[Disclaimer] I do not own Eye shield 21 or Garasu no Kamen! All credit goes to the awesome creators.

[Author Note] Here's the fourteenth chapter. Sorry about any typos and other writing errors.

(Chapter Fourteen – Walking Through the Shadow of Death)

It was a new day, and things were about to take a dramatic change for the worst. Today, Sena had to leave this town to go someplace else, and unfortunately, he and Maya couldn't stay together like they wanted to. The only way that could happen is if they got married, but sadly they weren't married just yet, though they already knew that they were made for each other.

Sena did not want to leave Maya here without any company, but somebody actually found a new mentor for her. Her name was Karen Rose, and she seemed like a nice person. Maya and Rose were seeing Sena off as he was about to take off in the plane with his friends.

Sena and Maya exchanged their cellphone numbers and email addresses to each other, this way they could keep in contact with each other, and that was good enough for them. They promised each other that they would stay faithful to one another even if they were miles and miles away, and that they did. The plane was just about ready for takeoff now. All of the football players started to go inside while Sena was saying his farewells to his precious girlfriend.

He hugged her as he said, "I promise I'll call you soon as we reach our destination, okay? It's going to probably be a four hour flight. Well, that's what Hiruma told us."

"Sounds like a long time," said Maya, unhappiness could easily be found in her voice. He then stopped hugging her and instead grabbed her by the shoulders, the smile on his face quickly drowning out the sorrows of her heart. She smiled back at him, not wanting him to step foot on this plane he was about to aboard.

He then silently spoke, "I wish it didn't have to be this way. I want to be by your side forever, but that can't happen right now." She then started to cry, her tears staining the pretty, orange dress she was wearing. "Maya," said a saddened Sena. He hated to see her cry; it just made him feel so upset.

"I'm sorry," replied the crying damsel in distress. Maya started to rub the teardrops away from her soaking eye sockets, trying her best to stop weeping like this.

"Promise me that you'll stay strong, Maya. Promise me that you will give it your all when you start doing your new and wonderful acting roles again."

He got a few sniffles from her at first, and then two beautiful words following soon after as she retorted back to him, "I promise."

"Thank you, Maya," was what he said back to her, embracing her once again before having to leave.

"Hey, shorty, come on already!" shouted Hiruma, walking inside of the aircraft after he finished his sentence.

Sena then let go of his girlfriend and turned around, noticing that everybody was already inside of the airplane. He turned back around and faced Maya, eyes back staring at each other.

"Remember, I'll call you, okay?"

She nodded and smiled at him. "And I'll be waiting, my love," she whispered to him.

"I love you," said Sena.

"Love you, too," Maya replied back.

They then pecked each other on the lips. Sena started to walk away, but then stopped and slowly turned around. His eyes were focusing on Karen, and she noticed that.

"Oh yeah, Karen?" he said.

"Yes, Mr. Kobayakawa?" replied the mature woman.

He then gave her a creepy look as he threatened, "Do anything to Maya, I'll kill you."

After telling her that frightening statement, he then began to walk away, waving at Maya as he did so. She waved back and blew him a kiss, looking happy but feeling so sad knowing that they wouldn't be able to see each other in person for a while. Sena got inside of the plane, and about a minute later it took off into the big blue. Maya was still waving at him, technically the plane, as it flew far away. She soon stopped her gesture and watched the aircraft disappear into the heavens.

"Well, he certainly is rude," Karen said feeling offended, her voice emitting anger. Maya wasn't paying her new mentor any attention; her eyes were still focused on the big, blue sky. To snap her out of her trance, the woman then said to her, "Okay, Maya! It is time for us to leave now." Still keeping quiet, she slowly turned around and looked at her. "Don't give me that puppy dog look. You're strong! You should be happy that you're about to go someplace new! You're going to Spain, you know!"

"I've been there already," Maya boringly replied, giving her tutor a tiresome and fatigued look.

"Well, be happy anyway!" The woman's voice was now starting to sound more intimidating other than chipper. Maya got a bad vibe from Karen soon as she met her, and this wasn't helping those vibes to go away. "Follow me!" Karen said, quickly walking over towards the car that was used to drive them here.

Maya watched her walk away, now feeling even quainter about the way Karen was acting. Something just didn't feel right. "Come on!" she yelled at Maya. About a few seconds later, Maya started to walk over towards the car, and she was walking pretty slowly. About half a minute later, she made it inside, sitting down on the passenger's side of the automobile.

Karen locked the car doors and hurriedly stepped on the gas, making the unaware actress jerk forward, and she almost bashed her head against the front of the car. Maya was scared stiff for a moment, it took her about a minute to calm down.

"That scared me," she said as she looked at Karen. The older woman looked bug-eyed as she speeded down the road, frightening Maya greatly. "Is something the matter?" she asked Karen, hoping to get a decent answer from her. The lady didn't answer her, she didn't look in her direction either; her eyes were just focusing on the road.

Maya just stared at her, waiting to see if she would react to her question, but she didn't, she was just bug-eyed and creepy. She soon gave up and started to look out of the window. She put her hand on her cheek as she looked extremely bored out of her mind, which she was.

