Priestess of Heaven
Chapter 1: Illusions
The sun was setting with a bright array of purples, pinks, and oranges painting the sky. The busy streets of Tokyo are filled with life as everyone heads home for the day. The alluring smell of food is swirling in the air as restaurants prepare for the dinner rush. Young high school students walk home eager to enjoy their day off the next day. Among these students is a 3rd year girl unaware of the destiny that was about to fall upon her.
"Anis!"
Anis Todou turned around and gazed through the crowd of faces behind her. As usual, many of them were staring at her, but none that she could see seemed to be the ones who had called her. She was used to the stares of the people on the street and she couldn't really blame them. She had long golden hair that shined almost white in the sunlight. Her electric blue eyes were unique and haunting to most, and her slim figure was enticing to all who laid eyes on her.
As different as her appearance was, she still got tired of all the looks people gave her. Looks of awe, looks of jealousy, and looks of lust. All she had seen over and over again in her life and all she hated. All she wanted was someone to look at her as a human and not something to yearn after or to hate.
"Anis Todou! Are you there?" continued the voice. Anis turned around and was face to face with a boy with black hair and grey eyes. "Helloooo? Anybody home?"
Anis pushed the boy away. "And where have you been, Rai? I've been waiting for almost 15 minutes."
"My bad, my bad!" Rai smiled at Anis and held out a small velvet red box. "I got you something. So please forgive me?"
Anis scowled. "Rai, you know how I feel about gifts. . . ."
"I know, I know. But don't consider this as a gift. Consider it a token of my appreciation." he said placing the box in her hand.
"Appreciation for what?" she asked fingering the small box.
"Oh you know. . . ." he trailed off. "For being in my life and making the last few months the best I've ever had."
"Ha. Like I've never heard that before Mr. Cheesy." she joked opening the box. She gasped at the gift. Inside was a silver pendent in the shape of a heart studded with diamonds and angel wings. "Oh my God. Rai, this must have cost you a fortune!"
Rai smiled sheepishly. "Not really. It wasn't much. Nothing is too expensive for you, Anis."
Anis blushed and punched him in the shoulder. "You think you're so smooth. I can't believe you would spend so much money on me. Idiot!" Anis marched down the street with Rai trailing behind her. She ignored him as she continued to the train station. He made no attempt to try and converse with her, which made Anis even angrier. She didn't need Rai buying her such expensive things, and she most certainly did not need him taking her home. She knew he wouldn't leave, so in the end she decided to just ignore him.
Anis glanced across the station to the other side where a group of people stood waiting for their next train on the opposite platform. She lost sight of them when a train flew by, but when the train passed, they were gone. In their place a giant red bird stared at her, calling her name. "Anis. . . ." She'd never seen such a beautiful and terrifying creature in her life. It almost looked like it was on fire. Another train flew by and once it was gone, she glanced back across station. The people on the other platform were there again and the strange bird was gone.
"Maybe it was just my imagination." she mumbled to herself while rubbing her head.
"What was?" asked Rai with a smile.
"Nothing." she whispered. "The train's coming. Let's hurry up and get back to my house. I just want to lie down."
"Whatever you say, Anis."
"I'm home!" cried Anis walking into the small apartment. She took off her shoes at the door and slipped into her favorite pair of white slippers. Rai followed her example and took off his shoes as well.
"Sorry for the intrusion!" Rai said to the empty apartment.
Both of their calls were answered only by silence. Anis sighed at her dark and lonely home, and made her way to the kitchen. "Is there anything you would like to drink?" she asked Rai.
He only shrugged. "Whatever you feel up for. I don't care."
Anis sighed. Rai was always so nonchalant. She envied him in that very aspect. If only she could have that same carefree nature that he had. Maybe if she did, the memory of that strange bird wouldn't scare her as much as it did. She was still worried about it. What had she really seen? She wasn't on any medication so there was no way that was the cause. Could she have been day dreaming?
"On second thought, I'll just take a water." came Rai's voice.
Anis quickly returned her thoughts to the drinks. She was more in the mood for lemonade, but when she went to the fridge, she remembered that she drank the last of it that same morning. "Aw man. I totally forgot to pick some up on the way home!"
"Pick up what?" mumbled Rai as he flipped through a magazine on the living room couch.
"Some more lemonade. I'm going to go to the mini market down the street and buy some." Anis grabbed her bag and went to the front door to put her shoes back on. "I'll be right back, okay Rai?"
"Alright. Call if you need anything." he called from the living room.
Anis sighed and closed the door. The sun outside was almost behind the horizon and its light was growing dim. She could already see the outline of the moon appearing in the sky and the small dim lights of the stars. "I better hurry before it gets too late. I have to finish my English homework still."
