I was out cold, lying on the cold, hard floor of my uncle's gun shop. He had emptied it years ago, far before we realized how insane this man was.
Water dumped over my head and I woke, seeing the balding, dark haired man that I knew so little. He had lost everything in his life of gambling and drinking. His eyes were alight with malice as he gazed down at my situation. I see a monster behind him with a note book in hand, with eyes the color of congealed blood.
My captor took the note book from his hands and wrote in it furiously. Before he could finish writing I opened my mouth, and uttered one word.
Why?
He ignored my word, and continued writing furiously. HE had a sickening grin on his wrinkled face, like he knew I would be in pain.
He finished and after what felt like an eternity of stares, he screamed.
"Why won't you die?"
The he lit a match and dropped it into a puddle of liquid. I stood shakily and shoved him down, causing the notebook to fall into the small pool of heat, causing the building to catch.
I was surrounded by fire. I could only watch as the man advanced towards me with a knife.
"You took everything from me, Alice! I will make you pay!" his voice penetrated the smoky air over the roar of the flames.
I ran, through the blaze that was getting hotter and consuming the old warehouse, still hearing the man's screams. This man was my biological grandfather, and he was calling me by my grandmother's name. I had just reached the fresh air when there was a sharp pain throughout my body.
"Try surviving that Alice!" he ran toward the fire, and was consumed.
I woke with a shudder, and a cry that was almost audible.
"Katherine, are you alright?" Elle, my best friend asked.
I nodded numbly and found myself on our plane and thankfully not the warehouse.
"You had a really bad nightmare, didn't you?" Quinn studied me carefully, seeing the slowly ebbing fear in my eyes.
"Guys, we're here." Morgan pointed out the window.
I saw my first glimpse of Japan, with large skyscrapers and bright lights.
My friends and I had qualified for a year of exchange for our freshman year in college. I had a little bit of trouble with the language, but I had plenty of help with it. Morgan and Elle were extremely interested in the idea of living there for good, and they saw this as a great opportunity. Our college granted us enough money to have our own apartment and for our living expenses for the next year or so.
Because of this, we decided to come during the summer. Our things were already in our apartment waiting to be unpacked thanks to my father, who was a courier. It didn't look like we would be there much though. I was more interested in Japanese history and medical sciences than what my friends had come to learn, art. They were able to get an apprenticeship with a famous mangaka and that is what they were doing for the summer. I decided to get a job. The week before we left, I found an opening as a baker's assistant, and I applied. Surprisingly I got the job and the woman running the business seemed very excited to have me there.
"Please fasten your seatbelts and prepare for landing," a cool voice said on the intercom.
Within a few minutes we were in the Kanto Regional Airport. There were a few students standing by the baggage area with a large sign that said," WELCOME TRANSFERS TO JAPAN!" in both English and kanji.
We grabbed our things and headed toward the large group.
"Hello! Now tell me who's who." A cheerful girl said, who stood next to two boys.
"Alright! I'm Elle Mortenson; this is Morgan Dubois, Quinn Muller, and Katherine Neilson. Thank you for meeting us!"
I raised my hand in greeting while I studied the two others. One was tall and handsome, dressed in a suit, while the other was alright looking, dressed in a white T-shirt and jeans.
"Well, I'm Aigo, and these two are our presidents, Yagami Light and Hedeki Ryuga. We hope you will enjoy it here."
"I'm sure we will. Kat here is going to be working for a local bakery, and she's quite excited."
I was off in space, thinking of the thing I had to do before turning in for the night.
"Oh really, that's quite interesting, where will you be working?" Hedeki directed his question to me.
"Pardon? Sorry I wasn't paying attention. Oh I'm working at Joli Kobe. The woman who owns it is quite excited to have me, and I'm excited to learn the techniques."
"I see, that happens to be one of my favorites, I will be seeing you often. Light will be coming as well of course. I look forward to seeing you around."
I smiled politely, not really sure about these men. I had a very bad feeling, and gratefully I was spared by Morgan launching into the art program at Tuoh.
Soon, but not soon enough, we gathered our luggage and headed towards our apartment to do the tedious chore of unpacking.
We were waved off to our building by the welcoming committee, and entered the manager's office to retrieve our keys.
Our apartment was the average size for a family of three, but we would be sharing the two bedrooms and single bath. I set to work on building the beds, while the others got to unpack the kitchen so that I would be able to make breakfast in the morning.
The four beds were rather old, but they had character, being the white metal ones from the 80's.
Soon, the mattresses were on them and in their respective rooms, and I heard squeals of joy as my friends began to pop the bubble wrap without me. I laughed and ran into the room and tackled all three of them, causing a load of plastic bubbles to pop loudly.
"The beds are put together and in the rooms! Now who will room with who?"
"I call Kat!" Elle screamed.
"Okay, we'll room together then Quinn. This will be so much fun!" Morgan dragged the "O" out for a while.
"Okay, so now we pick our rooms and get our stuff in them."
"Mo and I will take the one next to the bathroom." Quinn announced.
"Okay looks like we need to move our things into our rooms. The dressers are already in there, and you'll have to share a closet." I told them.
"yes ma'am." They saluted me jokingly, and began to move the boxes marked with their names into the room.
"Shall we begin?" Elle asked me jokingly.
"Yes, we shall."
Okay so here's the new chapter, and I hope everyone enjoys it! Please Review and tell me what you think!