A/N: I'm feeling much better now since my roommate is back and doing okay :) Before I focus too much on work, I'm posting this one for you. The ¾ of the whole chapter still happened a year ago.

Chapter 7. Awakening

Sachiko was unconscious for two weeks in a private hospital. When she woke up, the first thing she saw was her mother, who must have drifted off in her sleep at the chair.

"Yumi," she said in a hoarse voice that was loud enough to wake her mother.

"Sachiko."

Relief flooded Sayako's features at seeing her daughter awake, only to be replaced by worry on how Sachiko would react once…

"Mother, where's Yumi?"

Sachiko tried to get up from the bed, but realized that she couldn't. Her body felt so weak and she hurt all over. Fear gripped her when she remembered the accident.

"Yumi? What happened to her, Mother? Yumi?" She asked in panic. She wanted to see Yumi. She wanted to know if she's okay.

Her panic doubled when tears started to fall in her mother's cheeks.

"Mother?"

"Yumi-chan is, Yumi is…" and then Sayako wasn't able to finish it as she cried harder.

"Mother, please," she begged. She could almost hear her heart drumming, deafening her ears, and she felt her body tremble all over.

Sayako wanted to lie, to tell Sachiko that everything was fine now, but she couldn't. Her daughter deserved to know the truth even if it will hurt.

"Yumi-chan is gone, Sachiko," Sayako said in a whisper, but it sounded like a bomb dropped in Sachiko's ears.

"You're lying, Mother. Yumi wouldn't leave me. Not for any reason," she said as she started to pull things that were connected to her body such as the dextrose, as she again tried to get up, not minding the pain. She wanted to see Yumi. Now. She must be here, somewhere in this hospital.

"Oh Sachiko…." Her mother cried as she started to stop her daughter from getting up. But Sachiko was hysterical now, screaming for Yumi's name.

Thankfully, the nurses came and sedated her.

Sachiko stayed in the hospital for a couple of weeks. She refused to believe that Yumi was gone. Whenever she was awake, she was trying to get up to look for Yumi, pulling anything connected to her body, even removing the bandages around her.

The doctors and nurses had no choice but to sedate Sachiko most of the time, and to bind her hands on the bed. And when Sachiko refused her medicines, they had to inject it on her, or put it along with her dextrose.

The fact was killing Sayako.

When Sachiko realized that her attempts to look for Yumi were futile and that they wouldn't let her find her, she stopped talking to anyone. Not her mother, not her friends when they visited, could make her talk. She ignored them in her anguish. Her mind was blank as the fact that Yumi was gone slowly sank in her mind. If Yumi was alive, she would have seen her no matter what.

Sachiko stayed at the hospital, quiet and passive, until such time that the doctors said that she's physically well enough to go home. That's the only time she spoke again. Her treatment continued in the Ogasawara mansion.

Once Sachiko was good enough to travel, the first place she visited was the Fukuzawa house. But the house was empty, and she found out from the neighbors that the family moved away after the accident. She realized that the Fukuzawas were probably mad at her because everything was her fault. If she hadn't become closer to Yumi, nothing would have happened to her. However, she couldn't feel anything anymore. She's numb with pain.

The next place she visited was Yumi's grave. There, all the pain that she's holding in came rushing to her, overwhelming her. She was on her knees, crying and hugging the stone in front of her, sobbing hysterically as she called Yumi's name over and over again. No one can comfort her. And a few feet away from her, Youko and Sei who refused to leave her side when she was well enough to move on her own, cried too, both to Sachiko's pain and their own pain at losing Yumi.

That day, she refused to leave that place. No one could make her leave. She just cried there, and cried, and cried, until no more tears would fall in her eyes.

When night came, those that worry about her decided to sort of bring her home with force.

After that day, she refused to eat anything, refused to sleep, refused to talk, even when her mother was begging her. She didn't want to live anymore. Seeing Yumi's grave meant that Yumi was really gone, gone from her life.

Her mother, too scared that she would kill herself, refused to leave her side, sleeping on her room.

"Sachiko please, eat something…" Sayako once again begged her daughter.

She just shook her head in response, looking at her mother when she burst into tears.

"Sachiko, please, if you don't want to do it for me or for yourself, then do it for Yumi-chan."

Hope rose in Sayako's chest when she saw her daughter's eyes flickered.

"Yumi-chan gave her life to protect yours, because she wanted you to live. Won't you honor her wish by protecting what she protected?"

That got a response from Sachiko. Tears formed in her eyes.

"Yumi gave her precious life to protect my worthless life. If only for that reason, then rest yourself, Mother, because I won't kill myself even if all I want is to follow Yumi. I will honor Yumi's wish until the time for me to join her comes."

---o---

Back to present…

Sachiko remained in bed after reminiscing what happened a year ago. Somehow, she didn't feel like getting up yet even if the sun had started to brighten her room.

Starting from her talked with her mother that time, she started to eat, went back to school, and soon, started to work for their company.

But she was never the same again.

No one could penetrate the wall that she built around her.

And she also started to find out who the cause of the accident. However, the people responsible were nowhere to found or gone. The driver of the car who smashed into hers died on the spot. He was drunk that time. If he was still alive, she would have probably killed him herself.

The black car that hit the back of her car, they were the security that her grandfather or father, she wasn't sure who, sent after her, thinking that she was trying to run away. Though it wasn't their intention to bump into her car, but rather, they lose control and for whatever reason, she didn't care. She wanted to make them pay for the accident, but they had disappeared. If her family had them out of job or had them killed, she didn't care. If she had seen them, she would have probably killed them herself. She was full of anger and anguish.

And today, it's a year anniversary of that accident.

Once again, Sachiko found herself crying hard as she sobbed Yumi's name in anguish.

---o---

In a hospital somewhere in the United States, a nurse was humming a tune while arranging the medicines at the table. She stopped humming when she heard someone moaned. Her gaze settled on the person lying on the hospital bed.

Could it be?

She watched the patient for a moment, but nothing happened.

Must be my imagination, she thought as she went back to her task, only to turn again when she heard another moan. Frowning, she walked towards the bed, only to step back in surprise when she saw the patient's lips moved. Straining her ears, she tried to make out the sound coming from her patient.

"Sachiko."

A/N: I'm scared of ghost and I think that's enough for a hint :)

--Arvendell—

15 September 2008