Yayness! I'm back at my mom's, which means another postie! This one is extremely long so make sure you have time ;).
19. Accusations and Suspicions~
Surprisingly the guard that was supposed to be at her door wasn't there, so she was able to run out without interruption. Her yells echoed down the empty hallways, and a guard quickly found her. He tried to get her to go back to her room, but she would not budge until he showed her to where Kaiba was. With some apprehension, he agreed to show her to his office, but said he wouldn't dare go in with her. She thanked him and followed, occasionally asking him to walk faster, annoying him greatly. Kinou saw a fancy door and began to run towards it. The guard yelled after her that she was making a mistake by disturbing him, but she ignored him and he hastily left.
Kinou burst into the office. "Seto! I just—"
She stopped short, shocked. There were a lot of people in Kaiba's office—including Kantugo. She stuttered, pointing at him. "Wh-What? How is it you're here now? I just saw Yami Marik kill you!"
Kantugo gave her a confused look, and Kaiba stood up from his desk. "Kinou, what the hell are you talking about?" he asked dangerously. "Why aren't you still in your room, jumping on your bed or putting on makeup or whatever else you do in there?"
All the people in the room chuckled softly at his remark, and Kinou flushed. "I just had a dream that Kantugo was discovered and..." she bit her lip, realising how stupid she must sound. "That the Rare Hunters beat him up and when he wouldn't tell them where I was, they—"
"Kinou, I'm standing right here," interrupted Kantugo. He sounded somewhat different than what she remembered...really different. "No one found me out; I just left of my own accord. We were searching for where you might be and I simply broke off from the group and told them I'd go looking by myself. As you can see I'm in perfect health, unless you're going to tell us that Marik somehow made a copy of me without any injuries and sent me back?"
More laughing rang through her ears, and she half-whished she had never left her room. "I'm sorry, I just.... got scared I guess."
"Oh, poor little baby," cooed Kaiba, and even more laughter rang through the group.
Out of nowhere, Kinou blacked out. No sounds reached her ears; nothing lit up the darkness all around her. After looking around, she raised her hand and gasped, for it was semi-transparent. Looking down, she couldn't see what she was standing on; she was simply... free floating in space. Before she could figure out what was going on, she woke up.
She blinked as Dr. Tanurah's face came into focus right above her. She was sprawled out on the floor, and he was pinning her arms down; her hands were completely spread out like they had been reaching out for something. Her cheek stung and she grimaced at the pain suddenly rushing to her senses. Shaking her head, she asked, "What happened?"
Dr. Tanurah's face slackened slightly and his eyes widened. "Kinou, what do you mean?"
"I mean I've no idea what just happened and why I'm down here. And why does my face hurt?"
He looked up at Kaiba in disbelief. Kinou tilted her head back to look at him as well. Even though he was upside down from her point of view, she could tell he looked dishevelled, and he was panting. She looked back at Dr. Tanurah and asked again with a slight tone of apprehension. "What happened?"
"You attacked Mr. Kaiba," he said, looking as if she was confusing him beyond reason.
Kinou laughed in a rather high-pitched voice. "Why the hell would I do that?"
He shook his head. "We have no idea, your eyes just sort of rolled back for a second and then you yelled and rushed at him. He had a really hard time fighting you off; you were thrashing around and hitting him with everything you had. He finally slapped you in hopes it would knock some sense into you. A little too hard, though," he said, glancing at Kaiba again.
Kinou blinked up at him with her mouth open. She was beginning to feel afraid. "I—I don't know what—"
"I think you can let her up now, Tanurah," said Kaiba, stepping forward and rubbing his right hand.
Dr. Tanurah took his hands off her arms and she sat up, putting a hand to her cheek. It was swelling slightly, and the surface was extremely sensitive to her fingertips. She tried to stutter out that she had no idea what she was doing, but nothing came out of her mouth. Tears began to well up in her eyes and she ran out of the office so that no one would see her.
