It's Over Now
By Gabriel Bell
I don't own Tenchi Muyo or any related characters or concepts. I just like to have a bit of fun writing about them.
Tired. My legs are so tired, but I can't stop. I have to get away. Get away from the house, from them, from this gaping hole that has been cored through my heart. Tears blur my vision and trees crowd me in as I run. I think I am in the forest but I cannot be sure. All I know is I have to get away.
Pain of a different sort shoots up through my leg and I feel like I am falling. I cry out just as I hear a loud crack and see a flash of white. Slowly, my head starts to hurt. It's a dull, throbbing pain that doesn't quite match my heart, but it is a good accompanyment. I don't care though. I feel tired so I curl up and cry myself to sleep.
What? How did I get back up? Did I sleepwalk? Wait, is that me laying over there? It is me, and that must be my blood on the snow. I can see it pooling around my head. I'm very still, not even breathing. Oh no! That means I am...
Panic strikes me deeply, even more deeply than the grief I felt moments ago. I start to walk back towards my body, then stop. The grief is subtle, and lets me know things are better this way. I won't be a burden on their love anymore. Yes, they will miss me for a while, but they will forget soon enough. I think I can go through an eternity as a ghost as long as he is happy.
My thoughts are interrupted by movement in the brush. It's him, he's come for me. I smile as I see him, so strong and handsome, braving the cold and clutching branches of trees and bushes to find me. I keep watching as he changes direction. I can't hear him, but I know from how his mouth moves he is calling out for me. I watch as he gets closer, and closer. No, not him. Please, oh please don't let him find me. Anyone but him or Sasami.
My prayer goes unanswered. He nearly trips on my feet. The young man stands there and stares for a moment, not quite comprehending the vision before him. Then, he takes a couple of steps towards my head and falls to his knees. A shaking hand reaches out to my shoulder and he shakes it, gently at first. I can see my name, softly said, on his lips as he keeps shaking.
That shaking becomes harder, more desperate. I can tell his voice is becomming louder too. My own would if I were in his situation. This continues until he is almost violent, as if he knows he is trying to wake the dead. I'm sorry my Prince, but this time I am staying asleep. Almost as if he heard my thoughts, the shaking stops.
He just stares at me for a long, lingering moment. Then, he gently gathers my lifeless form in his arms and holds me close, starting to rock gently. In his face I can see his spirit crack, crumble, then shatter. He throws back his head and screams, a mournful howl that lets any others searching for me know, in no uncertain terms, that he has found me and of my condition. After that cry, he simply lowers his head, rocks me, and sobs.
I don't see her at first, but she is there. His true love rushes to him and stops when she sees what he is holding. The look of stunned horror is clear on her features. She drops to her knees and wraps an arm around his shoulders as she presses herself against his back. Her other hand reaches up to stroke his hair as she nuzzles him. I can see her lips move, telling him everything will be alright. She's right you know. She will be there for you to comfort you. You don't need me anymore.
Then...then something I don't expect. The hand stroking his hair reaches down to my face and brushes my cheek. Then, those long, slender fingers come up to brush blood-matted hair out of my eyes. She looks long into my face and mouths something to me, then wraps both arms around her love and burries her face in his neck.
From the way her shoulders jerk up and down I can tell she is sobbing, hard. Who for? certainly not me. Not after all I have done to her at any rate. I just watch and think, pondering why she is crying. It must be for him, his broken heart. Then it hits me. If our positions were reversed, I'd be crying too, crying for her, wanting her to come back. Even after all of our fights, all of the nasty, hateful things I said, she wanted me back.
Just at that moment, I hear a familiar voice.
"It is time child." She says "You need to decide where home is."
I am just about to give voice to my answer when a force slams into me, blinding me with white light and jerking me in a million directions before darkness decends upon me.
I shudder and gasp for breath.
Two familiar voices cry out.
"Aeka?"
"Oh Kami-Sama! Thank you!"