Heh…been a while, hasn't it? (sweat drop)

Trust me, life has not been my best friend as of late. I'm very, very sorry!

But, I just got back from Costa Rica about a week ago. Gorgeous country. I miss it.

By the way, I'm shouting out to my one and only team – the Pittsburgh Penguins – for winning their third Stanley Cup and to Marc-Andre Fleury for being awesome and making an amazing save in the last second to win the big kahoona. Goodness, I love that man. He's my favorite, if you haven't guessed.

(No, I don't care if the epic game 7 victory was well over a month ago. I'm still on a major high from it, and the victory parade, which I went to and met a few of the players briefly :D)

Chapter 36: Locked in a Room

Waking up in a strange room was nothing new to Matsumoto.

She'd done it tons of times before. Way back when. When Gin was still her only drinking buddy. When her captain was just her captain. When everything seemed normal, always.

But…she hadn't done it in a long while. If she ever passed out from too many drinks, Toshiro would just take her home.

So why didn't he now?

As Matsumoto sat up off the floor, she looked around, hoping to ask Toshiro where she was. He'd never leave her somewhere, right? No, no. Of course he wouldn't.

As she blinked, she saw the room was pretty baron. A sink in the corner, with a broom leaning against it. There was a lamp above the sink, but it wasn't on. Matsumoto stood and slowly walked over to turn it on, but to her dismay, there was no switch to be turned.

"Well, this is odd…" she muttered under her breath. As she spoke, she could see a small tuft of fog in front of her mouth. Now that she thought about it, it was awfully cold in here.

Matsumoto turned around to take a good look at the room. Other than the sink, broom and lamp, there was nothing else. Oh wait! There was something across the room. As Matsumoto neared it, she saw that it was a small black key. As she picked it up, she looked around. There was no door for the key to belong to.

Matsumoto continued to look around. What was going on in this place?

"Toshiro?" she called. It was so damn cold here, there was no other explanation except that Toshiro was there. That had to be it! "Toshiro…where are you? Where are we?"

No answer.

Matsumoto began to feel her pulse quicken. She was beginning to panic. No, no. Calm down. No need to panic. There's been no reason to panic. No threat has been made. There's been nothing…

She glanced over to one of the plain white walls and saw a painting. Was that there a minute ago? She wasn't sure, but it didn't matter. Just another thing to add to the small list of things in the room. What as on the list now, anyway? A sink, broom, non-working lamp, a key and…a picture?

She'd seen stranger things.

She walked over to the picture and stared. It was beautiful. A watercolor, by her guess, of a bridge in the wintertime.

The sky was gray, while the water was black. A silver bridge stood between them. The bridge was covered in a light, frosty ice that made it sparkle. On the bridge, there was a man. He was tall and slim, with silver hair. And he was moving.

Matsumoto blinked. Surely he wasn't really moving. It was a painting, after all. And paintings don't move!

But sure enough, the silver-haired man was slowly moving across the bridge. He even turned to look at Matsumoto. He had a manic grin on his face as he waved to her.

For some reason, that calmed her panic and she waved back.

"Hi Gin…" she muttered as she leaned against the wall and slid downwards. As she sat there, she thought of the good old times with Gin Ichimaru.

The memories were vivid; of bright parties and happy days. They almost seemed to come to life on the blank walls the moment the crossed Matsumoto's mind.

That's when Matsumoto realized that it wasn't a trick of her mind. The walls were actually changing. Every time she thought of a new place, it appeared on the walls. And these pictures were just like the watercolor painting. They were moving.

"Oi, Matsumoto!" Ikkaku called from the wall across from her. It was New Year's, two years ago. She, Gin, Ikkaku and Yumichicka had all gone out from some celebratory drinks. "Ha, you drunk or something? What are you doing just sittin' there?"

So…these images could see her?

"No, I…" she began. But then, the walls changed. A new scene was splashing into place. It was daylight now. And by the looks of things, Matsumoto was running through some of the corridors. She heard laughing behind her. Ahh, this was when she and Gin played tag one day, just so they could avoid paperwork.

"Rangiku, you sneaky devil!" Gin laughed. "Get back here!"

Matsumoto laughed, so Gin laughed harder. As this memory started to fade away, Gin's laughter began to echo through the small room. But it wasn't a natural echo. As the walls went blank, the echo got louder and louder.

