Sorry about the long wait, school was crazy. But it's summer now. YAY! so hopefully much more constant chapters. Thank you all for the kind reveiws. Please keep them coming. They make my day :) Hope you like this chapter :D
Chapter 9: I Don't Want To Forget
I woke up groggy; I was lying on the couch, a thick blanket over me. I was wearing my pj's, I didn't remember putting them on. I sat up and stretched quietly, shaking the knots from the stiff muscles in my back. I stood up and walked to the kitchen.
I grabbed a glass from the cupboard and filled it with water from the tap. The cold liquid woke me up and I shook my head to try and break free of the fuzzy sensation clouding my mind.
I wandered into the living room again, had I tidied up? I remembered something on this floor a box? Photos? Something. I must have put them away I thought to myself quickly. My eyes caught sight of the digital clock on my TV 1:00pm. I had slept longer then I thought, it would explain the bright sunlight streaming in through the windows. That was weird. I never slept in.
The shrill ring of my cell phone startled me and I hurried to find it. I was in the back pocket of the jeans I had worn yesterday. I wondered why I would get changed in my room but fall asleep on the couch; I must have crashed watching TV. Something about this day just didn't make sense. I hit the green phone sign on my cell.
"Hey" Takumi's voice was on the other end. I could hear a soft clattering in the background.
"Oh Takumi, Hi" I answered as I place the phone under my ear and held it with my shoulder. With my free hands I folded the clothes I had worn yesterday.
"Are you feeling okay?" He asked in a hushed voice. I wondered at his question, I didn't remember feeling ill yesterday. Infact... I couldn't remember any of yesterday.
"Can I come round? We can hang out and watch movies. Just like the old days" His request interrupted my thoughts as I tried to desperately remember what happened yesterday.
"Don't you have a date?" I asked him quickly. Takumi was never free Saturday; he always spent Saturday's wooing whatever girl he had picked this week.
"Umm no, we talked about this the other day. Remember?" He voice was confused as was I. Why couldn't I remember that conversation... I tried to remember the past week but it was all a blur.
"Takumi I need you to come here right now" my voice was breathless and panicked as I begged him to come over.
"Okay Chi, I'll be right over" he must have heard the need in my voice because he hung up quickly. I knew he would be over in less than 10 minutes, if he was rushing. I walked into my room and dressed mechanically. Could 16 year olds get Alzheimer's? Had I hit my head? Did I have a Brain tumour? As I pulled a plain blue t-shirt over my head I heard a knock on the door. I ran through the house to greet him.
Takumi stood on my doorstep, his eyes wide with concern and his posture worried. He was wearing a soft blue cashmere v-neck sweater. Obviously something his mother had bought for him.
"Chi, are you okay" He stepped into my house and pulled my small hands into his. He scanned the flat for any visible signs of danger I assumed. I closed the door behind him
"No Takumi, I don't think I am" I told him. As he led me to the sofa and sat me down.
"What is it? Are you ill?" his hands touched me lightly, touching my forehead and my wrists. Trying to check if I had a temperature or an irregular pulse.
"No, I don't know" I told him as he stared at me wide eyed.
"Chi, what is wrong with you" his eyes filled with tenderness. Soft blue eyes, usually so beautiful seemed bland now. As if my mind was searching for some other colour, something stronger.
"I can't remember what happened yesterday" I told him quickly waiting for him to tell me I was going crazy. To my surprise he laughed, a manly bellow.
"Chi your exhausted, its fine if yesterday is a bit fuzzy, you've had a long hard week" He smiled at me and released my hands. Running one hand through his ink black hair and over his face, as if pushing the stress from his features.
"No Takumi, they're not fuzzy. I can't remember anything from yesterday! Or the whole of this week! I don't know what is wrong with me" I told him, getting slowly more exasperated. I put my head in my hands and sighed quietly. His hand was on my chin and he lifted my head to meet his eyes.
"You don't remember anything?" his eyes seemed genuinely worried now. It made me worried.
"No! You have to tell me what we did yesterday!" I grabbed his hand again, needing the support more than anything.
"Okay first you have to calm down" Takumi said as he laced his hands with mine. I took a deep breath and exhaled. He smiled.
"Right, I'm calm. Start from the beginning" I told him as I felt my pulse slowly quieten down. I continued to breathe deeply.
"Well I met you off the bus, like most days. Then you had biology with the new guy... Haku." His voiced sneered the boy's name. A boy I had never heard of.
"Who is Haku?" I asked him desperately.
"He is the new boy, your biology partner. You said something about him being good with animals at lunch yesterday." His voice was soft, reassuring. I suddenly remembered a tank full of sea creature and a long pale hand softly swiping the water. Hypnotizing the creatures. I tried to remember the boy but couldn't. Why didn't I know him?
"What does he look like?" I pleaded with him. It was as if in my memory I could see the outline of a boy but it was fuzzy, like an out of focus picture.
"Well, he has long black hair, pale skin. He is tall and skinny. A pretty normal guy" his words painted the picture in my head, a normal guy like he said. "Oh, and he has green eyes" Takumi tagged this aspect on the end, as if he had forgotten it.
Suddenly the image changed, the green eyes burned on the face of a tall, thin man. His dark hair falling into his beautiful face. I could see his walk as he prowled the corridors, his shoulder hunched as if afraid to be noticed. And I saw a young boy, the most wonderful boy.
He stood on a bridge, his chin length dark hair blowing in the breeze, his eyes staring into my soul. Burning like fire, calm like water. His face turned to the sky, an ethereal beauty about him.
"Kohaku" I whispered his name through my dry lips. I suddenly remembered ... how could I have ever forgotten? The feel of his hand in mine. The blazing look in his eyes when he first saw me. The tenderness in his face as we hurtled through thin air, somehow staying upright and the promise he had made me so long ago.
My 11 year old self begging, choosing to leave him. Promising to not look back, to leave all that I loved in exchange for the safe return of my parents. The chance to grow up, happy and normal. Human.
I could hear his voice now and it encapsulated me like an embrace. I could see his face and feel his presence. I felt his wash through me and take me over, the way he had when I was just a girl. He had promised to come back to me, and he had. He had kept his promise.
I ran to the dresser in my room, barely conscious of Takumi following me. I found the large cardboard box and search through it wildly. A picture of me and my mum and dad and an old letter from them. I found a red sketch book and flipped through it. Places I knew, people too. There were a few sketches of Takumi in here. I pulled all these out frantically leaving them on my bedroom floor.
"Chihiro, what are you doing?" Takumi caught my arm and pulled me round. A handful of my treasured childhood memories in his hands, the last things I had to remind me of my parents. He put them carefully in the box.
"Takumi, if I asked you to do something for me, would you?" I asked him desperately.
"Of course I would, Chi" he let go of my arm and looked into my eyes. "Anything you need"
"I need you to drive me somewhere "I told him and he nodded.
"I'll take you wherever you need to go" and I knew the one place I needed to go the most. The one place I could find him.
