The Dark Side of Life

By: LaLunegirl

Chapter 1

November 26, 2003

Revised: January 1, 2008

Serena Ashfel had brains and beauty…a rare combination, but she was blissfully ignorant of the beauty she possessed, her brains though, came into play at school everyday so there was no doubt of her brilliant mind. She was a medical student at the very popular and acclaimed H.Q.P.D Carlson a medical school located in the heart of Tokyo. In her last year she was studying like mad day and night working towards becoming valedictorian. In less than three months she would have almost everything she dreamed of when she was a little girl. Almost…She was still waiting for 'him' to come into her life. Her one true love…

"All right…Ms Ashfel?" Serena's head shot up at the sound of her last name. The only person in the whole lecture hall other than herself was the professor, and he had an amused expression on his face. "Do you always sleep during my lectures?" He asked with a slight chuckle.

"Oh my g-! I-I'm so sorry sir. It's just that I was up all night an-"

"Don't worry about it Serena. It happens to the best of us." The professor said with a chuckle. "Oh and your friend Ms. Kasuko is waiting for you outside." He said referring to Molly Kasuko, Serena's childhood friend. Still chuckling to himself, he left the room.

Serena got up quickly and tried to rid her dress of the wrinkles. A quick hand through her messy blond hair and gathering her books she rushed out of the class into the hall. She found Molly talking to Melvin Goyuro just outside the doors. Knowing how much Molly liked him, Serena said "Hey guys! Mol, listen. I have something I have to do so why don't you get Melvin to walk you home today?" And without giving them a chance to answer she raced down the hallway. She stopped by at her locker as the thee last bells for the day echoed throughout the nearly empty hallways signalling that they were about to lock the doors. She twisted and turned the lock on her locker: 1-31-45 and with a pop it fell open. She quickly jerked opened the locker just as an arm snaked around her waist. She jumped around and gave whatever it was a punch on the nose.

"Hi Ba-OWW! Crap! It's just me!" Serena snickered at the fallen figure in front of her, as he cried out in pain.

"I know it was you Jacob" She returned her attention to her locker, grabbing her books and replacing others she shut her locker. She then turned to the guy still lying on the ground. She stepped on his 'ahem' and as he let out a howl of pain she said "Don't touch me again!" And without another glance backwards she walked out.

Later that night, while Molly stopped by home to shower and change to go out, the storm that the news had been broadcasting came early and became increasingly threatening, knocking the power and phone lines out. At one point the storm became so out of hand that Serena got the impression of someone's anger fuelling the oddly fierce storm, but shook off that notion with a hesitant laugh. "Go figure…the weather reporters finally got something right" Muttered an agitated Molly as she prowled through the house not used to being home that early. Hours later, although the storm had passed a while ago, the lights and phone were still out. In the darkness of the house, alit with candles, Serena heard a faint knocking at her door. Getting up off of the love seat she went over to her large oak door. Looking though the peephole all she could see was a dark figure. It seemed to be in pain. A split second of wondering if it was safe to check up on the figure, she quickly opened the door to let the figure in. She gasped as in stumbled a crouching blood covered man. He stumbled and she quickly grabbed a hold of his jacket. "MOLLLLYYYY!" She screamed for her best friend.

"What is it Ser-Oh MY GOD! WHO IS THAT? WHAT HAPPENED?" Molly shrieked as she went over to Serena to help keep the man from falling by grabbing his other arm under the armpit.

"Help me" He whispered so quietly that they barely noticed he had spoken.

"What are we going to do?" Serena cried as he slipped out of her grasp.

"Why are you asking me? You're the doctor!" Molly cried out struggling with the man's arm. "Man this guy's heavy!" She said as he fell to the carpet with a thud. At times like this Serena cursed her stupidity. She just had to buy a house in the most secluded part of Tokyo!

"Go grab me my medical bag and the first aid kit…" She went on listing things for Molly to go fetch. While Molly ran back and forth, Serena put on gloves and began peeling off his clothes. She took a piece of thin cloth and tied his hair back so she could clean and bandage the huge gash on his left temple. It was very deep and she had to be careful because there were pieces of glass lodged in it. She had just finished taking out a particularly large piece of glass from the cut with a pair of tweezers, when she heard a gasp from behind. Molly stood behind her, her eyes transfixed on the gash, face pale as a ghost. Remembering that Molly could not stand the sight of wounds, she turned to her. "Hey Molly? Why don't you spend the night with Clarissa?" She said referring to their only neighbour, who lived about five miles up the hill to their left. "Take my car all right?" She said turning back from Molly.

"But you might-"

"Go Molly. I'll be all right." When Molly still hesitated Serena all but barked "I can't take care of you fainting at the sight of blood on top of this man Mol!" Molly shakily nodded as she rushed out of the room to gather her stuff. Then reluctantly she paused at the front door to throw a questioning look at Serena again. But when Serena glared at her she yelped and rushed out, locking the door on her way.

When the closed, the air in the room seemed to change. It was getting unusually hard for Serena to breath, and her heart began beating erratically. Trying to ignore her own clammy hands and crazy heart, she noticed that the man was beginning to come around. So she moved him to the guest room. Grabbing his arms she pulled him along praying that he would not regain consciousness while she tugged but when he had been settled into the soft plush queen sized bed that was always ready for guests.

Serena had managed to get him under the covers and was finishing washing the blood off his face when his eyes finally opened and alertness shone in them, as well as wariness.

"What's your name?" She asked softly sitting by his head on the bed wiping at the blood stains on his cheek.

"D-Darien." He whispered.

