A Sense of Dark

Chapter Twelve

by PenguinKye

October 12, 199X—6:10 PM

I was not so bad at waking up this time, until I remembered Nagi. I said, "Ug," and flipped onto my stomach to suffocate myself with a pillow.

Then someone said, "Hello, Schuldig," and I flipped back again without meaning to.

"Who're you?" I said, or something like it. Then I noticed that whoever it was was an utterly gorgeous woman—who was somehow balancing very casual clothes with a strong air of dignity and power. Not that I usually liked dignity. Just power. But when I saw her I wondered if I just didn't like dignity because I couldn't pull casual off at the same time.

She was definitely more than trying—she was succeeding. I lounged, feeling impressed for a few moments, and then I said, "So who are you?"

"I am called Unmei," she said, and for a crazy minute I thought I'd gone totally insane—hot chick appears at a delirious guy's bedside and calls herself fate? Who wouldn't wonder? But I knew that name, and it fit this woman, even though Brad had never mentioned that she was a babe. A dangerous babe, sure, but a babe.

"You're the uncatchable," I said. It came out fuzzy, but Unmei seemed to get the drift. She smiled serenely, clashing with the messy room around her and making me feel like she should be wearing something old and traditional and extremely expensive.

"You're the incorrigible," she said smoothly. I laughed.

"I don't know about that," I said. "I feel pretty well corriged just now."

"They haven't got you yet," she said, and something about that sucked the smile right off my face.

"Do you expect them too?" I said. She looked me in the eye. This made the hotness go away pretty much altogether—I mean, it was there, but I sure as hell wasn't thinking about it—and get replaced by a feeling of what could be called gut-wrenching fear.

"I don't know," she said at last. "You see, we 'uncatchables' have, so far, no idea what is happening to you." That gave another sharp yank to my unhappy insides.

"What do you mean, happening to me? All that's happened is that I screwed up and got mauled by Weiß." That was a lie, I knew it was. Nagi knew better, and so did Far, even if I didn't want to.

"Mr Crawford called me," Unmei said. Her voice was getting quiet in a way that made me feel like shrinking out of sight. "He told me your mind had a parasite." Oh. So that was why she was here. I hardly remembered a thing, but Nagi had told me, when he noticed that I didn't know a thing ten minutes later. He'd looked like he was going to vomit at me.

"You know," I said, sounding like I was trying to be casual and failing. (Which meant I now couldn't handle casual or dignified.) "You know, you are not very good at making a person feel anything but hysterically afraid."

"I am sorry," she said gently, and put a hand to my arm. "I mean to talk with you, not frighten you." She reached behind me suddenly and pushed my pillows to the wall. She pushed me to the wall too, without my doing anything. This lady was stronger than she looked.

"I hope you can sit more comfortably now," she said. I nodded, dumb. She gave me a long look and continued, "I know you do not wish to think of ugly things, Schuldig, but for my sake and yours and for all of your associates', you must."

"There's nothing wrong with me," I said. My mouth was dry. She handed me a water bottle. I stuck it in my mouth so I wouldn't have to talk.

"Tell me what it felt like," she said, slowly, gently. The water disappeared—I had set it down, of all the stupid things! My mouth had opened. I was going to talk? I remembered vaguely, as I began to speak, that one reason Unmei was uncatchable was that she had a secondary talent. She was a Compeller. She could get other people, even other talents, to do or say what she asked them to.

I was a bit outraged about this, but it didn't stop me talking.

"What?" I said. My voice sounded strange.

"The parasite," said Unmei. Her hand was still on my arm, its touch deliberate and intended to calm. I didn't like being controlled that way, but I couldn't seem to pull away.

"Didn't Brad tell you? I can't remember," I said.

"That's what you told him," said Unmei.

"It was true," I told her, affronted. "I don't remember anything except that…there was something in me besides me."

"You will remember," said Unmei. She gripped my arm more tightly and said again, "You will remember the parasite. You will tell me what was in your mind." She said it over and over, until it became a chant, and I felt it gaining power every time she said it. Damn Compellers. I knew she'd get it out of me sooner or later. I hated being controlled that way. Or in any way, I guess.

Maybe ten minutes went by, and at some point I realized that I remembered as well as I was going to. Pretty damn well, I was displeased to figure out. Unmei figured it out too, because her grip on my arm relaxed, and she said, "Tell me what happened, Schuldig." Before I could think about it twice, I had begun to speak.

"I didn't know it was there when I woke up," I said. "I only felt-" I gestured clumsily at myself "-the Weiß stuff. I was talking to Nagi, and that was okay, but then there was this feeling—he would say something, and I'd have this half a thought. I mean, I didn't know what I was thinking really, but I could feel the thoughts, and they were venom. I think it was about Nagi." I looked into Unmei's face and she looked back, not moving an eyelash. "It wasn't something I would feel about Nagi," I said, still staring. "I didn't know what it meant. I didn't like it. And then, I felt…like I was in a memory?"

