Children of the Mirror 2: Remember Me

...12th Part: Dark...

The image of Krad was branded into my eyelids. Practically every time I blinked, I would see his naked figure, drenched, and with his hair down and plastered to the contours of his body.

I shuddered, listening intently to the roar of my motorcycle to clear my head of this.

I couldn't determine whether I was nauseated or attracted. That was what bothered me the most.

. . .

"Dark! Where have you been all day?" Emiko asked pleasantly enough when I walked through the front door of the Niwa place.

"Around," I said simply.

"Did anything exciting happen?" she wondered conversationally.

"Not really." I flopped down on the couch, but refused to close my eyes.

"How's your new motorcycle working out for you?"

I wished she would stop asking me questions. "Great, Emiko." I switched on the radio for some noise, hoping to drown her out.

She came over to the couch and looked down at me, placing her hands on her hips. "Dark, what's wrong?"

Emiko was a little too perceptive for my tastes. "Nothing's wrong."

"Dark," she reasoned, stubbornly. "You've been reduced to two-word responses that tell me absolutely nothing, except that you are avoiding something. What went wrong? Is it that girl, Akiko, again?"

"Nothing's wrong!" I insisted, getting up. "Everything is perfectly fine! Geez..." I walked off to my room and closed the door behind me, turning the radio on in there, too, just as Emiko decided to turn it off in the living-room.

If I was lucky, maybe she wouldn't pester me anymore. She still didn't know about Krad, and I didn't want to tell her that he was here. I really didn't want to tell her the full story.

. . .

I decided it was best to avoid Krad for a while. Each time I noticed that I was wandering toward the hotel he was staying at, I forced myself to turn back the other way and find a new – and probably longer – route to wherever I was going.

That had been working for all of a couple weeks.

It was the Saturday before Christmas, which would be on a Friday this year. I was listening to an MP3 player with the volume at almost full blast, which apparently distracted me enough to let my feet lead me right to the hotel.

It seemed a lot busier now. A group of people was filing into the building as I came closer, and I assumed that by Tuesday the place would be packed. There were a lot of people coming to visit family and friends for the holidays.

I wonder how well Krad would handle his new company...

"I told you to get out yesterday!" A harsh voice declared. "Go on – out! Now!"

The arriving group was looking very confused, breaking apart to let someone stumble through. Krad tripped out of the muddle of humans and turned back at the manager of the hotel, giving the woman his deadliest glare.

"You can't stay here if you're not going to pay for it! That's just the way it works!"

"Why you –" Krad growled. I saw magic building up in his fist and ran at him before he could throw it at someone, grasping his wrist firmly.

"Let it go," I warned.

Krad ripped his arm from my grasp, earning himself scratches that I hadn't intended to inflict upon him. He stormed away from me, snarling something under his breath.

"Krad!" I shouted after him. I rolled my eyes at him when he didn't show any signs of hearing me.

I was about to walk off the other way when the manager approached me. She had just finished apologizing to the other arriving guests. "Is that a friend of yours?" she asked me.

"Not exactly," I replied, considering.

"Would it be troublesome to ask his payment from you?"

"Yeah, it would," I said, suddenly defensive. But I rethought my response and asked, "How much does he owe you?"

. . .

Well, with his bill paid off, I decided I might as well go looking for him. I had a hard time finding him, but eventually I ended up back at the sight of the Black Wings death. Krad was leaning against a wall on the opposite side of the room from the enormous painting, with his legs pulled up close to his chest and his arms crossed over his knees. His face was hidden in his arms.

I stood in the doorway for a while, just watching him.

"What do you want, Mousy?"

I walked over to him and sat down next to him, pulling one of the ear-buds out of my ear and turning the volume down on my music. "What's wrong, Krad?" I asked.

"Since when do you care?" he wondered. "Just leave me alone, Dark."

"Fine, then." I leaned my head back against the wall and stuck the other ear-bud back in my ear to continue listening to the full sound of the music. "Be that way."

I waited through about five songs before Krad raised his head to look at me. It looked like his anger fit was about over, which was good. I watched as he stretched his legs out in front of him and folded his hands awkwardly in his lap.

Another two songs finished, and I looked away again. I was getting bored, and was contemplating leaving soon if Krad continued to ignore me.

Sound left one of my ears and I shifted my eyes to see Krad hold the tiny speaker up to his ear, moving a bit closer to me. "What is this?" he wondered.

I shrugged, turning toward him again. My shoulder bumped his when I moved. "A variety of things. Rock music, mostly."

Krad just sat still and listened for a while. "What artist is this one?" he wondered.

"Saliva – they're an American band."

"Oh."

I knocked the back of my hand against his arm. "So, are you going to talk or what?"

"You don't really want to hear me speak," he said demurely. "You said so yourself."

"So it's about those stupid dreams, again?" I concluded.

"What isn't about those dreams?" Krad pointed out fiercely. "They're all I can think about – even when I try not to!"

"Hey, calm down." I put my hand on his shoulder and shook him a little.

"I can't help but feel that we're missing something, though..." he went on. "I feel like I have some unfinished business with you..." His eyes were intense as he studied my face. "...but I can't figure out what."