A/C - Hello! The reviews from last chapter were filled with such great content! Thank you so much and I hope you enjoy this chapter too!
Chapter 19 - The Iron Gates
I was tired and jet-lagged when we returned to Tokyo, so was Naru and his only show of it was being crankier than usual. There was a moment on the drive home where Naru wanted to stop in the office to pick something up. Apparently (even jet-legged) he wasn't planning to rest anytime soon.
When Lin dropped us off at my apartment, without thinking much, I showered, changed and climbed into bed. Naru had walked straight into the living room, turned on the light and booted up his computers. Typical.
What wasn't typical was that the moment I laid down a sweet, sleepy darkness found me. Most nights I tossed and turned before finding some semblance of peace.
Tonight was different and this darkness had never taken this form before - had never felt so ancient and utterly alive.
From within the dream I opened my eyes and I was met by large Iron Gates on a black plane within a dark land.
This was a place I had never been before. It felt cold and dark with a strange thrumming of power that was terrifying, alive and ancient. As if this place had existed for millennia of centuries.
Some intrinsic part of me knew that this place was not bad, this place was not to cause fear, and perhaps that's why I did not feel afraid to be here. Instead I felt a deep sense of belonging and curiosity as I gazed at the large Iron Gates. They were pitch black like this world but I could see them glistening.
I was instantly curious at what could be beyond those gates.
A form began to materialize from the darkness in front of me and I hoped it was Gene so I could finally ask him what was going on. It began to take a familiar shape but the face was far from the handsome blue-eyed brother.
"Adina," I whispered as her blue eyes opened to look at me. A small distance separated us but I could recognize those wise eyes anywhere.
She gave me a toothy grin that felt hallow and sad, "I told you we would see one another again."
I looked around the darkness, then at the Iron Gates. "Where are we?"
"These are the gates to the afterlife. Some may call it Heaven or Hell but none know for sure what lies beyond."
My core went cold. "A-are we...dead?"
Blue eyes gazed into mine. "One of us is."
I felt my throat close up.
Was this the fate of Sara's warning? Something pulled within me when Adina spoke again. "You are the anchor, Mai."
"I don't know what that is," I said honestly and in a shaking voice. This was now the second time I heard that term. Being in this place of such ancient power that felt so alive began to dawn on me that perhaps what they were saying was true.
"A living portal," said Adina. She move her gaze to the Iron Gates and stared at them. There was a deep and satisfied quality to her stare when she beheld them. I realized she was not afraid. "I don't, exactly, know what that means either. All I can tell you is whatever trouble you found by obtaining that mark, it now connects your soul to this world."
"I have a spirit guide," I blurted. Gene might have answers, especially since he had been in the council with the Spirit Guides. "Maybe he can tell us what's happening."
She laughed hoarsely at this, "I doubt any soul will be found within a hundred meter radius of this place. This is where souls are taken. If your spirit friend has any mind of not crossing over, he'll stay well away from here."
Deep down, I knew she was right. Gene would find me if I was sleeping, or in a trance - but he would not step foot on this realm to find me. I looked at Adina's small, aged form before settling on her blue eyes. There was a look of sadness that crossed her features as she smiled kindly at me.
"I can see your heart. You are a kind person," She said. "I'm sorry this has happened to you. I couldn't live with myself for not telling you."
"How did you die? We were just there not long ago."
It had only been a couple of hours, had it not? Maybe a day at the most.
"I am an old woman," Adina said, answering my question. "It was finally my turn pass on. Soon, you'll know how because, as the anchor, this is your destiny."
She was careful, I noticed, about not touching me until she said that because when she stepped towards me and her her fingers grazed the skin on my arm, the air around us changed.
My throat felt swollen and suddenly I couldn't breath.
The Iron Gates burst open and I felt my body twist with pain. Black shadow hands reached for me from beyond the depths.
I tried to scream, tried to fight them off, but I couldn't do any of that. I couldn't move. It was utterly terrifying.
I couldn't fight off those shadow hands as they gripped me tightly and pulled me beyond the Iron Gates.
^.^
Beyond the Gates was life.
Beyond the Gates was an eternalness that felt too real to comprehend.
I blinked at my surroundings - I was in a gurney. There were tubes in my nose and the air blasting into my nostrils felt dry. I felt the various needles in my arms, a cold wet feeling tingled through my veins.
There was a buzzing of machines and a flurry of activity occurring around me and I was vaguely aware that I was in the hospital.
Only, to Adina, it was a little more than a blur of sounds and colors. I felt the weakness in her breathing and how hard it was to consciously keep her breathing steady. It was even harder to keep her tired eyes open when all she wanted to do was to sleep.
She knew that this was going to be an eternal sleep.
At least until she met her (me) again - the anchor. It was true Adina felt sad that I hadn't understood exactly what the mark meant, or the curse.
Soon, her thoughts were unfocused and she tried to settle them. Adina couldn't find the strength to speak to me out loud however her thoughts did.
She knew that I was going to witness her death.
Adina voiced filled my mind. "Being the anchor is not only a gate to the afterlife. You will experience the death of every soul who passes through you."
Every soul...was that what happened to Sara and Hana? Did they feel the deaths of all their victims too? I couldn't imagine what that could do to their soul, or what it would to do my soul - how it would change it.
