Chapter 46: Death Talking or a Confession?
Suzume opened her eyes, or tried. It was hard to since she was so weak after loosing so much blood. Suzume turned her head, feeling the dirt shift from beneath her. She looked up and found herself down a hill, it looked like she had fallen a few feet from the top.
"Now I remember…" she muttered. "One of those organization people was chasing me. He shot at me and hit me in the side, I then slipped and fell. After that he ran as I fell unconscious…"
Suzume sat up, but her leg hurt so much she could barely do anything. On top of that she was shot in the side and arm. So the best she could do was lean up against the tree behind her. She sat there and looked up. She then looked to her pocket for her cell phone, but it wasn't there.
"Great…" she thought. "I'm stuck here, dying… Just wonderful!"
Suzume leaned her head against the tree her eyes beginning to close on her once again. Her breathing was becoming shallow and she didn't have the strength to do anything anymore.
"Just like Lytton Strachey said… 'If this is dying, I don't think much of it…'…" Suzume gave a small laugh. She then shut her eyes, thinking about all the happy things she could.
Conan and Heiji, along with Professor Agasa and Haibara, had just arrived at the woods where Suzume had supposedly went to. Nothing was found and Haibara, who was the only one who knew where it was, took them to the burnt down house of the Kei family.
Once there, they looked around the ashes, wondering if anything was there to show them where Suzume went. Nothing was found.
Conan bent down looking to the foot prints in the ground. "It seems she ran," he said, following the tracks into the woods with the flashlight.
"And it seems she hurt…" Haibara said, pointing a flash light to the ground. There was a pool of fresh blood. "Not to long ago either…"
Heiji looked around for anything else, but nothing so far. "I think we should follow the tracks…" he said.
Conan and Haibara nodded. The group then began following the footprints.
Heiji and the others had been walking for awhile now and still now sign of Suzume. But the two did find something. They found Suzume's locket, along with her cell-phone.
"The locket broke off it seems," Conan said, gripping it in his hand.
Heiji gritted his teeth, angry with himself for no real good reason. He just was simply angry.
"She might be near here," Haibara said, beginning to walk away. "We should continue looking."
Heiji and Conan, along with Agasa, blinked blankly at Haibara as she disappeared into the darkness of the forest. They knew she was right, so Conan followed Haibara as Heiji and Agasa continued to look in another direction.
Suzume felt warm and just a bit happy. She was actually enjoying her last moments, although the sound of someone saying her name kept ringing through her ears.
Suzume began opening her eyes, but things were blurry. At first she thought she was dreaming, but once the blurriness was gone, she found it was no dream. Sitting there with wrapped arms around her, was none other then the person she was thinking of, Heiji.
"Glad to see your awake," he said, relief in his voice.
"Heiji…?" Suzume said, poking him in the cheek. Once she saw he was real, she gave a weak smile. "I'm so glad you're here… But…how did you find me?"
Heiji face went bank. "Well," he said scratching his head, "I ended up falling down here…"
Suzume gave a small laugh.
"But," Heiji continued, "Kudo knows where we are and has gone to get help with the others. They should be back any minute."
Suzume gave another weak smile, her eyes beginning to close again, but she fought to keep them open. "You know," she said. "One of the best quotes I can agree with right now is, 'Death will be a relief…No more Interviews…'…" Suzume gave a small laugh.
Heiji didn't smile at that. He knew Suzume was trying to joke about this, but he couldn't find that funny. "You're not dying, Suzume…" he said.
Suzume looked at Heiji with sad eyes even though she had a smile on her face. "I'm not so certain about that, Hei-chan…" she muttered. "But, I do have something to say…"
Heiji brushed her hair away from her face and looked at her. "And what's that…?"
Suzume smiled. "Do you know why I love walking in the rain?" Heiji shook his head. "It's because when I'm walking in the rain, no one sees me cry." Suzume's smile faded and went into a serious one with tears. "For some reason, whenever I'm around you…I loss myself… I become the childlike girl that used to always cry because of the bad things in life… I loss my composure around you… I feel happy when I'm with you and you bring the joy in anyone's day, especially mine…."
Heiji felt his heart racing by just looking at her sad face. He knew exactly where she was going with this.
Suzume raised her hand and put it to his cheek. "I finally figured out why though," she said, tears running down her face. "It's because I love you, Heiji… And I don't want to let you go…"
Heiji was completely surprised at this.
Suzume smiled through her tears. "'I want to be remembered as the girl who always smiled even when her heart is broken, and the one that could always brighten up your days even if she can't brighten her own…'"
"Suzume, I-" Heiji was cut off suddenly when Suzume pressed her lips to his, kissing him with all her strength she had left.
Heiji felt a smile on his face and he closed his eyes, kissing her back and holding her as tight as he could.
Suzume's tears kept running down her face. She smiled and then pulled away. She looked him in his eyes and brushed her hand against his cheek. Her eyes then closed and her hand fell to the ground as she went unconscious.
Heiji put his head to her shoulder, knowing she wasn't dead but pretty close to being. He didn't want to loss her, especially after finding out she felt the same way for him.
