No, I don't own Digimon.
"Those who are faithless know the pleasures of love;
it is those who are faithful who know love's tragedies."
-Oscar Wilde
Keep the reviews coming (Although I like Firecat better, but y'all outnumber me).
Oh, and I wrote this fic from the end to the beginning, so there's probably a crapload of mistakes.
-N
PS. Sorry this took so long to get up, been real busy.
~
Rika pushed the cold metal key into the opening, turned it, and pushed the door open. She looked back to her family's car, nodded, and waved to them, signaling them that she's okay. Her grandmother was accompanying her mother on her fashion shoot in America, so they'd be gone a while. Convenient, she didn't want to worry them with the situation. She'd told them she was staying with Jeri, the last thing she wanted was the Talk from her mother after finding out she was living with a boy.
Why aren't I staying with Jeri?
Ryo had told her that he would be a little late, but he gave her a key, and directions to his house.
She stepped inside as her family drove off, taking notice at how much larger the house was than it looked. She noticed the bright yellow piece of paper on the navy carpet as she stepped in. She picked it up, and began to read.
Hey Rika,
Working late, so if you decide to come here before I get home, go upstairs, and take the second door on the left. Guest bedroom's there. Food's in the kitchen (straight ahead from when you get in), and the living room's to the left if you wanna watch some TV or something. Bathroom's the first door on the left down here, or straight up the stairs. See ya later.
Ryo
She smiled a little at Ryo's thoughtfulness, and headed upstairs to drop her stuff off. After she did that, she went back downstairs to look around. The kitchen was large and bright, with several windows on the far wall. The living room was large too, with a piano in the corner near the window, a TV, and two couches¾one in front of the TV, the other at a 90° angle. She walked over to the piano and sat down. She took notice of the hand written sheet of music in front of her, instantly picking out the words "Ryo Akiyama" in the top right corner.
Didn't know Ryo played the Piano.
She looked at the actual notes farther down the sheet.
Hmm, he's actually pretty good.
She traced a finger down the shiny white keys, and decided to give it a try. She'd suffered four years of lessons before her mother had let her quit¾She'd never expected to willingly be playing.
She looked up to the sheet, and her fingers found their positions almost instantly, making her smile a little. She had the opening notes almost perfect, but as she got into the piece her tempo went off, although she hit almost all the right notes. She grimaced a little, and tried two more times before giving up.
Rika paced about for a few moments, not sure of what to do. She hated not having anything to do, particularly when it would give her a chance to think about the thing that would be chasing after her, but there wasn't much for her to do. Letting out a sigh of defeat, she turned on the TV.
She was stuck there for about forty minutes before Ryo showed up. He smiled at her, as usual.
"Hey," he said casually. "Been here long?"
"Almost an hour. I'm bored out of my mind."
"Want to go see Takato and Henry or something? Haven't heard from 'em in a few days."
"Okay." She said, going to get her shoes.
~
The two walked fairly silently. There wasn't that much to talk about. Ryo wanted more than anything to talk to her, like they'd talked for hours in what seemed like a lifetime ago.
"Something wrong?" Rika asked softly. "You look like crap."
"Oh, just feeling a little sick." He lied. Ryo hadn't been sleeping well at all since he heard about the monster. The idea that something could attack you at any time… If you weren't safe in your own home, where would you be safe? At least with Rika living with him he could protect her¾
¾Or die trying. His mind chimed in helpfully.
He gave a fake smile to reassure her.
Been wearing lots of those lately, you know.
"So what should we do for dinner?" He asked casually, trying to start a conversation."
"Well, we could grab a pizza before we head back."
"Good idea." He replied.
May not be the dinner with Rika I've always wanted, but it's a start.
They were almost at the bakery, Ryo's hand on the cold metal of the door when they heard a painful scream from behind them. They both turned their heads immediately. Ryo shot a glance at Rika, who nodded and the both ran over.
~
Maru sighed as he sipped at his coffee and looked down the streets¾
¾and then there was a noise, voices, people chattering in a confused hush as they stared at¾at something.
Crash!
There was a second noise, an explosive crashing sound, and he swung the car door open and leapt out.
Screw calling for backup, whatever this is, I can handle it.
