She raced down the dark hallway as loud gasps for breath escaped her lips. Aside from that, her bare feet crashing against the cold floor made the only sound. She didn't know why she ran, whether she was chasing someone or being chased. But she ran, and did it like there was no tomorrow. Like Hell itself was right on her heels. In all honestly, she wasn't sure if she wanted to know the truth. Besides, no matter how fast or how long she had been going, the darkness just seemed endless. Then, suddenly, a light, faint and small, appeared some distance away.
So she continued on and soon reached the light. Everything became a bright white, blurring her vision and causing her to close her eye. The light dimmed away soon enough and she reopened her eye. She found herself in her room... their room. She took note to the empty bed then found herself gazing into a tall mirror some feet away. Taking some steps forward, she tried to get a better view. She looked slightly different from that time, probably because she was older... But that young girl could still be seen in her. A hand rested on her shoulder and she quickly turned around.
Her blue-green eye was met with a pair of marine blue ones. They weren't alarmed or worried, just calm and gentle... and peaceful. The new arrival gave her a hug and a short kiss. She just smiled and turned back to the mirror. She wanted to see how beautiful they looked together, even though she knew the answer very well. Unfortunately, what she excepted to see was not reflected in the mirror. Eye widened as she let out a terrified gasp. What she saw was a complete opposite of what it was supposed to be. Behind her was a different girl, the same eyes, yet a lighter color of hair. There was a mocking smirk on the face if this new girl. A hand came around Karen's waist and pulled her closer to the nightmarish image. The person was smiling now, bringing her lips up to Karen's ear.
Four simple words were whispered. "You can't escape me..."
Karen jolted into a sitting position, trying to catch her breath and collect her thoughts. Her short light brown hair covered a frightened eye. Though it rarely didn't bother her, she let it be. She had been thrown into deep shock from what she had dreamt. It had been so long, about five or six years, since she last saw that face. And heard that voice... not to mention how scared she felt. That fear was like no other, she couldn't describe it or think of a time where she was more scared. That time was over though, it had to be. Michelle was gone and wasn't ever coming back. Still, real or not, that dream had shaken Karen beyond reason. Karen buried her face in her hands and tried to drive the bad images away.
'For all of those who are new to what's going on and have no clue to what is, let me explain a few things. I was born into this world as Katherine Tenou, the little sister of Amara Tenou... or as some might know, Sailor Uranus. The only problem was, I wasn't her sister... turns out I was really her daughter, which made things so much more complicated. I found out this shocking detail, along with a few others about six years ago. That was when I was the new Sailor Uranus and the Sailor Scouts were still in the world saving business. That time, however, it wasn't the world we were trying to save... It was me.
You see... my mother had a girlfriend back then, one that I surprisingly found out about...'
'Kat, come down here! I've got a surprise for you!' Amara had yelled from the bottom of the stairs.
Karen raced out of her room and straight for the stairs. She had awaited this surprise for over a week and she could barely manage to wait anymore. She was disappointed when she made it downstairs, only to find Amara and a girl beside her with sea green hair. Karen was quick to notice the girl's arm around Amara's waist and wasn't too happy about the sight. She stood silent and looked at Amara for an explanation.
'Kat, this is Michelle... She and her sister will be living with us.'
That answer had hit Karen hard, like running in a steel door or brick wall. She didn't want to live with some stranger... or two for that matter. It was just supposed to be her and Amara... and Apollo of course. Now, there was this girlfriend and a possibly bratty, girly sister to bug Karen. The cat could do that well enough... more now ever since Karen had learned that he could talk. Karen shook her head and glanced at Michelle.
'Hello Karen.' That was all this new girl had to say. Karen knew at that moment she'd have some problems with her.
'Now, I had nothing against them but... that girl was evil. Of course that I never really believed it to be true, it was just one of those childish jokes. Up until the moment I found out she was actually evil. What was her reason? Well... she wanted to be with Amara forever, or at least for as long as they lived. Supposedly, something happened and they... found other people. Michelle, the evil girlfriend, wasn't too happy about that and she screwed up the timeline. Now, seven of us former future Scouts don't know our fathers and are some years younger than our mothers.
