7.

10 minutes later and we were situated in Teenyma's apartment. I was seated on a couch in the living room, flipping through the pages of a fashion magazine that purely featured Teenyma in different outfits, accessories, hairstyles, and poses. There was one where she was dressed as a school girl, another One where she was dressed in traditional Japanese attire. There was Even a whole section dedicated to her trying out different types of kimonos. And although she looked good in every single outfit she wore, most of my favorites if not all came from the kimono section.

"All, right, breakfast, lunch, and dinner are served." Teenyma suddenly emerged from the kitchen carrying a large tray of food. She had on an apron tied around her waist and a large chef's hat on the top of her head. She rounded the corner in front of me then came to sit on the couch beside me, setting the tray down between us.

The smell of the food was intoxicating. The sight of it was mesmerizing. But before immediately digging into the food however, I made sure to pay her a compliment.

"Hey, you look really good in these." I said, lifting up the magazine and smiling.

"You really think so?" she replied, already munching on a sausage She had stabbed with her fork.

"Yeah, totally." I said, opening back up the magazine to look at specific pages. "I mean most of these are clothes I haven't seen you wear before but nevertheless, you still look really good in them. I'm sure these are selling like hotcakes. Your employers must be glad they hired you."

"I mean I hope they are." Teenyma replied, still munching on the sausage. "It's not like that particular issue you're holding sold a hundred thousand copies or anything."

I almost coughed out the grape juice I was drinking.

"You're kidding." I said.

"Nope." Teenyma replied, eyes closed, smiling, and still chewing her food. "I got a call from my manager this morning and she said that the magazine had sold over a hundred thousand copies and was quickly approaching two hundred. And get this. They only released like a week ago."

"That's incredible!" I said, my heart bubbling with joy. "That is freaking amazing. “I continued, wanting to praise her more than I was doing right then. I thought of what I could do to further show her that I was proud of her, so I dropped everything I was holding, got to my feet, and began applauding.

"This is for you Teenyma." I said, as I began to slow clap for dramatic effect. "A standing ovation from your one and only proud nephew."

Teenyma began smiling and blushing uncontrollably to the point where she almost spilled her oats on herself. Then she laughed and said, "sit down dummy and eat your food before it gets cold."

Flashing her a smile, I did exactly as she asked. And after I began eating again, she briefly stopped eating and looked at me.

"Thank you." she said. And the look in her eyes made me wish they were more people around, specifically more people from my family, to help congratulate her on her achievements. To see the successful, young woman she had become. But there was no one else in our lives. It was just the two of us. And a small part of me felt partly responsible for it being that way.

A couple minutes past and we were halfway done with our food as we continue chatting about other stuff. I told her about Haru and school, and she expressed her frustration by claiming that she would have punched someone in the face if she was there. She told me about work and the fashion industry, which somehow ended up with Teenyma promising to ask in a favor for her lead designer and stylist to help make me something. I initially thought she was joking, but she then picked up her phone and video called the lady who I guess was her designer. They asked me for an idea of what I wanted, and my descriptions were like a long coat jacket. Gray, or black. And a massive, wide collar for the jacket. Then the lady on the phone who appeared to be taking notes asked me if a super villain aesthetic was what I was going for, and I was quite shocked at how perfectly she understood what I imagined.

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

My thought was, since Haru and the rest of the world saw me as some kind of super villain, then a super villain is what I become. At least in fashion choice that is.

We continued chatting and soon enough, our conversations inevitably shifted into a territory I had been wanting to avoid the entire night.

"So how are you feeling?" Teenyma asked, drastically shifting our conversation into a more serious one. She had both her legs folded and tucked under her on the couch, and she had an arm resting across the head of the couch. She had some time removed her apron and chef's hat and was now back to wearing her dark blue hoodie and white shorts. We were somewhat done with our food at this point, so I simply Drew in a deep breath and relaxed into the seat.

"Good." I replied, a hint of melancholy in my tone.

"Are you sure?" Teenyma asked, catching wind of the obvious melancholy in my tone. Her eyes were wide and sad, and the look on her face were those of worry and concern. "What about the medication? Are they helping?"

"Yeah." I said, trying to be as vague as possible so she doesn't start to get unnecessarily even more worried for no reason. But Teenyma being the ever concerned, ever bothered mother figure that she mostly was, saw right through me.

"What do you mean?" she asked softly.

