Here is Chapter 2! Please give me some reviews! ^-^
It was a little past sunset as Naota walked home from Cafe Bleu. The sky was filled with gray clouds and the rain drizzled a bit. He had talked to Mamimi for some time. For some reason he seemed more attracted to her now. It wasn't her make-up or anything like that, but it was that she looked happy and he hadn't seen her smoke one ciggarette. He thought of her the whole time he walked there. When he opened the door Kamon rushed up to him in a blur, with a grin on his face.
"Well?"
"Well what?"
"Why were you so late? You weren't doing a little 'Furi Kuri' with someone...right?" Kamon grinned as he held up a pinky. Naota rolled his eyes and shoved past him into the living room where his grandfather, Shigekuni, was watching T.V. He looked up when Naota came in.
"Did you get some, Nao?"
"Grandpa! You too?! Sheesh!" Naota trudged up to his room, muttering angrily. He slammed his door shut and flopped down on his bed. Something was wrong this time, Naota could feel it. He started to get up, but then he was sitting on nothing. He fell through air, falling fast through blackness. His room was gone and all he could hear was himself screaming and strange whispers. Frightened, he looked around as he was falling for the source of the whispering, but there was no one and nothing.
"Murderer. You murderer!"
"Stupid child! Murderer!"
"He killed her! Murderer!"
"He'll kill all of them next! The little bastard! He's just waiting to snatch them!" He heard them hiss. Suddenly, he felt himself get very angry, like fire was rushing through his veins. He kicked around in the blackness shouting. "I'm not the same as you are! Leave me alone! I haven't killed anyone!" He screamed.
"Stop."
Everything went silent. Naota stopped falling and the whispering ceased. Naota looked around for the voice, but everything seemed to stop. He found himself hating it, hating everything because it was silent. Suddenly his eyes went wide. This was him. He was hating himself. His ever silent-self. The whispering was his thoughts, but who had stopped him? Who had stopped his mind?
Naota sat up sharply in his bed. He was sweating all over and his heart was beating wildly. He looked around quickly and his eyes stopped on Kamon who looked surprised.
"Nao, are you alright? I came in here because you were moaning and shouting something in your sleep." He leaned closer, putting his hand on Naota's forehead to feel its warmth. Kamon's craziness had disappeared, Naota realized.
"I..I'm fine. Just a bad dream.." He said, taking a deep breath. He looked away. He never really talked to his father, so he wasn't used to attention.
Kamon took his hand away and sat down next to Naota's bed. He stared down at the floor for a moment, and then he smiled.
"Naota, do you remember when you were little and you used to stand by the stairs when I watched T.V. at night? You wanted to come sit next to me, but even then I don't think you wanted to show it. You would go back upstairs and then I would come upstairs and carry you to the couch and we would watch T.V. together until you fell asleep." Kamon chuckled and stared at the floor as though the floor was showing him his memories like a movie.
Naota barely remembered that. He always thought he and his father had no connection, but obiviously Kamon thought otherwise. They sat in silence for a bit until Kamon saw the photo of him and Naota's mother on the desk.
"You still have that old picture? Man, I didn't realize how long my hair was back then.." Kamon chuckled and looked back at Naota. "You like that picture?"
"I can throw it away if you don't want it here." Naota snapped and then looked away. Kamon sighed and got up.
"Just making sure you were okay..." He said softly.
"That's new..." Naota said coldly and gave his dad a 'When are you gonna leave already?!' look. Kamon walked out and Naota laid back down in his bed. He glanced at the clock and figured it was late enough for bed so he turned over and closed his eyes. When he opened his eyes again, he was in a field of flowers. Something inside him urged him to go forward so he ran where his body took him. He ran through the flowers, for once feeling happy. The sun beamed upon him as he came to a small clearing. A beautiful woman in a summer yukata was sitting there, waiting for him. Her eyes were as blue as the ocean and seemed to smile at him. He smiled and ran towards her as she opened her arms. He ran to her, but the minute he touched her soft hand, it bled. He stopped and looked at her, shocked. She grunted in pain and looked at him.
"I...I..." He softly touched her face and watched in horror as she quickly melted into a pool of blood. He jumped back and watched as the field turned into a cracked, dry, wasteland. He looked at the blood as tears streamed down his face. Suddenly, the figure of a man burst through the blood. Covered in red, he walked up to Naota, who was frozen with fear, and placed a hand on his neck.
