• CHAPTER 34 - ONE STEP AT A TIME

    Things haunt you, they taunt you, they try to eat you from the inside. You know that feeling won't suppress unless some sort of miracle happens...

    I held Kai's hand hard and lay on my side and rested my heavy head on Kai's firm chest and sighed while closing my eyes. The new year was wearing me out already and it felt like I'd never get over this flu. Apparently I have some pneumonia too, so the doctors won't let me out for a while since my immune system is pathetic and I'm sick for over twice as long as everybody else and in worse condition. Kai slid his hand out of mine while I was halfway unconscious and he coiled his arm around my shoulders, still watching out for my right shoulder.

    "Does that hurt?" Kai whispered.

    I shook my head, too tired to answer. I draped my arm across Kai's torso and drifted into sleep once the morphine kicked in again.

    .:{{Dream in Arisa's Perspective}}:.

    "Leave," a smooth voice whispered.

    I turned and looked around, searching for the face of the voice. I knew whose it was, but I wanted a confirmation. I searched through the crowded forest and panicked once I glanced up and spotted the full moon, but it was glowing a shade of orange. I finally tracked the voice I had been hearing and sure enough, it was Kai. I sighed in relief but he seemed distracted and I turned my attention to where he was and screamed; a Werewolf. Kai's face looked furious and wanting to kill, but when he spoke again, he sounded the complete opposite.

    "Arisa, leave now," I knew this had to be some kind of dream if Kai's face was so angry and he could talk so smoothly and calmly at the same time. Whenever his face was twisted in anger, he would always hiss and growl.

    I could hear more growling surrounding us and I didn't even think twice before I turned on my bare heels and darted away from Kai. After a short moment of sprinting, a burgundy-haired Werewolf trotted beside me with astonishing forest green eyes; Takeuchi. I quickly grabbed onto his mighty wolf mane and swung myself onto his back, knowing it would be impossible for me to accomplish a task like that in real life. Takeuchi drove faster through the forest until a brown-haired Werewolf gnawed into his back right ankle and Takeuchi collapsed onto the ground, sending me tumbling to the ground and at the feet of a black-haired Werewolf. Before I could physically react, the wolf bit into my shoulder and then into my side and the burning started all over again, he had infected me once again.

    I didn't shout out in pain, but it was horrendous pain. I thrashed around as I had before, horrified at the fact that I was reliving the worst pain my body has ever experienced physically. I did the last thing I thought was manageable, but I jumped onto my feet and ran, leaving Takeuchi behind with the brown-haired Werewolf and the black one was keeping an easy pace with me. I noticed after a short moment that he was trying to keep up with me rather than slow down for me. My physical speed was increasing dramatically already and my senses were sharpening.

    "No!" I cried out in fear.

    I made a sharp right turn and the Werewolf skidded to a halt and changed his direction so that he was after me once again, really struggling to keep up. I wanted to slow down and run at a human pace, the human pace I used to run at, but it was futile. The Werewolf lurched at me and dug its teeth into my arm and bit with incredible force, but it felt like nothing more than a slight muscle squeeze. He was trying to snap my arm and would try to finish me off, but it was too late; I was already one of them, but in the human form. I shoved the wolf aside and thrashed around again, trying to wake myself up. I swung my arm and it cut a tree trunk clear in half, collapsing onto another tree. I bit my lip and it bled after my new sharpened teeth cut into my lip. I cradled my arms around myself and continued to shout by myself. I couldn't hear, see, or smell Kai anywhere but Takeuchi was still around, but the scent of his blood was incredibly strong. I heard that same death screech I had heard when this similar event was going on before. When I looked ahead of me, Takeuchi had somehow ended up there. I observed once more and my my screech penetrated the night as Takeuchi lie on the ground as a Werewolf, a lifeless husk, a soulless carcass.

    "No! No!!" I woke myself from my nightmare and grasped Kai's shirt.

    Kai gripped my wrist and rolled me onto my back to keep me from jumping off the bed. He must have been expecting me to shout and I was probably already thrashing before I woke up, but his eyes were still filled with panic as he scanned my face.

    "Arisa??" Kai breathed, "What was it?"

