The Nightmare Sonata
Aria had to say, at least to herself, that things frankly could not be going any worse. Depression heaped upon unhappiness of circumstance and attempted suicide notwithstanding, the bastards she’d tried to deceive into doing it couldn’t even do the job right. Apparently for shits and giggles, they thought it had been more hilarious than not, to stab her repeatedly in the abdomen, and then break her damn legs so that she couldn’t run for help.
“Yeah, awesome job, guys!” she called out loud. “Perfect fucking job. You find the one homicide victim who wouldn’t have run, and manage to fuck it up. Way to fucking go, you ass hats. Way. To. Fucking. Go.”
She had no qualms with saying this out loud. Or shrieking it for that matter. She was alone, in a darkened hospital room, paralysed with pain – or so it seemed to her – and wishing she had something sharp to cut her wrists with. She’d been wishing it for the past three weeks. She was tired and in pain. Her sleep had been broken continually by nightmares.
She remembered for the past few weeks that she barely remembered the nightmares at first, but she was becoming more aware of them as time went on. In the past week they had become worse, seeming so eerily real even when she couldn’t remember what they had been of. Together with how her life was spiralling down the drain hole, she’d considered offing herself a few times already.
Not that she would have done it of course. If she’d had that kind of strength she wouldn’t have tricked the frickin Scooby Gang to do her in instead. She hit the bed with her fist, trying to let off some of the steam in her head. It wasn’t working. Every strike simply caused her middle to jolt with an additional electric shock of agony, and she quickly stopped.
“Where are those fucking pain meds?” she groaned, reaching over to the button to call the nurse. The nurse arrived a few moments later followed by another person. When Aria saw who it was, her heart sank so low in her chest, she was surprised it didn’t brush against her stab wounds. Suppressing the blush in her cheeks easily via her clever use of blood loss, she made a disparaging noise.
“Hey Aria,” Sonata said, tentatively.
Aria sighed disgustedly. “And what do you want?”
“Well duh. To see how you are.” Sonata stood by the bed looking awkward as the nurse gave Aria two pills and a glass of water. The nurse then reminded Aria that the hospital staff had informed Aria’s next of kin, a certain Adagio Dazzle.
“Oh, and the queen bitch sent you instead, did she?” Aria huffed as the nurse departed. “To be honest, I didn’t think you’d be able to get here. Hide in the baggage car on the train?”
Sonata regarded her for a moment. “Why do you do that?”
“Do what?” Aria snapped.
“Treat me like dirt,” Sonata said, in a much calmer voice than Aria had ever heard her use. “Call me names. Kick me when I’m down. I mean literally, kick me when I’m down. On the ground. Where you pushed me.”
Aria looked up at her. Sonata had her head to one side, looking inquiring and a little hurt. Same ditzy, air-headed look she always had. But her tone was level and calm, almost cold.
“Is that why you’re here?” Aria sneered. “Because of all that? You want closure or something?”
“In a way, yeah,” Sonata said, thoughtfully.
“Well because fuck you, that’s why.” Aria made an impatient noise between her teeth. “You annoyed the ever living shit out of me. You always had done, but until that day when we lost everything, I didn’t truly understand how much I had to put up with being with you twenty-four fucking seven. And you still hung around, trying to get us to have jobs, trying to get us to go to school and all that crap, when we should have been trying to find a way to get our magic back.” She glared at Sonata, who was still looking at her with a slightly sad look on her face. It was as though she were looking at a plate that she’d broken, or a dead animal that she regretted had died.
“I see,” she said levelly.
“Will you just get out, already,” Aria snarled, turning away from her. “And tell that whore Adagio that if I see a single strand of that puffed up haystack she’s proud to call hair, I’m going to fucking gut her.”
“Mm,” Sonata said, nodding thoughtfully with an index finger on her lower lip. “You were stabbed, weren’t you?”
“Shut your hole, you retard.” Aria was getting sick of this. She reached out for the nurse button, intent on having Sonata thrown out. Her arm stopped half way to the button.
“You see, it’s funny you should mentioned gutting someone,” Sonata said conversationally. “I had a few ideas on my way here, but that’s better than what I thought of.”
