Chapter Five

She felt odd. That was the first thing that registered as she opened her eyes. The second was that the phone was ringing. She sat up slowly in bed and gasped as the room spun dizzily around her. Closing her eyes against the sudden nausea, she took deep, gulping breaths until her stomach settled. Her throat was sore and she felt hot and sticky and every muscle in her body ached painfully.

The phone continued its merciless ringing and she moved slowly to the side of the bed and planted her feet on the floor. Walking into the living-room to answer the phone was going to be remembered as one of her greatest accomplishments she decided as she sank into the chair and picked up the receiver.

"Hello" Was that her voice? Mimi didn't think so. It sounded more like a choking frog.

"Mimi? Is that you?" Sora? She wondered why Sora would be calling her, but her fogged mind refused to relinquish any answers.

"I think so." She answered, feeling like she'd swallowed the damned choking frog.

"You're sick!" Sora exclaimed over the phone. Mimi smiled at her tone. Was it really so impossible for the great Mimi to be ill?

"I think I swallowed a choking frog." She said as matter-of-factly as possible with the frog still croaking from her throat.

"You What!" Mimi discovered that laughing was painful and settled for smiling to herself.

"You see, I have this little frog stuck in my throat that croaks for me-"

"-MIMI!"

"He does!"

"I'm coming right over!" Sora announced, then promptly hung up before Mimi could reply. She probably thinks I'm a nutcase. She thought with a smile as she replaced the earpiece on it's cradle But it soon faded when she realized that she had to get back to bed somehow. She didn't think she could walk back, her legs were still trembling from exhaustion and pain. She wondered how she could deteriorate so fast when she'd felt nearly top shape the day before.

To add another notch to her dilemma, a knocking on her glass door announced that she had a visitor. Just my luck. She very much disliked the thought of Yamato seeing her as she was at the moment; wearing nothing but her father's tan work shirt with her hair tousled from sleep, and weak with what she assumed was the beginning of the flu. And she could just imagine greeting him with that damned choking frog still in her throat! Her lips curved up in another smile as she thought about what she'd told Sora. She'd probably come off as completely insane and her friend was rushing over with men in white uniforms to take her away.

She was forcing down painful laughter when she heard Yamato calling her from the deck. Well, it was either croak at him or sit in the chair and wait for him to come in by himself. She croaked.

"What the hell's the matter with you?" He asked as he came into the room, placing the yellow rose he'd brought for her on the small table.

"I swallowed a choking frog." She explained patiently, enjoying being playfully obnoxious for once. Yamato chuckled and leaned his hip against the arm rest of the love seat.

"Frog huh?" Mimi nodded solemnly, all seriousness. Yamato's smile faded as he looked her over with a disapproving frown. "What are you doing in here?" Mimi opened her mouth to answer, but he made a dismissive gesture with his hand before she could and knelt to pick her up. "Never mind. Let's just get you and your little choking frog back to bed." She nodded and clung to him as he carried her to her bedroom.

"My friend is coming over." She told him, unable to keep silent. "I said something about my choking frog and now they're coming to take me away -ha ha- to the funny farm, where life is beautiful all the time-"

"-Mimi, your frog is croaking." He informed her with a smile, effectively breaking off her butchery of the song she was singing. She smiled sheepishly.

"I'll tell him to stop."

"You do that."

"I really don't think he'll listen to me though." She continued absently as he lowered her onto her rumpled bed, pulled the discarded blankets up to her chin, and tucked them around her. "He's really stubborn you see." Yamato nodded appropriately as he whispered for her to go back to sleep.

****

It was happening again.

She was back in his huge white house, in the room with all the books. She was dusting the shelves. Noticing little details like the sunlight coming through a crack in the drapes. She could smell the lemon scented cleaning spray mixed with cherry cigar smoke. Feel a smile curved on her lips in the dream and for a moment she believed that this would be different. There had been many days just like this one, with the same details.

A softly singing voice became known to her as she was pulled deeper into the memory. It was her.

The sound of an opening door killed the song in her throat. She turned, smiling, ready to greet her employer-

-only to see his business partner there. Mr. Corrigon stood in the doorway for several moments, radiating wealth and power, and Mimi instinctively shrunk back away from him.

The smile that turned up the corners of his mouth was purely predatory. The glint in his black eyes terrifying as they slid over her not-so-original uniform consisting of a short-sleeved black dress that came up to her neck and stopped just above her knees with a white apron around her waist.

"Is-is there something I can do for you sir?" She asked hesitantly, clutching the can of Pledge to her chest. His mouth tilted up further at one corner than the other, showing a glimpse of pearly white teeth.

"Indeed there is." He stepped fully into the room and turned to close the door quietly behind him. A metallic click announced that he had locked it.