Naota woke up abruptly and quickly felt his neck. There was a large, painful welt where the man had put his hand. Naota winced as he touched it with his fingers and then rubbed his forehead, which was throbbing painfully. He wiped the sweat off of his face and got out of his bed. He opened the door and quietly went downstairs, even though both his father and grandfather were still wide awake watching T.V. He ignored them as he walked by into the kitchen. He opened the refrigerator door and poured some tea for himself. As he drank it, he could still make out the face of the woman he had seen in his dream. He shivered and almost dropped the glass. He sat it in the sink and walked out. As he walked through the living room, Kamon's fatherly senses went off finally. He turned on the floor to face Naota and smiled. On the T.V., Naota could hear the weatherman talking about a massive storm.
"You want to stay up with us?" Kamon asked
Naota stopped walking and frowned. "No."
"But if you're having trouble sleeping you can atleast-"
"No." Naota interrupted coldly and started to walk away, but Kamon stood up quickly and grabbed Naota's shoulder. Naota thought for a moment that he was actually going to scold him or something for the first time in his life. Kamon was always a nice guy, and Naota had very rarely seen him mad. Suddenly, Naota felt the sting of pain surge through his body. He stepped back a bit, for Kamon had been looking at the mark on his neck and had accidently touched it.
"Nao, what in the hell is that?" Kamon asked, keeping a firm grip on Naota's shoulder. He voice sound shaky and worried, but Naota could still care less.
"I don't know. I woke up with it." Naota said as he just shrugged, also as an attempt to remove Kamon's hand, but failed.
"You woke up with it?" Kamon studied him closely.
"Yeah..Maybe you got mad at me because of earlier and took your revenge.." Naota hissed.
Kamon looked taken aback. "I would never hit you, Nao!" He said loudly. Naota shrugged harder this time, but Kamon held onto his shoulder tighter.
"Naota, tell me what happened to your neck!" Kamon shouted, but his voice still seemed concerned, not angry. This time Naota threw his father's hand off of his shoulder and stepped away. Then he looked Kamon dead in the eye with such coldness that the room seemed to grow icy and silent.
"I'm not the same as you are. So why even bother?" Then he turned slowly and began to walk up the stairs, living Kamon with his head down. Naota couldn't see his father's face, but he didn't care about that. At the moment he didn't care about anything, even the dream or the welt. He shut his door and got in bed and tried to go to sleep.
"Naota...your friend is here to see you." Naota rubbed his eyes and looked up at Kamon at in his doorway. His eyes were red, but Naota didn't know if it was from crying or loss of sleep. He hopped out of bed and shoved past Kamon to go downstairs. He came to the front door, which was halfway open, and could see Michiko peering in with a smile that quickly turned to concern.
"Naota! I'm so sorry! Were you sleeping? I seriously didn't mean to wake you!" She said quickly, but Naota waved his hand.
"Its alright, don't worry. Hang on a sec, I'll go get some clothes on."
"Bring a jacket, its raining."
"Murugh........" He mumbled and left to go back upstairs. After he had thrown on some old clothes and a jacket he walked downstairs and found Kamon waiting at the bottom.
"Nao, when you get back..I want to talk with you, kay?"
Naota walked past him and went outside. Michiko was wearing a purple jacket and neck-length hair was in a small braid.
"Wanna hang out again?" She smiled.
"Yeah..sure.."
"Great!" She seemed to smile bigger as she grabbed his hand and pulled him along with her. As they were walking down the sidewalk, the small drizzle of rain pecked against Naota's jacket. He stuffed his free hand into a pocket and looked up at the sky. The sun was covered somewhere in a blanket of black clouds that looked like they would burst with rain any moment. It reminded him of the dream he had of Haruko. Her beautiful bright eyes were hidden under all those wires like the sun was. He began to daydream about her until he got a small tug from Michiko.
"What'cha thinkin'?" She asked sweetly, swinging his hand in her's.
"Nothing...It sure is dark out here..."
"Yeah, I wanted to see you because I'm really nervous..." Michiko said as she looked down.
Naota stopped walking and so did she. "About what?"
She nodded upwards. "See how black those clouds are? They said on the radio there might be some tornados..." She shivered, but Naota felt kinda relived.
