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Bloody Nurse
Chapter 15
Yuuki floated.
What a strange feeling.
It was the best description she could think of, yet it didn't quite fit.
She felt light, weightless, as if suspended in mid air, with nothing holding her up, almost as though gravity itself ceased to exist.
But at the same time, she felt pressure. A force pressing down on her from all sides, making her limbs heavy and too difficult to move.
Weightless. Heavy.
Strange, just as she thought.
And it was dark. Too dark. Or were her eyes closed? Let's open them. Open them. Open.
Closed. They remained closed. Eyelids way too heavy to lift, probably weighed down by the same force that was keeping her limbs immobile.
Fine. No eyes. Forget the eyes. Let's listen.
There are sounds. Muffled, yes, but she could hear them. Sounds coming from far away. Not really far away, maybe quite near. Muffled. Dulled. Unclear. Fogged. Could your hearing even be fogged? It was unpleasant. It was the pressure again, pressing down on her eardrums, making it impossible to hear clearly.
Most of the sounds couldn't properly penetrate her ears and the ones that managed, seemed to echo in her head, bouncing off the inside of her skull, multiplying, becoming too loud and impossible to comprehend. She wanted to cover her ears. If only she could move her arms.
But she couldn't. She floated.
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"She has fallen ill," Ichijou repeated.
"I heard you the first time!" Zero barked, clenching his hands into fists.
"What Zero-kun meant to say," the Chairman quickly interrupted, "is that we would appreciate more details."
Ichijou lowered his head as if in shame. "I'm afraid I do not have many to offer. Kaname-sama wasn't exactly… forthcoming."
Zero ran both of his hands through his silvery hair in frustration, walked three steps forward and then whirled back around to face the Chairman. "Tell me this isn't a repeat of last time. Tell me again how we have nothing to worry about!" he ended on a shout.
The Chairman regarded him with surprisingly grave eyes. This made Zero's stomach tighten into a tiny painful ball of dread. He swallowed thickly and spun back around to Ichijou. "Why is she with Kuran? How the Hell did she wind up there in the first place?"
"Zero – " the Chairman began sadly but Ichijou interrupted him.
"I believe Aidou had something to do with it."
The Chairman's eyes widened in surprise. "Aidou? But why would he… I thought you came to tell me… Yuuki's ill?"
Both Zero and Ichijou regarded him strangely.
"I…I thought…" He looked from one to the other and then cleared his throat. "Never mind. What has Aidou done?" he asked, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose.
"I am not sure. However he's undergoing Kaname-sama's punishment as we speak. I just connected the dots…" he trailed off.
Zero supressed a wince of sympathy. He would not sympathize with anyone of their lot, no matter what.
"As for Yuuki," Ichijou went on, "she's running a high fever. I'm not overly familiar with human illnesses, nor was I able to gather all the facts about her condition, but I believe she's unresponsive. She wouldn't wake up."
The Chairman took a deep breath and walked briskly towards the cabinets.
"We have to bring her here," Zero stated. "Like you said, you know nothing about the treatment of humans."
Ichijou shook his head. "That won't be possible. Kaname-sama won't allow it."
"Bullshit."
"We won't be bringing her here," said the Chairman without turning around, rummaging in one of the cabinets, pulling out small different coloured boxes, frowning down at them, then placing them back inside. "We'll have to take her to a hospital." He pulled out another box.
"With all due respect, Chairman Cross, I doubt Kaname-sama would permit it."
"Not his call. He's not human," Zero interjected.
"You don't understand. He's…well…I told him the best thing to do would be to bring her to you. He locked me out after that. I told him I would bring you instead but I've received no reply."
"Here," the Chairman said and something flew across the room towards Ichijou. He caught it with ease and looked down at the colourful box.
"Get her to swallow two of those, they should help with the fever." He left the cabinet in its messy state, walked towards the desk and opened a drawer. "And prepare Kaname for a visitor." He pulled out a small green notebook. "I'll try getting a doctor to come over instead."
Ichijou nodded. "I'll do my best." And he disappeared out the door.
"Wait a second," Zero said angrily, stomping towards the desk. "If you think it's best for her to go to the hospital, take her there! Don't just bow down to every whim of that bloodsucker!"
The Chairman answered without looking up from the pages of the notebook. "It's the fastest way, Zero. I simply chose the fastest way."
"Screw that! It's not the fastest way, it's his way!" He slammed a fist against the surface of the desk. "He always gets it! He's not the boss of everybody!"
The Chairman finally jabbed a finger in one of the pages. He picked up the receiver of his antique phone, held it between his ear and a shoulder, and started dialling a phone number on the rotary dial. "Well, Zero, in the world we live in, he kind of is."
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Yuuki remembered.
She couldn't remember everything, no. Far from it. It was more like she didn't have control over what she remembered.
