-Begin Chapter Four-

Dimetra

I woke up at noon, I had actually fallen asleep. I looked around, Rei wasn't there. Of course it was nearly noon, so I wasn't surprised. I got off the bed and put my pink sneakers on. I yawned and walked out of the room.

Rei was in the gathering area, stretched out on the couch. I walked over to him.

"Hey, Rei, can I sit?"

"Sure."

I sat down next to Rei and rested my head on his shoulder. Rei rested an arm around my waist. I looked up and kissed Rei gently. As I decided to move back, I felt that I couldn't maybe it was Rei's hands or maybe it was myself, I couldn't tell. (okay, for all you people that are interested, it's a two minute pash; if you have no idea what that is, too bad.)

In a few minutes my head was resting on Rei's shoulder again. I let out a sigh as the nightmare filled my vision.

"Hey, Mariah, you okay?"

"As fine as I can be."

Suddenly something about my dream struck me funny, there was the ice cream parlor in the background, I was kind of surprised that I hadn't noticed that before.

"Hey, Rei, can we please go check something out?"

"Sure, Mariah. What is it?"

"Just something I want to look at."

I didn't just want to see if my nightmare was a reality, I needed to.

We walked towards the ice cream parlor, but I veered into the forest, maybe I could find the panther before it struck.

"Mariah...?"

I walked into a clearing, then I heard screams. I mentally cursed, I was too late. I ran towards the screams, I heard Rei follow me, but I barely paid any attention to him. I ran out of the forest and into my nightmare. There were the bodies, exactly the same as before. I didn't waste anytime looking around and ran towards the light post where I knew the little girl would be.

I smiled to myself as I found her. She was still alive, and seemed a bit better then before. I heard Rei come up behind me.

"Mariah?"

"Rei, we need to get her to a hospital."

"Right."

Rei went over to the light post and jumped on top of it. He picked the girl up in his arms and jumped back down.

"She looks pretty bad, Mariah."

"I know, but hurry, please."

"Aren't you coming?"

"No, but just go."

I saw Rei toss me a confused glance as he left. I don't know why I felt I needed to stay here, but I did. Things were different already, and I wasn't about to let that beast get away this time, it had caused too much pain.

Then I heard it, a growl. I turned around and stared at it, there was the panther, and its eyes were glowing red, but it was more intense then the last time I had seen them, those eyes burned with a hate I could never even begin to describe. Then the panther turned tail and fled into the forest.

I was about to follow it when I heard something behind me. "Mariah, don't!"

I spun around again and there was Galux.

"Mariah, it would be foolhardy to try and follow it. You're still too weak."

"But..."

"I understand you want to stop it, but it'd kill you."

"It'd be better then this."

"What about Rei?"

I blinked, Galux was right, I didn't want to crush Rei's heart. Galux disappeared as I walked past her. I walked dejectedly towards the hospital. I looked around the lobby, Rei was sitting in one of the chairs. I sat next to him.

"Hey."

Rei looked up at me and smiled.

"How is she, Rei?"

"The doctors say she might live or she might not, she in O.R. right now."

I leaned against Rei's shoulder. "I hope she'll be okay."

We both fell asleep for a few hours, a doctor woke us up.

"Are you two responsible for the little girl that looked like she had been mauled."

"Yes."

"You two look too young to be her parents..."

"We're not. She was near death when we found her, we don't know where her parents are."

"Where did you find her?"

"In the city near the woods, in the middle of a lot of massacred bodies, her parents could be some of them."

"Oh."

"How is the girl?"

"She's recovering from op, but she should recover fully in a month or two."

"Cool. Can we see her?"

"Sure."

The doctor led us down the very white corridors for a very long time. We went up several set of stairs, a few elevators as I got tired, and into a secure part of the hospital. It was very silent in that area, only our footsteps could be heard over the quiet beeping of machines. Finally we came to a stop in front of a room. The sign on the door said we couldn't enter, but there was a large window and we could see the girl lying very still on a large bed.

I could barely make out her breathing under the covers and she looked almost as pale as the white sheets. I sighed in relief, she was alive. "I thought she couldn't be saved, she looked so badly injured."

"Actually, all that blood was show. None of her internal organs had been damaged, it was just a massive blood loss, if she had been brought in a few minutes later she would have bleed to death before we could have helped her."

I nodded, "Her legs looked kinda broken to me, but I'm not the doctor."

"One of her lower legs was broken, the other has a slight dent in it, but if too much pressure is put on the bone before it heals, it will break too."

"A dent?"

"Just a painful dent in her lower leg. Its not all that uncommon with children younger than her."

"Oh." As I had said, I wasn't a doctor. "When do you think she'll wake up?"

"Whenever she gets enough blood back into her system."

"You mean she needs a blood transfer?"

"Yes."

-Much, much later-

I stared out at the night sky and into the moon. Why, why did the panther follow me? Why did it torture me like this instead of killing me if it hated me so much?

I felt a pair of arms wrap around my waist.

"Not tired, Mariah?"

"No. I can't sleep."

"I can't either. There was a lot of blood."

"I know Rei, its just a bit disturbing."

"A bit? I think you mean a lot."

I turned around to face Rei. I lightly planted a kiss on his lips and then placed my head on his chest.

-Much, much later again-

"Yo, lovebirds, wake up!"

I blinked blearily and stared up at Tyson and Max. I took my head off Rei's shoulder, where I had fallen asleep. I looked around, I was still in front of the window. Rei was still asleep. I gently shook him awake.

"Huh, what time is it?" He sounded so tired, like he hadn't gotten any sleep at all.

"Its nearly nine you two."

"Oh." I blinked, when had we fallen asleep?

"Hey, Mariah, you got a call."

"From who?" I was confused.

"The hospital. They say you and Rei need to get over there once you woke up."

I nodded fearfully, had the girl taken a turn for the worse during the night? I stood up and started to exit the room, Rei caught up to me.

In a few minutes we had managed to reach the hospital. There was a doctor pacing back and forth. It was the same one who we had seen yesterday.

"Hey, doc."

"Ah, Rei, Mariah. Glad you came here so fast."

"What happened?"

"The girl woke up, but she won't talk to us."

"Oh."

"We were hoping maybe..."

"Its okay, doc, we'll talk to her."

The doctor led us to the same wing where we had gone yesterday, this time we were allowed to come into the room. The moment the doctor entered the room she looked pissed.

I smiled upon seeing the girl awake. "Heya, how are you?"

"Who are you?" She seemed thoroughly annoyed at us, and gave us a glare.

"My name's Mariah, and this is Rei." I held out my hand to the girl and gave her a warm smile.

The girl shook my hand, albeit reluctantly. "Dimetra Saizu."

Rei held his hand for the girl to shake but she just ignored him. "Hn." I couldn't help but notice Rei trying not to snicker at Dimetra, the girl heard it too. "What's so funny?"

"Sorry, its just that you sounded like Kai."

"Who's that?"

I smirked, deciding to explain Kai. "He's very cold and concentrated on his game. If anyone ever got him to say more then two sentences in his entire life, I'd be amazed."

To my surprise the girl smiled, "Sounds like someone I could get along with. Say, can you try and bring him along with you next time?"

"Sorry, but he just left for Russia a few days ago, something about his grandfather being on trial."

"Oh."

-End Chapter Four-