Hello! Again! According to the story's stats, I have had 18 visitors from yesterday alone. And I only put the chapter up last night. Sort of. I replaced the chapter last night with a better one. Speaking of which, Akai Seirei, thank you so much for your review! I won't give up on my story this time. I'll stick with it. Erm, sort of. You might wanna re-read chapter 1, cuz it's definitely different. But I'll stick with that chapter and I'll continue. And yeah, I do enjoy writing it. I hope you enjoy reading it! Everyone else, enjoy chapter 2! (And maybe leave a review?)

-LizzyLucky


"John!"

My sister and I rushed to our brother's side and held his head up. He was still alive, good. He was still conscious, even better. He turned his head upward to look at us. All I could see in his clouded eyes was pain. So much sadness and pain and fear. It broke my heart to see him like this. He was still just so young and innocent. Too much so to be in such a state. He shouldn't have to go through this! I couldn't see him as anything other than my baby brother.

Joey and I were both frozen in shock and fear. The pounding continued, the whispers overlapped each other, the growls grew in number and volume, the knocking and foot pounds burrowed into our minds, and the clock still ticked away, driving us mad. Nothing was right. Nothing in the world was right, not at this moment! My own vision grew hazy like I was fading into another world, but I was still here. I was still sitting on my knees, on the floor, by my baby brother, and I couldn't do anything. I tried to turn back to the look at the door, but I couldn't move faster than a turtle. The window kept flashing in and out of existence, quick glimpses of fists pounding. The lights started to flicker until they were out altogether. Even the clock stopped. The whispers grew louder and surrounded us, the growls were closer than ever. I looked down at John again and he let out another sob, gripping onto my shirt.

Everything sped back up again and questions flooded my mind. I knew one thing though; none of those questions could be answered until I could get John to somewhere much safer than here. I looked around the room and realized that the rest of our family had gathered into the room and surrounded us, mumbling words to me and shouting to us in alarm.

"Sylvia!" Knowing my other sister to be more level headed than most in a situation like this, and more able to move quickly at such an hour, I assigned her the most important job I could think of at the moment.

"Go lock every door, window, and entrance way you can think of!" Without saying a word, Sylvia nodded and bolted off as quickly as she could.

"Joey! Go call an ambulance!" I ordered.

What was left to do? I needed to watch John, that's all I cared about right now. The 19 year old hugging his side and crying into my t-shirt was top priority. I wasn't going to leave him if my life depended on it. He needed medical attention as soon as possible and we needed to find out what was going on.

Medical attention! Kumi and Kaz! They were training to be doctors!

"Kumi! Kaz! Where are you!?" I turned to get them and they weren't in the room any more. Before I could call again, the twins walked into the room with a handful of cloth and a bucket of water. They already knew what I would have them do until an ambulance arrived.

"John? John, look at me." Kaz said, he and his twin kneeling down beside John. John turned to look at him.

"We need to take the knife out. The knife hasn't splintered or shattered, so we only have to pull it out. No tweezers, no little bits to yank out. That's it. But it will hurt to take out, and if it isn't taken out, it will hurt even more later. Do you understand?" Kaz explained. John looked uncertainly at Kumi and Kaz, who smiled gently at him, and slowly nodded.

"O-okay." He said quietly, fear evident in his voice. I felt so helpless just watching. All I could do was let John latch onto and cry into my shirt.

Kumi grabbed a washcloth and held it around the back side of the blade and against John's skin. Kaz grabbed ahold of the handle and looked at Kumi before giving a great yank and pulling it clean out. Instantly, the cloth was pressed against John's side and became wet with blood. It was a horrific sight. Even worse was the cry that came from John when it was out. He buried his head into my stomach and openly sobbed for all his worth.

John continued to cry as Kumi and Kaz did their best to wash out the wound while we waited. They were making some progress, I had to admit, and that was good, but I didn't know how much longer I could watch John cry in pain without breaking down myself.

