There's someone coming up the front steps. That's probably her; Kana; right now, she's coming home. I think she went out for a bit.
But I'm back from my mission, aren't I?
I sat up and put my feet on the floor. Cold. The floor was so cold.
Slowly I put weight on them, but my legs felt weak. I could hear the doorknob being fiddled with, and I wanted to greet her as she came in. It took everything I had to take that step forward,
and in an instant,
I fell.
Suddenly I found myself on the floor, the cold floor.
I tried to get up, but it was impossible. My face felt hot, especially against the floor. The door opened; my door, not the front door. I rolled over onto my back and looked up.
There she was.
"Kana, good morning." I said, hardly able to keep my eyes open.
She dropped to her knees beside me, and I realized no. It's
not
Kana.
"Hinata?" I stuttered finally.
"Are you all right?"
Then it hit me. This was not Kana, and this was not my house. My house was far away, and Kana was even further.
Things were blurry, but it wasn't because of my weakness, I felt underwater, because I was. My eyes were filled with tears, but maybe that was because of my weakness.
"Hinata," I said. "It's Kana, she's gone, isn't she?"
"Kiba—" she whispered.
That's me.
There she was—lying there, in front of me. Or at least, what was left of her. It smelled like her, but it didn't look like her. But hardly—it hardly smelled like her—it smelled rotten, not the beautiful perfume Kana left behind when she walked. I adored that smell, beautiful, just like her.
The boys—my two boys—would have been three, maybe two boys and a girl, I'll never know. Gone.
Gone.
"Gone." I said.
"It's okay." Hinata assured me.
"Okay?" I repeated. "No. It's not okay."
"You have to regain some strength." She lifted my head up off the floor I rested on her lap. I was watching the ceiling, listening to my tears fall down my cheeks.
Shame, regret, despair.
Who did this? I'd find out.
"I have to find him." I decided. I told her, maybe I shouldn't have told her.
"Find who?"
"How long have I been here?"
I went to stand up, but once again my strength gave way. Hinata reached out and put a pillow under my head and then stood up. I didn't want to be alone so I called to her—yelled—begged—I wanted her to come back as I heard movement in the other room.
I wanted to
die.
"Kiba, here." She was there again with a small bowl.
I looked inside to see dark broth as she looked at me eagerly.
"You need your strength."
I ate it all. It wasn't good, but I ate it all.
She put the bowl aside and asked me to wait again, and she disappeared again. Again, I was left alone.
I yelled to her.
She called back to me, asking me to wait.
There were footsteps coming towards the house—coming closer, and slowly.
Kana—it had to be her, home from wherever she was with the boys. But where were the boys? They must be playing somewhere else—must have asked her to let them play, so she's coming home to get them a change of clothes.
I sat up,
"Kana," I said quietly, staring at the door. I had a perfect view of the front door.
It wasn't my front door.
It opened.
"Hinata, there's been—"
Naruto looked at me, and I could only briefly hold eye contact before I threw my hands over my face and fell over backwards again.
Kana is dead.
"Kiba!" he said, rushing over and picking me up off the floor. I struggled against him for fooling me—for tricking me—making me believe that she was coming home.
He easily held me back and lifted me up off the floor, and back to the bed. I felt like a prisoner.
I shouted for Hinata, and she was there in a moment.
I had to find that man who killed her.
"How long has he been like this?"
A pregnant woman with two boys.
"I got home and he was on the floor, I gave him some broth and he ate it—thankfully—"
Helpless—hopeless—defenseless.
I yelled at them both. I couldn't think with them talking.
They were quiet, my head fell to the mattress with the pillow on the floor where I once was. Kana and I loved each other and without her there I
didn't know what
to do.