-Begin Chapter Three!

Ice Cream and Death

I grinned as the sun shone on my face. I was finally out of that hospital. All the white in there was starting to drive me crazy.

"You seem happy, Mariah."

I looked over to Rei as he spoke to me. It was so good to be around him. "I am. The hospital was starting to make me go crazy."

Rei lightly planted a kiss on my cheek. "Its just good to see you so happy."

Finally we came to the hotel where the BladeBreakers were staying.

"It's on the 12th floor, Mariah."

We took the elevator up to the floor, my heavily bandaged legs were still to weak to take the stairs.

"Looks like she's finally out of the hospital."

"Hey, Tyson. Hey, Max."

"Guys, where's Kai?"

"He's been in his room for the past half hour, he won't let anyone in."

"Oh."

I looked around the hotel, Rei had said I was going to be able to stay here, yet I couldn't see an extra place for me to stay, the four bedrooms were already taken.

"Rei, where do I stay?"

"There's an extra room now."

We all looked to the closed door, or what had been closed a few minutes ago. Kai was standing in the now open doorway. The room behind him was neat and tidy, like no one had ever been in there. On Kai's shoulder was a black traveling bag.

"Kai...?"

"I got a letter in the mail today. Voltaire's going to be on trial some time next week, I need to be there as a witness. Mariah can stay in my old room, since I'm going to be in Russia."

I blinked, wait, what?

Kai walked over to Rei and handed him and envelope. "I hope I can trust you with this." With that we watched Kai leave the room, still a bit dumbfounded.

Tyson was the first to recover.

"Hey, Rei, what's in that?"

I walked over to Rei as he opened the envelope, I saw a lot of money in it and a letter. I took the letter from Rei's hand and read it aloud.

"Rei. In this envelope is enough money to last all of you guys a while, at least until I get back. Don't lose it."

It was very short and to the point.

"That's Kai alright."

Rei took the letter from my hands and put it back into the envelope. He folded that up and put it in his wallet.

-

Rei and I stood outside the movie theater, we had just had a dinner and now we were trying to pick out a movie to watch. Most of the posters involved a lot of blood and dead figures, I wasn't exactly in the mood to watch that type of stuff. Rei pointed out a poster to me.

"Hey look, that movie doesn't look bad."

It was called 'Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.'

We got tickets to see the movie and went into the theater. Around nine we got out of the theater and started to head back to the hotel.

On our way back I noticed an ice cream parlor. "Hey, Rei, can we please go there?" I was really in the mood for something sweet.

Rei nodded and we entered the parlor. We both got ice cream cones and got a table near the window. As we ate our ice cream, I felt Rei's hand enwrap mine. I looked at him and smiled then looked out the window.

Something in the trees caught my attention, a pair of glowing red eyes. I froze instantly, fearing the worst, then the disappeared into pure black, a thin stripe of brilliant orange flashed for only a second before the area became black again. Terror grasped my heart, no, that couldn't have been my imagination, could it?

"Mariah, something wrong?"

I was startled, I had almost forgot that Rei was there. "N...no. Nothing. I'm fine." I could tell he didn't believe me, but I just didn't feel like telling him what was bothering me at the moment. I finished off what was left of my cone. "Can we please go now? I...I'm tired."

Rei's eyes still looked concerned. "Okay."

We left the building. As we walked on, a feeling of fear sunk deeper inside me, I was paranoid, I felt we were being watched. At one moment, I had thought that I heard something snap in the woods behind us. I turned my head sharply to look at the woods, hoping to see something other than the darkness of night.

I felt something land on my shoulder. I spun around, and sighed, it was just Rei.

"Mariah, you've been acting jumpy since we had our ice cream, what's wrong?"

"Its..." I just wanted to get into the hotel. I continued to walk, Rei catching up and walked next to me. "Remember that panther I told you about?"

"Yeah. What about it?"

"I think...I think I might have seen it at the parlor."

Rei didn't say anything but he held my hand in a comforting gesture. "Don't worry, Mariah, it won't hurt you."

I nodded, wanting to believe him. We got to the hotel without much incident. I slept curled up next to Rei in his room, a bit scared to sleep by myself at the moment.

-Begin Dream Sequence-

I looked around me there was nothing but black. I stepped on a branch, I was in a forest. I heard screams in the distance. I ran towards them, fear filling my heart. I broke into what looked like a city, but what lay on the roads in front of me could never be a city.

There were bodies, strewn everywhere. Some had been completely decapitated, others had their torsos severed from their legs. Others had bleed to death. The stench of blood filled my nostrils as I continued to walk around.

I heard a groan above me. There was a small child, on top of one of the lights. She was alive, but not for long, I could tell that much. I stood there, just looking at her. Blood had stained her thoroughly blonde hair. She stared hopelessly down at me, in pain. Her hands were gashed, her legs looked broken. And there was an enormous amount of blood spilling from her neck and chest.

I hoped that her pain would end soon. A single drop of blood hit my nose and splattered onto my face as I saw the light ebb from her eyes, and watched the small child draw her last breath.

I slowly began to walk around the blonde's eyes still affecting me. I looked around, wondering if anyone was alive and well enough to be saved. Some people had been piled on top of each other. Others were on top of blue letter boxes, blood slowly dripping down the shiny metal surface. They were all dead though.

I heard a growl behind me. I spun around, there it was, the panther. It dashed into the woods.

"Mariah!"

-End Dream Sequence-

I awoke with a start. I saw Rei's face, he looked so concerned and worried. His look softened, to a more gentle form of worry.

"Mariah, you were crying. Is something wrong?"

It...it was just a dream, that made me feel more relieved then I had been, but I was still scared. I sat up, trying to rid the nightmare from my thoughts.

"It was just a nightmare, Rei, it was nothing."

"What happened?"

"It was nothing."

"I don't believe you."

I nodded mentally, he was right, but he was concerned enough with my health, I didn't want to add to his worry. Rei placed a hand on my shoulder.

"It's okay, Mariah, you can tell me."

"It...it was night, I was in a forest. And there were these screams, I ran to find out what was wrong. I...I came into a city, and there were bodies lying everywhere, just like in the village, only it was more of a massacre this time. Some bodies had been cut in half and some others had been decapitated." I paused, Rei waited patiently for me to continue.

"And there was a girl, she...she was still alive, but barely. Her body had been tossed onto the lamp post. Her legs were broken, and her chest had been cut, I think from all the blood coming from it, and then there was that panther. It was standing in the middle of everything, then it ran into the woods."

Rei wrapped me in a hug, pulling me closer to him. I rested my head on his chest, I was still freaked from that dream, too much to even sleep.

-End Chapter Three-