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Assembly1,359 words
In Memoriam1,325 words
Again1,377 words
First Response2,112 words
Witness1,451 words
Waking Up1,468 words
Murderer1,363 words
Dusk3,117 words

First Response

Sonata sat at her desk, poised above her math homework. Normally derivatives didn't give her much trouble, but the last couple of weeks had been different. Her grades had been slowly dropping as she struggled with regular quizzes, and now she had a much more heavily weighted exam coming up. She figured maybe her grades were suffering due to her lack of studying in light of the recent tragedies. A lot of students were having the same problem, she thought. Sonata had assumed that she could remedy this problem for herself by hitting the books, but she had been sitting at her desk for nearly an hour, and her pencil hadn't yet touched the blank page in front of her, even just to copy the first problem down. The equations, which normally presented little challenge to her, were swimming before her eyes, tangling themselves, making themselves impossible to read.

With a sigh, Sonata dropped her pencil and stretched her arms behind her head, leaning back to stare at the ceiling. She was disappointed. She had hoped that maybe if she could start studying like normal, she would start to feel normal. But the haze that was cast over her mind that fatefully couple of weeks ago remained, and made it incredibly difficult for her to focus, or think about much else.

"Well, a little fresh air might help to get my gears turning." Sonata said to herself, though unconvinced. She frequently turned to walking when she couldn't concentrate, and knew from her recent experience that when she got back, she still wouldn't be able to focus on her work. Despite knowing this, Sonata found herself zipping up her coat and heading out the front door.

The sky was dark and the air was cool, a sharp breeze made Sonata shiver and stuff her bare hands into her pockets for warmth. She didn't overly mind the cold. She was used to the temperature drop after the sun went down. It was her favourite time to walk. It was so peaceful, and quiet, as most people have by now tucked themselves away in bed.

As she walked, her mind wandered. Her legs, seemingly on autopilot, led her aimlessly around the silent town, her eyes blind to her surroundings. She was lost within the confines of her own mind, unaware of time and space, and everything happening around her.

She wasn't sure how long she had been walking, lost in her own thoughts. She was only vaguely aware of the world around her; a sound of a particularly loud car on the highway outside of town, the screeching of seagulls. If Sonata were paying any attention, or any thought to the outside sounds that drifted into her mind, she would have been curious about the seagulls. She would have thought that one was being attacked. She might have assumed that one had been caught by a stray cat, and was slowly being tortured to death. She might have even realized that what she heard was actually human screams.

But what snapped Sonata back into reality wasn't the screams. As she passed through an alleyway, she slipped on a wet surface, and was shocked out of her inner world, flailing her arms to keep her balance. Her heart was beating furiously, the slip having startled her.

"Jeez..." She muttered to herself, shaking her head. As she let herself calm down, she glanced down at her watch. She wasn't entirely surprised to see that it was three in the morning already. This had happened to her plenty of times before. The shock value had worn off. It had felt like she had left her home only fifteen minutes ago, but it had been in fact, hours.

As Sonata looked at the digital display on her wrist, her eyes changed focus, and her attention was drawn to the white toe of her black converses. They were clean before she left her house, but now they had a splash of something on them. She initially dismissed it as mud from the puddle she slipped in, but something was off. The lighting was bad, but she was certain that it was the wrong colour to be dirt. It looked a tad more...

Sonata froze, staring at her shoe, holding her breath. Slowly, she took out her cell phone and held it over her shoe. Her finger paused over the flashlight button. She considered just running away, throwing her shoes in the garbage without even looking at them. But deep down she already knew. She turned the light on.

Red.

That's not all. The ground around her, the puddle she had slipped in, was muddy, but clearly very bloody. It was wet, and hadn't yet soaked all the way into the dirt, or dried up. It was fresh.

Sonata swallowed hard, and slowly turned around.

What she saw was so sickening, so horrifying, that she couldn't even scream. Her eyes were wide, and unblinking.

Realization washed over her. It was a horrible truth. She had heard the screams, but did nothing. She didn't even register them. She could have called the police. She could have shouted for help. She could have scared the criminal away. She could have prevented this from happening. She could have seen their face, she could have helped the police identify them and stop this from happening ever again. If only she were paying attention. If only her mind hadn't been so foggy ever since the first murder. She could have done something. Instead, she ignored the screams, and stepped over it. Stepped over the body.

The body.

Sonata screamed.

Her bloodshot eyes stared straight ahead, unseeing. Her skin was ghostly pale. To anybody else the room was silent, but to Sonata, the ticking of the clock behind her was unbearably loud.

"Sonata? Can you hear me?" A gentle voice asked.

Sonata turned her head to the side, her eyes still unfocused. The blurry shape of a woman appeared in her vision.

"Sonata, can you tell me what happened last night?" She asked. "Do you remember?"

Sonata nodded. She was afraid of those memories. That horrifying scene. She didn't want to be here right now, but Twilight and Adagio had made her come here to talk to this stranger.

"Can you tell me what happened?" The woman asked again. "Why were you outside so late at night?"

Silence filled the air. The woman was being patient. Sonata appreciated the fact that she didn't feel pressured to answer right away, and took the time to collect herself.

