

To Be Continued...

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Writer's Comments:

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- CS-Masyet