CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
The line between real and pretend was swirling and curving and blurring. Well, among other things.
Whatever it was doing, it was in no way definite.
Matt was… or is… real, Jyou told himself as he paced the dirt floor of his cottage. But Jim… is not Shin. But he is real? Real… but not Shin.
"Then why are they identical?" Jyou muttered under his breath, slumping into a wooden bench with a thatched blanket thrown over top.
There was a tap at the window and a fleeting face headed towards the door. Before Jyou could rise to allow his visitor in, the door handle turned and Jim sauntered in. "Thank you for leaving the door open, Doc, I don't think I could wait for you to unlock it like yesterday." He chuckled and observed Jyou's pensive expression. "Who's identical? If you're going to talk to yourself, at least close the windows and be private about it. The last thing we need is the court doctor to be labelled as certifiably insane."
"Oh, uh-" Jyou disregarded most of Jim's rambling logic and quickly let his eyes bounce from wall to wall. "The bookshelves. They're all identical."
Jim nodded slowly, "Yes… because we built them. We weren't about to get fancy, especially when you kept insisting on hammering your fingers every few moments." Jim laughed and left the room, going past one of the heavy sheet curtains that were used as doors.
Jyou examined his fingers. He tried to remember this happening, somewhere in his memory, but it never had. Not to him anyway.
The real and not real argument returned to his mind.
"You want tea?" Jim called from the other room, the kitchen- as Jyou had discovered the night before when he and Jim had returned and he came into the cottage alone, famished.
"No, I'm fine." Jyou called weakly. There was no way he was fine. There was no way any of this was fine. What was he expected to do? Continue this charade of being a legitimate doctor? It was fine when his patient was Yamato who could play along, but what happens when it's someone who genuinely needs medical attention? He wasn't even in medical school, never mind certified to do anything!
He had to get home. He needed to return home to where he wasn't in over his head. Or… that much over his head. Home where his life wasn't potentially on the line if he didn't know what to do. A bad grade didn't look so bad from this perspective.
"I need to meet with Yama…agesty. Your Majesty the prince." Jyou recovered. He wasn't sure that the meagre town doctor would be on a first name basis with the soon-to-be-king.
Jim pushed back the curtain as he returned into the main room clutching a small, steaming wooden bowl. He scoffed. "Good luck with that. It won't happen tonight, or tomorrow for that matter. Unless you're a rich and pretty girl dying to be his wife."
Jyou could imagine if Taichi was there with him, he'd be suggesting that they raid some girls' closets and go undercover as women to get a meeting with Yamato. Something crazy and foolish and ridiculous. But brave nonetheless. A small smile etched onto his face that had been sullen ever since they'd left the castle the day before. If he did do something like that, he'd never live it down… if they got out of this.
"Maybe once you get officially recruited to the palace as their official court doctor, we'll get an upgrade of living quarters." Jim looked around, a scoff threatening to escape his lips. "We'd need a hell of a carriage to move all your stuff though."
Now it was Jyou's turn to look around. It was true there was a lot of stuff, a small school bus would probably be useful if he'd have to move it all. The "identical" shelves were stacked to the brim with books twice the size of his textbooks and the bookends, when they weren't more books being shoved to fit in the space, were all his fancy gadgets. There was one that looked like an egg beater with the bowl already attached, what on earth could that be?
"Hey, maybe here's our answer!" Jim motioned towards the open window at the sight of three horses trotting past, with the riders cleanly jumping off. Joe shuddered, horses. What if they saw a mouse and started stampeding… right through the walls and knocking down the shelves. That was a mess Jyou surely did not want to clean up.
Oh, it was elephants that are supposedly afraid of mice.
The knock was loud, comparable to one that a landlord or a hefty and aggressive Girl Scout, urgency was definitely evident.
Jim placed his tea on the floor by the bench and rose to greet their guests, but the moment his hand touched the handle, the door burst open.
"WHERE ARE YOU HIDING HIM!" The officer shouted. The red anger in his face was mirrored by the red in his jacket, the shoulders ornamented with gold rope and patches declaring stories of a loyalty and bravery that morphed into vengeance as he tramped through the room and swung a beefy arm into Jyou's chest. The gold fringe on the arms of his jacket swung as if they were attached to the uniform of a baton twirler following a marching band. It was the same uniform that clothed the people who filled the castle Yamato was in, the officers that were so concerned about his health.
