Nothing…

Nothing…

Still nothing…

The soft afternoon glow filled Chara’s vision as she opened her eyes again. She stared at the end of her bed; her features furrowed in resignation and helplessness.

I can’t feel anything…

Why is this happening to me?

Ever since about a week ago, she felt like she had become the unluckiest person in the entire world. Everything she did—failed! And even situations that were initially unproblematic would inexplicably spiral into chaos, engulfing her in a whirlwind of misfortune.

 

***

 

It all started one fine Friday afternoon when her dad’s company suddenly imploded, leaving her family in a dire financial state. To Chara, who had only just graduated from high school and intended to pursue higher education, this was a huge tragedy! Worse, she didn’t have any personal savings!

In fact, it’s not like she was a moron who couldn’t grasp basic economics concepts such as “savings” and “budgeting.” Rather, she simply had no incentive to apply any of these skills to her usual life. After all, why would she bother with any of those tedious things, when she could just ask her papa to borrow his credit card…? An attitude that finally came to bite her at the worst possible time!

Unfortunately, things would only go downhill from here.

Not one to take a beating lying down, Chara immediately applied for several scholarship programs, hoping to score at least three or four to bring her university plans back on track. As it turned out, she failed to get even a single one!

Distressed, she reached out to her friends for help. Unfortunately, aside from one, her so-called “friends” were nowhere to be found. Admittedly, she should have seen this one coming; they were completely useless even at the best of times.

Without feeling too disappointed, she reached out to her sole remaining friend, Melody. As for how this went, merely recalling their conversation was enough to make Chara feel extremely flustered.

“How can I go to school if I don’t have any money? What am I supposed to do? Work?” Chara lampooned.

“M—maybe…? Uum, do you need me to help you apply for a job?” Melody asked in a quiet voice.

After pausing for more than ten seconds, Chara answered sheepishly, “…Please.”

Hence, Chara swiftly landed a job as a waitress at a local café. As she soon found out, waitressing turned out to be a lot less appealing than she originally imagined. In short, she reeeeeally wanted to quit. She had only worked for one day, and she already had enough complaints to fill the U.S. constitution.

In hindsight, she wasn’t really sure what she had been thinking. Work was hard; that much was common sense. Nevertheless, she wasn’t willing to give up before receiving her first paycheck, especially after having to ask for help just to secure the job. It was too humiliating. Her pride simply wouldn’t allow it.

After putting up with it for the rest of the day, she helped close shop, clocked out, and stepped out onto the sidewalk in time to see the setting sun. Feeling a sense of poignancy, she began her journey back home, only to be struck by a truck along the way, resulting in her current hospitalization.

 

***

 

Back in the hospital, Chara mourned as she stared at the end of her bed, at the lower half of her body which would never move again.

Just a couple of days ago, Melody brought her some promising news. Using her family’s connections, she might be able to arrange Chara an appointment with a miraculous surgent who could definitely restore feelings to the paralyzed lower half of her body.

Chara, who was already beginning to lose hope, seized this chance immediately!

During the four days preceding the operation, she had to subsist on a strictly liquid diet and had to endure the consumption of various repulsive medicines in preparation, purging her body of any impurities. However, she was willing to endure all this, just for the right to walk again.

It had already been an entire night since the surgery, and Chara still couldn’t feel the lower half of her body. Needless to say, it failed.

“It’s just one thing after another! When will it ever end…” Chara wept, with tears rolling down her cheeks.

“You are too pessimistic. How are you supposed to get better when you’re burdened with so much negativity?” Melody asked in a chiding tone.

Chara wiped her tears away and shot Melody a resentful glare.

“Easy for you to say with those fine legs of yours,” Chara snapped. Without waiting for a response, she allowed herself to fall back onto her mattress and turned away from her visitor.

“How can I still believe that everything will be alright, when everything is going wrong…?” she murmured sadly before quieting down.

The room fell silent.

Melody quietly rose from her seat and approached the hospital bed. Using its frame as a support, she bent her waist and leaned over Chara, gazing down at her from above.

