A Double Edged Sword Part 10
Panic Attack
by
Sailor Janus
The sun was shining brightly as Deidera began to wake up. Blinking, she glanced at the clock and slapped her hand to her face. She completely missed her classes. "Great just what I need at a new school, being accused of skipping," she mumbled as she sat up cringing in pain.
The burgundy-haired girl's head felt like a sledgehammer had slammed into it repeatedly. "Why am I in pain so much?! This has never happened before! Why now?" she said to herself as she slid out of bed. With a small groan, she headed towards her bathroom to find a bottle of aspirin. But once again she never made it and collapsed in the hallway instead.
*~*~*~*
The hospital was rather calm as the coroner slowly made his way down the hall. "That lunch break was much too short," he grumbled as he stopped in front of the door to the morgue.
Suddenly the graying man heard a repeated thudding sound against the heavy door. "What the hell?! Is one of the corpses trying to get out or something?" he joked as he cautiously unlocked the door and inched it open causing Minako to tumble into the doorway, landing at the man's feet.
"What were you doing in there?!" he shouted as he stared at the girl who looked quite petrified.
"They're not going to kill me. They're not going to kill me. They're not going to kill me," Minako chanted over and over as the coroner knelt down to try and help the blonde girl to her feet, but she didn't seem to notice him.
"Damnit! She's probably in shock or something!" the man exclaimed. He made a face at the teen and decided it was very unlikely that she was going to get up anytime soon as she continued her endless chant. Taking a deep breath he sprinted down the hallway for assistance.
At the same time, after much debate, the girls left Mamoru at Usagi's room and went in search of their missing friend.
"Um, excuse me. Have you see a blonde girl with a red bow in her hair about my height wearing a blue dress?" Rei questioned a woman who shook her head when suddenly a graying man ran into the lobby area towards a doctor who was speaking to the receptionist.
"There is a girl who somehow got locked in the morgue. I think she maybe in a state of shock right now and I need some help to get her out of there because I cannot seem to move her on my own." The man explained. The woman nodded her head and then paged some people to help the frantic man as the doctor raced in the direction of the morgue.
"Could that be Minako?" the dark haired girl said to herself as she ran off to find the others.
*~*~*~*
Mamoru looked lovingly at the girl lying in the bed. Her hair was now down and flowing freely, but she looked very pale and exhausted.
"Hey, sweetie. How do you feel?" he softly asked as he brushed a stray hair from her face.
"The doctor said I was poisoned. Who would do such a thing?!" the blonde tearfully said as she looked up at her boyfriend. Carefully he reached over and brushed the fallen droplet from her face. If only the situation were better, she'd be in heaven right now.
"I don't know. Possibly the same person or persons who put the bomb in Haruka's car," the blue eyed man said as he gently took Usagi's hand in his. "I'm very happy that you are alright. I don't know what I'd do if you died."
"You're so good to me, Mamoru," the blonde murmured as he kissed her forehead and then stroked her face carefully with the back of his hand. "Are Haruka and Michiru okay? No one has told me anything of them."
He nodded his head with a smile. "Yes, the doctor said they'd pull through and we even got to talk to Haruka until a nurse kicked us out."
"That's good to know that they are still alive. I was so worried about them that I ate...." Usagi began to say and then froze as her eyes went wide with horror.
"What? What's wrong?!"
"…the basket of goodies that were the door step," the girl finally finished. "Someone was trying to kill me after all. The treats in the basket were poisoned." Usagi gravely said as she frowned. "And like a fool I ate the baked goods no questions asked as far as where the stupid basket came from or if it was even safe! How idiotic am I?!"
"Usako, calm down. It could have happened to anyone. In fact, Setsuna even assumes that someone is hunting us down. Somehow they knew of your weakness and targeted it perfectly," the dark haired man said trying to soothe his girlfriend.
"I just wish there was a way to prevent these things from happening," the moon princess softly said as fresh tears ran down her cheeks.
"Why don't you try to get some rest? I'm going to go check in on Haruka and Michiru one more time, then see if I can catch up to the other girls. Hopefully, we'll find whatever is trying to kill us before more get hurt," Mamoru softly said as he placed a lingering kiss on Usagi's lips. "I love you. Sweet dreams, my princess."
Usagi smiled at his words as she kissed the man she loved back and then watched him depart from her.
Quietly Mamoru left her room and headed to the room Haruka and Michiru were sharing. He didn't like leaving Usagi by herself, but the fact that the nurse in the outer senshi's room seemed a little too pushy in making them leave was starting to bother him. "If visiting hours were over, then it'd be the same for Usagi," he said to himself as he quickened his pace and suddenly heard loud shouting.
Speeding up, he jogged around the corner then stopped dead in his tracks. There was a huge crowd of people in front of Michiru and Haruka's room.
"No! This is not happening," Mamoru quietly walked towards the scene as if he were trying to find a different room. Slyly he peered into the room and felt all the color drain from his face. It appeared that they were trying to revive Michiru as Haruka was being placed on a stretcher headed towards the emergency room, Mamoru guessed. The blonde race car driver appeared to be slipping in and out of consciousness. Blood was soaked through her hospital gown and she looked deathly pale.
