Chapter 2: Two stories end

The next day at school, I didn't see Yokuya at all, but I wasn't complaining. Yesterday must have really happened, because I scared Yokuya so badly that he didn't even want to mess with me anymore. He went to the school right across the street of Meiya high. There were two schools in the same area because Meiya high was too populated, so they built a new school where other students could go.

My dad had called the school to ask if I really did get a hundred. Typical, dad was like that; he didn't believe it unless he saw it with his own eyes. So there was no real point in telling him what had happened with Yokuya and I. I hardly believed it. I don't even know what had happened. All I knew is that I was supposed to be dead, and that I should live everyday to the fullest now. That included…asking out Hori. A girl in my class who I liked…just didn't really want to admit that I did. Girls were a waste of time; but there was something different with Hori. She had that special smile she gave you when she didn't even know you. I liked that. But I wouldn't ask her out for a while, too stupid to do such a thing.

As I walked into the school people looked at me as if they were scared of me. They backed away as I got near them, or even walked next to them. What was with these people? Possibly someone saw what happened with Yokuya and I and spread it around the school and started rumors? God, tell me this was not happening. My life was changing fast, why couldn't I be a regular student with regular grades and a regular girlfriend?

I proceeded up the stairs to my classroom and did the daily work we always did. My mind wasn't on task that day, too many things happening at once, I had almost died just the day before, and even more events were about to take place as I got home that day. The ambulance was outside my house that day. My heart started racing faster than it had already been walking home, expecting to get jumped by Yokuya again. I prayed to myself, mom, please be safe, keep with me, I can't take losing you. I walked to the ambulance. "What's going on here?" I had asked, almost stuttering.

"Are you Suzuki, Masato?" A tall dark Korean man had asked me.

I nodded slightly and replied, "Yes sir, what's going on here? Is my mom all right?"

"Son, your mom's fine. She's holding up well, she has a strong heart. It's your dad that we're worried about. Ten minutes right before you just got here, he had a stroke. We're going to take him to the hospital and see if he'll be okay. You just stay here with your mom okay? You'll be receiving a phone call soon," he replied.

My mouth dropped. If dad died, and then mom died from heart attack…then I would be homeless. And would be sent to an orphanage. God…please tell me everything was going to be all right, please, please. And with that they took dad and put him on the stretcher, I saw him smiling at me as he was lifted into the ambulance. Dad was trying to tell me that everything was going to be all right…but I knew it wasn't going to be, something in my gut told me it wasn't going to be.

I walked into my big baby blue painted house with tears. I walked into mom's room and set by her bedside. She slowly whispered to me "E-everything's…everything's going to be f-fine…" It was the first words I had heard from her in months. Her face was pale, and the tops of her eyelids were dark tan. I kissed her forehead, and in that moment, maybe from an ounce of shock, I was sleeping on top of my mom, like I used to when I was a child. She moved my head down to her stomach and gently rubbed my hair. Within moments, she was fast asleep too. Maybe it was our special connection, or maybe it was just my new powers coming into play, whatever it was, I know we both dreamed the same dream, and I know that we were controlling ourselves; unlike normal dreams, where you have no control whatsoever. It was a dream of déjà vu. This had already happened, but I remembered it as if it were yesterday. It was that one-day, when I was about nine years old, and we were driving that blue Hyundai we used to drive. We were driving to the park, and mom wasn't sick, she was still young and healthy. We pulled into the parking lot and then I ran to the playground. Mom and dad were laughing, they loved that they had such an energetic boy as me. I got onto the swings and I was laughing as hard as I could. This was one of my happiest moments of my life, but then…it was one of the worst as well, mom had a heart attack. And dad and I found ourselves in that hospital as we waited for the doctor to come and tell us what had happened.

Mom and I both woke up, we weren't in the Dream realm any longer, and we were now in Reality. "M-mom. Did you dream the same thing I did?" I whispered softly.

"What did you dream," her voice was becoming groggy and deep.

"I dreamed of that day…when we drove to the park, and the accident happened," I replied softly and innocently.

She nodded her head and grabbed my hand. I gave her a smile. "Is everything really going to be okay, mom?" She nodded once more.

"I-I know it will." Her eyes closed suddenly, and her head fell to her right shoulder.