Aria couldn’t breathe. With streaming eyes, she looked down at the blue hand gripping her bandages. The clutching fingers gave a sudden twist. Aria lurched involuntarily forward as her back spasmed from the pain.
“You see,” Sonata went on, ignoring Aria’s retching coughs and strangled screams, “I‘ve had quite a bit of time to think about things. And do you know what I’ve decided?” She shoved Aria back against the bed, the sheets spread over with a growing red stain as Aria began to choke on the blood surging up her trachea.
Aria bypassed panicking. She felt only agony, the words Sonata was saying barely reaching her. She heard them dimly, as though they were being shouted down a tunnel and her ears were covered with cotton.
“I’ve decided that, on the whole, you don’t actually deserve to live anymore.” Sonata clapped her hands together and rubbed her palms, spreading a great deal of Aria’s blood over her hands and forearms. “Oh but I know how much you like to be different from everyone else, you cowardly little bitch,” she continued in a cheery tone, “not to worry. I’m going to make sure it’s as painful and drawn out as I can. You’ll definitely at least make a local tabloid if your death is excruciating enough.” She gave a small giggle, sucking her bloodied fingers. “Mm-Mm. Tastes like dessert. Just dessert.”
Aria didn’t hear the terrible joke, or see the playful little smile on Sonata’s blood-flecked face. Her eyes rolled up into her head, and everything seemed to fade into darkness.
“Aria?”
Aria came to herself with a start, immediately feeling a sharpness in her abdomen. She reached for it instinctively, expecting to see a blood-soaked mess. But there wasn’t one. It was okay. She looked up, and saw the nurse standing beside her bed, holding the empty glass of water. She looked concerned.
“Are you alright?” asked a person on her other side. Aria jumped at the sound of the voice, and gasped in horror as she saw Sonata leaning over her. Sonata leapt back in alarm as well, clutching her chest and breathing heavily. Aria clutched her middle as the sudden movement elicited a sickening pain from her stitches.
“I think you had a hallucination, dear,” the nurse said, kindly.
“H-Hallucination?” Aria said, weakly.
“Y-Yeah,” Sonata said, tentatively. “You kinda... zoned out for a minute there...”
Both nurse and Sonata gazed at her cautiously, as though expecting her to lash out at them. Aria tried to force herself to settle down. She sat back on her bed, and made an effort to slow her breathing.
“Yeah,” she said, forcing her tone back to calmness. “Yeah, it was... I had a bit of...” She cleared her throat to avoid saying what she’d seen, unable to look at Sonata.
“Was it something scary?” Sonata asked. Aria didn’t answer. “I hope it wasn’t.”
“It was nothing,” Aria said, repressively.
“I should probably change your medication if it’s giving you hallucinations,” the nurse said speculatively. “We can’t have you flailing around in your condition.”
The nurse reached down and gently pushed Aria back into bed. Aria let herself be settled in, not wanting them to inquire too much into her hallucination, or dream, or whatever it had been. She registered just a little bit of concern when she noticed Sonata passing the nurse the end of a black strap. Before Aria could make any meaningful reaction, the nurse had locked the strap into place over her chest, pinning her to the bed.
“Don’t want you flailing around now,” she said pleasantly.
“Nope,” Sonata agreed. “That wouldn’t be good now, would it?” Aria watched with mounting horror as Sonata took the end of another strap from the nurse. Casually as you please, she locked it into place over her legs, and then gave it a tug. The strap pressed down hard onto Aria’s broken legs, prompting a sickening crack to sound through the small room, although it was drowned out for the most part by Aria’s first scream.
“You need to apply more pressure to stop the bleeding,” the nurse commented. “Oh, wait. That’s only external bleeding.”
“What about internal?” Sonata asked, giving the strap another sharp tug and dragging another cry of agony from Aria.
“I believe that it makes it worse,” the nurse replied, nodding slowly. “I might have to get a second opinion on that.”
“It sounds right to me,” Sonata said cheerfully. “Oh, I have an idea,” she began, patting Aria’s left leg sharply. “Perhaps we should ask Aria herself. Being the experience-ee, she would probably know.”
Aria desperately wished to be able to pass out, but this pain was not enough to do anything more than fill her with excruciating convulsions and throat-tearing screams. Could no one hear them? Was there no one who could hear her screams? Why was no one coming?
