It had been a week since I was released from the hospital, since I had experienced those horrid nightmares. At least that's how Mamoru explained my experience. Nightmares. Oh how I wish I could attribute everything I had seen that night to nightmares. Of course it was easy for Mamoru to say that. I hadn't told him everything that had occurred that night. He didn't know about her…
But I knew. I knew it was Usagi that I had heard that night. I knew it was her that had tried to…had tried to…had tried to what? Why had I seen her that night? Why had I heard those things? Why was she saying those things? What was she trying to achieve?
I absentmindedly trailed my fingers along the wall as I began pacing the room yet again. She was trying to kill you Ami. No. That couldn't be right. Usagi would never have wanted to hurt me. We were friends, always were and always would have been. Maybe I was just being paranoid. Maybe it was all a figment of my imagination from spending a few extra hours at work. Maybe it was the stress. Ah but who am I kidding huh? Things are never so easy to explain.
I flopped down into my chair with a sigh and let my gaze wander. I was sitting in my office, surrounded by mounds of books and paperwork. Usually I would come here to distract myself with work or anything else that might need to be done but today it just wasn't working. I let my eyes skim some of the titles, Advanced Chemistry, Common Viral Replication, and Children's Psychology Volume III…. I somehow doubted any of those would keep me occupied for long; I'd already read all of them of course. Another sigh escaped my lips as I sank down into the soft leather of the chair. My head nodded slightly as I began to doze off. It didn't last long though as a dull thump caught my attention, snapping me to consciousness.
"Mamoru?" I called out tentatively.
There was no reply but the thump repeated itself. If anything it proved that I wasn't hearing things. I crept out into the hall, trying my best not to make any noise. I was on edge. I could feel my heart rate increasing and my breaths coming shorter and faster. Maybe it was only a burglar and I had nothing to worry about. Or maybe it was Mamoru and he had come home early and hadn't heard me call.
I crept slowly into the living room, my eyes darting from wall to wall, trying to find the source of the noise. First to the left it sounded, and then to the right but it always seemed as if I were never fast enough to catch the perpetrator. But then it was behind me. I waited a moment, deciding if I should even turn around at all. Then the sound repeated itself, almost as if it were daring me to catch it. I whirled around suddenly hoping to catch whatever it was off guard. Who knows, maybe an animal had gotten into the house. But there was nothing there, nothing but the emptiness of the hallway leading to the back of the house.
I slowly swallowed the lump in my throat. The front door hadn't been opened from what I could see so the possibility of Mamoru being home was slim to none. I straightened myself and began taking slow deep breaths to calm my nerves. It was probably nothing to get worked up over in the first place. But then the noise repeated, only it was upstairs this time.
I walked into my office and unlocked the bottom right drawer, as the sounds continued upstairs. From what I could tell whatever it was, was moving around our bedroom. I pulled the drawer open and reached inside for my Mercury computer. It had been a couple years since I last used it but I was confident in my abilities to operate it. I flipped it open and began running a scan of the house. I could see myself, a source of heat, standing in the office but other than that there was nothing on the first floor. I tapped they key to begin scanning the second floor and watched as room by room it showed nothing, that is until it scanned the master bedroom. There were no heat signatures but there was one signature that was much colder than the rest of the room and it seemed to be moving quite erratically.
I gripped the computer in my hand and slowly began to climb the stairs. I could hear thumps and other various noises as I approached the door. I laid my hand on the doorknob and paused for a moment, considering if I really wanted to go in or not. But who was I kidding? Like I was going to stand out here and ignore the problem. Slowly I turned the knob and threw the door open just in time to see my dresser sail across the room.
My eyes widened in surprise as other various belongings went flying around the room. I walked in quickly, dodging whatever happened to come my way. I gazed down at the screen of my mini computer long enough to ascertain that whatever was causing the disturbance was definitely still in the room. "Stop this instant!"
My voice wasn't as threatening as I had intended it to be, but it was loud and strong enough to get the point across. The furniture and knick-knacks that had earlier been zooming around the room paused, hanging in mid air.
Suddenly the bed turned up onto its side and flew toward me. "You did it on purpose!"
Oh hell…
I barely managed to dive out of the way as the poles of my bed smashed through the dry wall. But the bed didn't hold my attention long as other pieces of furniture began the suicidal mission of trying to smash me into a bloody pulp. I dodged most of them nimbly, managing to only sustain a few scraps and bruises before most of the furniture was broken up and destroyed. At least I retained quite a bit of my training as a senshi. I leaned against the wall trying to catch my breath as I looked over the shambles that had used to be my bedroom. The floor was covered with splintered wood, pillows, clothes, and just about everything else that had been in there.
I looked down at my computer screen to see that the cold signature was next to me. I jumped up quickly, not wanting to be beside whatever the thing was. But the back of my mind told me that I knew perfectly well what it was. It was Usagi.
"Why did you do this Usagi?"
"Because you betrayed me Ami."
"But I didn't betray you. I would never betray you. You were our princess and you meant the world to us."
"You lie."
"I…"
Before I could finish what I had planned to say something hard smashed into the side of my face and I hadn't even seen it coming. I turned quickly in case anything else came flying my way but nothing came.
"Usagi." I waited a moment but there was nothing. "Usagi…"
I opened my computer again and noticed that the cold signature that was once my friend was no longer there. I gazed down, noticing what it was that had hit me. I reached for the object with one trembling hand as I realized just what it was Usagi had meant.
It was our wedding picture…
"Oh Usagi…"
I could feel my knees grow weak as I sank to the floor, gripping the picture in my hands. And I sat there that way, just staring at the picture, my mind nearly numb from the shock. The sound of the door opening and closing snapped me from my thoughts. Mamoru's home. I jumped up, happy that I wasn't alone anymore. I looked around the room again and groaned. What was I going to tell him?
Author's Note: So I was thinking about bringing in other characters but I'm not quite sure about it yet. Do any of you have any suggestions? Feel free to write them ;)
Also if you read this story before the date that I updated, which is July 18th 2004 then you should read the first two chapters again because I re wrote them. They're much better in my opinion.
And I'm also going to start answering my reviews. Woooo. Heh heh took me long enough eh?
Neonlights: You're the only person that reviewed my second chapter. Thank you for your kind words. You inspired me to re write the first and second chapters to make them better, and I also wrote the third chapter. I hope you keep reading.