“What” is all I mao get out.
“I said I love you” Mia said again, but I could barely hear her.
My head was swimming, thinking so fast I couldn’t make sense of anything.
“What are you talking about.. You and … Noah” I say, trying to make sense of this.
She and Noah were the couple, or at least they were for about a month. And before that, she liked him, right?
She was just my friend.
“We were just friends for a while. You were the person I liked” Mia said.
“I don’t uand” I say.
“That's enough” Aria said, interrupting the two of us. “You have been a not so great person towards Zenith. I am not going to allow”
“Aria, you o let him make this decision” Anthem said, walking out o her, also wearing pajamas.
“What are you talking about? He is clearly in distress” Aria said to him, but I started to zo of the versation.
I kept hearing my phone go off throughout all of this, so I decided to check who was texting me.
But strangely, with all of the notifications I heard, I only had o.
It was from Mana. I remember that we haven't talked in a while, but it retty cassual from her.
‘Hey, how are things Zenith?’ she texted me.
Not really sure what I should do, but starting to think this could help me calm down, I reply to her.
‘Just some personal things’
And I hit send.
But when I do, the others notice that I wasn’t paying attention to everything going on anymore.
“Zenith, what are you doing” Aria asks me.
“Nothing, my phone just kept going off, and I o see what it was” I say to them.
“Um, Zenith, your phone wasn’t going off” Mia said.
“What? You mean you just didn’t hear it” I say.
“Zenith, we are all hunters, a phone is kind of hard to miss” She said.
Getting annoyed, I just decided to show her the text I got from Mana to prove the point.
“See, I got this text only a few minutes ago”
“Zenith, there” Mia started.
“Shit, Mia shut up” Anthem yelled at her.
But I think it was too te.
“There is only outgois on that tact”
I kind of ugh at this, pletely fused by her response.
“Mia, I have texts going back, probably years with this tact. What the hell are you saying”
But when I look at her, I only see in her eyes. I quickly turn and see horror on my family's faces as well.
“What… Tell them, Aria. I know you check my phoell her about Mana” I say, somewhat scared of the answer.
BUt all she says is “Zenith”.
“No see” I say, turning my phone back towards me. “I have hundreds of texts between us”. I started to scroll through the versation, but everything starts to flicker.
Its like at once I see both the things I should see, both sets of texts, ining and outgoing, but then I see the lie, only o, a bunch of blue bubbles, oer the other.
“This”
“Zenith” Mia said. “What is going on”. She walked up behind me as I stared at my phone. She tried to pce her hand on my shoulder.
But I instantly pushed her arm off of me.
My breathing got a lot quicker, and I wasn’t fog on anything.
“What…” I tried to say, trying to think of a question to ask everyone. “I o…” I said.
But then I just ran bato my house.
Aria and Anthem were in the way, but they moved aside to let me in.
I quickly ran bato my room, smming the door behind me.
I sit on the floor, and pull out my phone.
Currently, I could see the versatioweewo of us, the real thing I should see.
THinking that she could help me out, I send a text to Mana.
‘Hey, you won’t believe what a bunch of people tried telling me’
Ahen a sed ter, I got a text back.
But this didn’t reassure me about anything at all.
‘You know, this is the first time you have started a versation in years’
?
The three remaining people in the front of the bck household just stared at Zenith as he ran bato the house.
They all didn’t know what to do with what had just happened.
Noah had sulked away after the fession happened, so he didn’t see how everything had ended.
After a few seds of silence, Anthem spoke up. “Aria, you should go after him, I’ll deal wiht her” he said, gesturing to Mia.
“Yeah” She said, and followed after him.
“Mia, you should go home” Anthem said to her.
“What was that?” she asked him, desperate to know what was going on.
“Family stuff, none of your business” he told her. “Now go home”
“NO” she yelled at him. “Zenith is my friend, I o know what that was all about” she said, with determination.
“Ugg, fine. I’ll tell you the basics” Anthem said, knowing that it was the only way to get rid of her, and that she wouldn’t tell anyone else.
“Do you know that Zenith ted?” Aarted.
“Yeah, he never hide that” Mia said.
