Alice
Shun had been up in his room for quite some time now; since yesterday at noon. Now, it was nearing up on that time once again, and there hadn't been so much as a sight of him. Perhaps I was overreacting to nothing, but I couldn't help but worry. No matter how okay Shun said he was, I still felt that he wasn't well.
Dan, with his arms crossed over his chest, said sarcastically, "I wonder when Sleeping Beauty is going to decide to wake up." Runo shot him a curt look, and he muttered a silent apology. I spoke up and told them, "I'll go and check on him if you guys want me to."
Nobody protested against my suggestion, so I got up and went to go check in on him. During the time it took me to walk down the hall from the sitting area, I kept hoping that I wouldn't find Shun passed out on the floor or something. When I reached his room, I gently knocked on the door to signal that I was outside.
Just like yesterday when I checked in on him, there was no answer. To double-check, I knocked again and got the same results. So, I opened the door and stepped on inside. His bedroom was empty, the sheets and blankets on his bed tossed aside. "Shun?" I asked and began to look around for him.
"Are you in here?" I got to the door to his bathroom, and felt my eyes widen. Shun was passed out on the tile floor, completely out cold. Panicked, I rushed over to his side and knelt beside him. "Shun! Wake up!" I was shaking his shoulder rather roughly, but I was determined to got him to wake up, or show me some form of life.
My hand touched an exposed part of his arm, and I was surprised by how cold his skin was. It was almost like ice, but I attributed it to the fact that he had been laying on the cold, tile floor for no telling how long. Shun muttered a quiet noise, and his eyes opened slightly.
Thank goodness. He groaned and tried to sit up, but I refused to let him move. "No. You stay here while I go get Dan or somebody else to help get you up," I told him softly. Shun, who still looked somewhat out of it, only nodded. I ran out of the bathroom, through his room, and back down the hall to the others.
When I reached the sitting room that they were all gathered in, they turned their heads to look at me. With my panicked and worried expression that I knew I had, I must have looked a site. My eyes shot over to Dan and I said quickly, "Dan, I need your help."
Confusion swept over the room, leaving everyone lost about what was going on. Murucho stood up from his seat and asked, "What's going on, Alice? Is everything alright with Shun?" My hands fidgeted with each other. "I found him on the floor of his room, completely unconscious. I was able to wake him up though, but I don't want him moving. So, I need somebody's help to get him back in his bed."
Expressions shifted from confused to concerned when they learned about how I had found Shun. Dan stood from his seat and said, "Then why are we just standing here?" He walked past me, grabbing my hand as he went by, and pulling me down the hall. I caught a glimpse of the faces of the others before they vanished as I went further down the hall; they looked confused, and worried.
Dan and I reached Shun's room once more, and I pointed towards the bathroom that I had left Shun in. We hurried over to the room, and saw Shun was still there. But unlike when I first found him, he was awake this time. He was sitting on the tiled floor, his back leaning against the wall.
Even though he was conscious, it still felt like he was still disoriented. Dan and I went over to Shun, and proceeded to help him up. I would have thought that somebody like Shun would have weighed more, but he was surprisingly light. Once more, I came in contact with his arm, and felt the icy coldness that seemed to radiat from him.
Why was he so cold? The tile floor remained as my only explaination. Dan and I laid Shun down on his bed and Dan asked him, "What happened, Buddy?" Shun ran a hand over his face, his fingers combing through his bangs and showing a quick glimpse of his injured eye.
"Guess…..I was more tired than…..than I thought," he said softly, almost breathlessly. I asked him, "Do we need to call an ambulance or somebody to come and make sure you're okay?" I knew the answer that I was going to get, but I felt as if I had to ask anyway.
Shun shook his head. "No…..I'm fine….Just…..Just tired." Dan and I exchanged looks with each other; it was clear that neither one of us believed Shun's lie. "If you say so, Shun," Dan said, "let's let him get some rest, Alice." I nodded and the two of us left the room.
When we returned to the others, Murucho was the first to speak to us. "Is he okay? Do I need Kato to call the hospital?" I shook my head to let him know that that wouldn't be necessary.
