Chapter 1: Black and Red, Black and Blue

It was the next day. I got ready for school and when I opened the front door, Chauncey is there to greet me. I jumped and stood back in shock. "Hey Millie!" She happily says. "Hi uhh....how do you know where I live?" I asked anxiously because I never told her where I lived. "Oh! We walked past it when we were going to my house, remember?" I don't recall that, but whatever. I brush it off and we walk to school. Chauncey holds my arm closely to her the entire walk, as if she doesn't want me to escape her grasp. I get a little bit uncomfortable and I asked her if she could let go, and she looks at me and says "You promised to always stay with me, remember? I'm never letting ya go!"

"Oh geez..." I thought to myself and sigh. I did promise her that. When we get to the front gate of Tsubaki High School, The same boy that was talking about The Pink Crimson Demon and calling me Dead Girl yesterday walks up to us. His name is actually Haru and the girl he was talking to yesterday was Bailey. He has a stupid smirk on his face and I'm ready for whatever comes out of his mouth.

"Hey dead girl! You look like a corpse this morning". He says as he brushes his blonde streaks of hair out of his face. Oh God, he has brown hair with streaks of blonde and he thinks he looks cool with that. I sigh in annoyance and at the corner of my eye, I see that Chauncey is giving Haru a look that says I'm going to murder you. I turn my head to face her and I start to get a bit concerned. I know we just met yesterday, but this is the first time I've seen her like this. So full of rage over something that doesn't bother me, it never bothered me, I've gotten used to the bullying. Haru noticed Chauncey's death stare and looks at her. "What are you looking at, n-new girl?" He asks in a shaky voice, he feels very intimidated. If the staring wasn't enough, Chauncey grabs her school bag and pulls out a pocket knife, pointing it at Haru. He shrieks and jumps back in fear. I gasp and I tell her "Chauncey put that away!" trying to calm her down, but her eyes stay locked on Haru.

"You're gonna address her by her name" Chauncey demands as she slowly walks up to Haru and lightly lays the knife on his neck. I panic and look around to see if no one else is here, we should be in class by now. And speak of the devil, the homeroom bell rings. Chauncey continues, saying "Or do I have to carve her name on to ya' skin so you'll remember?" The pocket knife grazes down on Haru's stomach and lightly traces letters on him, slowly spelling out my name. "Ca-mil-li-a" I just watch, feeling very disturbed. Haru seems terrified and quickly apologizes, running away from us while crying and runs inside the school. Chauncey looks up to the morning sky and laughs, amused by what she did. I continue to watch and listen to that horrific laugh, a laugh that I never heard in my life. What the hell is wrong with this girl?

The laughing then stops and she turns to me with the same smile that she always has, but this time, the smile looks psychotic rather than cheerful. She lets out a small giggle, holds out her hand, and says in an eerily cutesy voice "Come with me....Millie".

I'm hesitant and scared. Scared that if I don't give her my hand, she'll do what she did to Haru, or worse, she'll kill me. I take a deep breath and take Chauncey's hand cautiously. She firmly holds my hand, puts the pocket knife away, and we both walk inside as the first period bell rings.

~

Now it's lunchtime, and me and Chauncey sit down to eat our lunch. Today it was Mac n cheese, apple juice, milk, and baby carrots. It was a good lunch, but I'm too anxious to eat. I watch Chauncey and she's eating the Mac n cheese while happily humming to herself, like she didn't just threaten another student with a pocket knife earlier. I couldn't be quiet about it anymore, so I addressed the situation. "What the hell was that earlier?" I ask her and Chauncey gives me this oblivious look and says "Hmm?" while having Mac n cheese stuffed in her mouth. I get annoyed and ask her "What the hell possessed you to do that to Haru?"

Chauncey then realizes what I'm talking about, sallows her Mac n cheese, and says "He was bein' mean to you. I was only protecting you".

"Look, I appreciate that you were sticking up for me, but I can handle it. You're lucky you didn't get caught. And where the hell did you get a pocket knife?" Chauncey takes a sip of apple juice and tells me "My older sister gave it to me. It's so I could..." She pauses and looks at her hand, the hand with the missing pinkie finger and says "Protect myself from meanies. Meanies like Haru". I then ask her "You had an older sister? You never told me about that" It seems like there was a lot of things she hasn't told me about, I don't REALLY know her well.

Chauncey looked upset just mentioning her sister and explains. "Her name is Ashina. She was nothing but a selfish whore, sleeping around with every man in our village". A whore? So she was a prostitute? "You must really not like your sister. And Chauncey, where are you from?"

"I'm from Ninjō" She tells me and I almost choked on my own spit. "Ninjō? That's where the whole Pink Crimson Demon story was from." Chauncey then tells me that she doesn't want to tell me more about herself because she says she has a dark up bringing, even though she continues to insult her sister. "She was cruel, slutty, and only cares about herself! She thought she was so much prettier than me, all of the men wanted to fuck her! A twenty five year old whore!"

"Maybe you shouldn't talk about your sister like that if she passed away-" Chauncey interrupts me and says "I don't care, I want her to stay dead!" Geez, that's really harsh...

~

After school, me and Chauncey don't walk home together. What happened this morning was a scary situation and I didn't want to be around her after that. I want space between us for a bit. As I'm walking, I see a girl that looks exactly like Chauncey but her appearance is different. She has bandages wrapped around her neck, arms, legs, hands, and on her left eye. Instead of the red and black look that Chauncey has, the girl had black and blue. Instead of a black and red school uniform like me and Chauncey, her's was the same thing but black and blue. She had long black twin tails like Chauncey, but she has blue ribbons instead of red. And she isn't have shoes on, her feet were wrapped in bandages as well. She turned from a corner and walked in front of me. I quickly run up to her and grabbed her frail shoulder, the girl looked more skinny than Chauncey.

"Chauncey?" The girl looked at me and I saw nothing but white in her eye. Her lips are dry and under her eye is dark like she hasn't gotten any sleep.

"Poor girl, she must be blind" I thought to myself. I felt really bad and said "I'm sorry. You look like someone I know. Do you want me to help you-"

"...Home". The girl quietly said and I stopped myself. "I'm sorry, what did you say?" The girl looked stoic the whole time and said "...Home....I'm going home". She then continued walking and didn't look back. I just watched as she walked home, wondering who that girl was until I couldn't see her anymore.