Dragon's Frozen Heart

Chapter Twenty-Five (the last chapter!)

2009-11-27T23:40:00.000-08:00

Madison Anabel Fisher sighed, and fell into Tatsuya’s arms.
“Hey, are you all right?” Tatsuya asked her.
“Yeah,” she said, panting. “I was just so afraid I lost you there for a moment. You looked so tempted by all of his offers.”
“I told him my world wouldn’t be perfect as long as he was in it,” Tatsuya said. “But it also wouldn’t be perfect if I didn’t have any of my friends of family.”
Madison Anabel Fisher smiled at him, and Tatsuya hugged her close with his bloody hands.
“I’m so sorry,” she said. “I can’t believe I could forget someone like you. I just want you to know that if you were still in my life after that accident, I would never become someone like Maddy. It was my parents, Tatsuya, they wanted me to be their perfect child, and I became a person that you would totally disapprove of.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Tatsuya said. “Nothing was your fault. So you don’t have to apologize. I should be the one apologizing. I’m so sorry you got dragged into this whole mess. You could have been killed.”
“I guess it was just Madison Anabel Fisher,” Madison Anabel Fisher said with an odd smile on her face. “She couldn’t let her friends down.”
Tatsuya’s grin faded, and he looked down at his shoes and Madison Anabel Fisher’s bear feet. “And I’m sorry about Darren,” he said.
“You couldn’t control that, either,” Madison Anabel Fisher said, breaking away from Tatsuya’s hug. “You had no idea about any of this dragon stuff, and you didn’t know you had the power to kill him.”
“But I’m sorry that we still have no idea how we’re going to cure him,” Tatsuya said. “Remember what Kaida said—there literally is no possible way that we can help him.”
Madison Anabel Fisher shrugged. “I’m sure we’ll find a way. Until then all we can do is hope.” She sat down on the cold stone, and Tatsuya followed her. They sat there in complete silence until the leaves began to fall from the trees into the ceiling-less sanctum. Once there was a thin layer of red leaves on the ground, Tatsuya heard Kaida overhead. She landed, causing all the leaves to jump for a brief period of time before gently falling back down onto the ground.
“Kaida,” Tatsuya said, climbing onto her back and helping Madison Anabel Fisher up. “Could you please take us home?”
Without any other movements, Kaida lifted herself and her two passengers into the clouds, and they began to fly with an incredible speed through the thin air.
Throughout the flight, Madison Anabel Fisher had fallen asleep on Tatsuya’s shoulder—the one without the burn, thankfully—and Tatsuya allowed her to just sleep through the ride, which worked out perfectly considering Kaida flew quite smoothly.
The landing was a bit rough, so once they were on the road again, Madison Anabel Fisher woke up with a jolt.
Kaida was back into her human form in no time at all.
“Here,” Tatsuya said, giving the pendant to Kaida. “This doesn’t belong to me. It belongs to you.”
“Thank you, Tatsuya,” she said, accepting the pendant, and tying it around her neck again.
“Hey, Kaida, do you have any idea what time it is?” Tatsuya asked.
“It’s about ten in the morning,” she said.
Tatsuya swore under his breath, and ran towards his front door. He opened it, and saw an angry little sister there waiting at the door. Her expression quickly changed, though, from anger to worry.
“Oh my God!” she exclaimed. “Tatsuya, what happened to you? You look all beat up and… what did you do? What did you two do?” she said, moving her glare to the two girls at Tatsuya’s side.
Tatsuya put his arms around his little sister. “Kimi, I love you so much. And I kept my promise. Every thing is going to be fine now.”
Kimi’s expression changed again, but now she looked utterly perplexed. “I love you, too, Tatsuya… and I was worried you had gone off and done something bad again. But I’m glad you’re home.”
“I’m glad I’m home, too,” Tatsuya said.
Madison Anabel Fisher gasped. “Home! I completely forgot that I had to go home! My parents are going to be so pissed at me!”
Tatsuya let go of Kimi, and slowly walked towards Madison Anabel Fisher.
“Madison Anabel Fisher,” he said closely. “That is who you are, right?”
She nodded, unsure of where Tatsuya was going with all of this.
“You’ve got to tell your parents that,” he explained. “You’ve got to tell your parents who you really are, and that you’re not some sort of perfect robot that’s going to do whatever the hell they say. You’re Madison Anabel Fisher, a thinker, and a brilliant person, and my best friend. If they don’t approve of you, then they have no right to call themselves your parents.”
Madison Anabel Fisher swallowed a lump in her throat, and then nodded. “You’re right,” she said. “You are absolutely right. Do you think you can come with me?”
“Of course.”
Tatsuya and Madison Anabel Fisher began to walk to her house, and they barely noticed Kaida trailing alone closely behind them.
They arrived at her door, and Madison Anabel Fisher opened it ever so carefully so that it could make the minimum amount of noise. But her parents had noticed that she was gone, they had noticed her absence. They stood there by the door way, arms crossed, looking fiercely down at their daughter.
“Where have you been?” Mr. Fisher asked her. “And what have you been doing? Why were you with this boy?”
Tatsuya glared at him, but said nothing.
“What happened to you?” Mrs. Fisher said, worried out of her mind. “You’re all bruised and bloody… what has this boy been doing to you?”
“He has shown me the light,” Madison Anabel Fisher said with an odd tone of confidence behind her words.
“The light?” Mr. Fisher repeated.
“Mom, dad, my name is Madison Anabel Fisher, and this is my best friend Tatsuya Gray. We were best friends since we were babies, and we learned so much from each other until we reached the age of five. Because of unforeseeable events, we were separated, and I completely forgot about him, allowing you two to brain wash me into being your perfect little robot.”
“Maddy, I—”
“Don’t call me that!” Madison Anabel Fisher snapped. “I never liked it when people called me that. I was just too dumb to notice it for most of my life.”
Mrs. Fisher frowned. “You know I don’t like this, dear.”
“Yes, I know you don’t like it, mom,” she continued. “But this is who I am. This is who I was born as, this is how I lived and thought like for the first five years of my life. And it’s not like this is a bad thing, look at Tatsuya, he’s a brilliant, amazing, intelligent young man, and it’s all because of who he is. If you just allowed me to be who I truly am, I could have gotten so much father than I am now. Maybe it would’ve been in a bad way, or maybe a good way. But I’ll never get to know because I never had that opportunity. The opportunity to be myself.”
Mr. And Mrs. Fisher stayed silent.
“I hope you’re thinking about how ashamed you’re feeling right now,” Madison Anabel Fisher scolded her parents.
“We are,” Mrs. Fisher said. Mr. Fisher gave her a glance of shock. “Madison Anabel Fisher, as you like to be called now, you’ll always be my little Maddy. And I suppose we have forced you to do some unnecessary things. And I’m sorry. And Tatsuya,” she turned his head towards him, “I’m sorry for all the horrible things we’ve said to you. Even those horrible things we said ten years ago.”
“It’s all right, Mrs. Fisher,” Tatsuya said. “I forgive you.”
Mrs. Fisher smiled.
Mr. Fisher looked at the two children in a regretful manner. “I have no control over this,” he said. “I suppose there’s nothing I can do.” He said nothing more, and turned around and walked into his house.
“Mom,” Madison Anabel Fisher spoke, ignoring her father, “don’t worry about him. He’ll come around eventually. But there are still a few things I need to take care of, so do you mind if I come home in about an hour?
Mrs. Fisher nodded, and Madison Anabel Fisher smiled and hugged her. “Thanks, mom.”
“It’s all right, dear. Just take care of yourself. I don’t exactly like it when you come home with blood gushing out of your head.”
Madison Anabel Fisher closed the door, and walked down the steps away from her front door.
“What things do we possibly have left to do?” Tatsuya asked.
“We’re going to go visit Darren,” she said. “We’re going to see how he’s doing, and see if we can find a cure for whatever it is he has.”
Tatsuya glanced at Kaida, who didn’t have any expression on her face, and then back at Madison Anabel Fisher. “I agree,” he said. “Let’s go.”
Together, the three of them walked through the bright, hot streets until they reached Darren Morris’ house.
Madison Anabel Fisher knocked on the door, and Mrs. Morris opened it.
“Hi, Mrs. Morris,” she said. “Do you think it’s possible for us to see Darren?”
“Yo, my peeps, what’s going on?” called a voice from inside the house.
Mrs. Morris smiled, and allowed the three of them inside.
“Darren!” Madison Anabel Fisher squealed. She ran up to him and practically jumped on him as she put her arms around his neck and gave him a small peck on the cheek. “You’re okay! And you’re out of bed!”
“You better believe it, babe,” he said. “It has to take much more than just a couple of heart problems to put Darren Morris out of function!”
Tatsuya raised an eyebrow, and glanced quizzically at Kaida.
Kaida shrugged. “It is possible. Sometimes if the individual is strong enough, the problem eventually subsides. Darren’s heart was just able to handle such a horrible thing happening to it, that he was able to survive.”
Madison Anabel Fisher jumped for joy and clapped her hands. “This is so great, I’m so happy you’re all right!”
“I’m more than all right, babe, I’m Darren!”
Tatsuya scoffed at Darren’s insane attitude.
“Hey!” Darren said, letting go of Madison Anabel Fisher and holding his hand out to Tatsuya. “Yo, Tat, my main man! How are things going? Have you missed me?”
Tatsuya smiled at Darren’s goofy gestures, and clasped his hand in Darren’s. “Yeah, whatever, I guess I missed you a little bit.”
“All right! And it’s this chick! Kaida! Gee, I don’t know you that well, but it was awfully nice of you to come over here.”
Kaida didn’t say anything, but simply nodded.
“Listen, man, about being so annoying before…” Darren started, his voice low so that only Tatsuya could hear.
Tatsuya shook his head. “Don’t even worry about it, man. All that stuff I said to you… let’s just completely forget it happened. We can start over.”
Darren smiled his stupid smile. “Awesome. Thanks, bro, you’re pretty cool.”
“And you’re pretty cool yourself.”
Kaida tapped Tatsuya on the shoulder to catch his attention. “I hate to break up your little reunion,” she said. “But there is one important thing I need to tell you.”
“What’s that?” Tatsuya asked.
“I have to go home.”
“Home?” Tatsuya repeated. He had thought about how silly this sounded. He didn’t even know where Kaida had been staying while she was here. “What do you mean by home? Where do you have to go?”
“All the way home,” she said. “I can’t stay here any longer.”
Tatsuya raised his eyebrows, looked over at Madison Anabel Fisher, and back at Kaida. “Darren, could you excuse us for a second?”
“Go ahead,” Darren said.
Tatsuya jerked his head to Madison Anabel Fisher, beckoning her to follow him. They all walked out of Darren’s house together, and Tatsuya gave Kaida a serious look.
“What do you mean you have to go home?” he asked.
“I have no reason to stay here any longer,” she said. “I came here because of your powers. They began to be active, so I had to keep an eye on you. And I came here because Lance wanted to kill you. I had to protect you. But now that everything is over, I have no reason to be here.”
“So you’re just leaving?” Tatsuya asked.
Kaida nodded.
“What?” Madison Anabel Fisher gasped. “After all we’ve been through?”
Kaida nodded again. “I’m sorry, Madison Anabel Fisher. Though we have different views on a myriad of things, I hate to say to myself that I have actually grown quite attached to you.”
The two girls hugged each other, and when they broke apart, Kaida looked longingly up at Tatsuya. He felt the chills go down his spine he knew he would never feel again.
“Take care of yourself,” she said.
Tatsuya nodded. “Yeah,” he said. “You, too.”
Her lips quickly twitched into a smile before her face went emotionless again. Tatsuya smiled, and put his arms around her and held her in a tight hug.
“I’m never going to forget you, Kaida,” he said. “I can’t thank you enough for everything you did. I’ll never be able to pay you back.”
“You don’t need to,” she said, pulling away from the hug. “Just try not to get yourself killed, stay happy, and never be alone.”
Tatsuya nodded again.
“Don’t worry, Kaida,” Madison Anabel Fisher said. “I’ll make sure he is never alone again.”
“Thank you, Madison Anabel Fisher.” Kaida looked at the sun, at the highest point in the sky, and then back at Tatsuya and Madison Anabel Fisher. “I must be going now.”
Without any other words, she turned around and walked down the street. Tatsuya and Madison Anabel Fisher simply gazed at her figure growing ever so smaller with every step she took until she was completely out of sight. After about thirty seconds, they saw a large figure fly from the ground into the sky, and it disappeared into the clouds.
“There she goes,” Tatsuya said.
“She’s free now,” Madison Anabel Fisher said back. “I’m happy for her.”
Tatsuya smiled at Madison Anabel Fisher, and she smiled back. They went back into Darren’s house.
“Hey, what’s up? Did Kaida leave?”
Tatsuya sighed, and nodded.
“No worries, dude.”
Tatsuya’s heart skipped a beat. He would never have to be alone again. He would never have to worry about killing off his friends or family. He would never have to worry about chasing down insane psychopaths who are trying to obtain absolute power of the world by obtaining the power of dragons. He didn’t have to worry about the safety of his family. He just didn’t have to worry.
“Hey, Madison Anabel Fisher,” he said. “Your parents are probably really worried about you. I’m sure they’d like to give you a long lecture on being careful around me, too.”
“Yeah, I would expect that,” she said, rolling her eyes. She hugged Darren one last time before leaving his house with Tatsuya.
Together, they walked back to Madison Anabel Fisher’s house, feeling an odd sense of emptiness and silence without Kaida right behind them.
Madison Anabel Fisher opened the door, and stood in the doorway as Tatsuya waited outside for her to go in.
“Thank you again, Tatsuya,” she said. “For everything.”
“Don’t mention it,” he said. “I’m just so glad you’re okay. And I think it’s a miracle that you actually got your memory back.”
Madison Anabel Fisher giggled. “Yeah, I know. But I’m really happy that we can get back to life normally again. Just like the way we used to.”
“Just like how we used to,” Tatsuya said. “Like ten years ago.”
Madison Anabel Fisher grinned at Tatsuya, and he smiled back at her.
“I’ll see you around, I guess,” she said.
“Yeah,” Tatsuya said awkwardly. “See you later.”
She gave him one last smile before closing the door.
Tatsuya couldn’t help but think about the adventure he had just had when he was on his way home. He couldn’t stop thinking about the amazing rush, the incredible danger, but he was also extremely grateful for the peace he now had, and the fact that he could just go home and do nothing after this.
When Tatsuya arrived at his house, he ran into his mother, who didn’t ask him any questions about where he was, but simply kept her focus on the television.
“I’ll be upstairs, mom,” Tatsuya said. He ran into his room, and locked the door from the inside.
“Tatsuya,” Gina said. “What happened to you?”
“I don’t want to talk about it, Gina,” Tatsuya said, forgetting that his computer was still plugged in and fully functional. He ignored her, and collapsed onto his bed burying his bloody head into his pillow.
“I’m going to take a nap,” he said. “Goodnight.”