I jumped as a hand was placed on my shoulder. I looked up to see my fiance leaning down and giving me a comforting smile. She sat down beside me and looked at John. I forgot that she hadn't met him yet. He'd been on another continent for the better part of two years, and he just popped up at our door. I didn't really understand it. He was going to come up, but he said he had to cancel. We were all so disappointed that he had, for one reason or another, changed his mind. Especially for this time of year.

I opened my mouth to speak but was interrupted by another voice.

"John?"

I turned towards the voice and saw the youngest member of our family. Aliiah. She was only 9 years old whereas the rest of us were in our 20s. All except John, that is.

(Quick note, in the show, John had just turned 19 when he met the SPR. His birthday is January 5th. You can look it up. There was also a Christmas special later in the show, and more cases after that, which would mean that his 20th birthday had to be somewhere around then. I decided that John's been away from home since that first meeting and made that close to 2 years. So if you think about it, he would technically be 20 by now, nearly 21. But I'm stubborn and decided that he's 19. I just thought you should know, cause my OCD side really hates this. But I think he sounds more innocent if he's not quite 20 yet. So I mixed the times a little. But I'm thinking of writing this story through his birthday, so he'll be 20 soon… Forgive me if that's not quite right; I haven't read the manga yet...)

Aliiah walked in closer to us, from her spot in the corner. I hadn't even seen her. Had she been here the entire time? No matter; she was here now, and she looked utterly terrified for her brother.

"Aliiah-" I started. I couldn't think of what to say. She was so much younger than the rest of us. So much so that she was almost young enough to be my daughter. But she was my sister. I didn't know what to tell a 9 year old girl watching her brother bleeding and sobbing on the ground.

"Aliiah?" John tried to lift his head up to see his little sister. He made an effort to stop his crying and was left with hiccups and short gasps of pain. I almost had to laugh at this. John was incredibly sensitive and so innocent. But he was such a sucker for his little sister, even if he was twice her age.

"Hello, Aliiah!" He said brightly. At this, Aliiah's face lit up and she ran over to hug her brother. John returned it, albeit painfully.

"John, where did you go?" She asked, letting go of the hug to hear his answer.

"I went to go see some friends, is all." He said.

"Oh! I remember now!"

"You do?"

"Yeah! Noah said so. He said it was on a paper that you sent us." Aliiah explained.

"He did? That's good."

Aliiah nodded her head and smiled.

"Guys, out of the way!" Joey ran in and shouted for us to move. Immediately following her was a group of men carrying a stretcher and one female nurse carrying a clipboard. Kumi and Kaz grabbed their things and jumped aside. My fiance took Aliiah's hand and carried her to the side and out of the way. I stayed there, John still laying on my lap. The men picked him up and placed him on the stretcher. I stood up and the nurse immediately walked over to me.

"Can you answer some questions for me?" She asked.

"Uh, yeah." I answered.

The nurse asked me some basic questions; his name, age, parent names, what we'd been doing to help him before they arrived, all that stuff. But I couldn't remember much of it. My mind was in a haze. I followed them to the emergency vehicle and followed them into the hospital. I watched my brother pass out, cry in pain, go pale, bleed again. I watched the men wheel my brother in through a pair of double doors while a nurse held me back. Then I watched the blank wall.

And I listened.

It was nearly 4 o'clock in the morning. I found a book and I started reading. But I wasn't paying attention. There were no sounds. Just the constant ticking of the clock and the ruffle of pages in my hand.

Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock.

The pounding on the door still echoed in my mind. The foot falls in the attic. The whispers in the hallways. The growls outside. All these haunting sounds boring into my mind. But it was silent.

I couldn't concentrate. Not on the sounds, not on the clock or the book, not on anything. Too many things rushed through my mind. John. My worried family. The fact that my parents probably don't even know what's going on right now.

I looked back at the double doors. The sign above read "Emergency Operations."

My brother could lose his life.

John could die.


Good? Bad? Gosh, what I'd give for some more feedback! But I won't demand it. Just beg for it. I'm as bad as my dog. Sorry… Sorry to John, too. I'm such a mean writer. I could find so many ways to torture the characters. Hold on John! Anyway, hope you enjoyed it! I'll try and update again soon! See ya!

-LizzyLucky