"M-mom?" I looked at her for a moment and shook her to wake her up. Her body just went with gravity, shaking as I shook her. Her soul was now flowing into a stream, a stream where all other souls go once their bodies refuse to live any longer. "Mom!" I screamed. I shook her some more but she just shook with me. I put my head on her chest to see if she had a heartbeat. None…

My anger merged with my sadness, I was going crazy now, and now one was going to stop me. I kicked over her little black trash can that she had in her room and knocked down all the books. "FUCK!" I screamed as I kicked and thrashed. Life was not a mystery…I knew who I was, I knew what I wanted, but I couldn't grab it. It was too far…too far for my grasp.

My anger stopped, it was sadness' part. I cried, I wept, I fell to the floor in mental agony, and then…I reached for the phone. 911 I dialed.

"Emergency, how may I help you?" the happy woman answered.

"If this is an emergency then how can you be so damn happy?" I screamed.

"Calm down…calm down. What's your emergency?"

"My mother just died! Help! Someone please help…" I said moaning, my tears were taking my voice, making me sound groggy. I fell to the floor once more, and then I slammed the phone on the ground until it shattered into little plastic pieces. I grabbed my hair, as to pull it out but I just tugged at it instead and motioned back in forth as my tears exploded out of my eyes. Today, I was wearing all black, tomorrow; I'd be wearing red. Black is the color of sorrow; red is the color of grief. If I lasted tomorrow, and dad wasn't alive, then I was to run away, far far away until I couldn't ever look back. I didn't want to live in an orphanage; I just wanted to be with my parents in the afterlife.

Another ambulance came to my house; I stopped pulling my hair and answered the door.

"We're very sorry about your mother," said a short and skinny Japanese man.

"I bet you are," I replied softly. "There she is," I pointed my arm sarcastically to the bedroom; my face had a sarcastic look as well. I wiped my tears as two other men behind the first walked into my house with him. The two behind him both had an end of a stretcher. They put my mother on it and lifted it into the ambulance. Both of my parents were put into ambulance today, was this really the ending of my beginning?

That night while lying in my room I couldn't get this madness that was happening to me out of my head. It didn't make sense why it had to be me. There were thousands of Japanese boys out there, how come it was I this time?

I was lying in my mom's bed. I wrapped her blanket around me really tight, and I soaked in her scent coming from it. My nostrils quivered as the smell rose into my nose and my brain told me what I smelt…my mother. Her scent was that of a hard workingwoman who stood in front of the stove a lot to fix us meals. I could smell the oil that she had used, and the cooking beans and steak. Mixed with fried rice and onions, how much did I miss that cooking? How badly did I yearn for it? I can't tell you…no words could describe the bond I had with my mother. She was the one who brought me onto this earth, she's the one who gave me happiness from day to day and kept fear from reaching me.

Next, I was devouring her pillow with my nose. I could smell the shampoo that she had used to wash her hair, and her conditioner. I wanted her back! I needed her.

All of a sudden…I heard a noise outside of her window. Her window was about five feet from her bed. If you were lying on the bed and looked straight you could see out into the darkness. Something was moving…lurking. I pulled the blanket closer to me, like a boy would do. Then, I was looking directly at this creature, it was staring me in the eyes, like a beast about to devour its prey. I stared at it for a while, and for a while, it didn't make any movement, and then into the black abyss it ran off into the starry night. I shook a little, scared of this image. My mind wasn't working; it couldn't be working.

An influence of fear made me run outside and track this thing. At this point, I didn't care about life or death, it could devour me alive and I'd be satisfied, because then…I'd be home, with mom, in the kitchen smelling that food cook as my stomach growled and moaned for food. I saw it running in the road. This creature, this thing, had four legs. It was dark black with what appeared to be red wings forming out of its back. It appeared to be a panther, but more vicious and furious then a panther, its eyes were full of hate, and I could see the rage burning for blood, for death.

I followed it out into the open road. For a minute, I was foolish, as stubborn as a kid, and didn't know anything about life. I didn't know why I was here in the first place, if there was nothing left for me to do, then there was no point in being here. I had to stop because I was running out of breath. I hadn't heard it at the time, but as I turned around, looking back at my house, a semi was two inches from me. And then…it happened. SLAM. I was under the semi; my frail body was broken and shaking. The last set of tires ran me further into the ground. After the semi had passed I tried to move, but after each muscle tried, my quivering body died out. My breath stopped, no more heartbeat, no more life. My agony had been put down, like a limp dog in the rain being injected his final poison, and finally I died. This is what I wanted, was it not? This is how I wanted it to end, and that is how I got it.