There More Than Your Eternity

Chapter 6

"Shadows Everywhere"

The creak of swings sends a wave of nausea through me. I know where I stand. A playground not too far from my house. The wind kicks up, drowning out the swings. I don't want to be here and I know I have no choice but to run. Something's coming and I never know what it is. Whenever it gets too close, shadows take refuge on it's body. Like right now-

I sit up and gasp. I glance around my room first before counting to 10 and calming myself down. "There's nothing there," I whisper to myself. I repeat it over and over. A couple reassurements later, I'm laying down again, thinking. Not about my dream. I stopped that a long time ago. But about Riku and the camping trip he invited to me to yesterday, an hour after the incident with Kamiya.

"Do you want to go on a camping trip with me and my family this weekend?" I blink and all that comes out of my mouth is, "What?" Riku puts his head on my desk. "I know, right? I don't like it either. But Kamiya and my dad insisted and my mom caved in. She wants you to go with us. Something about hardly seeing you nowadays. And I said, 'I don't bring him over anymore because we've got sudden pest problems.' "

I smile, thinking of Riku's mom, a slender, strong woman with calculating eyes like Riku's. "Did she catch on?" I ask. "Yeah! Kamiya was in the room when I said that so my mom almost took my face off with her slipper!" I snort and say, "Go Rika!"

After we're done laughing, Riku looks at me. "So are you in?" I fake a serious expression and avert his eyes. "Hmm, I don't know. I've got a meeting with the United States president, so-" "Oh please," Riku cuts in, rolling his eyes. I laugh again. "What time are we leaving?" Riku leans on his hand and shoots me a lazy grin. I feel my stomach flip. Whoa. "Are you ok?" Riku says, frowning, watchful as always. "Yeah. Must've been something I ate at lunch," I laugh nervously, holding my stomach now.

"Oh, ok. We're leaving at 4. Or so my dad says. But knowing him and Kamiya, we'll leave right at 6." He rolls his eyes again. The bell rings. Riku gets up and dusts off his knees. "I'll call you later for more details." "Ok. Later," I say. Once he's gone, I look down at my stomach and think, What was that?

I think of Kamiya and sigh. I know he's going to use me to annoy Riku somehow. He makes me doubt that he studied abroad most of his life. Or do all students act that way when they return? I snort and close my eyes. "Yeah right. It's only Kamiya."

I grimace as Kamiya's dad goes over another bump. "Are you ok?" Kamiya asks, shoving a bag out of his face and looking up at me. "Y-yeah," I say, smiling. He laughs and shakes his head, "My dad treats this van like a truck! Riku told me you get car sick sometimes, right?" I nod. Kamiya smile vanishes. "Speaking of Riku..." We both turn and look at our other white-haired companion behind us, sleeping silently. "I'm use to it," I comment. "I'm not. And the way he looks makes my hands itch. I want to wake him up!" Kamiya grumbles, his toothy smile slowly reappearing. I open my mouth to answer but Rika speaks up from the front, "You will do no such thing." Me and Kamiya laugh before he looks out the window again.

"Honey, slow down! Our stop's coming up!" I hear Rika say. Kenji, obviously the man of the house, laughs it off. "It's ok! I've got it all under control!" I grin and look at Kamiya. "My family's one of a kind—" Kenji slams on the brakes and me and Kamiya fly forward. It's like a wierd race. But Kamiya wins by reaching the the back of the front seat first. And I finish last, by gracefully landing into him. Yeah right!

"Ack!" I cry out, slamming into Kamiya with my forehead banging against his lips. He cries out and we both think we're going to live until Riku comes crashing into me. Everything grows quiet. I don't have to look to know that Rika's giving Kenji a long, hard glare. "I-I'm going to go u-unpack," Kenji says quickly and I can hear the door open and close. Rika gets out too. K-Kenji's a dead man.

"What a crappy way to wake up," Riku snaps, sitting up. I lay back on Riku's stomach and say in a shaky voice, "T-This is the first time I f-forgot to wear a seatbelt." Kamiya doesn't say anything and I notice his hand covering his mouth. I open my mouth to blurt out a million apologies but Riku stops me. "Don't apologize to him," he says, wriggling underneath me. I get on the seat and Riku sits up right. Kamiya's still sitting inbetween the two front seats, his hand hiding a part of his frown. But when he lets his arm flop down to his side, I feel chills run up my spine.

Kamiya licks the blood that's on his lip and wipes the rest away on his chin. "Are you jealous, little brother? That I'm the first to kiss Sena on his adorable forehead?" he says, smirking. Holy crap. I glance at Riku, who was about to step out of the van. He suddenly turns around. "What did you say?" "RIKA-CHAN!" I cry out, covering my mouth soon after. What'd I just do? We all freeze as Rika somehow appears by my side in a matter of seconds. "Yes?" Rika asks, a rare expression on her face. I laugh nervously, taking in her lowered eyes directed at her two sons and a ominous smile. "I-I forgot what I was going to say!" Rika nods and pats me on the head. "Oh my. So many things you keep forgetting about Sena! When you remember clearly, please tell me!" She beams at me. "I-I tend to do that often! Um, d-do you need help with l-luggage?" I ask, feeling Riku's strong gaze.

I zoom out of there before Rika could say, 'Yes.'

At the back of the van, I think, Blah. Riku's annoyed with me because I keep calling Rika whenever him and Kamiya are about to fight. But I can't sit back and watch. Two siblings quarreling is scary! "Here, Sena!" Kenji says, tearing me away from my thoughts by throwing me the heaviest looking bag in the trunk. "Augh!" I grab onto the bag to keep from dropping it and stumble back. Not good! I'm going to fall!

"Easy, there," exclaims a voice from behind. I suddenly feel two hands supporting me from the back. I blink and turn around. A guy with a mohawk smiles down at me. "Let me help you." He grabs the bag from me like it's as heavy as a feather and throws it over his shoulder. I bite my lip, becoming depressed. Am I that weak? I think, staring at my hands.

Like a mind reader, the guy ruffles my hair after he steadies the bag and says, "I do volunteer work for my dad's construction company so I'm built like a tank." I look up at him, wondering if what he said is true and recieve a smile in return. "The name's Musashi." "I-I'm Sena," I say shyly. He smiles at me again and looks like he's about to say something but Kenji stops him.

"Hey! There's the person I wanted to see! When did you guys get here?" Kenji shouts, walking up. "We left a little early because of Hiruma," Musashi says, his smile wearing off. "Hiruma's pretty punctual, so I'm not surprised! Can you help us unload?" "Yeah. The others should be heading down, too." "Great! With their help we'll get done in only—"

"What are they doing here?" I hear Riku say. I look past Musashi and Kenji. I take note of Kamiya and Riku's serious expressions and frown myself. Is something wrong? Kenji sighs and he faces his two sons. "I know you guys are set on handling everything yourselves..."

A/N: Apologies times a thousand. I had a hard time writing up this chapter. *gets stick and taps different areas in the story* When I'm bored, I always make up scenes here and there and write them down. This is basically slices of my scenes put together to form some wierd pizza. Thus, giving birth to the 6th chapter. (it feels all blah to me, because I forced my brain to come up with it [I'll probably re-do the whole thing later]) I promise better ones in the future! :'P