She remembered being small. A child. Having her evening bath. Always taking at least one toy with her so she wouldn't get bored.
She remembered how enormous the bathtub seemed. Like a pond. A lake. She would hold her breath and submerge her whole body in the warm water, listening to her heartbeat, to the rushing in her ears, to the comparatively loud clack the toy made when it hit the metal bottom of the tub. She would listen to her father's voice, telling her to come out soon or end up a wrinkly squishy sponge. With her head under the water, his voice sounded distant. Oval, somewhat. If voices even could be considered oval.
The sounds she heard now where the same. Muffled. Fogged. Oval…
That's why she felt so weightless, she must be under water.
Glad she figured that out. Finally an answer.
But wait. No. That's wrong. She can't move. If she's under water and she can't move, she'll drown!
No, she moans, no bubbles escaping.
She wants to breathe, so she does. It's too heavy, but it's possible.
She moans again.
The pressure of the water is great. It's pressing on her ears, her cheekbones, her forehead, pressing down so hard it hurts.
Her limbs are heavy and they hurt too. Her muscles spasm but she can't stretch them.
It hurts to move, it hurts to stay still.
Water is heavy. She understood now. And there was so much of it. This was no tub. No pond. No lake. More like a sea. An ocean. The weight of an ocean was pressing down on her. And it hurt.
Hurts, she hisses, still no bubbles left her mouth.
The sounds seemed to be getting sharper though. One sound in particular. No, not a sound. A voice. The clearer it grew, the more the pain intensified.
Yuuki.
Yes, that was her name.
Yuuki.
The voice sounded pleading. Insistent. Pained.
Pain. Yes, she felt pain.
Open your eyes.
Can't do. She already forgot her eyes. Didn't she establish that already?
Lift your head.
Good one, Mr. Voice. As if she could move. She felt an arm snake around her shoulders.
Come on. Up. Yuuki. "Yuuki."
The voice was suddenly clear, as if her head breached the surface of the water. She gasped for air. Eyes still not cooperating. Limbs heavy. Waves of pain crashed over her.
"Yuuki, you need to swallow these. You'll feel better."
Gentle voice. Pleading voice. She knew that voice.
She tried to speak to the Voice but the moment she parted her lips, something brushed against them.
"That's it."
One of the bigger waves must have swept over her because her mouth was suddenly full of water and she choked.
"Swallow, Yuuki. Good. You'll get better. I promise."
The Voice was so close. She knew it. She knew him. The owner of that voice. A handsome face. Sad eyes. Silky dark hair. Long elegant fingers.
My Yuuki.
Leaving already, Mr. Voice? She didn't want to go under alone. She latched onto the memory of that voice.
She remembered.
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"I cannot be of any help here unless I'm allowed to assess the patient's condition."
"I fully understand that. Please, give me a moment, doctor Roach," the Chairman said, leading her to a conveniently placed sofa in the corridor before Kaname's chambers. He smiled at her, as she sat down, and then he walked swiftly, joining Ichijou at the door.
"I'm afraid I've failed with the preparations," Ichijou said in a subdued manner.
"Not to worry," the Chairman replied and knocked on the door. "I'll deal with this little hiccup immediately."
Ichijou looked up at him with surprise.
"What? He's acting up just like a child. Holing himself up in his bedroom, hiding away from the unfairness of the grownups, who are trying to take away his favourite toy. And now, when the toy broke, despite knowing its fragility, he refuses to ask the grownups for help, the stubborn little thing."
Ichijou's mouth fell open in disbelief and he started waving his hands wordlessly in front of him in warning, to which the Chairman paid no heed.
"He knows very well that only those who no longer act like children, can repair it. Growing up means knowing your strengths and weaknesses, accepting them, and working with them. That's being responsible. Being irresponsible is thinking you're the centre of the universe, like an obsessed teenager who didn't get his way, thinking the world is out to get him, when in fact, it's him hurting those around him. Irresponsible."
With the last word, the door flew open and a stone cold Kaname suddenly appeared in the doorway, barefoot, three top buttons of his silk shirt undone, gaze narrowed warningly at the Chairman.
"And now that I finally have your attention, Kaname-kun, I would greatly appreciate it if you let our good doctor Roach check on Yuuki, as I hear she's very ill and I want my daughter to be as well as humanly possible. Can you do that for Yuuki?"
Ichijou, whose hands remained lifted in front of him, shifted his eyes between the two men. His respect for the Chairman leaped up.
Kaname, without breaking eye contact with the bespectacled man in front of him, gave an imperceptible nod.
"Perfect," the Chairman clapped his hands. He turned to look over his shoulder. "Doctor Roach, if you please?"
Doctor Roach was already standing upright, one hand over her heart, the other brushing over her lips, her eyes, wide, trained on the figure of Kaname.
"Doctor Roach," the Chairman said more insistently.
"Hmm?"
