Chapter 9
Only Nightmares Come True

Shigure put the phone down on the desk. He held both of her arms to help steady her in case she fainted. "Tohru-kun…"

Her eyes were wild and darting in every direction. She didn't know what to do. She was in a panic. "I'm not even supposed to be here…." Her eyes were filled with tears. "My memory should have been erased and I should be out in the streets instead of being here…" she sobbed quietly.

His heart went out to the poor girl he had grown attached to over the year. She was more than just a guest in his house (that did all the housework); she was like one of his own younger cousins… except she wasn't a cursed one. He wanted to help her and protect her in anyway he possibly could. He wanted to comfort her, but didn't know how to do more than just support her like he was at that moment. He looked down at her tenderly and then, his eyes sweeping around the room for a moment, came to a conclusion. "It's okay, Tohru-kun," whispered Shigure gently. "I have an idea."

Her eyes rose up to meet his with tears lining their edges. "You do?"

Shigure took her cold hand and declared, "Hurry! Come with me!"

He dragged her out of his room and down the hallway. She followed, so close on his heel that she was practically stumbling over her own two feet. "Where are we going?" she staggered, her eyes wide as she stared after him.

They started to climb the stairs to the second floor; Shigure didn't answer her question, but said, "Go into your room and collect the clothes you wore last night, your mother's picture, and anything else you remember having the day you went to Akito's. Then, meet me outside your bedroom door, okay?"

She blinked in silence momentarily before replying hastily, "Hai!"

She hurried into her room and pulled her items from their containers and put them on her bed. She remembered that she wore a coat and shoes the day she went to Akito's, so she ran downstairs to the front entrance where the closet was, pulled her coat from the closet and snatched her shoes from the ground. She hurried back upstairs to her room to collect the things she left on her bed and met Shigure at her door soon after with Yuki waiting next to him. Yuki appeared equally worried and nervous as his taller cousin standing next to him.

"Now what?" she asked them.

Yuki took her coat and shoes to relieve her from all of the objects to carry. "We're going to hide you, Honda-san," Yuki told her in a reassuring voice.

"Yes," said Shigure. "We're going to stuff you and this stuff in the attic so Akito won't find you."

"You have an attic?" she declared in disbelief. "I didn't know you had an attic!"

"No doubt it's messier than a barn," Yuki remarked coldly.

"No one's been up there for years, but it should make due," stated Shigure. Shigure led Tohru to a wooden ladder protruding down from the ceiling a few feet from the top of the staircase.

"Now Yuki-kun, we have to hurry," Shigure told Yuki sternly. "Akito's going to be here in about five minutes. I want you to take Tohru-kun's stuff up to the attic while I put on some tea." Shigure turned away from Yuki and gave Tohru a sympathetic look. "Tohru-kun, you should tell Kyo-kun what's going on. Hopefully he'll be able to hear you and understand you."

The two teenagers nodded. Shigure went back downstairs to make tea for Akito; Yuki took Tohru's things and disappeared up the ladder. Tohru was left in the hallway with her heart beating in her ears. She knew what she had to do, but she was scared. Everything was happening so quickly. She bit her lip, sidestepping with indecisiveness and uncertainly of what to do and how to do it. After a few seconds, she persuaded herself to move and soon she was entering Kyo's room and kneeling next to his bed. A grey, dreary light filtered into Kyo's room from the window, casting a dingy glow throughout its surroundings. Kyo's skin looked yellowish-grey in the desolate light. She watched his perspiring, sleeping form, and his eyelids dancing restlessly as he dreamed. She hated the thought of waking him, but she knew she had to in order for him to understand the dangers they were about to face.

"Kyo-kun," she whispered softly, her voice cracking with emotion, "Kyo-kun, wake up."

A groan escaped his lips as his eyebrows frowned, "Toh…?"

She brushed a strand of hair from his face. "It's time to wake up, Kyo-kun."

"Where… where are you?" He groaned, blinking his eyes quickly and squinting at her.

