AN: Just a small note- confusion is inevitable in this fic. It's also a mystery, but I figured supernatural would be better to put as the secondary genre. It should come clear soon…although, you also might get more confused soon, too. If, after the end, there's still a bit of confusion, I'll make a small "explanation" chapter, answering questions and just reviewing the whole story. Stuff like that…Oh. I've been trying to figure out how many chapters are left if this…Roughly (if my plans all work out), there will be about three more chapters after this one, then an epilogue. This is, of course, assuming that I don't have a hard time with…er, a certain aspect of the climax and such. ^~ And, who knows? Maybe there'll only be 2 chapters and an epilogue…*shrugs* Just giving my readers a general idea.

Disclaimer: Refer to previous chapters.

Aratamete

Chapter Eight

            Tomoyo groaned and rolled over on her side. 'Why can't I get to sleep?' She asked herself, only half-rhetorically. 'I should be exhausted…" Her eyes sleepily lifted to meet the glowing digits on her clock. One thirty-six AM. Tomoyo swore violently (quite unusual for her), and threw her sheets off. Not bothering to put on a pair of slippers, she crept down the hall.

            As she traveled down the dark corridor, Tomoyo heard a rustling sound coming from the room in which Eriol had…no, no, no. Don't think of that now, it'll give you nightmares; Tomoyo admonished herself. She eased the door open just enough for her head and shoulders to fit through. Peeking into the room, she saw a form tossing and turning in the chair in which she had seen Eriol last.

            "Why so restless tonight?" She murmured, knowing that Eriol couldn't hear her. "God, you just collapsed in the chair, didn't you?" Tomoyo felt a smile forming on her lips involuntarily as she quietly watched her guest.

            "T-Tomoyo…" The just mentioned gasped softly. 'He's dreaming…about me?' Tomoyo scooted a bit closer to the chair and watched him intently. She jerked back as turned toward her, half-expecting his eyes to fly open.

            "No…not her…anything but her…" Eriol moaned, and butterflies rose in Tomoyo's stomach. She waited, hardly breathing, hardly noticing anything besides him. Eriol's face screwed into an expression she had never seen before, not in all her life. She couldn't describe it in words; saying it was as if someone was dying barely gave one the tip of the iceberg. Then, his face hardened into an even more unreadable expression; but this one was not as heart-wrenching. Various emotions disappeared off his features, replaced by a look of some type of indifference…possibly even hatred, Tomoyo decided. If it was even possible for Eriol to hate that much.

            Suddenly, Eriol started thrashing about in the chair, somehow preventing himself from falling onto the floor. It was almost graceful, though violent it was. Tomoyo, even further surprised, took a step back. She felt something pierce the skin of her foot, and she instantly regretted not putting slippers on. Bending down, though still keeping her eyes trained on Eriol so that he was encountered in her peripheral vision, she examined the floor. A flash of light caught her eye, and her brow furrowed. Picking the object up, she discovered that it was a shard of reflective glass- a piece of a mirror. Running a finger over the edge of the splinter of glass, she tensed as it cut her finger. Although she couldn't see very well, she felt the blood on her finger; she supposed it was a small, thin cut; like a slice.

            "Oh," she murmured. Tomoyo sucked on the cut to temporarily stop the blood flow while she looked for a tissue. Feeling her way around in the dark, she tried to locate a tissue box. The mirror shard glimmered again, and Tomoyo drew her eyebrows together.

            "Wait a minute," she muttered. Where was the light coming from? It was nearly pitch black…not nearly light enough for a mirror to reflect anything. She spun around and frowned. Nothing. Then…a flash! Like a little spark; it was small, but noticeable enough when facing it. Tomoyo backed up to the chair, facing the corner of the room. 'Maybe it's one of Eriol-kun's magic things…'

            Then- the spark of light again! Tomoyo stared curiously at the other end of the room. She edged closer to the light, which was now shining continuously.

            She hardly had time for her face to register an expression of astonishment as a cloaked figure stepped up behind her, and put a thin but firm hand over her mouth. Suddenly, she felt a wave of nausea and she slipped into a cover of darkness…as the figure slipped into a cover of darkness also: the night.