"I was having a hard time concentrating on my homework, so I went for a walk." She replied.

"What time did you leave home?"

"I.... I'm not sure. I think it was before midnight."

"You were walking until three in the morning? Why such a long walk?"

"It's something I do a lot." Sonata replied. Her eyes drifted to the floor, but she noticed that her vision was clearing slowly. "Ever since Orange Slice was murdered, I've been having problems concentrating. I've been zoning out a lot. When I go for walks, sometimes I zone out so completely, I don't even see what's around me. When I finally come to, it's hours later."

"You can't see anything when this happens?" The woman asked.

"Well, I guess I can see. I don't run into anything when it happens. I just don't register anything. Sometimes I can hear sounds, too. But I don't register those either. They just pass through my mind and are forgotten."

There was silence. Sonata could hear the faint sound of a pencil scratching on paper.

Sonata decided to go on. "Last night I thought I heard seagulls. I don't think that's what it actually was. I think it was the... the screams." She said. "That didn't even wake me up again. What woke me up was when I... slipped in the blood. I almost fell. I walked right over the... the body."

"What happened after you 'woke up'?" The woman asked.

"I looked down and saw the blood. And then I turned around and I saw it." Sonata said. "It was... terrible. I've... I've heard that Orange Slice and Roseluck were killed quickly, that their throats were cut and that was it. But this was... nothing like that. It was like... like she was stabbed over and over and over again. Her clothes were all messed up, her whole body was just.... red... When people started coming with flashlights I saw... more blood. It was all over the alley. On the walls of the buildings, all down the length of the alley, there was just so much blood. And then there was... the knife. I think that was the worst part." Sonata was whispering now. "They just left the knife there, buried up to the hilt in her eye."

"You remember this very vividly." The woman stated.

"I don't think I can ever forget." Sonata replied.

"Does this disturb you?"

"Yes." Sonata asked. "I'm still realizing that it's real. It feels all like a dream. A very bad dream."

"That's okay. You've experienced quite a shock." The woman assured. "Sonata, was the victim one of your friends from school?"

"Yes. I didn't recognize her right away though. I was more focussed on the blood."

"Were you good friends?"

"Well... We didn't hang out all the time, but we did sometimes. I liked her a lot."

"Was she closer to you than Orange Slice and Roseluck?"

"Yes." Sonata bit her lip. Tears started to form in her eyes. "I wish I saw who did this to her. I could have stopped it. I could have stopped it from happening again, if only I saw who did it."

There was a pause. "Sonata, do you blame yourself for what happened to Vinyl?" The woman asked.

Tears dripped down Sonata's cheeks at the mention of Vinyl's name. "If it had been anybody else, they would have seen who did it. They would have heard the screams and tried to help. Even if they couldn't have saved Vinyl, they could have made sure that she was the last victim. But it had to be me out there. And I wasn't paying attention."

"Do you blame yourself?" The woman asked, her voice very serious.

Sonata paused. "Yes. It's my fault."

"Did you kill Vinyl Scratch?" The woman asked.

Sonata looked up in horror. "W-what?"

"Did you kill Vinyl Scratch?" The woman asked again.

"N-no!" Sonata said. "Of course not! She was my friend! Why would I kill her? I couldn't kill anybody! Why are you accusing me of murder, you're supposed to be helping me!" She said frantically.

"Sonata, please calm down, I'm not accusing you of anything. Take deep breaths."

Sonata did as asked.

"You didn't kill her. So it isn't your fault." The woman said in a kind voice. "It isn't your fault for not realizing it was happening. It isn't Vinyl's fault for being out so late. It's only the murder's fault. They made the decision to go out of their way to hurt someone. It's their fault, and nobody else's."

Sonata stared at the floor again.

"Do you understand?" The woman asked.

Sonata nodded. "Yes." She said weakly.

When her appointment with the psychologist had finished, Sonata found Twilight and Adagio waiting for her in the lobby. The two walked her home, one on each side of her.

"How do you feel Sonata?" Twilight asked.

"Well, better than I was right after... the incident." Sonata replied, watching her feet as she walked. She wasn't wearing her converses today. Nor would she ever wear them again.

"It must have been pretty scary." Adagio said. "Especially when the police came. You had to answer all of their questions right there and then."

"Yeah." Sonata said. "They were really nice to me after they realized I was so distressed though. I remember them giving me a blanket and let me sit in one of the cars to talk to one of the officers."

"Treating for shock." Twilight said. "That's good of them to do."

"I guess you aren't going to come to school tomorrow?" Adagio asked.

"No..." Sonata said. "Principal Celestia heard what happened and told me that I can stay home for as long as I need to."

They approached Sonata's house, and walked her up to her doorstep.

"Well, just remember, Sonata," Twilight said. "Your friends are always here for you. If you ever need anything, don't hesitate to call any of us."

"Thanks Twilight." Sonata said. "But I think I just want to be alone for a bit. I need some rest."

"That's fine. Just a reminder."

"Thank you."

Author's Note:

I finally got around to putting out another chapter. Hopefully I won't be so delayed next time. Thanks for reading!

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