She did not stop running until she had reached her room; by the time she got there, she had stopped crying, but she was terrified. As she closed the door behind her, she leaned her back against it, reflecting. I blacked out and attacked Seto? They wouldn't try to make up something like that; there'd be no point. She walked up to her mirror and peered into it. Her left cheek was bright red and for the first time she realised there was a slight taste of blood in her mouth. She pulled out her cheek with her finger to gaze into her mouth, seeing a small trickle of blood issuing from the back of her gums. Wow, he must have hit me really hard to make that happen. Why though? He could have just... I don't know pushed me away or something... He could have tackled me and then I'd wake up to him right over me. That would have been better. She shook her head. I need to stop dwelling on him. He doesn't like me; I need to realise that. I should focus on more important things. It took her a moment to remember why she had gone to his office in the first place. I saw Kantugo killed in Marik's living room; I saw it. And I have to be honest with myself, the past few dreams have given me truth... She shuddered. He sounded different, though. I mean really different. Why didn't they all notice it? Thinking hard, her eyes widened as the simple reason popped into her head: Because they haven't seen him for so long. Seto told me he went to join the Rare Hunters at least a couple of months ago. "Those idiots!" She pounded the dresser with her fist and then put her head in her hands. A slight grunt made her look back up again instantly. She turned around warily and glanced around her bedroom. All was still, and even after waiting for nearly a minute, tensed and silent, nothing moved or made a noise. Assuming she had just imagined it, she turned back to her mirror. She leaned forward, squinting at herself. Her room looked interesting from the mirror's point of view, and she became slightly distracted as she began looking around behind her, staring into the mirror. Something moved in the corner and she whipped around to see Terry getting up from behind her bed.
"Terry?" she asked in disbelief, standing up.
"Hey babe," he said sheepishly. He stepped out and walked up to her, smiling. "I just woke up from a quick nap. You all right? You kinda ran outta here screaming. And what happened to your cheek?"
"Well, I really don't know, but apparently I went berserk or something and attacked Seto—" she stopped and raised an eyebrow at Terry. "How do you know I ran out screaming?" She looked over at the bed and then back at Terry a few times before clapping a hand to her mouth; she stepped back a few feet and pointed at him with her other hand. "You mean you've been--?"
Terry put his hands up. "I was only hiding there for a little while! Honest! I didn't see anything!"
"How long have you been there?" she yelled, taking her hand off her face.
"I came in when you were sleeping; right before you had the nightmare thingy."
"You came in because...?" she asked, gesturing with one of her hands to get him to elaborate.
"Because—well, you......" he trailed off, obviously not having a decent reason. Kinou could tell he was thinking fast.
She narrowed her eyes. He just thought he could sneak into my room for safety, did he? She folded her arms and waited for a response.
"Because.... well, when I saw those cronies taking you away, I thought I'd find you to see if you were all right, ya know? So I wound my way around for a while and found this place."
She simply stood in front of him, staring at him and watching; his eyes never met hers. "And why didn't you wake me up when you got here?"
"Well, because I wasn't sure whether you'd want to be woken up. You looked so peaceful just lying there."
Kinou did a mental eye roll. My God, he'd be better off telling me the truth. What kind of suck-up excuse will he come up with next? He'll probably say something like "I love you" just to get me soft. Well, I might as well have some fun with him. She forced herself to smile at him. "That's so sweet of you. You'd think you have a crush on me or something."
Terry stopped smiling and stared at her. "I never said that."
"Well, it wasn't that hard to figure out; you gave some pretty good clues to me," she said, stepping closer to him.
He seemed to be getting very nervous and he glanced around for an exit. "But—but—how did you get crush from all of that?"
Kinou shrugged as she kept advancing on him; she knew before long she'd have him trapped and then she would pounce. "My mind is complicated. You'd be surprised at all the things it figures out."
Terry finally backed into the wall and flattened himself against it. Kinou walked right up to him and peered into his face. "It figures out when people are lying, and believe me, it catches every one." Terry gulped and looked straight back at her with what he thought was a straight, determined face.
"I don't know what you're getting at," he claimed.
Kinou broke her focus and stopped smiling at him. "What do you mean you don't know?" she yelled. Terry jumped at her sudden outburst. "You just sat there and let them take me away right after I saved your sorry butt from that cage and offered to help you hide—"
"Hey! Hey! If I had said anything, they would have taken me and locked me up again!" he retaliated defensively.
"Oh, so instead you decide to give me a little thanks-for-nothing salute? Great choice, you must be wonderful with the ladies," said Kinou sarcastically.
Before Terry could say anything else, a soft knock interrupted them. They looked at each other, and Kinou quickly lifted up her bed sheets and Terry dove underneath them and tried to make himself as flat as possible.
"Come in," called Kinou, hastily sitting back down at the dresser.
Dr. Tanurah quietly opened the door and stepped inside. "Are you all right?" he asked after looking at her worriedly for a few moments.
Kinou nodded and he came over to her with a small first aid kit. "Why were you yelling? Something disturb you?"