“Would you like to talk about it? Sometimes letting everything out can make you feel better,” Melody suggested, gently brushing aside Chara’s hair to meet her gaze.

Glancing at Melody’s face, Chara snorted before looking away.

After a short pause, she began speaking, “Why are you still trying to hang out with me? My dad’s company is on the brink of bankruptcy, and I don’t have any money. I haven’t been able to secure a single scholarship and I can’t even afford university…

“To be honest, I don’t feel like I’ve been a good enough friend for you to trouble yourself with these continued visits,” she murmured, her lips curling into a sad smile.

Chara blinked, as if recalling something, then turned her gaze toward Melody, “Also, wasn’t it you who recommended that ‘miraculous’ doctor? Tsk, it’s all PR and marketing! Since when are you such a dummy? You should know better than to believe in such exaggerated claims!”

Melody furrowed her brows before moving her hand over Chara’s cheek and giving it a well-deserved pinch.

Chara instinctively tried to swat the evil hand away, but Melody withdrew it quickly. Feeling aggrieved, she turned her head to glare at her assailant.

However, Melody simply flashed her a cheeky smile and said, “If you keep saying such mean things to me, I might become sad and decide not to visit you again in the future.”

“Who wants to be visited by such a sassy visitor?” Chara rolled her eyes, sinking her head back into her pillow and ignoring her.

“How docile. Where is that willful, spoiled girl that I knew before? You would never have tolerated being treated like this in the past. Perhaps if I bully you a bit, it’ll rekindle some of your rebellious spirit,” Melody commented while creeping her hands closer, poised to commit unspeakable acts to the unsuspecting girl.

Without any warning, Chara swiftly sat up and seized Melody’s right hand, stopping her in place.

“So you were after my body? Hmph, I knew you wouldn’t visit me so many times without an ulterior motive! Take—this!” Chara shouted as she gripped her pillow using her other arm and swung it against the oncoming pervert.

“Aaah!” Melody raised her left arm to shield her face.

Smack~!

Unfazed, Chara readied her pillow and swung again, and again, and again.

Smack~! Smack~! Smack~!

“Stop! Stop! I was joking! I wasn’t really going to do anything! Stoooooooooop!” Melody tried to defend herself, but Chara simply smacked her even more fiercely.

“I take back everything I said before, all of it! I obviously treated you too kindly! Just you wait till my legs get better and I kick you across a football field!” Chara shouted angrily.

“Eek…! I’m—I’m sorry…!” Melody earnestly pleaded for mercy through the relentless barrage of pillows until Chara finally let her go. Falling back into her chair, Melody rubbed her forehead and stared at Chara with a wronged expression.

“Hmph, I give you an inch and you take a mile. This is how you should have behaved from the start,” Chara declared in an extremely domineering manner. Despite her heavy breathing and flushed cheeks, her face no longer showed a resigned, downcast expression.

Noticing the visible improvement in Chara’s mood, Melody’s lips curled into a slight smile. Unconsciously, she reached out her hand to pat Chara’s head.

Feeling Melody’s warm palm stroke the top of her head, Chara’s mind momentarily became blank. Although she was the one demanding forgiveness, why did it feel as if Melody was the one accepting her apology? Unable to withstand the current situation, she retreated under her blankets while feeling flustered.

“Aww… there she goes,” Melody giggled. Unperturbed, she straightened up her back and turned around to search through her belongings.

A few seconds later, the concealed Chara heard the rustling of plastic bags. Spurred on by her curiosity, she rolled onto her other side and peeked through an opening in her blankets to see what the other girl was up to.

When Melody was ready, she sat back down on her seat, holding a wicker picnic basket full of delicious fruit. Without thinking, Chara reached out a hand to grab a delicious-looking red apple, only for Melody to pull the basket away at the last second.

It was an unprecedented act of betrayal.

Seeing Chara’s pitiful and aggrieved stare, Melody chuckled. “When I learned that you had been on a liquid diet for days, I thought I’d bring you something tasty to cheer you up. But now that we’ve talked for a bit, I realize that even if I feed you this delicious fruit, any joy it brings to you would be short-lived. You’d go right back to moping the moment you finished eating.”

