Title: Coming Home: The Prequel, Chapter 2
Author: Tevrah
Email: writergirl852@yahoo.com
***
Chapter Two: Sixteen
Van stared out the window, watching as the rain poured down. He sighed. Today would be his last day here. He turned and looked at his small room. There was a small bed on one wall, a lamp on a nightstand, a bookshelf and a wooden chair that he was sitting in by the window.
For the past year this room had been where he slept every night. It had taken a lot of getting used to because it was nothing like the bed on Gaea. Gaea. His home. How he wished he could return there, but he didn't know how.
He could remember that when he was very young, his mother would tell him that when things happened, whether bad or good, they happened for a specific reason. But what possible reason could there be for him to have been sent to a completely different planet?
He remembered his first day on earth and silently grimaced. It hadn't exactly been graceful:
(Past)
His head hurt. It felt like a guymelef had stomped on him. And what was all of that noise?
Beep"Hurry! Get him stabilized!"
"His heartrate is slowly coming back! I can feel a pulse again!"
"All right, let's close his side! We've got all of the glass out of it!"
"Doctor! His eyes are opening!"
Van opened his eyes and was met with an extremely bright light. Why was everyone holding candles in his face? And he felt like he was on fire. Probably from the candles being so close to his face. He tried to move his head, but found that he couldn't.
A man that was completely dressed in white leaned over him. "Kid?"
Kid? He wasn't a child. Van Fanel was the King of Fanelia. Who was this man calling him a kid?
"Listen real close son," the man continued. "We're going to have to put you back under anesthesia. It'll help while we're sewing you up. Okay?"
Sewing him up? What was going on? Other than his head, he felt fine. If he were hurt, he would feel his injuries. Where was he anyway? Where was Millerna? She was the only doctor he wanted to work on him. He tried to tell the man to go and get Millerna, but he couldn't speak. Now he really knew something was wrong.
A mask was placed over his face and he began to feel sleepy. He liked this feeling. It was a feeling he had never experienced before, but he knew that he liked it. He would have to congratulate Millerna on whatever concoction she had made to make him feel this way when he woke up.
"He's under, Doctor."
That was the last thing he remembered for several hours.
Waking up slowly, Van groaned. It wasn't a groan of pain; it was a groan of protest. He felt as stiff as a guymelef looked. And what in Gaea was wrapped around his arm? He tried to move it, but it was heavy. He started to panic slightly. Where was he? Where was everyone?
A door opened and closed beside him. A man walked over to the side of the bed where Van was lying and smiled kindly at him.
"Hello, son," the man said. "A little birdie told me that you decided to wake up."
Van stared at the man. He could talk to birds? Van must have landed in a mystical part of Gaea.
The man was still talking. "My name is Doctor Suyami. You've been in a coma for the past week. Now, I'm going to ask you a few questions, okay? Now, do you know where you are?"
Van stared at him silently. Then he shook his head as best he could.
"All right," Doctor Suyami wrote something down on a piece of paper attached to a clipboard. "Do you know the date?"
Again, Van shook his head.
Doctor Suyami wrote something else down. "Do you know your name?"
Van stared at the doctor, sizing him up to see how the man would react to hearing Van's name. 'Twas a fact that almost everyone on Gaea knew about he and the Escaflowne. "Van," he had to whisper because his throat was dry. "Van Fanel."
Doctor Suyami nodded his head and wrote yet another thing on the clipboard. "You remember your name. That's a good sign."
"Do you know me?" Van asked.
Doctor Suyami shook his head. "I'm sorry, but no."
"Where am I?" Van asked. He had a feeling that he was somewhere very far away from where he was supposed to be.
"You're in Tokyo General Hospital," Doctor Suyami answered.
Tokyo? "What country am I in?"
"Japan," was the answer. The doctor was looking at him strangely, then he wrote something else down on the clipboard.
A thought hit Van like a bolt of lightening. "What planet?" he whispered.
The doctor raised his eyebrows. "Earth."
"Earth?"
"Yes, earth. You remember it's blue and green, and it orbits the sun in space."
"How many moons?" Van asked urgently.
"Moons?" The doctor's eyes were slowly widening. "Only one, son."
Van closed his eyes. Good God, he was on the Mystic Moon!
The doctor left and came back a few hours later with another man who introduced himself as Doctor Timeon. He asked the same questions and Doctor Suyami had asked. Then he asked Van to explain about why he asked how many moons earth had.
Having been left alone for the past few hours, Van had a good lie handy. "I think I must have had a dream while I was sleeping. I was on a place where there were two moons. I apologize for upsetting you."
Doctor Suyami broke out into a big smile laced with relief. "No problem my good boy. But you gave me quite a scare there for a moment, making me think you were an alien of some sort."
The two doctors laughed heartily and Van forced a smile. What was an alien?
For the next few weeks, several doctors worked with Van, trying to see if he had any memories of Japan or other parts of the world. Then one day one of the doctors told him that everyone had deduced that Van had amnesia.
"That means that you have forgotten everything that you used to know, therefore we must make it our duty to reintroduce you back into our wonderful world."
Van had nodded his head in agreement. He needed to know everything he could about this world because he was stuck here until he could find a way back home to Gaea.
(End Past)
From there, he had been sent to a facility called the Gray Clinic. The people there had set him up with clothing, food, schooling, and just about everything else. He had learned more this past year, than he had ever thought possible. He had learned about electricity, the atom, space, everything this world had to offer.
Earth, as he began to call it, was a fascinating place, but he still longed for Gaea. Gaea was free from pollution, and you could breathe in clean, cool air without coughing in the next breath.