    I snapped my eyes open at the sound of his voice and I saw I was back in the hospital, I wasn't in the woods, I wasn't bitten, I wasn't a Werewolf...but was Takeuchi dead? I pryed my wrist out of Kai's hand and rested it on my forehead and breathed heavily and Kai waited patiently, but his eyes still crowded with panic and worry.

    "Arisa?" Kai asked again as I tried to regain my breath and my sanity.

    "Oh my God, Kai...oh, God," I sighed, covering my face with one hand, "It seemed so real."

    "Tell me what happened," he encouraged, lightly touching my face.

    I rubbed my shoulder at the slight burning pain that started once again and shook it off, assuming it was in my head. I took a deep breath and let it out slowly, "There were Werewolves again," I started.

    Kai watched me calmly and I continued, "You were there, but not for long because you told me to leave, to run away. As I was, Takeuchi ran beside me and had me crawl on top of him so I could escape faster but that brown-haired Werewolf wiped us out." I shivered, "The black one bit me and infected me again. I ran away once again and it soon turned hopeless for you to suck out the venom because you had disappeared.

    "All of my senses were sharpening; my eyesight, my smell, my hearing, everything." I winced at the pain that increased in my shoulder, "It burns..."

    Kai rubbed my shoulder as light as he could and his cool touch didn't seem to help much, "Just take it easy," he whispered.

    "Kai, at the end of my dream, Takeuchi was killed," tears brimmed my eyes, "Kai, his skull was smashed in too..." and the tears spilled silently.

    Kai pulled me close to his torso and I winced away from him and held my shoulder again, "What's wrong with my arm?"

    "Let me see," he slipped down part of my hospital gown and flinched slightly at the sight of my blood soaking through the bandages, "Your wound reopened."

    "But why does it burn again?" the tears were still spilling and I was on the verge of barging into Takeuchi's room to be sure he was still alive.

    "There must still be Werewolf venom at the surface where your blood clotted," he explained, "And so it got into your wound again, but it will only sting."

    I buried my face in his neck and he rubbed my back gently as I cried silently and he didn't seem bothered that my tears were soaking through his shirt. My wound must not have been bleeding an incredible amount if Kai wasn't even changing the bandages. We lay in silence for a long time, our only light was the moon and the stars and a few parking lot lights. My pneumonia caught up with me and I was coughing frantically. I sat up and my coughing started clearing up and I removed the needles from my arm and my hand. I inched my way off the bed and Kai was in front of me in a flash, forbidding me to leave the bed.

    "Arisa, you need your rest," he whispered.

    "No way, Kai," I whispered back, "If I'm just going to have another nightmare like that, then I'll never sleep again."

    "Don't be frivolous," he told me, brushing around my bangs, "Try dreaming instead."

    "Yeah right," I scoffed, "I don't have dreams anymore."

    I pushed past Kai and made my way to the door, using the wall for support whenever I needed it until Kai held his arm out for me to grab. I wrapped my arms around his right arm and we made our way quietly out of the room and the whole hospital was so quiet. It was about two in the morning and the only thing Kai and I could hear as we steadily walked down the hallways was the subtle beeps of other patiences' machines and my human heels whenever they touched the ground with a "thud". Kai's walk was as graceful as ever and despite the face that he was wearing shoes, I still couldn't hear his footsteps.

    I stopped Kai and myself as I realized something when holding onto Kai's arm, "You feel colder than normal," I could feel the cold of his skin through his long-sleeved shirt.

    Kai paused for a moment, "Maybe your fever is going down so now you can feel my normal body temperature,"

    "I don't believe you, Kai. You're thirsty." I hissed quietly, "If you need a drink--"

    Kai had me up against a wall, his hands on either side of me and was crouched over so he was looking me in the eyes seriously. He kissed my cheekbone directly under my right eye. He trailed his lips down my cheek and against my jaw and slowly licked the angle of my jaw and my neck. My breaths came in stutters and I prepared myself, but nothing else happened.

    Kai pulled away enough for his forehead to be touching mine, "I'm not taking your blood, not when you're like this,"

    "You haven't fed in days," I pointed out, complaining, "Or would my blood still taste like Werewolf venom?"

    That hurt me to ask that and it hurt Kai more to hear that. He stood up straight, sliding his hands off of the wall behind me and he allowed me to grab onto his arm again and we continued to walk in silence.

    "I'm sorry, I'm just," I broke the silence, "I'm still a little freaked out about the dream. I want to help you if you're thirsty."