Chapter Twenty-Four (updated version)

2009-11-27T23:39:00.001-08:00

"MADDY!" Tatsuya screamed. He avoided a few more falling rocks, and fell down to Maddy. He turned her over. Her eyes were closed, and her head was bleeding. "Maddy, wake up," Tatsuya said. "Madison Anabel Fisher, you have to wake up. Place. You can't do this to me, not again. You have to wake up, Madison Anabel Fisher."
Lance was laughing again in the background. "No little girl is going to stop me!"
"Madison Anabel Fisher, please," Tatsuya begged. "You can't do this to me!"
“There’s nothing you can do about your friend, and there’s nothing you can do to stop me once this pendant is charged up!” Lance said. He turned around in a surprisingly graceful motion, and faced this tiny staircase which led to this great big stone with a tiny slit at the top. He placed the pendant piece into the slit, and it began to emit a dim light.
“Please wake up,” Tatsuya continued to beg. “I don’t care about Lance, I don’t care about the pendant, I can’t let you leave me.”
Maddy still didn’t move.
“Wake up!”
And a flush of memories came over Maddy like a huge wave of icy cold water. She began to see things in a different color, she began to notice things she hadn't noticed before, like the wind blowing south, or the leaves swaying back and forth as they fell from the ground.
She looked at Tatsuya, an odd smoky emotion in her eyes, and she gasped as she remembered who she was.
She was no longer the preppy girl in high heels who would flounce around the school, being perfect to everyone at all times. She was no longer the girl who would fit in with others, or try to pretend to do something just to get approval from her friends or her parents. She became someone more like Tatsuya. Tatsuya, a deep thinker and intelligent person, who would give his life for the well being of his friends.
He sighed as he realized that Maddy was never going to wake up again.
Madison Anabel Fisher’s eyes opened half way. She blinked once, and then looked up at Tatsuya.
“Are you okay?” he asked. “You were knocked out for a little while… you scared the crap out of me, I thought I had lost you.”
“T-Tatsuya?” she said faintly.
“Yeah, that’s right,” he said. “I’m so glad you didn’t forget me. And I’m glad you’re all right and alive.”
“N-no,” she said with great difficulty. “No… I did forget you. Oh my God, how could I forget you?”
“Maddy, are you sure you’re all right?”
To Tatsuya’s surprise, she smiled. “Do me a favor,” she said, a slight giggle in her voice. “Don’t call me that. Call me Madison Anabel Fisher. There are too many people named Maddy, and I’m not like other people.”
It took Tatsuya a moment to understand what she was talking about, and once it had gone through his head, he began to laugh. “Madison Anabel Fisher?” he asked.
She nodded her head. “The one and only.” She sat up straight, and Tatsuya put his jacket to her bleeding head. “Tatsuya, thank you. I can’t believe I forgot you, my best friend.”
Tatsuya put his arms around her, and held her close to him and didn’t let her go. “Madison Anabel Fisher… you’re back where you belong.”
“Yeah,” she said.
“How touching,” Lance said, not removing his eyes from the pendant. “But the pendant is over half way charged, and once it’s fully charged, there’s no way you can win!”
“Maddy,” Tatsuya said quickly. “Er—I mean, Madison Anabel Fisher. I have a plan, but you’re going to have to trust me completely.”
“Of course,” Madison Anabel Fisher said, nodding her head and giving Tatsuya back his bloody jacket. “What do I do?”
“Lance can’t control Kaida when he’s not holding the pendant,” he said. “And he wants to wait until it is fully charged with magic before he takes it again so he can have complete control over Kaida.”
“Right.”
“So I need you to try to get the pendant,” Tatsuya continued. “I don’t care how you plan to do it, but you’ve got to distract Lance and get the pendant out of that pedestal.”
Madison Anabel Fisher nodded. “I’ll try. But what are you going to do?”
“With or without the pendant, I still have some control over Kaida,” Tatsuya explained. “I was born with it. So I’m going to try to keep her under control until you can get the pendant out. Remember, you can’t let Lance get his hands on it.”
Madison Anabel Fisher nodded again. “Got it.”
“All right. Let’s go.”
Madison Anabel Fisher stood up, and ran up the steps to face Lance, but she remembered to keep a safe distance away from him. She began to yell at him and lecture him into giving the pendant back, which was all just a distraction. Tatsuya would have stayed to watch, but he had another job to do. He ignored Madison Anabel Fisher’s distraction, and went straight for the giant dragon in the middle of the sanctum.
“Kaida!” Tatsuya screamed. “Kaida, please, you have to listen to me! Please, change back into your human form and don’t create so much distruction!”
Though it worked, Tatsuya was a bit surprised at his own power. Kaida shrunk down to his size, and was her beautiful human self again.
“Tatsuya,” she said, her hand on her head. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t—I couldn’t—”
“Don’t worry about it,” Tatsuya told her. “Because of that, Madison Anabel Fisher actually got her memory back. The boulder seemed to knock her head hard enough to counteract the amnesia or something.”
Kaida smiled, which forced Tatsuya to smile back.
Madison Anabel Fisher was still arguing with Lance, who seemed to only be shouting back. Tatsuya felt so much more comfortable knowing that this was only a verbal battle, and nothing was going to hurt Madison Anabel Fisher anymore.
Tatsuya and Kaida ran up the steps, and without even thinking Tatsuya flew into the air and tackled Lance, causing them both to fall off the tall pedestal and onto the ground.
“No! Tatsuya!” Madison Anabel Fisher cried.
“What are you doing, stupid boy?” Lance screamed at him.
“I want to see you die, Lance,” Tatsuya barked. “I want to see your soul leave your eyes, and I want to see your body completely motionless!”
Lance screamed, and threw Tatsuya off of him.
Tatsuya didn’t realize how physically strong Lance was until the back of his head hit one of the stone-hard walls.
“TATSUYA!” Madison Anabel Fisher screamed again.
Tatsuya put his hand to the back of head, and looked at it. Blotches of deep red blood covered his palm, and Tatsuya scowled. “Don’t worry about me, I can take this guy,” he called back. “Just get the pendant!”
Madison Anabel Fisher looked confused, she didn’t know what to do. Her best friend was in peril, and she couldn’t do anything about it.
Lance had already come back to abusing Tatsuya. He put his hand around his neck and pulled him up so he stood straight. Tatsuya tried his best to gasp for air, and managed to shout, “Just grab it and go!”
Madison Anabel Fisher did what he said. She held onto the pendant, and pulled with every ounce of muscle that she had until it finally wiggled out of its socket.
“NO!” Lance screamed. He let go of Tatsuya and began to run towards Madison Anabel Fisher and Kaida.
“GO, JUST GO,” Tatsuya screamed, coughing in attempts to fill his lungs with air again.
“Kaida, if you please,” Madison Anabel Fisher said, a sinister tone in her voice as she stroked the pendant in her hand. “Could you take care of this annoying pest for us?”
Without a glance or a second thought, Kaida had grown to her immense size again, and roared as she was a full dragon once again.
“You can’t kill me!” Lance screamed to Kaida.
“I don’t see why not,” Madison Anabel Fisher said.
Tatsuya managed to find the energy in his legs, and he picked himself up and ran towards Madison Anabel Fisher.
Kaida growled and screeched again, and the unruly noise echoed ferociously and caused the entire building to shake. She swiftly turned herself around to swing her tail violently to the side as it picked Lance up off the ground as if he were a handkerchief or something small and useless compared to the great beast that was Kaida.
“I think I’ll leave this honor to you,” Madison Anabel Fisher said, handing the pendant piece over to Tatsuya.
“Revenge will get you no where, boy!” Lance screamed, dangling from Kaida’s tail, holding on for dear life. “Craving revenge is what got me to this point, and if you want to see me dead so badly, you’re no better than I am!”
“I don’t care,” Tatsuya yelled. “You’re not just getting away with this. You can’t just ruin lives and walk away like nothing happened!”
“Then join me!” Lance screamed. “Join me, and we will create a perfect world together! I will tell you secrets of magic and of dragons you never even thought possible!”
Tatsuya held his breath.
“You will be able to control every little atom of this world!” Lance continued. “You won’t ever be lonely, you won’t ever be sad about something ever again! It can be the two of us, ruling the world side by side, making people do whatever the hell we want, and life can be perfect if you just give me that pendant piece!”
“Don’t listen to him, Tatsuya,” Madison Anabel Fisher said. “I know all of this sounds incredible, but you can’t listen to him.”
“A perfect world…” Tatsuya said to himself.
“Yes, boy, a perfect world, built by you and me… how could you give up such an offer? How could you let something like this pass up? You will be the king of all things living and non living, you can be the absolute ruler of time and space, you don’t have to worry about anything ever again!”
“Tatsuya, you can’t give into him,” Madison Anabel Fisher begged. “Please, Tatsuya. The world might not be perfect, but it’s still a wonderful place. You’ve got a good home, and a loving family consisting of your hard working mother and your oh too wonderful sister. You’ve got friends, Tatsuya, and you can’t just let them down. Darren is still dying because of you, and he might not even be alive as we speak. Kaida has been watching you and your family for centuries, just to make sure that you are safe. And then there’s me.”
Tatsuya exhaled.
“What about me, Tatsuya?” Madison Anabel Fisher continued. “Are you going to just leave me here? I’ve known you since the moment I was born, since we were barely babies. We grew up together, learned from each other, and at five years of age we were already more than best friends. And it’s not my fault my parents are horrible people, and it’s not my fault I had to get run over with a bike on the edge of the park, but it is my fault that I became such a horrible person, such a person that ended up being Maddy. And I don’t want to be Maddy, anymore, Tatsuya, I want to be Madison Anabel Fisher, and the only way I can do that is if Tatsuya Gray is my best friend. Please, Tatsuya, don’t listen to that horrible man!”
Tatsuya looked down at the pendant in his hands. He could create a perfect world.
“I would never be lonely,” he said. “I would never be sad.”
“Tatsuya, there’s no reason for you to be sad!” Madison Anabel Fisher sobbed. “You’ve got so many blessings in your life, though it might not be a perfect life, just take it and be happy!”
“What are you waiting for?” Lance called. “Just set me down and hand that pendant over to me. The best things will come to you, boy, and you’ll thank me later.”
“Kaida, I want you to get that man off of your tail,” Tatsuya said, looking back up at the great beast.
“No! Tatsuya, you can’t—”
“What I want you to do,” Tatsuya continued, ignoring Madison Anabel Fisher completely, “is take him away from this place. I don’t care what you do to him, I don’t care if he lives or dies. I just never want to see him again, and I want him to… I want you to make sure he loses all memory of how to obtain the power of the dragons. Just go. Get rid of him.”
“What?” Lance exclaimed as Kaida began to rise into the air. “Let me go! Jet let me go!”
“I’m sorry, Lance,” Tatsuya said. “But I can’t have my perfect world if you’re in it.”
Kaida flew away though the gaping hole that was newly formed in the wall. And all was silent in the sanctum once again.

