This chapter is called: A Car with Black Windows (shitty title huh?)
A/N: Well, I hope you like this chapter. It's a little bit better than the first I think. Well, bring on the blood!
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"Ryoko? Ryoko are you there?" There was a long pause. Kousuke feared that at any moment he would hear the dial tone noting that Ryoko was no longer on her phone. And given the situation that would mean that she was either no longer alive or not where she was, or she was just pissed off at him or simply done speaking. He feared the worst. "Hello?" He hated how desperate his voice sounded at that moment.
"Yeah? I'm still here." Kousuke let out a sigh of relief.
"Why were you so quiet?" Again there was a long pause. "Would you stop with that already, Ryoko. You make me worried that you've been murdered when your still there and it pisses me off." He heard Ryoko let out a short dismal noise that sounded something like an oh and an uh mixed together….like an "ouh."
"It's just, I can't shake the feeling that someone's watching me. It's like they're there, but they're not. And I just saw that car again." Ryoko's voice was a little bit shaky, but she covered it well.
"Are you sure it's the same one?"
"Not really." She let out a long sigh. And then there was another pause. Just as Kousuke opened his mouth to speak the phone line was cut off. The dial tone did appear and Kousuke was afraid. Ryoko hadn't hung up her phone for no reason…something happened. Maybe she just ran too far away and lost connection. He told himself, trying to sustain his fear why he threw on some clothes. He was worried about Ryoko, but not enough to run out of his apartment clad only in his boxers. He knew that she had been in front of his apartment building only five minutes ago so she couldn't be too far.
Finally he had all of the clothes on that he needed; forgetting shoes and socks, and not bothering to put on his jacket although it was still a little bit cool in the mornings. If Ryoko was in danger and he could help her then it was worth catching a cold or a few Goosebumps.
Just as he opened his door to leave, a terrified Ryoko came running in. She nearly ran him over as she pushed him aside rather violently and slammed the door shut and locked it. Ryoko held all of her weight against that door as if expecting someone or something to try to break it down. Kousuke knew that even if it was a hunter, they wouldn't try to murder one of their preys in a populated area. That was too risky for them.
For a moment everything was still. Ryoko stood with both arms pressing against the door, along with one bent knee facing towards it, and the other leg was stretched out behind her. That's when Kousuke noticed how dirty she was. It was almost as if she had been rolling around on the ground. He also noticed that there was a steady flow of blood running down the back of her outstretched leg from beneath her running shorts that made a small pool on his carpeted floor. He knew he would have to pay to get that fixed, or attempt to get the stain out himself, but he didn't care. He also didn't care that there was another pool of blood developing in the shadow of Ryoko's arm. She had either been shot, or hit by a car. But he knew that Ryoko was in no condition to answer to him.
Daringly he reached out and touched Ryoko's shoulder causing her to jump. He knew at once that she was not okay. Something was terribly wrong. But then again that was obvious by the blood running from her wounds and the fact that she had been stalked by a hunter or just a mad man in a car.
"Ryoko, are you going to be alright?" He heard her mumble something, and then watched wordlessly as she let her arms slowly drop from the door and stood on her own. She knew that no one was outside of it. She turned to look at him, her face was a dirty and had a few scratches but not really all that bad. She wavered a bit, and then let her knees crumble beneath her so she could rest.
"So much for a ten mile jog," she said out loud. "Kousuke, get me some bandages and something to eat." Once again she was back to her regular old self. "And a wet cloth or something…" Kousuke nodded and walked away from her as he walked over to his nightstand where he kept his first aide kit. He always wound up bloodied for one reason or another and Ryoko had practically forced him to buy one so he would bothering her and Eyes for bandages because he was too poor or too lazy to go out and buy his own.
Kousuke dropped the bandages and a bottle of hydrogen peroxide along with a bag of cotton balls on the floor by Ryoko and walked off to get the wet cloth that she had demanded.
"I've never been good at taking care of the wounded so you'll have to what you can on your own," he said as he handed her the damp cloth. Ryoko sighed and nodded as she began to wipe the blood from the back of her leg and the best she could get off her shoe.
"I need a bigger towel, Kousuke," she said as she dropped the used cloth on the floor. Kousuke nodded and then left the room once again only to return with two wet hand towels. Handing them to Ryoko, he eyed her carefully as he watched her wipe the remaining smears of blood off her leg.
For a moment she paused and held the towel in one place while the other hand grasped for one of the bandages.
"Wait a second," Kousuke said. "If you don't use that peroxide, your cuts will get infected." He said it in a smart aleck tone as if he were mocking the poor injured girl. "Here." Kousuke opened the bottle of peroxide and took out of the cotton balls from the bag. He placed it tightly over the mouth of the bottle and tipped it upside down so he could soak the cotton fluff with the liquid. Carefully he set down the bottle a few feet from himself putting the lid on top of it and not bothering to tighten it.
Carefully, almost as if he were a doctor, he pulled the bloodied towel away from the wound so he could cover it with the liquid that was absorbed into the cotton fluff. Once the liquid made contact with the bloody wound it fizzed into a white foam which signified that the liquid was doing its job to kill all germs and parasites. Kousuke pulled the, now red, cotton ball away and tossed it carelessly across the room.
"I'm not expert at bandaging," Kousuke said as he handed her the long white strip of gauze. Ryoko let out a dismal sigh and rapped the white material securely around her would. She was sure that once she stood up she was going to kick the jerk in the head. Not only did he cause her to loose more blood from the wound, but he took the liberty to apply the peroxide to the wound on the back of her upper thigh. She could just imagine the thoughts going through his mind.
