The Birthday Incident

            “Goodness me, my dear Lullaby, you’re so slow!” Denay extended a hand to Lullaby and pulled her up onto the platform standing in front of a metal door, “Are you sure you’re feeling well?”

            “Ah, Yes… Just a little tired,” She smiled softly at her friend who also had a small grin on her face, “So, what did you want to show me?”

            “Well, your birthday present of course!” Denay chuckled.

            “My birthday? Why Denay, it isn’t for another three months-“ 

            Denay cut her off with a larger grin than before, “Two months, three days, five months, 2 weeks, seven months; no amount of time is ever too far away for it to be your birthday, my dear Lullies!” She swayed back and forth a little on her heels, holding her lollipop cane behind her, “So, would you like to see your gift now? You have to close your eyes though!”  She giggled then went back to her regular sized grin and put a hand on the metal door handle eagerly.

            Lullaby smiled softly at Denay but didn’t really get a chance to give a proper response before Denay opened the door and covered Lullaby's eyes. She entered slowly because she was a little confused why it was in a factory, and an abandoned one at that. But she thought perhaps it was a surprise party, (albeit, she wouldn’t think Denay would let it slip so easily), or maybe it was just a rather large gift…? She couldn’t say, but she couldn’t be prepared for what she saw next. 

            “Surprise!” Denay announced as she pulled her hands away from Lullaby’s eyes.

            Lullaby gasped in silent terror, putting a hand to her mouth as she got a good look at everything standing before her. Tubes, wires and pods holding her friends and her family, in them! They were all being held in a kind of stasis in these glass tubes hooked up to all sorts of wires. Serephone, Orphella, Pyronica… her mind was racing with thoughts. She slowly turned to Denay only to gasp silently and stumble backwards at the large toothed grin that was eating half of Denay’s cheeks as she looked at Lullaby with disturbed and fixated eyes.

            Denay was leaning forward and her face was directly in front of Lullaby’s. With her eyes still locked in a gaze with Lullaby’s, she leaned back and straightened up. She messed with her grip on the lollipop cane as her smile twitched, “Do you like it? Do you… LOVE IT!?” She opened her mouth, fully exposing her two sets of her dagger ridged teeth and cackled, “It’s all’ll for youuuuuuu.” She closed her mouth and smiled at Lullaby and rose a brow when noticing her friend’s sheer terror, but mostly, her confusion, “What? Confused? Well,” She closed her eyes, her neck snapping to the side as it popped loudly, “I suppose my gift does require a bit of explaining, doesn’t it?” She swung her body limply to face the pods bellow them, opening her eyes, “You see, I was quite annoyed, sure am quite annoyed, very quite annoyed, that all of these… These…” She paused tightening her shoulders and she gritted her teeth and sputtered out her next few words, “L-LEECHES! Yes… Y-yes these leeches-“ She held her face, holding onto the railing and her cane, gripping so tightly it almost snapped the railing bar in half, “Got in the way of our friendship becoming purely whole between us,” She looked at Lullaby and tilted her head, grinning, “I know you feel the same way, deep down!”

            Lullaby sputtered but no words came out until she gulped in, “W-what do you mean, ‘Pu-purely w…whole…?’ I-“ she was cut off by another large grin performed by Denay and then Lullaby stepped further back. She had always known her friend had a problem with psychotic episodes and tendencies. But... She had never known what she was truly doing. This time Lullaby could tell that Denay was fully aware of the atrocities she was committing.

            Denay chose to ignore her comment and continued on with her rambling, or rather her ‘explanation’, “Course, as you may have noticed, Zoey is missing,” She lowered her lids and grumbled a bit to herself, “When I was capturing her, something or someone interfered and she escaped…” She trailed off, muttering a little more as she looked to the side and put a hand to her chin. After a minute she snapped out of it and looked at Lullaby, straightened up and lowering her hand as Lullaby began to speak again. But again, she interrupted, “But don’t worry Lullies! My girls are already tracking Zoey down before she can bother us,” She lowered her lids again, “Isn’t this so wonderful-?”

            “No!” Lullaby cried out, tearing up as she put her hand up to her mouth, “This isn’t wonderful! T-this is Terrible Denay! W-what are you doing..!? I-I don’t understand!” She bit her tongue as she clasped her hands around Denay’s, Denay looking down at the action with a frown, “Please! Please stop this madness…!”

