Chapter Ten

Tatsuya shut the journal, and looked up at Kaida in disbelief. “‘Dragon’s Frozen Heart’?” Tatsuya asked. “What the hell is this?”
“It’s my power,” she said. “I’m fall. I control death. My brother who is spring controls life.”
“What about the other two?” Tatsuya asked. “Winter and summer?”
“They control the two next most powerful forces in the universe,” she explained. “Time and space.”
Tatsuya shook his head, as if he were trying to wake up from a dream he was having. But it didn’t seem to work. He was wide awake.
“This is insanity,” he said. “I can’t possibly be doing this. This isn’t even real, is it? Where’s the hidden camera? Am I on one of those TV shows?”
“I told you,” Kaida said, laughing lightly. “I knew you weren’t going to believe me.”
“This is no laughing matter!” Tatsuya exclaimed. “You just told me that I’m killing someone right now!”
“Yes, but it’s not that bad of a thing,” she said.
“What on earth are you talking about?”
“The good thing about the power is that it gives the user exactly what he wants.”
“I didn’t want to kill anyone!”
“You wanted Darren Morris to leave you alone.”
“But I didn’t want him to die!”
“Well, maybe you should’ve been careful what you wished for.”
Tatsuya didn’t know what to say in response to this, so he simply screamed into his pillow. He sat back up, and glared at Kaida. This was a serious matter, and she just took this whole thing as a joke.
“Kaida, this is so stupid,” Tatsuya said. “Could you please explain this whole killing process again? I just… I just can’t believe it.”
“It’s really quite simple,” she said. “You were born with the power. But because of your extreme loneliness, you have a cold heart. And when you push people away, you give them a cold heart. But instead of it being a metaphorical cold heart, you give them a literal frozen heart.”
“So because I told Darren to leave me alone, I gave him my… frozen heart?”
“Exactly.”
Tatsuya groaned, and buried his face into his pillow. This was serious, and Kaida still seemed to have a bit of laughter in her voice.
“Kaida, this is bad,” he said. “Is there any way for me to help Darren? Any way to reverse this stupid frozen heart business? If I start being nice to him, will his heart unfreeze?”
Instead of answering his question, Kaida simply stood up. “Instead of asking me everything, why don’t you just consult to your great-grandfather’s journal?”
“You can’t just leave me here!” Tatsuya said, standing up after her. “I mean, you randomly tell me about this weird dragon power, and then you just leave? What is wrong with you?”
“Calm down, Tatsuya,” she said, turning away from him and walking towards the door. “You’ve got all of your answers in that little book of yours. Good bye.”
Kaida unlocked Tatsuya’s door, and exited the room just before swiftly moved down the stairs and out of Tatsuya’s front door. Tatsuya had barely even arrived at the top of his staircase as he watched the door close behind her long, flowing hair.
“She is freaking insane,” Tatsuya said to himself under his breath.
Tatsuya looked down at his socked, and scratched his left foot with his right. “I don’t know what I’m going to do,” he muttered to himself. “There’s nothing I can do, really. I guess from now own I just have to watch what I say to people. Be careful what I wish for and all that jazz.”
He began to slowly step down the stairs. He had never noticed how the first few steps had always creaked a little as he stepped on them. Time got slower, and his heart got heavier. Creak. “Grandpa?” he called to his living room. Creak. “Grandpa, I think I’m going to go out for a walk.” Tatsuya needed a bit of inspiration. A bit of relaxation, some fresh air, and just a break from reality. Creak. “Hey, Grandpa?” Step. Step. Step.
His grandfather was lying down on the couch, his eyes closed and the TV remote still in his hand. Tatsuya gave him a little nudge.
“Grandpa, if mom comes home soon, tell her I just went out for a break, okay?” he repeated, unsure if his grandfather had heard him. He was probably asleep, the old coot. Tatsuya gave him another nudge. And a horrific thought crossed Tatsuya’s mind. He nudged his grandfather again, and screamed. “Grandpa!” he shouted, his eyes widened. “Grandpa, wake up!”
“What’s all this screaming?” Kimi asked, at the top of the stairs. “I’m trying to do something, and I can’t have all this screaming going on.”
“Kimi, I need you to call mom,” Tatsuya said. “There’s something wrong with grandpa.”
And now Kimi’s eyes were widened. She ran to find a telephone. Tatsuya leapt over the couch to try to look at his grandpa.
“KIMI, FASTER,” he said. He pulled out his cell phone, and dialed 911. “Tell me what mom says, I’m calling for help, too.”
“911, what’s your emergency?”
“Hello, my name is Tatsuya Gray,” Tatsuya spoke quickly. “And I don’t know if my grandfather is asleep or not, but whatever it is, he’s not moving and he’s not talking back to me and I’m really worried and I don’t know what to do. My sister is calling my mom who’s a nurse, but I really need to get my grandfather to the hospital right away.”
