"For the last time Kai! There's nothing wrong with trying to have a little fun while were here. This is a tourist city. We might as well make the best of our…"
"No."
Riku sat at the small card table within the little hotel room. Outside the lights of the city shone bright. She watched as Mao and her father argued back and forth about what to do next. Kai was adamant not to leave the hotel room until David arrived. As far as they knew, David was taping into every available resource of the former Red Shield, even going so far as making inquiries of the Cinq Flèches group, or what was left of it in any case.
On the couch Louis and Kevin slouched, watching some modern sitcom with laugh tracts every five seconds. When Mai began to shout Kevin looked at Louis and without missing a beat Louis silently lifted the remote and turned up the volume.
"Think of the girls Kai! They don't want to sit around here like this." Mai was still going on, unwilling to give up the battle.
"For the LAST time Mao, the answer is…"
A knock at the door made everyone stop. The laugh track on the television was the only sound while all eyes went to the door. The knock sounded again, almost like a small tap.
"Louis." Kai asked, indicating the door before taking the remote from him and turning off the tv.
Walking in from the bathroom, Okamura looked among the faces and then looked to the door. "I'll get it." He continued to tuck in his pants and head for the door when Kai stopped him.
"No. I will." Taking up his gun Kai crept to the door. He pressed his back to the wall beside the doorframe.
Without saying anything Kevin and Mao moved to stand beside the table where Riku and Georgie sat.
"Who is it?" He asked. There was no answer. With some hesitation he looked to his companions but carefully peeked through the peephole.
"Holy…!" He grunted, reaching for the lock and quickly throwing the door open. "Lulu!"
A little girl with long purple pig tales and bug blue eyes stood looking up at the man with the gun. Her outfit seemed like a typical little girls outfit, many different colors, mismatched, not at all like the black shroud she'd once worn during the days of the war. In her arms she held a teddy bear.
"Hi Kai!" The little girl chirped. "It's been awhile."
Letting her into the hotel room, Louis was the first to speak. "Lulu? How did you find us?"
"I got a call from David. He said I should come find you guys. He said I might be of some use to you."
Kai and Louis exchanged glances, doubting that but not wanting to say otherwise.
Riku and Georgie silently watched the little girl as she approached them. She appeared to be young, but her eyes were not innocent. More like an adult that had seen centuries of terrible things. Her skin was pale and sickly, and Riku wondered what mother allowed their child to wander around like that in the middle of the night.
"Hello! I'm Lulu." Lulu said with a smile as she looked Riku over. She hugged the stuffed animal to her chest and the twins exchanged glances before speaking.
"Hi Lulu." Riku managed to say. There was something so off about the child she wondered if she were another part of the mysterious past that was rapidly unfolding.
Lulu's eyes moved to Georgie and her face started to glow. "Aww you're pretty." She mused, making the twin blush.
"Thank… you?" Before Geogie finished her thanks though, the little girl had trotted over to the couch and perched herself on the center cushion.
"Oh! I love this show!"
The tension now gone for the most part, the group settled back into their old positions. It grew later and still there was no sign of David or what they should do further.
Near the window Kai looked down on the street. The others were beginning to find a place to settle down for the night within the small hotel room, but he had no intention of sleeping.
"Putting strain on yourself won't help anything." Mao sat in the only unoccupied chair in the room, watching him, "You need to stay strong."
"Mao I know what I should do, and you nagging me about it won't help anything." Kai retorted.
"Hmph." Mao grunted before standing and moving into the bedroom. She muttered to herself about Kai and his stubborn ness when she notices something strange.
"Georgie?"
The bedroom was small, with a single light shining in from the window. On the bed Riku lay sleeping, her body curled up, her hands tucked under her chin.
Beside her was the empty spot where her sister had fallen asleep. Mao crept slowly into the room, her eyes on the window. Just past the light stood the pale figure of the other twin.
"Georgie?" Mao asked again, her voice a whisper. Even though the central heating was on the room suddenly felt very cold. "Are you alright?"
Mao found herself staring into a strange light, not the light from the window. This light was blue and it came from Georgies retinas.
Before Mao had a chance to fully grasp what she was looking at, the light from the window became blocked, and all there was was her and that mesmerizing blue glow.
"Georgie! Get away from the window!" A shout behind Mao made her jump and Kai pushed past her into the bedroom. He aimed and shot and there was the sound of shattering glass, a scream, and then…
"Georgie! Oh my god!" Mao's hands went to her ears as she watched the window and the wall surrounding it burst from its place and scatter over the room and the street below.
The ghastly image of the charopteran that had terrorized them in Japan now attempted to force his massive body into the tiny room.
Riku sat up on the bed, terrified, screaming and clutching the covers while on the other side of the monster Georgie pressed herself back against the wall, barely out of reach of the sharp claws and snapping jaw of the beast.
"Mao! Get Riku!" Kai demanded before leaping onto the bed and aiming the barrel of his gun right into the eye of the monster and pulling the trigger.
"Die! Die you son of a bitch!" He growled. With every bullet exploding into the head of the beast the wound instantly healed over, only causing it to grow more and more angry.
"Damn it!" Kai growled, his gun empty he grabbed onto the barrel and brought the handle of it down on the back of the creatures neck just as Louis entered and let loose with several rounds from his automatic.
"Down lizard!" Louis shouted as the creature started to pull out of the hole to get away from the onslaught.
In shock, Riku was the one who suddenly realized she was without he sister by her side. She whirled around in spite of Mao tugging on her arm. "Georgie! Oh my god where is she?"
Georgie had never felt so afraid in her life. One moment she'd been sleeping and the next she found herself pinned back against a wall, just feet away from her family and inches away from certain death.
Her own screams echoed in her ears as she watched the ones she loved desperately try to fight off the monster. It's blood spattered her and the wall around her. Her heart raced in her chest and she felt her knees growing weak.
"Georgie! I'm coming!"
The frightened girl looked past the beast to see her father, carefully avoiding the flailing claws to reach out to her. The monster it seemed was falling back, losing its grip on the side of the building. Louis reloaded his gun, ready to let loose once more.
"Hold on! Let me get my daughter!" Kai commanded, moving with his back against the far wall, inching towards the place where Georgie stood.
"Daddy!" Georgie whimpered through her tears, reaching for him.
"Just wait there baby girl I'm coming." Kai was getting closer, his eyes focused on her fearful blue ones. Determination on his face while he reached out his hand to save his daughter, time seemed to stop. He was so close. "Almost there…" He gritted his teeth, his fingers outstretched towards hers. For the slightest moment, their fingers brushed and then she was gone.
Just as Kai was around to grab a hold of her hand the beast forced its way back through the window and snatched her up in his massive jaws. The sight of the girls frail form in the light of the dawn was the last image Kai had of her before the charopteran took to the sky, taking the blue-eyed twin with it.
