Chapter Five: Good God!

The rest of the school year flew by and I had managed to put everything behind me. The rape, Shelia, being locked in the laundry room, they were all in the back of my mind. The guys threw me a great sweet sixteen party. I finished sophomore year in the top thirty (Rowen was number one, Ryo and Sage were somewhere in between 150 and 200, and Kento was, well, less said the better- I'm talking about placement of GPAs) which I was very proud of. I had a great start to my summer vacation. Nothing but beach, sunlight, and surf for the first few weeks of our holiday.

I was in heaven.

The night that my life turned upside-down was a calm, peaceful one. It was July 31, around six of clock when I decided to go out on that fateful walk. The evening started out normal enough. Sage was in the basement probably working out. He was up for his fifth degree black belt in kenpo, American Polynesian karate that his mother had gotten him into. He's actually pretty good at it. Rowen was up in his room reading. No surprise there. That's what he spent a good percentage of his free-time doing, but he does take some time to make contact with the outside world. Ryo and Yuli were out back playing in the sprinkler while they still had SOME sunlight to play in. It was just past dusk so the sky was crisp peach color. Kento and I were watching the tail end of the Japanese dub of the American movie The Sixth Sense. (Author's Note: At this time I have not seen the Sixth Sense but boy do I want to, that movie looks like it kicks major ass!)

I was looking out the window and got the urge to go on a nice, quiet, peaceful walk. "Whatcha looking at?" asked Kento.

"Huh?" I asked. "Oh, nothing, just looks like it's nice weather out there."

"Ryo and Yuli are running around half naked through a sprinkler, yeah I think the weather's the nice," said Kento.

I stood up. "I'm going out for a walk, just gotta grab my keys, wallet, and armor orbe," I said.

"Armor orbe?" asked Kento.

"Never know when you're going to need it. Remember Sarenbo?"

"Point taken, but that guy beat up Sage and Rowen, well, sorta, you think that can take-"

"Kento!" I said with a laugh. I went up into our room and got the urge to check my wallet for cash, in case I decided to pick something up at the store on my way home (We were short on milk). I had about two thousand yen (Author's note: One yen is about $0.01) in there, way more than enough to buy a couple of gallons. After stuffing that in my back pocket and my armor orbe and house key in another, I went back downstairs.

"Take care of yourself," said Kento from his position on the couch. He was now watching, oddly enough, another American movie called Gremlins. "What? Gizmo's cute."

I rolled my eyes. "All right, just don't eat anything after midnight," I said. Kento didn't get the joke as I walked out the front door.

"Hey Cye, where're you going?" I turned to see a soaked Ryo and Yuli heading back inside.

"Just for a walk, I'll probably pick up some milk on the way home," I said.

"Gotcha," said Ryo. "See you around."

I smiled. "See you, Ryo." As I walked down the driveway to the main road, I didn't realize that I wouldn't be seeing Ryo or any of the others around for a long, long while.

I was out for about and hour enjoying the night scenery. The weather was perfect, the night sky was cool, and the stars were beautiful that night. Somehow while looking up the stars I must've wandered in an unusual direction, since I ended up halfway across Toyama. I looked around oddly. Exactly where in Toyama was I?

"PLEASE! DON'T HIT ME AGAIN!"

My eye's widened as I heard the child's scream echoing through the night. I looekd to the source to see I was right in front of the orphanage. Madame Himishi was supposed to be a cruel and abusive caretaker to most, definite to the orphans. Including Ryo. He told us some horrific stories from the insides of those walls. According to him, she came very close to killing some of the children on a few occasions and told the police and the hospital it had been an accident. The cops had been trying to can her for the past few years, but they never had anything solid. Whenever they did, it wasn't solid enough or didn't have anything to back it up.

I wanted desperately to help the poor kid. Whatever he'd done was probably nothing more than cough while Madame Himishi was trying to speak. Ryo was trying hard to get something on her and was working on missions to get the kids adopted in mass numbers to hopefully get her away from the kids and into the hands of the authorities, but it was only a dream that night. I sincerely hoped that Ryo would accomplish that someday, and deep down inside I knew he would.

I heard the sound of heavy breathing across the street. I turned around to see a figure in a pink jacket carrying a backpack with a wild mane of messy red hair. The person looked up at me and I froze.

Shelia was back.

Shelia walked over to me, but I noticed something wasn't right about her, for her, anyways. Her hair was a mess, her face was flushed, looked like she'd put on a few pounds, and it seemed like she'd just run a marathon. The pink jacket was buttoned up and she wore loose fitting sweatpants under that. There was a lump that I assumed at the time was some sort of package she was going to deliver to someone. "Hello, Cye," she said coldly.

"Um, I, hello," I said nervously.

"I'm not going to **** you or kill you, I've got more important things to do," she said.

"What are you talking about?" I asked.

Shelia looked at me, then at the orphanage, then at the lump in her jacket, then back at me, and then at the lump again. "I know something you don't know," she said.

"Shelia, I'm not in the mood for games, at least not with you," I said bitterly. I did not want to have anything to do with that witch ever again, after what she did to me I had every right to feel that way.

She shook her head. "Trust me, you'll be interested in this," she said.

"How interested?" I asked.

"Open up my jacket and take a look for yourself," she said.

"If it's you chest-"

"Just do it!" she ordered. Knowing that it was probably important, I slowly unbuttoned the jacket and opened it. She held a bundle of pink blanket in her arms. I moved back a few blankets and held back a gasp.

A baby girl. No more than a few days old.

"Cye, do you know why I left Toyama?" she asked me.

"No, I don't," I said. "But I think I have an idea."

"Cye, congratulations. You got me pregnant."