            “..No?” Denay sneered a little, then grinned again as her eyes widened and once more her smile began to consume most of her face. She looked up at Lullaby quickly, pulling her own hand away to go back and grab Lullaby’s arm. She only grinned larger, baring her sharp teeth, “No is a completely over rated choice of a word! And completely exaggerated! You’ll learn ‘YES’ is such a more fun word to say! This is for you-!“ she grabbed Lullaby’s other arm and pulled her face close to hers as she looked into Lullaby’s eyes with malicious intent, “This is for US! And you will stay here-“ She laughed, “TIL YOU SAY YES~!”

            Lullaby cried soundlessly as she closed her eyes and began trying to pull away from Denay’s grasp, turning her head away. “I won’t!”

            “You will!” Denay roared with laughter. She kept laughing until she was interrupted, letting go of Lullaby’s arms and leaned back as a roar of blue flames separated the two. Her smile immediately turned upside down as she folded her arms behind her back. Staring at where the flames had been until she looked up and closed her mouth into a scowl, glaring upwards at the person who had broken into the factory and shot the flames.

           “No she won’t!” A blue haired woman called, who had snuck in through a broken window, “You stay away from her, demon!” The woman leapt down and stood in front of Lullaby, holding a gun in her hands and pointed right at Denay’s forehead.

           Lullaby, who had stumbled back when Denay let go, sniffed and looked up. Her eyes widened she saw who it was, “Z-Zoey!” She scrambled over and hid behind Zoey as she was the barrier now between her and Denay. She was shaking in fear, clasping her hands around Zoey’s free hand.

           Denay’s eyes narrowed and widened at Lullaby’s hands, now holding Zoey’s, and her frown deepened. Then she slowly looked back up to meet Zoey’s eyes. She lowered her lids back into a glare and kept her poise and her mouth shut, despite the rage and hatred for Zoey showing in her eyes. She held her cane behind her back and nearly snapped the handle within her grasp just like the railing.

           “I’m taking Lullaby home,” Zoey gritted her teeth together, waving her gun a bit, “And if I, EVER, see you again. I’ll blow your damn brains out.”

           Denay rose a brow then smirked. She closed her eyes as she put a hand to her chest and began to speak condescendingly, “Well now, I don’t think you’ll be doing that any time soon. You see,” She opened her eyes, “I don’t think our dear, dear, Lullaby, would ever allow you to kill one of her closest friends! Do you really think she would, even if I’m now a bad guy!? Further, I don’t think she’d appreciate such a thing. She might even begin to resent you a little for it!”

           “I-" Zoey lowered her gun. She knew Denay was right about how Lullaby would be upset if she killed Denay, but she also knew Denay was wrong in the aspect that Lullaby would resent her for it. But she still hesitated… And made a huge mistake by taking her eyes off Denay to look at Lullaby. 

           “But we also know that our pure little bunny will always come to forgive anyone for their actions, even this one!” 

            “?” Zoey turned to face Denay just in time to seen Denay swinging her cane at Zoey, smacking her right across the face.  The hit sent her backwards and toppling over the railing, plummeting to the concreate bellow. It was a loud crash as she hit the ground. 

            Lullaby ran to the railing to look down at her friend bellow, “Zoey!” She turned to look at Denay when Denay began to speak and approach Lullaby slowly.

            “And I can see now, little missy, it was all in my head when I said this was what we both wanted. I can also see now that you’re not going to share these feelings of mine, not yet. Oho, but I promise you will. It’ll just take a while before you can start seeing things my way,” She grinned wider as she approached Lullaby a little faster now. Lullaby began to back away and Denay began to speak again, “And no hard feelings in what I’m about to do. It’s in your best interest, you’ll come to accept this soon.” She lunged at Lullaby and grabbed her by the hair and arm. She stomped down on Lullaby’s foot to pin her in place and yanked her by the hair and arm to make Lullaby stand fully straight, “This is because I love and care about you, I mean that!” She grinned wider and more viciously as she rammed her knee into Lullaby’s back with the force of a sudden stop from a car at full speed and broke Lullaby’s spine. Lullaby screamed in absolute agony as tears streamed down her face and she fell limp. Denay let go and grinned down at Lullaby, “You see, I can’t have you trying to run away from me as we mold your thought process in favor of what I’m doing for you. I’ll fix your spine as soon as when you accept these events and say yes, I promise!” She picked Lullaby up and jumped down to Zoey. Putting Lullaby down and off to the side she then turned and walked over to Zoey, “And as soon as I finish off this pest I’ll begin your reeducation!” She chuckled. She held her mouth for a minute after her chuckle in thought. She then began speaking again as she rose her cane above her head, readying herself to bash the unconscious Zoey’s brains out, “Oh, well, I guess I’ll admit since you aren’t going to remember this any ways. Lullaby, I am being a little selfish here. I kinda want you all to myself, is that such a crime? And while I won’t kill your other friends and your daughter because I know how that would upset you, I have to finish this one off! Looking at you holding her hand REALLY PISSED ME OFF!”