Her heart ached and she clasped her hands around one of his clammy ones. He was so pitiful in this ill state; it pained her to watch him. She couldn't tell what he was feeling or thinking, she only hoped that she was able to reach through to him in his fever-controlled mind and body. "I'm here, Kyo-kun. I'm right here."

His eyes fluttered, blinking less as he was able to see and comprehend his surroundings. He studied her through his squinted vision. He frowned at her, seeing her for the first time. "Why… why are you crying?"

She hadn't noticed. Her eyes widened as her fingers flew to her flushed cheeks to find them wet. "I'm-I'm sorry… it's just…"

"Don't cry…. You know I can't stand it…" he muttered, reaching for her cheek weakly, but was unable to reach it.

She caught his searching hand, and held it to her cheek. She closed her watery eyes, sniffled once before opening them again to watch her love lying limply in his bed. "I know… it's just that… you're sick and… and I had to call Hatori-san to come and see you, and…"

A small, wavering smile crossed his face. "Don't be afraid Tohru. I'll pull through. I always have."

"Honda-san," Yuki called from the doorway, "you must hurry."

She looked up at Yuki briefly with tears falling down her cheeks. "I'm sorry Kyo-kun," she murmured in a choked and fearful voice, "but I have to go now…"

Kyo gave her a puzzled look. He clutched her hand, afraid to let her go. "Where are you going? Don't leave me… please…"

She stood up. "I'm sorry, I can't be with you right now…"

His eyes were wide now as he lost his grasp on her. "Wait… Tohru, where you going? Don't go!"

She bent down close to his face. "I'm sorry, but I have to go…. Akito's coming."

His eyes dilated in horror. "A-Aki…"

"Just know that I will always love you, no matter what happens," she sobbed quietly. She kissed his forehead and fled the room to the attic.

...…...

(((Kyo's POV)))

It was one big nightmare come true. I hadn't been sleeping well, tossing and turning all night, living through my horrid dreams with fear. I was forced to relive certain memories I would have rather forgotten if I could have.

In a misty haze, she was there before me. She was glowing, like an angel from heaven. She was so beautiful. I could hear her calling my name. The mist would blanket her, hide her from me, and then she would reappear before me again, this time closer, still calling my name. We spoke momentarily and tenderly, as if these precious moments would soon be our last. The mist would shield her from me many and many times as I tried to speak with her, and I was forced to blink many times as bright light that glowed around her, blinded me from her beauty. Waking slightly from the dream, but still hallucinating from the fever, I watched her move. She knelt next to me on the puffy white cloud, holding my hand in hers. I squinted in the hazy white light. Her rosy cheeks shimmered as tears trickled from her large, sad eyes. Why… why was she crying?

She looked away for a fleeting second of nervousness as I asked the question. She sniffled, trying to speak calmly, but losing her control over her tears and obviously her fears. I couldn't make sense of the things she was saying. What was she talking about? Why was she crying? Why was she scared? Was it because I was sick? I'll get better. I won't lose to a stupid fever so easily! I'll get well again and we can go out to movies, to the park, to the ice cream parlor––do the things that normal teenagers do when they begin dating. I want nothing more than to make her happy! I love her! She knows that!

There was another voice far away… calling to her. I saw her turn in the direction of the voice for two seconds, and when her eyes met mine again I was filled with this unquenchable pain and fear.

Fresh tears rolled down her cheeks. She was leaving me? Where was she going? Will she come back? She has to come back! I don't know what I'd do without her! I'll go crazy! I'll tear the house apart in my search for her! If she's not here… she has no where else to go! She can't leave! She has to stay! Here! With me!

But she's getting up! She's leaving my bedside! Come back! Come back!

She appeared again and bent down close to my face. "I'm sorry, but I have to go…. Akito's coming."

