CHAPTER 2
There it stood, all alone, high on the hill beyond the still void: the soldiers' savior standing in their shadows, alerting them, stirring them, making them restless. Monstrous wings adorned the distance, what color they were, I could not tell; the sky was stripped of its stars, the moon of her light, by the being that now held it in its hands. It beckoned me and called my name with so much yearning it hurt. I tried futilely to reach it, but the anxious, frenzied soldiers, several times my height, held me back in an effort to block my view of the greater light arising. It grew too high for them to hide. The soldiers unwillingly went back to their places and stood motionless, but not me - I had to help the creature in pain. Just as I got around the monstrous men, I found that hill to be empty, and that light to be painfully blinding; my heart sped up in panic...
"Whoa," I said out loud and sat straight up. Due to my speed in waking, my surroundings spun for a few seconds with a blue-ish hue that faded away not long afterwards. The sudden return to reality erased any potential of dream-recall I may have had. What was it that made me so nervous and panicked? As I propped myself on my arms to catch my breath, I ran through my memories of the day before, and thought them to be the dreams responsible for scaring me awake.
Wait, it wasn't a dream. All that weird stuff really happened?
I took a moment to reflect on the events of the previous day. Instinctively, I had to ask myself if yesterday was real. Did I actually draw something that I could deem perfect? Did that girl actually know my name? Did I actually wish to a star like an idiot? Why did I do that? One thing could prove it all. I scurried over to the sketchbook on my white bookshelf, bright and aglow with the orange-colored rays that streamed in through the spotless window.
The drawing - Dark - was still there.
Before I could admire the image, I noticed the shade of the sunlight in my room and leaned to the side to view my clock. It was even earlier than the previous morning, but I didn't feel tired. Whatever force governed my waking, why did it have to torture me and demand that I fill more daylight hours with searching for things to do? I liked waking up late to avoid exactly that! I sighed in disappointment. Yesterday, house-cleaning dominated my hours, but unless I wanted to earn a reputation as an obsessive-compulsive clean-freak, I vowed to save it for a weekly or as-needed activity, so what would I do today?
Out of nowhere, a cool breeze blew some pages of my sketchbook to the side.
Turning to face the source of the air, I looked at the sight, confused. I could've sworn that I left my window to within two inches of being completely shut, but now, it was placed nearly half-open: had my memory failed me? The cool morning air had loosened the frame up a bit, so it moved easier (though still not without some resistance and loud creaks) when I proceeded to open it completely. What I did remember was the odd scene I saw the previous night, so I poked my head out the window in the hopes that I would find it again. The little, rusty cat had vanished, and the swarm of frantic birds was long gone.
I tugged the window back down with both hands, puzzled as to how it opened during the night. I closed my eyes and focused intently on the images in my memory, positive that I didn't leave it open. Someone else must've done it, but the list of possible, "friendly" suspects was virtually empty, unless...this was a different case of someone trying to get in. The thought of a thief breaking in didn't frighten me for obvious reasons, but...Pff. Dark? Naww. He's not going to arrive in real life anytime soon, so I might as well possess a healthy fear of opened bedroom windows.
After verifying that the window was shut for my own sake, I took a glance outside while running through the possibilities again. When I did, I noticed something that supported my theory: fingerprints, two on the outside, which weren't there last night. I held up my fingers in front of the glass, careful not to touch it, to compare their size. They were twice as big as mine and of the same hand. Why did they only amount to two? Of all the ways to open a window, none requires merely two prints to be left behind, and this window was stuck hard enough in its frame to cancel the option of opening it with one hand. Their size led to the inevitable assumption of the uninvited guest being male, but there was no reason to deny his other hand some use? No wonder he didn't open it all the way.
I laughed at the idea of the person struggling to open the creaky, sticky window with one hand. Soon enough, I was laughing at myself for analyzing fingerprints. Too much anime, Alyssa, too much anime.
I grabbed the Windex bottle and a paper towel to wipe the window back down to its previous faultlessness, so that I could forget about it easier. I had no way of finding whoever owned those prints, and the only thing I could do about it would be to keep an eye out if it ever happened again. However, I couldn't bring myself to be truly concerned about this, because I couldn't get my mind off of Dark with all the oddities happening lately. It calmed me to pretend that the thief was him, despite what I knew, and however pathetic the other part of me thought it was - because no one else would try to break in to my room, right? That couldn't possibly happen to me.