I was hesitant at first. I did not want to say anything. Teenyma was the only person in the entire world who did not see me as some kind of monster. As some kind of freak. However, whenever I did tell her about my problems, whenever I did tell her about the not so normal stuff that sometimes happened to me, I feared eventually all of that would change and she might inevitably start to pull away from me.

"Hey." Teenyma reached out and took my hand in hers, giving it a little squeeze. "I'm here alright?" she said. "I'm not going anywhere. So, take your time and tell me whatever you want to tell me. And if you don't want to say anything right now, that's fine too."

I exhaled in relief.

Honestly, I didn’t even know why I was busy thinking the way I did. Teenyma had been the only one who stuck by me ever since we were kids, ever since the nightmares and whispers first began. If there was ever a chance for her to leave or dissociate herself from me, it should have happened years ago. But it never happened. Because she didn't.

Even after I was convicted and charged with first degree murder, even after I was accused to have slaughtered an entire neighborhood including my own family, Teenyma never once left my side. Not after I was sent to junior prison, not after I was eventually transported to a heavily guarded military asylum. Not even after her adopted parents had tried to separate us by forbidden her from ever visiting me while I was in confinement. Teenyma had always stood by me and would come visit me every month for the past 9 years while I was stuck in that hell hole by myself with no one to talk to.

Remembering all of this, I took in a deep breath, exhaled, then proceeded to tell her everything.

I told her about the nightmare I had that morning, I told her about the whispers and how they were starting to become more frequent again. I also told her how I was somehow starting to make out certain words and phrases from within the whispers where in the past I hadn't been able to. There was only that one time when I thought I could make out clearly what the whispers were saying, but it was shortly before my 10th birthday and it had been so long I wasn't really sure if it even happened or not. And as soon as I was done explaining everything to her, the look of concern and worry on Teenyma's face suddenly became more exaggerated.

"Hay, what's wrong?" I asked, turning my head to face her.

Teenyma was quiet for a moment. She turned away from looking at me to staring at the carpeted floor. There was a glint in her eyes. A shine. A twinkle of sudden recollection or maybe dreadful recognition. Whatever it was, I did not like it. So, wanting to do something about it, I sat up straight and asked.

"Hey, Teenyma, Is something the matter?"

But she did not reply. At least not at first.

Instead, in that moment where she had her eyes fixated on the Living room floor, there was a flash and her memory as she suddenly remembered something The Doctors who were in charge of me at the mental asylum had told her right before she signed the papers and documents for my 1-year release on probation.

After close and critical observation, I was free to go. However, if and when I do eventually start to exhibit certain ticks and behavioral patterns, or, if and when I eventually begin to experience abnormal mental symptoms such as frequent hyper-realistic nightmares, hallucinations, and whispers loud enough that I could start to make out certain words and phrases from within them, then Teenyma, as my self-chosen legal guardian, was to immediately report this and a team of security operatives would be dispatched to sedate and restrain me. Terminating my probation in the process and returning me to the asylum for further confinement. Failure to do this would not only potentially have me permanently placed in confinement, but can also prove to be a catastrophic and colossal mess if I am not immediately apprehended after the first stages of the symptoms starts to develop.

Of course, at the time, I did not know about any of this. Teenyma was the only one of us with knowledge on the conditions of my release and she did not share them with me. I didn't even know I was on probation. I was simply told at the time I was being set free, that new findings in the murder investigation had narrowly proven my innocence. And so, there was no longer any need to keep me. I did not ask any questions; I did not ask for specifics. I was just happy to go home. However, I had no idea the second I start to give off deranged, psychotic, murderous killer vibes, was the second I was going to have my ass drugged and dragged back to the big house. And that Teenyma was the one with the power to decide when that happened.

As you can imagine, this bothered me a little when I eventually found out. But that night, as Teenyma was still stuck staring at her living room floor, I had no idea what was going through her mind. So, in order to at least try and get her to talk, it was my turn to place my hand on hers and give it a little squeeze. And as she suddenly snapped out of whatever deep thought she was in, Teenyma straighten up and turned in my direction.

"Hey," I said to her. "Are you okay?"

She gave me a slow nod of her head in response.

"Are you sure?" I asked. "Is everything alright?"

This time, she responded with a smile as well as a thumbs up. Trying to make it seem as if everything was fine despite the fact her eyes still held a glint of sadness within them. But I knew I wasn't going to get through to her right then. We both were exhausted, we both had quite the long and eventful day and we needed to get some sleep.