Chapter 8: Things That Went Bump in the Night

Ruka's POV

"You don't have to worry about me 'cough', I'm fine. 'cough'"

"Ne, Natsume."

"Just go."

'Cough, cough'

"Ugh, blood."

I suddenly woke up in cold sweat. It was just a dream, rather, a nightmare. I slightly cringed at the thought of Natsume writhing and giving in to the pain. I hoped that this wasn't happening. But what if…

I quickly got up from bed and blindly made my way to the door. I ran through the hallways as fast and as quiet as I can without forgetting to shut my bedroom door behind me. I frantically wound my way down the stairs to the girls' dorms hallway and searched for Sakura's name plate. The sudden sound of muffled beeping made me stop in my tracks and look at the door I was standing next to.

"Sakura Mikan"

I knocked twice at her door hoping she would still be awake at this hour.

Mikan's POV

'Toc', 'Toc', 'Toc'. The sudden rapping at the door suddenly awoke me from my sleep.

I shut my eyes tighter, afraid of what might be in front of my door and the things that go bump in the night.

"Sakura, open up, it's me." I heard a faint whisper from outside my room. I recognized the voice as Ruka-pyon's, and from the sound of his tone, I didn't think it was anything good.

I got up and practically ran slash tripped to the door (there was stuff all over the floor).

After tripping for the third time, it was already by the door, so I held on to the door knob to pull myself up. I opened the door to see a sweating Ruka-pyon with a bothered look on his face.

"It's about Natsume."

Kyoko's POV

I looked up at the clock for the eleventh time tonight and found that it has only been three minutes since I've last checked. My thoughts were occupied, about many things of course, and most vaguely, about the thing Natsume told me awhile ago…

"Do you think it's a good idea to escape from here and stow away into one of those ships from Zaibatsu Corp.?" It just kept playing and playing all over again in my head.

As his senpai, I really felt that I should do something to make him happy. I knew that he wasn't exactly giddy at this point in his life, and yet, I just wasn't able to do anything about it but simply watch him fight for his freedom and happiness. I've never even felt so responsible for someone before, and it was just as if I was born to be Natsume Hyuuga's own guardian, since there was nobody around to watch over him and protect him at all times either.

I got it! We should stow away at the next ship that comes our way. I sat up, in excitement. Then quickly plopped down again when I remembered that we only had sieges once every two to three weeks nowadays. I sighed.

I just have to help him…

'SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!'

The ship came to an abrupt halt that rocked the whole liner, leaving me rolling to the floor below.

The sudden wailing of the sirens were enough to shatter my eardrums, so this could only mean one thing. I got out of my room and joined the stampede of students rushing to their battle stations. We had no choice anyway.

Choice. Shoot. I almost forgot about Natsume! Poor little fellow couldn't even stand up on his own.

Wait a sec… Why the hell am I leaving out the most important factor anyway? My stowaway plan was just sudden, and even though it was only concocted a few seconds ago, I guessed the heavens picked this moment for it to be put into immediate action with the utmost care. (Even though it was imperfect and stupid, too)

I quickly spun around and headed to the opposite direction where everyone else was running off to. Man, I felt like crying, and maybe it's because I have at least a dozen reasons why.