"Darien." Serena muttered softly to herself imbedding the name to memory before addressing the man again. "Well you're in pretty bad shape. I'm afraid you won't be able to leave this bed until I can get a certified doctor around to see you." She smiled at the man to show that she was no danger to him and some of the wariness left and exhaustion took its place. "You should rest" She added softly and as she turned to leave the room his hand shot out to grab her arm.

"Thank you Serena." He muttered before his eyelids fell throwing him into another fitful sleep, his hand falling limply back onto his chest, strength all gone. She shot him a questioning look. How the heck did he know my name? Before shutting the door to go to bed herself.

THUD! Serena shot up in bed. What was that? Quickly but quietly she slid out of bed, grabbed an old baseball bat from under her bed and sneaked out of the room as silently as possible. The door of the guest room was open and a dark figure crouched at the doorframe.

"D-D-Darien?" She called out in a shaky whisper. The head went up slowly and she could see that it was, indeed, Darien.

"D-Did I wake you up?" He asked softly his words breaking with the effort he had just exerted. Then he tried to get up but is shaky legs wouldn't let him. Serena rushed over to help him, bat forgotten on the floor in front of her door.

"What happened?" She demanded as she got him onto his feet.

"I-I got thir-er-sty. Guess I'm still too w-weak. Sorry about waking you u-up." He croaked out.

"Darien, I'm going to help you back into bed and this time I expect you to stay there! I'll get you the water" She helped him back to bed and went to the kitchen to get a pitcher of water and a glass; she also grabbed a magazine for him to read from the dining table. She went back into the room and put them on the night table beside his bed.

"I'm sorry Serena." He said softly. "I'm such a bother."

"Don't think about it right now. Just focus on getting better. Now I'll leave the doors open, so if you need anything just call for me" She smiled slightly at him as her eyes lingered on his features. He was really handsome now that all the blood was gone. "G-night Darien" She said softly as she exited. She was asleep before she hit the pillows.

NEXT MORNING

"Mol? You home?" Serena called into the lit hallway. The lights had been fixed sometime that night and Serena had forgotten to turn them off when the power had been cut. When there was no answer she slipped into Molly's room at the other end of the hall. Yup. The bed was made, the room tidy. Nope she had not come home yet. Slowly Serena slipped out of the room and looked in the room Darien was in. He was sleeping like a baby. But the curtains in the room were drawn. Not even a pin prick of light showed. That's weird. The curtains were open last night. She shrugged and went over to him to check his bruises and was amazed to see that where there had been deep life threatening wounds there were angry pink scabs. Not touching him, so he would not wake she took the comforters and covered his sweat drenched body. Then she opened the curtains to let some light in.

"SHUT THE DAMN CURTAINS!!!!" Serena jumped and complied trying to steady her fast beating heart.

"Darien?" After the curtains were closed safely she whirled around and stared in shock at the man. Darien had jumped into the far corner of the room, far from the windows and where she stood now, gasping for air. "What's wrong?" She asked rushing forward to help him back into bed.

"No-nothing…the light…just…hurt my eyes…" He gasped out letting her lead him into the bed once again.

"I'm so sorry Darien!" She said as she wiped the sweat from his forehead. "Lay down. I'll get us some breakfast" She said softly as she unsuccessfully tried to calm her pounding heart again. She quickly scampered from the room. In the kitchen she paused and leaned against the fridge and waited for her heart to come down to earth again as she took deep steadying breaths. Finally when she felt calm enough that her feet weren't going to give out she turned to the stove. Hmmm….I wonder what I should make? CHICKEN SOUP she concluded. She wandered the kitchen preparing the soup. Pots and pans clattered together as she tried to fix the soup as quickly as possible. An hour later two pots rested on the stove. One of steaming soup and the other a pot of boiling water for tea. Coffee would do nothing for her frayed nerves. Grabbing two bowls of steaming soup, an extra pot of the left over soup, two cups of tea and a jug of water she put them on her rolling tray and wheeled it into the guest room cautiously. Darien was sitting up in bed watching the small TV set in the corner of the room.

"This is Sheila Tomerusa signing off." The lady on the T.V. was saying.

"Soups on" She (Serena) said cheerfully as she set Darien's food and drink on the night stand next to him and sat down next to him. "I've called Dr. Mort to come check you over properly. Just to be on the safe side." She said as she handed him a bowl. All Darien did was nod as he devoured the food. "By the way…I wanted to ask you…How did you know my name?"

"Hm? Uh…I don't have a clue. I just knew." Darien said with a shrug and with that went back to his soup. Serena refilled his bowl three times before he was full. A comfortable silence filled the air as they devoured their meals.

DING DONG!!!

The front doorbell rang.

"Dr. Mort…Thanks for coming so quickly" Serena smiled as she lead the Doctor to Darien. After checking Darien over Dr. Mort spoke with Serena outside. "He has lost an unusual amount of blood but he is recovering quickly. You have a bright future ahead of you my dear. You did fine." He smiled and patted Serena on the back. "I have to get going now…I have a class to conduct!" He said as Serena walked him out the door, "Oh as to the 'disappearing' marks I would say that you just imagined them that big…the mind is a odd thing…that it is. With all that went on last night, the blood probably seemed unconceivable…that is…that it could come from such small cuts. So your mind filled in the blanks…per say. Don't worry to much about it my dear." Serena nodded solemnly and Dr. mort patted her cheek fondly before turning to go.

"See you in lecture hall Professor!" Serena called as he left. She waited until he was in the car before going to check on Darien again. He was fast asleep. She went to put the blanket on him…but what she saw made her scream. Dr. Mort heard it and raced back in.

"Serena? I though I heard – Oh my good lord! What happened?" He asked in shock.

The end of Chapter 1

AN: I hope it's better written this time…

Ja Ne!