Chapter Twenty-Four

2009-11-27T22:24:00.001-08:00

"MADDY!" Tatsuya screamed. He avoided a few more falling rocks, and fell down to Maddy. He turned her over. Her eyes were closed, and her head was bleeding. "Maddy, wake up," Tatsuya said. "Madison Anabel Fisher, you have to wake up. Place. You can't do this to me, not again. You have to wake up, Madison Anabel Fisher."
Lance was laughing again in the background. "No little girl is going to stop me!"
"Madison Anabel Fisher, please," Tatsuya begged. "You can't do this to me!"
“There’s nothing you can do about your friend, and there’s nothing you can do to stop me once this pendant is charged up!” Lance said. He turned around in a surprisingly graceful motion, and faced this tiny staircase which led to this great big stone with a tiny slit at the top. He placed the pendant piece into the slit, and it began to emit a dim light.
“Please wake up,” Tatsuya continued to beg. “I don’t care about Lance, I don’t care about the pendant, I can’t let you leave me.”
Maddy still didn’t move.
“Wake up!”
Madison Anabel Fisher’s eyes opened half way. She blinked once, and then looked up at Tatsuya.
“Are you okay?” he asked. “You were knocked out for a little while… you scared the crap out of me, I thought I had lost you.”
“T-Tatsuya?” she said faintly.
“Yeah, that’s right,” he said. “I’m so glad you didn’t forget me. And I’m glad you’re all right and alive.”
“N-no,” she said with great difficulty. “No… I did forget you. Oh my God, how could I forget you?”
“Maddy, are you sure you’re all right?”
To Tatsuya’s surprise, she smiled. “Do me a favor,” she said, a slight giggle in her voice. “Don’t call me that. Call me Madison Anabel Fisher. There are too many people named Maddy, and I’m not like other people.”
It took Tatsuya a moment to understand what she was talking about, and once it had gone through his head, he began to laugh. “Madison Anabel Fisher?” he asked.
She nodded her head. “The one and only.” She sat up straight, and Tatsuya put his jacket to her bleeding head. “Tatsuya, thank you. I can’t believe I forgot you, my best friend.”
Tatsuya put his arms around her, and held her close to him and didn’t let her go. “Madison Anabel Fisher… you’re back where you belong.”
“Yeah,” she said.
“How touching,” Lance said, not removing his eyes from the pendant. “But the pendant is over half way charged, and once it’s fully charged, there’s no way you can win!”
“Maddy,” Tatsuya said quickly. “Er—I mean, Madison Anabel Fisher. I have a plan, but you’re going to have to trust me completely.”
“Of course,” Madison Anabel Fisher said, nodding her head and giving Tatsuya back his bloody jacket. “What do I do?”
“Lance can’t control Kaida when he’s not holding the pendant,” he said. “And he wants to wait until it is fully charged with magic before he takes it again so he can have complete control over Kaida.”
“Right.”
“So I need you to try to get the pendant,” Tatsuya continued. “I don’t care how you plan to do it, but you’ve got to distract Lance and get the pendant out of that pedestal.”
Madison Anabel Fisher nodded. “I’ll try. But what are you going to do?”
“With or without the pendant, I still have some control over Kaida,” Tatsuya explained. “I was born with it. So I’m going to try to keep her under control until you can get the pendant out. Remember, you can’t let Lance get his hands on it.”
Madison Anabel Fisher nodded again. “Got it.”
“All right. Let’s go.”
Madison Anabel Fisher stood up, and ran up the steps to face Lance, but she remembered to keep a safe distance away from him. She began to yell at him and lecture him into giving the pendant back, which was all just a distraction. Tatsuya would have stayed to watch, but he had another job to do. He ignored Madison Anabel Fisher’s distraction, and went straight for the giant dragon in the middle of the sanctum.
“Kaida!” Tatsuya screamed. “Kaida, please, you have to listen to me! Please, change back into your human form and don’t create so much distruction!”
Though it worked, Tatsuya was a bit surprised at his own power. Kaida shrunk down to his size, and was her beautiful human self again.
“Tatsuya,” she said, her hand on her head. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t—I couldn’t—”
“Don’t worry about it,” Tatsuya told her. “Because of that, Madison Anabel Fisher actually got her memory back. The boulder seemed to knock her head hard enough to counteract the amnesia or something.”
Kaida smiled, which forced Tatsuya to smile back.
Madison Anabel Fisher was still arguing with Lance, who seemed to only be shouting back. Tatsuya felt so much more comfortable knowing that this was only a verbal battle, and nothing was going to hurt Madison Anabel Fisher anymore.
Tatsuya and Kaida ran up the steps, and without even thinking Tatsuya flew into the air and tackled Lance, causing them both to fall off the tall pedestal and onto the ground.
“No! Tatsuya!” Madison Anabel Fisher cried.
“What are you doing, stupid boy?” Lance screamed at him.
“I want to see you die, Lance,” Tatsuya barked. “I want to see your soul leave your eyes, and I want to see your body completely motionless!”
Lance screamed, and threw Tatsuya off of him.
Tatsuya didn’t realize how physically strong Lance was until the back of his head hit one of the stone-hard walls.
“TATSUYA!” Madison Anabel Fisher screamed again.
Tatsuya put his hand to the back of head, and looked at it. Blotches of deep red blood covered his palm, and Tatsuya scowled. “Don’t worry about me, I can take this guy,” he called back. “Just get the pendant!”
Madison Anabel Fisher looked confused, she didn’t know what to do. Her best friend was in peril, and she couldn’t do anything about it.
Lance had already come back to abusing Tatsuya. He put his hand around his neck and pulled him up so he stood straight. Tatsuya tried his best to gasp for air, and managed to shout, “Just grab it and go!”
Madison Anabel Fisher did what he said. She held onto the pendant, and pulled with every ounce of muscle that she had until it finally wiggled out of its socket.
“NO!” Lance screamed. He let go of Tatsuya and began to run towards Madison Anabel Fisher and Kaida.
“GO, JUST GO,” Tatsuya screamed, coughing in attempts to fill his lungs with air again.
“Kaida, if you please,” Madison Anabel Fisher said, a sinister tone in her voice as she stroked the pendant in her hand. “Could you take care of this annoying pest for us?”
Without a glance or a second thought, Kaida had grown to her immense size again, and roared as she was a full dragon once again.
“You can’t kill me!” Lance screamed to Kaida.
“I don’t see why not,” Madison Anabel Fisher said.
Tatsuya managed to find the energy in his legs, and he picked himself up and ran towards Madison Anabel Fisher.
Kaida growled and screeched again, and the unruly noise echoed ferociously and caused the entire building to shake. She swiftly turned herself around to swing her tail violently to the side as it picked Lance up off the ground as if he were a handkerchief or something small and useless compared to the great beast that was Kaida.
“I think I’ll leave this honor to you,” Madison Anabel Fisher said, handing the pendant piece over to Tatsuya.
“Revenge will get you no where, boy!” Lance screamed, dangling from Kaida’s tail, holding on for dear life. “Craving revenge is what got me to this point, and if you want to see me dead so badly, you’re no better than I am!”
“I don’t care,” Tatsuya yelled. “You’re not just getting away with this. You can’t just ruin lives and walk away like nothing happened!”
“Then join me!” Lance screamed. “Join me, and we will create a perfect world together! I will tell you secrets of magic and of dragons you never even thought possible!”
Tatsuya held his breath.
“You will be able to control every little atom of this world!” Lance continued. “You won’t ever be lonely, you won’t ever be sad about something ever again! It can be the two of us, ruling the world side by side, making people do whatever the hell we want, and life can be perfect if you just give me that pendant piece!”
“Don’t listen to him, Tatsuya,” Madison Anabel Fisher said. “I know all of this sounds incredible, but you can’t listen to him.”
“A perfect world…” Tatsuya said to himself.
“Yes, boy, a perfect world, built by you and me… how could you give up such an offer? How could you let something like this pass up? You will be the king of all things living and non living, you can be the absolute ruler of time and space, you don’t have to worry about anything ever again!”
“Tatsuya, you can’t give into him,” Madison Anabel Fisher begged. “Please, Tatsuya. The world might not be perfect, but it’s still a wonderful place. You’ve got a good home, and a loving family consisting of your hard working mother and your oh too wonderful sister. You’ve got friends, Tatsuya, and you can’t just let them down. Darren is still dying because of you, and he might not even be alive as we speak. Kaida has been watching you and your family for centuries, just to make sure that you are safe. And then there’s me.”
Tatsuya exhaled.
“What about me, Tatsuya?” Madison Anabel Fisher continued. “Are you going to just leave me here? I’ve known you since the moment I was born, since we were barely babies. We grew up together, learned from each other, and at five years of age we were already more than best friends. And it’s not my fault my parents are horrible people, and it’s not my fault I had to get run over with a bike on the edge of the park, but it is my fault that I became such a horrible person, such a person that ended up being Maddy. And I don’t want to be Maddy, anymore, Tatsuya, I want to be Madison Anabel Fisher, and the only way I can do that is if Tatsuya Gray is my best friend. Please, Tatsuya, don’t listen to that horrible man!”
Tatsuya looked down at the pendant in his hands. He could create a perfect world.
“I would never be lonely,” he said. “I would never be sad.”
“Tatsuya, there’s no reason for you to be sad!” Madison Anabel Fisher sobbed. “You’ve got so many blessings in your life, though it might not be a perfect life, just take it and be happy!”
“What are you waiting for?” Lance called. “Just set me down and hand that pendant over to me. The best things will come to you, boy, and you’ll thank me later.”
“Kaida, I want you to get that man off of your tail,” Tatsuya said, looking back up at the great beast.
“No! Tatsuya, you can’t—”
“What I want you to do,” Tatsuya continued, ignoring Madison Anabel Fisher completely, “is take him away from this place. I don’t care what you do to him, I don’t care if he lives or dies. I just never want to see him again, and I want him to… I want you to make sure he loses all memory of how to obtain the power of the dragons. Just go. Get rid of him.”
“What?” Lance exclaimed as Kaida began to rise into the air. “Let me go! Jet let me go!”
“I’m sorry, Lance,” Tatsuya said. “But I can’t have my perfect world if you’re in it.”
Kaida flew away though the gaping hole that was newly formed in the wall. And all was silent in the sanctum once again.