To make this a simple explanation; I was the only thing in between Michelle and staying with Amara till death. So, she made up some plan to get rid of me. She revived some old enemies and made it seem like the real mastermind behind this was some god of death. Why she had to make it so complicated is way beyond my thinking. All I know is that she and her flunkies were caught in a cave in of their headquarters. We won, she lost, and she's been dead for those five or six years. Ever since then, we've been living like normal people and have been doing a good job of it. As for Amara... she handled the issue rather well...'
Beside her lay a peaceful figure, her breaths easy and a smile was on her face. Rebecca had flinched slightly when Karen had awaken abruptly, yet made no other actions than that. She suddenly made a strange squeaking noise, instantly grabbing Karen's attention. The tomboy grinned, her best friend was still beautiful, if not more so. Rebecca's only major change was that her hair was cut down to below her ears like Karen's. No one was exactly sure why she had made such a random change. Maybe she didn't want to gaze in the mirror everyday and see a mini-Michelle. Karen could understand her reasoning completely if that was the case. Rebecca turned in her sleep, some of her hair falling in her face. Karen leaned over her partner the pulled the hair away.
'This... this is Rebecca, the sole being keeping me from completely hating Michelle. She's Michelle's daughter and the only good thing to come from that psychotic bitch. They may have looked a little alike, but their personalities were totally opposite. If Rebecca hadn't moved in when Michelle had, there would have been no possible way of me surviving...'
Karen mumbled some hateful words to herself as she helped move some small boxes into Michelle's room. She carelessly dropped the boxes into a corner and glared at no certain thing in the room. Suddenly, she heard a crashing sound coming from the hallway and ran out to see what had happened. Her eye fell upon blue-green hair and a not-so-girly outfit. She just stared in awe as the shorter child tried to pick up a rather large box. Karen snapped out of her trance and hurried over.
'I'll help you...' Karen offered, gaining a smile from the other girl.
'I'm not exactly sure if it was love at first sight, I knew I'd get along with this girl though. As for our relationship, it kind of came out of nowhere so randomly. I guess at that time we never really thought of strengthening the bond we had. Besides, we were just kids back then, we didn't know anything about love. Sometime before the whole Michelle mess, our affection for each other had become a bit physical. You know, stuff like hugging and kissing. Unfortunately, Michelle had found out and it gave her more reason to want to kill me. She actually tried to threaten me out of liking Rebecca once. I guess she didn't think it was fair... for us to have such an everlasting love and for her and Amara to have gone separate ways. I think she's to blame for that, she let it happen...'
Rebecca began to toss and turn again. Karen moved back and hoped the younger girl wouldn't wake. If she did, a very long and probably pointless conversation would start. First, Rebecca would get worried and Karen would assure that she was okay. Then Rebecca would put in the fact that no one is okay when they wake up in the middle of the night. Simply put, there was no need for that to take place. Rebecca was probably very tired and had a big day planned tomorrow... or today. Whichever that happened to be. Anyway, the point was Karen didn't want Rebecca to worry. And if she knew Karen had a bad dream, she would want to know what it was about. Bringing up Michelle would only make matters much worse.
"Karen...." Rebecca whispered in a sleepy voice, causing the tomboy's heart to skip a beat. "... don't forget to feed Apollo.." She rolled onto her other side, facing away from Karen, and continued to sleep.
Karen let out a sigh of relief, almost laughing at what she had heard. Rebecca rarely talked in her sleep, but when she did, it was hilarious. Karen relaxed and tried to drive the dream away. She was failing miserably, which only made her more mad at Michelle. It left Karen with an emotional scar, one that would never ever go away. Even now, when Michelle was long since gone. A picture is worth a thousand words and she had a few images of Michelle still fresh in her head. A thousand times a few was still a lot and too many for Karen. The eye patch was enough of a memory for her to remember Michelle.
A soft hand rested on Karen's left arm, grabbing the girl's attention. Rebecca was now up and she was glancing at Karen with a smile. Karen mentally cursed herself, yet kept her stoic expression on the outside.
