[1] I borrowed the names of the 'victims' from other anime (see last chapter for explanation). From Gatekeepers I got Megumi and Feye. From Magic Knights Rayearth I got Hikaru and Umi. From Sakura Wars I got Ayame. And from Yu Yu Hakusho I got Keiko. I don't own any of these anime or the names of their characters.
[2] My deepest gratitude to all of those who had been sending their reviews. Please continue to do so for you are my source of inspiration. Too mushy? Well, I meant every word of it.
DISCLAIMER: I do not own CCS or any of its characters. CLAMP does. This plot is a product of my imagination. Any similarities to other fan fictions are unintentional. AMETHYST EYESBy bishounen lovah
Chapter 3
Tomoyo had been fuming mad all the way home.
She was mad at Eriol Hiiragizawa because he had doubted every word that she said. There she was going out of her way to give him vital information about his case and he didn't believe a single word of it. Didn't he realize that she had nothing to gain and everything to lose in stepping forward?
She was mad at the world because not a single soul had ever taken her seriously. Instead they all mocked her because of her gift.
Gift? What gift? What I have is a curse. I must have done something horrible as a child in order to be given this curse.
Most of all, she was mad at herself. All those children were dead because she wasn't able to convince anyone of the danger they were in. And now another one will die because she was stupid enough to think that Hiiragizawa was different from all the others.
Damn! Damn him! Tomoyo punched the seat beside her. The old lady sitting across her on the train gave her a worried and nervous look. Tomoyo smiled apologetically at the woman and mentally counted to ten to calm herself.
She reached forty-seven.
By the time she got home she was physically, mentally and emotionally tired. She had been awake since the wee hours of the night and now it was almost lunchtime.
Sounds coming from the kitchen greeted her. In her haste to find Hiiragizawa, she had forgotten to turn off her TV and lights. She proceeded to switch them off then strode to her bedroom, paying no attention to the soft growl of her stomach.
She pointedly ignored that part of her apartment where her conscience stood in the image of her most recent painting. She knew that if she sees those amethyst eyes again, she would breakdown and cry.
Rest. That's what I need. I need to rest.
Without bothering to change her clothes, she fell on the mattress face down. She fell asleep almost instantly. An hour later, she flipped on her back and started thrashing around her bed.
~ Dream Sequence~
The sound of the door slamming jolted her awake. She shrunk against the chair as the dreaded footsteps came nearer and nearer. She cringed as she felt the now familiar calloused hand on her cheek.
"Have you been a good girl while I was gone," a raspy whisper was heard from the shadow man.
Her eyes filled up with tears yet again as she looked pleadingly at the man. She wanted to go home. She didn't want to stay in this small, dark room anymore. She wanted him to take pity on her and let her go unharmed. But the man just gave him a sick, obsessed look as he stared at her shiny eyes.
"Don't be scared. I won't leave you alone anymore. See…I've brought you some company."
She heard him drag something across the floor. The room was dark but her eyes were already accustomed to the darkness and the light coming from the open doorway illuminated the room a tad brighter. She saw that a table was wheeled in front of her. There was something on the table but she couldn't see what because it was covered by a dark cloth.
"Their names are Megumi, Hikaru, Feye, Umi and Ayame. You'll like them. They're just like you." With that, he grabbed the edge of the cloth and pulled it away.
There on the table lay five glass canisters filled with a clear liquid. There were something suspended in each canister and she strained her eyes to see what they were. She let out a muffled gasp when she realized what they were.
Five separate pairs of eyes looked back at her. The small orbs floated inside the canisters, slowly sinking towards the bottom.
The tears started falling then. Fear clutched her heart as she looked at the shadow man gaze lovingly at those eyes.
"Such beautiful eyes. And soon yours will be joining them, little one." He let out a crazed laugh as he walked out of the room, leaving her alone in the dark with the amethyst eyes.
~End of Dream Sequence~
Tomoyo woke up bathing in her own tears and sweat. Her heart was beating furiously; so much that she was having trouble breathing because of the force on her ribs. She had not expected to have another dream this soon. They always came during the night and looking at her clock on the bedside table it was just half past four in the afternoon. And her dream…
It was different from those she had before. Never before had she seen those amethyst eyes. This was the first time she saw them. Seeing them made her shiver from anger, fear and depression. The man had not only kidnapped, tortured and killed those girls but had also desecrated their bodies by dissecting their eyes out of their skulls.
And he said their names. She now knows who those girls were.
A faint glow of hope shimmered in her eyes through her tears. The names were like a lifeline to her. Another means to convince Hiiragizawa that she was telling the truth. The dream scared the hell out of her but they gave her strength just the same.
She was more convinced than ever to get some help. She could not let Keiko Mori die in the hands of that bastard. She will not let him kill another innocent child again.
Picking up her phone beside the clock, she quickly dialed TPD and asked the operator to connect her to Detective Hiiragizawa. But it wasn't him who answered the phone. It was that other cop, Nakajima, who did. He said that Hiiragizawa left the building and didn't know where he went.
Great, she said to herself as she place the phone back on its cradle. What am I going to do now?
A bath. God, I need a bath. Perhaps the water would clear my mind. After that I just might be able to know what to do next.
She tried not to recall the dream that she had just had. It was too disturbing for her to relax, least of all enjoy her bath. After soaking in her tub for nearly forty minutes, she emerged from her room cool and composed in a white sleeveless dress that hugged her upper body and flowed past her waist. She tried calling Hiiragizawa again but he was still out and would probably not return until the next morn.
With a sigh of resignation, she decided to wait until then. She refuses to talk to anyone else besides him. Despite of his rejection of her, she still trusts him.
He may not believe her but she knew he would not do anything to humiliate her publicly.
Her doorbell rang twice thirty minutes later. Thinking it was the pizza that she ordered, she quickly opened her door. Her breath got stuck in her throat when she saw that it wasn't the pizza delivery boy who rang the bell.
Standing in the hallway was Eriol Hiiragizawa. He was not smiling that arrogant smile he always had since elementary days. Instead his mouth was tweaked up slightly in a tentative smile as if he was sending a silent apology to her.
"May I come in," he asked quietly when a couple of minutes of silence passed.
Tomoyo snapped out of her trance and wordlessly opened the door wider. She felt a slight hesitation in letting him in due to their unpleasant encounter earlier but there was something in his blue eyes that mesmerized her to calm down.
His eyes held the apology and belief that she craved for.
To be continued…