Chapter Twenty-Three

2009-11-27T00:36:00.000-08:00

“This is Kaida’s shrine?” Maddy repeated. “I can’t believe it. It’s nothing like the other shrine we’ve been to. This place looks so…”
“Dead?” Tatsuya finished for her. “Well, yeah, she is the Dragon of Death, isn’t she? I mean, think about it… her brother, the Dragon of Life, his shrine was in the midst of a ton of trees and stuff. And he’s the Dragon of Spring. It’s pretty self explanatory to why Kaida’s shrine looks like this. Also, the area is covered with fallen leaves even though there aren’t that many trees. It is kind of weird.”
“I’ll say,” Maddy said. “It’s kind of giving me the creeps.”
“Should we go in?” Tatsuya asked.
“What sort of stuff do you think is guarding the shrine?” Maddy asked.
“I don’t know,” Tatsuya answered. “I don’t think we should worry about whatever it’s guarding, though. I mean, the thing we should worry about the most is Lance and saving Kaida, right? I bet if he has gotten though, he probably got rid of all the protection for us. So we shouldn’t have to worry about anything that’s guarding the shrine.”
“Do you think whatever is guarding this place would be able to keep Lance out? I mean, Ember was able to keep us out of the other shrine.”
“Honestly,” Tatsuya started, “I don’t think anything is guarding this place.”
“Why do you say that? Do you think they would just leave this place empty?”
“I think so,” he said. “Kaida wanted to keep the pendant with her at all times because she wanted to keep it safe by herself. So I doubt that she would even want anything to guard her shrine because it was always with her, and she was too independent to want others to help her.”
“I don’t know,” Maddy said uncertainly. “I kind of really don’t want to go in there.”
Tatsuya glared at Maddy. “I think I know why.”
Maddy gave him a confused look. “Why? What the hell are you talking about?”
“I mean, you would gladly come along when it meant saving your boyfriend’s life,” Tatsuya said. “The life pendant was able to solve both of our problems, which is why you wanted to come. But this has nothing to do with Darren. There’s no way we can save Darren this way, and you kind of just so happened to be there. Is that why you don’t want to go?”
Maddy didn’t answer.
“That’s what this is about, isn’t it?” Tatsuya asked. “I knew you were lost. No, Maddy, I knew that Madison Anabel Fisher was lost.”
“Tatsuya, what the hell do you mean by that?”
“Madison Anabel Fisher wouldn’t think like that,” he said, more to himself than to Maddy. “That’s what I’ve been trying to do this whole time. By being your friend. I thought it would bring Madison Anabel Fisher back, but no, you’re still just Maddy. You’re Maddy. And when I heard you call me your best friend when Lance had just came to my house, I thought I might have gotten Madison Anabel Fisher back out of all the crap your parents have covered you with, but no, it’s obvious that you’re just going to be Maddy for the rest of your life.”
“Tatsuya, you’re not making any sense at all,” she said. “I’m Maddy. And Madison Anabel Fisher is just my whole name. It’s not like we’re two different people.”
Tatsuya stomped his foot so hard on the ground that it practically hurt his leg. “You practically are two different people! There’s no way Maidson Anabel Fisher would ever be like you!”
“Stop doing that,” Maddy snapped. “I don’t understand, you’re not making any sense at all, just stop and explain to me what the hell is going on!”
Tatsuya sighed, and calmed down. “I would explain,” he said, “but we don’t have too much time. Lance is probably in there getting the pendant all charged up so he can fully control Kaida and get the other pendants. Now is our only chance to stop him. And if we don’t move quickly, we’ll be under the rule of Lance for the rest of our lives.”
Maddy nodded, and they stepped into the large stone building.It was completely dark at first. It seemed like a large area at first, because with every step, the noise echoed several times. Tatsuya was careful to take slow steps, even though they weren't any less loud.
"Tatsuya," Maddy whispered loudly.
He turned around to try to find her, but couldn't see her. He felt her tap his shoulder and tried to find out what she was doing.
"What, Maddy?" Tatsuya said. His voice was oddly loud in such a quiet place.
Tatsuya noticed the ever so slightest bit of light, which was just enough to allow him to see what Maddy was doing. She was pointing at the source of the light, a corridor which was just ahead of them, lined with torches that were completely lit.
"I bet that's where Lance went," Tatsuya said. He followed the light until he was in the stone corridor.
"This hallway is really long," Maddy said. "This place is so much bigger from the inside than it looks on the outside."
"Yeah," Tatsuya said, squinting his eyes in attempt to see how far the corridor went down. "I can't see anything. What do you think is at the end of this place?"
"What do you think is there IN this corridor?" Maddy asked.
"I don't think there's anything here," he said. He held his breath so he could listen, and all he heard was the sound of his heart thumping against his chest. "Yeah, I don't think there's anything here."
"Well, you never know," she said. "And I think at the end of this corridor... I think we're going to find..."
"I think we're going to find Lance," Tatsuya finished for her. "We're going to find him with Kaida."
"How are we going to save her?" Maddy asked. "How are we going to break his control over her?"
"We'll have to steal the pendant back from him," Tatsuya said.
Tatsuya and Maddy began to slowly walk along the corridor, careful to avoid the flames that were lined up on the walls. Tatsuya couldn't afford to get burned any longer.
The walk from one end of the corridor to the other end was a long one. Tatsuya felt like the walk was going to go on forever, like it was never going to end, and all he wanted was to get to the end of it already. He could hear something at the end--a faint whisper or a toe tapping. Whatever it was, it was distant, but within reach. Tatsuya wanted nothing more than to get to the end of the corridor. He decided to pick up the pace.
"Tatsuya," Maddy whispered. "Are we almost at the end?"
Tatsuya held his breath again, and strained his ears to listen. "Yeah," he said. "We're almost there."
Before too long, him and Maddy had entered a giant sanctum that was even larger than the previous room. In fact, it was large enough to hold Kaida in her dragon form, as illustrated when Tatsuya and Maddy saw Lance with Kaida as a dragon next to him.
"Lance!" Tatsuya screamed. His voice echoed. "Lance! Lance...Lance...ce..."
The man turned around, holding the pendant tightly in his hand, and smiled. "You followed me all the way over here?" he asked, his tone slightly surprised. "My, my, I certainly didn't know you wanted to keep the pendant that badly. I'm sure you know what power it wields, and I'm sure you know that I want to control it."
"Give it back to us," Tatsuya said angrily. "We need to have it now."
Lance glared at him. "There is no way you're getting this pendant piece, boy," he spat. "I've been trying to get this power for decades, I've killed too many people to just hand it over to you!"
"Why?" Maddy screamed. "Why are you doing this? What is this going to give you?"
"Everything, little girl, everything!" Lance screamed with a sinister chuckle. "Everything and anything! I'll be rich, famous, powerful, glorious, and the absolute ruler of the world! No one will be able to stop me, and I'll live forever, and nothing will ever go wrong!"
"You're just an insane psychopath!" Tatsuya spat back. "There's no way we're going to let you rule the world, especially after all of the horrible things you have done! You ruined my life, you ruined my whole family's life, and now I want to see you die, I want revenge, Lance."
Lance's eyebrows raised and disappeared completely behind his messy bangs. "I ruined your life?" he asked.
"You killed my father," Tatsuya said through gritted teeth. "You killed him right in front of me. I was five years old. It was at the very doorstep that you visited today. His blood spilled where I was standing, and that was the single worst day of my life."
"You were five years old when your father died? You are Joseph Gray's son? And you were five years old ten years ago?"
"That's right," Tatsuya said. "I actually existed. And that's why you didn't get the power when you killed my father. Because I actually existed. I was there, and when you thought you were killing the last one in the line, I was there. That's why you failed, you failed because you looked over one tiny thing. Literally, the tiniest thing--a five year old!"
Lance snarled and growled at him. "You! It's your fault I've been hunting this stupid piece of crap--" he shook the pendant in his hand "--for so many years! Do you know what sort of shit I had to go through because of you?"
"Do you have any idea what sort of shit you made me and my family go through?" Tatsuya shouted. "We grew up without a father because of you, and all because of your obsessive greed!"
"Not just greed, boy, greed is something that all humans have naturally," Lance said with a sinister chuckle. "Tell me, why do you want to see me dead? Why have you chased me down here?"
"I want revenge," Tatsuya said.
"Exactly!" Lance cheered. "Revenge! Though it's horrible, it's so, so sweet. And that's what I want. I want pay back from the entire world!"
"What has the world done to you?"
"The world has completely killed me. I, too, grew up without a father, boy. I grew up without a father or a mother. I was more alone than you could imagine. All I wanted was for someone--someone in this whole God damned world! Anyone! But the world gave me no one, the world gave me nothing, and the world killed off everything that could possibly have made me happy. The world was a cruel, unusual place."
"So you want to control the world and get your revenge because your life sucked?" Tatsuya snapped. "My life sucked, and you don't see me trying to gain the power of all the dragons!"
"Yes, but I thought to myself that all of this pain can't be bad. I can use this loneliness, I thought. I knew I could become something! When I found out about the power of the dragons, I realized how perfect this was! I knew that this is what I could do with all of this pain, all of this power! I will put the power to good use instead of using it stupidly like you did!"
"I did NOT use that power," Tatsuya said. "That power is too much for anyone! I didn't even want to use it!"
"But you used it!" Lance argued back. "And the way you used it was stupid!"
"Is that why you went for Kaida first?" Tatsuya asked. "Because her ability to control death is what you wanted first, right?"
Lance laughed. He was laughing so hard that he almost fell over. "Of course not. I wanted to go for her first because she was the weakest one of the four dragons, the easiest to obtain first. And then I would use her power to get the others. After all, she is the weakest one because she is the only woman."
"Hey!" Maddy shouted, stepping out from behind Tatsuya. "That's sexist! Kaida is just as powerful as any of her brothers! She can control death, if she was free to be in her own control right now, she could kill you instantly!"
"Oh, the bitch barks," Lance teased.
Maddy scowled at him. "You're not going to hurt my friends. We're taking that pendant back now. Let's go for it, Tatsuya. We can take this guy."
"You might be able to take me," Lance said. "But behold! Try to take me while I control the dragon of death!"
Kaida roared and screeched, and flailed as if she were in great pain. Her mighty tail swung from the left violently and knocked attacked the wall that Tatsuya and Maddy were in front of, completely demolishing it.
Rocks from the wall were raining down from the breaking down building and all over the area where Tatsuya and Maddy were standing.
"Maddy!" Tatsuya called. He put his arms around her, and pushed her head into his chest in attempts to protect her from the falling rock. Over the sound of all the rubble and destruction, he could hear Lance laughing maniacally in the background.
"Tatsuya," Maddy cried, trying to break away from his grasp. "We can't just stand here! We can't just let him keep attacking us!"
"You can't, you'll get hurt!" Tatsuya said, but Maddy had already gotten away from his grasp.
Kaida swung her tail again, and broke down more of the gigantic wall, causing more stones to rain down.
Tatsuya jumped quickly to his left to avoid getting hit, but when he looked back, Maddy was on the floor, surrounded by large boulders, unmoving.

Chapter Twenty-Two

2009-11-26T22:33:00.001-08:00

Tatsuya moved slowly and cautiously down the stairs. He was slightly unsure who was at the door, but he had a theory.
“Maybe it’s your mom or something,” Maddy said, following Tatsuya down the stairs. “Like, maybe she forgot something and she just came back to get it?”
“No,” Tatsuya said. “She wouldn’t have to knock if it was her. I don’t think it’s my mom or my sister.”
Tatsuya opened the door slowly so that it creaked until it was opened all the way. In front of him stood an odd man. He was tall, and his hair was kind of spiky, and it stuck up in an odd angle. But instead of being a shadowy silhouette from far away, Tatsuya could see all of his features now. His eyes had massive bags under them, but other than that, he looked perfect in every way. He wore dark clothes, and he stood with his arms crossed across his chest.
“Oh, I had an odd feeling you were coming,” Tatsuya told the stranger.
The stranger smiled, but stayed perfectly still. “Might this be a home of a certain Joseph Gray?” he asked, his voice scratchy and deep.
“Why yes, it is,” Tatsuya said.
“I would like to speak with him.”
“He’s not here.”
“Oh?”
“Yeah. He’s dead. He died ten years ago.”
“How unfortunate.”
“Yes. How unfortunate.”
“Who might you be, then?”
Tatsuya narrowed his eyebrows. If I tell him I’m his son, Tatsuya thought to himself, then he is going to kill me. The power will become his. I can’t let that happen. “I could ask you the same question,” he said, trying to avoid by all means to tell this stranger his identity.
“I’m trying to avoid answering that question just as much as you are,” the stranger answered, even though Tatsuya already knew who he was. Tatsuya felt Kaida twitch slightly next to him, which indicated that she knew who he was, too.
“You must be a popular young man,” the stranger said, looking at the two girls on either side of Tatsuya. “Lots of friends. Never worrying about having to be… alone.”
Tatsuya glared at him. “I guess maybe you could say that. Though there have been times where I have been alone.”
The stranger chuckled. “But with such pretty girls at your side,” he said with a sinister tone, “I just can’t imagine ever feeling lonely.”
“You’d be surprised.”
“I am,” he said, his dark eyes moving ever so slightly to Tatsuya’s left. “I’m quite interested in this girl. What a beauty.”
Kaida glared at him more than Tatsuya did. It looked like she was about to burst out into an angry fit, but she was trying her hardest to keep under control.
The man lifted his arm and gently placed his hand on Kaida’s face. He moved slowly down until he reached her neck, and he picked up the pendant with two of his fingers.
“This piece is also very beautiful,” he said. “What would you call this?”
“It’s just a pendant,” Kaida said.
I don’t think he knows who I am, Tatsuya thought, otherwise he could have killed me already. But it’s obvious he’s already figured out who Kaida is.
“Hm,” the stranger said to himself. “Yes. Of course. I’m assuming the other girl is just a friend. Or a girlfriend, perhaps?”
“I’m his best friend,” Madison Anabel Fisher snapped at him. “And I’m there for him through anything.”
“I didn’t need the details, but thanks for that,” he said, continuing to gaze at the pendant around Kaida’s neck with such hunger in his eyes.
“Um…” Tatsuya said. He needed to think of something to get this guy to leave. He didn’t want him to linger around her any longer. “Well, as you can see, Joseph Gray obviously isn’t here. I’m sorry you couldn’t get him, but I think it’s better if you leave now. You see, my mom and my sister aren’t home, and it’s not exactly smart of me being a teenage boy to open the door to people I don’t know.”
The stranger chuckled. “Yes, of course. But where is your father.”
Tatsuya held his breath. “My father is at work,” he said. “And he’s not here, either. It’s just my friends over right now. They’re supposed to be keeping an eye on me. My parents don’t trust me, you see.”
“Yes, I do see,” he said, continuing to stroke the pendant around Kaida’s neck with his two fingers. “But do you mind if I ask you one more quick question before I depart?”
“I guess,” Tatsuya said reluctantly. “What might that be?”
“Ever hear anything about dragons?” he asked.
Though Tatsuya had expected this, he pretended to be appalled by such a random comment. “Dragons? No, nothing in particular. Why?”
“Oh, no reason. I was just wondering. It seems like you would know a mighty load about dragons.”
“Why would you think that?”
“Because,” he said with his sinister grin growing, “you’ve got one standing right next to you now.”
Tatsuya didn’t move.
The man pushed Kaida with a great enough force that made her fly to the back of the room, but because of her incredible strength, she was able to stay standing up.
Maddy screamed, and hid behind Tatsuya as the man grabbed Kaida by the arm and dragged her outside of the house. Kaida desperately tried to break free from his grasp, but she surprisingly couldn’t find the strength to get away from him.
“Kaida!” Maddy screamed.
The man pulled the pendant off of her neck completely, and Kaida fell to her knees onto the hard concrete.
The man cheered into the open, empty street.
“Yes!” he shouted. “Finally, after decades of searching, I finally have the power of a dragon!” He looked at the pendant in his hand and grinned before laughing sinisterly. “The magic on this is low. Yes, it hasn’t been to its shrine in much too long. Maybe it’s a good idea if I take it there now. Oh, however will I get there? Well, traveling to places will no longer be a problem now that I’ve got my own dragon to control!” And with those last words, Kaida had morphed into her dragon form before the man began to climb on her back.
“Come on!” Tatsuya called to Maddy. He held her hand, and ran after Kaida. They grabbed onto her tail the second before she left the ground.
“I don’t think he knows we’re here,” Tatsuya told Maddy once they were high above the ground and into the clouds. He held onto Kaida’s tail with dear life, and held onto Maddy for her dear life. “If we just stay here until we get to the ground again, we can try to get the pendant piece back from him then.”
Maddy nodded, and held onto Tatsuya even tighter. Even though this made the whole breathing thing difficult for Tatsuya, he continued to hold on with all of his strength and more.
After who knows how long, Kaida finally landed. Tatsuya didn’t recognize the area at all. It was mostly dark with strange, old looking buildings that seemed almost like ruins. By the time Tatsuya and Maddy let go of Kaida to go hide behind one of the buildings, the strange man had already forced Kaida back into her human form and began to walk with her towards the gargantuan moon in the sky.
“Let’s just follow him,” Tatsuya said.
“Tatsuya, what’s going to happen if he gets that pendant all charged up?” Maddy asked. “He’ll be able to fully control Kaida, right? And then what?”
“He’s going to use Kaida’s power to try to get the other three pendants,” Tatsuya said. “And once he has all four…”
“Oh, I don’t even want to think about it,” Maddy squealed, burying her face into Tatsuya’s good shoulder.
“I don’t want to think about it, either,” Tatsuya said. Once he noticed the man was out of sight and out of ear shot, he pulled Maddy out from behind the old building. “We’re going to have to stop him if that happens.”
“Let’s follow him,” Maddy said.
Tatsuya tip-toed and meandered between the old ruins with Maddy closely following him. He felt like such a creeper or a ninja sneaking up on someone like this. He tried to avoid the fact that the situation he was in was life or death, or that he was going after the man who had killed his father, or the fact that if they failed this, then he would have failed the whole world. He shook the thoughts out of his head, and continued on.
It was extremely difficult to sneak through these old ruins because even though there were very few trees around the area, there were a lot of fallen leaves, so Tatsuya tried his best to avoid stepping on them because they would make that every so slight cracking noise, and he would be heard, and everything would be ruined.
“We’ve got to be really careful, Maddy,” he said. “If we get seen by him, I have a feeling it’s not going to end well for us.”
“You honestly think he would kill us?” Maddy asked.
“Well, he killed my father,” Tatsuya said. “I doubt he would mind killing off a couple of pesky kids.”
Tatsuya heard Maddy swallow a lump in her throat, but he couldn’t think of anything to make her feel more comfortable at the moment. Instead, he continued to follow the shadowy figure of the man named Lance.
Lance stopped in front of the largest building in the ruins. It was made of stone, and it looked completely deserted. Tatsuya and Maddy hid behind a nearby building, and watched what Lance did. He turned to Kaida. “Do you remember this, little dragon?” he asked her.
She didn’t respond. She didn’t move at all. She was completely under his control.
“This is where you came from,” Lance said to her again, laughing his sinister laugh into her ear. “This is where we can make this little contraption full of magic, and I will use it to get the other three, and we’ll make sure the world turns in the way I want it to. And it will all be thanks to you.”
The two of them walked into the building, and vanished almost instantly in the darkness. Tatsuya and Maddy came out from behind the broken down building, and faced the big stone one that Lance and Kaida had just disappeared into.
“S-so this is…” Maddy stuttered.
Tatsuya nodded. “Yeah. This is Kaida’s shrine.”

