• Chapter Eleven

    Otaku

    For about a minute, I was transparent. Insubstantial. When I looked down at my legs or my hands, I could see the blackness behind them, too. I could just make out the outlines of my features and my shape, with little color, faded and washed out, around the edges. I was weightless, and I felt like I was floating. I looked around me. ‘L!!’ I though frantically, ‘and Hattie!! Where are they?!’ My head whipped around me. Then, I could see them.

    Hattie stood to my left, also transparent like me, but her eyes were closed, and her chest rose and fell silently. Was she sleeping? What was going on? To my right, I could see L. He was also standing transparent and substantial, his colors washed out. His eyes were closed. I blinked in shock, not even giving a thought to the Misa and Light that I couldn’t see at all. Hesitantly, cautiously, I reached a hand out towards L. We were close enough to touch, less than an arms length away. But, where I expected solid, warm, flesh underneath my hand, my fingers passed easily through his arm. I turned, scared, towards Hattie. This time, I didn’t hesitate, quickly reaching for her shoulder. But, just as I expected (but hoped against), my fingers ran straight through her. Fear shook me. I raised both of my hands to my face. Slowly, carefully, I pressed my fingers together, then let out a gasp, a sob, a collection of both, as my fingers slipped between themselves.

    Those words were evil!!! That book was evil! That’s why we’re in this situation!!! I can’t touch anything!!

    “Kaitlyn,” My head snapped up at the sound of my original name. It was eL’s voice! I turned to her, only to find her still asleep. A sob escaped my throat, fear expressing itself through my tears.

    “Kaitlyn, calm down, breath,” Hattie’s voice again, in my head. I would have begun to sob into my hands, but I knew if I did, my hands would go right through my face, so I cried silently. I noticed I didn’t make any sound why I cried, or breathed. I was scared.

    “Calm down, we’re transporting through worlds,”

    “What?!” I answered Hattie’s voice in my mind.

    “When we wake up, we won’t be in London anymore. In fact, we won’t even be in our world. I can just feel it. Go back to sleep, Otaku,” My familiar nickname calmed me a little, but I was still skeptical. I-I was going insane!!

    “NO!!” I opened my mouth and screamed, but no sound came out. Nothing. I reached for my throat, but my hands were still insubstantial. Frantically, I spun around in place. There was complete blackness beneath me and above me and all over; I could see nothing at all. It was as if we didn’t exist. I felt so alone, so afraid.

    “What about L?!” I cried in my head hysterically to Hattie. A different voice answered me, so similar to eL’s, yet older. “L doesn’t have the magical properties that you and I have to be able to stay semi-awake during this process. He was born human. You and I were not,” “I AM going insane!!! No!!!” I tried to press my hands against my ears, as though that would help against the voice (voices?! Was it ONLY Hattie?!) in my head. It was then, that I felt faint. Like when I hyperventilated, and passed out. My head was fuzzy, images swam before my eyes. I let out a final gasp of fear as I slipped into unconsciousness.