"Dan and I already asked him if we needed to contact a doctor for him, and Shun said there was no need. I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt, but if this continues, then I think he needs to go back to the hospital."
Murucho rubbed his hands together, as if thinking this over. Runo jumped into the conversation and said, "I second Alice's suggestion. If Shun doesn't show any signs of recovering, then he needs to go back."
Julie, Murucho, and Dan also agreed after that. I knew sending Shun back to that hospital would be going against his wishes, but his stubborness would end up being the death of him if he kept up this charade.
Shun
Everything was hazy and blurred when Alice woke me from my state of unconsciousness. She wouldn't let me get up and insisted that I remained where I was while she went and got Dan. Since I wasn't exactly sure what was going on, I did as she told me and waited.
As I sat against the wall, I racked my brain for anything that would let me know why I was so out of it. But I was unable to focus thanks to a dull and pulsating pain that radiated from the right side of my face. My first thought was that I had something like a stroke, but it then occurred to me that a stroke could not be the reason for that; I was already dead as it was.
Dead. A cascade of images returned to my memory. It showed me the woman and man in an alley, and the gun in the man's hand. Why had I seen that? Was that how I knew when people were about to die? I saw what would happen to them?
No, I didn't see anything, I thought to myself with a hint of denial. Why was I denying this though? I was a Reaper now, right? This should be normal for me. Perhaps it was because I wasn't quite used to the whole thing yet, and that made me want to believe that I didn't see somebody's death before my eyes.
Dan and Alice returned to my side, and helped me back to my bed. I had long snapped out of my disoriented state as I woke from my unconsciousness, but I had put myself into a new zone-out state when I remembered what had caused me to black out.
I was laid down in my bed, and was asked several questions by Dan and Alice. I played them off as being really tired. Although I knew they weren't buying my lies, they let the topic stop there and left out of my room. I laid in my bed and sighed. So it begins…
Alice
I was surprised to see Shun walk into the sitting room where we all had been residing in; I was sure that he would have been in his bed for a longer amount of time, seeing as to how out of it he had been in the hours prior.
He didn't look utterly lost like he had been. In fact, since he had gotten out of the hospital the other day, he kind of looked like Shun. Murucho asked him, "Shun, do you think you should be walking around right now?" I didn't blame Murucho for his concern; I was actually thinking the same thing.
Shun stuck his hands into his pockets and told the blonde, "I feel fine now. Guess I just needed a little bit more rest to recharge." His voice wasn't dragging and lagging behind like it had been when Dan and I helped him into his bed.
He then began to walk towards the door that led out of the sitting room. Dan stopped him by asking, "Where do you think you're going?" Shun turned around and said calmly, "Out." That was all he said before he left Murucho's; he didn't even give any of us a chance to stop him or say another word.
Shun
I thought that I wouldn't have gotten more resistance from the others when I told them I was going out. Perhaps I might have if I stuck around for a little bit longer, but I needed to get out of that place. For some reason, I was craving the need for fresh air.
Maybe it was because I felt that the air would help clear my jumbled mind from the recent images of death that had invaded my sanity. When I cleared the doors of Murucho's mansion, I realized how late in the day it was; a couple hours past noon to be exact.
As I walked down the streets, I looked at each person I passed, feeling as though they might be the two people that I saw in my 'vision.' But none of them were, and I only got looks of confusion as to why I was looking at people. "You look a bit stressed."
I jumped and turned around to see Death standing behind me. Somehow, I felt that under that black hood of his, his face showed an expression of amusement. Maybe it was that sly grin that was visible on his face that made me think that, but that was only a guess.
People walked right by, unable to see my uninvited guest thanks to his cloak. Death began to circle around me, and I felt his eyes examining me. "You've seen a death, have you not?" he asked me. I chuckled nervously and told him, "What? I don't know what you're talking about."
Why was I denying this? It made no sense to me. Then, it occurred to me that I thought that I might not be ready to take a person's soul. Even though Death showed me that it was completely painless, there was still that psychological feeling that nothing about it was right.
Death stopped circling me and stood before me. "You can't lie to Death, my friend," he said to me. "I know just by looking at you that you've seen death. Just from the way you're talking and acting, I know. So, how did it happen?" I tilted my head to the side and said, "How did what happen?"
