Sanguine Falls
Part IV
"Misao…"
"Mmmm…" the girl replied sleepily.
"Misao?" the gentle voice chimed again. "Wake up, come on…"
Heavy eyes fluttered and flickered open, blinking once and then again. The fuzzy image of the ceiling slowly cleared and the girl turned her head.
Ceiling?
Bed?
What happened to the ocean?
Startled, she sat up quickly only to have her shoulders grasped by her bedside attendant.
"Calm down…" the sweet, soothing voice spoke again and Misao looked up to see Omasu hovering at her bedside. "You okay? You've been thrashing all night, the doctor said not to wake you."
Doctor?
"Yes, the doctor," Omasu replied gently.
Oh, she'd said that aloud… hadn't she? Omasu had answered so she must have. Misao laid back down staring up for a moment before glancing toward the woman she'd known all her life.
"Am I sick?" It was a soft question, one full of fear and uncertainty.
"Yes," Omasu replied gently. "You're very sick. They don't want you to leave your bed for a few days."
Misao sighed heavily. "I'm sorry about your mirror; I didn't mean to break it."
"My mirror isn't broken, its fine." Omasu folded her hands in her lap demurely over her lilac kimono. Misao stared at her, transfixed.
"No… No, I… I accidentally broke it yesterday."
Omasu shook her head gently. "You were in bed all day yesterday, too. You must have dreamed it."
"I couldn't," Misao whispered, glancing toward the window. A black laced butterfly was probing its antennae against the frame of the sill. "The butterfly is back…" she murmured softly.
Omasu turned and glanced toward the window and Misao looked at Omasu. She watched, surprised, as the older woman's eyes filled with tears, her hands clenching in her lap. She stood.
"Misao, there's no butterfly in the window."
Omasu left her quickly, trying to hide her crying.
No? Misao glanced up and there it was, tinkering along the window ledge, feeling, feeling along… tapping its little feet against the wood. Didn't Omasu see the butterfly? Why was she seeing things different than everyone else?
What was wrong with her? She brought her hands up to her face. Her fingers were still thin, her body still bony… no, she hadn't imagined that part.
What… what was wrong with her!
A little walk… a little walk never hurt anyone. It soothed the mind, it cooled the senses, and it eased the coiling vines about her heart.
For her…
For her it instigated nightmares. It made her sweat. It made goose bumps rise along her arms. It made her glance around wildly, searching for enemies in the dark.
That night, beneath the stars, she walked again. Words from her last stroll twirled around in her head, twisting about, morphing, buzzing, wheezing… it was an odd assortment of sounds. Icky, it was an icky array, something squelchy and disturbing, something wrong, something mucky.
She heard his voice in her head, that beautiful man that she loved. The man that had gone and left her… left her behind with the living whist he traveled with the dead. She needed to get away, to get out of the open air. Was the night air always so toxic to her thoughts? Was she merely a crazy girl?
She spotted a shack ahead and her feet took her quickly toward it. She ran. She pulled open the door and threw herself inside and took a deep breath. The air chilled her lungs.
The first thing she noticed was the least important.
The floor was cold.
It was gray and stony, rough textured. She could feel the raised sections of the stones against the soles of her sandals. Her feet were cold too, her toes oddly numb. They tingled when she flexed them.
She glanced around.
Dark walls, stone, an abnormal light toward the far wall... She stepped forward tentatively and almost leapt backwards in fright as her bare legs touched a thin, sticky line of web. The clingy strands clung to her legs, tickling and she swooped down to slap her hands against her shins. The sound was sharp and the contact stung sharply. She mashed her palms against her shin bones and scratched her skin pressing her fingers against the bone hard.
Suddenly her arm and legs and back felt itchy as paranoia crept over her like a ray of light casting itself down upon her. She felt a whisper of movement against her clothed ankle, a gentle wisp, and her mind leapt to conclusions.
SPIDERS!
She twitched and jumped. How many? Were they on her legs? Were they the thin legged spiders or the short, fat, and fuzzy ones? Would they bite?
She couldn't see anything on her but the irritable tickling continued to annoy her. She flailed wildly for a moment, jumping, trying to shake any spiders off. Her heart thundered, pounding in her ears. Her sound was distorted, a dull buzzing in her ears, an (odd) rushing sound that made her think of the roar of ocean waves coming in to crash against a sandy shore. She felt dizzy, slightly off kilter. The room was too dark, she began to panic. She ran toward the door.
Sanctum!
Freedom!
LIGHT!
No… no light, only darkness. Darkness everywhere.
She ran, cursing having ever sought solace in such a foul place. The smell was bad, it was dark and there were creepy crawling things inside. There was no sanctuary to be found anywhere. Nothing could protect her from her own thoughts.
Outside, again in the moonlight she patted down her clothes, searching for the awful little creatures but found nothing. Her inspection yielded nothing. She took a moment to catch her breath and calm her heart.
What was she to do?
Omasu's mirror: not broken. The merchant from the other day... the oranges... had they, too, not fallen over or was that also imagined? She began to walk, dragging her feet against the loose soiled road. The dust drifted up and irritated her nose, but she didn't feel a sneeze.
What had she imagined and what was real? The newspaper clipping... she sighed and patted her pockets, coming to a stop as she felt something crinkle against the fabric.
Hadn't she dropped this paper before? Surprised, she reached in and fished it out. Black and white stared back at her.
"Fire at famous Aoiya Restaurant."
But...
But... there was no fire at the Aoiya, she was just there! Dropping the paper to the ground, she began to run. She brought her hands up to her head and held them there, cradling her palms against her temples as though to preserve her precious sanity.
NO!
Why?
Why?
Why was everything not the way it was supposed to be? What was happening to her? Was he right? Was that strange man from the night real? Was that a dream? Where did the dream stop?
Stop?
STOP!
She skidded to a stop in front of the Aoiya, sniffing, eyes frantically searching. Intact... it was whole. The Aoiya was safe.
Safe.
It was safe.
She dashed around to the side and slipped past the fence and into the back garden. Around the pond she ran toward the large old tree that grew there.
Up, up, up she went. There, high up, was a nice wide space where the tree branched off creating a perfect nesting site. She'd sat in the space many times in her youth hiding from the others. Laying her head back against the bark she breathed in the fresh air and listened to the leaves rustle.
Peace... she needed a little peace. Why couldn't she have any? Where was Aoshi-sama to save her? Would she be peaceful if she died? Would she be reunited with Aoshi-sama then?
She took a glance down and the distance made her dizzy once more. No... no jumping from the tree. It wasn't high enough to kill her.
With that depressing thought she closed her eyes again. She relaxed there. She didn't expect to fall asleep, didn't welcome it and didn't fight it. It crept up upon her like a stranger with a deep, dark cape. It settled over her lightly, sweeping her away.
AN: At some point these chapters are standardized to a longer length about +600 more words than this.