“It’s not a dream,” Sonata whispered with a small giggle. Aria opened her streaming eyes to find Sonata hovering over her. “I think you already guessed that, though. Or maybe it is a dream. It is kinda creepy how no one’s coming to help you, isn’t it? Oh sorry, is that you were thinking?”
Aria stared at her in horror, more terrified than she’d been in her life, of the pleasant, vacant little smile on Sonata’s face, of the innocent looking magenta eyes looking calmly into her own.
“I’m sorry!” Aria moaned, many octaves higher than her voice had ever been. “I’m sorry! I-I was wrong to treat you—“
“Ah ah,” Sonata said quietly, pressing a finger to Aria’s lips. “Now, now, let’s have none of that. Yet.” Fast as lightning, Sonata’s small hand wrapped itself tightly around Aria’s throat. Aria choked and gagged, her own hands pinned to her sides by the strap.
“That’s not a proper medical procedure,” the nurse sang.
“Bulging eyes and face of red,” Sonata sang too, her grip tightening. “Mouth is drooling ‘til you’re dead. Angry bitch is so scared, of little Sonata with teeth all bared. She’ll kill ya fast, she’ll kill ya slow. But when you wake up, true pain you’ll know!”
Aria woke up. She wished that she hadn’t. The cold wind picked up against her numb face and stimulated the last remaining nerve endings still active.
“A-Aria...?” whimpered the person next to her.
“S-Shut up, S-Sonata...”
“But I’m cold.”
“I said shut up. It’s winter, it’s going to be cold.”
“We w-wouldn’t be out here if... if we had gotten jobs like... l-like I said...”
Aria looked around irritably at the other girl. She cowered away, her eye blackened and her lip sporting an old cut. Aria was too stiff and cold to add to these injuries, as much as Sonata deserved it for being such a pathetic little whore.
“Adagio’s gone... and I’m hungry.”
“One more word—“
“So very hungry.”
Aria looked around, and noticed for the first time how pale Sonata was; how frosted over. Not only her hair and skin, but also her eyes. Blank and staring, drained of their colour. Drained of all colour, expect for the red, soaking side of her head.
Aria leapt back, staggering to her feet as Sonata stood up, her arms hanging loose, her hair and mouth leaking blood.
“Don’t you remember, Aria?” Sonata asked with a little smile. Aria backed up fast. “We were all so hungry. I got us food, and how did you say thanks?” Sonata seemed to leave the question hanging, her bloodied ponytail blowing slightly in the breeze whilst everything else about her remained perfectly still.
Aria was at the mouth of the alleyway. She could slip away, run, get away from this frozen horror of her sister. Sonata watched her blankly all the while she was backing away.
“I remember how you thanked me for it,” she giggled, her voice filled with deadly sweetness. With a sudden burst of movement, she leapt forward. Before Aria could even cry out, Sonata’s dead, blood-drenched face was an inch from her own. Frozen slender fingers held up to Aria’s middle, Sonata grinned widely, her dead eyes squinting with vicious delight.
Aria fell back as the horror figure shoved her backwards. She hit the ground hard, her backside aching, dazing her.
HOOOOOONK!
Blinded by a sudden light, Aria screamed.
Aria collapsed against the wall of the hospital, pressing hard against its solidity. In a strange way, it provided a small sense of comfort, a measure of surety that she was there, and upon looking around, that she was alone. The hall was deathly, and unnaturely quiet. No machines hummed, no electricity buzzed above in the lights, no footsteps making their way down the laminate wood floor. Aria pressed herself ever harder into the shadows of the wall, looking left and right in case Sonata should appear there. She did not. Once she had begun looking though it was hard to make herself stop. She was sure the moment she looked away, something would happen, something would appear. Sonata would materialise out of the semi-darkness and kill her again.
“That would be too easy,” she muttered to herself fearfully.
Or, did she in fact say those words? She thought that she did. But why would she say that? The words made no sense. She lowered her head.
“Yes they do. You just can’t see it yet,” she said with a small laugh.
Laugh? Why was she laughing? What was going on?
“Don’t you understand?” she said, a little louder. Aria’s heart rate shot upwards. She stared around.
“Where are you?” she asked, and then answered herself. “I’m here with you. I was always here with you.”