Kinou thought fast. "I was just so frustrated at how everyone acted back there, making fun of me and all."
"That's perfectly understandable," said Dr. Tanurah. He opened up his kit and took out some supplies and placed them on the dresser, Kinou silently thanking that he hadn't heard Terry's voice as well. He put on a glove, asking her to turn her bruised cheek towards him. Her skin had turned a light purple now, and she reluctantly let him prod at it gently to check for serious damage. He sighed, taking off the glove and turning to pick up an ice pack he had taken out.
"He really did a number on you. Just a small hit would have sufficed, but... I can't really blame him with the way that you were attacking him. It's like something flared up inside you and you lost control over everything." He handed her the ice pack and she gingerly pressed it against her cheek. The coldness stung her; wincing, she forced herself to keep it on, knowing it was the best she could do to keep it from getting worse. Dr. Tanurah watched her some more, and bit his lip, like he wanted to ask her something. She looked at him.
"Let me guess: Why did I do it?" she asked. He nodded and she sighed. "Well, I'm not sure the answer I'm going to give you will do anything, but—" she stopped, wondering whether he would believe her. If he doesn't, he'll think I'm crazy and put me in the psychiatric ward or something, and if he does believe me, that just means more tests on me to make sure I don't have a split personality disorder... But if I'm in a ward, I'll get out of here, and they'll ask me questions for hours on end about all these crazy dreams I've been having... But with more tests, I'll get more shots... but they have shots at psycho-wards too...Dr. Tanurah reached out and put his hand on hers, jerking her out of her self-battle.
"I'm not one to judge; I'll admit I feel like doing that to people sometimes. Whatever you tell me, I'll keep to myself if you want." He smiled, making her feel slightly more confident about talking to him.
"To be honest, I really don't know what happened. I don't remember anything about attacking him or when he hit me... I just remember blacking out for a while, and then I woke up on the floor with you holding me down." Glancing at Dr. Tanurah, she hoped he would understand; to her immense relief, he didn't look skeptical.
"I was wondering why your eyes rolled back right before it happened," he said, nodding. "Sometimes people mentally forget what they're doing when they are feeling an extreme emotion. In your case, it was anger. I think you just lost control of yourself; you really didn't mean to hurt him deep down."
Kinou relaxed slightly. "I certainly hope you're right. I would never dream of hurting Seto."
Dr. Tanurah grinned at her, and she blushed slightly, having revealed to yet another person of her obsession. "You're so cute," he said, rubbing her head with his hand and standing up. He picked up his things, placing them back inside the box, and started walking towards the door. "We originally had an appointment today, but, considering what's just happened, I think it can wait until later. Come down to the hospital wing if you feel like getting it over with, or need another ice pack—" he paused with his hand on the doorknob. He shrugged and looked back at her. "—heck, just come up with a reason and come down whenever you want."
Kinou laughed and waved as he closed the door behind him. As soon as his footsteps faded away down the hallway, Terry reappeared, his face white with shock. He stumbled over the rug on the floor as he rushed over to her. His voice shook violently as he grabbed her shoulders roughly and stared into her eyes with his wild ones. "What the hell do you think you're doing?" he whispered harshly.
"Terry, let go; you're hurting me," pleaded Kinou, trying to get out of his grip.
He shook her. "That's the guy that took me! That's the guy that kidnapped me and transformed me into this!"
Kinou's eyes widened in shock. "Dr. Tanurah? What the hell are you talking about? Let go of me already!" She pushed his arms off her.
"Really hard on the ears, aren't you?" he shouted at her. "I'm saying he was the guy I told you about who came into my house and kidnapped me and took me back here!" He emphasized all of his words with violent hand gestures, frightening Kinou slightly. "What kind of bullshit has he been telling you? Has he told you himself that you're not the first that's been taken here?"
"For your information, he has not been telling me bullshit; he's been giving me the moral support that's been keeping me from going insane in this hellhole!" she yelled back, furious at him for talking about Dr. Tanurah that way. "And, even if he was the one who took you here, whoopty shit, big deal! You came here before me; the only difference was the kidnapper! In fact, I've probably gone through more than you have, so don't tell me you were traumatized by your arrival, you—s—stupid—" she choked on her words, realising she was crying as flashes of her rape dream flooded her mind. Terry had clenched his fists while she was talking and he grabbed her shirt and pulled her on her tiptoes to stare her straight in the face.