           Lullaby wheezed and gasped, trying to call out For Denay to stop. She struggled to raise her hand up and reached out to the two and make Denay stop. And she was trying so hard to keep herself from blacking out from the sheer pain she was in… To no avail in any of those attempts. But before she blacked out she saw a figure lunge out from the dark corner of her eyes and whack Denay out of view with a large weapon.

            It was hours later when Lullaby woke up again, or, least she thought it had been hours, when in reality it had been a week. Her vision was fuzzy before it adjusted and she saw four figures standing in front of her. She looked around and almost cried in relief and joy when she saw she was safely in her bed and that Zoey was safe. She thought for a minute it had been one of her usual nightmares but that thought quickly faded when she felt… Nothing in her legs and when she saw Zoey with an arm cast. The others had been standing at her bed were the good doctor, Dr. Diershine who had been their family physician for years, Zero a doll who was one of her guardians, and Jenasect; her main guardian. Lullaby looked at Jenasect and only managed a raspy noise from her breath until she cleared her throat and spoke again, “It was you who… Saved Zoey and I, wasn’t it?” Jenasect nodded as Zero gave Lullaby a cup of tea and sat down by her bedside, staring intently at his owner to make sure she was okay. “Where are…?”

            Jenasect crossed her arms, “Pyronica and Orphella are safe at home, and Serephone is asleep in her bed. No damage or ailments were found in your friends except for Zoey who has broken an arm and a collar bone.”

            Dr. Diershine nodded, crossing her arm and then putting the other hand to her chin, “I’ve checked everyone who has involved in the incident. The three girls will be fine and will wake up at the end of the week. It’ll be like nothing happened. However, I suggest you visit them when they wake up to tell them what happened. So they won’t be blissfully ignorant to Denay’s true intentions if they ever see her again.”

            Lullaby’s eyes widened a little, that’s right, it was Denay who as the attacker. She lowered her lids in sadness and looked down at her hands, “Denay… Where is... Where is-“

            “Fled,” Lullaby looked up to Zoey who put her good hand on her side, “She fled. I woke up to Jenasect and Zero fighting off Denay and her two daughters. But after Jenasect knocked out Marluxia by slamming her into the ground, Denay finally registered through that messed up head of hers she didn’t stand a chance up against Jenasect. Much less Jenasect and Zero at the same time. I got to give it to her, unlike most psychos we’ve faced she knew when to give up.”

            “But she won’t give up for long,” Jenasect knelt down next to the bed, “So I’ll be around more often now, forgive me for not being able to prevent this before it happened.”

            “It’s alright... Please don’t blame yourselves,” Lullaby looked back down at her hands, “I should have noticed something was wrong with Denay…” Lullaby lowered her eye lids before looking down at her hands once more. She spoke quietly, “Does this mean Denay has truly taken a turn for the worse? Is she truly doing evil things and being fully aware that it’s bad?”

             “It would seem so, I’m afraid,” Dr. Diershine shook her head, “I’m sorry,” She shrugged sheepishly when Lullaby looked up at her, with true misery in her eyes, “But I think for now you should focus on getting better. Denay broke your spine and unfortunately now you’re paralyzed from the bottom down,” her always smiling face grinned a little bit bigger, “But luckily, I think with time you can regain the capability to walk, least, for a short time. But for now just work on regaining the strength in your arms you lost from the shock of your spine being broken, and get lots and lots of rest,” She packed her things up into a bag, “I’ll be back tonight to take your pulse and show you some arm exercises. Rest easy for now.” Diershine waved and excited the house.

            Lullaby gave a wispy sigh, looking out the window, “Please... Please the gods that live in the heavens above…” She closed her eyes, “Protect my loved ones, even those who have hurt us.”