Kousuke noted that it wasn't a bullet hole in her leg thankfully, but just a deep gash that was too imperfect to be from a knife. It looked like she'd taken a bad fall, but that wouldn't explain why she was leaning on the door as if her very life hung in the balance.
She grasped for the other damp towel that sat to the left of her hand and began wiping the blood from her left arm. It was a gash on her elbow that was causing that stream of blood.
Once again Ryoko let the towel drop as she grasped for the bottle of peroxide herself, along with the bag of cotton balls.
Once her fingers graced the side of the bottle it tipped over spilling most of its clear contents onto the carpet.
"God damnit!" she cursed as she leaned forward to pick up the bottle. There was hardly any left in it and her wounded elbow was bleeding again and throbbing with pain. She grasped for the damp towel again while holding the bottle of peroxide between her clenched knees. Once again when all of the blood was cleared she tried to grasp for the bottle, but as soon as her elbow moved it bled again. She would gladly use her other arm, but it wasn't responding very well to her commands.
"Here, let me help," Kousuke grabbed the bottle from between her knees and grabbed another cotton ball. Once again he spilled the contents into the absorbing fluff and applied it to her wound. This time it stung as it made contact and the fizz was worse. Kousuke tossed the fluff aside only to grab another one to fill with the peroxide and apply to the wound again.
This time Kousuke took the liberty to put on the bandage knowing very well that Ryoko was incapable of it on her own. Once finished he picked up the unused cotton balls and bandages along with the bottle of peroxide and took the back over to his nightstand. The white cap for the bottle still lay on the floor by Ryoko's feet.
She leaned up against the door and let out a sigh of relief. The wounds would eventually stop bleeding if she sat still long enough.
"So would you like to tell me what happened?" Kousuke asked as he handed yet another wet towel to the wounded girl. She sighed and began wiping dirt and thin lines of dried blood off of her face. The damp coldness felt good and refreshing.
"No, but I doubt you'll let me leave if I don't," Ryoko said into the towel. It was almost indecipherable, and Kousuke took a moment to try and understand it.
"Well, you sure know me. But I'm not going to let you walk home alone for sure." Ryoko managed a small laugh.
"Alright, let's just say I was jogging and talking to you as you should know, and I thought I saw that car. Well, while I stopped for a moment to think, some guy came up behind me. He tried to grab me, but slipped out of his grasp somehow, and he had something sharp on his clothes and that's what cut up the back of my leg. Then when I tried to run off her grabbed the back of my shirt and I pulled forward a little too hard and fell forward, and that's how I busted open my elbow. I didn't get to see the man's face, but of course he attracted some attention so he ran off. But then that car started coming back my way and I ran. And I came here." Ryoko inhaled deeply and held it for a moment before letting it slowly seep out from between lightly parted lips.
"And I bet you didn't need any help huh?" Kousuke asked sarcastically giving the girl a smile.
"Nope. I just needed a place to stay incase they came back."
"You weren't scared either were you?" For a moment their eyes met, but that contact was broken when Ryoko closed her eyes and put her "good" arm behind her head to stretch and let out a quiet yawn before she let it fall to her side.
"Nope."
"Whatever." Kousuke let out a long sigh and then walked over to the window. He looked outside and scanned the area for the black car that Ryoko had said was following her. Just as he was about to give up and pull the curtain closed again he spotted a black car with every window tinted black. It could just be some random passerby's car, but judging how slowly it was going, it was a hunter. He must be desperate to make a scene in front of all these people…Kousuke thought as he watched the car go past. I wonder how many times he's circled the block. Sooner or later someone's going to get nervous and call the cops if he insists on going around and around and around like that, especially if someone has a little child outside playing in the yard.
"Kousuke, what are you looking at?" Quickly he turned around and shut the curtains quickly. Ryoko's face bore an expression of worry and curiosity. He knew that he would have to make something up to make it so that she didn't worry about the hunters, and he couldn't just say that it was nothing because then she would probably beat it out of him.
"Uh, just a group of freshmen girls from our school walking down the street in string bikinis." Ryoko raised an eyebrow.
"You liar," she said as she stood up from her place on the floor. "Well, I'm gonna go. There's no point staying captive in your apartment if there's only girls in bikinis outside." She turned the doorknob and pushed open the door, letting herself out into the cold hallway from the warmth of Kousuke's heated apartment.
"Wait a minuet! Ryoko!" Kousuke put a hand on her shoulder in order to delay her departure. "Let me walk with you! I don't want you to get killed this time." Ryoko raised an eyebrow and smiled slightly.
"Don't tell me that you're actually worried about me," Ryoko said with a devious smile. "That's low even for you Kousuke. You of all people should know that I can take care of myself."
"If that's true then why do I have to keep going out and buying you bread?" Kousuke mumbled under his breath. Ryoko blinked a couple of times before a glare accumulated on her face.
"Baka," she said quietly as she started to walk away. "You can walk with me I guess, but you're going to have to keep up." With one quick glance back she winked and then sped off as fast as she could.
"Ryoko!" Kousuke said as he shut and locked his door before quickly followed after her. "Wait up!"
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A/N: Well, like I said, bring on the blood! Hahahaha…well, I hoped you all liked this chapter. I'll post the next one soon. Unlike this one I wasn't working on it in the same day so it may take a while…This ones post was delayed due to a NASCAR race in Michigan…(I was out of state, what can you expect…) Well, I'll post the next chapter ASAP.