Van sighed again. He knew that he had been sent here for a reason, but what could it be? In time he would find out, but until then he would continue wondering.
***
Hitomi stared up at the moon. The rain made its image blurry, but it was still there like it always was. The moon always offered her comfort when she needed it most. Especially this last year. The funerals had been hard. And what had been even harder was that Hitomi was the last living person in her entire family.
She had no other living relatives. When social workers had tried to send her to America for adoption, the Uchida's had intervened. Mr. Uchida, being a lawyer, had made a case that taking Hitomi from a familiar environment might make her go into depression or worse. The judge had granted Mr. and Mrs. Uchida custody until Hitomi was seventeen years old, at which time she would be an adult and could choose to go where she wanted to.
Hitomi had been grateful and she and Yukari had really become sisters. That had been a plus. But the Uchida's weren't her blood family, and that was hard, knowing she was always going to be the outsider.
"Hitomi?"
She turned to find Yukari sleepily looking at her from bed. Yukari held up the alarm clock and squinted her eyes to see the numbers. "It's three o' clock in the morning, Hitomi! What on earth are you doing up?"
Hitomi smiled. "Just thinking. Go back to sleep Yukari. We wouldn't want you looking like a drowned rat in the morning when we go to school and meet Amono, now would we?"
Yukari groaned. "Get some sleep, Hitomi. You have senior dinner tomorrow night. And I have to tell you, I'm jealous that you get to graduate with Amono. You don't know how lucky you are to have been able to skip a grade."
Hitomi laughed quietly. "Whatever Yukari. Besides, I won't graduate until next year when I'm seventeen." She got up and walked back to her bed. Crawling under the covers, she yawned. "See you in the morning, Yukari."
Yukari was already asleep. Hitomi smiled and shook her head. Yukari could fall asleep faster than anyone she knew. Turning to her side, Hitomi looked to the moon again. "Goodnight, moon," she whispered.
Closing her eyes, she sighed and fell asleep.
***
Hitomi shook Yukari for the fifth time. "Wake up, Yukari. We're going to be late for school."
Yukari groaned and rolled to her stomach. "Just a little while longer, Tomi," she mumbled.
Hitomi sighed and smiled. "You said that ten minutes ago, Yukari," she patiently explained. "But if you don't want to get up, I'll just tell Amono that you had better things to do than to attend the senior ceremony tonight."
Yukari shot up. "Hitomi Kanzaki, you wouldn't!"
Hitomi grinned. "Watch me."
Yukari groaned. "You are such a pest."
Hitomi grabbed Yukari's arm and helped her stand up. Then she directed her to the closet. "Get into your uniform, Yukari, and meet me downstairs in ten minutes or I'll leave without you."
"Fine, fine," Yukari said.
Hitomi made it to the doorway when she distinctly heard Yukari mumble something about "slave driver."
"I heard that," Hitomi called and shut the door on Yukari's upcoming comment.
Living with Yukari was never dull.
Yukari was downstairs in eight minutes. Hitomi looked at her watch. "I'm impressed, 'Kari. Eight minutes, a new record."
Yukari glared at her. "Threats seem to make me work faster."
Hitomi smiled. "I'll keep that in mind."
When Yukari got a murderous look in her eyes, Hitomi took off running, stopping only long enough to yell a quick goodbye to Mr. and Mrs. Uchida. She ran out the door with Yukari yelling after her.
Halfway down the block, with Yukari far behind, Hitomi slowed down and looked up at the sky. The moon was merely an outline in the sky.
"Whatcha staring at?"
Hitomi jumped. She hadn't heard Yukari walk up behind her. "You scared me to death, Yukari!"
Yukari smirked. "Good. That makes us even for the threat you made against me this morning."
Hitomi shook her head. "Whatever, Yukari."
They started walking again. "So what were you looking at back there?"
Hitomi shrugged. "Oh, nothing."
"Come on, Hitomi. I'm your best friend. You can tell me anything. Please," she pleaded. "Pretty please. Pretty, pretty please."
"Oh, all right," Hitomi laughed. "All right." She became serious and was silent for a moment. "Have you ever wondered if there was another place out there, Yukari?" she whispered.
"Another place?" Yukari asked. "What do you mean?"
"Oh, I don't really know myself," Hitomi confessed with a frustrated sigh. "It's just, have you ever stared up at the moon and imagined that there was another place, another planet, just waiting for you? Like you were supposed to be somewhere else?"
Yukari was silent a moment. "Look, Hitomi, I'm not going to say that I know what you've went through this past year. To tell you the truth, I don't want to even try and imagine. I don't know what I would have done if it had been my mom and dad that had died. But you still have me. You know that, don't you?"
Hitomi smiled. "Yeah, I know that. Now come on, let's get to school. We're going to be cutting it close thanks to little Miss Sleeping Beauty."
"Hey!" Yukari protested. "Some of us have to work on maintenance. Not everyone is born beautiful like you."
Hitomi rolled her eyes. "If I'm late for school, not even your impressive, but detectable flattery will get you off the hook."
"Hmph," was the only reply she got. Hitomi watched in amusement as Yukari stuck her nose in the air and stalked off.
"One day she's going to do that when it's raining, and she'll end up drowning," Hitomi said to herself.
A ringing bell diverted her attention. She looked at her watch and yelped. She took off running past Yukari. She was going to be late for first period!
So, what do you guys think? Is it any good? Please review and let me know! Oh, and thanks for all of the reviews in the first chapter! It really means a lot! Tevrah J