Counting The Years

Episode 3

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8 years later

“Yuki,” a voice called from outside her room. “Yuki get up your going to be late again. You know how your teachers get.”

Yuki sighed and got out of bed. The bright sunlight penetrated the window of her room causing her to wince. She walked over to her mirror which was placed on the opposite side of her room. As she looked at her self slowly she realized that her hair was a mess but didn’t really pay any mind to it. She looked over to her left at the alarm clocked placed on her desk.

“……..MOM! Why didn’t you wake me up sooner its almost nine!

Yuki runs to her frantically runs to her bathroom and hops in the shower. The water was cold at first but she didn’t have time to wait for it to get warmer. The water hit her face and sent a shiver down her spine. As Yuki blow dried her hair her mother called to her from downstairs.

“Are you going to at least eat something dear,” she asks.

“No,” she calls down. “ Ill eat something at school. That should hold me over until I get home.”

Yuki’s mother watched as her daughter ran down the stairs hurrying towards the door.

“Don’t I get a hug goodbye,” she asked with a smile on her face.

Yuki ran over to her mother and quickly hugged her around the waist.

“Bye mom, see you after school alright”.

Mrs. Sakuraba just smiled at her daughter as she ran out the door. She then turned around and looked at her husband sleeping on the couch in the next room. She sighed and then went back to her paper work.

Yuki ran down the street as fast as she could. If she hurried she might not get in too much trouble. She looked up at the sky as she ran.

“Its going to rain today isn’t it,” she said to her self.

The sky that day was perfectly clear. Not a cloud in the sky. She came to a stop for a breather when she noticed that the building she was leaning on was in fact Minoke High School.

“Ah, I’m here. Now I just have to slide past some teachers and I might be safe.”

“Do you always talk to your self stupid girl,” a voice from below said to her.

Yuki looked down to see the familiar, yet annoying face, of Takeru, the neighborhood trouble maker.

“Shut up pip squeak im thinking here,” she yelled.

“Who are you calling pip squeak? Ill have you know that im turning seven in two months.”

“Oh and I bet your pretty manly now huh.”

“Shut up. Hey it looks like your late shouldn’t you get to class now?”

Yuki looked at the blonde spiked haired boy noticing the grin on his face. Takeru loved to torment Yuki. It was one of his hobbies that he did for some unknown reason. She ignored his taunts and ran into the building forgetting her plan to be sneaky. She ran all the to the back of the school and up the flight of stairs. The classroom that she was looking for read room 203. She stopped again to catch her breath and fix her hair up a bit. As she turned the door slowly she could hear the teacher giving a lecture on English sentence structure.

“Oh great my worst subject.”

She walked into the room slowly but it was no use the teacher had already been looking at the door and her eye caught Yuki’s.

“Hey teach,” Yuki said coolly.

“Don’t hey teach me miss Sakuraba this is the third time you’ve been late over the past two weeks what do you have to say for yourself?”

Yuki bowed to the teacher and apologized for her tardiness hoping that she would go light on her.

“I’m sorry Mrs. Yamato. It wont happen again I promise, last time for sure.

“Well normally I would just give you detention,” she said. “But I’m really not in the mood to stay after today so this is your last warning.”

Yuki sighed in relief and on that note and took her seat behind her best friend. The red haired girl, looking rather lazy, turned right around to confront Yuki.

“You know you really should wake up earlier. You got lucky today.”

Yuki would look at her friend with a sort of grin on her face as if she just dodged a bullet.

“Shut up Fumiko. Your just jealous cause your not as sly as me.

“Yes that’s totally it,” she replied. “So what are you doing after school today. I was wondering if you wanted to go to the arcade or something.”

“Since when do you like going to the arcade Fumiko?”

She would like at her with a creepy grin as if she had some sort of plan.

“Um hello. What’s at arcades Yuki?”

“Video games,” she replied.

“Correct Yuki you get a cookie. Good girl. But seriously, what kind of people play video games a lot?”

“Um ….. Boys,” she replies with a question on her face.

“Bing Bing Bing! We have a winner. The correct answer as you know is boys and that my friend is the perfect place to pick up some guys. Now do you get me?”

Yuki would look at her with a (yea sure) look.

“….. YOUR SUCH A!”…

“Girls!” the teacher yelled out loud from up front. “Be quiet and pay attention. You hear me.”

Later that day after torture with Yuki’s other classes. One in which a boy tried to flirt with her and regretted it. Yuki and Fumiko head over to the arcade for some……..fun.

“Ok mom ill be home later,” Yuki says to her mom over the phone. She puts the phone away in her pocket then switches her attention to the streets ahead of her. The arcade was only a few blocks away from the school maybe about twenty minutes on foot. The particular route that Fumiko had chosen was, to her knowledge, the fastest route to the arcade. Unfortunately it was also a dark and eerie alleyway.

“Fumiko…,” Yuki began. “Are you sure about this place. I don’t like it too much. Its like something you see out of a horror movie. You know what I’m saying? Like when the innocent victim or girl, aka you and or me, is strolling along minding their own business when a killer comes out from the bushes and stabs her and then takes her intestines and feeds it to his blood thirsty hounds of horror and doom.

“Fumiko would stare at Yuki as if it had already been a long night and a hangover was bound to happen.

“…………..What kind of messed up movies are you watching girl! I mean seriously. What the hell was that all about. Ok one if a killer were to come out the bushes to kill don’t you think he or she would just simply sick the dogs on the lady instead of wasting his breath with a knife. If the dogs themselves are hungry for blood they would simply gobble her up.”

“Fumiko..,” she replied.

“Yea?”

“………..Shut up.”

The two continue to chatter about zombies and monsters on the way to the arcade. The alleyway they took was in fact a much shorter route. This was a shock as Fumiko was normally an idiot when it came to directions. Still they got quite a laugh when a small puppy barked at them from the middle of the street.

“Ok Yuki here’s the game plan.,” Fumiko started. “I walk in the arcade and go for the pool table. Then you will walk in all hot like and challenge me to a game. Make sure to walk all sexy like.”

Yuki would roll her eyes.

“Ok then you challenge me to a game of pool and then things will go from there.”

“How will playing pool get you guys?”

“I read one time that girls playing pool is hot or something like that.”

After about 5 minutes of debating the plan Yuki gives up and goes with Fumiko’s plan. Fumiko walks into the main entrance to the many boys playing games. Most were from different schools and were wearing caps twisted backward.

“Typical males,” Fumiko muttered.

As soon as Fumiko got to the pool table across the room a noise could be heard to Yuki’s left. The noise was something of like glass shattering. Yuki runs over to the area of the noise out of curiosity and see’s that a little boy is lying on the ground with blood running from the top of his head onto the arcade floor. Yuki would clasp her hands to her mouth and run over to the boys side. Takeru lay there motionless.