11: Dreams
The first time he dreams of an empty expanse of nothingness and Krad in the middle of it, he thinks that it is not surprising to dream of a recent painful past. By the fifth time however he wonders if it is not just a dream, especially with the way Krad was always silent, watching him inscrutably but with what seemed hope. If he had been revisiting the past in dreams than Krad would not be so silent, but he is. The sixth time finds himself here he says "Why do you haunt me still Krad, will I never be free of you?" And is startled to hear Krad speak in a rather hoarse voice, "I didn't expect to see you again Master Satoshi, how are you here?" Krad's voice is not the cool self-assured tones that he remembers, nor does it have the bitter taunting note that it usually had. But the tone is familiar, and he remembers Krad was like this in the week after they first met, when he was very sick, Krad had been worried and had probably kept him alive, with no one to check in on him. And due to his own stubbornness no one knew he was sick and delirious, —but he had turned fourteen on the second day of the fever, and Krad had woken and worried. He hadn't been able to get up even to feed himself but he had woken up to see a thermos of instant soup at his bedside. And a white feather next to it. He had forgotten about that until now, hearing that tone again. He had written Krad helping him heal off as a delirious dream, because his next experience with the family curse was Krad urging him to kill his friend and Dark both, but now he realized that it had been real.