"Sorry if I woke you up."
"It's okay... you feeling alright?"
Karen tried to think of some excuse or argument to the question. "What makes you think that?!"
"It's four after midnight and you aren't nocturnal...?"
"Yeah.. I guess those could be reasons..."
"Bad dream?" Rebecca was giving her that sweet and innocent quizzical look.
"I don't really want to talk about it, Rebecca..."
That reply went without anymore saying. Rebecca had noticed the seriousness in Karen's voice and heard how she didn't use a nickname. Whatever was bothering Karen was really bad and Rebecca didn't want to pry. Silence echoed in the room, becoming an irritation to both. They refused to speak however, afraid to say the wrong thing. Rebecca stared into Karen's tired eye and pulled her hand away. That was the bad tone... the one that the others didn't want to be around to hear. Just like when Susan had mentioned Karen and Peruru 'getting back together' a while ago. That situation could have ended better... maybe not. It seemed everytime someone spoke of Peruru's name, Karen would have some emotional outburst.
'Peruru... it's been sometime since I've seen him or heard from him. I know he was a dream elf, but he could have sent message about being to busy to ever come. Or he could have stopped by in one of my dreams or something... He never seemed to have a problem with it when we first met. Then again, last time I almost lost Rebecca because of him. Damn Fairy Boy, trying to confuse my feelings... Anyway, he had helped us when we fought Michelle. And if it wasn't for him, Rebecca and myself probably wouldn't be alive. I guess I still owe him for that one... That's if I ever see him again.'
"We should get some sleep... we've got a lot to do tomorrow...." Karen suggested as she lay back down. "Night."
Rebecca just nodded slowly and went back to sleep also.
The sun beamed into the room, sunlight pouring onto Karen's face. She grabbed a pillow and put it over her head, mumbling something about wanting a few more minutes of sleep. She lay like that for a while, then got up and took the pillow off her head. She was all alone in the room, no sound or sight of Rebecca. Usually, Karen would wake up and hear the shower running or Rebecca yelling at her to get up. Karen shook her head, she probably just overslept. She yawned and climbed out of the bed and headed to the door leading into the hallway. She closed the door behind her when she exited the room and stopped to glance up and down the hallway.
Karen didn't really like the idea of moving into this place .. or actually, Amara moving out. But her mother had talked her into it and Karen and Rebecca decided to stay. Susan and Hotaru had moved it also, taking Rebecca and Karen's old rooms. And Rini was a new addition to their group, living in the guest room downstairs. As for Michelle's old room... no one really wanted to step foot in it. They just hung up a sign and kept the door closed. That, of course, left Amara's room to Karen and Rebecca. The former wind goddess had agreed to stay with Trista, which was probably the best idea.
Karen slowly walked downstairs, not waiting to fall since she was still partly asleep. She poked her head into the living, only to find Rini and Hotaru watching some TV. She continued on into the kitchen and found Susan and Rebecca quietly eating breakfast. She approached the table and took a seat, not catching anyone's attention at first. She cleared her throat and relaxed in her chair, causing Rebecca to look up.
"Morning sleepy head, we were starting to think you wouldn't ever get up."
"Did you try to wake me up?"
"We did everything you could think of... well... maybe not everything." Susan finally spoke up.
"Is it all just a coincidence?" Karen whispered to herself.
"You say something?"
"No." Karen stood up and made it to the door before Rebecca called her.
"Karen, this doesn't have to do with that dream, does it?"
This had stopped Karen dead in her tracks. She mentally shuddered at the thought of the dream, wishing she hadn't agree to telling it. The image of her and Michelle in the mirror had flashed in her mind. It was bad enough Michelle was there... but her touching Karen was really crossing the line. Karen exhaled sharply and left the kitchen. She entered the living room, but kept herself unnoticed by the other two. They had stopped viewing the television and were talking to each other. The conversation was a series of whispers, so Karen couldn't tell what it was about. She advanced a few inches, finally noticing one of Hotaru's hands on Rini's. Sneaking up behind the couch and hiding, she readied herself to jump up.