Another officer, tall and slender with a full beard, cornered Jim without removing his hands from an awkward cradle-position behind his own back, "Calm yourself, Senta." The smirk on his face indicated he had no true intention of calming his partner down. "Where is he hiding?" The officer asked, calmer than his companion but menacing just the same.
Jim, visibly shaken by the confrontation had to pause in order to maintain his jovial disposition. The effect, however, was dimmed by the clear display of nerves and confusion. "Hiding who? The Doctor is right there with your pal."
"Don't mess with us!" The larger officer commanded, speaking to Jim but with his body and attention still completely on the Doctor. Jyou shifted his gaze out the window behind his assailant, Senta, where there were more of these red-robed officers standing in clusters around his house and wandering the streets. The constant dribble of townspeople had diminished as if they were caged in by these circling tigers in red and gold.
"We honestly don't know what you're talking about." Jyou orally stumbled, and Senta followed this with a low threatening noise, a growl.
"You fool!" Senta let the growl evolve into a full scream as he effortlessly tossed Jyou across the room as if he were a sack of rice.
As the house shuttered with the weight of Jyou's impact, Jyou groaned and lifted himself, bracing his back tightly against the wall. Jim's teacup spilled and broke under Jyou's weight, sending a shooting pain up the boy's back. As he replaced his glasses to his face, he could feel his face heating up and his eyesight growing spotty. With two thunderous steps, Senta stood above Jyou, his fist perched level to the boy's sternum… Jyou shuddered, he was facing death or serious injury and all he could think of was the test on the skeletal system he had been preparing for.
"Where is the prince? What ideas did you fill his mind with, you filthy town scum?" Senta bared his thick, peg like teeth and forced one arm to the boys neck, the other not moving from the loaded fist.
"Don't touch him!" Jim gasped, and like a flash of light, he pushed through the slender officer and forced Senta away from the doctor.
As the large officer steadied himself on the wooden couch, he licked his lips and a shiver ravaged Jyou's spine. Compared to the huge Senta, Jim looked like a twig. A brittle, tiny twig with huge glasses.
Jim was working head to steady himself, from either the rush of adrenaline or pain, Jyou could not tell. For a moment Jyou relaxed. Nothing was going to happen. It had been a misunderstanding. These men were trying to do their job and they were distraught since they put so much faith in the prince.
But then Senta bulled towards Jim and as impact was made, Jyou could see Jim's body fold like a sheet on a clothesline. His whole body stiffened as he waited for Senta to back off and let Jim stand up. But Senta didn't stop. He forced Jim, with such impact that Jyou himself had to brace himself, into two of the shelves.
Jyou watched, his eyesight blurring as the bookshelves crumbled, spilling their contents onto the two men. Vials shattered, metal clanged and heavy instruments collapsed onto their mangled bodies.
Jyou was frozen. He waited for Jim to push the shelf off of his body. He waited for some Orendian curse word to emit from the clutter. He waited for movement.
He waited for anything.
"Senta." The other officer said, calmly. No trace of the panic that surged through Jyou's body was evident in even the minutest form on this person.
There was a low growl from the rubble as Senta threw a book across the room, narrowly missing his fellow officer.
Jyou dashed towards the mess and began digging, tossing broken and splintered wood away from the wreckage. Jagged glass was clinging to his skin but the sting went unnoticed by the frantic Jyou, who finally grabbed onto Jim's arm. He shook it.
Nothing.
"Come on Jim, Come on." He fumbled. "Get up, get up!"
He moved another book and there was Jim's face, a broken vial had scratched his cheek and his huge round glasses were mangled and broken into his hair. "Come on Jim, wake up, dammit!" Jyou slapped his face rapidly and softly, as if trying to awaken him from a nap.
He pushed more debris away and lifted Jim's head, gently placing it onto his own lap. He moved two fingers to feel the vein on Jim's neck, desperately waiting for any vibration. Nothing. "Dammit." Jyou said again, this time weaker and the shaking of his body moved into his voice.
"HEY!" Senta shouted. "ANSWER ME!"
Jyou had tuned out their two voices, turning them into buzzing which was drowned out by the ringing in his ears and the pounding in his chest.
"Shut up!" Jyou screamed, his voice shrill and his whole body shaking. "No, no, no…" He moved his fingers to Jim's wrist.
Nothing.