Matsumoto closed her eyes and covered her ears but the laughter still bled through. Panic began to well up inside her chest again as the laughter became almost unbearable.

And suddenly, just like that, the laughter stopped. Matsumoto opened her eyes to a new scene on the walls.

It was the day of the betrayal.

Gin was in front of her, looking sad. He was already in that beam of light that carried him away to the land of Hollows.

"Don't say it!" Matsumoto screamed. The panic had grown two-fold now. "Don't you dare say it!"

"I wish you could have held on a little longer…" Ichimaru said.

"No!" Matsumoto hid her face in her knees as she waited for the scene to end. It had to end at some point, right?

As she heard the sounds of the three traitors floating up to the sky, she tried to think of Toshiro. Sweet, little Toshiro. Where was he? If he were here, he'd be shielding her from this…

"You want me to what?" this was a new voice. Matsumoto looked up to see that the scene had changed. She was now in the office, and little Toshiro was staring at her from behind his desk. "Well, I guess I could call you by your first name."

Hitsugaya gave out a small chuckle as he thought about it.

"Rangiku." He said aloud. "I like it."

Matsumoto smiled. There he was.

"My little Toshiro…" Matsumoto sang softly. The fear and panic in her chest began to slowly subside. Suddenly, there was a clack on the wall above her. She looked up to see the painting swinging side to side. She stood up to look at it.

It was still the same. Gray sky, black water, silver bridge. Except now, the bridge had a thicker ice on it, making it sparkle even more. The man came into the image again, obviously planning to cross the bridge. Only…he wasn't tall and slim like before. He was short, with spiky white hair and a stride of confidence.

As he reached the halfway point of the bridge, he stopped and looked at her. A small smile crept onto his lips as he leaned against the bridge's banister.

"Hey there." He said.

"Hi, Toshiro…" Matsumoto mumbled happily. Immediately, all her panic and fear disappeared.

Hitsugaya glanced behind Matsumoto. "…well, this isn't the place I expected to find you."

"What?"

"This room. It's not a fun one." He shook his head. "I know. I've been in here before."

"Really?" Matsumoto asked. "Well, then…how do I get out?"

"Wake up." Hitsugaya said simply.

"…huh?"

"Wake up!" he said a little louder now.

"Ah…but…"

"Rangiku, wake up!" he shouted it now. And Matsumoto blinked in surprised. As she re-opened her eyes, she was no longer looking at a painting of a frosty bridge. Instead, she was looking at a sun streaked pillow.

"Wha…?" she mumbled, rolling over. She wasn't in the blank room anymore. This room had furniture.

"Finally!" she heard Hitsugaya call. She looked over to see him walking out of the bathroom in his pants, drying his hair with a towel. "Jeez, we weren't out that late last night. Why were you so tired?"

Matsumoto sat up. It was all a dream? No way!

"Uh…er…where are we?" Matsumoto asked.

"…are you okay?" he asked, sitting on the edge of the bed and putting his hand on her forehead. "You seem a little warm…"

Matsumoto sighed. "I'm sorry. It's just…well, I had a dream. I think. And it was just so…so real."

"Ha. That's happened to me before." Hitsugaya said as he layed his hand on her arm. He noticed Matsumoto looked kind of sad and confused. "But, I'm here now. Whatever your dream was about…it can't hurt you. Not anymore."

Matsumoto looked up at him and smiled. "No, silly. It didn't hurt me. It was kind of…refreshing, actually."

"Refreshing?" Hitsugaya asked. "How so?"

"Well," Matsumoto moved to lift her hand when she felt a weight in it. She looked down to see the small black key sitting in her palm. Did this prove that…it wasn't really a dream? Matsumoto smiled. "Well, I was locked in this room…a room of memories, I guess you'd call it. And I found this key, but the funny thing? There was no door! Can you believe that…?"

Have I done dream chapters before? Probably. I don't know right now, and don't feel like looking back. All I know is I haven't written anything for you lovely people since the last time I came back from a foreign country.

I adore this song so much. This artist is one of the last true artists in the world of music anymore. Ah! I can't wait until he puts out more music.

Look him up. Seriously. He's amazing.

Song: 'Locked in a Room' by Oren Lavie

(though, my favorite song by him is 'The Man Who Isn't There.' There may or may not be a chapter on this song. I'm still debating)

BlackAngel

Go Pens! :3