Could The Digiworld Be Another Name For Hell
Part 2B
Tai and Sora looked up as Matt sat down by the fire deep in thought. Sora looked from Matt and then to Tai giving him a firm nudge and gesturing with her head for him to go and talk to Matt. Tai nodded to Sora and walked over to where Matt was sitting and took a seat next to him unnoticed. Sora stood up and walked to where the others were settling down for the night.
"Hey." Tai said as he began to draw pictures in the dirt with his finger.
Matt looked over to Tai and shook his head, "hey," he mumbled.
Tai looked up and over to Matt who still seemed to be in deep thought. "So what is up between you and Maki anyways?" He came right to the point.
"What do you mean?" Asked Matt, still not looking at Tai.
"You really don't seem to like her." Tai said still drawing with his finger in the dirt.
"And you do? Oh, and nice hearts." Matt said sarcastically looking down at Tai's drawing.
Tai looked up and blushed and looked in the direction of Sora, "uh, well?" he quickly erased his drawing and looked back at Matt seriously. "Look Matt, Maki is one of us. She seems nice and she is the only other human here in the Digiworld besides us. We should all stick together."
Matt glared at Tai, could he be any more gullible, he thought. "Look we don't know her and I don't happen to think that she is nice at all."
Tai sat there with his mouth open not sure what to say, this was the first time he had ever known Matt to prejudge someone like this. "Fine." Tai said. "You have the right not to like her, but we are a group, a team and we have to work together and like it or not, Maki is now a part of that team. I suggest you get used to it and grow up." Tai stated plainly and before Matt had a chance to retort Tai got up and walked away from him leaving him only to his thoughts and now his anger.
The Next Morning..........
After a breakfast of berries and nuts the group lounged around the camp and tried to enjoy the next few days that Tai had given them of vacation. Of course if Mimi had had her way she would have made the group track around to find a resort but the small camp by the lake would have to do. Mimi was one of the first one from the group to make herself a comfortable spot in the grass near the water, perfect for tanning. Sora and Kari were soon to follow, but not before attempting to invite Maki, who would have no part of it. Maki just politely declined the invitation and offered a feeble excuse of a headache to save her from having to be social. Tai, Matt and T.K. all ran as fast as they could to the cool lake to enjoy some splashing around in the hot sun.
Joe declined going in as he felt sure that the lake probably possessed some bacteria or parasite that he was most likely allergic to. Gommamon just scoffed at his human companion and wasted no time in making a mad dash for the water. Izzy on the other hand made no excuses for not enjoying that water or the sun by simply stating that he would rather not, research needed to be done.
With that all the digimon and all but three of the humans were playing, yelling, laughing and having an enjoyable and well-needed afternoon of fun and relaxation.
Maki sat off to the side, quietly watching the others enjoy themselves. This is all too familiar, she thought to herself, people that she was with having fun while she sat by and watched. In a way I guess it is my own fault, she thought sadly as she began to pick small flowers from the grassy floor from which she sat. Maki decided that for now being a bit mindless may prove to ease her feelings of sadness and quickly she began concentrating on picking the pretty white flowers that seemed to surround her.
Nearby Izzy looked up from his computer and watched her intently, his eyes gazed at her up and down. He then blushed as realized that he was staring and hoped that no one had seen him do that. He wondered about her, where she had come from, what she was doing here, was she a digidestined, why didn't she have a digimon if she was, if she wasn't then why was she here? He had so many questions that he wanted to ask, but she seemed so distant, closed off. A phrase suddenly popped into his mind, "Alone in her solitude." He looked back to her and watched her for another moment while she picked flowers, he nodded his head in agreement to the silent thought and then went back to his typing.
T.K. and Kari had begun a game of splash tag while Tai had gone off swimming leaving Matt standing alone in the water. He wondered for a moment what he should do, he looked over the girls, Sora and Mimi looked like they were sleeping in the sun. It would be interesting later to see if they resemble lobsters, he thought to himself as he laughed. He then looked past the sunbathing girls to Maki who was sitting on the grass in the shade picking flowers. For a moment he felt his anger melt as he watched her. She's not doing anything evil or twisted, she's just picking flowers, he thought. But still, she is hiding something, if for no other reason then that, I can't trust her. Huh. I am probably the only one out of the group who doesn't, but that's ok. I am the smart one after all. He laughed at that and then looked over to Izzy who was no longer typing away franticly on his computer, but rather he was staring at Maki! And he was blushing! Matt narrowed his eyes at Izzy for a moment, he could have sworn that Izzy was looking her up and down like someone eyeing hungrily a piece of meat. Matt quickly turned away, what did he care? He didn't like Maki, for that matter he couldn't stand the little twit. He knew she was hiding something and as soon as he found out he would prove it to the rest of the group.
Maki looked up for a moment and scanned around the area with her eyes, going from person to person until she came to Matt standing in the water with his back turned towards her, he was just standing there, not swimming or splashing, but just standing there. He was a weird one, she thought. She looked back down at the accumulated pile of flowers that she had collected and began weaving them together into a chain, something she used to do as a child. The only time she could remember being happy. A warm tear welled up in her eye and over flowed streaming down her face. Maki quickly wiped it away and looked around to make sure no one had seen that, when she was sure that everyone was too busy to have noticed she got up from where she was sitting and walked away from the group and back into the woods.