Chapter Twenty-One

2009-11-25T23:10:00.001-08:00

Tatsuya ran back out through the archway as quickly as he could, trying not to look back to see if Ember was still hot on his tail or not.
“Oh my goodness,” Maddy gasped when she saw the burn on Tatsuya’s skin. “What in the world… Tatsuya, are you all right?”
“Yeah,” Tatsuya said, trying not to wince in pain from the burn which still stung on his skin. “Don’t worry about me.”
“The pendant?” Kaida asked. “Did she end up giving it to you? What happened?”
Tatsuya frowned and shook his head. “I wasn’t able to get it,” he said sadly. “And nothing really happened. I talked to her a lot. She told me about herself. And then I tried to convince her to give me the pendant. I explained the situation and everything, but she still refused. And then she did this—” he jerked his head towards his shoulder “—and she told me to leave, and so I left. I couldn’t do anything else without burning in the flames of hell in there. I’m sorry, Kaida.”
“It’s okay,” Kaida sighed, disappointed at Tatsuya’s failure. “I guess I couldn’t really expect too much from Ember. She is going to guard that thing until someone ends up killing her.”
Tatsuya looked back into the archway. He couldn’t see anything because all of the flames had been put out. “What happened to her?”
“She probably expected that you left,” Kaida said. “And she assumed you were smart enough to leave and not try to go in there again.”
“She’s kind of freaking scary,” Tatsuya said. He sighed. “Well, that didn’t work.”
“No, it didn’t,” Maddy said quietly. “And after all that I heard, I thought that this was really going to work and save Darren.”
“And stop that maniac who killed my father,” Tatsuya added.
“I thought it would work, too,” Kaida said, her voice flat and serious. “But that Ember is always a complication, a slight blemish in all things pure. There is nothing I can do about her.”
“We’ll just have to go home now,” Tatsuya said. “I don’t want my mom or sister noticing anything like me being gone or something. And I don’t want them to think I’ve killed myself. So let’s just hurry back before anything happens.”
“I agree,” Maddy said. “And we can try to think of something else before anything happens. I mean, there has got to be another way to fix this.”
Kaida shrugged. “I agree that we should just leave now,” she said, looking back at the archway. “There’s nothing more we can do here. Not while that psychopath is still alive. She will burn everything down to the ground if it means protecting that pendant piece. There is no longer a point to staying here.”
Kaida turned back into her dragon form, which didn’t frighten Tatsuya as much as it did the first time. The tone in Kaida’s eyes seemed much softer, and much more mellow than it had before. Tatsuya climbed up on her back, helped Maddy up, and once they were both secure, they took off.
Tatsuya noticed that the ride back home felt a lot longer than the flight to the shrine. There had been many depressing thoughts going through Tatsuya’s mind, all of which were reminded to him whenever he looked at his shoulder. He felt like a complete failure, like a big disappointment.
Kaida helped Tatsuya get back into his room without being heard through means of climbing the tree and getting back in through the window again. He had noticed that no one had tried to enter his room, and no one had even noticed he was gone, which was perfect. He quickly changed his clothes to hide the mark on his shoulder, and sat back down on the bed with Maddy and Kaida as if nothing had happened.
“I think I’m okay when it comes into terms of my mom and my sister,” Tatsuya said to the two girls in his room. “So now I know I can totally go to an undiscovered part of Japan and come back home in time for dinner. Thanks for that, Kaida.”
Kaida pursed her lips, and looked away awkwardly from Tatsuya’s gaze.
“How is your shoulder?” Maddy asked.
“It’s feeling a lot better,” Tatsuya said, trying not to turn around to look at the nasty burn. “Can you see it at all? I don’t want anyone to notice it’s there.”
Maddy shook her head. “You’re going to have to get a new jacket, though.”
Tatsuya chuckled.
“I-I can’t think of anything,” Kaida said, more to herself than anyone else. “I have no idea what to do. There is nothing left. We are done.”
“Kaida, what are you talking about?” Tatsuya asked, keeping his voice steady with all of his might.
“There is no hope left,” she continued to speak, completely ignoring everything Tatsuya was saying. “That’s it.”
“You can’t honestly be saying that, Kaida,” Maddy said quietly. “I mean… think about Darren. Think about his life. He is DYING right now, and you’re just going to give up hope? You can’t let that happen, Kaida, you’re the only one who can help him now!”
“Yeah,” Tatsuya said, raising his voice as he spoke. “And what about that Lance guy? Let me tell you, as soon as I found out about him and that he was the one who killed my father, I’ve just been feeling so… so… I’ve been feeling so angry and frustrated and… so freaked out that I can’t even think up of adjectives right now.” Tatsuya swore loudly under his breath. “I want to see that guy die. I want to take away his life the way he took away my father’s, the way he took away the lives of my entire family. He ruined us, and I want him to suffer for that.”
“Calm down, Tatsuya,” Maddy said, putting her hand on his arm, being extremely cautious not to touch his burn. “I know you’re really angry about this, but there has to be some way to avenge your father’s death. I know there has to be some way, any way, it can’t be completely impossible.”
“Yeah, but it’s not only about my father,” Tatsuya said. “I mean, if this guy is able to get this power, he might become all mighty dictator of the world or something horrible like that. I don’t think any of us want that sort of a person to be ruling us all.”
“The thing is, though,” Maddy started, “the whole plan of obtaining the pendant solved all the problems. It would help Darren, and stop this crazy person who is trying to take over everyone. It was a good plan, but it just didn’t work because we couldn’t get the pendant.”
“What’s your point?” Tatsuya asked, slightly agitated at the constant reminders of his failure.
“My point is that whatever we come up with now isn’t going to solve all of the problems we have,” she said matter-of-factly. “I mean, if we find something to help Darren, then it might help him, but it’s not going to do anything about that Lance guy. And if we find a way to stop the lance guy, well, there’s not going to be any way to save Darren’s life.”
“That is what I’m trying to say,” Kaida said, finally looking up at Maddy and Tatsuya. “There is no other way. Nothing left, no hope at all. We are done. The only way anything good can happen is if we just do nothing and watch and pray that something happens.”
Tatsuya stood up. “We’re not about to give up like that,” he said firmly. “I made a promise that I was going to fix everything, and that nothing bad would happen, and that everyone was going to be fine. I’m not about to just break that promise.”
“You should have known better,” Kaida said. “It never is good to make promises you aren’t guaranteed to keep.”
“I know that,” Tatsuya snapped at her. “It’s not a promise I’m going to break. I’m going to keep this promise, even if I have to die in the process.”
“I agree,” Maddy said, now standing up as well. “I don’t think we should give up yet. I mean, there has to be some way to fix all of this. There has to be another way, something we haven’t thought of yet. I bet it’s right in front of our faces, and we’re just not looking close enough. Come on, we’ve got to think of something.”
“There is nothing left we can do,” Kaida said, more harshly this time. “How many times do I have to repeat myself? Obtaining the pendant piece was the only way to fix all of this. There is no possible way to accomplish our goals. It is over, Tatsuya and Maddy.”
“Kaida, I don’t care if you can’t think of any other way,” Maddy said. “I’m not about to give up.”
Tatsuya sat back down. “I don’t know. Maybe Kaida is right. I mean, she knows more about this than anyone else, and if she says there’s nothing left, then… well, there has to be nothing left.”
“How can you say that, Tatsuya?” Maddy said, almost crying. “Don’t you care about Darren’s life at all?”
Someone knocked on Tatsuya’s bedroom door.
“It’s locked from the outside,” he said. “You can come on in.”
Kimi poked her head in, barely opening the door.
“Hey, Kimi, did you need something?” he asked.
Kimi looked around the room before meeting with Tatsuya’s eyes. “Yeah,” she said. “Mom and I are going out. She says that she knows it’s getting late, but she wants your two friends to stay over until we get back just to make sure you don’t… do anything that she would approve of.”
“I don’t mind staying,” Kaida said.
Maddy shrugged. “I’ll stay.”
“Okay,” Kimi said with a straight face. “I’m keeping your bedroom door unlocked. Your friends don’t deserve to be locked up in a cramped up space with you.”
Tatsuya chuckled, unsure if what she said was a joke or not.
“Bye, Tatsuya,” she said.
“Bye, Kimi,” he said back as she shut the door.
Maddy sighed. “I can’t believe we’re just going to give up.”
“I would like to see you coming up with ideas,” Kaida said. “And once you realize there’s nothing left for us to do, then maybe you will stop going on and on about just giving up. For the record, we are not just giving up. We tried. We tried with great intentions and difficulty. But we failed.”
Tatsuya’s burn began to sting.
“And since we have failed,” Kaida continued, “there is nothing more we can do.”
Maddy frowned, and kept quiet after that. The silence filled the room for a few hours, or at least if felt like hours, maybe even days.
“This is insane,” Tatsuya finally said. “This all honestly can’t be real. It just has to be a bad dream.”
“Tatsuya…” Maddy said quietly.
“I mean, I’ve got Madison Anabel Fisher, dragons, flying around, ex-fairies… this all can’t be real, can it?”
“This is as unreal to you as it is to me,” Maddy said. “But if we just keep pressing on, I know we can make it through. Believe it or not, after all of this has happened to me, I consider you one of my best friends, Tatsuya. We can’t give in just yet.”
Tatsuya nodded at her. “Yeah.” He stood up, and opened his room door. “I’m so sick of being stuck in my room all the time. I’m going downstairs.”
He exited the room, being careful to not close the door out of habit because his guests were still there with him.
He took two footsteps down the staircase, and someone knocked on his front door.

