Ch. 2

That night as Ryo lay in bed, he began to wonder about Rika. Why is she hiding from me? What is she hiding? Silence was his only answer. He let out a long sigh, and rolled over to look out his window. The moon was full, and threw a decent amount of light on the streets outside. Ryo was restless, hot, and for an unknown reason, sweating. He grumbled and climbed out of bed. While getting dressed, he thought about what he was planning to do. Wandering around Tokyo in the middle of the night wasn't incredibly safe, there were worse places to do it though, New York, for instance. You shouldn't be doing this, his conscience nagged anyway. Shut up!! He thought, and climbed out the window.

. . . .

At the same time, Rika was quite seriously considering doing the same. Her room was hot and stuffy, climbing out her window and having a walk in the cool breeze was pretty inviting. As she sat on the edge of her bed, long hair combed straight. She weighed the 'rational possibilities' against the 'I could out of that by...'s in her head, the 'I could out of that by...'s won. Carefully, so as to not wake anybody up, she got dressed in her darkest clothing. Black capris, a black T-shirt and a pair of black and gray shoes. Then, silently as a cat, she left the house.

After almost an hour of wandering aimlessly through the park, she decided that it might be a good idea to go home; but she hadn't taken two steps before some one called her name.

"Rika? Is that you?"

She whipped around to see a familiar figure silhouetted by the moon. "Ryo?"

"Yup."

"What are you doing here?"

"I could ask you the same question."

: pause :

"Okay then, what do we talk about?" Ryo asked, breaking the still night air.

"I don't know." Rika replied

"We, could just walk." Ryo suggested. Rika nodded her agreement, and the two began tracing her steps around the park (in circles).

She found great comfort in Ryo walking with her, and oddly enough, found herself thinking about whether or not the walk would be perfect if he put his arm around her shoulders, or waist. You're being stupid, she told herself. He has not interest in you and there's not reason – oh shit. What time is it!? As if reading her mind, Ryo suddenly blurted:

"Ah! It's almost two in the morning! I gotta get home!"

"Me too." Rika agreed, "My mom would skin me alive if she ever found out about this."

"Hm," Ryo smiled, "I'll see you at school tomorrow."

"Kay."

"Oh, and I need to tell you something at lunch, okay?" He added randomly, "Don't let me forget."

"Okay Ryo, see you later!"

With that, the two parted. Ryo with one thing on his mind, I'm going to tell her tomorrow. He thought as he watched Rika's dark figure disappear into the night, then walked home.

As she walked, Rika was once again was thinking about Ryo. Okey, there is something very seriously wrong with me, he's chased after by well over the entire population of girls at school, I'm just the friend, and I'm good at that. To make herself feel better, she kicked a lamp post as she passed it. What if I want to be more then a friend? She paused as something scuffed on the sidewalk behind her. Odd, her gut told her to hide, to get away. She sunk back into the doorway of a small drug store, working to keep her breathing silent and even. It's probably a cat, in fact, I'm willing to bet quite a lot that I'm being afraid of - Her thoughts were cut off as a shape descended on her in her hiding place.

"You should learn to keep your thoughts silent, Tamer." A voice hissed, it was high, cruel, and it sounded pleased. Rika tried to scream even as she felt a set of claws brush her neck, some sort of venom starting to invade her blood stream. Within a minute she was limp, and the shape disappeared into the night.

. . . .

Jeri awoke the next morning late. She threw herself out of her bed and pulled on clothes as fast as she could. Not bothering to gather any of the textbooks that lay scattered on her floor she ran out the door and down the hall to the kitchen, her backpack and homework at the table from the night before. She hastily threw everything in and grabbed the lunch her mother had left sitting on the counter, sprinting to the front door she jammed her feet into her shoes and started towards the school.

I can't believe I slept in that much! She berated herself inwardly, she stopped running once she's covered 2 and a half blocks, out of breath. As she reached the end of the street she stopped at the split of paths she could take. The street carried on, it was almost 2 blocks longer, but definitely a safer route in comparison to the alley way that twisted towards the school in front of her. She could even see the building at the end. It's just once, and going to be late if I go the other way. . .