Walking down the street, she noticed people in suits carrying briefcases and other students from her school slowly making their way home. Most of the students had probably just been to a karaoke bar, and Anis's insides burned with jealousy. Her foreign looks made her seem unapproachable at school, and she didn't have any friends until Rai came along.
Rai transferred to her school a little over 3 months ago, and he was the first person to approach her. The first person to try and be friends with her. The first person to even want to get to know her for her, not for her body. He was her important and only friend in the world, and she cared about him more then anything else in the world.
Walking into the mini market, Anis sighed. Standing next to the magazine rack were two guys with their noses in a playboy magazine. She recognized them from school as a pair of players who thought every girl wanted to get with them. She'd had her share of their harassments until Rai came along. The boys had kept their distance from her since she started hanging out with Rai.
One of the boys looked over at her, his greasy black hair covering half of his eyes. He smiled at her and nudged at his friend to look at her as well. They both snickered and placed the magazine where they had found it, and headed straight towards Anis.
"Hey baby, where's that boyfriend you always walk around with?" asked the bulkier boy.
Anis kept her face expressionless and walked towards the aisle where the drinks were. "He's not my boyfriend."
Their eyes lit up. "Well that's good to hear." came the voice of the boy with the greasy hair. "She's not with that guy, Kimiharu."
The bulkier boy known as Kimiharu smiled. "I told you Kakeru!" he shouted back to the greasy haired boy. "I told you a babe like her wouldn't be into someone like him!"
Anis grimaced. Should she have told them she was with Rai? Would they have left her alone if they thought she was? It was too late to say she was. She quickly picked up the lemonade and made her way to the cash register, the boys unfortunately in tow.
"So where you heading, princess?" asked Kimiharu getting too close to her neck.
She moved slightly to the side. "Nowhere you need to concern yourselves with." she said handing the cashier her money. He gave her a worried look as he returned her change, but she nodded to him.
"Aw, come on now. We just want to make sure a girl like you isn't walking the streets at night all alone. We're doing it to help you." said Kakeru.
"I'm just going down the street to meet my boyfriend. I'm more then capable of doing that by myself." she said glaring at them. "Now if you don't mind, I have a date. I'm already running late, and I don't feel like wasting my time with you two any longer." She walked out the door and was surprised the boys did not follow. Had her lie actually worked? Judging by their opened mouths and dumb-struck faces, she figured it did.
The sun was nearly gone now, its dim light barely shining in the sky. She looked out towards the north, happy she was still able to tell which way was north. Rai had made sure she knew the directions when they started hanging out together. "In case you get lost!" he had said. She smiled at the memory. North lead her straight home, where she knew Rai was waiting.
The streets were much quieter now that night was starting to fall. There were still the occasional students and the shifty people out on the street, but they left her alone and she left them alone. She wouldn't call her neighborhood the 'ideal' one, but it was still decent. Sure it was not the rich part of town, but it was not exactly the bad part either. Just a middle class neighborhood where all the middle class people peacefully lived their lives. And she was one of those average middle class kids trying to make a living in this dog-eat-dog society.
Sure she had parents, but they both lived in different countries. They were both figuring out a divorce while trying to work, and they didn't want to 'inconvenience' Anis. In truth, she knew her parents just didn't want to deal with her. She was inconveniencing them, not the other way around. The only time they even bothered to make contact with her was when they put money in her bank account for her living expenses. They never contacted her and she never contacted them. It was like she didn't even have parents.
"Anis. . . ."
Anis looked up, and froze in her tracks. In the middle of the sidewalk a few feet ahead of her was a turtle. Or at least she thought it was a turtle. It looked like a turtle, but wrapped around its body was a giant snake. Around the creature was silver light that made it look both beautiful and frightening.
Anis stared at the creature, her eyes not once leaving its big golden eyes. It made no move towards her and she made no move towards it, but it felt like her soul was moving towards it. She felt like she belonged next to that strange creature and would do all she could to remain with it.
"Anis. . . ." whispered the creature once more, this time its voice more gentle.
A car raced by causing Anis's attention to falter towards the road and when she returned to face the creature once more, it was gone. Her body suddenly felt heavy and weak. What was that creature? Did it have anything to do with the other creature she had seen earlier that day or was she going crazy?
Her vision started to get blurry on the sides and up ahead she saw a figure of a young man. "Anis!" cried the figure moving closer to her. The ground below her feet suddenly came rushing up to her face. Everything around her started to grow dark and cold. The last thing she saw before the darkness was Rai's face.
Slowly opening her eyes, Anis sat up. She immediately regretted the action and placed her hand to her aching head. She had a killer headache. Looking around her barren bedroom, she found no sign of Rai. Sighing she slowly stood up and walked towards the kitchen. The light was on and s he could smell something amazing coming from there.