I had to clear my mind and think rationally. One thing suddenly ambushed my thoughts: was I on the road to what she had referred to - could Lena have been my nighttime visitor?
Lena.
It was too early to expect anyone to be on a computer, so I passed the time showering, cooking up some things, and organizing everything until the afternoon came around. When at last I noticed that it did, I dashed through the kitchen, turned the corner and flew down the stairs to the computer with the intent of waiting as long as it would take for her. I found some other internet acquaintances to IM while I waited and pondered explanations. Several minutes went by of me masking these tangled thoughts behind nonchalant instant messages. Throughout all that time, I tapped my fingers against the computer desk with impatience. Lena seemed like the right person to ask, and I wanted to see her log in. Soon.
The very second that those last words ran through my mind, she logged in.
Coincidence, I told myself, shaking it off. I could only take so much weirdness at a time.
"Hello?" I greeted her.
"Did you have a good sleep?" she responded.
"Hey, I've been meaning to ask you something about that," I typed. I waited for her to respond and give me her attention before asking if she knew about last night.
"Listen - I'm kinda busy. Remember what I said. Get off the computer and go upstairs." She logged off seconds after sending the message.
She must be someone who has been to my house before - how else could she know that my computer is in the basement? Maybe she was the huge-fingered guest that stopped by my room? Could this she actually be a 'he'?
It didn't make any sense to me. Nothing these past two days did, aside from the fact that my quest for "odd" and "interesting" was coming along nicely.
Should I actually do what she said to? What is going upstairs going to do to me? If she is a friend of mine, how am I going to tell her that I mistook her for a thief?
I shut down the computer and, after a few minutes of more thought, went cautiously up the stairs to the living room, which contained a large landscape window overlooking the front walk. I sat there gazing out of it, waiting eagerly for a car, related vehicle, or pedestrian to come by. One car was directed toward my house – I watched it closely, eyes focused like a hawk, preparing myself for anything – until it drove right past. Another car did the same, and yet another drove by into the distance.
It's been fifteen minutes. What are you thinking, Alyssa? Nothing's going to happen!
I shook my head and turned around with my back to the window.
Some person you probably know just told you to go upstairs. Even if you didn't know her, so what? It could've been a lucky guess. But the name certainly wasn't a lucky guess…
I got up and walked away to find a book from my room, but I still couldn't get Lena out of my mind, so I brought it into the living room to read in the case that her words held meaning. Should any events take place, I had quick access to a door.
Sitting in an organized, stylish, window-filled and sunny living room with the house completely spotless, reading a good book in the blissful quiet…That was my definition of a peaceful summer vacation.
THUD THUD THUD.
My whole body jumped a foot off the couch when a rough knock on the front door disturbed my created calm. I didn't hear the loud footsteps that the mailman typically made. Maybe I should've allowed myself full view of that front walk? I was walking over to the door, heart pounding, still shaking from the surprise, when I heard a gentle knock on the side door. My imagination took strange turns, trying to prepare my mind for several of the worst scenarios in the few seconds I had before turning the handle. The only motivation I had for opening the door after meeting this Lena entity was that after I found out who the people were, I'd probably realize that it was just a big joke I fell for. Then it would all be over. Done. My worries would end, and I would go back to my fate of having "mundane" stamped on my forehead, but this time right next to "gullible".
I gingerly inched nearer to the front door first, seeing as I was closer to it, but because it had no peephole, I couldn't look through the door and give the mayhem a quick end – I couldn't answer my own questions without revealing myself and standing face to face with a potential hysterically-laughing insomnia catalyst.
I stifled my breath and placed a hand on the doorknob. In this silence, the person, irritated, knocked harder on the door.
"I - I'm coming," I said, just loud enough for the person to hear.
"Then hurry up already!" a male voice responded.
I placed my other hand on top of the one that was already there, feeling nervous. I'd never heard this voice before. Go! I urged myself, and yanked the door open.