“All right, dear, calm down,” the lady on the other end of the line said. “We’re sending help right away.”
“Thank you so much,” he said. “I live at 893 Mainstreet, please get here quickly.”
“We’ll be there as soon as possible.”
“Okay, okay, okay, okay,” Tatsuya panted. “Thank you.” Tatsuya hung up the phone and began to pace back and forth, waiting to hear the sirens of the ambulance and for his sister to come downstairs and tell him what his mother said.
“Tatsuya,” Kimi said, running down the stairs. “I told mom what’s going on, and she said to call 911 immediately to take grandpa to the hospital where she works.”
“Yeah, an ambulance is already on the way,” he said.
“Thank goodness,” Kimi sighed. “How did this happen?”
“I don’t know,” Tatsuya said. “I just came downstairs, and I was going to go for a walk, so I told grandpa, but he wasn’t answering back, and I didn’t know what to do except for… well, I didn’t know what to do,” Tatsuya noticed a quiver in his own voice. He rubbed his eyes against his sleeve because he didn’t want to seem like he was crying in front of his sister. He had to stay strong for her.
“Tatsuya, what’s going to happen to grandpa?” Kimi asked, her voice quivering now, too.
Tatsuya fell to his knees and put his arms around his sister. “I don’t know, Kimi,” he said. “I wish I knew, but I don’t know.”
“Is something bad going to happen?” she said, crying into Tatsuya’s jacket.
“Of course not,” Tatsuya said. “No matter what happens, it’s not going to be bad, I promise. Nothing’s going to happen, not while I’m around.”
The sirens rang, and Tatsuya could hear them from all the way down the street. He ran outside of his house, and waved so that the people driving could see him.
They stopped abruptly in front of his house, and jumped out of the giant vans.
“My grandpa is inside on the couch,” Tatsuya told the man. “Please, we’ve got to hurry! My mom works as a nurse at the hospital, so please take us there quickly.”
“You’ve got to relax, son,” one of the paramedics said as two of them rushed into Tatsuya’s house with a stretcher. “We’re working as fast as we can. Please, all you’ve got to do is remain calm. I know this is a frightening experience, but we’re here to help, okay?”
“Sir, with all due respect, I don’t need your crap right now,” Tatsuya said, tears beginning to stream down his face. “My little sister is in there, and I’m all she’s got. My father died ten years ago, and I’ve been through shit all of my life. My mom’s always at work, and my sister is out with her friends every fucking second, and I don’t know if she’s being brought up right. And right now she has to watch her grandfather die, and all I can do is remain calm and try to stay strong for her. But this is my grandfather, too, and even though I want the best for my sister, I can’t help but freak out right now. So please just do your job.”
The paramedic put his hand on Tatsuya’s shoulder. “I understand. We’re working as fast as we can.”
“I should say thank you, but it’s not fast enough.”
The other two paramedics were pulling Tatsuya’s grandfather outside on the stretcher, and they pulled him into the ambulance. The man that Tatsuya was talking to picked up Kimi, who was now outside, and also in tears.
“Take her into the ambulance,” Tatsuya told the paramedic. Tatsuya ran to his door to lock it before running in after his grandpa and into the ambulance. The incredibly loud sirens went off, and he could feel the vehicle speed away down the road.
Tatsuya picked up his phone and dialed his mother’s number.
“Hello?” she said. “Tatsuya? What’s going on right now?”
“Mom, we’re in the ambulance,” he said, his voice shaking. “Kimi’s next to me, and grandpa’s in the stretcher in front of us. We’ve got a couple paramedics with us.”
“Okay. How is your sister?”
“We’re both okay,” he said. “A bit shaken up, and kind of teary, but we’re both okay.”
“Please give the phone to your sister.”
Tatsuya put his cell phone in Kimi’s hand. “Mom wants to talk to you.”
Even though Tatsuya couldn’t hear what his mother was saying into the phone, he pretty much got the main gist of it. He was so glad that his mother was having this talk with Kimi so that he didn’t have to.
“Mom?… Yeah, I’m okay… Tatsuya’s fine… Grandpa doesn’t look so good, though… Yes… Yes… We’re on 1st street right now, I think… Yes, I’ll stay with Tatsuya… okay… okay… okay, mom… all right… bye… I love you, too… bye…” Kimi hung up the phone, and gave it back to Tatsuya.
Tatsuya put his arms around his sister. “Mom is a wonderful person,” he told her. “You understand everything she said, right?”
“Mhm,” Kimi cried into Tatsuya’s shirt. She hiccuped, and continued to get Tatsuya’s jacket wet with tears. “I want grandpa to be okay.”
Tatsuya held Kimi tighter. “Don’t worry, Kimi,” he said. “Don’t worry. Just stay close to me, like mom said. Go ahead and cry.”