Life Is Not A Dream

Chapter Four

Rangiku didn't know how much time had passed since Gin had grabbed her outside of school and put her in this room chained to the bed. At first, she tried to keep track of the days by the light through the small windows on the other end of the room. But being stuck in the room with nothing to do but to pace or sit with her thoughts, she would often fall asleep at random times that after a while she lost track of the time.

Another thing Rangiku would do would sometimes mess with the chain by twirling it with her fingers. With it only being so long, she was lucky that it reaches as far as the toilet and shower and that's was it. She couldn't reach the windows on the long side of the room. The only upside now was she had been given clothes to wear. Well more like nightgowns, but at least she doesn't have to be naked anymore. And there were at least a dozen nightgowns in different colors. So when one gets dirty, she can change into a clean one. The one she's wearing right now was a plain light blue one.

Rangiku was about to fall asleep again when the sound of the door opening fully woke her back up again. Only two people ever came into the room. Gin or Hitomi. Gin only comes into the room to have sex with her. He once stayed in the room the whole night talking to her. It was then that night Rangiku learned from Gin what they were doing was called sex. According to him, it was what people did when they were married. Still, she hated it when he gets on top of her and spends the entire time wishing he would stop and let her go home.

Rangiku was relieved when it was Hitomi who came into the room. Hitomi doesn't stay for very long. The only times she comes in are to bring her food, make the bed every now and then and take care of of the dirty clothes. Even though Hitomi doesn't stay long for each visit, she's usually nice as long as Rangiku doesn't upset her. Hitomi had a tray with her setting it on top of the dresser like she normally does before leaving the room.

As soon as Hitomi left, Rangiku went to the dresser to pick up the tray and took it back to the bed. The tray had a bowl of rice with seasoning in it with a glass of milk. Rangiku quickly ate the rice and drank the milk. After she was done eating, Rangiku set the tray back onto the dresser before laying down on the bed. It didn't take her long to fall asleep.

Sayuri set a box on the table that held nothing but recently made missing posters of her daughter. She took a handful of posters out of the box. On the poster it had a picture of Rangiku. The most recent she could find. It was one Sayuri had taken of Rangiku before Rangiku went to her best friend Miyako's birthday party. In the picture, Rangiku was wearing a pretty white dress with pink cherry blossom petals all over it and a pink ribbon in her hair. Beside the picture was current information like her age, date of birth, last place she was seen and details of the kidnapping. Not to mention to call the police if they see her.

Feeling the same pain again from earlier that day, Sayuri sat down taking deep breaths. Her cramps from earlier doesn't seem to be getting any better. In fact, they seemed to be getting worse. She had some spotting earlier, but she couldn't remember that last time she had cramps like this.

A half hour later, Sayuri had finally taken something for her cramps, but instead of waiting for the pain medication to take effect, she had grabbed a stack of missing posters and was out the door. She didn't care if she was cramping or not. She wanted her daughter found a soon as possible. She went to one of the busiest places in Karakura Town to pass out the missing posters to a lot of people so they would know what her daughter looked like.

Sometime after leaving the house, Sayuri noticed that the spotting had turned into heavy bleeding that the pain medication she took for her cramps did not seem to be working. She had thought about heading home to rest, but she'd only handed out half the stack of the missing posters she had taken with her. She wanted to hand out the rest before heading home. Not to mention, she couldn't help but think if she tried to take it easy even if she wasn't feeling well, then she might never see her daughter again.

Losing her balance, Sayuri would have fallen to the ground if it wasn't for a middle age woman who caught her and took her to the nearest bench. "Sorry for troubling you. Thank you." Sayuri said to the woman. She felt dizzy all of a sudden. She barely registered what the woman was saying to her. Sayuri was holding her head hopping for the dizziness to stop.

Needing to get off the bed and move around, Rangiku started pacing as far as the chain would allow her to. After a while, the metal cuff was starting to bug her. She was slowly getting used to it, but she hated it. She used to move around so freely. Now she can only go so far. She was stuck in this room away from everyone she cares about. As she sat down on the bed her thoughts went to her parents and how much she misses them.

She misses sitting at the table listening to her father talk about his work or talking about how her day at school was. She misses her how mother would come in at night and tuck her in. When she was younger, she remembered her parents would read to her. Sometimes before bed, she would've curl up on her father's lap and they would watch TV. She also misses playing and talking with her cousins and friends.

Rangiku thoughts were interrupted as the door opened. Rangiku didn't say anything as Hitomi came in and sat down next to her. In Hitomi hands was a hair brush. Hitomi turned Rangiku to where the young girl's back was facing her. Hitomi started brushing the tangles out of the girl's blonde hair.

