I was sitting up in bed, reading the newest issue of OoO. As the yandere heroine made her move on the protagonist, I found my heart beating faster as my eyes subconsciously drew closer to the page. Just as I was starting to get really flustered, there was a knock at the door. I nearly dropped the manga in my surprise, just barely managing to shove it under a pillow before the door flew onen.

"Oh, Norma. You know you don't have to hide those from me, don't you~"

"Luna!!"

Her signature, face-splitting grin and intense focus were there in full-force, but something felt... off. She passed through the doorway like a mist and was on top of me in only a second, her cerulean eyes hooded and lusty upon her arrival. Just as she straddled me and pushed me down hard onto the bed, Mae materialized beside us, regarding Luna with distaste.

"Again, Normie? Didn't I tell you to say your goodbyes...!? Drop this goddamned freak already, hun. Before I drop her for you."

Mae pushed Luna off of me and yanked my arm violently, pulling me off of the bed and forcing me to collide with her curves. Luna pushed off the wall effortlessly, using the momentum to jump to my other side, which she clung to before pulling me in the other direction.

"You just keep finding us together, don't you Mae? She's clearly already made her choice. You simply didn't make the cut."

As if on cue a scalpel appeared in her free hand, the small object carrying near infinite weight in my tiny room as time seemed to freeze. My old phone's ring tone cut through the silence, and both girls stared me down as I reached to answer it.

"Did you think you would be free of me so easily, my fated? No... When it comes to the lengths I would go for you, I haven't even begun to show you what I'm capable of!"

The phone was no longer in my hand. Quin now stood before me, yanking one of my legs out from under me and contending with the stronger girls through sheer willpower alone.

"I should have hacked every one of your limbs off... but only after reducing them to bloody stumps!" Mae shrieked at my once-captor, now armed with her rusty machete.

"But you didn't, and now I'm free to come for my fated whenever I want, aren't I?" Quin sneered. For the first time, Luna's smile pushed the boundaries of what I was able to stomach.

"No, you aren't. I won't be making the same mistake. Norma will never, ever leave my sight again..."

 They began pulling my limbs in three directions, my tendons themselves threatening to snap at any moment.

I can't take this anymore! Please, somebody save me...!

Though we were on the second floor, I saw a pair of golden eyes watching us. Suddenly my window shattered and Raine burst into my room, tucking and rolling before rising to her considerable height. The other girls stared up at her defiantly.

"Raine! I'm so happy you-"

My words died in my throat. She glared down at me just as sharply as she regarded the others. Without a word she grabbed my free leg, which I had been kicking in defiance until now, and began to pull.

It hurts! W-why is this happening!? Why does it keep on happening!? I... I thought you...

I began to cry uncontrollably as pain - both physical and emotional - wracked the entirety of my being, but there was no end in sight as my former friends continued on as if they couldn't hear my screams. Finally my meager limbs reached their breaking point and a visceral red slurry poured from my raw, open sockets. The girls threw my limbs away and plunged their hands violently into my chest, each with a severe, insane longing in their eyes. Their hands ripped through tissue and pushed away failing organs, even as they continued to look deep into my unfocused eyes with their own versions of twisted love.

Just before I finally succumbed to merciful death, I saw them fighting over a small, green gem they had recovered from inside my heart that seemed to pulse and throb, as if it had a life and will of its own...

---

Ves held Norma in her arms as the younger girl trembled, flinching from some unseen terror every minute or so. Though her bedroom was dark, Ves could see the pain etching itself on her pretty face, though from the haunting moans she also uttered, it may well be etching itself into her very soul.

"No...! Nnn, please- no-!"

"Shhh, it's okay sis, it's just a nightmare. I'll be here for you until you wake up... Just follow my voice and you'll come home to us, I promise. It's going to be okay... I've got you... It'll be okay..." Ves soothingly whispered in her ear.

For the last month, this had been Ves' nightly ritual. Norma and her father had moved in with Faye immediately following their return from freeing Norma from her kidnapper, the family deeming it too dangerous to stay at the same address when it was discovered Quin had somehow slipped through the authorities' grasp (A fact Norman could not seem to forgive himself for). Norma had her own room of course, but when Ves had heard the bloodcurdling screams the first night, she refused to let the girl sleep alone. Perhaps because of this they had grown rather close in a very short time, and though her love-crazy mom hadn't set a wedding date like she'd been constantly threatening to, Ves still found herself calling Norma her sister.

Despite Ves' ministrations Norma's night terror seemed to be getting worse, maybe the worst she'd ever seen. There was only one thing she could think of to do now.

"Quit pacing and get in here, Fes."

A moment later her brother hesitantly poked his head in the door, looking sorrowfully at Norma as she continued to writhe in her sleep.

"How did you-"

"You always walk up and down the hallway whenever she gets like this. Come in here, she needs you."

"V, I-"

"Don't argue, Fes. I've tried everything else."

Her brother sighed but relented, approaching the other side of the bed and sitting beside the fitfully sleeping girl. He looked down at Norma, his anxiety worsening as he watched her subconscious still struggle all this time later to process the intense trauma she'd been made to suffer. He pushed some of her hair behind her ear and, pushing through his embarrassment, started to softly sing to her.