Finding the ability to breathe again, Darien rushed back to Usagi's room. There was no way he was about to let her out of his sight!
*~*~*~*
"What am I going to do?" Hotaru sorrowfully said as she sat on her bed staring at her lamp collection. She sighed as she leaned forward allowing her hair to partially shroud her face. "Something truly sinister is happening but no one knows what. I know I shouldn't have left but everything became too painful and I couldn't handle it. I hope they don't think I hate them; I just don't feel much like myself right now. At least everyone is still okay."
Suddenly the violet-eyed girl's communicator went off.
*~*~*~*
"It's down this way!" Rei shouted as she and the other sailor senshi raced down the hallway towards the morgue.
"Hey! What are you kids doing?! That's a restricted area," a male nurse shouted as he began chasing after them.
"Sorry but this is an emergency!" Ami replied as they increased their pace before being forced to skid to a stop.
"MINAKO!" the girls shouted as they tried to rush towards the girl.
Minako now on a stretcher still chanting the same thing. Her blonde hair now stringy, was falling limp around her pale face and hollow looking eyes. She was panting as if she had just run a marathon, and looked like she was going insane at the moment.
The others stared at her, speechless. They had never seen the perky girl look so terrible.
"D you know this girl?" one of the doctors asked as he looked up at the small group.
"Yes, she is our friend," Makoto said as she continued to stare at the girl whom she barely recognized.
"Then maybe you can tell us what she was doing in the morgue," the coroner said with his voice spiked with annoyance.
"We did not know where she went. She said she had to use he bathroom and disappeared," Setsuna sternly said. She knew right away that she did not like this guy.
Makoto inched near her friend." Minako? Are you okay?" Sadly, she received no reply.
"She's going too far into shock. We're going to have to sedate her. Excuse us ladies," the doctor said as they pushed past the girls with Minako strapped to the stretcher.
The four girls did not even bother to follow. They knew they wouldn't be allowed in the room. Somehow, they had a feeling it was going to be a very long day.
"Back to the waiting room?" Rei questioned as the others nodded when suddenly their communicators went off. Each exchanged glances before answering.
"Hi, it's Mamoru. I'm using Usagi's communicator. She's fine and is asleep right now, but there is some severe trouble going on, though. Someone tried to kill Haruka and Michiru again and I'm afraid they may have succeeded this time," Mamoru grimly said.
"WHAT?!" all five girls said as they suddenly felt their hearts stop and were unable to breathe for a split second.
Trying to recover from the startling news, Rei reported another unfortunate fact. "They must have gotten to Minako too. She somehow got locked in the morgue and has completely flipped out."
"Well, I am not going to leave Usagi's side for a second. If they dare hurt her again I'll kill them with my bare hands!"
"Good idea, Mamoru. We definitely need to keep watch now," Setsuna sighed. "We are going to check up on Mina if they will let us."
"Okay. Bye."
*~*~*~*
Hotaru quietly turned off her communicator and stared at it. "They did it again just as I feared. We are no longer safe. No one is," she softly said as she threw the device to the floor. "There has to be some way to defeat this menace before it kills all of us but how?"
She glanced at her untouched math homework but had no will to try to solve even one problem. It just didn't seem important. "I wish I could have been able to stop this. I wish I hadn't been such a brat lately and I wish whoever is doing this to us would just GO TO HELL!" she shouted as she threw her math book to the ground.
"Hotaru?" a sickly voice said as the girl closed her eyes.
"Sorry, daddy! I was just killing a roach! You know how much I hate them. I'll try to be a little quieter." the dark haired girl meekly apologized as she opened her eyes, allowing a tear to run down her face. "I'm sorry."
*~*~*~*
Lord Cacus stared at his drink. 'She's late,' he thought as he picked up the shot of sake and quickly downed it.
Suddenly he felt the presence of another person. "Sorry I'm so late. I had a little unfinished business to take care of first." Kalika purred as she wrapped a leather-clad arm around the man. "You aren't angry with me are you?" she innocently mocked.
Harshly he grabbed her and pulled her into his lap. "And what have you been up to, my dark angel?"
"I love it when you're rough with me," Kalika smirked before he grabbed her by the hair and forced his mouth to hers. "That was sinfully good." she whispered when they parted. "I'll have you know I've been a bad girl today and have gone about my duties properly."
"So are they all dead yet?" Lord Cacus gruffly asked as he shoved a drink in the girl's hand.
"Don't be silly. First I drive them insane and then I merely put them out of their misery. So far four of them are in hospital and two I probably accidentally killed. What a pity," the dark haired girl explained as she sipped the strong liquor in her glass before finishing it off in one gulp.
"But you are going to kill them right?" the silver and gold haired man sternly asked.
"Of course I am. Just wait until they find out what I going to do to them tomorrow. You did not call me Kalika for nothing, my love," the girl sneered and then cackled. "Another shot please." she said to the bartender. "I am going to drink for what I am worth. Then tomorrow, I plan on having more fun."