Chapter Twenty

2009-11-25T19:01:00.001-08:00

Darkness engulfed Tatsuya as he walked under the archway and into the ring of trees. There was absolutely no sliver of light, and Tatsuya couldn’t even see two inches in front of him. He simply followed the sound of Ember’s footsteps in front of him.
“I could tell how curious you were,” she said. “You must not talk to many people often.”
“Yeah,” he said. “How did you know?”
“Because I feel the same way. You could imagine how lonely it is for hundreds of years, standing here guarding this place.” She stopped moving, and Tatsuya copied.
“I never really thought of it like that,” he said. “I would imagine that a lot of people would try to come here to steal the pendant piece.”
“Not very often. It’s a well kept secret, don’t you know?”
“Yeah,” Tatsuya said, a bit awkwardly because he had no idea what to say at this point.
“When you’re alone, and someone finally arrives, all you want to do is talk to them,” she said. “Isn’t that right?”
Tatsuya shrugged, but then he remembered how he was in complete darkness so she wouldn’t have seen his movements, anyway. “I guess,” he said. “But sometimes I just want to remain alone, you know?”
“It depends on whom you’re talking to. If I were here stuck with Kaida, I would have preferred to be alone.”
“That’s a bit harsh. Especially when you’ve been alone for hundreds of years.”
“I suppose,” she said. “But you don’t know Kaida any longer than I do.”
An odd silence lingered in the air between them before Tatsuya remembered what he had even come here for.
“So are you going to give me the pendent or not?” he asked. “As much as I would love to talk to you, I need it pretty badly.”
“The pendant may or may not come with time,” she said. “After all, I have been guarding it for hundreds of years. I am not about to just give it away to a little human boy who walks in and asks for it.”
“Why are you guarding it, anyway?” Tatsuya asked her. “I mean, why you?” It certainly would have been easier to get the pendant if a less stubborn guard were in order.
“Because I cannot let anyone get control of him,” she said. “The Dragon of Spring, the Dragon of Life. None shall control him, I will make sure he is always free,” she said with a fiery passion in her voice.
“Why do you care so much?” he asked. “It doesn’t seem like you are perfunctory about this at all.”
The noise of her shifting caught Tatsuya’s ear, and he could tell that she had sat down on the hard ground.
“It is a wonder what love can do to a person,” she said.
“Oh!” Tatsuya exclaimed. “So you’re in love with him or something?”
“Yes,” she said. “That’s what got me excommunicated as a fairy.”
“But it’s just knowing another creature,” he said. “I might not know too much, but if we weren’t allowed to mingle outside of our species, a lot of us would be dead already.”
“Yes, but I was always under tight security,” she said. “You see, I was the heiress to the throne in my kingdom. I was supposed to rule after my father had died. And no one liked my father as a ruler, so even if one of our family members had one toe out of line, the consequences would be much more severe.”
“So you fell in love with a dragon and got kicked out?”
“Yes.”
“That seems incredibly harsh.”
“Why do you think I’m incredibly harsh? It’s because everyone is so incredibly harsh to me.”
“Well, if you’re in love with the Dragon of Spring, how come you’re not with him? Why are you just in his shrine? And you said you were alone for hundreds of years… what’s the deal with that?”
“He sent me here,” she said simply. “He said that the best way to prove my love for him was to protect him and to protect his shrine. So he left me here all those centuries ago, and he never really came back.”
“He didn’t even come to visit?” Tatsuya asked. “If you ask me, it seems like he’s just using you.”
“Maybe,” she said slowly. “But we are in love. It is the strongest bond. I gave up power of my kingdom just to be with him. And he trusted me enough with this monumental task. It is obvious he’s not just using me.”
“If you say so,” Tatsuya said. “Are you the only protection that this place has?”
“Yes, mostly,” she said. “The fact that it’s hidden is a crucial factor. And it is very hard to access in the middle of this forest.”
“At first glance, you don’t seem like that much of a threat, though,” Tatsuya said. “I mean, when I first saw you I was surprised. You seemed like a little girl or something. And then you began acting strangely and I felt afraid.”
Ember chuckled her chliche evil-sounding laugh. “Oh, trust me, I am more than just a little girl. I might not be a fairy anymore, but I still have most of the magic, and it is not a toy.”
“What sort of magic?” Tatsuya asked.
“Kaida is the Dragon of Death,” she stated, “and her brother is the Dragon of Life. Just as each magical being controls an element, I also control an element. It might not be one just as powerful as life or death, but it is an element.”
“And what would that be?”
Ember snapped her fingers, and a tiny flame flickered in her hand as if she were holding a lighter or something. Her violet eyes shone in the dim light and made Tatsuya’s heart jolt when he saw her face clearly again. “Fire,” she stated simply.
She waved her hand, and certain branches in the circle of trees caught on fire and lit up the area. Tatsuya was finally able to get a good look at everything. Except for the fact that there wasn’t anything. The whole place was empty, except for the smell of burning wood filled the air from the bottom up.
“This is the shrine?” Tatsuya asked. “There’s like nothing here at all. The pendant isn’t even in here. Is this like a fake one or something? To protect the real one?”
“No,” Ember said. “Kaida has led you well. You are in the real shrine. But do you think the pendant is just sitting out here waiting for someone to walk along and pick it up? I don’t think so.”
“So where is it?” Tatsuya snapped. “I flew all the way here on a freaking dragon, risked my life treading through this disgusting forest, and got attacked by you, and when I’m finally in here, the whole place is empty? I’m trying to save lives here, and you’re just playing games with me?”
“Of course not,” Ember said, her sinister grin growing across her face. “Why would I be playing games with you? This is not a game. This is, how you say, a matter of life and death, is it not?”
“Yes, it is, so I would appreciate it if you just gave me what I came here for. I know that you’re trying to protect it from evil and stuff, and how you want to ensure that Kaida’s brother will always be free and never under the control of some dinky human, but you don’t know how badly we need it and what it means to us that we have it. So if you don’t mind ending this stupid game, I would love it if you could just give it to me, and we can all move on.”
“Do you think I would just move on if someone took control over the Dragon of Spring?” Ember hissed. “I would be sitting here, continuing to be alone, with absolutely no purpose. I would have failed, my intentions would be gone. This is just so easy for you, isn’t it? To just walk in here and ask for what you want and take it and go. Well, I’m not going to make it easy for you.”
She moved into an attacking position again and hissed at Tatsuya. She definitely was not going to make anything easy for him.
“L-listen, please, just for a second,” Tatsuya said, trying to keep his fear under control. “You don’t understand. We’re not going to use it for anything unnecessary. You have to believe me, we’re not trying to take control of any dragon or something evil like that. We just need it so we can help someone who is dying, and to keep it away from someone else. That’s it, you can trust me.”
“Keep it away from someone else?” Ember repeated. “Why would you need to remove it from its sanctum?”
“We want to keep this guy who is trying to use it for evil purposes away from it, that’s all,” Tatsuya explained. “He’s the one who is really evil. He’s trying to take control of all four dragons so he can rule the world or have ultimate power or something of that sort. He even tried to steal it from me. Well, my father. Ten years ago when I was still young, he killed my father in attempts to get the power, but he didn’t know I was there, so it failed. Kaida thinks he’s after the pendants now, so we came here to get this one so he couldn’t get to it.”
Ember hissed and glared at Tatsuya in the midst of his explanation. “I believe you, young boy,” she said. “But do you honestly think the pendant piece is going to be safe with you? Why is it safer with you than with me? It is, after all, my duty to keep it safe. I don’t understand how it could possibly be safer with you.”
“Well, the person trying to steal it will know it’s here,” Tatsuya said. “And if it turns out that it’s not in here, and it’s with us, it’ll throw him off guard completely. Also, if he tries to come after us, Kaida will be there to help protect it.”
Ember hissed again when Tatsuya said Kaida’s name. “No. Absolutely not. I am not letting that pendant piece out of this shrine. I am not letting it out of my reach. I am terribly sorry that I cannot give it to you, but you will just have to finish your task without it.”
“You don’t understand—”
“I am sorry, but you are the one who does not understand,” Ember barked. She was beginning to get angry, and her violet eyes flashed against the dim light. “The pendant piece is perfectly safe with me, and I would advise you that you should leave this shrine and never return if you want to live longer than your measly fifteen years.”
“I don’t care about my life at all,” Tatsuya said. “I’m just doing this to help other people, and to protect the people I love. You know about love. I’m doing this for love, just like you are. You have to understand, I have to have that pendant piece.”
Ember scowled at him, put her arm on his shoulder, dangerously close to his neck, and pushed up up against a tree, right under where one of the branches was on fire. Tatsuya could feel her hand’s warmth even through his jacket and shirt. It was dangerously scalding. Ember hissed again.
“You will stay away from here,” she said, her voice deep again. “And you will stay away from seeking the power to control the Dragon of Life.”
Her hand continuously grew hotter and hotter on Tatsuya’s skin.
“Please,” Tatsuya said, his voice quivering now more than ever. “I can’t just go like that. You have to give me a chance. I need that pendant.”
Ember’s hand continued to heat up, and soon it was burning through Tatsuya’s jacket before it touched his cold skin.
Tatsuya yelped in pain, but Ember kept a tight grip on his shoulder.
“Stay away from here,” she said with more force. “And you will be glad that you did.”
Tatsuya broke from her grasp and fell to his knees. He tried to bend his head to look at his shoulder and noticed a massive burn that would be impossible to hide, for his clothes had burns on them, too.
“Now, if you please, leave.”

Chapter Nineteen

2009-11-23T20:59:00.000-08:00

Tatsuya didn’t know what to expect from flying on a Dragon. He expected a bumpy ride, which is quite the opposite of what had happened. It felt like he was sitting still except for the huge rush of wind that was always blowing in his face.
He could barely hear Maddy shouting behind him in the huge gust of wind. But from the few words that he caught from her, he could tell that she was absolutely amazed at the things going on. “Amazing!” “Flying!” “Unbelievable!” were just a few of the words that crossed Tatsuya’s ear.
Tatsuya was even so mesmerized by the wind, he didn’t even bother to look at the surroundings, or even if they were above land or an ocean.
Before too long, Kaida landed with a large thud, and Tatsuya slid off of her dragon body and onto the grassy floor. He helped Maddy slide down, and smiled at her.
“So I’m assuming we’re in Japan,” he told her.
“Yeah,” she said, smiling back at him. “Kinda freaky. We just flew on a dragon! This is like in fantasy books and stuff. Whew, I can’t believe that just happened!”
Tatsuya turned around to see Kaida smiling at him in her full human form. She looked away from him and raised her head to look at the giant trees that showed the entrance of the forest.
“This is where we need to go.”
Kaida led the way through the shrubs and trees of the entangling forest. Tatsuya did most of the path clearing to make it easier for Maddy to get through it.
Maddy held her breath as she walked, and Tatsuya got worried when he first noticed.
“Hey, Maddy,” Tatsuya panted. “Are you all right?”
“Yeah,” She panted back. She held her lips tightly together, absolutely refusing to exhale. “I’m all right, what about you?”
Tatsuya noticed all of the scratches he had obtained on his arms. He began to hold his own breath. “Yeah, I think I’m okay,” he said.
Kaida was already yards ahead of them, practically advancing by bouncing from one tree to the next.
“Kaida, you’re going to have to slow down. We’re going to loose you if you’re too far ahead of us.”
“Don’t worry,” she called back. “I can feel it. We’re not too far away from the shrine now.”
Tatsuya stood still for a moment and Maddy ran into him from behind.
“Is something wrong?” Maddy asked.
“No, nothing,” He said. He shook the bad thoughts out of his head, and continued to attempt to catch up to Kaida.
“Here,” Kaida said, gesturing a group of trees that were bent over in an archway.
“Whoa,” Maddy said, mesmerized by the festoons and exquisite designs that were decorating the archway which led to more trees.
“It’s in this group of trees somewhere,” Kaida said. “But we need to start being careful.”
“Why?” Maddy asked. “I mean, no… I know why. There’s stuff guarding this place. But do you know what sort of stuff is in there? What should we be keeping our eyes out for?”
“That would be me.”
To Tatsuya’s surprise, someone walked out from under the archway. It was a girl—she looked no older than Tatsuya.
She bent down with one leg sticking out and one leg bent, as if she were ready to pounce on them. If her deep mauve dress was torn even a little more, it would be considered indecent. The most astonishing thing about her wasn’t even her swift motions, or her flaming red-orange locks of hair, or the fact that she looked like a lioness prepared to attack her prey. The most astonishing thing about her was her radiant, sparkling violet eyes that pierced the soul with a simple glance. And yet, she continued to be surprisingly outstanding.
She hissed at them.
Maddy’s eyes widened as she took two cautious steps back.
“A-are you the one guarding this shrine?” Tatsuya stuttered.
The girl stood up straight so her piercing violet eyes met with Tatsuya’s, their faces only inches apart.
“Leave,” she commanded, her voice unusually deeper than it was before.
“We can’t,” Tatsuya said, attempting his hardest not to seem afraid. “W-we need to get that pendant—that piece of the pendant.”
“Do you think I’m just going to let you walk right in?” she exclaimed. “Who do you think you are anyway?”
“Stop,” Kaida said, taking a step forward. “It’s not him who requires the pendant piece. I’m the one who needs it.”
“You?” She exclaimed again. She removed her glare from Tatsuya and placed it on Kaida. “Dragon of Autumn. Dragon of Death. How good it is to see you again.”
“It’s good to see you, too, Ember,” Kaida said. “It would be even better if you let us through.”
“Why would you require your brother’s pendant?” she asked, a slight hiss still in her voice.
“That,” Kaida started, “is business that doesn’t apply to you. Now I would greatly appreciate it if you let us through.”
“Kaida, dear, you know as well as I do that I’m not letting anyone through this archway.” She turned back and averted her glare towards Tatsuya again. “Who is your friend, Kaida?”
“This is Tatsuya,” Kaida said.
“Is he your master?”
“No!” Kaida snapped, gripping tight to the pendant around her neck. “He may posess my power, but no one is my master. I am my own master.”
The girl shrugged and then smiled, keeping her ultra violet gaze on Tatsuya. “So hello, Tatsuya. My name is Ember.”
“H-hello,” Tatsuya managed to spit out.
“I’m assuming you’re a human,” she said. “You don’t look very old. Then again, I’m not an expert on how humans age. Are you about one hundred? Two hundred?”
“Fifteen,” Tatsuya corrected. “W-wait, are you not a human?”
“Good guess.”
“So what are you?”
Her smile faded. “I’m not really anything. Nothing official, at least. But I used to be a fairy.”
“A fairy?”
“Yes, but I became, what would you call it? An ex-fairy. After breaking one of the most important laws. And with my former status, I just couldn’t afford to break any laws.”
“Ember,” Kaida cut in. “As much as we all would love to hear you ramble on about your life’s story, we’re on a tight schedule, so we would like to just go in, get what we need, and get out as soon as possible.”
“Hush, Kaida,” she snapped, not taking her glare off of Tatsuya. Her lips slowly curved back into a grin. “I like this boy,” she said, raising her hand and playfully tapping him on the cheek. “I can see why you’re sticking around him, Kaida.”
“Well, it’s not really my choice,” Kaida said quietly.
“I can see his curiosity,” Ember said. “The hunger in his eyes. He’s quite… how do I say this?… cute, too.”
“Excuse me,” Maddy said, her voice quiet. She cleared her throat and spoke up. “Um, we’re not exactly here for that sort of stuff. We’re here to just get the pendant piece and leave.”
“And would this be the girlfriend?” Ember asked, moving her deathly gaze over to Maddy.
“No, not the girlfriend,” she said. “But that’s not the point, the point is, we’re not here just to fool around. We just want to get a job done and leave.”
“I have a job, little girl,” Ember hissed. “I am not allowing a single soul into that shrine, and that includes you and my good friend Kaida.”
“Why can’t you just let us in?”
“I can’t let anyone get ahold of that pendant. I can’t trust anyone with the power to control the Dragon of Life.”
“Not even Kaida?” Tatsuya asked, almost begging. “I mean, she is his brother, isn’t she? She’s not about to do anything evil or control him in a way that’s bad. Why can’t you just let us in?”
“I have said this once, and I will say it again,” Ember said, raising her voice. “I am not letting a single soul into that shrine. I will protect the Dragon of Spring—the Dragon of Life! I must protect him. I can not let anything happen to him.”
“Nothing is going to happen to him,” Kaida said. “Ember, you have to believe us.”
“Kaida, you have no idea how insane I am going out here,” she said, her eyes beginning to bulge. “I’m so alone every day, for hundreds of years. And all I need to do is guard this place. You have no idea what sort of insanity I go through every day.”
“Why do you have to guard this place?” Tatsuya asked.
“Oh, wouldn’t you like to know?” she snapped.
“You sound like you’re going through a few problems.”
Ember scoffed. “Hm. A few problems. Your curiosity is going to get you in trouble one day.”
Tatsuya shrugged. “I’m just concerned.”
“There’s no need to be concerned about this one, Tatsuya,” Kaida said. “She’s tougher than I am, and that is definitely saying something.”
“Oh, Kaida, don’t be such a narcissist. Maybe I’ll let this one in,” she said, running her hand down Tatsuya’s face and down his neck until she held him tightly on the shoulder. “I can’t promise you that he’ll walk out with anything, but I’ll let him into the shrine.”
Kaida glanced at Tatsuya, who glanced back with a begging look.
“All right,” Kaida said. “Let him in. Will you give him the pendant?”
Ember curled one end of her lips. “We will just have to wait and see if that happens.” She walked and beckoned Tatsuya with one finger to follow her. He stepped into the archway and was immediately engulfed by the darkness.

