Chapter Six "Our Forgotten Garden"
"Daisuke?"
"Where'd he go?" asked Dark, looking frantically around for his tamer.
"Through here! Satoshi, Dark, help!"
"Chuu…" Wiz mewed, confused. Remembering the little rabbit-like creature's attachment to Daisuke, Satoshi picked him up.
"Wiz, can you help us find Daisuke?"
Wiz nodded his fluffy head. "Chu!" he said, jumping out of Satoshi's arms and sniffing around like a police dog looking for clues.
Satoshi and Dark watched anxiously as Wiz made his way to a particularly battered bookcase at the back of the library. He sniffed at the air around it cautiously before turning back to Satoshi with a nod.
"Chu."
"He's…there?"
Another nod. "Chu."
Satoshi frowned. "Are you sure?"
"Wait, Hiwatari, look at those books," Dark said, indicating the large, ancient volumes that lay scattered around the tarnished corner. "Aren't they the ones that caused…y'know…when they were opened last time?"
Satoshi moved closer, examining the covers with the strange writing on them. "Yes, they are…but I have no idea what these books are, or what's inside them…Do you have any knowledge of them?" he questioned the thief. "They seem like a Niwa work to me."
Dark shook his head. "No idea. I didn't even think of looking at those ones," His mind had been too clouded with worry and despair for his missing love to ponder over small details. "I had forgotten all about them, really…but, I can't understand the text on the cover, so I don't think looking in there will be any help to me."
"I suppose that's just as well, seeing as what happened the last time we tried to open them…" Satoshi muttered, grimacing at the memory of that blinding flash, and all that had followed…
"Chuu!"
The two were startled by Wiz's sudden cries of fright.
"What the-?"
Wiz had been hovering around by the splintered remains of the bookcase, but when the creature (AN: Really have to find out what Wiz actually IS, other than cute!) had touched it with a fluffy paw, it had given up the ghost and fallen in on itself and poor Wiz, revealing behind it a concealed alcove which Satoshi had never known to have existed.
As the dust settled, Satoshi picked up the single candle from the table and approached the opening in the wall. Dark scooped up the trembling Wiz, and the ball of fluff transformed into the glossy black wings attached to Dark's back.
The both walked slowly down through the alcove and down a long, dark corridor that lay behind it.
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"Amazing," Said Satoshi quietly. "I've lived in this house for so many years, and I had no idea about this place. It isn't included in any of the old blueprints I once found."
"I can sense strong Hikari magic down here," said Dark "It feels like when I'm around an artwork."
"I wouldn't be surprised if there was something like that down here, knowing my ancestors. But right now my priority is finding Daisuke safe and well."
"Yeah, we gotta find him." Emiko might kill me if I lose her son, how the heck would I explain it to her? "Sorry Emiko-san, Daisuke disappeared through a bookcase, but don't worry, I'm sure he'll turn up again one day." Yeah…Somehow, I don't think so…
After a while walking in silence, with no sign of Daisuke, Dark felt he had to break the silence, there was something he needed to know.
"Why don't you return Daisuke's feelings, when it's clear you both feel the same about each other? Is it the whole gay thing bothering you? Because if it is, I reckon if you're in love with each other you shouldn't let that get in your way, y'know."
Satoshi shook his head. "It's not that, I don't care that, not at all. You're right, Dark, I do love Daisuke, I love him more than anything, but…that's why I can't let him get hurt. I know that you know about my heart condition, Dark, and I appreciate that you didn't say anything about it to Daisuke earlier, because I don't want him to know. I've got to face the fact that I'm going to die, very soon, and it's not fair on Daisuke if I be with him now if that love is going to be snatched away from him so soon…It'll break his heart, I couldn't stand it…it's painful, I know, but…it's better this way…for both of us."
It was clear from the way that the boy spoke that Satoshi was still trying to convince himself he was doing the right thing, let alone Dark.
"So, you're not a fan of the 'better to have loved and lost' philosophy, then?"
"Those who believe that saying obviously haven't truly lost a love…"
"You never truly lose your loves, you know, Hiwatari. They stay with you forever, in the echoed memories of your heart."
"….That was a cute speech."
"Thanks. I wanted to say something cool. I mean, helpful."
There was a silence.
"But do you really want Daisuke to be feeling that hopeless despair that you feel, knowing that your love is dying, and you can't help?" In the candle light, Satoshi saw the ripple of shock in Dark's eyes. "Are you surprised that I know about you and Krad? I'll admit, I was a little stunned too when I worked it out. But it does explain ever so much…Why Krad kept sneaking out when he thought I was asleep, his complete reversal of attitude…it's all been because he's in love…I finally figured it out earlier, just from the way you were talking about him…You really love Krad, don't you?"
"Yes, I love him so much…he's my everything. I loved him forever. Perhaps even longer. And I'll never stop loving him, I can't. I will find a way to save him…" Dark sighed, thinking of the angel-his angel- his silky long blonde hair, his soft pale skin, and the raw pain in his eyes from the memory of that night when he flew away…
"I'm dying!"
"Where did he go, Hiwatari? Where's my angel gone…?"
"That night, I saw Krad slip out to meet you when he thought I was sleeping in the hospital," Satoshi said sadly. "But after that, he never came home."
Dark bit his lip, picturing Krad somewhere in the cold, in the rain, all alone as his life slipped away. "I want him back…"
"Satoshi?"
Dark gasped. "Did you hear that!"
Satoshi nodded. "Daisuke." He whispered as they hurried down to the end of that long dark corridor of secrets.
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The painting rose up in front of them like a towering beast, frozen moments before attack. It was huge, taking up the entire width of the wall opposite them, twice the height of Dark.
It was one of the Forgotten. It had been down in this lost chamber for centuries, abandoned by its creators, not safe enough to keep, too dangerous to attempt to destroy.
It was a painting of Illusions, a lustrous, highly detailed piece of magical artwork created by a renegade member of the Hikari family many centuries before. An outcaste to their own family, the Hikari had been banished to isolation, where they had vented their anger through creating malicious works of art that would bend to their master's every will, through which they sought to wreck revenge on the rest of the Hikari family. Upon the death of the outcast Hikari, the rest of the clan had seized the black artworks, destroying them and freeing their spirits from the evil they had been forced into.
The spirit of the painting, however, was that of a malicious demon that had willing aided the death of many powerful Hikari family members, and did not wish for its existence to be ended. It had resisted every attempt of destruction, and finally, in desperation, the Hikari's had locked it here, trapped in its' art form, and all records of all the painting were destroyed.
Eternity and patience were two of the painting spirit's attributes. It had waited down here, in the dark, for many, many centuries, watching, waiting for new victims…and after all this time, they had finally come to the spirit's domain, where they would meet with their end…
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Oooh, creepy…the plot's thicker than the Sunday Roast gravy (ha ha, random saying of the day!) And another quick update too! Please read and review, you lovely, lovely people! xxx
Lia