Part 1
Created By: Jason Wong
"Morning Kari." said Matt as he emerged from the room he and Tai were temporarily sharing.
It had been roughly a month since TK's death. Matt had become a hollow shell of the person he'd once been. He barely acknowledged the presence of his friends, and simply ignored others. Tai had managed to crack Matt's shell slightly after the funeral. But it had only been a crack. Matt's parents had noticed this, and rather then let Matt slip back into recession they called upon the Kamiya's. For roughly two and a half weeks, Matt had remained at Tai's house. Tai slowly worked until finally Matt opened up again. Matt seemed happy enough and didn't have all the reminders of TK here than back home.
"Oh, hi Matt." said Kari. "Did you sleep well? Breakfast is ready, so you'd better wake up Tai."
"Yeah, sure. Ok." replied Matt, before he retrieved something from the refrigerator.
Matt sighed and looked around. He knew what his parents were doing. But what really allowed him to open up was probably Tai's apartment and family. The apartment had an overwhelming sense of peace to it, something his never had. And he had the perfect family, something he always wanted. They rose to the challenge of cheering him up. Finally, he loved the bed and how big his shared room was. His dad could never afford a big space, so he got a thin room with a foam mattress. But he knew he couldn't stay forever, much as he would love to. And over Tai's many protests had decided to leave today after breakfast. A grin spread across Matt's face as he heafted a bucket of ice water and drenched Tai from head to toe.
"YAHHHHHH!!!!" screamed Tai in terror. Being awakened by ice water was not something he was used to so he tried to jump up and out of the way. Unfortunately he slammed his head on the upper bunk and fell back down, out cold.
"Are you boys all right in there?" called Tai's mom.
"Fine, everything's fine." called Matt. Turning back to Tai's unconscious form he muttered. "You weren't supposed to do that."
Dragging Tai off the bed, Matt managed to roughly shake Tai awake.
"Oww." moaned Tai as he shivered. He gently touched the tender spot on his head before sitting up.
"Umm, sorry about that. I didn't think that would happen." said Matt in an apologetic voice. "Breakfast is ready."
Tai groaned before picking himself up so he could change into warm dry clothes. Then he left the room in search of breakfast and a bag of ice.
Yamato Ishida stood once again in the small room he could call his own. As painful memories suppressed by Tai and his family surfaced once more, Matt came to a decision. Carefully he lifted his pathetic mattress and pulled out five equal size envelopes and one large manila envelope addressed to his various friends. He carefully checked the letters and contents of each envelope before sealing it. Reaching the last envelope which was easily the largest of the six he checked the contents. Matt sucked in a breath as he realized somethings he'd wanted to put in it were missing.
"Shoot, I must have left them in the storage room." muttered Matt to himself.
Quickly grabbing his keys, he locked the door and ran to the elevator. Then he remembered that the elevator didn't run to the basement. Opening a nearby door, Matt took off down the stairwell.
Tai waited patiently as the elevator carried him upwards. Finally the doors slid open. Tai walked along the corridor until he stopped at one of the doors. Hesitantly he pulled out a key and unlocked the door. Stepping inside, Tai was amazed at how small the apartment was. It made his own look like a palace. Matt's dad had given him a key and instructions to make sure Matt had settled in while he was at work. He poked his head into one of the two small bedrooms and decided it had to be Matt's. However no one seemed to be home.
"Hey Matt. You home?" called Tai. "Hey, what's this?"
Tai picked up the large unsealed envelope which was addressed to him. He noticed five other smaller sealed enveloped beneath his. Puling out a large pack of papers, he began reading a letter which Matt appeared to have written to him.
|
Dear Tai,
Best Wishes, |
Tai dropped the letter in shock, he couldn't accept the fact that Matt had taken his own life somewhere. He'd seemed so happy this morning. But this letter made it seem like he'd been depressed. Tai wondered if he should call the police and his parents to notify them of this. But just as he turned, a tall blond haired person walked in. It was Matt.
"T-Tai." stuttered Matt seeing what Tai had been doing.
"Matt?" asked Tai.
Matt couldn't recall exactly what happened after that. He knew he ran, and that Tai caught him. He vaguely remembered a roll of duct tape. He watched Tai trying to call his parents on the phone. he was sitting in his kitchen chair. He didn't recall sitting down. He attempted to stand up but found he was bound by the silvery tape. Glancing down he realized that not only was he taped to the chair, but he was taped up so he couldn't move his arms or legs. Not to mention that his hands were sheathed in thick wads of the stuff preventing him from holding anything. 'Well, that was Tai's way to keep him safe.' Thought Matt. 'Can't kill myself very easily without my hands.' Matt waited a good ten minutes before Tai hung up. By now he had other problem. He fidgeted in his chair. Not only did he now have to goto the washroom, the tip of his nose was itching like crazy and it was driving him nuts.
"Your parents are on their way." said Tai. "Meanwhile I get to babysit you. Do you need anything?"
"You could simply release me. But since you probably won't, can you scratch my nose?" asked Matt. "And can I please goto the washroom?"
Matt was happy with Tai scratching his nose, especially after he was told his parents said not to let him go anywhere under any circumstances. He had to be content with sitting in the chair until his parents arrived.
Finally, Matt's parents arrived allowing Tai to slice the silvery bonds which held him. In the small washroom, Matt reflected on everything that happened, his friends, parents, and finally TK. TK wanted him to live, and he wasn't really living. Matt decided he was grateful that Tai had shown up and stopped him. He emerged full of determination. His parents were just hanging up the phone, and Tai seemed to have vanished off somewhere.
"Matt, we know how much Tk's death has affected you. No wait, I guess we don't. But we want to help, so we need to ask you something." said his dad.
"Matt honey, we know how painful your memories are, so we have a way for you to escape it all." said his mother.
"How?" asked Matt with a sinking feeling.
"Hypnosis." put his dad simply. "But another problem is you'll forget every memory of TK. You wouldn't even remember he existed."
"Do I get an alternative?" asked Matt, this was definitely not what he wanted. He felt sick.
"Well, we read your letters, and if you want. The Kamiya's will adopt you. You said you were quite happy there." replied his mother. "Or, if you have some other ideas that we can work out, just tell us. Just be happy, think about what you want."
Matt closed his eyes, deep in thought. He didn't even consider the hypnosis. His worst fear after TK's death was forgetting the best of his brother. And how could he remember if the memories were suppressed that far. He considered living on his own, but realized he was still too young, and he might lose himself and try suicide again and didn't particularly want to lose his family. He carefully weighed his wants and slowly came to a decision.
"Mom? Dad? I've made my choice." said Matt.
There was a knock at the door. Matt's dad rose and awnsered it. Tai walked in with assorted useless looking things that Matt realized came from their storage unit in the basement. Tai sat down at the table as his dad got him a tall glass of water.
"Sorry to give you such a difficult task Tai." said Matt's mom. "But we needed you out of the way for a while. Matt needed as few distractions as possible to make his decision."
Tai nodded in an understandingly way as Matt's parents turned back towards Matt.
"Please tell us your decision." said his Dad.
"My decision is..." said Matt. "I mean I've decided that is would be best if..."
What is Matt's decision? Will Matt recover fully? Can his friends help? Find out this and more as the story continues in "Recovery", part 2.