She found a place where she felt was far enough away from the others, but not far enough where she wouldn't be able to find her way back. She sat down drawing her knees up to her chest, wrapping her arms around them and burying her face down and began to weep, quietly at first and then forcefully as the sobs racked her body. She didn't know what she wanted anymore, before she had come here the only thing she had wanted was to die; her pain had consumed her so fully. She had been such an outsider with her family and classmates. She had no friends really, though she had wanted friends, somehow she was never able to make them. No one understood her, no one even tried. But now, now she didn't know what she wanted. It seemed as though she may have been given a second chance to make friends but the pain that surrounded her soul continued to hold her back, not allowing her to open up and join in with the new kids that she had met. Kids that for the most part had welcomed her into their group. She continued to sob alone in the woods.
From far away an evil set of eyes came upon the girl once again, watching her as she sobbed, smiling to himself. "Hmmm, Maki, I know who are now." He laughed loudly "Pathetic girl, I may not have to worry about destroying you after all, you may do that for me." He closed the viewing window and turned around to his minion who cowered in his Master's presence. "Go! Keep watch and report back to me. I want to know everything she does." The minion bowed lowly, "Yes Master, as you wish." With that the minion scurried off and the evil figure stood alone in his dark room bellowing laughter.
Matt turned back around decided that he didn't feel like swimming anymore. He looked over to where Maki had been sitting and realized that she was gone. He looked around the rest of the camp but she was nowhere to be seen. He wadded out of the water and over to Izzy who was tapping away at the keys.
"Hey Izzy, did you see where Maki went?" Matt asked.
Izzy looked up from his typing, then over to where Maki had been sitting and back to Matt. "No, she was here a moment ago. Do you think we should have everyone go out and look for her?"
"Nah, I am sure she didn't go far." Matt said. "I'll go look for her, if I can't find her then we will have everyone else start looking too." With that Matt turned from where Izzy sat and walked into the woods. He was almost sure that he knew where she would be. After a few minutes of walking Matt came upon where Maki sat, she was sitting in the fetal position and was sobbing hard. She didn't seem to notice that he was standing there watching her. Without thinking he went over to the crying girl and sat beside her wrapping his arm around her trying to comfort her. Maki didn't even look up but continued to sob even harder leaning into Matt and allowing him to hold her.
Matt sat there with Maki holding her tight in his arms until her sobs began to subside. He didn't know what to say to her or even for that matter why she was crying like that. But for some reason he felt bad for her and decided that this was not the time to bombard her questions.
Maki sniffled as she looked up into Matt's eyes, her face was stained with tears and cheeks were crimson red. Matt looked back her and forced a small comforting smile to the girl that up until a few moments ago he couldn't stand.
"Are you ok?" he asked sincerely.
"Yeah..no..I don't know." Maki said shaking her head.
Matt frowned at this. "Wanna talk about it?" he asked.
Maki stiffened up for a moment and then looked down to the ground. "You'll think I'm a freak or psycho or something." She said softly.
Matt shook his head, "no I won't, Maki, I promise. You can tell me."
She looked back at Matt and exhaled deeply. "You won't?"
"I won't, I promise." Matt said smiling softly.
Maki looked back down to the ground and frowned. "You asked me yesterday about what I meant when I said something about jumping off a building and hell...And I lied to you, I told you that the fall had confused me." She looked back to Matt to see his reaction.
Matt just nodded his head and continued to smile softly at her.
"Well," she continued. "I did jump off a building, I don't know how or why I ended up here, but I did actually jump."
"But why Maki?" Matt asked as he began to frown. He certainly had not expected this to be her big secret.
Maki began to sob again, "because it hurts and I just wanted to die, to end it." She said shakily through her sobs.
Matt was left utterly speechless, he tried to think of something to say but couldn't find the words. Instead he just held her tighter in his arms and began to stroke her hair.
Finally she was able to compose herself enough to speak. "So, you think I am psycho now, don't you?" She asked.
Matt let go and sat back from Maki and looked deep into her eyes, there he could see the pain that they held. He shook his head slowly, "No Maki, I don't. I just don't know what to say."
They sat there for a moment in uncomfortable silence, when Matt finally spoke up. "I'm sorry." He said.
Maki looked up obviously confused, "why?" she asked.
"Because, I was so mean to you. I wasn't fair to you." Matt said softly as he struggled to apologize, something he found very difficult to do.
"It's ok Matt, you don't know me and you don't owe me anything."
"That's not the point Maki, the point is that I was mean and that was really unfair of me to be like that to you when I didn't even know the first thing about you."
Maki just nodded her head slowly, "I guess." She said.
"Maybe...I mean if you don't hate me or anything like that, um...maybe we can be friends? I mean if that is ok with you." Matt stammered.
Maki looked up at Matt and smiled, her heart suddenly felt a bit lighter. "Really?" she asked.
Matt smiled at this, it was easier then he thought, being nice that is. "Yeah."
"I'd like that." Maki said as she pulled out her pendant and began playing with it with her fingers.
Matt smiled at her for a minute and then noticed the pendant she had. "Hey. What is that?" He asked pointing to her necklace.
Maki looked down at her pendant, she hadn't been unaware that she had taken it out. "Uh, it's just a necklace I found a couple of years ago. I liked it so I kept it."
"Can I see it for a sec?" he asked.
Maki slipped the necklace up over her head and handed it to Matt who examined it closely and then took out his own crest and looked at the two of them together. The only difference he could see was the symbol that was on each, other then that they were the same.
"Um, let's go back to camp, I wanna have Izzy take a look at this." He said standing up, holding his hand out to Maki.
Maki was a little confused by his reaction to her necklace, it was neither negative or positive, but she was intrigued to see if maybe someone would be able to tell her what her necklace meant, if anything. She took his hand as he helped her to her feet and they headed back to the camp.
Not to far off a small creature watched the two kids and ran off to report back to his Master the new developments.
A/N~ One more part for part 2....