“Stop it!” Aria screamed down the empty hall. “Stop what? Don’t you want to spend time with your sister?”
“Please! I’m sorry for what I did! Honestly. I was just scared, I didn’t know what to—“ Aria felt herself cut off. “I was scared too,” she murmured to herself. “So very scared. Scared of talking. Scared of acting. But now I’m going to talk all I like. And you’re going to listen to me.”
“You’re going to listen very, very hard.”
Aria leapt back. She hadn’t been pressed against a door, she was sure of it. But now there was a door there. Behind her, through the glass, Sonata stood, hands clasped loosely behind her, her little smile plastered across her face.
“What do you want from me?” Aria sobbed, backing away.
“What a silly question to ask,” Sonata said, walking through the glass door as though it wasn’t there. Aria spun around to run down the corridor, but Sonata was there too, her head cocked questioningly to one side. “You know what I want from you.”
“I don’t!” Aria screamed, turning around the other way, but Sonata was there as well.
“Well I have all the time in the world for you to figure it out,” Sonata said pleasantly, giggling a little.
Aria shoved her aside, running down the hallway.
“Where are you going?” Sonata called after her. “Don’t you remember? You broke your legs.”
Aria took one last step, and then felt excruciating pain shoot down both legs. She fell hard against the floor, her entire body wracked with agony. Her head ricocheted off the floor and her vision blurred for a second. When it cleared, she looked behind her, her legs crippled and splayed awkwardly, a trail of blood streaking the floor where she’d slid. Her stitches. She had stitches! And they were... oh god!
“N-No... I *gasp*,” Aria clutched her middle convulsively, feeling the sinews of her stitches fray and snap. Sonata advanced at a leisurely pace, her eyes never leaving Aria’s face.
Aria tried to push herself up, but her entire body spasmed and she vomited up blood. She felt something push against her shoulder to turn her onto her back, and then the same something press down hard on her exposed throat. Sonata’s boot pressed down, choking her.
“All the time,” Sonata whispered, “in the world.”
Aria fought the nurse’s grip tooth and nail. The nurse seemed about to call for help, when Aria ceased moving. She stared at the nurse in horror for a moment, but then took her hands off of the nurse’s arm.
“Are you alright?” the nurse asked, shocked.
“I... I d-don’t...”
“I think you might have reacted badly to your medicine, dear,” the nurse explained.
“No! No, that’s what you said last time!”
“Last ti—“
“Get away from me!” Aria lurched back, but a sickening twist in her gut caused her to grimace. “Sonata! Where is she? Keep her away!”
“Sonata?” the nurse asked. “You mean your visitor? She’s outside the door.” The nurse gestured to the doorway.
Aria felt the colour drain from her face. “Keep her away!”
“Please don’t scream,” the nurse urged. “Just calm down. You’re in a hospital. You can’t flail around like this with your injuries.”
“B-But...!”
“You just had a hallucination. I know they can be scary, but it wasn’t real. None of it was real. Just calm down, and you’ll see nothing is trying to hurt you.”
Aria stared, shaking and trembling at the nurse. With fumbling fingers she reached down beside the bed, feeling for the straps. There were none. She looked at the nurse long and hard. The woman gazed at her steadily, a slight frown creasing her eyebrows. There was nothing of the nightmarish experience around her that Aria could see. Sunlight filtered through the open window, a gentle breeze ruffling the curtains. The nurse seemed to be waiting for her to make the first move.
By and by, Aria’s heart rate decreased. She forced her muscles to un-tense, and her breathing to lower. Nightmares... just nightmares.
“If you don’t want to see your visitor, I can tell them that you don’t want to see them.”
“Visitor?”
“Yes,” the nurse said kindly. “A girl with red and yellow hair and a black jacket.”
Aria blinked, surprised. Sunset Shimmer? It didn’t sound like Adagio by that description.
“F-Fine,” Aria stammered. She cleared her throat. “I’ll see them.”
The nurse nodded, still looking a little worried. The nurse made no motions, but Sunset peered through the glass directly at Aria with a questioning look on her face. Aria gave a small gesture for her to enter.
Sunset Shimmer stepped cautiously inside, her face tight with tension. Behind her, looking timid, stepped Sonata. They approached the bed, Aria not able to look at them. Every time she saw Sonata out of the corner of her eye, she saw the little smile, the staring magenta eyes.
