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Disclaimer: FB belongs to Natsuki Takaya, and anything else you recognize doesn't belong to me either.
Chapter 12
Khosure
The house was as quiet as the class during one of that dreadful Ms. Sena's history lectures when I arrived home, sopping wet from yet another spring downpour. I'd just been visiting Tori, still battling her worst attack yet, that afternoon. She'd been sick for five whole days, which has never happened before. She was just laying there in her bed, her breathing labored and her lovely jade eyes glazed with the most unimaginable pain. Oh, I'm so exhausted, what with trying to cheer her up and keeping myself from strangling that dastardly witch of a mother she has.
Why had Tori never told us about her parents? We, as her bosom friends, would have done our best to come to her rescue. I was absolutely shocked as I listened to that beastly woman tell Tori, who could be afflicted with a devastating, fatal disease for all we know, to stop whining.
"But what could I do anyway, Mother?" I asked the photo, sitting on the bed and giving the long-neglected She and Ku my loving patting. "I can't possibly bring her here." This place is not fit for a princess like her, and Cook has gotten…violent. Tomorrow, when school started again for the week, I'd just tell Hara and Haku that I'd smacked my face on a door. Luckily Tori had been too ill to notice; she'd have jumped on me and never quit until every detail had been squeezed out. Hopefully Hara wouldn't harangue me either; he's also a stubborn soul.
"Oh! I know! I'll just tell Hara and Haku about Tori's mother! Maybe she could go stay with them. I'm absolutely certain they're better off than me, if they have a chauffeur to take them home after school! Don't you think that would work, She and Ku?" I tossed my darling little snakes into the air. "We must absolutely get Tori away from that woman, who I'm almost certain is an apostate of the devil." We'd just learned that word at school; it has an impressive ring for people like Tori's mother. Although, come to think of it, it is indeed mysterious that Tori looks nothing like either of her ugly, dimwitted parents.
"Perhaps Tori is like me, a lost princess who shall be restored to her kingdom, like me. Then maybe we'll get married…" I looked at Mother, suddenly overwhelmed by utter depression. I do love Tori. I love her deeply, with all my silly, dramatic heart. How could a gorgeous, wonderful, brilliant girl like her from a good neighborhood ever be happy with a stupid Ghunene poor boy? I tease her at school, dance around her, but I long to hold her, comfort her, take her away from that horrible house.
A tear stain appeared on She's head. "Oh, She, I'm so very sorry, your lovely skin," I cried as I placed She and Ku next to Mother's picture. A deluge poured forth from my golden eyes. I lay on my bed sobbing for a full half hour, I'm sure. Then my eyes began tingling, almost like they were straining to pop out of their sockets. Otherwise I'd have continued crying for another ten minutes or so. Never have my eyes done this before.
"What?" I pressed my hands against my eyes as the straining sensation became stronger. My sinuses ached, throbbing in tune to a steady but merciless and silent drumbeat. "AUUUGH!" I yelled as I rolled and crumpled onto the floor.
"Shut up, you damn drunkard!" bellowed a neighbor, banging on the wood of our shack. He thought it was Cook screaming.
The tingling and throbbing vanished, my eyes popped open and I lay on the floor, I leapt up and looked into my cracked compact mirror, my golden eyes staring wildly. I examined the reflection closely. My otherworldly eyes looked no different. The gold gleamed, making my greenish-yellow bruise dark by comparison. Or perhaps they weren't the eyes of a prince from a far-away kingdom-they were the eyes of a long-lost mythical monster, waiting to be unleashed.
Hotohori
Mother glared at me.
"Finally you've stopped moaning! It's about time! Five days, for heavens' sake!' She walked out of my room.
True, I'd stopped moaning. But the pain had only lessened to a persistent slight burning in my lungs. Deep breaths were still impossible. At least it was not as bad as it had been before. Five days? I'd been down for five days? When would this all end? When would I finally…
"No, I refuse to think about that," I said. I could move once again. Gingerly, I sat up. The first thing to do is take a bath, I thought, my body feels so slimy and the sheets are so dirty from my sweating.
My faithful digital clock said 7 p.m. Dinnertime. I should eat something, I'd had no substantial food the last few days and gods, I was so hungry.
Idly I stared out the window. The heavy rain created intricate mazes of water on the glass. It was completely black outside. Another dreary spring rainstorm. Suddenly an image of Kho came before me. He'd visited me earlier in the day, hadn't he? Something didn't look right, a shadow on his face…but the memory wasn't clear enough. Still, it rankled on me.
"In any case," I said to myself, "I hope he dressed carefully enough for this rain." Kho had always been susceptible to the cold. A few times in the past, he'd fallen ill with bad colds or severe bronchitis from chills caught in heavy rain or freezing winds. Kho should move to a warmer climate, I don't know why he already hasn't. Well, I'd miss him if he left Lhasa. The idea of him leaving…I don't like thinking about it. And we are his only friends.