Nope. I'd never seen him before in my life.
Standing there was a guy who looked slightly older than I was, of a tall, athletic build. His overall expression didn't look too happy (probably due to me taking my sweet old time), but I didn't notice that until later; what caught my attention first was his light orange hair and liquid-fire eyes. He eyed me up a little and studied my nervous stance, and upon judging my relatively slight size and feminine appearance, his expression softened. Before I could panic about the fact that he was a complete stranger to me (and that I was rudely staring at this unusual stranger), he spoke:
"You're the girl? Alyssa?"
He spoke in an uncaring, uninterested, and emotionless manner, but there was no need for emotion in his voice. His eyes carried it all. They were serious, ever distant, a freezing blaze of deep orange…almost inhuman, they were so captivating. I blinked once and waited for him to say more, until I came to my senses and recalled that he just asked me a question.
"Oh, umm, yeah, I'm Alyssa all right, um, who might you b-"
"Move. I'm coming in." The guy elbowed me harshly out of the way, trudged through the door and took off his shoes and backpack.
He just marched right in and he's too big for me to shove back out! I've never exactly dealt with this type of person before! What do I do? Oh, and the other door...!
I scurried over to the side door on the other side of the house, with the orange-haired one following me curiously, and opened it without hesitation. I didn't have any expectations at that point. If someone with orange hair and eyes could show up and barge in, anything went.
When the door flew open, I gave a silent gasp.
Another male – closer to my age and height, with ice-blue hair and matching eyes that were even colder than the other's – dodged out of the way of the outward-turning door and now stood in front of me. He had this subtle smile on his face, with the sort of distant emotion equally as captivating as the other one's eyes. I couldn't help my staring at this one, either. There was something about his looks, the way he stood, even the way he pushed his glasses back on after the door knocked them off, that bound me where I stood. I twisted my head to examine the orange-haired one's features again, and then looked back – I knew no men with such desirable proportions as these two. Their un-earthly stature was an exciting news shock to my brain that wouldn't be easy to get over. How many minutes had passed since I answered the door, anyway?
Even though their visages signaled that they couldn't be from this planet, they looked oddly familiar. I had to think, I had to think… My brain couldn't compute anything at that moment.
But wait. In the midst of my panic, how could I forget the similarities these people had with…
"Hello, miss," the blue-haired one's soft, musical voice floated through the doorway. He was kind enough to wait until I was ready for this blow - he knew who he was, and he knew who I was.
His voice didn't take long to reach me, but it took a while for my brain to process it, as it did with all the rest of their features. I was so focused on trying to remember him, on the fact that I should know him. I did. His voice, it finally played through my head, saying things other than the greeting he just spoke. Orange-hair's voice, too. They sounded more than just "familiar." I couldn't cancel out the possibility anymore.
I was looking at Kyo Sohma and Satoshi Hikari.
I lost all sense of myself. Suddenly it was just emptiness, blackness, just me talking to myself in my own mind.
They could not be people in costumes and wigs and contact lenses, because their proportions were different: their eyes were obviously larger, their necks smaller, their shoulders squarer, and their jaws more defined than possible for humans; not to mention their hair defied almost every law that human hair followed; their voices sounded as if they got a vocal-cord transplant from the actual voice actors themselves; their movement patterns, reactions, and personalities were spot-on; cosplayers didn't even come close to this breed. They were perfect. They were real. This was so weird.
Original works of art became human beings...Frames on a television became flesh-and-blood people...Ink and pixels became my own kind, and they were just standing in front of me. Where did they go? Where was I?
My mind was bombarded with a whole new variety of questions. If they came to be, why didn't Dark? Dark...It was possible now, with this universal law that changed so conveniently in my favor.
Slowly but surely, I was shown a glimpse of that blinding light again. This part, at least, made sense to me: the shock was too much, and I passed out. While my eyes adjusted to the light that seeped through my closed eyelids, I was equipped with conscious logical reasoning again. How long had I been out? I didn't want to keep them waiting! I had so much to ask them! Kyo and Satoshi!
When my eyes finally opened and I came to, I expected my head to be throbbing from hitting something. I was, however, lying on a couch in the living room, with both of them sitting on the carpeting in front of me.