"Don't worry about it.." He said quietly as he began walking again.
"But doesn't that make you worried? Tornados do so much damage!" Naota just shrugged and continued to walk along with her.
About the time they had reached Cafe Bleu, the clouds were growing darker. He paid no attention as they went inside. It was really loud inside, obliviously everyone else was nervous about it like Michiko.
"Takkun!" Mamimi said happily as she walked over to them. Michiko's eyes widened when she got a good look of Mamimi.
Naota blushed. "Hey..Oh, uh, this is my friend Michiko." The minute he said it he released her hand. Michiko looked down for a moment and thne looked at Mamimi. "H-Hello. Nice to meet you.."
Mamimi smiled. "Hi. Nice weather huh?" She laughed. Michiko looked at her strangely.
A couple hours later as they sat at a table, Michiko held her head in her hands, bored. Naota and Mamimi had been talking the whole time and didn't really include her in. She glanced outside the windows and saw the wind was really getting fierce.
"I know, that was so stupid." Naota laughed with Mamimi about something.
"You know, I heard he got a job as a night club singer."
"No way. I didn't know he could sing."
"Same here. " She laughed. Just then, they heard the sharp, shrill sound of sirens. Everyone in the cafe looked up. Michiko grabbed onto Naota's arm. The rain outside was beating down on the ground as the wind blew the trees, making them bend this way and that. The sirens continued to belt out as someone turned on the T.V. The reporter on it was already telling everyone to find good shelter. The manager of the cafe stood up.
"Please, everyone come down to our basement in an orderly fashion." Everyone stood up nervously except for Naota, who was still sitting, staring out the windows. Michiko tugged on his arm as most of the people were already in the basement.
"Hurry, Naota! I'm really scared!"
"Takkun, she's right, let's go." Mamimi also pleaded as she began to head for the basement doors.
"Naota!" Michiko shouted as tears formed in her eyes. "Let's go! I'm so scared! Please! What the hell are you waiting for?!" At that moment he let go of her hand and stood up. She sighed in relief. "Come on, let's.....NAOTA!! NOOO!"
Naota opened the cafe doors and ran outside. The wind almost knocked him down, but that electric shock ran through his body, pushing him, pushing him to go further. He fought the wind with each step and actually managed to keep a swift jog. The wind was howling in his ears like the shrill scream of a woman. It cut at him and made rocks fly into his face and eyes, but he couldn't stop. The rain soaked into him, beating down on him, like it was commrades with the wind in this battle. Even so, Naota tried as hard as he could to get there. He jogged down the empty road as the wind and rain ripped through Mabase. He stopped and tried to hold himself firmly on the ground when he came to the beach. The sand was rising into the wind and also wanted to test his strength. He squinted through the sand that stung his eyes out at the ocean. It resembled the actions of an insane man being put into a straight jacket. Roaring and struggling, and creating massive waves that slammed against the shore and soaked Naota's clothes.
Naota actually felt himself sliding back a bit and he wondered if it really would come. Then suddenly everything almost became silent. The sand and rain let down a bit, letting the real power do the job. Over the horison, the howl of the wind soundly truly like that of a woman screaming murder. Like out of a horror movie, a huge funnel appeared across the horison. It spun like a massive gear, operating only the powers of hell. It ripped through everything. Nothing could withstand it as it came slowly straight for him. It was perfect. Naota grinned. "Just perfect.." He said.
Like being smacked in the head, he was pulled so hard of the ground that he felt his heart stop for a moment. He was thrown around in the tornado as he squinted to see. Would this really work or had he been signing a contract for death without even realizing it? Suddenly, a rock that was also being tossed in the tornado smashed into him. He could actually hear the bones in his arm snap. He cried out in pain, realizing that he had been fooled until something grabbed him very hard again.
Everything had stopped. His head rang with all the noises, but now they were just memories in his mind. It was all so quiet now. He was floating carefully in the eye of the tornado. He opened his eyes and saw only gray and black, but it seemed so beautiful. His heart slowed, he had been so close to death that it needed like an extra breath. He suddenly realized that whatever had grabbed was still gently holding on. His eyes darted to see it.
Her body wrapped in wires. Her smile covered with a smiling pleasure. Her yellow eyes that tempted the demons to come out of the shadows.