After staring at the mirror for several more minutes, Khosure had finally set it face down on the surface of his desk. He pulled his math book out of his shoulder bag. Naturally, he'd forgotten to do the problem set that was due tomorrow. Also, he'd be better off if he were occupied when Cook came home. Maybe she'd go straight to making their meager dinner instead of targeting him.
Alas, Khosure's fragile hopes were quickly dashed. The flimsy door crashed against the wall as Cook stormed into the shack, and smashed an empty bottle against the floor.
"Khosure! Where are you!" she demanded, swaying, her bloodshot eyes furious.
Oh, no, please let this end quickly, Khosure silently prayed. There was no avoiding her when she was like this. He walked out of his room as meekly and submissively as he could. He saw the broken glass. This would be worse than usual.
"If that bitch hadn't died," ranted Cook, "I wouldn't have to deal with you! It's your fault my life is so horrible!"
Khosure kept staring at the floor, avoiding the drunken, twisted expression of unbridled bitterness and anger.
"Worthless boy. You can't do anything, like a good Hothan. You'd have been better off dead…" growled Cook, "…freak." Khosure's head whipped up.
"Yes, you're a freak. That hair, those eyes, no regular person has them! You're a monster!"
Monster…monster…monster…golden eyes gleaming…stirring underneath golden eyes gleaming…
"I'm a monster," repeated Khosure dully, arms drooping.
"A monster! I'm going to do what should've been done when you were born," Cook yelled, bending down and gripping the neck of the broken bottle.
Rain pounded thunderously on the deteriorating roof. Echoing, monster, monster. You are a monster. No, thought Khosure, I'm not a monster. I'm not! I don't want to be one!
"No!" he screamed, grabbing Cook's arms and stopping the progress of the perilous bottle towards his head.
"You'll be sorry!" yelled Cook, struggling. Where had his strength come from?
"NOOOOOOOOOOOO!" For an instant, ecstasy flooded Khosure's being. He locked eye contact with Cook, startled by his desperate scream. His eyes were tingling, straining again, but this time it felt good, like a dam bursting forth. The gold gleamed, and Cook's eyes reflected the glow back. She was absolutely entranced by the beauty, and she was doomed.
The thunder rolled, and the golden glow morphed into a blinding flash. It was over, after it had begun only three seconds ago. Khosure stood with his arms up, where he'd been holding Cook back. His eyes were normal again, had lost the gleam. He gasped. Cook was gone. Looking down, he saw a large pile of light gray ash at his feet.
"Ah." The feeling of euphoria had gone with the flash. As a leaden cold seized his body, he raised his head and lowered his hands a little. One by one, he released his fingers from the fists he'd formed. Ash dropped from both hands, to join the pile on the floor.
"AAAAHHHHHH!" Khosure ran willy-nilly out the door into the storm, wearing nothing but a thin pair of shoes, threadbare pants and an old hand-me-down shirt.
"You two, shut up!" bawled the neighbor. "Crazy old bat and that weird girlyboy…"
He was a monster, after all.
Hatsuharu
What a weekend. I was just grateful Lhurone was okay now. His speech did sound strange, however. Both Haku and I suspected it had to do with his dzuni.
"Despite what Asheno says," Haku had said after Lhurone went back to sleep, "I'm not sure what kind of animal Lhurone actually is." I agreed, but so far Lhurone's dzuni didn't seem dangerous. I would hate for Lhurone to be possessed by…a difficult spirit, like me and Haku. If anything, this dzuni seems to have been a good thing for Lhurone. He's so much more peaceful than when we first met him. In my opinion, the peaceful Lhurone far surpasses the violent Lhurone. Haku is changing a little, too. He's opening up more to me, although he still doesn't tell me what he sees in those visions of his.
I just had to get my bike out of the storm. Stupidly, I'd left it outside the gate to the compound. Hopefully it hadn't been stolen. I pulled my jacket over my head and walked out into the pouring rain.
Ah, my bike was still there, next to the gate. Great! I pulled the bike inside the compound, and was about to close the gate when I saw someone running up the sidewalk.
The figure's path curved precariously.
I heard the voice over the rain. "Help me…" Kho! What the hell was he doing here? He collapsed as I ran over to him.
"Kho? Kho!" Gods, he didn't even have a jacket on! Nothing but shoes and pants and a shirt…he would catch his death of pneumonia!
"My mother…I left her, I have to get her…" he babbled, eyes unfocused. His body burned in my arms. Kho was too weak to resist as I lifted him up in my arms and carried him inside the compound.