    I didn't wait for his answer. I sat down on a bench and I pulled Kai down onto the bench next to me by his sleeve. I pressed my hand against his cheek and he started caving into temptation. He grasped my wrist and without another thought, he pricked the ball of my hand and took his time recieving the blood he needed. I rested my head on his shoulder and looked down and away from the blood, fearing nausea once again. Kai breathed steadily and kept his eyes closed.

    After I had finally noticed Kai feeding for a while, I tried to gently pry him off, "Kai, was that enough?"

    He ignored me and only continued to drink my blood even more. I grasped onto his arm and whispered in his ear, "Kai, that's enough," I was still exhausted.

    He pulled himself away abruptly, smearing my blood all over the palm of my hand and also onto his cheek. He rubbed off the smeared blood and pressed both of his thumbs against both of the tiny holes on the ball of my hand to stop the bleeding.

    "I'm sorry, I took a little more than usual," he apologized quickly.

    "You only took what you needed," I reassured.

    "Your blood tastes the same as usual," he spoke up after short silence.

    "Okay," and that's all I could say. I was happy my blood tasted the same, because it was now my habit--bad habit--for Kai to bite me. It gave me jolts, an adrenaline rush, it enticed me.

    "You don't have to live like this, you know," Kai told me without looking at me. His thumbs were still pressed against the small puncture wounds on my hand.

    "Shut up, Kai," I snapped, "I've already been dragged in too far to turn back now. I don't want to turn back anways."

    Kai opened his mouth to say something else, probably a protest, and he froze where he was. He sat up straight and his face was glazed over with concentration and confusion. I gripped his sleeve and was about to ask him what was going on but he gripped my arm and pulled me up and we started rushing in a different direction.

    "Kai? What's going on?" I asked, worried.

    He only ignored me as we continued to rush to wherever Kai was taking us to. It was hard for me to keep up with his pace so I had to tug back on his sleeve a few times so he could keep up with my human pace. Where he led me to wasn't completely expected. After that short moment of rushing, we were standing in front of Takeuchi's room. My heart skipped a beat at what Kai was trying to communicate and we entered his room and I was fearing the worst.

    Takeuchi was still the same, lying motionless and pale and thin. He was still unconscious and breathing steadily on his back. Niether Matsuda nor Miku were in the room and I only had to assume they went back home so that Miku could get some rest. Of course, I knew she wouldn't want to. If she were still here, she'd be sitting in the chair next to Takeuchi's bed, watching him.

    Kai released my arm and rushed to Takeuchi's bedside and I inched my way over carefully. I gripped the railings of the bed and both Kai and I stared at Takeuchi and I still couldn't comprehend what Kai was doing. Why did we rush here if Takeuchi hasn't done anything? Was he dead? Or getting worse?

    "Takeuchi?" Kai whispered. He was concentrating again.

    After several painful silent minutes, Kai breathed out a sigh of relief and smiled...smiled...Kai rushed his way around Takeuchi's bed to my side and he embraced me suddenly. I froze where I was and was losing my breath with how hard he was holding me.

    "Kai--"

    "Takeuchi just spoke," Kai interrupted me.

    I stopped breathing and pulled away from Kai and it took me a moment to finally ask him, "What?"

    "His mind," Kai pointed to his own temple, "He spoke through his mind. Not very clear or comprehensible, but his mind is finally processing!" he seemed incredibly relieved.

    "But...can he...talk?" my breath was still a little hard to catch.

    "Only through his head right now. He's not saying complete sentences, but he's trying." he sighed.

    "What did he say?" I whispered.

    Kai's face fell and went grim, "He was apologizing to you,"

    That slapped me across the face, "Why is he apologizing to me? Miku's the one he should be apologizing to!" I hissed.

    "He doesn't know she was here. He was unconscious when we tried to tell him she was here, so he doesn't know." Kai frowned.

    "So...does that mean he's going to live?"

    Kai grimaced and the room was somber. He slowly embraced me again and played with my hair, "There's no guarantees. His chances are still low." he whispered.

    At the same time, my heart was consumed by relief from the face that he spoke to Kai through his head, but was soon weighed down by sorrow because it's still unpredictable whether Takeuchi would live or not. It's a healing process, and we're going to have to take it one step at a time.