DownPour
[A/N: I'm sure this is sort of a cliche, but I was depressed, so sue me! Oh, and this is Vs 2, because the Vs 1 didn't make any sense. And yes, I sort of based it on some Japanese legend about a sailor and cranes.]
The rain poured down in long sheets.
Just like me
, the girl thought, as she pressed her nose against the glass. Just like me.The boy paced back and forth across the room. "Look, Xena, this isn't like you. I know you loved him, but –"
The girl whirled on him. "Don't call me that, Marco."
Her voice was flat, yet dripped with venom.
The other boy in the room walked over toward her. "Rachel, you can't go on like this. You can't live your life –"
The girl, Rachel, gave him a cold stare. "You dare to tell me that? You? This entire thing is your fault, anyway! And you dare to tell me that I can't live my life like this?"
Jake jerked back, but continued in a calm voice. "Rachel, blaming me for Tobias's –"
Her voice continued it's flat quality, still dripping with sweetness and venom. "I'm not blaming you unjustly, Jake. Surely even you can admit that. You were the one who ordered him forward."
She gave him a fake smile, one that had once been beautiful, but was now cold and hard.
Rachel's voice rose to a shriek. "And if you ever again DARE to MENTION that name to ME, I'll do what I should have done in the first place, AND KILL YOU LIKE DRODE SAID I SHOULD!"
Her voice was now so high that it could have been heard across the street.
The one other person in the room, Cassie, wiped her hands hesitantly on a towel. "Rachel, calm down. The people next door can hear you. Like –"
Rachel's voice was now mocking. "Oh, should I care, Cassie? The killer with a conscience? Because you're too damn afraid to admit that some little Yeerks might be hurt, and someone might end up dead?"
Marco shook his head as he watched her. Poor Rach, he thought. If only Jake hadn't ordered Tobias to go in first. If only he hadn't ordered Ax to go on that patrol. If only Tobias hadn't been there at that place, that time. If only . . . .
Jake sadly walks away, Cassie and Marco a few feet behind him.
Rachel watches from the window, then turns away, sinking to her knees, as she allows herself to give in to the tears that she's held back for so long.
She only lets out a single word as she sinks down against the window.
"Tobias . . . ."
She is asleep when the call comes.
Rachel! Ax is captured, we're going in!
The girl jerks up out of bed, slipping out of the shirt that she sleeps in and into the morphing outfit that she wears underneath.
She is immediately morphing, and seconds later, soars out of her window, where a hawk waits for her.
This can't be happening,
Rachel thinks, hours later, drained of all tears, as her mother comes in. This can't be happening.Her mother ruffles Rachel's golden hair gently. "Rachel, Jake's here to see you again."
This can't be happening. This can't be happening. This can't be happ –
Just then, her mother's voice cuts through to her, and she looks calmly up, emotionless again.
"Tell him to go away. I don't want to see him."
"Really, Rachel, I think it would be for the best. You need to –"
Rachel cuts her mother off. "Go and tell him to leave, before I kill him."
Her mother's face is shocked, but she goes and turns Jake away.
Rachel then sinks back into an empty reverie of the rain falling gently against her window.
This can't be happening.
The girl feels the power of the bear within her as she charges.
A polar bear is a few seconds behind her, moving ruthlessly for Visser Three.
She hears Jake's commands in her head yet again. Tobias, go for Visser Three. Distract him. Rachel, back him up. Cassie, distract the Hork-Bajir and Taxxons. Marco, with me, at Ax.
Like a dream, she pivots for Visser Three, as Tobias lunges.
She has more experience with this morph. She knows what it can and can not do. And she knows that there is no way that the polar bear can take Visser Three down alone.
Visser Three's tail strikes forward.
FWAPP!
She's heard the sound so many times.
But it is only this time that she truly pays attention to it.
And like a resounding echo, the next sound comes.
FWUMP!
The sound of a polar bear falling to the ground, dead.
Rachel lifts the thin razor.
Slowly, in a easy way, she raises it to her throat, and thrusts it through her sub-clavian and carotid arteries.
She knows her anatomy. Tobias had even studied it with her, doing her homework on the topic for her.
And she knows that this way, even if Cassie finds her, it will be too late by then.
Her hand curls tightly around the note. Cassie will find it.
There are four envelopes inside.
One for each of the three remaining Animorphs. One for her parents.
As the crimson stain rushes out, and stains the translucent blue blouse that she is wearing, she begins to smile.
Rachel knows her clothes. The clothes that she is wearing – Tobias bought them for her. For her birthday.
The stain is spreading across the jeans, across the sink, and darkness begins to come before her eyes.
She sinks to her knees.
Her hand tightens on the note.
The razor in her other hand drops to the floor.
The world is swirling around her, and the darkness is enfolding her.
Rachel kneels over.
She falls backwards, her emanciated face at rest.
It will shock the people at her funeral, that calm and happy look on her face.
Suddenly, there is a rush of wings, and a red tail-feather falls to the ground, next to a golden lock of hair, untouched by the crimson bloodstains.
Outside of the girl's window, a red-tailed hawk circles, having materialized out of nowhere. Keep an eye on the sky for me, Rachel.
Another hawk flutters out of the window, having also materialized out of thin air. I always will, Tobias. I always will.
And the two hawks glide away, on a thermal, forever united.
I always will.
[A/N: Well? Liked it, loved it, hated it? Send any and all replies to me at anifuture@hotmail.com. And take a look at my webpage, at http://anifuture.hypermart.net.]