Hard Times

Catching a break must not have been in her DNA. Mio sighed as she approached the table, plastering a bright smile on her face that she really didn't care about whether it looked as fake as it was. Pulling out her notepad and flipping it open to a fresh page, she said, "Hi, my name is Mio. May I take your order, or do you need a few more minutes?"

"Yeah," said one of the brothers, brazen and confident. "We're good to go, Miss Mio."

The other one nodded, his cheeks dusted a light pink. He was meek in comparison to the other. His crutches leaned against the side of their booth and his broken leg stuck out a little for comfort.

"Great, then," Mio chirped. She thought her voice sounded hollow. "Before we begin with that, can I start you off with drinks?"

Mio's hand penned out their orders in waitress's shorthand without direction from her brain. She went through the motions in the same mindless manner until she presented the boys their drinks—colas, one diet and one regular—and the thing to snap her back to reality was, "I told you, I'm sorry about what happened," from some faceless customer's lips.

She disappeared into the back to the women's lockers and collapsed on one of the wooden stools pushed into the corner with what could have been a sob. Twins. Of all the customers to come in on an understaffed day, Mio would have to serve twin brothers. She'd gotten this job as a distraction technique to save her from what happened and to cool her uncle's nerves, the poor man distraught with loss and his own lack of understanding.

Mio unconsciously reached up to her shoulder. She was only glad Kei didn't know about the tattoo. Whatever was ailing her in her dreams was both a vicious callback to the horrors of All God's Village and surely divine justice for her crime there. Kei didn't need to get involved.

Finally collecting her nerves, Mio stood up from her seat and moved to go back to the kitchens, but a motion in a nearby mirror, partially clouded and hanging crookedly on the wall, caught her eye. She stared into her own reflection, partly looking for signs of the tattoo curse's advancement, but mostly looking at a memory. The curse hadn't bothered her since the night before; the painful blue ink hadn't startled her from her restless sleep like hundreds of needles piercing her skin. What did keep her awake, however, were sad whispers of, "You promised."

Suddenly, the image in the mirror shifted like signal interference and a grinning girl in a white kimono, stains of red flecking the material all the way up to the neck, was there instead. Sae's laugh echoed in her mind.

"Why are you screaming?" cried another voice as the locker room's door crashed open. Mio was reflected in the glass again and in the mirror she could see the person who had chased after her. Slowly, Mio turned to face her.

It was her supervisor, a girl named Carly who had immigrated to Japan years ago and yet still seemed more adequate in being a native Japanese citizen than herself. "Ah, sorry, Carly. I wasn't aware I was screaming at all." And really, she hadn't noticed it when her mouth fell open and the sound poured out.

Carly frowned a little bit. "Is something wrong? You can tell me about it, Mio."

"N-no, there's nothing."

She shot Mio a doubtful look, but let the issue drop to Mio's intense relief. A feeling much like an overhanging, angry spirit was lurking about her and she didn't think she could handle it long enough to suffer through Carly's interrogation. "Anyway, Mr. Manager sent me to find you. He said you've got an urgent phone call from a lady named Kurosawa Rei."

Mio choked hard on her words. Kurosawa Sae and Yae...

When she finally gathered her courage, the tattered remains of it, rather, and allowed Carly to escort her to the manager's office, she really wished she hadn't.

"Hello? My name is Kurosawa Rei. Are you aware your uncle was visiting me? A-anyway, um...Kei is dead."

The line went dead and, when the feeling from the locker room washed over her with finality, Mio was sure something inside her died with it.

A/N: Sae's laugh still creeps me the hell out.

In dedication to iLikeBubbleGum-chan, who insists I write more for this fandom.