Utena, Revolutionary Girl Fan Fiction ❯ Alongside the Geese ❯ Alongside the Geese: Part 3 ( Chapter 3 )

Author's Notes: Hi all. Thanks a bunch to those who've reviewed AtG so far. You make me happy ^-^ For those who haven't reviewed-how dare you! Lol, just kidding-or am I?

 

Some of you were disappointed with the length of chapter 2, sorry. I would imagine that some of you found it a little disorienting to go from a 2700 some odd word count down to 500 some odd words. I know that would really bug me as a reader but it felt like the right place to end it, although I did have reservations about posting such a short chapter, hopefully the quality of my writing will over power the desire for quantity. Enjoy-that's an order!

 

Alongside the Geese: Part 3

 

Anthy woke up late. Her alarm hadn't gone off. When she investigated the small machine, she found that the digital numbers seemed to read oddly and she couldn't make sense of them. There was no time to worry about that however. There were things that needed to be done.

 

Getting out of bed this morning meant her tripping over a clutter of mess that Chu Chu must have made sometime in the night after she'd gone to sleep. She received no cheery greeting from the creature and saw neither hide nor hair of him within the rest of her apartment. He'd probably taken off again, she assumed.

 

There were times when he would arbitrarily leave her side. Anyone's guess was as good as hers in regards to where and why he went, but he usually returned to her within a few days. Although sometimes a couple weeks would pass before he resurfaced, and it would take longer still if she decided to move in his absence. In cases such as that, he would show up in a huff once she was settled. She found it comical and would sometimes move simply to engage him in a game of chase.

 

She spared a minute or two to tidy the mess and search for something in her cupboard that was breakfast worthy. She read the contents of an empty cereal box as she munched on some toast. Then set out a fair bit of cat food anticipating that by the day's evening she wouldn't want to play around with kibble and water bowls.

 

She went on to grab her purse and sling it over her shoulder then gather the garbage and leave the apartment.

 

Her floor's garbage shoot appeared to be malfunctioning. Upon closer inspection she discovered there was an obstruction in the shoot but was uncertain of exactly where it was.

 

There was a man down the hall who was groggily making his way over to where Anthy stood. “Is it busted again?” he asked, the coffee on his breath breaching her nostrils.

 

She looked back to the shoot and then to him. “No. I believe everything is fine now.” She pulled back the door and dropped her trash bag in. “Excuse me.”

 

When she made it to the elevator, its heavy doors revealed a baffled young woman whom Anthy had met in passing once or twice before.

 

“Oh, my…” Anthy uttered with an innocent expression that she'd mastered long ago.

 

“What happened,” Anthy pressed, while knowing full well what had happened to the woman opposite her.

 

“I don't know. . .” Her voice was dry; she looked absolutely shaken.

 

Anthy made way for the woman to step out.

 

“The shoot was clogged again,” Anthy began as the woman passed her. “There'll be trouble for the perpetrator if this continues, I imagine.”

 

The woman turned and froze. Her eyes stayed on Anthy until the doors closed. It was quite obvious that somewhere in that cluttered head of hers, warning bells were sounding.

 

For the wee bit of time she was outside, the sun shone brightly in the sky and she was tempted to buy a pair of sunglasses.

 

Grey cloud loomed to the West and she wondered if they would pass by quickly without incident or they would drench the land. The later proved to be true.

 

Thunder yelled over the city as it chased after the lightning that struck with ferocity. Rain pelted the ground soaking everything. The noise was rhythmic and overpowering.

 

Anthy had only just recently been released from the piano. She stopped when she hit the sidewalk in front of the building she'd vacated, and observed her environment. Several coworkers scurried passed her, desperate for the bus stop; a combination of newspapers and umbrellas were implemented to try and keep them dry but it was a wasted effort when it rained like this. They wound up soaked in mere moments.

 

The air had chilled significantly since she was last out. An earthen scent wafted up from the ground that Anthy quite liked.

 

Someone pushed by, turning her around and nearly toppling her over. She felt the weight of her purse shift, her strap broke. She began fiddling with it to correct the problem.

 

Thunder crackled close by.

 

She caught a faint, but strange smell wafting from somewhere not far from her and when she looked up, her purse nearly fell out of her grasp.

 

Standing at in the building's threshold, as if she herself had also just gotten off work stood Utena.

 

TBC