Haruko is here.
It was a little past sunset as Naota walked home from Cafe Bleu. The sky was filled with gray clouds and the rain drizzled a bit. He had talked to Mamimi for some time. For some reason he seemed more attracted to her now. It wasn't her make-up or anything like that, but it was that she looked happy and he hadn't seen her smoke one ciggarette. He thought of her the whole time he walked there. When he opened the door Kamon rushed up to him in a blur, with a grin on his face.
"Well?"
"Well what?"
"Why were you so late? You weren't doing a little 'Furi Kuri' with someone...right?" Kamon grinned as he held up a pinky. Naota rolled his eyes and shoved past him into the living room where his grandfather, Shigekuni, was watching T.V. He looked up when Naota came in.
"Did you get some, Nao?"
"Grandpa! You too?! Sheesh!" Naota trudged up to his room, muttering angrily. He slammed his door shut and flopped down on his bed. Something was wrong this time, Naota could feel it. He started to get up, but then he was sitting on nothing. He fell through air, falling fast through blackness. His room was gone and all he could hear was himself screaming and strange whispers. Frightened, he looked around as he was falling for the source of the whispering, but there was no one and nothing.
"Murderer. You murderer!"
"Stupid child! Murderer!"
"He killed her! Murderer!"
"He'll kill all of them next! The little bastard! He's just waiting to snatch them!" He heard them hiss. Suddenly, he felt himself get very angry, like fire was rushing through his veins. He kicked around in the blackness shouting. "I'm not the same as you are! Leave me alone! I haven't killed anyone!" He screamed.
"Stop."
Everything went silent. Naota stopped falling and the whispering ceased. Naota looked around for the voice, but everything seemed to stop. He found himself hating it, hating everything because it was silent. Suddenly his eyes went wide. This was him. He was hating himself. His ever silent-self. The whispering was his thoughts, but who had stopped him? Who had stopped his mind?
Naota sat up sharply in his bed. He was sweating all over and his heart was beating wildly. He looked around quickly and his eyes stopped on Kamon who looked surprised.
"Nao, are you alright? I came in here because you were moaning and shouting something in your sleep." He leaned closer, putting his hand on Naota's forehead to feel its warmth. Kamon's craziness had disappeared, Naota realized.
"I..I'm fine. Just a bad dream.." He said, taking a deep breath. He looked away. He never really talked to his father, so he wasn't used to attention.
Kamon took his hand away and sat down next to Naota's bed. He stared down at the floor for a moment, and then he smiled.
"Naota, do you remember when you were little and you used to stand by the stairs when I watched T.V. at night? You wanted to come sit next to me, but even then I don't think you wanted to show it. You would go back upstairs and then I would come upstairs and carry you to the couch and we would watch T.V. together until you fell asleep." Kamon chuckled and stared at the floor as though the floor was showing him his memories like a movie.
Naota barely remembered that. He always thought he and his father had no connection, but obiviously Kamon thought otherwise. They sat in silence for a bit until Kamon saw the photo of him and Naota's mother on the desk.
"You still have that old picture? Man, I didn't realize how long my hair was back then.." Kamon chuckled and looked back at Naota. "You like that picture?"
"I can throw it away if you don't want it here." Naota snapped and then looked away. Kamon sighed and got up.
"Just making sure you were okay..." He said softly.
"That's new..." Naota said coldly and gave his dad a 'When are you gonna leave already?!' look. Kamon walked out and Naota laid back down in his bed. He glanced at the clock and figured it was late enough for bed so he turned over and closed his eyes. When he opened his eyes again, he was in a field of flowers. Something inside him urged him to go forward so he ran where his body took him. He ran through the flowers, for once feeling happy. The sun beamed upon him as he came to a small clearing. A beautiful woman in a summer yukata was sitting there, waiting for him. Her eyes were as blue as the ocean and seemed to smile at him. He smiled and ran towards her as she opened her arms. He ran to her, but the minute he touched her soft hand, it bled. He stopped and looked at her, shocked. She grunted in pain and looked at him.
"I...I..." He softly touched her face and watched in horror as she quickly melted into a pool of blood. He jumped back and watched as the field turned into a cracked, dry, wasteland. He looked at the blood as tears streamed down his face. Suddenly, the figure of a man burst through the blood. Covered in red, he walked up to Naota, who was frozen with fear, and placed a hand on his neck.
