Our Perfect Insanity

ChApTeR TwEnTy TwO
Jonathan Kilmury

“Legs intertwined, Sheets askew. You don't love me, I don't love you. Blood on the walls, Tears down our cheeks. I cannot respond, I cannot breathe. It's time to take a dance, Of our Morbid Romance."
~Anonymous

I woke up after quite a refreshing sleep, and looked around the room, my eyes scanning it, keen on finding Sylvia.

When I didn’t see her at the table, where I last left her, I started to worry.

As I attempted to sit up, I found something holding my arm down.

Looking down, I smirked. So much for staying awake and keeping watch. Sylvia was sitting on the floor, her head resting on my arm.

Her breathing was light as she slept, completely out of it.

I smirked and rolled my eyes, moving her so that I could get up. Sylvia jolted and her eyes fluttered open. Yawning, she looked at me and smiled, before realization crossed her face and she jumped to her feet.

“I’m so sorry, Jonathan! I meant to stay awake, I really did, I guess I just… I’m really sorry…” Sylvia trailed off, looking guiltily down at the floor.

I smirked, standing up and ruffling her hair.

“It’s no big deal, but, I’m surprised that Ariel didn’t try to kill you while both of us were sleeping.” I said, generally surprised.

Sylvia nodded, frowning in thought as I looked around the apartment.

Walking into the kitchen, I took to hunting out something to eat. There wasn’t much, I had eaten what little food was left in my apartment over the last three days.

Now, there wasn’t much left but half a box of cereal.

That’s breakfast, right? A common, lame, breakfast, but, it’s all I’ve got.

Deciding it was, I pulled down the box and grabbed two bowls. Sylvia walked into the room behind me and stood, watching me as I walked over to the fridge and reached into it, before groaning at my stupidity.

“What’s wrong?” Sylvia questioned, and I smacked a hand painfully to my forehead.

“I don’t have any milk, and even if I did, it would have gone bad by now anyways.” I grumbled, and Sylvia giggled from behind me.

I turned to look at her and raised an unimpressed eyebrow.

“It’s not funny… now we can’t have cereal and there’s nothing else to eat.” I explained, and Sylvia rolled her eyes, crossing her arms over her chest.

“You know, we could always eat the cereal without the milk.” Sylvia suggested, walking over to stand beside me.

She reached a delicate hand into one of the bowls of cereal and grabbed a few pieces of cereal, before raising them to her lips and eating them. She smiled over at me while crunching on the cereal pieces.

“I would think it tastes better with milk.” I told her, and she nodded her head quickly, still smiling and munching cereal.

“Oh, it does. It tastes way better with milk, but, because of someone, there’s no milk in this house.” Sylvia said, crossing her arms again and raising an eyebrow pointedly at me.

I frowned.

“It’s not my fault! It would have been bad by now, anyways! We should go to the store and get some food… I still have my wallet on me.” I told her, and Sylvia nodded, running a hand through her hair.

“Okay, let’s go to the store. Hopefully we won’t run into Ariel in the frozen food section.” Sylvia laughed, though it was somewhat half-heartedly as we both knew there was a chance that it could happen.

“You know… I never got a chance to change out of my pajamas…” Sylvia mused, looking down at her attire.

She was wearing a pair of black pajamas with silver trims on them, and she was wearing black slippers with silver spots on them.

I chuckled lightly.

“You ran from your house to find Ariel, in your pajamas?” I laughed, and Sylvia glared at me, and annoyed look in her hazel eyes that so much resembled her mother’s.

I frowned slightly at this, but, shook my head.

It was so hard to protect this girl who looked exactly like the woman I loved and lost. If I let Sylvia die, like I let Kathryn and June die... I don’t know what I would do. I just couldn’t let them all die.

“I had to run; I woke up to see my friend hanging from the ceiling above me… dead!” Sylvia exclaimed, pulling me from my musings.

“Alright, I understand. Well, you shouldn’t go to the store in your pajamas; you’ll have to wear something of mine.” I told her, turning and walking towards my bedroom.

I heard an annoyed sound come from Sylvia, and I smirked.

“Oh great, I get to wear man clothes… joy.”

About five minutes later, I was standing in front of a very annoyed looking fifteen year old girl, whose annoyance was unfortunately directed at me.

“There, you look fine, honestly, Sylvia.” I mumbled, sighing as I ran a hand down my face.

The teenager scowled at me, her arms crossed over a dark brown button up shirt.