Desperate, Jyou let his head fall onto Jim's chest where he heard only silence. "No… Jim," He lifted himself up and folded his own hands, placing them onto Jim's chest. As he counted and pressed, his eyes began to water. "Come on Jim, wake up. Please Jim."
"WHERE THE HELL IS THE PRINCE!" Senta hollered, hurdling towards Jyou, but without flinching, Jyou got back up and returned to the unconscious body of his friend. Senta, irritated at being ignored, boomed: "CAN'T YOU SEE HE'S DEAD?"
"No… no. He's… He-"
"He's dead." The slender officer reiterated blatantly.
"No, Jim… not Jim… Not… he can't be dead. Wake up!" Jyou clasped Jim's shoulders and shook them. Trying desperately to find something that had left, he shook the empty body. "No… pl-please… Shin. Come back. Shin, don't leave. Please, Shin."
The sobs were audible now as Jyou buried his head into the empty chest that lay, still half buried, in his lap. "No, no, no. Come on, Shin."
"You're going to have to come with us." The platonic officer announced. Senta stood up and stood beside his companion and Jyou shook his head.
"You… you murderer!" He snarled it, a voice that he never thought could come from his own mouth, but he didn't regret it.
"Senta, collect the doctor, please."
At that moment, the fog lifted from Jyou's mental state. He had to fight back, sure he was no match for either of them. But he had to do something. Sure it wasn't as humorous as what he'd thought of earlier, but everything was different now. It was his turn to channel Taichi. It was his turn to be brave. If Yamato did get out of the castle… well, maybe he could find him! Or at least someone else, Taichi or Izzy or Mimi… Jyou froze. What would Mimi think?
She was always clamouring about how she was waiting for prince charming to sweep her off her feet. Well, truth was there was nothing princely or charming about him. But maybe he could get them all home? He wouldn't be doing anyone any good by sitting in a jail cell.
Jyou looked up at the two guards, standing in between the third shelf of equipment and the wooden couch.
"I'll come." Jyou sighed. He stood up, his head bent solemnly as the two officers shared a surprised but triumphant glance as they turned away from their prisoner.
Jyou grabbed the leg of the wooden bench, and with all his might, he lifted it and swung it towards the two guards, sending them crashing into the last standing shelf. Without thinking or bothering to look behind him, Jyou dashed to the opposite side of the room and hoisted himself onto the windowpane and jumped out.
There was no one there. The other towns people had disappeared and the other officers were far off in the distance, so much so that they looked like ladybugs. Harmless.
A loud sound startled him, and as Jyou turned to see the gallant creature behind him, it flashed in his mind like a bolt of lightning, turning a late afternoon sky into a sheet of white. But instead of a blank canvas, Jyou saw the horse. White with a golden mane and tail, tattered charcoal-grey wings jutting on of its back with a crimson mask shielding those cold eyes.
Of course, Unimon was a manifestation of an irrational fear that he'd always carried throughout his childhood. Or so Jyou could picture Koushiro rationalizing.
Again with Unimon.
The inappropriately causal thoughts didn't calm down Jyou's racing heart. He could feel the blood rushing to his head, clouding his ability to think anything helpful. Or to process what just happened.
The other guards were no longer ladybugs and the lessened distance made them look more like red toadstools, still a far distance away from him. Jyou moved slowly and carefully to not alarm any of them to his presence. But everything started playing in his head on a loop. The sight of Jim's closed eyes sent a cold sweat down his neck. No pulse. He was broken.
"Oh God." He gulped as he saw the bookshelf in the cottage move.
The giant golden-white horse whinnied and Jyou let a similar sound escape his mouth, or rather- his nose.
"Nice… Nice horsie." He whispered, holding both hands up defensively, making sure the horse could clearly see him. With his hand shaking as if it had been battery operated, Joe softly touched the giant animal's neck and grabbing the bridal, like he had seen in all the old west TV shows that played on cable.
He could hear a shout from inside his house and in a swift movement, with skill and grace he never imagined he had, Joe hoisted himself up and swung his leg over the horse's muscular body, nudging it with his knee, asking it to start racing through town.
The shouts behind him announced that he had been discovered. The gasps that followed him from the fleeting windows depicted that nothing like this ever happened in this small town. But the sound that screamed the loudest was the silence. The silence that came from a body, still laying with his glasses tangled in his hair and no sound emitting from his chest.