Naota woke up abruptly and quickly felt his neck. There was a large, painful welt where the man had put his hand. Naota winced as he touched it with his fingers and then rubbed his forehead, which was throbbing painfully. He wiped the sweat off of his face and got out of his bed. He opened the door and quietly went downstairs, even though both his father and grandfather were still wide awake watching T.V. He ignored them as he walked by into the kitchen. He opened the refrigerator door and poured some tea for himself. As he drank it, he could still make out the face of the woman he had seen in his dream. He shivered and almost dropped the glass. He sat it in the sink and walked out. As he walked through the living room, Kamon's fatherly senses went off finally. He turned on the floor to face Naota and smiled. On the T.V., Naota could hear the weatherman talking about a massive storm.
"You want to stay up with us?" Kamon asked
Naota stopped walking and frowned. "No."
"But if you're having trouble sleeping you can atleast-"
"No." Naota interrupted coldly and started to walk away, but Kamon stood up quickly and grabbed Naota's shoulder. Naota thought for a moment that he was actually going to scold him or something for the first time in his life. Kamon was always a nice guy, and Naota had very rarely seen him mad. Suddenly, Naota felt the sting of pain surge through his body. He stepped back a bit, for Kamon had been looking at the mark on his neck and had accidently touched it.
"Nao, what in the hell is that?" Kamon asked, keeping a firm grip on Naota's shoulder. He voice sound shaky and worried, but Naota could still care less.
"I don't know. I woke up with it." Naota said as he just shrugged, also as an attempt to remove Kamon's hand, but failed.
"You woke up with it?" Kamon studied him closely.
"Yeah..Maybe you got mad at me because of earlier and took your revenge.." Naota hissed.
Kamon looked taken aback. "I would never hit you, Nao!" He said loudly. Naota shrugged harder this time, but Kamon held onto his shoulder tighter.
"Naota, tell me what happened to your neck!" Kamon shouted, but his voice still seemed concerned, not angry. This time Naota threw his father's hand off of his shoulder and stepped away. Then he looked Kamon dead in the eye with such coldness that the room seemed to grow icy and silent.
"I'm not the same as you are. So why even bother?" Then he turned slowly and began to walk up the stairs, living Kamon with his head down. Naota couldn't see his father's face, but he didn't care about that. At the moment he didn't care about anything, even the dream or the welt. He shut his door and got in bed and tried to go to sleep.
"Naota...your friend is here to see you." Naota rubbed his eyes and looked up at Kamon at in his doorway. His eyes were red, but Naota didn't know if it was from crying or loss of sleep. He hopped out of bed and shoved past Kamon to go downstairs. He came to the front door, which was halfway open, and could see Michiko peering in with a smile that quickly turned to concern.
"Naota! I'm so sorry! Were you sleeping? I seriously didn't mean to wake you!" She said quickly, but Naota waved his hand.
"Its alright, don't worry. Hang on a sec, I'll go get some clothes on."
"Bring a jacket, its raining."
"Murugh........" He mumbled and left to go back upstairs. After he had thrown on some old clothes and a jacket he walked downstairs and found Kamon waiting at the bottom.
"Nao, when you get back..I want to talk with you, kay?"
Naota walked past him and went outside. Michiko was wearing a purple jacket and neck-length hair was in a small braid.
"Wanna hang out again?" She smiled.
"Yeah..sure.."
"Great!" She seemed to smile bigger as she grabbed his hand and pulled him along with her. As they were walking down the sidewalk, the small drizzle of rain pecked against Naota's jacket. He stuffed his free hand into a pocket and looked up at the sky. The sun was covered somewhere in a blanket of black clouds that looked like they would burst with rain any moment. It reminded him of the dream he had of Haruko. Her beautiful bright eyes were hidden under all those wires like the sun was. He began to daydream about her until he got a small tug from Michiko.
"What'cha thinkin'?" She asked sweetly, swinging his hand in her's.
"Nothing...It sure is dark out here..."
"Yeah, I wanted to see you because I'm really nervous..." Michiko said as she looked down.
Naota stopped walking and so did she. "About what?"
She nodded upwards. "See how black those clouds are? They said on the radio there might be some tornados..." She shivered, but Naota felt kinda relived.
