A
The Missing Piece
By: Dusha
206...207...208...ugh! I must get some sleep, I absolutely must. Of course, just because I have to, doesn't mean that my mind or my body will. Thank whatever powers in the Digital World there are, that it is a clear night. If I wasn't able to count stars, well, I would go insane just lying here on the ground. Yes, I've tried counting sheep, except they turned into evil digimon. Yeah, that really helped my insomnia. Then I tried thinking about boring things to make me fall asleep, but then I started to wonder about my friends, and that only made things worse. After that I seriously considered knocking myself out, just to get some sleep, but unfortunately, I couldn't bring myself to do it. My digimon partner is sleeping soundly beside me and the fire is on my other side. At least one of us will be awake in the morning. It's probably better that I stay up all night, and not my friend, since I can do nothing to protect against evil digimon. Still, if I were back with my human friends and their digimon, at least I could talk to whoever was on guard duty. The only problem is, my friends aren't here anymore.
I suppose we never should have split up, for our own good. I can't help but wonder if we would have been better off leader-less and together, or leader-less and alone. Well, actually, amend that, I'm never really alone. I'm sure I couldn't get away from my digimon partner if I tried. Truth be told, I don't really care. Even if I had the chance to leave, I don't know if I would take it. Who would've thought that a monster from another dimension could become my best friend? No one, that's who, not even me. I'll be the first one to admit that I've been pleasantly surprised.
I know that while I stay up tonight, I'm just waiting for tomorrow, and another day of arduous hiking. Since we are the Digi-destined, maybe we were destined to break up. Still, even though we've broken up, it's not like I'm doing anything different from what we usually did before. Mindless hiking that I'm starting to forget why I started. At least before I could ask one of my friends why we were doing something so seemingly pointless, but now, no matter how much I want to, I can't. Why I'm alone, why I'm walking in such a desolate place, is because I'm looking for Taichi, like everyone else I suppose. I get so exhausted, looking for some sign, no matter how little, that Taichi is here, or has been where I am. The hope that I would be the one to bring him triumphantly back is being replaced by thought that I hope someone can find me.
It took us all a while to realize that we needed to find Taichi. Some of the other guys may have gone looking for other reasons, but I knew mine. When that...that...wormhole, I guess, swallowed Taichi, we all felt that somehow he had made it through. After we searched high and low for him, we still knew that he was somehow OK, no matter how naïve that sounds. We kept thinking, while we were together, that just past that ridge, or once we got out of these woods, there he would be. When he wasn't, over and over again, a little thought surfaced in my mind. What if Taichi didn't make it? At first I vehemently denied it, and forced myself to forget it. Every failure to find him, though, kindled that thought, until it was a raging fire.
That is why, at least, I left. I had to prove that little voice wrong. So far, I haven't been making as much progress as I would've liked. True though that may be, I refuse to think that Taichi is...is...I guess I should just say it. Dead. But he isn't! If I allow myself to think that he is, which he isn't, I would totally collapse. Cease to function. Someone that close to me, a good friend, dead, maybe even partly because of me. Even if my mind could take it, my heart couldn't. I can't even consider that Taichi is dead, because if I did, well, then I don't think, no I know, that I wouldn't be able to cope.
We are all too young to accept the fact that Taichi may be dead. We shouldn't have to deal with having a burden that large on our souls. So we refuse to. In our own ways we will prove our own little, annoying voices that they are wrong. Maybe it was good that we split up, so we could each individually attack our separate demons. Somehow I know that the rest of my friends felt the same way. We would never speak of it out loud, that would only stoke the fire more. To learn that the others felt the same as you, well, if it were me, it would make me know that my fear wasn't as outlandish as I had hoped. So for now, I'll look. No matter how tired I am, no matter how loud that singsong voice gets in my mind, it will never be louder than my heart's voice. Some how, that voice is telling me that Taichi is out there somewhere, telling me he still is just over that precipice, or I'll see him when I get past this fog. So I'll keep looking, listening to that voice, because, in a way, I want to honor Taichi's memory. You know, just incase he doesn't come back, even though I have full confidence that he will. I will never give up.
I will find my friends again, all of them. With the help of my digimon companion, and theirs, we will find Taichi. Then we'll all be together again and we will finally be able to go home. Who would have thought that I would end up caring about my friends as much as I do now? Before this I didn't even know them, and under normal circumstances, I would have never even associated with them. But now, I can't think of any other friends I've ever had that are closer to me. I know that they all feel the same way, and with that feeling in each of us, how can we stay apart for an extended period of time? The simple answer to that is that we can't. I can't wait till we meet up again, I miss their laughter, smiles, bad jokes, and even their tears, fright, and stupidity at times. We are all here for a reason, and just like anything digital, if apiece is missing we fall apart. So we will find that missing piece, and become one again.