Chapter 5

"Duo! Hey! How ya been?" Sakura grinned and then looked down at her body. "Whoa. Weirdness! Man, I'm totally messed up!"

"Sakura? I-I don't understand. What… Does this mean…"

"She's not dead," Lily answered before he could finish that question. "But she will be if she doesn't find a way to return to her body in nine days."

"Nine days?" Duo blinked and stared at the new girl. "Wait… Who are you?"

"That isn't for you to know." Lily walked around the bed and over to the standing man. She circled around him, looking him up and down.

"W-what are you doing?"

"How can you see me?" She stopped and stared up at the man. "You shouldn't be able to see me." She stepped back, eyes narrowing, gaze still glued on the man. "I don't understand."

"So I can see you! So what?" Duo wasn't sure he liked this woman's attitude. She was pretty yes, but he quickly got past the pretty when she started speaking. "Anyway, past the whole seeing you part… How does Sakura get back to her body?"

"She needs to remember how she ended up here."

"Remember?" Sakura looked down at her body. "Hm… now that you mention it… I really don't remember how I ended up like this." She looked to Lily. "Could you maybe give me a hint?"

Lily shook her head. "No. No hint."

"Great. So you can't give me a hint. Then how do I remember?"

Lily smirked. Sakura found it a little odd on the woman, and frightening. "You may be a spirit now, but you are also free to move around."

"Oh, so I get to go gather clues. Yay for me."

"Sounds like you got a long whole nine days ahead of you!" Duo laughed.

"Shut up! I hope this doesn't take all nine days."

"You better pray it doesn't," Lily commented. "Otherwise you're dead."

"Dude! Are you serious? She really only had nine days? She dies after nine days?"

"Who dies after nine days?" Duo spun to see Heero standing at the door, looking at him strangely. "Who are you talking to?" Duo blinked. Heero didn't see them. He couldn't see Sakura or the rude pretty girl with her. He was blind to them. Well, he wasn't going to tell him he was talking to two spirits. Heero would just think he was crazy. He thought that enough of the time as it was.

"Oh, no one." He smiled at the man. "Look, I'm gonna head out. There're some things I forgot I had to take care of." Grinning, he walked past the man and out the door, Sakura and Lily following behind him.

The three left the hospital and he looked back at the two women. Looking to Lily he asked, "Can I at least get a name?"

The woman stared at him for a moment before finally answering with, "Lily."

xxx

Heero stared down at his fiancée. When Duo had said she only had nine days, was he was talking about Sakura? If so, how did he know? And who had he been talking to? See, Heero knew Duo was crazy, yes, but he wasn't insane. If Duo had been talking to someone, there must have really been somewhere there, so why wouldn't he tell him who?

He took Sakura's hand into his own. "Sakura, what's going on? What did he mean you only had nine days? I need to know. Am I going to lose you?"

"Heero?"

The man released Sakura's hand and spun his gaze to the doorway where Jen stood. "Um, did you need something Mizuno?"

"No, I just… did you say something about nine days?"

Heero blinked and nodded. "Yes. Why?"

"Then did Sakura meet the Gatekeeper?"

"Gatekeeper? What Gatekeeper?"

Jen blinked. He had to know who she was talking about, right? "Of death."