People that walked by, gave me strange looks when they saw that I was talking to nobody. Death's smile disappeared when he said, "How did you see the death? How did it occur?" I thought about the pain I felt on the right side of my face, and how it had been followed by the foggy images.
"I saw it," I told him, feeling like I wasn't exactly answering his question. But Death seemed to understand what I told him, because he nodded. "In other words, you saw the death take place in a vision. Do you know when it will happen?" I shook my head. All I saw, was the events taking place.
The only thing I recalled, was that it was in an alley at night. But there were hundreds of alleys in the city, and there was no way to tell which night this would take place. It wasn't like there had been a calendar in the background when all of this happened. Death placed his cold hand on my shoulder and said with a sigh, "Well, I guess you'll cross that bridge when you get there."
After he said that, I saw a figure running towards us. He wore a black, tattered cloak like the one that Death had on. The figure was waving his hand way above his head and shouting, "Death, my friend! There you are!" When he got closer, I saw that it was Grim.
A shiver went down my spine when that realization, and I backed up somewhat behind Death so I could have something between me and that lunatic. Grim stopped in front of Death, and I caught wind of his foul stench. "Hello, again, Grim," Death said in a corgial tone.
The crazy Reaper craned his neck to look at me. "Oh, I see you have your little Reaper with you. How wonderful! Do tell me if he knows how he sees deaths now! It's been gnawing at me since last night!" Death grinned, and I felt his eyes fall on me.
"Aren't you a lucky one, Grim. He just informed me that he sees in visions how the deaths happen," he told the mad Reaper. An expression of disappointment washed over Grim's face. "Darn! I was hoping he was like me! Do you know what it's like being the only one to hear the voices of those about to die?" Grim whined like a child that didn't get what he wanted.
Death held up a nonchalant hand and said, "No, I wouldn't know how that feels, Grim." Grim shot a sharp look at Death, then ran around and joined my side. I jumped back some in order to put space between us. His lip suddenly formed into a pout. "You're still hiding that scar, little Reaper," he said in a sad tone.
"I thought you would have taken what I said to heart, but I must have been wrong. Oh, well. Perhaps you'll come around eventually." Grim then froze in his place and looked around. A wicked smile formed on his crazed face. "The voices! They're calling me again! Oh, goody!" he shouted and clapped his hands together.
"Gotta run, Death! Work's calling me!" Grim ran off after that, and I heard him singing his little song, "Reap their souls. Reap their souls. Where they go, only I will know." I shook my head and began to walk down the sidewalk. Death hurried after me and asked, "Where are you going?"
I stopped and abruptly turned on my heel so I could face him. "I went on this walk so I could get away from some of this madness and clear my thoughts, but all it has done is make things worse!" I shouted in the middle of the sidewalk. People stared at me on hurried on by, clearly thinking I had lost my mind.
Maybe I had. Maybe all of this was just a figment of my imagination, and none of this was real. But even I knew that was a lie. Death, without a smile anywhere on his face, said to me, "This is a game of death. It doesn't matter where you go or what you do, it will always follow you. You know why? Because you are Death. And where Death goes, Death follows."
I hung my head low, staring at the concrete sidewalk below. He was right. It didn't matter what I did now. This was what my life would be centered around. I glanced over to my right and found myself looking down an alley. A familiar feeling washed over me, and I quickly realized that this was the alley that I saw in my vision.
"This is the place," I said to myself, completely forgetting that Death was right beside me. He asked, "Do you know at what time of the day this death took place?" I nodded and told him, "At night." He folded his arms over his chest and gave one, quick nod.
"Alright, then. We shall meet up here every night, until the contents on your vision become reality. Come here the moment the sun sets so you'll be ready. Don't be late." Death vanished into his cloud of black mist, and left me standing in front of the alley that would soon become the setting of a murder.
sorry for not being earlier. i slept in REALLY late because i was flat-out exhausted from last night's football game. then, i went to the Celtic Fest about an hour after i woke up. o.o but i had a lot of fun. X3 read, review, and other things. ~Copperpelt~