“Ok, then you o know this. We have no clue what happeo Zenith's bio-family. No one has ever e forward saying they know who he is. And he doesn't remember them at all”
“I, didn’t know that”
“Yeah, he never really cared about it, but right when our parents adopted him, he never really talked to any of us. Our parents were scared he was mentally scared, so they took him to a doctor.” Anthem expined. “That is where he met ‘Mana’. For the first time, he actually talked to our parents about something, that being the friend he made at the doctor. As they tio take him, he would talk about her more and more. Eventually, this spread to him talking to the rest of us as well.”
“Mana? I’ve never heard of them” Mia said.
“Yeah. Everully, Mom and dad asked the doctor about them, so they could arrange a pydate betweewo of them, only to learn that he had no patients named Mana. In fact, he never had Zenith i with any other kids. When they watched back the recs while Zenith was in the waiting room, or with other kids, they always found him, talking to no one”
“What?”
“THis became something that our parents and the doctors started to talk to him about, where they learhat acc to ‘Mana’ she had a simir backstory to Zenith. Orphaned during the first outbreak, newly taken in by a family, but a few years older then him. After a while, the doctors begao believe that Mana ing meism so Zenith could deal with the stuff he saw during the first outbreak”
Mia had nothing else to say anymore.
“Eventually, they started talking online, but those messages were only Zenith sending them. The doctors said that it would be bad if we stopped them from talking, si was helpih a lot. As the years went oalked to her less and less, but it was always a stant thing in our household, mainly wheh was going through a lot.”.
After Anthem was dohere was only sileweewo of them for a long time.
But eventually, Mia asked a final question. “Is Zenith going to be alright?”
“I have no clue”
?
‘You know, this is the first time you have started a versation in years’
‘What are you talking about’
‘Exactly that. You haven’t started the versation with me in years, it always me texting you first’
‘I’m sorry about that, but I do o talk to you about this’
‘You don’t have to be sorry’
‘Thank you for saying that’
‘Whats on your mind’
‘I was talking to my family when I got your text earlier, and they said this really bizarre thing’
‘They said you didn’t receive a text, right?’
‘’
‘Zenith you ig if you want, but you know the truth’
‘What are you talking about’
‘I’m not real’
‘’
‘OK, so I’ll expin this to you’
‘’
‘All those years ago, whe, you were talking to no one. Just a figment of your imagination, more or less’
‘Stop’
‘I ’t do that.’
‘’
‘You needed someoo talk to, but had no one, so you created me. It wasn’t big, just a small amount of the power you will one day have, but the skill you have now, your absolute creation, made me for you’
‘Please’
‘It made me so that you could deal with everything you went through. You don’t remember it, but it wasn’t good. The real Mana, and the person who left you behind were both gone. You were alone.’
‘I don’t uand’
‘So you blotted it all out. And when you o get better, because you could get better, because of them, you made me. A person you could talk to about the things you didn’t want them to know about’
‘’
‘And for years, you did that. We talked about your fear of the other kids at school. Your feelings towards your family. Your favorite games, or TV shows. Aually, you stoped texting me.’
‘’
‘But I knew you still needed help at other times. So I would check up on you.’
‘’
‘But, this won’t work if you know the truth’
‘But I don’t know’
‘Yes you do. The fact that I am saying these things, you know’
‘I don’t want to know’
“That's not important.’
‘Please’
“Nothing be do this point’
‘I won’t stop texting you’
‘You won’t get a response from me anymore’
‘’
‘So, I do want to say this before we are done her’
‘We aren’t done’
‘Good bye, my sweet Zenith. I love you’
‘Mana’
…
‘Mana, please don’t do this’
…
‘Please’
As I ses in a versation that now only shows my outgoing messages, I hear knog at my door.
I have no clue who is oher side, but I don’t care.
I felt tears going down my cheeks, no clue when I started to cry. But I couldn’t stop now.
The ponding on my door tinues.
In my sadness and anger, I walk over to open my door and yell at whoever was knog on it.
Throwing the door open, I get ready to yell, but find myself face to face with Aria.
And the slight anger I had just a sed ago fades, and I colpse into her arms.
“It's going to be fine” Aria said, as she held me.
NamelessAlter