Chapter Eighteen

2009-11-22T14:50:00.001-08:00

Tatsuya sat back down on the bed, and Kaida took a deep breath, staring at him with her cold eyes.
“A plan?” Maddy repeated. “What, are we going to save Darren?”
“I think it might save your friend,” Kaida said. “And it will help with the downfall of our antagonist.”
“You’re talking about Lance, right?” Tatsuya asked, realizing how stupid his question had sounded. “Well, yeah, of course it’s Lance.”
“Wait, who’s Lance?” Maddy asked. “You didn’t explain to me anything about this.”
“Lance is the person who killed my father ten years ago,” Tatsuya said. “He wants to gain control of the dragons so he can rule the world or something like that.”
“He’s trying to steal it,” Kaida said. “He failed when he killed Tatsuya’s father, and now he’s trying to find other ways.”
“What other ways?” Tatsuya asked.
Kaida pointed to the pendant she wore around her neck—the one fourth of a circle with a leaf on it. “Of course you know that whoever has this has the ability to control me. And you know there are three more. If you have those you can control my brothers.”
“So is he trying to get those pendants or something?” Tatsuya asked.
“Exactly.”
“Where are they?”
“In their specific shrines, which are heavily guarded.”
“Well, if they’re heavily guarded then we’ve got nothing to worry about, right?”
“They might be heavily guarded, but it’s still possibly to penetrate.”
“So what do you suggest?”
“I suggest we go get them,” Kaida said plainly. “Also, since I control the power of death, one of my brother controls the power of life. And I think we might be able to use my brother’s pendant to help cure your friend. It can’t bring people back to life, though, Tatsuya, so I’m incredibly sorry about your grandfather, but if we use it before he dies, I think we will be able to save his life.”
“Oh!” Maddy exclaimed, as if she had some deep epiphany discovered. “I get it! So it would help Darren and stop the bad guy all at the same time!”
“Yes, that is correct.”
“We have a little problem, though,” Tatsuya said. “Well, there are quite a few problems with that plan.”
“What could go wrong?” Kaida asked.
“We don’t know where they are, we don’t know how to get there, and I’m stuck in my room,” Tatsuya explained.
“I know where they are,” Kaida said. “And I know how to get there. And as for you being stuck in your room, no one has to know you left.”
“Well, where are they, then?” Tatsuya asked.
“The one we’re currently looking for is in a forest deep in the unexplored parts of Japan,” Kaida explained.
“Japan?” Tatsuya exclaimed. “How the hell are we going to go all the way to Japan?”
“I told you I had a way,” Kaida said. “And I can take you there myself. This is my chance to prove my identity to you, so there you have it.”
“So you’re going to prove to us that you’re…” Maddy started, but was unable to finish her sentence.
“Yes, I’m going to show you my true form as a dragon.”
“Well, let’s get out of here,” Tatsuya said. “If you’re a dragon, that means you can fly and stuff, right?
“That’s right.”
“I’m sorry, I know this is a serious matter and stuff, but that is just so cool,” Maddy said.
“I obviously can’t change into a dragon in here,” Kaida explained. “Even though I’m fairly small for a dragon, I’d still break this entire house down.”
“Whoa,” Maddy said. “That’s incredible. I’m kind of afraid to see what a large dragon would look like. Probably huge, right?”
“Oh, extremely,” Kaida said.
“So what are we going to do?” Tatsuya asked. “How are we going to get out of here? My little sister is guarding my door and my mom is down in the living room. They’re keeping me locked in my room because they think it’s a better option than sending me to a mental asylum.”
Kaida averted her eyes towards the window in Tatsuya’s door. “There is more than one way to exit a room.”
"Oh, no we can't just go out the window," Tatsuya said. He frowned and sighed as he looked down at his socks. "I can't just let down my mom and my sister like that."
"Tatsuya, this is a matter of life and death," Kaida explained. "Not just for your friend Darren, but if this guy finds out why killing your father didn't get him my power, then he'll start to realize that there was someone else, and he'll come after you. He obviously shows no mercy, and will try to kill you."
"I understand that," Tatsuya said. "But it just feels so weird sneaking out. I've never done anything like this before."
"I'm coming with you," Maddy said.
"It might be dangerous for little girls like you," Kaida said.
"Maybe, but that's not going to stop me from coming," she said.
"You might trip in your high heels," Kaida sneered.
"Listen, I know we might not like each other very much, and frankly, I have no idea why, but you don't need to taunt me like that, because I'm not just some flimsy little girl, I'm strong and independent, and I can do whatever the hell I want, so excuse me, miss, for being so like myself, but I'm not about to abandon my friend."
Tatsuya smiled to himself. "Thank you, Madison Anabel Fisher."
"Fine," Kaida sighed. "I guess there's nothing I can do about that. So shall we go?"
"Yeah, let's go," Maddy said.
Tatsuya went over to his window and tugged at it. "It's locked," he said. "From the outside. I didn't know my mom was so cautious about me leaving that she'd go to this extent."
"It was probably already locked," Maddy said. "I doubt your mom climbed up to the second story."
"Yeah," Tatsuya said. "But we're still locked in here."
Kaida approached the window, and placed her hand on the metal lock. "Just wait for a second," she said. She held it with a tight grip, before small waves of heat began to come out of her hand.
"What--whoa!" Maddy exclaimed when she realized what she was doing.
Kaida's hand was probably well over hundreds of degrees as she burned the lock right off of the window with just a simple touch.
"That was incredible," Maddy said. "Okay, good thing I have an open mind. I didn't believe in all of this ridiculous stuff before. Wow, I can't believe this."
"It's called magic," Kaida said, sliding the window open and ripping the screen with her bare hands. "And strength."
"I thought dragons blew fire out of their mouths," Tatsuya said.
"I can't blow fire out of my mouth when I'm in my human form," Kaida said, stepping out the window and onto the roof. "Let's go." Kaida moved swiftly and quietly, almost like a ninja when she jumped from the roof of the house to a tree before sliding down the trunk and onto the ground.
Tatsuya and Maddy looked at each other and then back out the window where Kaida was calling them from the floor.
"Yeah, we can't really do that," Tatsuya said.
"If you can't even make it out of your house, how do you expect to get that pendant from the shrine?" Kaida asked. "It's not too difficult, just try."
Maddy scoffed. "Yeah, that's easy for you to say."
"You don't have to do much, just jump and go down the branches," Kaida explained.
Tatsuya nodded as he stuck his legs out one at a time and stood up on the roof of his house. He hesitated, but took a deep breath before leaping onto the tree by his house. He held onto the trunk with his life, panicking about falling off, but he was standing on quite a sturdy branch which seemed to support his weight. "Maddy jump onto this branch," Tatsuya said. "It's probably the best one."
Maddy took off her high heel shoes and carefully followed Tatsuya. Her jump had a lot more grace to it than when Tatsuya jumped. She smiled at him and held onto his arm when she got onto the branch. "Wow, that was a lot easier than I thought," she said. "Look, there's a branch down there, too. If we get on that, and then go down, I'm sure we'll be able to get down without any problems.
Tatsuya jumped down to the branch that Maddy indicated, and helped her get down on it two before jumping onto the ground next to Kaida.
"Took you long enough," she said.
"I'm sorry we're not all super fly ninjas like you are," Maddy said. "But let's just go."
"We need to find a place with at least some open space," Kaida said. "And somewhere where there aren't a lot of people so they don't see me change."
"How about that old abandoned park behind the library?" Tatsuya said. "I used to go there all the time. Just to sit and relax and stare at the grass growing. There was never anyone there, and I think it would be the perfect place."
Maddy nodded. "That sounds good."
"Fine," Kaida said. "Show us the way, Tatsuya."
Tatsuya began to walk quickly towards his old "sitting and thinking" spot behind the library where no one went to. He tried to remember when he had been there last. He was about ten years old, and he went there to think about how to make friends. That's where he first came up with the idea for a friend who would not reject him and would always be there for him. He started to form sketches and ideas, and eventually came up with the idea for a computer program which would later become his only friend.
"All right, it's not too far away now," Tatsuya said after his flash back finished. "I'm sure no one will be there."
Tatsuya looked up at the library, which had been closed for three years now. He also remembered when he came to this library and the only other person who was there was the old librarian who was always really nice to him and gave him a lot of candy whenever he came because he was the only visitor to that library. He smiled to himself before guiding the two girls to the back of the library."
There was a large field of grass which would be totally unexpected in a place like behind the library. Tatsuya gazed up at the giant tree which used to be the place he would sit and just think.
"This is a perfect place," Kaida said. "I'm sure I could change into my true form here."
"Okay, then do it," Maddy said, taking a few steps back.
Kaida smiled slyly at Maddy and Tatsuya, and then her transformation began. Her fingers became claws, her hair became a large mane around her face as her nose became a snout and her eyes grew to the size of soccer balls. Her body elongated and her perfectly smooth skin became rough and scaly, though each scale individually looked like a gem sparkling in all directions when the light hit it. Her legs crouched up into her body but from her lower back sprouted a long, firey tail that almost knocked down the tree in the back.
Tatsuya's eyes widened as he saw the mysterious little girl become a fierce lizard-like creature.
"Oh my God," Maddy said, just as shocked as Tatsuya. "I would have never believed this even if it was in my dreams."
The large beast turned her head towards Tatsuya and Maddy, and seemed to give them something that was almost like a smile. She jerked her head towards her long body.
"Can you talk?" Tatsuya asked.
The dragon shook her head.
Tatsuya turned to Maddy. "This could be dangerous," he said. "Are you absolutely positive you want to come?"
Maddy swallowed a lump in her throat as she looked at Kaida, and then she looked back at Tatsuya and nodded. "Yes, I'm absolutely positive I want to come."
Tatsuya sighed. He was so concerned for her safety. He didn't want anything to happen to her, especially considering how prone she was to accidents. "All right," he said. "I don't want you to come because you might get hurt, but I don't think there's anything I can do to stop you."
"No, there's nothing you can do," she said. She looked back at Kaida. "I think she wants us to get on her."
Tatsuya turned back and looked at the great beast that was in front of him. He should have been afraid. He should have been frightened to death. But he wasn't. He approached the great beast with extreme caution, and jumped on and climbed onto her back with the scales as support. He looked at Maddy and extended his hand. "Let's go."
Maddy looked up at him and smiled. "Yeah. Let's go." She reached up and grabbed his hand, and he pulled her up onto Kaida's back. Tatsuya held the scales in front of him with the tightest grip. "Hold onto me," Tatsuya said. "I've never flown on a dragon before, so I'm not sure how this is going to work. But just hold on, okay? I don't want anything happening to you."
Maddy nodded and put her arms around Tatsuya waist, holding onto him for dear life.
Tatsuya sighed. "All right, Kaida," he said. "I think we're ready. Let's go."

