Of Body and Soul -P2

Slipping out of my front door I felt the cool morning air nip at the back of my neck. Shivering slightly, i raised the hood on my sweater over my head and began slowly walking towards Sayori's house. The morning air was always a great way to clear my head but right now everything is all muddled together. What was with my body reacting so negatively to Monika even being near me? Why the hell did her even speaking make me want to lash out in the back of my mind? What exactly did Sayori want to talk to me about? Everything is jumping around and i feel like my own head is set ablaze in an instant, my thoughts racing about like a fire with endless fuel wanting to consume and destroy anything it touches, like-

"A-Anon. You're squeezing my hand a little too tight there."

"What...?"

"My hand?" Sayori says, slightly out of breath. Slowly turning my head towards her eyes wide I notice the blush dusting her cheeks along with the overwhelming concern in her gaze. I take a step back and remove our hands catching a glimpse at the slight disappointment in her expression. It was around this point I realized I had been taking very shallow and erratic breaths and attempted to calm myself down. Sayori came a bit closer and put a hand on my forehead, checking my temperature I guess.

"Wh-What the hell?"

"Anon are you sure you don't want to turn back around and head home? You're a little warm right now. I wouldn't want you to get sick because of me!"

"Shhh. Keep your voice down. When did I, I mean we, I mean-"

"Anon calm down, you're scaring me!" Sayori whispered with a tearful look in her eyes. Slamming my mouth shut I realized that in this excited state I was in I wouldn't be able to get anything that made sense out, and it was best i just sat down or something. Sighing again, i chose to sit on the curb with Sayori wordlessly following suit. Sensing her heat next to me helped dull the throbbing in my head and allowed me to focus a bit more on exactly what the hell had just happened to me. Keeping my head straight without looking anywhere but the street light across from us, i spoke slowly and carefully as to not scare Sayori again.

"So. I'm gonna ask a few questions. First of all, when did we end up in front of your house?" I turned my head and looked over to Sayori before noticing exactly what she was wearing. A pair of shorts and what I'm sure is the shirt she uses to sleep with a pair of sneakers. She HAS to be cold out here, there's no way she wouldn't be freezing. Sliding off my sweater i draped it over her shoulders, glaring st her when she looked over at me as though she wanted to give it back.

"T-Thanks Anon... and i saw you walking by here as though you were gonna keep going so I ran over and grabbed your hand to embarrass you. Uh, you kind of just gripped it a little tighter and kept walking pat my house a bit with this really far off look on your face. Uhm... then you turned around back towards my place and that's when you gripped my hand really hard."

"Shit I'm sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you if I did." I mumbled, looking away from Sayori. Damn, how in the world did I just fall out of my consciousness like that? I mean, I know i do the whole 'internal monologue' thing a lot but I still should have noticed her at the very least grabbing my hand.

"It's okay Anon, I'm not hurt or anything if that's what you're worried about. Here." Sayori cut herself off by placing her hand in mine once more, startling me greatly. She gave me a squeeze and out of reflex i squeezed back lightly. Smiling she help up both out hands and gave me a huge embarrassed smile, making me blush as well.

"See? Not hurt at all!"

"Y-yeah, i see. Long as I didn't hurt you or anything. Was I saying anything or looking odd when you grabbed my hand earlier?"

"Well yeah actually, you had this pained look on your face, and you were gritting your teeth like you do when you're really mad about something. That and..." she paused and looked away, hesitant to tell me what else I had done. Nudging her with our still held hands, i urged her to go on. Smiling sadly she continued.

"You said her name. Monika."

Ice ran through my veins.

I suddenly realized just how cold i was without my sweater and i started shivering harshly. Sayori saw this and immediately hugged me and began whispering comforts to me. In a matter of seconds I regained myself though and pushed away from her slowly.

"I can see why you didn't want to say that."

"A-Anon."

"Look, I'm sorry again. Looks like you're the more mature one in this situation, heh. Can't even say a girls name without getting all kinds of fucked up."

"Anon stop it." Sayori said in a stern tone that was completely unfitting her usual nature. I closed my mouth and my eyebrows raised in surprise, causing her to blush and look away before lightly shoving me. Smirking I shoved her back playfully before standing up and holding my hand out to help her up as well. It had only been about fifteen minutes but it felt like hours had passed.

"You're acting really strangely lately Anon. Did something happen between you and Mo- ah, 'you know who' that you aren't telling me?"

"Honestly no. I don't know what the hell is going on with me or why im having this reaction to her but there's just this feeling I get when she's near me. And it's not a good one, its like a sense of dread. Please be careful around her, I know I sound stupid but just keep an eye out. For me?"

"W-well when you put it that way Anon, I cant say no to you. I know she comes off as intimidating sometimes cause of her status in the school but she really is a nice girl! Or at least I think she is...?"

"Besides that point, isn't there something you wanted to-" I cut myself off with a yawn, but before I could apologize Sayori had done the same thing. We laughed sheepishly at each other, wiping the rouge tears that built on our eyes after yawning so loudly.

"Maybe we can talk about it on the way to school Anon. I'm really sleepy all of a sudden."

"Heh, same. Let's call it a night. Or morning in this case." I said, walking Sayori back to her front door. We lingered there for a few seconds before I took her hand in mine again and held it up towards her smiling. She returned the smile and giggled silently to herself, tangling her fingers in mine. Chuckling, I untangled our hands and patted her on the head before moving away with a silent goodbye. Heading home and back into my room, I realized that I never got my sweater back from her. Man, I must have looked like a total loser tonight, all because of 'her'. Either way, I lied back down on my bed, arms behind my head and eyes slowly. Losing consciousness and moving to the world of dreams, I let out a breath I hadn't realized i was holding and relaxed.

Before I fell asleep though, I felt a phantom pain around my neck for some reason.