There weren't any words for this.
Kyo and Satoshi did not notice my awakening, and continued in conversation. I listened in awe to their voices as they sought out each other's business with me. By the sound of it, they weren't teamed together, and came individually.
"Kyo, settle it for a minute. Alyssa just woke up."
My eyes opened fully to the sight of Satoshi leaning over me with concern. "Go get her a glass of water and a damp cloth, please."
Kyo, who remained seated near my head, shouted in protest. "Why the hell do I have to? If you know so much about what to do, why don't you do it, huh?"
Satoshi looked meaningfully from his face to mine and back. Apparently, my expression conveyed well the stunned state I was in, and it scared Kyo into acting as fast as he could.
While Kyo was in the kitchen, Satoshi relaxed and gave me that small grin again. "Can you move? Speak?"
As I sat up, I nodded my head and smiled widely. Without so much as taking my eyes off of him for a split second, I replied, "I can. My thoughts are still jumbled up, and...What happened?"
Satoshi paused and waited for Kyo, who was on his return trip with the items requested. "Drink," Kyo commanded, and handed me the cloth with a cold glare. "It's about time you woke up! We waited for half an hour!"
Satoshi effortlessly returned that same glare to him, taking him by surprise. "What did she say?"
After some hesitation, Kyo heaved a huge sigh of defeat. "How are you…feeling…?" he asked as calmly as he could.
I stared at him again, disregarding his unkind words. His face…he was blushing in embarrassment for asking such a question, but not as humans did. Little pink lines appeared on his face, and my staring furthered their numbers. This was most definitely the ultimate proof of what many would have trouble believing.
I took Kyo's repeated agitated expression as a cue that I missed something again.
"Oh, uh, I'm fine now, thank you." When I was finished with the glass, I returned it to him. "I'm still blown away, though. You guys are...real. I can't get over it."
Kyo had already walked off to the kitchen again, so my eyes traveled to Satoshi, who had sat down near my feet.
"May I?" I asked with obvious longing.
"Go right ahead," he gave me an understanding nod. I could definitely get used to the presence of a genius who could understand where my train of thought was going before it even left the station.
With a careful hand, I reached over slowly to touch his hair; it was soft, and it was certainly real. "You're human," I mumbled breathlessly.
"Yes, in fact, I am."
I quickly put my hand at my side and was silent until Kyo returned to being seated on the floor. "Please, please begin the explanations!"
"It's complicated how and why we're here," Satoshi looked out into the distance, as if trying to remember everything.
"I've got all day!" I said a little too loudly, wishing he could've told the story as fast as he could, just so I could listen to his wonderfully soothing voice with the excuse of "I didn't hear what you said, could you repeat that?"
"We just came to life, somehow," he replied with a shrug.
"THAT is complicated to you?" Kyo pointed a finger at him.
"Well hey, it's true. You don't know either," Satoshi stated with confidence.
"I really want to! She didn't tell us anything!" he said, looking at his hands with a terrible confusion. He turned around to face away from us. "I guess that does make it complicated."
I paused before speaking. Twice now, another female was mentioned. I questioned, "Who is this...this 'she'?"
Kyo didn't move an inch, so Satoshi filled in the answer for him. "Last night, around midnight, we materialized separately a few blocks away from here, and a feminine voice without source gave us a few instructions."
"A disembodied voice?"
"Correct."
Another box to check on the list of "weird". "Did she give a name?"
"No, she only told us yours - at least, she only told me yours." He finished and gestured toward Kyo. "Did she tell you anything interesting?"
"Me?" Kyo turned his head to the side. "No, she just told me that she was responsible for me, and that I needed to find Alyssa or else I wouldn't be able to stay in this form. Then she –"
His face showed signs of irritation and anger, and he turned his head back away from us to stew in his thoughts in silence. I couldn't ask them anything else about the female entity, because they knew nothing else about her. She didn't have a body, and she knew about me? As well as being so myself, I could see the others lost in confusion, seeking any answers that they could.
"Alyssa, what was it you said about Dark?" Satoshi wondered. "While you were out, you kept mumbling his name."
