When May Ends- Prelude

May and I were about nine years old at the time. We were always told that we were brilliant children, especially at that age. However, it wasn't enough that we were brilliant. May and I were unsatisfied with our normal, routine life. Boredom and brilliance wasn't always the best combination and it sometimes led to trouble. In our case, it led to us trying to break out of the hospital a few times.

"Wait!" I quietly urged, sticking my arm out to stop May from adventuring any further.

The two of us were sneaking around the hallways of the hospital, hiding behind potted plants and peeking out from around the bend before I stopped May. For a while, there were no one but us in the halls; everyone was either getting their treatments or was at a group session. But my left eye, my blue eye, had seen that more patients besides us were where they were not supposed to be.

Around the corner was a lone patient, I recall his name being Edmond, who was, as far as I could tell, reading a book as he walked down the hall. My right, green eye couldn't see him for the wall obscured the eye's vision. However, my left saw him clearly. So clearly in fact, that I could tell that he was hiding a book within a book. I wrinkled my nose. I could tell by the look in his eyes that it was a dirty book.

I turned to my sister. We looked so similar. We had the same straight black hair, sickly pale possibly-caused-by-all-the-medication-we-get skin, and we even shared the same roundish face structure. However, we had differences. Her hair was nearly always pulled into two long ponytail and her bangs never covered over her left eye, unlike me who wore my hair out and had bangs the covered some of my eye. Speaking of eyes, hers were both green and at the moment, they were wide with worry. Had we planned wrong?

"What is it?" She whispered. Her voice had this sweetness that could only be conpareble to honey.

"Edmond is walking the halls again," I whispered back. My voice lacked most of the sweet, rich texture that hers had. "I don't think he'll see but can you do your thing?"

May pointed up at the camera. That's right, I thought to myself. I looked back at her, right in the eyes. My right couldn't see it but my left saw the room in May's eyes. In her left, the room was empty. In her right, we were in the room. She was too busy making the cameras not find us for her to get rid of Edmond too.

"We can probably wait him out anyways." I breathed and we both quickly hid behind a potted plant. I recall the leaves being large and obscured some of my right eye's vision. I managed to keep an eye on Edmond with left eye though. He crossed the hall and passed us without once looking up from his dirty book.

Once Edmond was gone, May and I came from out from our hiding spot and continued our escaping adventure. He wasn't the only person we nearly ran into. Mostly, it was a few men in white uniforms who were walking around, most likely trying to see if there were anyone like us hanging around. They were easy to avoid though and soon enough, we managed to get outside the hospital.

"Aren't we heading to the gate?" I questioned as May led us to the stone wall that in closed the hospital.

Her sweet voice rang out, "They amped up the security at the gate. I can't trick the camera and the guards at the same time. My talent isn't that good." Once we reached it, she had begun to climb the wall. "Besides, this seems more fun!"

She quickly reached the top of the wall. For a child who was often bedridden, May was quite athletic. She was kind enough to help me climb up the wall and, through much struggled on my end, we both managed to sit on top of the stone wall. We waited until the coast was clear before holding each other's hand. I recall hers being really soft. We counted until three before jumping off the wall. For nine year olds, we landed quite gracefully.

I put my hand on my heart. It was beating like crazy, my breathing grew heavy, and my vision blurred. May squeezed my other hand and while her face only held a frown, I could see, though it was hard to tell, panic in her eyes.

"A-are you okay?" She sweetly inquired. "Should we go back?"

I shook my head slowly. "N-no! We worked… so hard…," I had to speak in breaths, "to get out…! I don't want… it to end now…"

May took this time to dig into my pocket. I was taken aback and tried to get her to stop but it was both a useless motion and a waste of time; May fished out my watch from my pocket and slapped it on my wrist. A slight but sharp pain ran up my arm as the watch's needle stabbed my wrist. The watch paused, then started vibrating.

"M-May!" I exclaimed. "I took… it off for a…. reason!"

"And I put it back on for a reason." She smiled. "if you're heart beats too much, it'll call the hospital and you'll be okay!"