Chara wordlessly withdrew her hand and sealed the opening in her blankets. However, she soon remembered the fruit, stirring up an irresistible craving for sweetness mixed with a sense of unwillingness. Reluctantly, she opened a small flap in the blankets and asked, “What do you want?”

Melody, noticing that she had captured the hiding girl’s attention, gently tapped her chin as she thought over her words. After a moment of contemplation, her face brightened with a smile, and she said, “What I want from you is fairly simple. Yes… Essentially, I want you to believe in me.”

“…What?” Chara’s expression grew blank, unable to decipher the girl’s intentions.

Melody burst into a fit of giggles. “You may not be aware, but there is a fascinating connection between a human’s spirit and their physical well-being. It’s difficult to put into words, but if you truly believe you can get better, it can lead to genuine improvements in your physical condition.

“That is to say, healthy mind: healthy body.

“Now, herein lies the problem. That surgent should’ve healed your legs. However, I think you are so depressed and gloomy that it’s actually making your condition worse.”

Upon hearing this, Chara’s initial reaction was skepticism. Though she vaguely recalled hearing something similar before, Melody’s claims still struck her as somewhat superstitious. Yet, if she were to be believed, then that would mean that the one responsible for her operation’s failure would be none other than herself.

Beneath her bed sheets, Chara’s mind swirled with conflicting thoughts, her features involuntarily furrowing into an expression of resignation and helplessness.

“Thus, I have thought of a solution,” Melody announced, snapping Chara out of her thoughts.

“Since you are too pessimistic to believe in yourself, how about you believe in me instead? In return, I’ll believe in you, and offer you my greatest blessings.

“Hehe, once your spirits are lifted, your body will quickly recover, and you’ll be walking in no time!” Melody explained while patting her chest with a smile.

Captivated by Melody’s unwavering optimism, Chara momentarily found herself at a loss for words. After a brief silence, she emerged from beneath her bed sheets. Though Melody’s ideas seemed overly optimistic and somewhat silly to Chara, she strongly appreciated her sincerity in trying to help. Which is why, in spite of her doubts, Chara chose to set them aside and place her trust in Melody.

“I believe in you…” Chara responded after a brief silence.

Melody’s smile turned into a beaming smile.

“I believe in you too!”

Chara was momentarily stunned before bursting into a fit of giggles.

“See, it’s already taking effect,” Melody kindly pointed out.

“No, it’s not, this doesn’t count,” Chara denied, clearing her throat.

Having achieved her goal, Melody happily leaned forward, presenting the wicker picnic basket full of delicious fruit. “Here.”

Chara didn’t bother to be polite. She reached into the picnic basket, her fingers grazing the smooth surface of a vibrant red apple. With a soft smile, she plucked it from the basket, feeling the coolness of its skin against her palm.

Following this, Melody also picked up an apple, only to look up and find Chara giving her an unusual stare.

“What? Did you think that they were all for yourself? You are already a cripple, do you want to be fat as well?” Melody scoffed, waving her index finger from side to side.

The corner of Chara’s lips twitched.

You are really asking for it!

If it wasn’t for her arms being tired and the delicious treat, she would have grabbed her pillow to give Melody another beating. Disregarding her visitor, she focused on her own fruit.

“Bon appétit”

Bringing the apple to her lips, she took a hearty bite, savoring the burst of sweetness that flooded her senses. But within moments, a faint tingling sensation crept over her lips, followed by a subtle itchiness spreading across her face.

When was the last time I had some proper food? Err, actually, it’s only been four days, but it feels a lot longer than that… Chara reflected while chewing silently, and then swallowing.

Suddenly, her throat constricted, making it extremely difficult to breathe. Droplets of sweat formed on her brow as her heartbeat quickened. With a gasp, she dropped the half-eaten apple.

Frantically, she struggled to draw in air, but it felt as though invisible hands were squeezing the life out of her. Her vision blurred as the once brightly lit hospital room faded into murky shadows. Before she could comprehend what was happening, a wave of dizziness washed over her, and she lost consciousness.