"Don't worry about it.." He said quietly as he began walking again.
"But doesn't that make you worried? Tornados do so much damage!" Naota just shrugged and continued to walk along with her.
About the time they had reached Cafe Bleu, the clouds were growing darker. He paid no attention as they went inside. It was really loud inside, obliviously everyone else was nervous about it like Michiko.
"Takkun!" Mamimi said happily as she walked over to them. Michiko's eyes widened when she got a good look of Mamimi.
Naota blushed. "Hey..Oh, uh, this is my friend Michiko." The minute he said it he released her hand. Michiko looked down for a moment and thne looked at Mamimi. "H-Hello. Nice to meet you.."
Mamimi smiled. "Hi. Nice weather huh?" She laughed. Michiko looked at her strangely.
A couple hours later as they sat at a table, Michiko held her head in her hands, bored. Naota and Mamimi had been talking the whole time and didn't really include her in. She glanced outside the windows and saw the wind was really getting fierce.
"I know, that was so stupid." Naota laughed with Mamimi about something.
"You know, I heard he got a job as a night club singer."
"No way. I didn't know he could sing."
"Same here. " She laughed. Just then, they heard the sharp, shrill sound of sirens. Everyone in the cafe looked up. Michiko grabbed onto Naota's arm. The rain outside was beating down on the ground as the wind blew the trees, making them bend this way and that. The sirens continued to belt out as someone turned on the T.V. The reporter on it was already telling everyone to find good shelter. The manager of the cafe stood up.
"Please, everyone come down to our basement in an orderly fashion." Everyone stood up nervously except for Naota, who was still sitting, staring out the windows. Michiko tugged on his arm as most of the people were already in the basement.
"Hurry, Naota! I'm really scared!"
"Takkun, she's right, let's go." Mamimi also pleaded as she began to head for the basement doors.
"Naota!" Michiko shouted as tears formed in her eyes. "Let's go! I'm so scared! Please! What the hell are you waiting for?!" At that moment he let go of her hand and stood up. She sighed in relief. "Come on, let's.....NAOTA!! NOOO!"
Naota opened the cafe doors and ran outside. The wind almost knocked him down, but that electric shock ran through his body, pushing him, pushing him to go further. He fought the wind with each step and actually managed to keep a swift jog. The wind was howling in his ears like the shrill scream of a woman. It cut at him and made rocks fly into his face and eyes, but he couldn't stop. The rain soaked into him, beating down on him, like it was commrades with the wind in this battle. Even so, Naota tried as hard as he could to get there. He jogged down the empty road as the wind and rain ripped through Mabase. He stopped and tried to hold himself firmly on the ground when he came to the beach. The sand was rising into the wind and also wanted to test his strength. He squinted through the sand that stung his eyes out at the ocean. It resembled the actions of an insane man being put into a straight jacket. Roaring and struggling, and creating massive waves that slammed against the shore and soaked Naota's clothes.
Naota actually felt himself sliding back a bit and he wondered if it really would come. Then suddenly everything almost became silent. The sand and rain let down a bit, letting the real power do the job. Over the horison, the howl of the wind soundly truly like that of a woman screaming murder. Like out of a horror movie, a huge funnel appeared across the horison. It spun like a massive gear, operating only the powers of hell. It ripped through everything. Nothing could withstand it as it came slowly straight for him. It was perfect. Naota grinned. "Just perfect.." He said.
Like being smacked in the head, he was pulled so hard of the ground that he felt his heart stop for a moment. He was thrown around in the tornado as he squinted to see. Would this really work or had he been signing a contract for death without even realizing it? Suddenly, a rock that was also being tossed in the tornado smashed into him. He could actually hear the bones in his arm snap. He cried out in pain, realizing that he had been fooled until something grabbed him very hard again.
Everything had stopped. His head rang with all the noises, but now they were just memories in his mind. It was all so quiet now. He was floating carefully in the eye of the tornado. He opened his eyes and saw only gray and black, but it seemed so beautiful. His heart slowed, he had been so close to death that it needed like an extra breath. He suddenly realized that whatever had grabbed was still gently holding on. His eyes darted to see it.
Her body wrapped in wires. Her smile covered with a smiling pleasure. Her yellow eyes that tempted the demons to come out of the shadows.
Haruko is here.