"Whatcha doing?" She popped her head over the back of the couch causing Hotaru to pull her hand away and Rini to almost fall off the couch. "Hm... does Serena know about this?"
"... I don't know what you're talking about!" Rini muttered and rushed out of the room.
Karen laughed and smiled, it was obvious.
'These two have been trying to keep this a secret for some time. Besides, what better of a reason for Rini to move in? It's not like she hung out with Susan and Hotaru everyday. I bet Serena has no clue about it, nor is she anywhere close to figuring it out. As for Susan, Rebecca, and myself... we didn't try to pry it out of them. They'd have to give up the act sooner or later... It makes me think I have this affect on our friends now. Like some kind of contagious homosexual disease... that'd be interesting.'
"You wouldn't tell Serena... if that was the case?" Hotaru spoke up, trying to make it seem like a hypothetical question.
"Nope, she probably wouldn't even believe me. Besides, it's your business, so you've gotta deal with it." Karen climbed over the back of the couch and sat down beside Hotaru. "In all honesty, Serena will take it a lot better than her mother, or that's what I've come to believe."
"Um... Rebecca told us that you had a bad dream... From the way she brought it up, it seemed really serious."
'Hotaru Tomoe, the daughter of the famous Dr. Tomoe. We thought he was one of our enemies six years ago, mainly because the Witches 5 and Kaori had been brought back. It turned out he knew nothing about it, he still doesn't even recall knowing about the Sailor Scouts. Everything's better this way though... we shouldn't have to worry about him trying to take over the Earth ever again. As for Hotaru, much hasn't changed about her. She still has the same hair style and her clothing is just a little different. And, believe it or not, she could always tell when I was lying. It's one of the main reasons I tell Rebecca the truth... That and it wasn't right... and Rebecca would find out sooner or later and I'd be in tons of trouble.'
"You all seem to be taking this all so seriously. If it was some 'end of the world' dream, I would have woken you all up in the middle of the night."
"Not all bad dreams have to do with the world being destroyed..."
Karen made a slight frown and then let out a sigh. "It's just... if I tell her, she'll start worrying and get all paranoid. And everyone have enough stress in their life with Susan trying to get us all killed on the daily basis."
"Don't you think you're underestimating Rebecca?"
"All I know is this dream was terrible, worse than that... And I know everyone will make a big deal out of it...."
"Even if we promised not to..?
"Even if you gave me a million dollars each..."
"This dream is starting to sound a little overrated." Rebecca commented.
Karen quickly looked up to notice Rebecca's sudden arrival into the room. "Then why do you still want to hear about it?" She knew Rebecca still wanted to know.
"If it's enough to make you use that serious tone, it obviously won't just go away." Of course it wouldn't... things weren't that simple. Karen wished they were though, it would make her life a lot easier.
"Fine... I'll tell you, I guess. But you have to promise not to freak out or something like that..." Karen's order was replied with by two nods. "Okay. Last night, I had a dream... and it started out pretty boring, so I'll spare you the details. I was kind of scared when it started, I didn't know what was going on... but then Rebecca was there. So, I didn't really have a reason not to feel safe. Or so I had thought. We were all alone in our room... but when I looked in the mirror.... I saw Michelle. She said I couldn't escape her..."
Rebecca and Hotaru grew silent, unable to think of anything to say that wouldn't make it sound like they were freaked out. Karen stared at Rebecca, as if saying 'I told you so'.
"I guess the dream elves don't have time for me and my dreams..." Two swings, two hits... Karen had effortlessly tied Peruru into the conversation. When no response came, she headed out the room with a scoff.
'Okay, maybe my exit was a bit dramatic, but I wasn't about to stay there. I needed to get away from everyone... from Susan, Hotaru.. and even Rebecca. I needed to think everything through. By myself. What kind of self-confident person would I be if I went to others for help with my internal battles? I would be like Serena... maybe worse. If that's possible.... Where was I going? At the time, I wasn't very sure. As long as it was some place I could find solitude and quietness. The location I arrived at brought a small wave of shock upon me...'