Adina continued, "I do not know the means of this curse but you are now an anchor to both worlds, living and dead. The dead can pass through you and onto eternal life."
Suddenly, I recalled the horrible moment Sara had said that the curse could not be broken and I understood what the mark had been.
It was a mark that I had become the anchor, that I would relive their last moments of death - over and over and over again.
It was as horrible as I had imagined.
Adina thought nothing else. Her mind turned into a haze, her eyes clouding over. I could not longer hear the sounds of the outside world through her ears. Her lungs no longer eased up and panic set in when her throat closed up. She couldn't breath, couldn't scream or move - Adina laid there as a hard darkness settled upon her.
The darkness that enveloped her felt lonely and sad. I could feel the sheer fear in Adina as she tried to comprehend what was happening to her. This did not feel like the world with the Iron Gates - this felt like despair. Eternal sadness and grief existed on this darkness with a constant fear. Fear that I might never find my way to an afterlife, or fear that I will not see my family again...
I gasped, sitting straight up in my bed.
It was dark and I was alone - or so I thought.
"I wanted to tell you before," Gene said from the corner of my room. I tried controlling my breathing - it felt so heavy and ragged.
He continued, "Sara might be the only one who knows what's happening. She has to be around still - I'm positive of it and I'm going to find her."
It sounded like a promise but I couldn't tell for sure because I just couldn't think. Gene didn't say anything else as nausea crept up into my throat and I bolted for the bathroom. I barely had enough time as I fell on my knees in front of the toilet and I yielded into it.
The sickness passed through me in horrible waves. Each time, I was forced to remember Adina's death - how lonely and scared she felt. When she died she had no one with her. No one except me in her thoughts.
I was sick to my stomach.
Nausea in horrible and crashing waves shuddered through my body. I had never felt sickness like this before and I was vaguely aware that Naru had come into the bathroom.
"Go away," I hissed - it was a bad decision and I threw up into the toilet again.
I heard the water from the sink begin to run before large hands gently pulled back my hair a moment later.
"You'll be okay," he said and I felt instantly sick again. I yielded myself some more, air hissing through my teeth until I felt like my body was finally done. I tried to calm my breathing, sucking in a glorious amount of air and then holding it from three long seconds before releasing it shakily. I repeated this over and over again.
I continued to breath until I could no longer feel the eternal darkness that threatened to take me. I still saw the horrors of Adina's death - still felt that sticky feeling pass over my skin and my bones, through the very foundation of my core.
I heaved into the toilet again, shuddering as a cool release now began to replace the heavy pool of darkness that had sunk to my gut.
Throughout it all, Naru did not say anything. He stayed with me, holding back my hair and placing a wet face clothe onto my neck. When the nausea finally subsided, I reached up and flushed, watching the water swirl away completely.
"Another nightmare?" Naru asked as he released my hair and I stood up to make my way to the sink.
"Something like that." I fulled up a glass of water and swirled it around in my foul-tasting mouth. I spat it out and did it again before grabbing my toothbrush.
"I still have nightmares about it," Naru said from the silence as I brushed my teeth. "About Gene."
I knew what he meant - who he was talking about. After I rinsed my mouth, I turned to face him. Naru stood perfectly still against the wall behind me, he was wearing a casual light blue pair of pants and a plain black shirt. It was stark against his pale skin, his eyes were dark.
"You don't have to talk about it," My voice felt raw. "But if you do... I'm always here to listen."
His voice was almost inaudible when he whispered, "Thank you."
Naru was an intensely private person and for him to admit this out loud… I felt my heart pounding hard beneath my skin. We walked quietly out of the bathroom, stopping in front of my bedroom door.
When Naru went to move to the living room, I blurted. "Can you stay with me?'
It was stupid to ask because I knew what Naru would say: he would say that they were just nightmares and there was nothing to be afraid of. He would chide me in believing in such things, or that I was being an inconvenience to him.
I was expecting some kind of dismissal when he gestured into the room, "After you."
I moved past the door and Naru waited for me to reach the bed before flicking off the lights in the room. Then, he made his own way to the bed.
"Move over," he said as I squirmed to the very end and felt the pressure where Naru sat on the mattress. He pulled the blankets back and over himself as he laid down on his back, facing upwards.
I turned on my side to stare at Naru. It almost didn't feel real that he was laying next to me. If I moved closer, we would be touching. I wouldn't move though because I knew the boundaries that I could not cross with Naru.
This was almost as unbelievable as him living with me was - or that I had kissed him (we still hadn't talked about that one yet).
He didn't turn to me when he said, "You should get some sleep."
I was tired, beyond tired, but past my wariness I asked, "Does this make you uncomfortable?"
"You staring at me?" He twisted his head to the side and I couldn't help but think there was amusement in his tone. "I'm quite used to it. I'm incredibly handsome, you know. I get stared at often. You should get some sleep."
My admiring gaze turned into a scowl as I huffed out a breath and turned around with my back facing him. Sure he was handsome, but did he have to be so narcissistic? I smiled at that - Naru wouldn't be Naru if he wasn't and I wouldn't want him any other way.
"Thank you for looking after me," I said into the darkness. Naru grunted - acceptance or a dismissal, I didn't know.
From behind my eyes, sleep tugged on me and dragged me into oblivion.
^.^