"My daughter?"
"Oh! Yes, of course." She shook her head quickly, as if to clear it, passed between the Chairman and Ichijou, stopped just inside the door and asked Kaname using a husky tone: "Which way to the patient?"
Kaname merely turned on his heel and walked towards the back of the darkened room.
As the two disappeared within the entrails of Kaname's chambers, Ichijou walked back toward the sofa the doctor previously occupied.
The Chairman shook his head. "I should have called for somebody more male."
Ichijou reappeared beside him, holding the doctor's forgotten medical bag in one hand. "I'm afraid your persuasion of Kaname-sama would not have been quite so successful, were that the case."
"True," the Chairman sighed and motioned for Ichijou to enter before him.
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Yuuki could feel it.
The water around her. Deep. Dark. Relentless. Sometimes so hot it burned her, sometimes icy cold.
The frozen tongues were licking over her skin now. Uncomfortable, yet soothing. Gentle, but insistent.
And then, the water seemed to boil. Unbearably hot, enormous bubbles floated to the top, shifting her, pushing her from side to side, pressing her closer to the surface.
The movement hurt. She wanted it to stop. No moving. No, she moaned again.
Hold on, said the muffled Voice. He's close. So close, she could swear he was in the water with her.
The water roars.
What if he burns, what if he drowns, she can't let that happen, he's her anchor. She can't lose him.
Strange.
Her feet are cold. Her legs are cold. It's climbing up her body.
She should look. Look.
It's too dark to see.
But suddenly the darkness around her seems to shift. There's light above her.
Yuuki.
She's close to the surface again.
Yuuki.
The water stopped roaring. It's tinkling. It soothes.
Her head breaks the surface of the dark ocean water and she, after so much time, cracks an eye open.
The light is so bright it blinds her. She whimpers.
"Shhhh, it's better now. It's better."
The Voice is coming from right behind her, close to her ear.
The water around her continues to tinkle in a repetitive pattern.
She tries to open her eyes again and barely manages.
But it's enough to see.
White. The water is white. No, not the water. The tub. She's in the tub again.
She sees her bare pale legs limply stretched out in front of her, completely submerged.
Something shifts in her line of sight and her eyes notice another pair of legs. Long, clad in dark damp material, bent at the knees, caging her in, the bare feet planted by her knees.
Not her legs.
She didn't have two pairs.
"You'll get better soon."
The Voice rumbled behind her, the rock she was leaning her back against vibrating with the words.
She closed her eyes. The water felt soothing against her skin. She felt safe. The Voice was with her. He didn't drown after all.
She felt cool fingers against her burning cheek and turned her head to lean into the comforting touch.
The fingers left her skin for a moment but soon returned, wet and soothing.
She needed to open her eyes again. She was so tired but she was starting to hate the dark. Open them. Open.
Her eyes focused on the hand lifting towards her face once more.
Red.
Blood red.
His fingers coated in thick blood, smearing it against her cheek.
No. Wrong.
She looked back at her legs but couldn't see them anymore. She couldn't see past all the blood in the tub. And it was rising. The surface was rising, submerging the rest of her body in the red liquid, swallowing her up until she floated again.
The ocean. Her ocean. Red. Too red.
The blood burst down her throat, entering her body, pooling in her stomach.
She could feel it.
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Zero walked along the winding path behind the old Moon dormitory, which was separated from the rest of the grounds by a small brook, hands buried deep in pockets.
He walked with his eyes closed, letting his other heightened senses lead the way.
He was determined to accompany the Chairman to the Moon dorms. He wanted to see Yuuki, to make sure she'd be alright, confirming it with his own eyes. He always felt unease creep up his back when he couldn't see her. But the Chairman asked him to watch the school grounds instead.
Reluctantly, he had to admit it was probably a wise choice. No matter how badly he wanted to see Yuuki, he doubted Kuran would simply let him enter. Undoubtedly, a fight would break out. The last thing he'd want to do is disturb Yuuki's recovery.
Though he understood, it didn't make him less furious about the whole situation.
He stopped walking suddenly when voices drifted to him from one of the broken windows of the old dorm. He recognized them immediately.
"I can't stand it much longer!" came the voice of Aidou.
"Hang in there, Hanabusa," was Kain's reply.
"That's not funny!"
Zero stepped off the path and quietly approached the window to look at what was happening inside.
Aidou was hanging upside down by his ankles, face red, hair wet, holding onto the back of his thighs in order to keep his upper body up. Beneath him was a large metal pail full of water.
Zero was confused at first, until Aidou let his upper body drop down with a moan of pain and his whole head and shoulders splashed into the water.
Zero suddenly understood. To keep his head out of the water, Aidou would have to stay in a crunch the whole time. That's one cruel messed up way to work out the abdominal muscles. Cruel and painful.
Aidou pulled himself up with evident difficulty, his body trembling with the effort, and coughed.