Peeking her head through the doorway, she was surprised to see Rai cooking behind her stove. "Somebody call the local TV station!" she said jokingly, "Rai Kyogoku is actually cooking?"
Rai looked over at Anis and smiled. "Who do you think I'm cooking for?"
"Sorry. I didn't mean to worry you Rai. Heck, who knows what would have happened if you hadn't come. Some pervert could have seen me on the ground and taken me somewhere." Anis walked into the kitchen and leaned against the counter, staring at her dear friend. "What were you doing there anyways? I thought you were wrapped up in some magazine or something."
"I'm not really sure. I just had this feeling that something wasn't quite right, and came looking for you. The next thing I knew, you were passed out on the ground literally five feet away from the apartment complex."
Anis and Rai stood, tension and awkwardness suddenly filling the room. Anis knew what he wanted to ask, but he was too polite to ask it. 'What had caused her to collapse?' She wasn't sure how to answer the question, because even she did not understand. And trying to explain it to him would mean she would have to tell him about the strange creatures she'd seen that day. There was no way she was going to tell him about those either. The last thing she wanted was to scare away her only friend with her insane illusions.
Looking at the clock, she was surprised to see that it was already 12am. "I take it you will be staying the night again, Rai?" she asked already knowing the answer.
"I don't see why not. Tomorrow is Sunday and we don't have any school tomorrow. It's not like my parents will really care." he said placing the food on two plates. Spaghetti.
"If I had known you would cook every time I passed out, I would have passed out more often." she said taking the plate to the kitchen able and sitting down.
"Don't make a habit out of it, and I will cook as much as you want me to." he smirked slurping a long noodle. With one last slurp, a drop of sauce landed on the table.
"Try to be a little more mature, Rai. I can't clean up after you all the time." she said laughing. "Didn't your mother ever tell you not to play with your food?"
"My mother told me not to do a lot of things, but that doesn't mean I listened." he said laughing.
"Very funny, Mr. Rebel. I see I'm going to have to keep an eye on you." she laughed.
They finished the rest of their dinner in silence, both eager to get to bed. Anis, for one, had just been through a long and very confusing day. She hoped escaping to her dreams would allow her the time she so desperately needed to keep her mind off of everything that was going on in her life. She didn't want to stay in this world where she felt so out of place. She wanted to escape to the world of her dreams where she would always be accepted.
Once the dishes were finished, Rai collapsed on the couch. "Are you going to keep me warm tonight?" he called out to Anis in her room.
She walked out and thrust a pillow and blanket in his face. "In your dreams, Rai. Those should keep you just as warm." She smiled at Rai as he dug himself out of the blankets. She turned towards her room, but was instantly pulled back by the waist, landing on Rai's lap. She blushed at how close his face was to hers and tried to stand up. "What do you think you're doing, Rai?"
"Just taking advantage of the time and place." he said happily kissing her on the cheek. "And giving you a goodnight kiss."
Anis blushed and tore his arms away from her, stomping into her room. She quickly changed into her silk nightgown and walked back into the living room, holding a pair sweats in her hand. "You left these here the last time you stayed the night." she mumbled, still irritated by his actions.
"Thanks a bunch, princess." he said taking off his shirt.
"What do you think you're doing/!" she said blushing and quickly looking away.
"What's it look like? Going to bed." he said laying on the coach and pulling the covers up to his hips, revealing his broad and muscular chest. Anis glanced at his firm body, admiring how fit he was. Rai smiled at her, "Like what you see?"
Anis blushed and turned away, heading to her room. "Sweet dreams, Rai." she said, still blushing.
"They will be as long as you're in them." he replied. "Sleep well, Anis."
Anis glanced over at Rai once more before retreating to her room and closing the door behind her. That was very much a Rai thing to say and do, and yet she couldn't help but blush at his exquisite body. She'd seen him without a shirt plenty of times before, so why was this time any different?
Frowning at her thoughts, she jumped into her bed and buried herself deep in her blankets. She didn't want to think of Rai in that way. He was the only friend she had and she didn't' want to risk falling for him and eventually losing him because of those feelings. Sure, he was always hitting on her, but he was doing it as part of a joke. Or at least she thought it was a joke. Just Rai being Rai.
There was no way he actually felt that way about her, right?
Sighing, she covered her eyes with her arm, urging herself to escape her thoughts and drift away to her dreams. At least she could escape the insanity there. With once last sigh, Anis drifted to sleep.
That night, the creatures invaded her dreams.
To be continued. . . . . Hope you all enjoyed POH Chapter 1! I've had this story on my mind for a while now. The first chapter was a little slow, but it will quicken up in the next few chapters! Look forward to seeing old faces from FY and FY:GK! Be on the look out for CHapter 2: Familiar Whispers! Rate and comment! =D