It had been a while since she had come here. Mostly because she didn't enjoy visiting this place. That and she rarely had reason to... Karen observed the structure ahead of her with a listless expression. The hospital never changed, it was always there and it was always fairly busy. Not so much in the winter, however, and that's why Karen didn't come very often. A gust of wind blew pass the teen, causing her to shove her hands in her jacket pockets.
'I used to be scared of hospitals as a child... They were just so freaky. So, one day, a few years ago, Amara brought me here for no reason in particular and I wondered around some. I met patients, doctors, nurses, and had long conversations with people who practically lived in the hospital. By the time I had left, it was like I never had been scared. After that day, I visited the hospital a couple times a week... Recently, I had stopped going so often. It all had to do with this girl I met...
Her name was Lexi and she was... fourteen when I was first introduced to her over two years ago. She had a few things in common with me and she was so friendly and optimistic. You see, when she was younger, she would be sick almost all of the time. Then she lost her parents when she was ten or eleven. The hospital took her in then and took care of her. Lexi had been recovering pretty well and was to be released several months before now. Unfortunately, she had gone missing... She was just one day away from being free again. And a really great family was waiting to raise her.... I just couldn't come back here since that occurred...'
The tomboy entered the building and swiftly strolled down a random hallway. Nothing had really changed, except for the random, new faces. She found herself retreating to the room where she had encountered Lexi for the first time. Maybe, she thought, Lexi would have come back for a checkup or maybe they had some information on where she had been taken. Or if she had ever been reappeared... She froze outside of the door leading in. What was she doing here? Karen hesitated to reach for the doorknob, afraid of the worst outcomes. A hand rested on her shoulder and she quickly turned around. She now faced Lexi's doctor, a man that was rarely seen without a smile.
"It's been a while Karen... We all started to worry when your visits ceased."
"Did you... ever find anything out about her?" Karen ignored his concern.
His smile flickered off momentarily, he knew exactly who she spoke of. "Nothing... at least nothing that I know of."
"Well, thanks anyway..." Karen gave a departing gesture and headed off.
"You aren't going to stay for a little bit?"
She halted. "I'd rather not... this place kind of disturbs me." With that, she began walking again. She could no longer stand being here. It was like some shadow was lurking over her, a cold and guilt clutch digging it's way into her mind and body.
"Mom...!" Karen called out as she stepped into the house. "Anyone home...?!" She finally noticed a note on the back of the door as she closed it. Taking it in her hands, she read it aloud to herself using her best impersonation of Trista. "'Katherine, I have kidnapped Amara for a few days.... While you're here, you might as well feed the fish... and don't even think about searching for my hidden candy stash...' Man, and I'm so close to finding it.. Guess I can hang out here for the night.."
Darkness was covering the area as silence resounded all around. Karen was curled up in a ball in what she guessed was a corner. Something wasn't right... she wasn't alone here. She figured if she didn't move, whatever was out there would leave her be. Especially if it was some kind of evil and ugly monster. Karen's eyes were closed shut and her hands were covering her ears. She suddenly felt a hand or something on her neck, It was as cold as ice and had begun to tightly grip her neck. Karen let out a small, pain filled moan, hoping some kind of help would come.
A shadow moved carefully, yet swiftly through the room. Another figure lay on the couch, her body rolled up in a spherical shape as she whimpered with fear. The shadow approached the couch and observed the sleeping girl. The cries for aid remained incoherent noises, but became louder over the few seconds. She was experiencing another nightmare... they seemed to be coming more often now. What started out so meager turned worse and worse with every dream she had. A hand touched her shoulder in hopes of ceasing her constant quivering.
"Lady Katherine..." A voice called out to her. There was no reply, just more moans.
The shadow disappeared from her side for some moments. When it returned, it had a blanket and pillow in hand. The slumbering teen was soon covered by the rather large blanket and the pillow was placed under her head.
'For some odd reason, my nightmare began to change... It turned all good and happy. At one point, I remember almost waking up, but this really warm and comfortable feeling caused me to drift again. I hadn't had sleep that good in months... maybe even years. It even got me to forget that Rebecca was probably wide awake and worrying about me...'