Mimi could again feel the heavy beat of her heart as it slammed against her chest. Feel the panic that stiffened her muscles until she couldn't have moved if her life had depended on it. The terror that made her hands damp and her mouth dry. She should scream, she knew, but she couldn't seem to find her voice. She felt the color drain from her face as she'd realized -completely- how hopeless her situation was.

Her employer, Mr. Deveral; had warned her away from his handsome yet intimidating business partner, and she'd obeyed with nary an argument. She had never suspected that the man might seek her out!

Her very real fear seemed to amuse him as he came towards her. One slow, languorous step at a time. The rings he wore on both hands glinting cheerily in the room's light. She retreated from him until she felt the book shelves at her back.

He stopped infront of her, so close she could feel the heat emanating from his body. He leisurely placed both hands beside her head, bracing against the bookshelf and effectively trapping her in the prison of his arms and body that was slowly pressing down on hers with insulting confidence. His hot breath on her face caused adrenaline to flow through her veins and she could hear her blood pounding in her ears.

She felt suddenly faint and her chest ached, informing her that she'd forgotten to breathe. The large, lung-full of air was all she needed to break the spell panic had put on her and she took another, shallower breath as she struggled to find her voice.

"I-I-I am warning y-you, s-s-s-sir, I-I'll scream i-if you s-so much as-s lay one f-finger on me!"

His soft chuckle caused the flesh to pucker on her arms and the hairs to prickle as they stood on end all the way down her back. He ground his hips against hers, blatantly pressing his erection into her lower belly.

"Scream all you like honey, because I plan to lay much more than a finger on you." His words were low purr and laced with amusement, but they managed to shoot ice through her entire body and she shuddered physically with fear and revulsion.

"Y-you can't do this!" She accused shrilly, her words driven more from hysteria than her mind as she tried to put as much distance between his body and hers by becoming one with the bookshelves. "Mr. Deveral w-will come down here and-" He silenced her outburst with his mouth. Crushing his lips cruelly against hers as he took advantage of her open mouth and thrust his tongue into it, stroking the roof of her mouth before she realized what he was doing.

Horrified and beyond thought, she bit down instinctively on his tongue and fought the urge to vomit when the taste his blood filled her mouth.

With a muffled cry, his head snapped back and one arm lifted away from her as he placed it over his mouth in shock and pain. A jolt of energy rocked her from her head to her toes and she was running towards the door before her brain had time to register what she was doing.

She fumbled quickly for the lock and flipped it. Turning the knob, she swung the door open just as a large hand closed around the back of her neck and squeezed. A shrill squeak exploded from her throat at the unexpected capture and the pain that came with it. Squirming, she tried to twist away from him, but before she could accomplish anything his free arm came around, trapping her neck in the crook of his elbow. His arm tightened as she struggled harder, striking out at him with her fists and shoed feet, screaming at the top of her lungs. She heard a satisfying crack as the Pledge can came in contact with some part of his face and fought with new desperation as she realized she had something that passed for a weapon. As he cursed unintelligibly and clumsily twisted her around in his grasp until she was facing him, she battered him around the head with the spray can.

"BITCH!" The word was barely understood only because he'd shouted. Blood and spit showered her face at the roar. The word was followed by the hand releasing the back of her neck and slapping her across the face. Pain stung her cheek and she stopped screaming for a surprised instant as she realized that he had backhanded her. Something warm and wet trailed down to her chin from where his ring had cut her skin. She stared up at him stupidly in disbelief.

He grabbed her arms where they hung limply at her sides and twisted the can from her fingers, letting it drop to the floor. He muttered incomprehensibly, slobbering blood as he maneuvered his nearly severed tongue around in his mouth and glared at her, his face twisted into grimace and lined with pain, but he refused to let her be.

She tried to twist her fragile wrists from his one-handed grasp when his other hand went to the top of her dress and ripped the buttons off as he jerked the neck down.

She opened her mouth to scream again, but was deafened by what sounded like a bomb going off on her shoulder. Something wet, warm, and liquidy, hit her in the face like a bucket of water and she choked at the taste. Blood…

****

She jerked straight up in the bed with a choked off scream of disgust and terror, the lingering taste of another's blood on her tongue. Her stomach heaved into her throat and she threw herself sideways over her bed to vomit her dinner onto the floor. She felt a twinge of guilt for throwing up all over the carpet; but try as she might, she couldn't stop the spasms in her belly.

When at last it seemed as if everything had settled down inside, she gulped deep, calming breathes and forced herself to relax.

The dream had been so damned real! It always was, that's what made it so terrible.

She wiped her mouth on the bottom corner of her comforter and pushed herself up into a sitting position. She slowly began to rock back and forth, her thin arms hugging her knees, her long, chestnut hair tangled around he head.

She couldn't say how long she rocked, but the motion soothed away the lingering terror and managed miraculously to restore a semblance of calm.

That is… until Sora and Yamato walked in.