"Arg, that's enough!" he barked, and the water in the pail froze solid. Before he could brace his shoulders against it however, flames flared around the metal, turning the ice back into water.
"Stop doing that!" he screeched and thrashed against the restrains above him. Or at least tried to. "I thought you were my friend!"
Kain only sighed deeply. "Don't think badly of me, Hanabusa. You know I can't go against Kaname's orders. I'd hate to end up hanging right next to you."
"I hate this!" Aidou managed to get out before he once more splashed into the water.
Zero had to give it to Kuran, he sure knew some interesting punishments.
He turned his back on the scene and walked back along the path.
After he left the old dorm long behind him, he could hear another agitated angry voice up ahead, this time female. He stepped under the cover of trees to watch three people pass at a brisk pace. It was the Chairman accompanied by Ichijou and a woman, who – as her white coat suggested – must have been the doctor the Chairman called for.
"I've never been treated so horribly in my entire life!" cried the doctor, marching ahead of the group determinedly. The Chairman and Ichijou, Zero realized, were trying to keep up with her.
"How dare he!" she went on. "Throwing me out! I'm the doctor here!"
"Doctor Roach, again, I do apologize – "
"How dare he growl at me or… or grab my arm! I'll have a bruise! Unbelievable, you can rest assured I will never return, not if he begs me and pays double!"
She kept marching on, her ankles unsteady walking on high-heels, which had a rather comical effect.
The Chairman slowed down, putting some distance between himself and the doctor, and Ichijou did the same.
"I really should have called for somebody more male," sighed the Chairman.
"I believe you're looking for the phrase 'hell hath no furry like a woman scorned'," quipped Ichijou.
"Indeed," said the Chairman and jogged after the doctor, Ichijou following suit.
Zero raised one eyebrow, turned, and walked in the opposite direction.
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Yuuki was scared.
The red thick warm blood was all around her. Her ocean was bleeding.
No, it was an ocean of blood.
Help. There was so much blood.
She didn't float. Not any longer.
She was sinking back first into the depths, her arms and legs trailing after her.
How deep was she? Too deep. Not enough.
Weightless. Heavy.
The dark was better than the relentless red. She closed her eyes to shut it out. Stop.
Suddenly, she felt ground beneath her feet. Was she standing?
She opened her eyes. She was standing in a bathroom. It was brightly lit. The floor was a black and white chequered pattern of tiles. To her left, a large white clawfoot tub filled with the remains of her dark red ocean.
She looked down her body and realized she was wearing her school uniform. Odd. A shiver ran up her spine.
"It doesn't suit you."
She whipped her head around. There was no one behind her. She was alone in the room.
The voice laughed, a quiet girlish giggle.
"Can't you see me?"
Yuuki reluctantly walked towards the tub.
"No, silly, behind you."
But there was no one there.
"Come closer. Closer. That's it, almost there."
Yuuki inched her way towards the bathroom vanity. When she reached it, she braced her hands against the edges of the sink and stared down into it. It too was filled with blood.
Another giggle. "I'm up here."
Yuuki looked up, jumped back, and covered her mouth with both hands in shock.
"Aw, don't you recognize me?" said the girl in the mirror, a small smile tugging at her lips. Her hair was long, straight, her eyes shone bright red and she was wearing the white Night class uniform.
Yuuki shook her head vigorously.
"Of course you do, or have you forgotten?" The girl smiled widely and her fangs peeked out from behind her lips.
No.
The girl's eyes looked down Yuuki's body with interest. "See? That suits you so much better."
Yuuki followed her gaze down and gasped when she realized her school uniform was suddenly the same as the girl's in the mirror. White.
She looked back up but only saw her own reflection, now wearing white, staring back at her with wide eyes. She took a step forward and reached up her hand to trace her fingers over the surface of the mirror, her reflection copying her every movement.
"You can be so much better than this," said the girl's voice, coming from all around the room. Yuuki looked over her shoulder. "So much better. But first, you need to wake up."
Yuuki yelped when she felt cold fingers wrap around the wrist of her still upraised hand and whipped her head back to the mirror. The girl was back in it but her hand was protruding from the glass, grasping Yuuki's wrist firmly.
She smiled. "Wake up."
Yuuki heard bubbling noises, first soft, but getting louder.
She looked down and to her horror, the blood in the sink rose and spilled over the edges of the sink, staining her white uniform. She looked to the tub and the same thing was happening there, only the surface strangely rippled, bubbled and then started boiling.
"Wake up."
Slowly, a figure rose from the tub, covered in red. Fist the shoulders, the back, then the head, bent down, with long strands of hair plastered to the face.
No.
She was scared.
No. No, no! NO!
And Yuuki sat up in bed.
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A/N: More of an experimental chapter. Hope you enjoyed it nonetheless.
Take care,
Matylda