I pouted as the vibrating and my heartbeat calmed down. My mouth opened to complain but May cut me off. She gripped my hand and dragged me away from the hospital. At first I protested, still upset that I was forced to wear my heart-rate reading watch, but I was quickly distracted.

It was so strange to see people as we walked down the street. They didn't wear white uniforms nor the old donated clothes that May and I had to wear. The people wore various of clothes that I've never seen before. Short dresses with flower designs, graphic t-shirts, hats, and other apparel was worn by the stone faced people. They paid us no mind as we were captivated by their clothes, they way they walked, and I was especially amazed how they thought they could hide their emotions behind that thin stone wall of theirs.

We kept walking aimlessly, distracting ourselves with the people, the houses which were surprisingly small compared to our hospital, the trees, everything. The road eventually led us to a park where everything was the purest of green from the grass to the leaves of trees. May and I gaped at the entrance of this incredible greenery.

Without hesitation, we ran into the public place. It was everything we had even dreamed about and more. We had never seen so much flowery in one place. Not only were there trees and grass but flowers of all sorts and shades of beautiful reds and yellows. In this park there were also a little more than dirt paths craved into the grass with benches lining the sides. Many people were walking around, sitting on the benches, and basically relaxing. Some of them were there to just hang out and others were there to get their minds off of their struggles. But what really caught our attention was the playground that seemed to blend into the grass.

Excitedly, May and I ran over to the playground. The sight amazed us. Children of all shaped and sizes were playing on the swings and a few were playing basketball and others were playing on the jungle gym. Suddenly, I recall, I started to feel incredibly small and awkward. Before this, I had only rarely delt with a couple of kids, usually only one or two at a time. Do we play with all of them? Only some? Do we just join their games? Do we ask? Are we allowed to? May was less concerned with these fears as she led us further into the park.

"There's so much to do!" She smiled.

"…Huh? Oh, y-yeah," I mumbled. For a moment, I was distracted by the amount of emotions in the public place. I was a little overwhelmed until someone caught my left eye. A girl was hiding in the bushes. "…Like hide and seek…?"

May was always good with catching on. We were alway in sync. "If we are playing hide and seek, we should seek the hider!" She let me lead her to the person in the bushes and pull back the leaves to reveal our hider.

"Hey! You're going to give away my spot!" The girl in the bushes exclaimed. The bush girl was about our age and was fair skinned though not as fair as us. Her light brown hair was tied back into a ponytail and her light blue eyes shined with annoyance at being caught and underneath that, a bit of mischief. The girl wore clothes that I would later learn was the children's version of punk.

Her annoyance at us threw me off even though I saw it coming. May didn't take it as harshly as I did. "Sorry," May spoke as sweetly as she normally did. "I'm May and this is June. Who are you and who are you hiding from?"

"Fira," the former bush girl stated as she stood up. "And I'm hiding from my friends-"

"We found you!"

The three of us turned to the unison voices. I was a little confused. My left eye saw them before my right as usual but my left saw two different kids. Vision in my right eye proved me wrong. The two boys, who were about our age, were fair skinned though not as much as May and I and a little more than Fira. They had red hair and golden eyes and were completely identical to each other.

Fira put her hands on her hips. "You only found me because of these two!"

"You two are twins!" I blurted out, my face burning at my own silliness. Of course they were twins, anyone could see that! May covered for me though, "We never saw twins besides ourselves before! I'm May and this is my sister, June. Nice to meet you!"

The boy on the left, our left, spoke at Fira rather than us. "These two managed to find you?" The one of the right continued the thought. "You must have had a really terrible hiding spot."

I felt May exhale a little and I didn't need my left eye to know that she was a little annoyed. We weren't used to being dissed like that. Still, I was more concerned about the odd differences and the similarities between the boys. Were all twins like that? Were all twins extremely different people bound by looks? Were May and I like that too?

"It was good enough," Fira retorted with a bit of a smirk, "you two couldn't find me after all."