Making a split second decision she started down the alley way, hoping that because it was the first time she'd used it that she wouldn't get into any trouble. When she'd reached the half point, and the school was clearly visible, she began to relax. As if on cue, she tripped and fell hard onto the gravel and dirt, her right hand and left knee immediately snapping forward to catch her. Jeri pulled herself up, examining her knew as she did so, it was skinned, a little bloody, but so was her hand. Looking back along the road she couldn't see anything that might have tripped her, just a graveled alley.

"Probably tripped on your feet," She smiled to herself. "Don't start getting nervous of nothing." Turning on her heal, she started walking again, it wasn't far to the school now, and she might actually be on time. A shadow passed over her, comparable to the shadow a bird casts when it flies over your head. She could have sworn something brushed her neck.

"That's her?"

"Yes, Change."

Without warning, Jeri's vision dimmed into darkness, tha last thing she remembered seeing was a disfigured creature swooping down on her. . .

. . . .

The next day at school, Ryo was patiently awaiting Rika's arrival. Where could she be? The bell's going to ring in about five seconds! She's never been late before! He paced in front of the door until the bell rang, his stomach stoutly refusing to stay put and abruptly walking away when he realized that she wasn't coming. Science. . . the thought of his first class itched at his mind, you're going to be late! He turned slowly, pushing the doors open and feeling slightly abandoned.

. . . .

Rika woke up in complete darkness; she was in what felt like a small stone cell. It smelt like mold had been growing there from the dawn of time. She moved her hand up to feel the marks on her neck, but as soon as that hand reached her collar bone, the other came up off the ground. What? She grabbed her wrist and followed a fine chain leading to her other wrist, then to the cold stone floor.

"Well, this isn't good." She said out loud.

"Of course it isn't." A voice beside her mumbled in agreement.

"Who's there!?" Rika asked as she turned, ready for just about anything; accept this. "Jeri? Is that you?"

"Yes, it's me." The other girl sounded defeated, like a balloon with a hole in it.

"How did you get here?" Rika asked; it was not a situation the average person usually found themselves in.

"Well, I was walking to school this morning, and I, well I was late. So I took a short cut through a back alley." She paused here.

"Yeah, so how'd that get you here?"

"I tripped on something," Jeri continued, "but when I got up to see what it was, there wasn't anything there. I decided that I'd just tripped on my feet. As soon as I turned to keep going to school, a voice said 'That's her, that's the one' then it hit my head, I think, and I woke up here. Chained right next to you."

"When you say 'it'," Rika asked suddenly, "Does that mean you saw whatever 'it' was?"

"Well I. . ." Jeri stumbled for words and then went silent, "Rika I was so scared when it jumped out in front of me!" she started to cry, "I'm not brave like you or Takato or Henry. But I wish I was because if some one ever manages to find us and rescue us, I'll just be dead weight! I'll slow you all down! And I don't want to stay down here where 'it' can get me again. I want to go home to where my old sock puppet is, and where my dad is and where Takato is and - "Before she could continue, something, probably 'it', slammed her against the rock wall of the cell, hard.

"Stop your whining you insignificant little piece of bait!" A harsh voice said, Jeri screamed in both pain and terror. "All you do is cry and whine! Maybe I should give you something to truly make noise about!"

"You leave her alone!!" Rika shouted, "Only cowards attack when their opponents can't fight back!!" What ever it was, it dropped Jeri and stepped side ways so that it was standing in front of Rika.

"Are you calling me a coward?" Asked the voice, the tone was so dangerous that Rika didn't dare answer. As the silence stretched out, it reached down and pulled her up by her shirt collar. "Answer me!!"

"You can't even seem to face two teenagers without putting them at a disadvantage in some way, so damn straight I'm calling you a coward! You're not even letting us look at our enemy!"

'It' obviously didn't like this one bit, two sharp punches were delivered, one to Rika's jaw, the other to her stomach. All the air left her lungs with an audible 'whoosh'. "I'll break you, Tamer, you're no stronger then the other; and I've got what will seem like an eternity to do it." 'It' let her drop to the floor in a heap, fading out of the cell, and into the black.

Rika swore as soon as she had enough air in her lungs to do so. "I'll show you someone that'll break!" She snarled.
. . . .

s/k: Hah! Second chapter re-posted, I feel so productive. Spooky, neh?