"Don't you dare say nothing happened to me," he hissed at her through clenched teeth. "That freak lied about me to Kaiba; that big idiot didn't even realise I was here until he walked in on one of the doctor's experiments on me. He treated me like shit; he was planning to use me to take over this stupid game company! Then, of course, when Kaiba discovered you, hoh boy, were you the perfect little message from heaven for the doctor. As soon as you came in, I was just a piece of trash, and he lied again to conceal the fact that he—"
Kinou slapped him so hard he let go of her shirt. He stumbled back a few steps, Kinou standing up straight with tears still in her eyes, though they were now from anger. "You think you can just barge in here and insult me, Dr. Tanurah, and Seto with your lies? Barge in and use my room, my place of safety, as your hideout? Get out! I never want to see you again! Never!" She thrust her finger out to point furiously at the door; it was trembling with the anger pulsing through her with a fiery passion. "GET OUT!" she screamed again, and Terry glared at her for a few moments before turning and walking swiftly to the door. "I hope they catch you and throw you back into that dungeon; you don't deserve even that! I hope you rot away down there!"
Terry turned back to her at the door. "And I hope Dr. Tanurah hurts you even more than he did me; then you'd realise what a fucking large hole you've dug yourself into by trusting him!" And with that, he shut the door with a snap. The guard was still not at her door, so she listened to Terry running down the hallway in the opposite direction that Dr. Tanurah had left.
Kinou stood in the middle of her room, her finger still raised. She was panting and her throat hurt from screaming so much. Nothing she could remember measured up to the anger and frustration she was feeling now. Finally dropping her arm limply to her side, she sat down on the floor, brooding. Why would he say things like that? Maybe he just had some resentment against Dr. Tanurah and he couldn't stand that I was friends with him. That's it. He was jealous, that's all. Making up lies to make me mad. Well, it won't work. I'm just going to play in the piano hall. That always makes me feel better.
She stood up and walked to her door, threw it open, and walked to the piano hall. The double-doors were still unlocked, so she pulled them open to see the spectacular hall once more. She instantly felt more at ease, and as she ran towards the piano, she realised there was some music upon its stand. Hmm, I guess Seto wasn't upset enough to forget my music, she thought, sitting down and staring at it. It looked simple enough, so she began to sight-read. As it was her habit to just play straight through with hardly any stops the first time, she had a hard time discerning what the piece actually sounded like. Though, as she progressively worked out the knots and hard parts, she could hear the wonderfully dark lullaby that played above the minor progressive chords in the background. At one point stopped to tap out a line she was having trouble with and heard some shuffling papers coming from behind her. She twisted around to see Dr. Tanurah sitting in one of the chairs with a bunch of large files piled around him. He looked up when she stopped tapping and smiled at her.
"I hope you don't mind; I find working easier when I have something to listen to."
"Oh it's fine," said Kinou. "I really like this piece; I'll be working on it for a while, I'm sure. Just to make sure I have all of my anger and what not out of me."
"Well, that's good. This is actually my favourite piece as well; I was the one who put it on the stand, hoping you'd find it and try it out at some point."
"That's great; I thought it was a little weird that Seto would put this on here. I just got really frustrated with what just happened and I definitely needed some sort of an outlet. Music is the best one I have aside from Emily," said Kinou, sliding her legs around the other side of the bench to face him.
"Emily; is that the name of that cat of yours?" he asked.
Kinou nodded and patted her left jean pocket confidently—it was empty. "Oh gosh! I'll be right back; I left her in my room," she said, getting up and rushing to the doors. When she reached her room, she couldn't find Emily anywhere. She panicked, pushing nearly everything out of her way to look. Whipping off the covers and sheets on her bed revealed no sign of her cat either. Her search went on for nearly five minutes before Dr. Tanurah showed up and came in.
"Is everything all right?" he asked, tentatively.
Kinou stood up from digging in the dresser drawers to stare at him incredulously. "What does it look like?" she yelled.
"I'm sorry, would you like some help?" he hurriedly corrected himself.
Having finished her search of the dresser, she sat down heavily. "No, she's not in here; I've looked in every possible place." She looked up at him, her mouth extremely dry. "I'm sorry.... I—I just—" She was having a hard time speaking, for her breath was catching in her throat in short gasps; she felt like she was having a panic attack. Clasping her knees to her chest, she cried out, "Oh Jesus, Emily! Where are you?" No tears came to her eyes, but she rocked back and forth, shaking more than she could ever remember.
Dr. Tanurah walked over to her and put his arm around her comfortingly, though it didn't help her at all. "I'm sure you just left her somewhere; we'll find her."