I turned red. "I think your creator heard me wrong." I took on a sarcastic tone. "Honestly, last night, I uhh...I wished to a star. Yup. I wished that Dark would come to life, but you two are here instead, because everyone knows how close 'Satoshi' and 'Kyo' sound to 'Dark', right?"
"Hmm..." He was completely silent as he mused over these things.
"Well, anyway," I said, realizing that nothing more could be shared on the matter, "I'm sorry for collapsing on you like that. Might as well re-wind and start off on the right foot, right?"
Their eyes softened and their postures relaxed further as I said this. They must've been expecting me to be of an arrogant sort. Kyo spun around dutifully when he sensed a sharp command from Satoshi around the corner.
"It's so wonderful to meet you here, Kyo, in person!" My thoughts jumped when I said those last words and extended my hand. He stood up to meet me where I stood.
Returned to a better mood, he said, "You too." His handshake was strong, firm, and less tense than I thought it would be. Really, it was immensely welcoming.
I shook Satoshi's hand; he followed this up with a slight nod of his head. With his light, delicate movements, he was definitely himself. "Nice to meet you too, Alyssa."
Despite all that conversation with them, I wasn't myself yet. The excitement and shock would never completely wear off as long as they were here, though fainting did take off the edge. With that in mind, I asked where I landed, because I wasn't experiencing any pain.
"I caught you," Kyo whined. "Being a martial arts student, I've got good reflexes. But you really owe me. You almost had me transforming! It would've been better off just leaving you to fall!"
Somehow, smoke made its way out of Kyo's ears and danced along the ceiling.
"Transforming?" Satoshi thought aloud. "Hm." He committed that slip of Kyo's tongue to memory.
"Uh-…just forget it," he replied, calming himself down again.
"Thank you for that though, because a bump on the head wouldn't be too good for a meeting like this," I said lightheartedly.
Kyo stared at me for a minute, not expecting yet another "thank you". He gave the smallest (and I mean smallest) of smiles, and a couple pink lines drew themselves across his face again.
"Kyo, Satoshi, set your belongings anywhere you'd like. I need to show you two around!" I got up and motioned for them to follow me. The house only consisted of a ground-level floor and a basement, but it had tons of windows and was still roomy enough to hold a decent sized group. After passing by all of the other rooms, I stopped at mine.
"This is my bedroom," I pointed into the small, brightly colored room. They both stepped inside to look around.
"Why is it that color?" began Kyo. "Now that I think of it, it harmonizes with Satoshi's hair perfectly!" He gave him an evil glance and prepared a fist for a noogie.
"Oh, that was a big word. Are you sure you know what 'harmonizing' means?" Satoshi said to the side, invoking Kyo's anger.
"What was that, four-eyes?"
"It's my favorite color," I informed them, before they could argue any further. "Light green."
"It's sickening! Isn't a little too…bright?" Kyo asked me, puzzled by my strange interest.
"It may be bright, but I prefer it that way. In the dark, like anything, you wouldn't be able to tell."
As I said "dark", I achingly began to think about him, pained that his existence was actually possible now. Satoshi's look brought me out of my own mind, because he looked like he was sharing in my emotions - he looked pained, too. That expression...What was he thinking of? Or rather...looking at?
I traced his eyes and found them transfixed on the window. The window…it was starting to make sense now.
"Satoshi?" I asked eagerly, so excited that I couldn't hold myself back.
"What?" he reacted, jerking his head from the window to me.
"Do you…uhh…um…is he…in you still? Krad, I mean?"
"Krad? Really? Alyssa, why do you want to know if that demon still exists?"
Because he's a magical being. Because I saw last night that he really could fly. Because, in some ways, he's similar to Dark.
I gave him a puppy-dog face, and it seemed he couldn't refuse. "Krad…" he said skeptically, not wanting him to come out. Though he knew the answer, he asked anyway. "Krad, are you there?"
Inside his head, Satoshi heard an answer and gave a moan of disappointment.
"Yes, Krad is present as well."
I asked if he could possibly let him out for me to say hello, without even noting the risk I was taking. I was so desperate to see someone like Dark, to talk to someone like Dark, even if it meant meeting his evil counterpart to get a taste for what it would be like.