Rangiku winced when the brush caught the first tangle. Since the day she had been brought here, the only way for Rangiku to really brush her hair was to run her fingers through it. She hadn't realized how much she missed having her hair brushed until now. Although she didn't care for the way Hitomi was brushing it. Hitomi wasn't exactly being gentle brushing the tangles out of her hair which hurt Rangiku's head. Still more than anything, if anyone was going to brush her hair, she rather have her mother brush it like when she was a little girl.

Rangiku listened the best she could to Hitomi talking mostly about herself and Gin. About her life, how she and Gin took care of each other growing up. Like when their parents died when Gin was 18 and Hitomi was 12. Which soon led to Hitomi telling Rangiku about how lucky she was that Gin had chosen her to be his bride. Rangiku on the other hand wished he hadn't. But she couldn't tell Hitomi that or she get punished for even saying that. Rangiku stayed silent as Hitomi went on talking about herself and what she likes to do. Like to hang out with friends, going to the mall and whatever she wants to do. Then she started talking about how she wanted to find her one true love and become a housewife and then become a mom.

When Rangiku heard what Hitomi does during the day and what she wanted to do. Rangiku thought it wasn't fair. Here she was stuck in this room by Gin and Hitomi who had been telling her since the day she had gotten there that she was Gin's wife. They didn't even ask her if she wanted to become his wife. She didn't even want to be here. She wanted to be at home with her family. She even wanted to go to school again. Play with her friends. She didn't think it was fair that Hitomi got to do things that she couldn't. Even though she thought it was unfair, she didn't dare to say it out loud. More like she was afraid to say it.

"When's your birthday?" Hitomi asked suddenly. "Mine's February 27th."

"Um, September 29th." Rangiku answered.

"That's makes you even more perfect for Gin Nii-San. His birthday's also in September, but on the 10th." Hitomi sounded happy. Hitomi gave the brush to the girl before getting up, grabbing the tray from earlier and leaving the room.

Toushirou's held onto his mother's hand as they walked into the Kurosaki Clinic. He didn't know who they were here to see. All he knew was his mother had gotten a phone call and the next thing he knew they walking into the clinic and up to the receptionist. His mother spoke in a low tone he could barely hear her, after the receptionist gave his mother a room number, his mother led him to the room and once in the room, Ami let go of Toushirou's hand. The first thing Toushirou saw was his Aunt Sayuri laying in a bed.

As Toushirou walked closer to the bed, he saw that his Aunt Sayuri was crying. It wasn't new as she cried a lot since Rangiku was taken. But something felt different this time. He didn't know why, but it just did. Toushirou patted his Aunt Sayuri on her hand as his own way of comforting her.

"Does Nii-San know about this?" Ami asked lifting Toushirou up to get closer to Sayuri who wanted a hug from him.

"Yes, but he missed so much work lately, I told him i'll be fine till he gets off of work." Sayuri said pulling her nephew into a hug. It helped soothe her a bit. She used her hands to dry her tears as she managed to scoot over a bit to let Toushirou sit on the edge of the bed while Ami sat in a nearby chair. "Though he insisted I have someone with me. And my first thought was you."

"I did tell you that I was there for you anytime you needed me." Ami said. "And I mean it. Even Toushirou's here for you too." Ami watch was Sayuri smiled a little and gently pat Toushirou's head. "What happened? All the nurse told me on the phone was that you were here and something about fainting. Are you pushing yourself too hard?"

"A bit." Sayuri admitted. "But the reason I fainted was because iit ssseemed that I was pppregnant." Sayuri started crying again. "I I I didn't know it and the doctor told me that I lost the baby. First I lose Rangiku and now this baby." Sayuri cried harder and she felt Toushirou gently hugged her in a comforting way. Sayuri hugged him back.

"Do you feel better?" Toushirou asked after his Aunt Sayuri let go of him and started drying her tears again.

"Yes. Thank you." Sayuri put on a brave smile and patted Toushirou on the head. She did feel a little better, but it was mainly because Toushirou trying to help her even though he probably doesn't understand why she was hurting in the first place. All he knows was that she was hurting and tried to comfort her.

Toushirou and his mother stayed with his Aunt Sayuri until his Uncle Kazuya finally came into the room. After that his mother took him home where she made dinner and tucked him into bed that night.

Rangiku finished getting dressed in a green nightgown as Gin place the metal cuff back on her ankle. He only took it off of her because he wanted her to soak in the tub with him after he had sex with her. Rangiku laid down on the bed while Gin turned off the light as he left the room.