Chapter 6: Life as an obstacle
A/N: 10,000 words! Can I get a 'congratulations, keep up the good work'? Or am I going to have to make do with ads telling me, 'congratulations! You've won a free Ipod!'? Also, if this chapter is choppy, that's because I wrote a good bit of it while I was sick.
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The next Morning
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I woke up wondering why I wasn't in my bed at home, and then all of yesterday flooded back to me. First, my mother's kidnapping came back to me, then my father's arrest. Then, Matt deciding to take me and Kari in. Then, the fact that Kari and I were now more than just friends. Her parent's disappearance came back to me, and then the look on her face.
The memory still pained me, her eyes, puffy and red. As I was struck by all the memories from the day, I wanted to cry, laugh, scream, vomit, and punch a wall, all at once. But I did none of these, simply up, and preparing to face another day.
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Kari's POV:
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Sitting on the couch T.K and I had been making out on yesterday, I realized that I had no idea of what I was going to do today. Currently, I was alone, although I knew that would change a soon as T.K finally woke up.
I really had no idea of my surroundings beyond the house I was living in, hopefully temporarily, so I couldn't exactly go anywhere. T.K and I may have been able to take a walk, but we couldn't do that until he was up. But I was sick of waiting, partly because every moment I spend waiting was another moment I spent thinking about the sheer hopelessness of the situation. Because, no matter what T.K said, and no matter how well meaning those words might be, the situation was hopeless.
I scoured the room for SOMETHING to take my mind off the real world, at least until I had some power to deal with things, or had T.K to talk to. Luckily for me, there were about twenty or so pieces of scratch paper in the middle of the dining table (I assumed that Matt used them to write music on), and so I ran upstairs and took my art pencil out of my bag, and then went back downstairs to draw.
Sadly, my drawings all became vaguely gruesome and creepy, so much so that it would almost have been better to just sit around and do nothing. I almost envied T.K his naivety; he didn't seem to realize that we were in danger, and I envied him all the more because I couldn't really see any way out of this; what if we disappeared next?
Luckily, after a few such drawings, I heard the door to T.K's room open, and close. This was shortly followed by the door to bathroom opening and shutting, and the sound of water running.
"Great. He's taking a shower". I muttered to myself, "Guess I'll go back to drawing."
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Matt's POV:
As I awoke, tangled in Sora, I almost wanted to laugh at myself. I mean, sure, it might not have seemed weird to anyone else, but that might well have been my last night, yet I'd spend it doing what I'd done every other night.
In fact, I would have laughed, but that might have hurt the girl I'd been sleeping with. And… I wasn't going to wreck the last day. And, whether or not I loved the girl, I wasn't heartless. With all that said, though, I wasn't exactly going to take death sitting down. Now that yesterday's disasters had panned out, it was time to begin leveling the playing field.
This, of course, presented me with the first decision of the new day; Wake the girl, or wait. And I really didn't know which I would do. On one hand, I wanted to begin doing whatever could be done RIGHT NOW. On the other hand, I wanted to make sure everyone was well rested for today; because it might be a very long day.
A nagging voice in the back of my head pointed out that if it was a long day, I was incredibly lucky. After all, it meant that I could actually do something, and that I'd lived long enough to call it a long day.
Then again, considering what I appeared to be facing, I was fairly sure I was safe for the next few days; after all, enemy, whoever that was, appeared to be baiting me. What, was this thing afraid of me or something?
Now, I REALLY wanted to laugh. Afraid of me. What in its right mind would be afraid of me? Sure, I'd once been dangerous and powerful, but now the only friends I had were part of the real world. And then, I understood.
Afraid of me. It, whatever 'it' was, was afraid of me and my friends. It was trying to clear a path to world conquest, or something of the like, and wanted me, and the other former digidestined, out of the way.
So, it was baiting us, trying to lure us into a trap.
This meant we had much, much more time. It also meant we had a huge disadvantage.
"Sora?" I said, as gently as I could manage, "Wake up."
She looked confused; I normally didn't wake her up, preferring to go over in my corner and write lyrics.
"What is it?"
"Our 'kidnapper' may be more dangerous than I thought before."
She just looked at me, confused.
Of course, I hadn't told her what I'd already figured out.
"Never mind, I'll explain it later. I have to get the Digidestined together; if whatever we're facing is going to treat me like I'm an obstacle, I'll at least be an obstacle with teeth."
She looked really, really confused now, but that was fine. I picked up the phone, and began calling Tai.