"You really want me to let Krad out?"
"What's to lose? Just tell him not to destroy the place."
"'What's to lose'? The house? An arm? Your life? He won't listen if I tell him not to! Shall I simply tell him your message for you?"
"Just once? May I meet him just once?"
"N–" Satoshi realized something and gave up the fight. "You just won't give up, will you? Krad, I can't believe I'm doing this!"
Satoshi then immediately bent over with a slight shriek, and I almost regretted asking him to let Krad out. "You could've at least saved some time by keeping your wings off!" he yelled during the transformation. There were a lot of groans trying to be held in, the pain of his wings coming out nearly unbearable; their initial stage tore holes in the back of Satoshi's shirt, and with a big whoosh, they emerged fully and spanned out behind him. The size of my room wasn't enough for the enormous feathery masses.
They're larger than I imagined. I'm going to have quite the mess of feathers in here.
Suddenly, his eyes converted from ice to a deep gold, his hair from blue to floor-length blond, and his height increased more than a foot in a matter of seconds.
He stood up, shining in a voluminous white robe edged in gold with wings now folded at his side. I forgot to breathe while I scanned and committed the towering figure's features to memory. His hair floated hauntingly around him, and although gravity never took it over, he fastened it back, saving one long strand amidst the jagged locks to frame his face. A tiny cross hung from the ends of the portion he tied and nearly touched the floor.
Once he stretched a bit, Krad performed an ever-classic smirk. Spatial limitations forced him into within a foot's distance of myself.
What a stunning person…
"I know that I have not been present physically, but I have been in Satoshi's mind. I know everything he has learned from you." He gave a slight laugh, staring at his now-human hands, radiating a kind of evilly indulgent joy. "Greetings, Miss Alyssa," he said, with those molten-gold eyes locked on to mine.
I remembered that I needed to breathe. "Krad…H-hello."
He held out a large white-gloved hand for me; the index and middle fingers of the glove itself were missing, baring two large yet slender fingers. The torn edges appeared charred.
Two fingers. I finally found the answer.
I felt like a flea compared to the graceful, angelic form next to me. I found his preferred style of communication to be odd. He never seemed to smile; he was always smirking, and every smirk seemed to say something different. He could probably get through life without saying a word. I subconsciously waited for an uncomfortably sinful look to dominate his countenance, for it was characteristic of his kind, but it didn't come.
When he extended his hand, it was more like an offer to dance instead of a handshake. I cautiously laid my hand in his, and he bowed swiftly down to meet it to his lips. Following this action, he did not straighten himself again – he enjoyed the fact that it brought his face closer to mine. With him now frightfully only inches away, he caught me in his gaze and held me there. I didn't know what to do. He was the epitome of beauty, grace and evil.
Krad, what on earth are you doing? thought Satoshi to him.
Winning her over by the usual methods, Krad replied playfully.
You know it's not that easy. The honest truth is…?
Are you saying I never tell the truth, dear Satoshi?
That's the worst joke I've ever heard.
Sarcastically, Krad declared, You just don't want to enjoy being a human and make the most of the time we have here.
That entirely depends upon your definition of making the most of time. Unfortunately, Satoshi knew all too well what his inner demon's typical thought processes were.
Krad ended the odd moment with me and turned to greet Kyo. He finally spoke aloud. "It is a pleasure to have met you two. So I see we are now human! Are you sure you don't know what happened, mademoiselle?"
Slightly blushing because of how he addressed me, I replied that I was sure.
Kyo was almost as stunned as I was with the new arrival. Krad was so bright that we almost had to close our eyes and look away, what with the glow of his white and gold clothes, my white furniture, and the bright colors of my room.
My thoughts were overwhelmed again as I looked at Krad. What If Dark does show up? Will he be as stunning? Dark's wings...his stance...his smile! I reasoned that because Krad's golden eyes were much more brilliant and full of emotion in real life, Dark's amethyst ones would be totally entrancing.
I fell in love with Dark even more, but I was interrupted when those golden eyes found their way back to mine and gave me precisely the look I didn't want to see.
"In any case, this world shall be a pleasure," Krad smirked wickedly.