Shizuka couldn't breathe... She watched Sora, Hikari and Koi approach her as if she was in slow motion. She gulped when Sora reached out and grabbed her shoulder.
He laughed. "Be calm. It won't hurt that bad."
Suddenly, he swept her off her feet before she found herself sitting on the ground in his lap. She kind of blushed at the way his arms were wrapped around her, holding her tightly to his chest. A little too tightly.
Hikari and Koi kneeled in front of her. She looked at them with waiting eyes until they both smiled encouragingly.
She watched as Koi pulled a knife out of a sheath on her ankle, then sliced open her hand before giving the dagger to Hikari.
"We promise..." Koi looked at her, her eyes concerned, before holding out her bleeding hand.
"We'll be here when you wake up." Hikari continued.
"And we will always make sure your safe." Sora whispered in her ear.
Her lips parted at the sight of the blood, automatically recoiling into his chest. Koi brought her hand together with Hikari's as the combined blood pooled around thier palms. She saw them put thier hands to Sora's mouth as he sort of drinked it in.
She watched, facinated.
And then those green eyes shifted to hers. His bloody lips seemed to get closer and closer to her own before she just couldn't move. His arms held her in place as his lips pressed against her open mouth.
At first, she felt a little fluttery...Maybe it was just because he was him. And then, the sickly sweet taste of blood caught onto her taste buds and she felt like vomiting.
But Sora's lips didn't part from hers as she was forced to swallow the blood down.
When his lips pulled away from her, she felt him lick a little of the blood off her chin before leaning back. Her head fell back onto his shoulder, her body seeming a bit numb.
And then the numbness went away completely. She couldn't breathe, her lungs were being crushed. Her blood turned to rock in her veins, scratching at her skin. She writhing in Sora's arms as her empty eyes stared at the treetops. Her chest was being crushed and her brain seemed too rushed to be able to comprehend it.
Then she felt her eyes go black, as if she was blind. And then vision came into them, and she was suddenly very tired...very tired...
She opened her eyes in a nice, grassy meadow. She didn't know how she got there, who she was. She only knew the quiet that engulfed her felt like bliss...
She sat up, her naked body sweating from the sun pounding on her skin. Her hair was so long. It was long and brown and she noticed that it seemed to get in the way as she moved.
She stood, whirling around in the beautiful meadow, only because it felt so good. She heard a stream nearby, and she ran towards it. She laughed and laughed as she splashed in the water, playing with the fish.
"Hello?"
The voice startled her. Survival insinct kicked in and she ducked down behind a tree.
"We see you over there!" Another, more sing-song voice called to her. "We won't hurt you!"
She peeked around the rock, saw the two pretty girls standing in the middle of the meadow. They were pretty, but seemed to be completely different. One had blond hair, one had black. Yet, thier cool blue eyes were distinctive. They must be related...
"Hello!" The one with black hair smiled and waved warmly at her. "I'm Hikari Mizumi. This is my twin sister Koi!"
"Hello!" Koi waved.
"What's your name?" Hikari asked.
She swallowed hard. What was her name? She remembered something like a name. It was a word, the only one she was completely sure of...She didn't remember much. Why was that?
"Do you not have a name?" Koi questioned.
"Shi...Shizu...Shizuka." She dove back behind the tree when Koi tried to take a step forward.
"Wait, Koi." Hikari stopped her. "We won't hurt you, Shizuka-san. We promise. We have a little cabin down in the woods. Would you like to eat?"
Eat...
Her throat burned at the simple word. Why? Why was she so thirsty all of the sudden? She collapsed by the tree in plain view of the twins, scratching at her throat, trying to make the burn go away.
"What..." Koi muttered as Hikari ran to her.
Hikari touched Shizuka's arm and the naked girls head whipped back to stare at her with blood-red eyes.
"Oh..." Hikari gulped. "Koi run!"
"No-"
But it was too late. Shizuka had caught Koi by the hair, jerking them both back. The thirst took over she she buried her fangs in Hikari's neck as Koi kicked and screamed beside her.
She almost drained both of them in her frenzy.
Shizuka fell back as the girls twitched in pain on the ground. Blood stained her entire body. She didn't know what happened...
"No..." She cried. "No!"
The red faded from her eyes and they slowly fell back to the hazel they had been before. She clutched Koi and Hikari in her arms as she cried and cried. And then she had an idea.
She had taken thier blood, why didn't she just give them some of her blood? Maybe they would live...
She laid them on the ground, still twitching at the blood loss, before biting her wrists. She put one wrist in Hikari's mouth and the other in Koi's. She slowly felt a little drained, but she dealed.
When she pulled back, grasping her wrists, she waited...