            The following morning: six seventeen A.M.

            As Eriol awoke, he noticed a couple things wrong. One; the window was open. Two; his mirror was on the floor, in pieces. Three; a lamp had been knocked over. And, four; he had a sense of something that could not quite have been identified as 'impending doom'- but was just as unsettling.

            Eriol's breath quickened as he practically fell off the chair. "Ow," he muttered as he rubbed his head indignantly. "…Hey. What's this?" Eriol picked up and fingered a shard of mirror that was strangely far away from the rest of the pieces. "Odd."

Eriol's brow furrowed as he noticed a bit of dark red coloring on the edge. 'Hm… Rust?' He turned the piece of glass over and a sharp corner of it poked his finger. "Damn!" He held his injured finger up and examined it. "S'pose I should put some antiseptic on it." Pinching his finger, Eriol walked out of the door to go get a band-aid from the bathroom at the end if the hall. 'Well, this is a definite upside to staying in one's old home,' he mused. 'I know where everything is.'

As he walked by Tomoyo's room, Eriol noticed that the door was slightly open- unusual, because Tomoyo liked leaving her door closed whilst sleeping. Eriol just shrugged and continued his trek down the dark corrior. He passed Tomoyo's room, and this time couldn't help but check on her. Upon finding her bed empty and her sheets only half on the mattress, Eriol raised his eyebrows and returned to the hall, closing Tomoyo's door behind him. 'She's probably awake already.' Eriol shrugged, and walked down to the kitchen. "Not here, also…and it doesn't look like she has been." He chuckled silently to himself. 'No dirty dishes piled on the counter- yet!' Then his serious demeanor returned. 'Where the hell is she? …Maybe she went in the garden.' Eriol returned to the room in which he slept in and leaned out the window. 'No- not in the garden, either.'

            Wondering and worrying, Eriol sat back down into the chair. Reluctantly suspicious of the broken mirror, open window, and the over-turned lamp, Eriol felt his heart sinking.

Eriol, you know you must not disregard a rather likely theory just because you don't want it to be true.

'Oh, great- another battle against my conscience.'

This is no time for wise cracks, young one.

'I'm just as old as you!'

…Well, enough of that. Back to business.

'HA!'

Yes. Well. Laugh all you want, because you won't be laughing soon. Tomoyo is gone; she may very well have been taken hostage by an enemy or something of similar nature.

'…I know that…I know that it's a possibility…but-but I don't want to believe it.'

Eriol, it is you duty to assume the worst. She has powers that she isn't even aware of. Tomoyo is potentially dangerous! She has no idea how control her abilities!

'True. But her powers won't show unless-'

Eriol, you need not tell me information I already know. It's my job to tell you information that you don't know.

'…I AM going insane. It must be the stress.'

Eriol, this is completely unlike you- to not 'expect the unexpected', as Keroberos-san often says. You're in denial.

'I am NOT in denial!… And stop saying my name of the beginning of every sentence!'

…And you never get this angry so easily. You are in denial, and of two things.

'What two things, Oh-Wise-One?'

No need to be so cynical.

            'Just tell me, damn it!'

            The first I shall. The second…Oh, dear, this is sounding way too much like a cheesy drama with a strange disembodied voice slash conscience.

            'You're telling me.'

            Oh, well…Ah, alas- I digress. The first is- you are in denial of the fact that Tomoyo could and very well could be in danger.

            'No!…'

            The second, you must figure out on your own. …Say, who the hell writes this?

            'I don't know. Some teenage girl with nothing better to do than manipulate her favorite characters of a popular anime.'

            I see.

            '…Um. The second thing…why can't you just tell me?'

            Because you must realize it by yourself. If you are not capable of realizing it and accepting it, then you are not worthy of it.

            '…This is SO pathetic.'

            I agree.

           

AN: ^^ I had fun writing that last part… "Alas, I digress"-special thanks to Miss Nioko, who helped me get through my writer's block. She also typed a bit of this chapter, and afterwards I slightly revised it. See if you can guess which part she [mostly] did. ^~ Thanks, Noko-chan!

--hazelwand