"You just got lucky that time!" The one on the right exclaimed.

"Um, not to interrupt or anything," I interjected then had May continue without me, "but we kinda asked for your names." We spoke together for the last bit, "And we don't like being ignored."

"Oh, we are so sorry," the boys stated flatly. The one of the right spoke on his own for a line, "we didn't realize that it was all about you two." The left took over for a line, "but if you must know," They spoke together for the last part, "We are Hikaru and Kaoru Hitachiin."

"But which one of you is which?" May and I questioned together.

"You'll have to guess!" The Hitachiin brothers smirked and I suddenly got a sickening feeling that they did this to people often.

"The one on the right is Hikaru and the one on the left is Kaoru." Fira interjected with a smirk of her own. If there any doubt in my mind, it was gone now: She was brilliant. Maybe she had a special talent with her eyes too…

"That's not fair! You weren't suppose to tell!" They countered back. The boys didn't seem too horribly upset though, like they liked that she told them a part. They just didn't like the fact that she told us.

"And you weren't suppose to get help to find me!" There was the tiniest bit of evil in her eyes. "So that means I win and now I get to choose the next game!"

"Can we join the game?" May gleefully asked before I could stop her.

"Sorry, but we only," Kaoru started then Hikaru finished the line, "play with Fira." For some reason, this really threw me off. I was so sure that they weren't so bad but together, they were just down right mean.

"Well that's too bad because I'm gonna play with them, with or without you." Fira dug around her hiding bush and pulled out a soccer ball. She went over to May and I with half a smirk, half a smile and led us away to play soccer, I presumed. May was very fine with leaving the rude twins. I was a little hesitate.

"W-wait!" Hikaru's shout caused May, Fira, and I to stop and turned back to the boys. Both of the boys spoke in unison again. "Fine, we'll play with you guys."

"Good!" Fira grinned. "The girls will be on my team."

The boys crossed their arms. I was starting to get confused on whether they were really just one person or not. "But then the teams will be uneven! It's still not fair!"

"It's okay, I just won't play." I shrugged. May frowned at me. Her frown reminded me of a sad little kitten. I glanced down at my watch quickly and May nodded her understanding though she still seemed upset.

"Are you sure?" Kaoru asked.

"Yeah, it's fine. I'll watch from the swings!" I smiled and pointed to the swing sets that were too far away. The set would give me an excellent view of their game, my vision was more than good enough for this to work, and I just wanted to try out the swings.

"Your loss," The twins shrugged.

Fira rolled he eyes at the boys. "Maybe next round you and May can switch."

May gave me a concerned smile and then a hug which I easily returned. In my ear she whispered, "just keep calm, okay?" I whispered back my promise to her as well as my luck. I broke the hug and flashed her a smile before heading off to the swing sets.

I suppose you all know what swing sets look like. A black seat made out of some sort of rubber like substance had chains on the sides that hooked up to a horizontal pole, a pole that was supported into the air by other poles. Perhaps seining such a sight was normal for you. It wasn't for me. I recall being in a slight awe of this creation. Such a lovely creation had only fallen on my eyes in books. Carefully, I moved to sit upon the free swing set.

Books never talk about how amazing swing sets are. My feet dangled off of the ground as I tried to get myself to swing. At the time, I didn't really know how to do so but swinging wasn't too hard to do on one's own. I started to lean forward and to lean back. Surprisingly, it took some time to start swinging but once I started going, I couldn't stop smiling. My heart started beating like mad as laugher escaped my mouth. I never gone so fast and so high before!

After a few minutes, I managed to stop my laughing but my huge smile was still on my face. I redirected my focus from my first time swinging on a swing set to my sister's game, though granted it was a little tough with the motion of the swinging throwing off my focus and vision. By the time I started really focusing, the game had already started and I was blowed away by their talent at this sport.