"A memory of what, Schuldig?"

"The first time I met Nagi…I mean, the first time I looked inside. I didn't—like him as much then. I might have been vicious about it. But I couldn't figure out why I was remembering that, and all at once Nagi started going off on me about being in his head, but I didn't know I was there. And then--"

Unmei watched me patiently. I struggled to explain.

"All those thoughts about him that I could catch all the way, they peeled off of my mind—like a leech or something. And then Nagi said it was in his head, but it wasn't me, and I had got to get it out. It tried to get back inside my head. It nearly managed. I felt it, like it had claws that were digging in for a good hold."

I stopped again, to gather myself. Unmei said, sounding unfairly musical, "Tell me the rest." I glared a bit and held my tongue for a few long seconds, until Unmei's order forced me to speak.

"I tossed it off," I said, "and it was out of Nagi's head, too. And there was this silence, and then it was back. It got in like there was nothing easier. It…laughed at me. I mean, inside my head. It burrowed down deep, and it was powerful all of the sudden, like it had strength it had forgotten all about. And it told me that it would never leave me alone, and it hit me—I mean, mentally, hard. I had to sleep for hours to get rid of that headache. It's probably what made me forget to begin with. I think it's coming back."

"The headache, I hope?" Unmei asked, looking alarmed for about a second.

"Yeah," I said. "Headache. Not the…thing." She looked more satisfied. I hoped that she was done with me.

"Could you hear a voice with the taunts?" she asked at once. Of course she wasn't done. Groan. Sigh.

"Yes," I said. "I think so. I think it sounded….like a man. Maybe. It was twisty. And it hurt too much to remember right."

"That is all right," she told me. "I only have a few more questions, Schuldig. Then you can rest." I was ready to be annoyed that she thought I needed rest, but then I realized that she was right. I was leaning heavily against the pillows, although when she'd first begun her little Compelling I'd been sitting up practically on my own. I wondered if I was imagining that it was hard to breathe.

"Good," I said. I hadn't meant to say it.

"Did the creature in your mind ever enter it before this morning?" she asked. I was about to say, No, of course not—I would have noticed, don't you think?

Far and Nagi knew. Far and Nagi were too damn clever. My stomach twisted.

"Yes," I said. "Since Ouka Takatori." Shit. I wasn't supposed to mention that to anyone—probably not even to Unmei. But Unmei smiled.

"I thought it had been one of you," she said. "It's a pity it was the girl. She did no harm. But it has weakened her father, and her father is one of the bonds between you and Eszett. It's better that he be broken. What happened with Ouka?"

I told her, as best I could, and then I told her about the buzzing and the shriek that had ruined me for Weiß—had that really only been yesterday morning?—and how I hadn't been able to read them until they were on top of me, with their swords in me.

When I finished I could see that Unmei was worried, and it frazzled her hair in a way that made her look beautiful in an almost normal way. But her face smoothed out in an instant (she was good at smooth as well as dignified and casual), and she didn't say anything to cure my apprehension.

She let go of my arm, and I felt like something that had been plugged into me had been yanked out.

"I have said nothing to make you less afraid, have I?" she said, almost ruefully.

"Not really," I said. "But it would have been worse if you'd let Brad come in." Unmei looked surprised.

"Mr Crawford told me that Nagi had informed you," she said. I felt positively sick.

"Told me what?" I asked hoarsely.

"They have all three gone to kill the ones who caught you. They have gone to seek revenge against Weiß. That is why I am here."

I groaned and sank back even further in my bed.

"They went without me," I said. "And I really wanted to kill those bitches. And they left me a babysitter." Unmei smiled, with that look that drove you crazy.

"They'll be all right, won't they?" I said. "You can see them, can't you?"

Unmei laughed and put a hand by my ear.

"They will be all right, whatever surprises might occur," she said.

"Good," I said. "That means I can get Nagi back for neglecting to mention it."

She tugged at my hair in a way that made me think of a dog's mistress tugging on its ear. "You have done well. You have told me everything I have asked you for. I have long looked forward to meeting you, Schuldig. I have not been disappointed. Now, rest."

All at once I felt all of the pains in my body, from the returning headache to the the ache through my shoulder to the sharp pounding in my wrists. She seemed nice, I thought, but Unmei pulled forward the worst of a person without even thinking about it. Even if she wasn't Eszett, there was no way she could be considered a good guy.

That was all I thought, before she reached down and pulled my blanket up—I made some wierdo noise about it—and figured out that there was no way for me to stay awake a single minute longer.

PenguinKye

July 10, 2005

READ AND REVIEW. FOR GOODNESS' SAKE.

Sorry about the long wait! I will try to get to more of this story. College, life and other things have gotten in my way before now.