“Hey, Aria,” Sunset said, slowly. Aria didn’t respond.
“Are you okay?” Sonata asked, tentatively.
“I’m fine!” Aria snapped, trying to cover her fear.
“O-kay,” Sunset said slowly. “You seem... well, it’s good that you’re doing okay then.”
“I’ll be back in a moment,” the nurse said. “I’ll put in a report about your medicine.” She left the room.
“So, um... Adagio says hi.” Sunset pursed her lips. “She also um... well, she wants to know how this happened.”
“It’s none of her damn business,” Aria huffed, folding her arms. “Or yours.”
Sunset looked momentarily offended. “Sorry, I suppose it is your business.”
Sonata moved diffidently around to the other side of the bed, looking worried.
“Don’t look at me like that!” Aria snarled. Sonata backed up.
“Wow,” Sunset frowned. “What’s gotten into you?”
“I’m in pain!” Aria barked at her. “Give me a fucking break.”
“Fine, fine,” Sunset said, hands raised defensively. “Sorry. Just came to see how you were.”
“We were worried about you,” Sonata said, quietly.
“You didn’t need to,” Aria said in a softened tone, still not looking at Sonata.
“Adagio said to say sorry too,” Sunset explained, looking apologetic. “She couldn’t make it herself.”
Aria scoffed. “So she sent you, huh?”
“Well, yeah. She doesn’t know too many people from our school, so... choices were kinda limited.”
“I wanted to see you again...” Sonata intoned. It surprised Aria to realise how painful it was to hear Sonata say that.
“I’m sorry,” Aria mumbled. “For what I did. For everything I did.”
Sunset looked surprised by the apology. “Oh. Um, okay. It’s fine.”
“I don’t hold anything against you either,” Sonata said, smiling. “You’ve been punished enough.”
“So,” Aria said, almost all of her panic gone. She took a steadying breath and looked up at Sunset. “You two are friends now?”
Sunset looked confused. “Friends?”
“Yeah. You two look like you’re familiar with each other. And why would you come if you weren’t friends with her?”
“Her who?” Sunset asked, looking bewildered.
“Sonata,” Aria said impatiently.
Sunset looked at her with something like shock. The colour noticeably drained from her face. “What are you talking about?” she asked, breathlessly. “Sonata... she’s—“
Aria scowled at her. “What? She’s what?”
Sunset looked as though she was suddenly struck dumb. She hesitated so long that Aria started scowling again. “She’s... I thought you knew... she’s dead...” Sunset said, looking horrified.
Of all the things Sunset could have said, this was perhaps the one she least expected to hear. The thing was utterly ludicrous. Sonata was standing by her bed, right he—
Aria’s breath caught in her throat. Sonata stood with her hands clasped loosely in front of her, staring with blank, frosted eyes directly at her. Her expression was blank, unfathomable.
“She... well, she jumped off my... off a building, about two months ago,” Sunset explained, her voice breaking. “The police ruled it a suicide.” She was looking at the floor, not noticing Aria’s draining colour, or the terror-stricken look on her face. “I’m sorry. I thought that you knew.”
“I-I... I-I-I...” Aria choked. Sonata’s head leaked fresh red blood over her face, streams of it running over her foggy eyes and out of her nose and mouth. Sonata leaned forward, and Aria leaned away from her.
“It’s not beating anymore,” Sonata said softly. She seized Aria’s hand and pressed it to her own chest. No heart beat beneath the cold skin and ribs. “I was a waste of space.”
“N-No!” Aria shrieked, breaking Sunset’s preoccupation. “No, get away!” She pushed herself back and fell out of bed.
“Aria!” Sunset cried, leaping forward.
“Stay the fuck back!” Aria shouted. “You’re with her! You brought her here!” she cried, tears pouring down her face. Sonata remained where she’d been, staring down at her.
“You were right all along,” she said, sadly. “I wasn’t strong enough. I couldn’t survive without you. You were right.”
“Shut up!” Aria sobbed. “Just stop! Please, I’m sorry! How many times do I have to say it?”
“I don’t understand,” Sonata said. She turned her head slightly, eliciting a loud, revolting snapping sounds from her broken neck bones. “Why are you sorry? You were right. I was nothing.”