They were really good! Thinking back on it now, I had very little to compare their talent to but I am still sure that they were really good. Kaoru and Hikaru both worked, as usual I suppose, as one person and were completely in sync with the other. They often passed the ball to each other which made it kind of hard to keep up. However, they didn't kick the ball to the goal a lot unless they could at least be near each other when they did so.

Fira was a striker. If she received the ball, she would without a doubt, try to get it into the make-shift goal. She was also a good stealer. Maybe Fira and the twins played soccer often because she knew a lot of the twins tactics. Fira knew that if she stole the ball from Hikaru, then Kaoru would not be too far behind. Yet she did steal from them often, and she knew how to do it without having the ball stolen back from her.

May was the game's wild card. She was a passer for sure but she was also a bit of a striker and wasn't too bad at stealing. She was an all-round player. I noticed that she wasn't the best player in the game but her stamina surely made up for it. May continued to play, not pausing for a breath or for a drink of water like the other three. She did cough once or twice, and I feared that she was getting sick again. It wouldn't affect the game, I knew that but it would effect us later.

Anyways, the game was certainly tense. There was a lot of stealing from one another. Fira would steal from Hikaru and pass the ball to May, Kaoru would steal from May, Fira would kick the ball away from him to May again, Hikaru would take it from her, and then the situation started all over again. Sometimes a team would score but it didn't happen a lot. In fact, the teams each only scored once.

They were reaching their limit. My heart was racing from both the swinging and the tension of the game. There was only one more point left in the game; the players couldn't handle much more than that. Quickly, the situation started to happen again. Fira stole from Hikaru and passed the ball to May. If I could, I would be on the edge of my seat. Kaoru went to steal the ball from May but surprisingly, he wasn't able to. May passed the ball back to Fira.

I wanted to cheer. Things were looking up for my team! Why was my watch vibrating so much? Fira kicked the ball to the goal!- Wait, no! Hikaru stole the ball from Fira at the last second! Fira made some comment I couldn't hear due to the distance. Hikaru passed the ball to Kaoru but my sister was prepared for it. She intercepted the ball and passed it back to Fira. Why was this so intense? Why was it getting harder to see the game…? What was with that beeping?

Hikaru was about to steal the ball again but Fira decided to passed it back to May at the last moment. May, who was prepared for it I suppose, received the ball with a huge kick, sending the ball straight to the goal. Kaoru and Hikaru raced to stop it. I thought at first that they would not be to catch up with the ball but it looked possible.

My grip on the swing's chain loosened. At the same time, my vision suddenly worsen, to the point where I almost couldn't see May's ball go into the goal. I smiled before I felt my heart nearly burst. Without much warning, I fell off the swing. Maybe a better way to word it was that I was thrown off the swing by the momentum. I hit the ground hard, so much so that I skittered across the grass before stopping.

Time moved slowly. My immediate reaction, curling up in pain, took forever. Suddenly my breathing became heavy, like I was running a race. The truth was harsher than that. I had to breathe heavily in hopes of calming down my heart. It was pounding, pounding, and over pounding. I could feel it over working. I could feel it wanting to give up and stop.

Tears ran down my face as I gulped for air. I didn't want to die but the fear that filled my mind told me that that was my fate. I was to die here on foreign grass, alone. My right hand gripped over my heart, as if to keep it inside me, like it would help. Everything was fading. I couldn't see anymore. My hearing was so weird; I could only hear beeping. All other noises were muffled. I could only feel my heart overworking to the urge of stopping all together. I…was going to die, wasn't I?

"J-June!" Sound reentered my ears. However, I couldn't tell who it was.

"W-What happened?"

"Will she be okay?"

"I-It's okay, June, the watch is beeping. It's calling the hospital. Y-you'll be okay soon, j-just hold on, okay? J-Just hold on for a few minutes, okay June? N-nod or something, June! T-tell me you'll hold on!"

I tried to nod, to somehow inform this person that I'll try to hold on. I really tried but everything was fading and I felt myself slipping…

"J-June, stay with us!"

"J-June!"

"JUNE!"

Everything turned black and suddenly, I couldn't hear anything anymore. I could do nothing