"Oh joys arise

The sun has come again to

hold you

Sailing out the doldrums of

the week~

The polyphonic prayer is here

It's all around you

It's all around you out here~

And if the whole world is

crashing down on you

Fall through space out of

mind with me~

Where the emptiness we leave

behind on warm air rising

Blows all the shadows

far away~

The falling of the whole

empire is here to hold you

Rolling out and haunted

till it sleeps..."

Whether it was mere coincidence or not, Norma seemed to settle into a relatively peaceful sleep just as Fes finished singing. Ves let out a sigh of relief, squeezing Norma tight against her and gently kissing the back of her head before sitting up to face her twin.

"Thank you, Fes. I know it's hard for you to sing in front of other people, but I appreciate you facing your fear, and I know that she does, too."

"Haah, that's... I don't think I'll ever get over it, but... I guess it's worth pushing through for times like these..."

Ves smiled at her brother as he looked down fondly at Norma. He'd always been such a loner, but it seemed their 'stepsister' was bringing out the best qualities in him.

"She really is troublesome though, isn't she?" Fes mumbled through a wry smile. "Ever since the day we met her it's been one thing after another. How does one girl end up getting assaulted by two different people in the same week?"

Ves couldn't deny it had been extremely unusual.

"And the recovery... the therapists said she might never be the same, didn't they? That it would take years, at least. And yet aside from the nightmares, she's pretty much back to normal, according to her dad. I mean, it's more than he ever hoped for, but..."

"...but it is pretty surprising," his sister finished the thought. "She used to scream in the night for Quin for like a week straight, remember that? It was fucked up. I felt so helpless..."

Ves started tearing up at the memory.

"But now," she continued, "She doesn't even talk about it anymore, and she's insisting they send her back to school. She's definitely made of stern stuff. If it wasn't for nights like this, you'd never even know she was abducted, let alone very nearly by a stranger and then actually by her supposed 'friend'."

"I... I'm just glad we were able to be there for her, even if only in some small way..." Fes whispered, perhaps more to himself than to his sister.

Ves had nothing else to say to her twin. They were thinking the exact same thing. The peaceful moment seemed to infiltrate their minds, and before they knew it, the three had fallen asleep side by side.

---

"Are you really sure about this, Norman? We could keep her here at home a while longer, just to be certain-"

"I know we could, and part of me really, really wants to do just that. But it's like you said before. We can't always be there for them every step of the way. If Norma thinks she's ready to return to her life, I just have to trust that she's really thought this through. We'll keep up the enhanced security measures wherever possible, but she's still a teenager who deserves her agency and privacy if she wants it."

Faye flipped her hair out of her eye and sighed.

"If it were up to me I'd handcuff the girl to my wrist after all that's happened, but you're right. If she's ready, she's ready. I just never expected it would be so soon..."

"Neither did I, but I can't exactly complain about having my daughter back in her own head, can I?"

Faye chuckled softly.

"I suppose not. Ah, by the way... did anything come of that private investigator you hired?"

Norman rubbed his eyes.

"Not yet. She's been following a few potential leads but the girl has completely ghosted."

Faye saw the tremors pass through her lover as he recalled the day they found his daughter.

"She was right there, Faye! I had her! I should have-"

"You're not a murderer, Norman. You chose your daughter over her, and I love you for it. We had no way of knowing they would take so long to arrive on the scene. I mean, she was unconscious when we left-"

"Still, we should have waited-!"

"No, Norman. We needed to get her away from that place, and she needed both of us. There was no way we could have waited."

"-or we could have tied her up, or-!"

"Stop beating yourself up about it! You're a good father and a good man, and you did exactly what your daughter needed you to do. That's more than enough. Besides, with her being a wanted felon now, that girl would have to be crazy to make another attempt..."

---

In a squalid dump of an abandoned shack, a blue haired girl tinkered tirelessly on a run-down workbench. She muttered to herself constantly, but had learned to do so nearly silently, under her breath.

"I'm yours you'll be mine my valentine my shining star you're so far but not for long it's so wrong that we're apart but for my next tricks I'll fix the broken pieces and iron the creases of your heart and our new life will start my breath is bated, oh my fated~"

With a flourish, she raised her custom-built semi-automatic rifle, smiling at it like an old friend she couldn't wait to introduce to new ones...

TMix

Hello everyone! I decided to break my usual format of blandifying and use actual song lyrics for this part of the story (Damn it Jim, I'm a writer, not a songwriter!). For those curious, the song is called Empire Ants by Gorillaz featuring Little Dragon. There isn't any special meaning behind the lyrics I chose necessarily, they just kind of fit the vibe I was going for and seemed like something Fes would be in to.

Lastly... wow! As of the time of this writing, the results of last chapter's poll were quite interesting! For those of you able to resist Norma's indescribable allure, there was one clear winner - the mysterious Raine! As the least developed character so far I certainly wasn't expecting that, but it was really cool to see! The other girls ended up in a three way tie, so it seems that they do all have their charms. (Edit, Mae really popped off all of a sudden, huh? I would expect no less from our curvy 'best friend' ;p)

 

I want to thank you all for reading and staying with this series. Sitting down to write is one of the highlights of my day and reading your comments is always a treat. Hope you have a good few days and I'll see you all next chapter!