A-Akito? NO! Why would he come here? What will he do to Tohru? To us? I can't let him get her! Is this what she was talking about? Is this why she was scared? Is this why she's leaving me? Where will she go? She has no where to go! HIDE! Where will she hide? She has to hide! She can't be found! Akito will destroy her! I can't let him get her!

"Just know that I will always love you, no matter what happens," she sobbed quietly. She kissed my forehead and fled from my sight, taking the light with her and abandoning me in darkness.

'No matter what happens'? What did that mean? I didn't understand…. Why was Akito coming? Where was she going? Was she hiding? Or was she…

"Don't leave me… Tohru? Tohru? Where did you go? Come back. Please, Tohru, come back."

I tried to get out of bed, but a hand appeared from out of the grey, lightless clouds that surrounded me and pushed me down. I felt like I was falling. Falling…. I grabbed the hand that pushed me down, holding onto it for dear life. I couldn't let go. I didn't know what would happen. I couldn't allow myself to fall into the bottomless pit. I had to struggle, to fight for my life. I get to find Tohru!

"What happened? Where did you go? Tohru?" I cried out.

The clouds parted and thick black storm ones came churning in, curling around the figure that held me down.

"Calm down Kyo; you're tossing is making it hard for me to examine you."

Hatori? The clouds thinned slightly and the doctor stood before me, holding me down. "What's happening? Where'd Tohru go?" I demanded. I gripped his wrist so tightly, he tried to free himself. I could see fear in his eyes as he stared back down at me. I noticed I was breathing unusually hard. I let go of his hand and tried to calm myself. Hatori was trying to help me, not destroy me. I let him go on with his examinations.

"He's been muttering incoherently since I checked up on him this morning. The only thing that he says that makes any sense is: 'Where's Tohru? What happened? Where did she go?'" Shigure said somewhere off in the haze. He sighed, "No doubt he's gotten himself sick over her. When she didn't come home that night during the storm, he went out looking for her and didn't come back. Yuki-kun and I found him in cat form the following morning up in a tree, soaking wet, covered in mud, and in disillusion. He wouldn't tell us what happened at the Honke (A/N: Sohma Estate) and none of us knew what happened to Tohru-kun."

Tohru… didn't come home? I came on my own? Was everything… just a dream then? Hatori freeing us of the curse, running away in the rain, making love in the abandoned house, coming back home together, being together—was all that just a dream I had?

Hatori finished examining me and prepared a needle to inject me with.

"She was disposed of."

I went rock cold. That voice belonged to only one person and one person alone.

Akito…

"No…" I murmured, jerking my arm out of Hatori's grasp just as he was about to inject the needle. "Tohru!" I cried out as the needle accidentally jabbed me in the arm.

"Kyo! Settle down!"

Shigure came and pinned my shoulders down on my bed, only it didn't appear to me to be Shigure. It was a black demon with dog-like qualities: a long muzzle with razor sharp teeth snarled at me with drool dripping from his fangs; his hands, like scaly talons, pressed me down into the mud; his breath, like fire exploding from a volcano, burned my face, causing me to choke, unable to breathe. I screamed, coughed and panted, struggling to escape, but I couldn't.

"Let go of me! I have to find Tohru!"

"She's gone Kyo," Akito's voice wavered over as he descended down to me with his long, thin fingers and brushed strands of loose orange hair from my face. His sneering eyes were black with red pinprick pupils that bore into my head with malevolence. His skin was a pale dead grey covered with scales and ashes. He touched my chin with his needle-like finger nails, drawing my eyes to lock onto his. I was growing weaker. It was as if, while I was staring into his eyes, he was stealing my soul and I should soon be dead. "She's gone forever," he jeered, grinning to himself, "and you're never going to see her again." He stopped touching my hair and lowered his face mere inches away from mine. "EVER." He touched my temple with one of his long, bony skeleton needle fingers and a spark of that horrible memory of my mother stabbing herself filled my clouded mind.

"Remember our deal. Don't ever forget who you are," he whispered loud enough so that only I could hear. "Baka Mono."

And then I fell unconscious.