Chapter Nine
That night in a fever induced delirium, Tohru had a horrifying nightmare.
Or maybe it was just a horrible memory that was so bad, that her mind locked it up airtight in the very depths of her memories and didn't start to break free until she had met Kaname Kuran.
It may have been a year after her father died because she could remember that she was about 6 years old.
Her mother had been unresponsive too little Tohru and her needs (she was hungry!), so Tohru had decided that she was just going to have to do it herself.
There was nothing in the fridge or a cupboard that was easy for the 6 year old to make by herself so she was going to have to go to the market on her own.
She really didn't want to though as it was getting dark out-side and she thought it was scary out at night, but she was hungry enough to force her body to put on her coat, and her vocal cords to say that she would be back soon to her mother, before stepping out the door and making her way as quickly as she could towards where the neon lights of the mini mart were shining from.
It was not only dark out that night, but freezing cold as well.
"Winter is coming." She thought the wind told her.
The very earth under her feet whispered of the freezing cold days and nights to come.
She reached the ally that was beside the mini mart and she caught sight of something in the shadows.
Something that made her the shivers and gave her chills down her spine that was colder than the wind that was blowing around her.
It moved in a jerking manner and it looked like it was coming towards her.
Tohru definitely didn't want to be caught out in the open with whatever it was that was stalking her and ran the last few feet to the door of the building and then in the door.
Warmth and lighting greeted her and she went as slow as she could with gathering the ingredients for the, hopefully, yummy food that she was going to make herself and her mother.
"Good evening child. How are you this night?" The nice old lady that owned the shop asked her.
"Good ma'am. I am just here to get some things for dinner tonight. How are you?" Tohru responded as she looked through the shelves of food for something edible to eat.
"I am well dear." The lady responded.
Tohru finally found the last item she would need and brought her basket to the front counter.
"Did you find everything you wanted dear?" She was asked and she nodded her head shyly.
"Yes ma'am." She responded.
She was hoping that whatever was out there would be gone by the time that she exited the building.
She didn't want to come into contact with it if it scared her that much even without her having to see whatever it was.
Walking slowly to the door, she peeked out into the night to check if she could see the thing that had scared her so much, but could see nothing except for the inky black darkness that was the night.
Tohru cautiously took a step out of the doorway of the shop and made her way towards her home.
As she passed by the ally-way again, she glanced down the darkened corridor and froze.
The thing that was there before was closer.
Much closer than it was before.
She could now make out that it had dull red eyes that shined with a viciousness that told her it would hurt her when it got a hold of her and it stood at about 5'10" tall with the body of a man and an extremely deformed face with teeth that looked like they were rotting and very sharp.
Tohru tried not to scream out loud, because the lady inside would more than likely come out to see what was going on and she didn't want to get the lady hurt, but a little shriek ended up escaping anyway.
"W-what a-a-are you!?" Tohru exclaimed.
All it did was stare at her hungrily and breathe heavily before it started to stumble towards her faster than she thought it could move.
"AHHH!" Tohru screamed and began to run as fast as she could towards her home.
Except she had forgotten that this was a dream and that no matter how far or how fast she would run, she would never make it home.
Whatever it was that was chasing her finally caught up to her and grabbed her up and then a burning flash of pain and she bolted up awake and screaming in her bed at her new home.
That dream couldn't be real, could it?