And then the two twins began to writhe on the grass. Thier eyes were wide as they screamed in unison. They thrust there arms this way and that, trying to reach for the sky...or for something.
Shizuka screamed with them as tears poured down her face. What had she done?
She buried her bloody face in her bloody hands, crying as she curled into the fetal position and the screaming slowly stopped.
She just kept on crying as she knew that they were probably dead.
Then someone touched her shoulder. She jerked away and then looked up, seeing Hikari and Koi's faces looking down at her.
She gasped and got on her knees.
"Please forgive me." She begged. "Please don't kill me! I'm so sorry! Please forgive me! Please forgive me!"
"Shizuka!" Hikari wrapped her arms around her as Shizuka begged and pleaded for forgiveness. "You are so kind! You saved us!"
"But..." Shizuka looked at them with wide eyes. "I almost killed you...I...lost control. I can't lose control..."
"In time, you will learn." Koi held out a hand to Shizuka. "Now, let's get you clothed. You can come back to our cabin for a while, Shizuka...-sama."
Shizuka stared at Koi's hand. "You aren't angry?"
"No, of course not." Hikari shook her head. "We care about you, and we want you to be safe. We're your friends, Shizuka-sama."
"Frie..nds?" Shizuka whispered.
She looked up at the two of them and smiled. "Can you forgive me? For losing control?"
"As long as you promise, that you'll never let yourself go that far again." Hikari knealed down beside her. "We know you have a kind heart, and we are here to help you find it."
"Thank you." Shizuka reached for Koi's hand. "So much."
"No, Shizuka-sama, thank you." Hikari stood with her and together, they all walked back to the cabin....
Shizuka-sama...
Shizuka-sama...
You have to wake up now...
Shizuka-sama...
Shizuka's eyes opened widely as she seemed to shoot forward. But there were two strong arms holding her back. She relaxed into Sora's chest as she suddenly realized the dream had ended.
She looked up at Hikari and Koi and felt tears in her eyes.
"I...I'm so sorry..." She cried as her head dropped forward.
Sora gathered her in his arms, now holding her gently as he positioned her to be able to cry on his shoulder.
"What did you see?" He asked her.
"Hikari and Koi..." She cried. "I...I took all thier blood...and they almost died..."
Hikari laughed brightly. "Oh, that was forever ago. Way back when we were all living in Hanamaki. We found you before you woke up and were afraid to wake you. Koi had watched you in your sleep. She said you always spoke about being thirsty for blood, so I brought you some lambs blood. After I gave it to you, it only took you an hour or two to wake up. We came back and you were dancing around. Then you were still thirsty...So, you drank from us. But then you felt bad so you made us Chevalliers! It was the greatest gift of all, to be able to spend eternity with such a good friend as you, Shizuka-sama!"
This made Shizuka cry more.
"I...I hurt you...and you're...thanking me?" She sobbed. "No..."
Sora leaned his head against hers. "At least your remembering."
Secretly...he was dreading when she learned about how he became her Chevallier.
"Shizuka-sama, the past is the past." He told her, lifting her chin with his spare hand and smiling at her. "You're here now, with a clean slate. We're here now, happy to be here for you. Now, we should go back to your house and get whatever you needed to get."
"Right." She nodded, wiping her cheeks.
She pushed herself to her feet, smiling at Hikari and Koi when they helped her. They all walked down the path she had come from.
Hikari and Koi were bright, smiling and nearly skipping beside her. She felt the urge to smile, as she reached out her hands and grabbed thiers.
Behind them, Sora sighed. He enjoyed watching them like this. It was like the old days, when they'd be wandering everywhere in the way that they did. He would lag behind just to watch them as they skipped ahead. The way Shizuka seemed to happy when Hikari and Koi's brightness was pouring over her. It made him happy when Shizuka was happy. More than it should...
Shizuka stopped when they broke out of the woods, taking in the sight of her old house one last time. Her old life...
She would come back one day, make sure they were safe. But...she could never be with them again, as thier daughter, and Akai's sister. She wasn't that Shizuka anymore.
She felt Hikari and Koi tug on her hand and Sora push at her back. She laughed quietly at the looks on the twins faces.
"I'm coming!" She whispered.
As they approached the medium sized house, she saw the light in her parents room flash off as the night light in Akai's room shown slightly. Her hands tightened on the twins when her eyes found the window to her own room.
She pointed up there and felt Sora grab her from behind. She was swept into his arms before he launched off the ground and to her second story window. He seemed to open it with ease before they both slipped in. He placed her carefully on the floor. She smiled over her shoulder at him as he sat on the window seal.
"We'll be right outside." He whispered, and then he was gone, the curtains reaching to follow him.
She looked back at her room....for the last time.