Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon so please refrain from suing me for writing fan fiction. Thanks and enjoy!
Within Dreams—Chapter 4
Joe Kido removed his glasses from his face and massaged his aching eyes tenderly. He didn't need a mirror to know his eyes were red.
At this realization, he smiled wryly and thought: eight hours of straight reading generally does that. He yawned heavily and decided: I've got to do away with these overnight cram sessions. Nearly every night it was the same: fake sleeping for about an hour--until he was sure his parents and Jim were all sound asleep—then it would be time to study. All night.
He didn't really need to study all that much--he was already doing well in all his classes—it was more something productive for him to do in the hours before dawn. He was never really tired when he went to bed at night and he figured instead of lying in bed doing nothing he could try and get a little ahead in his classes. So night after night he'd read in a different textbook by the light of a small flashlight.
Truth be told, he somewhat enjoyed the quiet and stillness of the night. It was practically the only time he could be totally sure to do something without being interrupted. The only problem with his nightly routine was the fact that he had to stay awake through the day. He didn't want his family to figure out that he was spending his evenings working instead of sleeping and the only way to deter any suspicions was to remain awake through the day.
Every few days he would finally fall asleep in bed, but for the most part he was very much awake through the long hours of the night.
The first rays of morning sunlight were filtering through his blinds, turning the coloring of the room from an inky black to an increasingly light shade of gray. Mom and dad'll be up pretty soon, he thought. They'll be glad to know the lights and heat are back. Again, the smile crept onto his face. Kinda pathetic. I was awake when the lights were fixed at 3 a.m. I wonder what time it is now?
He stole a glance at his bedside alarm clock, and saw that it was 7:05 and decided it would be safe to leave his room in another hour or so. He had to keep the act up that he was sleeping at night if he didn't want to get caught and it was winter break, after all.
Yeah…I'll "get up" in about an hour. No use in waiting for Jim to get up. He practically sleeps until noon.
~*~
Cold, so cold…intense cold was running through her, penetrating Kari's very being. But it was from far away, so very far away. It was weird. She knew she should be afraid or be worried about how cold she felt, but it felt like when you're at the dentist's office and you get a shot of Novocain.
Kari felt detached from her body and vaguely noticed she wasn't breathing. But the realization didn't scare her. She didn't need to breathe here…wherever she was….
She seemed to be floating, but she wasn't entirely sure where she was. But she didn't worry about it; she didn't even care. Not even when a blinding light shone into her eyes. It was pretty, the light. Very pretty. And warm. So warm.
Kari felt herself being pulled into the light and felt only peace. Only blissful, comforting peace.
And she was being pulled away from the light. It was dimming, going away.
"Wait!" she whispered. "Wait. Come back…."
But the light left and the cold returned, the completely unbearable cold. Feeling was returning to her body and then she felt as if she was choking….
~*~
Rea watched as the young, brown-haired girl's eyes flew open. Watched as she coughed violently and vomited water. Watched as she groaned and rubbed her eyes.
"Hello," she stated, nonchalantly flipping her long, sea green hair behind her shoulder.
The small girl gasped through her violent coughing, but was too weak to move. All she could do was look at Rea, surprise evident in her eyes.
The girl made no move to speak when she finished coughing, so Rea asked: "so what happened to you?"
The girl shrugged and whispered: "I got pulled off a boat. Who're you?"
"Oh, I'm Rea. And what's your name?"
"Hikari Kamiya," the girl replied. "But you can call me Kari."
Rea blinked her large, sapphire-blue eyes and repeated: "Kari…that's a pretty name."
"You saved me," Kari stated. "Thank you."
Rea shrugged and answered: "no problem. You know, it's not every day I see real people running around in here."
"I'm sorry. I don't think I follow you. What do you mean 'real people?'"
"Don't you know you're in a dream? Don't you know that I don't really exist?" Rea incredulously asked.
Kari furrowed her brow and muttered: "so it's true. Izzy was right."
"Excuse me? Izzy? Who is this 'Izzy?' What was he right about?"
"Oh. His name is actually Koushiro, but everybody calls him Izzy. He's one of my friends. He thought we might be in a convergent dream."
"A convergent dream? Oh dear," Rea muttered. "Do you know if you're the only one that has been hurt?"
"I—I'm not sure," Kari replied. "Why?"
Rea quickly explained: "I'm sure Izzy knew that whatever happened to you in a convergent dream affected your actual body as well. Did he tell you anything else about a convergent dream?"
"No, he didn't get the chance to. That was when I got pulled off the ship."
"Oh. Well I suppose that means you don't know the other important thing about convergent dreams. See, if you get hurt, not only does it affect your true body; the effects don't heal as they do in the dream. Your body continues to experience the injury until the damage is repaired in actuality as well."
Kari's face paled and she breathed: "so that means that means that even though I'm no longer drowning here I still might be in real life?"
Rea grimly replied: "there is no might in that statement. In real life you are most likely still drowning. How many other people are in this dream with you and Izzy?"
"Five. My brother Tai, and my friends Sora, Mimi, TK and Matt—and another might be coming, too. His name is Joe." She paused and added: "speaking of my friends, do you think you could help me find them?"
Rea bit her lip and answered: "I'm not sure. This world you are in—it's not like the one you came from. It's unstable and subject to extreme sudden change."
"What kind of change?"
"I'm afraid your friends locations could be anywhere in this entire universe. It will be difficult if not impossible to find them. But we can try."
Rea and Kari set off to find Kari's friends and brother….
~*~
Mrs. Kamiya sat between her two children in their hospital beds, no tears falling from her eyes. There was nothing left in her to cry.
Kari's lungs had had fluid in them. It had been drained away and now a tube was down her throat, helping her to breathe. The only thing that appeared as an improvement in her condition was the way her chest now rose and fell steadily, thanks to the air that was pumped into her lungs. The doctors said it appeared as though she had nearly drowned.
Tai had stopped thrashing once he was put into his bed. Now he just lay there, perfectly still, an IV line steadily dripping antivenin into him. The doctors said he appeared to be poisoned. But something was strange about the poison—it was foreign to every type of known toxin. The only reason they had been able to issue any type of treatment at all was the fact the poison was extremely similar to that of a coral snake. Similar enough, thankfully to be treated with the same antivenin. But there was no guarantee it would work.
Mrs. Kamiya put her face in her hands thinking: how could this have happened? And why?