Maru took off towards the direction of the sound. He shoved himself through the crowd, it becoming easier to get through as he got near the front¾
¾And he froze, staring at the charred victim and the creature in front of him. Its torn shreds of skin ¾
¾That's enough, don't let it get to you. The creature's body was like a snakes, a blood-red slimy tube that went down the ground and then back to form a tail. It seemed to leave a slimy trail from where he had arrived.
¾don't want to know what this thing is.
Holding back his urge to vomit, he took out his gun. The beast turned to one of the people in the crowd, two teenagers.
"Freeze!" He ordered. …Nothing, it ignored him and moved towards the teenagers, who were scrambling to get away, but seemed to be having trouble getting through the crowd.
No good. Shoot!
He closed one eye, aimed the gun and…
BAM!
A small hole opened in the creature's body, but it didn't falter, didn't hesitate, didn't stop. It turned and slithered towards him, letting a deep chuckle out of his impossible mouth.
Shoot it already! Shootshootshoot!
And he squeezed the trigger four more times, all with the same effect as the first. He fired until he lost count of the bullets, squeezing several times after his gun clicked on empty before he realized what was happening¾
¾And he was on fire, his skin burning and peeling. The pain was unbearable, and as he stood helpless, he screamed, moaned, and dropped to the ground.
~
Oh SHIT!
Rika felt her stomach try to eat itself as she witness the scene; the cop had attacked it, and it killed him.
Could have been us, could have been me-
She saw the impossible monster look at Ryo as it got closer, and she recognized the look.
Like the D-Reaper marking me-
-She rejected that thought violently. Thinking about it now really wouldn't help.
"Move!" Ryo snarled.
-and she was being pushed through the crowd by Ryo, who stayed closely behind her, looking back. As they ran down the street back towards Ryo's house, Rika looked back. Nothing.
"Hold up." She panted as she slowed down. "I think we lost him."
Ryo slowed down too, and they both looked back at the last turn they'd made, Rika half expecting it to leap out. They both knew they couldn't get too close, but they had to at least get it away from Takato and Henry.
"I saw it a few streets back." Ryo tried to reassure her. They headed back to Ryo's house in silence.
That night, Ryo sat at the window, looking out. Rika was just trying not to think about it, and she hated seeing Ryo so worried. She decided there was nothing she could do, and turned to the stairs.
"I think I'll get some sleep." She informed him. He nodded.
"Okay. I want to stay up for a bit, just to make sure we're both safe."
"Ryo…" she began, but stopped, realizing she couldn't say anything that would make any sense. This was all happening so fast, and there was nothing right about the situation-
-And he has just as much experience with this kind of thing as you do, don't patronize him-
"…Good night." She finished, sighing inwardly. It wasn't what she wanted to say, but it would have to do. She went up to her room, and hoped what when she slept, she wouldn't dream.
~
"Ugh, it's boring here. Want to see a movie?" Rika groaned as she tried to peel herself off of the couch. It had been two weeks since they last saw the creature, and nobody had seen him since. They liked being out better, at least then they could run.
"You mean like a date?" Ryo replied
with a tone of surprise.
"Well, that would mean it's your treat, right?"
"Yeah, probably."
"Call it what you want then." She said with a grin.
"All right then, I'll get my wallet." He responded while turning to the stairs. He had some cash in his pocket, but he thought he was blushing.
Ryo hurried up the stairs, and turned to his room. He went to his dresser, pulled open the second drawer from the top, and began rummaging through clothes for his wallet.
Why do I even have all this crap? I never wear these things, bet half of 'em are too small for me, even if I tried.
Ryo finally found what he was looking for, a soft, black leather wallet, stuffed in the sleeve of a red sweater. After opening it and adding his money to what was in there, he turned to run back to the door, and froze as his heart stopped in mid-beat as he heard a slithering sound by the window¾
¾Oh, my God, oh God, I'm so sorry, Rika, please forgive me, I didn't mean to…¾
And there, dropping from the ceiling in Ryo's room was the same monster that had made its last known attack a week ago. It was glaring at Ryo, the same glare it wore when he last saw him. Whatever it was that was hunting the Tamers, it was there, and its scream was an explosive crescendo, howling for blood.
~
Woohoo. Keep the reviews coming, I
threw my old plan out the window, and I want feedback.
-N