Thanks so much for all of the reviews guys! ^_^ I'm amazed that I have this many already. Another big thanks.
I have some news before I post this chapter. Tomorrow I'm gonna go camping for the weekend, so the fourth chapter prolly won't be up for at least a week. Oh, and I've been forgetting about a disclaimer.. oops. o_
Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or any of the characters in it. I wish I owned Frontier, but I don't, so that really sucks… umm, yeah.
*Chapter 3 - Goodbye Light, Hello Dark*Daisuke hesitated as his hand reached to knock on the door. His heart was racing. This was one of the only times he had visited Hikari's house, though all the other times it was for a different, happier reason. Anything would be happier than this.
His fingers rapped on the door. He jumped when the sound echoed along the long hallway, bouncing off of anything and coming back to him, the noise amplified. He scolded himself inwardly for being so jumpy and unlike himself. Almost immediately, the door opened, but only a crack.
"Who's there.." The voice was low and hoarse, sounding menacing from behind the big door. Through the small opening, Daisuke could see a mass of brown hair.
"Taichi-san, it's me, Daisuke. Let me in, I came to see Hikari-chan," he said quietly, afraid to raise his voice. The door opened a little more, and Daisuke could see Taichi's face, lined with weary and sadness. He could almost make out tearstains on his cheeks, but he decided he had just imagined it.
"Come on in, but it's not my fault if she won't talk to you," he muttered. Daisuke looked at his eyes. They were dull, seeming to have lost their brightness and light. He felt pity, but decided it was best not to show it. He was just happy that Taichi had let him into the house. The original holder of courage was very protective of his little sister, but that would have to be put aside now. Hikari needed as much help from her friends as she could get, even if it was Daisuke.
"Thanks Taichi-san," Daisuke replied, stepping in the door. He shivered. It was a beautiful, summer night outside, but he felt as if he were freezing on the inside.
"Just don't say anything to make her any worse than she is," Taichi said threateningly, pointing across the living room to a door. Daisuke nodded, and walked carefully up to the oak door. There wasn't anything special about it, but he knew he would dread what would be inside. He paused again when his hand clenched the doorknob, wondering what would await him inside.
Move it or lose it, he thought, and twisted the knob.
The smell hit him first. It was one of decay and staleness. His stomach felt like pumping his lunch out onto the ground, but his mouth held it in. He swallowed in disgust, then stepped into the room. Clothes littered the floor, decorating the place with a colorful array of fabric. Everything was out of its place. Toys, books, and any other random things that were in Hikari's bedroom. Daisuke could see pictures of Hikari and her friends next to the walls, along with the shattered remains of the frames they had once been in. Hikari had thrown them there. He was extremely upset to see the one of him under an exceptionally large dent. And there, on the bed, was a lump swathed in the blankets.
"Hikari?" Daisuke asked quietly. His voice sounded hoarse and crackled. It was rough on his throat, feeling as if he had just swallowed some sandpaper. He stood there sweating for a moment, waiting for Hikari to talk.
There was no reply.
The boy swallowed.
"Hikari?" he asked again. The pile of blankets shuddered. Daisuke walked over slowly and sat on the bed, his stomach seeming to do a flip. The smell was worst here, and Daisuke could feel his throat shoving, trying to push up everything contained in his innards.
Daisuke pulled some blankets away from where he thought her face would be. He revealed one of her hands from the mass of stinking cloth. Clutched tightly in the fingers was a picture; a picture of Takeru, though it was barely recognizable. She had it intertwined in her fingers so tightly that it seemed it was a part of her.
He continued to remove the cloth, all the way up to her face.
Her face was the worst.
Her head was downwards in a sign of defeat, seeming to stare at the picture in her hands. Her hair was a mess, and it covered her face completely. From what Daisuke could see, he could make out tearstains on the girl's cheeks. Daisuke, almost on impulse, reached out and chucked her chin up with his fingers, wanting to see all of her face, wanting to comfort her, wanting to pull her out of the sea of sorrow.
Right in the middle of her face was the most horrifying thing he had ever seen.
Where here eyes should have been were big empty holes, full of nothing but dark and depression. They seemed to suck in the light, removing any of it from the air around them. Their darkness penetrated deep into his body, right into his heart, right into his soul. Immediately it removed his hope and faith that he had stored deep within himself.
It was sucking out his inner light.
The angel of light had now become a slave to the dark.
Daisuke yelped, jumping away frantically. Hikari's body thumped onto the bed, not bothering to right itself. Daisuke scrambled up to a wall behind her bed, watching with horrified eyes as Hikari's body lay there, not moving a muscle. Was she dead? Did I kill her?
"Shit!! Tai-TAICHI!!" he screamed.
Hikari's older brother burst through the door, acting like a bull on a rampage. His eyes surveyed the scene before him, and he howled in fright. He leapt over to Hikari's bedside, almost crashing into Hikari herself. His hands worked frantically, but Daisuke couldn't see a thing.
All of a sudden, Taichi quieted down. He sighed, sinking down to the floor in relief.
"She's alive," he whispered, his hand against her chest, feeling her rebellious heart beating steadily, if slowly. He stood up and turned to Daisuke.
"You better go Daisuke-san, I think I need to take Hikari to the hospital…" he murmured, trailing off at the end. Daisuke nodded.
"Yeah, yeah, sure…"
Daisuke ran out of the Yagami apartment faster than he had ever run before.