Her bottom half was covered by a pair of black trousers, and instead of the slippers that she had been wearing, she was now wearing a pair of black converse shoes.

She rolled her eyes and pulled her hair back into a ponytail with an elastic band that she had taken from my desk.

“I look like… like… you.” Sylvia said, and wrinkled her nose.

Frowning at that statement, I crossed my arms over my own black button up shirt, and rolled my eyes at her. Teenagers; I have no idea how anyone stands them.

“Thanks. I’m glad you like my style so much.” I told her sarcastically, and Sylvia placed her hands on her hips.

“Well, it works with you, but, I’m not one for the psychiatrist look.” Sylvia replied, and I sighed, pinching the bridge of my nose in frustration before adjusting my glasses.

I looked over at Sylvia, who was tugging at the ends of her sleeves.

“We’d better get going; we need some food for today.” I said, grabbing my coat and tossing a similar one to Sylvia, who nodded before following me as I turned on my heel, and walked outside, locking the apartment behind us.

I looked down the hall both ways, carefully making sure that we weren’t spotted. The last thing we needed were the police on our tails.

I walked outside with Sylvia close behind me, and scanned the parking lot for anyone that could be considered a threat.

“Gosh, it’s cold out here.” Sylvia muttered, rubbing her arms. I had to agree; even I was starting to get quite chilling.

I could see both mine and Sylvia’s breath coming out in a slight fog.

“Well, we’re going to have to walk a couple blocks…” I trailed off, smirking, as Sylvia groaned at my side.

“Well, come on then, let’s get going.” Sylvia grumbled, and began walking ahead of me.

I was quick to catch up to her, and tucked my hands inside my pockets, but, not before pulling the collar of my coat up to shield my face from the cold.

Sylvia moved closer to me and reached up to link her arm with mine.

I glanced down at her, giving her a confused look, but, I noticed her attention was not on me. I looked where she was looking, and saw the reason for the closeness between the two of us.

There was a group of men standing by the side of the building, across the small street. They were eying Sylvia, which was obviously making her uncomfortable and causing her to seek protection.

Seeing as I was the only person around, she had linked her arm with mine.

Sylvia let out a small, nervous sound as who appeared to be the leader of the small group, grinned at her before pushing himself away from the wall and crossing the street towards us, the others following quickly.

“Hey, pretty little lady…” One of them called, wolf whistling after and eying Sylvia in ways that I did not approve of.

Sylvia let out a quiet sound and shuffled closer to me, causing the leader to grin.

“Hey, boss, this little lady’s a bit too young for you, don’t ya think?” The leader asked, looking over at me.

I scowled at him, pulling Sylvia closer to me and glared at the gang, who just smirked at me.

“I assure you, we’re not together if that’s what you’re applying.” I snapped coolly, and the men chuckled and one of cat called in Sylvia’s distraction, causing her to sneer at the group.

“Then why are you hanging out with a little thing like her?” The leader questioned, and I hesitated, before answering quickly.

“She’s my daughter, now I would appreciate it if you left us alone.” I told them, and Sylvia glanced up at me before returning her attention to the men surrounding us.

“’Fraid we can’t do that, boss… as yer little girl looks pretty fine to us, and we want some action, if ya get what I’m sayin’.” The thug responded, and reached out to grab Sylvia by the arm and tug her away from me.

“Hey, let her go!” I growled at them, moving to grab Sylvia back from the gang, but, one of them threw a well aimed punch at my face, before he kicked me, forcing me back into the wall.

“Don’t you dare touch him like that!”

This time I was actually kind of happy to hear Ariel’s voice as I saw the familiar insane woman appear out of the shadows and attack the men.

The man holding Sylvia dropped her, and Sylvia was quick to bolt over to my side.

I grabbed her and was quick to my feet, pulling her away from Ariel and the gang members.

“Who was that who helped us? I didn’t see who it was.” Sylvia questioned, looking up at me as I dragged her down the street.

“It was Ariel, the only reason she got involved in this was because that man attempted to attack me.” I explained, and Sylvia looked scared as she looked over her shoulder at Ariel, who seemed to be releasing her anger on the gang members.

I can’t help but feel sorry for those men. They really don’t stand a chance.

I looked down at Sylvia and sighed as we raced away from Ariel.

“...let’s continue quickly, shall we? Get as much distance as we can in between us and Ariel. Oh, and we still have to go shopping.”