Aria backed up across the floor, too terrified to notice the thick trail of blood she was leaving behind.
“Aria stop! You’re bleeding everywhere!” Sunset rushed forward, turning her head to call for a nurse.
Panic throttling her senses, Aria lashed out at the sudden movement. Seizing a heavy something nearby, she swung out wildly. A sickening crack broke the relative silence of the room, and Sunset Shimmer collapsed limply to the floor.
“You seem troubled,” Sonata said, concerned. She took a step forward. “Let me help you.”
“Stay back!” Aria shrieked. “Stay away from me!” She pulled herself up awkwardly on the open window sill, clutching at it as she tried to pull herself away from the horror walking steadily towards her.
“She was only trying to help you,” Sonata commented, stepping over Sunset’s unmoving body. “Why don’t you want people to help you, Aria?”
Aria’s fingers throbbed from the pain of clutching the metal sill. Her middle was going numb from blood loss and her mind was a whirl of fear and agony. The wind outside was cool and crisp. Aria looked out of the window, seeing a landscape of white sky and grey ground. The sight was utterly depressing, dank, and without hope.
“I wanted to help you, Aria,” Sonata murmured. Aria spun back around, pressing herself even further against the open window. “I can still help you.”
“What do you want from me?” Aria whimpered. “Why are you doing this?”
“I want to help you, silly,” Sonata said pleasantly. She remained still, three or four feet back, a little smile playing at her bleached white mouth, her frosted magenta eyes fixed sightlessly upon her.
Aria weighed her options. There was little time. Her body was numbing, her grip on the window slipping. Darkness was stealing upon her as Sonata put out her arms as though to hold her in a loving embrace. Aria made her decision as clouds gathered around her mind, and fell, gently, into her sister’s arms.
“That’s quite an injury you have there,” the first cop commented, indicating the bandage on her head with his pen.
“I’ve had it looked at,” Sunset said delicately. Her head was killing her. “The doctor’s said it just knocked me out. Nothing else.”
“So you don’t know exactly what happened?”
“I...” Sunset paused.
The outside was frosty, the wind low but still enough to sting the cheeks and nose. It was somewhat soothing on her throbbing head, but the flashing lights of the police car behind her were really bugging her. It reflected against the lightly coloured walls of the hospital front, like blue and red Christmas decorations.
She looked to her right, at the white sheet on the floor. It couldn’t quite mask the dark stain splattered across the tarmac, nor the form of the broken body beneath it.
“I just... don’t understand it...” Sunset muttered. “She could see something that wasn’t there.”
The first officer flipped through his notes. “Indeed,” he said, quickly rereading something. “The staff filed a report about a possible fault in her medication when she was first admitted a few days ago. They changed it a few times but nothing seemed to help. Also admittance records show that she may have been having minor delusions before being admitted to the hospital.”
“I just wish that I could have stopped her,” Sunset said, her voice trembling. “No one deserves to die like that.”
“Don’t go beating yourself up about it,” the second officer said kindly.
“Although until the scene is properly evaluated, we’re not ruling out homicide,” the first said, seriously.
Sunset looked up at the officer in horror. “You think I did this?” she asked, aghast.
“We’re not saying anything like that,” the first officer said, turning away. “Just preparing you.”
“Don’t pay attention to him,” the second officer chuckled, waving an airy hand. “We got the whole thing on camera. Once the recording is properly indexed, you’ll be cleared of suspicion.”
“Judging by what information we have on you,” the first officer began, tapping at a laptop inside his patrol car, “this isn’t the first time this has happened to you. Incident out west a couple of weeks back.”
Sunset shivered. “Y-Yeah. Actually, it was...” she swallowed, trying to fight down a queasiness. “It was her sister, actually. She’d been living above my apartment building and... well...”
“She took the plunge,” the first officer finished, gravely quiet. He shook his head. “Well, if we need anything more from you, we’ll be in touch. I’m sorry for your loss.”
“Thank you.” She looked over at Aria’s body again. The police had finished their assessment of the scene here. Hospital staff lifted the sheet, crowding around as they lifted the broken body onto a stretcher. Sunset knew that for as long as she lived, she would never lose that image in her mind. “It’s just... so hard to believe. What could haunt someone to do something like this?”