In fact, she was so bored that she fell to sleep within a few minutes. Maya was really, really tired, so she was asleep for a very long time. About five hours later, she slowly started to wake up, and she found it strange that they were still on the road.

She got up and rubbed her eyes, yawning as she turned her head and looked at Karen, and it seemed like she was still making the same bug-eyed face, as if she never moved or anything. "We're not at the airport yet?" Maya asked sleepily as she picked the corners of her eyes.

"Not yet," Karen replied, looking as though she just got done drinking five cups of coffee. Maya was feeling very scared, she didn't know what on earth was going on. She desperately wanted to open the car door and hop out, but it was locked and she was too scared to even try that.

Less than a minute later, the car pulled up in a driveway, a driveway that belonged to a huge, creepy mansion. She didn't know what to say or do; she just looked at the mansion in complete shock. "Come on!" yelled Karen as she exited from the vehicle. Maya didn't want to move, she didn't move, she just sat there.

When Maya turned her head to look out of the window, she saw Karen right next to the car door, and she was staring at her with a smile on her face. Maya looked back at her, not moving an inch. Karen then opened the door, which was weird because the door was locked. How did she open it? Feeling very frightened, Maya started to scream, not knowing how else to really handle this situation. The older woman grabbed Maya by the arm, pulling her out of the car very forcefully.

"Let go of me!" shouted Maya, her voice loud and full with panic. Karen then head-butted her, which put Maya in a daze, but kept her slightly conscious; the sky was billowed with dark, puffy clouds. "Ouch," were the words that came out of Maya's mouth, she spoke so low and bemused. Lightning started to flash and thunder began to rumble, a sudden cloudburst happened soon as Karen began to drag Maya towards the mansion.

Karen soon reached the mansion doors and opened them; throwing Maya inside of the manor, making her fall very jaggedly on the wooden floor. Karen then ran over towards the fallen girl and began to kick her. Soon as Maya got kicked in the lips, she put her hands over her mouth, blood squirting out of the wounded flesh. Karen now kept kicking her in the stomach, making the injured brunette scream and cry. This was so horrible, why was this happening to her? She wished Sena was here with her, but he wasn't. He was ways away from her.

Minutes later, the merciless woman stopped her pummeling and just smiled at the bruised and bloody, young woman. Seconds later, the maniac ran out of the mansion, laughing as she galloped away. When the lady was gone, Maya continued to lie on the floor for several minutes. She felt so in pain, so in agony. As much as she did not want to move, she felt like she had to. No telling what else would happen if the lady came back, and she had a gut feeling that she was indeed on her way back.

She sat up and shook her head, trying to snap out of the inertness she was in. After that, she wiped her mouth with her arm, smeared blood now all over her skin. She noticed the mansion doors wide open, rain pouring in the huge house. Using all of her strength, she stood up and ran towards the door, pushing them shut and locking them afterwards. Maya began to breathe harder as the beats of her heart gradually intensified because of the overwhelming anxiety that came over her body and mind.

She then ran over towards a huge window and looked out of it. It was too dark outside; she couldn't see a thing, which was until lightning flashed, giving the scared girl a quick look at Karen who was holding a large hatchet and walking over towards the front door. As if she wasn't scared enough, now this was happening.

Maya felt like she had to act fast now, she had to think quickly. She then started to run around the mansion, trying her best to find a weapon to use. Soon enough, she actually did. She opened one of the closet doors and spotted a large assault rifle. She never thought of herself using a gun before, but at the moment she really didn't care. This was a situation between life and death. The thought of killing someone scared her, but what other choice did she have? Maya then ran over towards the front door and backed away a little, bracing herself for whatever was about to happen.

"I hope this thing is loaded," she whispered. "Jesus, please be with me." After those two sentences were said, the doors then shot open, Karen now being seen as she started to run towards Maya; Karen's smile was so creepy. Maya closed her eyes and pulled the trigger, making a bullet shoot out of the gun and striking Karen in her right eye socket.

Karen screamed as she fell on the ground, impaling herself with her own weapon. Maya soon opened her eyes and saw the horrible, gory sight of a dead and cut in half Karen. Maya's mind was now scarred for life. Not knowing what to do, she cried as she ran up the stairs, not even knowing where she was going, but she did know that she wanted to get away from the dead body.

The mansion was pretty much pure black. She felt like something was just going to hop out of the darkness and attack her. She kept on praying to God that everything would turn out okay, and she actually started to feel a little better. When she entered a certain room, she noticed that it wasn't so dark in here.

She saw a television and decided to turn it on, though she was feeling atrocious. When it turned on all of the way, she seen a broadcaster saying, "Masumi Hayami has escaped from jail. He has been on the loose for at least four hours now." After hearing that dreadful statement, she quickly shut off the television; her eyes now wide open in shock.

"This can't be happening… How can this be?"

Okay then! I hope you're enjoying this… *Sips apple juice* *Shakes head* what a piece of crap.