Kinou said nothing, allowing herself to be cradled by his warmth. She thought of the last time she had Emily; every little place she had been, remembering every time where Emily was. Her mind reached the piano hall. A faint memory of holding Emily up to see the room flashed before her eyes; she remembered having her in her pocket when she fell asleep... Her head snapped up as she realised what had happened. She clenched her teeth and made tight fists with her hands, inhaling a lot more air than she needed. "Terry, you bastard!" she cried out. "Where is she?" She stood up, pushing Dr. Tanurah's arm off of her. Her voice echoed into nothingness, and when she did not hear any sign of an answer, she put her face in her hands, whispering. "You cruel, cruel, evil..."
Dr. Tanurah had suddenly stood up and swooped in front of her. "Kinou, who's Terry?" he asked, putting his hands on her shoulders.
She looked up at him slowly. He looked strange.... he didn't look scared; he looked concerned, maybe even a little bit angry. She answered him all the same. "Some guy I found locked up here," she muttered, not really wanting to go into the matter.
He cursed. "What has he told you?" he asked sternly.
He was scaring Kinou slightly, the way that he was holding her in place; like he never would let go until he knew everything. "He—he told me that he was also taken from his house... That he was kidnapped by someone and taken back to be pushed through the portal... that he went through everything that I did." Tanurah did not respond; he just stared at her like he knew she wasn't telling him everything. Biting her lip, she added the last bit she was willing to tell him. "He told me you were the one who brought him here."
Tanurah sighed, releasing her shoulders slightly. "Yes, I remember Terry," he said grimly. "He was our first person to be tested for powers such as yours. Feisty little one he was, though," he added with some vehemence. "He really didn't like being here, but, of course, with the kind of people on the loose in the city these days, we couldn't just let him go free. And we hadn't devised a way to change him back, either. Eventually, he went a little insane from being cooped up in here and we had to lock him away to keep him from hurting everyone who came near him. Real pity..." he let go of her shoulders completely and cleared his throat. "So, why do you think he was the one who took Emily?"
Kinou sighed. "Because he was here when I got back from Seto's office. We were fighting when you showed up to clean up my cheek earlier. That's why I was shouting." She kicked the side of her bed. "I don't know why I just left her in here after I had the nightmare. I know I had her in my pocket when you were taking me back up here from the piano hall; she must have fallen out or something while I was sleeping and he thought it'd be a funny idea to just go ahead and take her."
"Do you have any idea where he might be?"
"No."
"Oh," he said, looking thoroughly disappointed. "Well then, I don't think we'll have any luck searching for him in this big place. Want to go back to the piano hall?"
Kinou shook her head and folded her arms, leaning against the post of her bed. "It's not comforting if I play without Emily there."
Tanurah sighed heavily. "You can't just stay here and soak in your sorrow, you know. People who do that whenever they get sad show immediate signs of depression; I don't want you losing your happiness."
"And what would you suggest to get my mind off losing my best friend in the whole world?" asked Kinou, facing him with her lips drawn in a straight line.
When she saw Tanurah take a hesitant step forward, she thought she suspected what was coming. "We could go ahead and get your appointment for today done with, I suppose. I wouldn't be doing any check-up-type stuff or shots; we'd just focus on your power. Have you tried to use it yet?"
"Once. Right after the nightmare that showed me how," she responded curtly.
"I'm sorry you had to find out that way, Kinou, I really am. I would have preferred you heard it from Mr. Kaiba or me. Did you find out by yourself in the dream, or did someone show you, out of curiosity?"
"I was shown." Kinou really didn't want to go further, but Tanurah asked another question.
"Who, might I ask?"
Kinou sat on her bed, looking at her hands. "Yami Marik," she replied in a whisper that trembled slightly.
"Really?" Kinou looked up, surprised at hearing a slight edge of eagerness in his voice. "Did he tell you anything else?"
She shook her head, still confused at him; his hands were clasped together. He realised what he was doing and hurriedly dropped his hands at his sides. "I'm sorry; I've been trying to get information on him ever since I found out what his Millennium Rod can do. Call it a scientific hobby," he said, chuckling.
Kinou didn't laugh; she was still thoroughly confused, though she didn't feel anger anymore, so she stood up. "Let's go," she said, walking out her door towards the hospital wing.
* * *
Bum bum bum! Trouble's a-brewin'! It's Spring Break for me so I'll be posting a lot more!! Well, maybe, I'm not sure whether I should post too much at once.