Chapter Seventeen

2009-11-22T00:34:00.001-08:00

Tatsuya was locked in his room. Not by choice this time, though. Once his mother found out that he was out and about, going places and doing things, she made sure he was on tight lock down. He wasn’t allowed to leave his room unless his sister was with him, and he wasn’t allowed to leave his house at all.
“That’s the problem with people,” Gina said once Tatsuya had explained his dinner with the Fisher family to her. “All people are so ridiculously flawed. Tatsuya, you deserve perfection. You don’t need friends like that girl, and you don’t have to deal with her parents if you just—”
“Fell in love with you?” Tatsuya snapped, shutting a book he was reading with a lot more force than necessary. “Yeah, wouldn’t life just be so much simpler if I were in love with a computer. A computer program that I created.”
“I understand, Tatsuya,” Gina said. “But if you just listen to me sometimes—”
“Gina, I listen to you all the time,” Tatsuya said. “I listen to you all the time. I have no one else to listen to. I’m not complaining or anything. If I were that annoyed, I would just remove the program from my hard drive, and then I’d be done with you for the rest of my life. Have I done that yet? No, I haven’t. So, please, don’t even talk about me not listening to you. And like I said, I’m not annoyed. If I were going to be annoyed, I would not have created you in the first place. And I really appreciate that you’re here, because you listen to me a lot, too, it’s just now is not the time to be talking about stupid things because there’s some serious dilemmas going on, and I’m just really stressed out, okay?”
“Tatsuya, you are rambling again,” Gina said. “Take a deep breath and calm down.”
He did what she said and took about ten seconds to deeply inhale, held it for a few seconds, and then let it out in a long sigh.
“I’m okay,” he told Gina. “Thanks for that. I’ve never rambled like that before. Man, I must be going insane or something.”
“Don’t worry, Tatsuya,” Gina said. “Just relax. Everything will be fine in the end.”
“Yeah, every thing will be fine,” he said to himself. “I have to make sure everything ends up all right. Not just for me, but for Maddy and Darren and Kimi and everyone else. I have to fix this.”
A knock appeared on the door, and Tatsuya called, “come in, it’s locked from the outside.”
Kimi opened the door and poked her head in. “Hey, Tatsuya?”
Tatsuya stood up. “What is it, Kim?”
“There’s someone here who would like to see you,” she said softly.
“Who is it?”
“There’s actually two people.”
“Are you going to tell me who they are?”
“They are like these two girls. Your friends. Those two girls who are your friends,” she said, a bit more awkwardly this time.
“Do you mean Maddy?” Tatsuya asked. “She said she wanted to talk to me today.”
“Yeah, she’s the blond one right?” Kimi asked. “And the asian one is there, too.”
Tatsuya actually thought about it for a second before he remembered the only asian girl who would attempt to visit him. He actually couldn’t believe he had forgotten. “Oh, is it Kaida?”
“Yes, I think so,” Kimi answered. “Should I tell them to come up here?”
“Sure, go ahead. I don’t know if they want to come up here together or something, but… yeah, just tell them I’ll talk to them both.”
“Okay,” she said. “But while you’re in here with them, I’m going to be right in the hall way making sure you’re not up to anything suspicious.”
“All right, Kimi,” Tatsuya said, nodding at his sister. “Thanks. I’ll be in here.”
Once Kimi had shut the door again, Tatsuya could hear her tiny footsteps run down the stairs, and then back up in a matter of seconds. She unlocked his door and poked her head in again.
“Are they there?” Tatsuya asked.
“Yeah,” Kimi said, swinging the door fully open to reveal the two beautiful woman. “Just don’t do anything mom would disapprove of,” Kimi said, slightly glaring at them before she left.
Kaida stepped in first, closely followed by Maddy, who shut the door.
“I didn’t know you were having more company over, Tatsuya,” Kaida said, her voice chilling Tatsuya to the core as she sat down on the chair across from him. “I have some information I wanted to share with you, and I don’t know if I can now.”
“Tatsuya, I just want an explanation,” Maddy said, sitting next to him on the bed. “I just want you to stop hiding stuff from me. You’re a good friend of mine, Tat, and I just want to know what’s up.”
Tatsuya sighed. He didn’t know what to do. He knew that whatever Kaida had to say was important, but there was just something about Madison Anabel Fisher where he could not say no to her.
“Here’s what we’ll do,” he started, “both of you are going to stay in this room until we’re all finished.”
“But Tatsuya—” Kaida tried to interrupt, but Tatsuya cut her off by raising his hand.
“And we’ll wait until I’m finished,” he said. “Okay, so we’re all going to hear what everyone has to say. I know there have been a lot of secrets, and things that only I can say or things that can only been said to me. But the reason Kaida came here was because she needed to tell me some confidential information. And the only reason Maddy has come here was to find out all the confidential stuff. So I guess the only way to make this work is if we just let everything out right now.”
“Tatsuya, we can’t do that,” Kaida said. “How do we know if we can trust her?”
“Excuse me?” Maddy snapped. “Tatsuya, you don’t trust me?”
“I trust you,” Tatsuya told Maddy. “But I’m really just not sure how you’re going to take all of this.”
“Tatsuya, I don’t think I can tell just anyone,” Kaida said. “I can’t just reveal myself to anyone. I just can’t do that.”
“Why? What’ll happen if you tell anyone? Is there some sort of consequence or something?”
“Well, not exactly. Nothing will happen, but we don’t like telling just anyone.”
“Excuse me,” Maddy snapped again. “I’m not just anyone, just so you know. I’m Tatsuya’s friend, and I have a right to know what the hell is going on.”
“She does have the right,” Tatsuya said. Even though he didn’t truly believe in what he was saying one hundred per cent, he still could never say no to Madison Anabel Fisher. There was just that aura about her that made anyone fall to her every whim.
Everyone except for Kaida, of course.
“I don’t want to tell her,” Kaida said firmly. “This is a secret kept for thousands of years, and she’s just some girl who has nothing to do with it.”
“Kaida, I almost killed myself because of this,” Tatsuya said. “And if Maddy wants to know why, then I can’t lie to her about something like that. I can’t lie to her at all.”
“Tatsuya, try to understand—” Kaida started, but got interrupted by Maddy.
“No, you should try to understand,” she said again. “I’ve been standing in the background, just smiling and nodding at everything Tatsuya has done. But then he goes off and tries to kill himself, and I’m extremely worried, and all I want to know is what the hell is going on.”
Kaida frowned, and Tatsuya stood up to look her in the eyes.
“I’m going to explain myself,” he said. “I’m going to explain everything. I just have to make sure it’s okay with Kaida first, because it’s not just my secret.”
Maddy’s eyes widened. “Is she pregnant or something?”
“No!” Kaida snapped. “Tatsuya, I don’t think this is a very good idea.”
“It may not be a good idea or not,” Tatsuya said. “But it’s the right thing to do, and I want to do it.”
Maddy smiled. “Thank you, Tatsuya. But I completely respect Kaida and her rights, so… do you mind if Tatsuya spills the beans, Kaida?”
Kaida frowned at Maddy. “Despite what I say, Tatsuya is going to want to tell you,” she said with a heavy sigh. “There’s nothing I can do about that. Maybe you will prove me wrong and turn out worthy of my trust after all.”
“Oh, thank you so much, Kaida,” she said, clicking her heals together as she jumped lightly. “Don’t worry, I’m really good at keeping secrets. What ever you’re about to tell me, I won’t tell a soul.”
“I just don’t know how you’re going to react to it,” Kaida said. “It’s not exactly your usual secret.”
“I’ll try to think about it with an open mind,” she said, smiling again. “So please, tell me what’s going on.”
Tatsuya took a deep breath, and began to explain everything he could to Maddy. He talked about his great-grandfather’s journal, and what had happened to him on his journey. He told her all about Kaida’s true identity and why she was there in the first place. Possibly the hardest thing to explain to her was about how Darren got sick and about his power to kill anyone he chooses to reject. He carefully made sure to avoid anything that would bring up the fact that Madison Anabel Fisher was his best friend ten years ago, because amongst all this crazy unbelievable mishaps, he was positive she was already overwhelmed.
“D-dragons?” Maddy stuttered. She glanced quickly at Kaida and then back at Tatsuya. “I-I know I said I would have an open mind about this, but… dragons? Are you sure about this? I mean, do you have any proof?”
“Not really, no,” Tatsuya said.
“Once it is my turn to speak, I will be able to confirm my identity to you,” Kaida said. “But I don’t want to interrupt. You probably have loads of questions.”
“Well, I don’t really have questions, per say,” Maddy said, cocking her head to one side. “But this is just all so incredible. Like, I would have never expected this answer in a million years. Maybe if I were in some movie or something like that, but nothing like this in my life.”
“That’s life,” Tatsuya said, shrugging. “The most unexpected things will happen to you.”
“Yeah, I’ll say,” Maddy said, still attempting to catch her breath. “Are you sure about this? I mean, it’s your fault that my Darren is home in bed… dying?”
Tatsuya frowned and shrugged again. “It’s also my fault my grandfather is dead.”
“That’s horrible,” Maddy said.
“Yeah. My great-grandfather killed himself because it was the only way for him to stop killing people.”
“And that’s why you…” Maddy said, but she couldn’t finish her thought.
Tatsuya nodded. “Yeah. I’m glad you understand.”
“Of course I understand,” Maddy said with a sigh. “But this is all still so unbelievable. And since the whole killing yourself thing didn’t work, how are you going to fix everything? You can’t just let Darren die.” Maddy held onto his arm. “Please, Tatsuya, we can’t just let Darren die!”
Kaida stood up. “I do believe it’s my turn to speak. I have a plan.”

Chapter Sixteen

2009-11-18T22:43:00.001-08:00

Even though he promised Kimi for the best, on the way to Maddy’s house, he couldn’t help but think of all of the worst possible situations. First he began to think of bad situations. Like maybe they would recognize him and would kick him out of the house. Or maybe they would tell Maddy to stay away from him and tell her everything about him from ten years ago, and by “everything about him” they would tell her things that were probably untrue, but she wouldn’t remember anyway because of her amnesia.
And then even worse situations came into his head. What if he accidentally let the word “alone” slip? What if he gets angry and kills off one of Maddy’s parents? What if he manages to kill Maddy? Tatsuya thought that maybe going to her house wasn’t the best idea, but he just couldn’t say no to Madison Anabel Fisher.
Tatsuya knew the way to her house perfectly. He didn’t know why, but for some odd reason Maddy’s parents decided to live in the same house they lived in ten years ago. He remembered the way exactly because of the numerous times his mother had to drive him there for play dates with the little, adorable Madison Anabel Fisher.
He nervously climbed up the three steps leading up to the door. He remembered how difficult it was to climb these steep steps when he was five years old. Even though his legs were much larger now, he still found them incredibly difficult to climb. He raised his hand slowly, and banged his knuckles thrice against the mahogany door.
The few seconds he had to wait were probably the most nerve-wracking in his life. All of the horrible thoughts repeated themselves in one quick second before rapidly flying out of his mind where he stood there, thoughtless and emotionless.
Maddy opened the door and grinned at Tatsuya. “Hey, you’re kind of late,” she said. “Is everything all right?”
“O-oh yeah,” Tatsuya stuttered. “Yeah, I had some stuff to deal with my sister. You know… she was pretty upset about me leaving the house and stuff. Especially since what happened.”
“I can imagine,” Maddy said, her grin slightly fading. “But you can come in.”
She opened the door all the way and Tatsuya cautiously took four small steps into her house. She closed the door behind him, and he began to notice the similarities and differences from ten years ago. A lot of the photos were the same. But the furniture and everything looked so much more expensive, so much more ravishing. The lives of the Fisher family obviously changed a lot since they moved away from this dinky little town. The walls were a lovely peach color which made Tatsuya sick to his stomach, and he couldn’t help but notice the giant chandelier hanging down from the ceiling, practically mocking him in his face.
“Nice house,” he said bluntly.
“Thanks,” she said. “Well, I really shouldn’t be thanking you for that compliment. My parents should.”
“Where are your parents?” Tatsuya asked, rubbing his palms on his jeans to try to get the sweat off of them.
“Oh, they’re just finishing up with dinner,” Maddy said. “I actually just finished setting the table. So dinner should be ready in about fifteen minutes or so. Why don’t we just hang out in my room until then. We can have an interesting discussion about recent events.”
“Yeah, sure, okay,” Tatsuya said quickly. He followed Maddy up the strangely familiar stairs until they were in her room. It was as sickly pink as most of the rest of the house. He didn’t want to complain, though.
Maddy sat down on her bed. “Oh, don’t just stand there,” she said, pointing at a chair. “Please, sit down. God, I sound like a freaking psychiatrist right now. Seriously, just chill… and you can tell me all of your problems.”
Tatsuya chuckled nervously at Maddy’s seemingly funny joke as he took a seat on the chair next to her desk. He laughed at himself when he half expected the computer to talk back to him.
“Listen, Tatsuya, I know you’re going through a lot of stuff right now. Your friend is sick, and your grandfather just passed away, and I don’t really know what’s going on between you and that Kaida girl, but it can’t be anything good if you thought suicide was a good idea.”
Tatsuya nodded his head, even though he wasn’t fully listening. “I know you want an explanation,” Tatsuya said. “But I have no idea if I’m allowed to tell you.”
“Allowed to tell me?” Maddy repeated. “What the hell does that mean? Why wouldn’t you be allowed to tell me something?”
“It’s just some really bizarre stuff,” Tatsuya said, his voice a bit uneasy. “It’s really unbelievable, and I don’t know if you would understand.”
“Can I tell you something?” Maddy suddenly piped up.
“Uh… yeah, sure, I guess,” Tatsuya said, a bit uneasy about what she was about to say.
“You know, ever since I’ve moved here, I’ve considered you one of my best friends.”
Tatsuya’s eye brows disappeared behind his bangs.
“Yeah,” Maddy said. “I mean, of course I’ve been keeping in touch with my besties from my private school, but after I came here, I feel like I’ve reached a whole new level of myself whenever I talk to you.”
“Are you sure it’s a new level?” Tatsuya mumbled to himself.
“I’m sorry, what was that?” Maddy asked.
“Oh, nothing,” Tatsuya said. “Er… I guess I should say thank you.”
“No, I should be saying thank you,” Maddy said. “I know I’ve talked to you about this before, but I really do feel more thoughtful around you. It’s kind of weird, but thank you. For being a great friend, and showing me a side of myself I never knew existed.”
Tatsuya looked down at his hands and smiled to himself. “You’re welcome, Madison Anabel Fisher.”
Maddy chuckled. “Um, yeah, it’s just Maddy. It’s not exactly normal to call someone by his or her full name.”
“Right. Of course,” he said, smiling up at her now. “Sorry about that, Maddy. But maybe I’ll be able to tell you. You seem to have an open mind.”
“Yes! Yes, I do have an open mind, Tatsuya. And I promise I’ll listen and believe anything you say. You’re just going to have to trust me on that.”
“I trust you, Maddy,” Tatsuya said.
“Then please tell me.”
“Maddy!” called a shrew, female voice from downstairs. “Can you come down for dinner now?”
“Coming, mom!” Maddy called back. “Let’s go, Tatsuya. I can finally introduce you to my parents! Maybe they won’t be so pissed about me hanging out with you once they know who you are.”
“Yeah, maybe,” Tatsuya said, his palms sweating again. “Or maybe they’ll get to know me and they wouldn’t want you being around me.”
Maddy giggled, and stood up and walked to her door. “That’s just silly, Tatsuya,” she said, opening the door. She guided him downstairs and into the dining room, where Mrs. Fisher was placing the food on the table.
Mr. Fisher glared at Tatsuya.
Yep, he definitely remembers me, Tatsuya thought.
“Oh, mommy and daddy,” Maddy said, sitting down at the table. “This is my new friend I’ve been telling you about.”
“Ah, yes,” Mr. Fisher said, his voice as prick as ever. “I do believe this is the suicidal one?”
Great, Tatsuya thought, I’ve already come to a bad start.
“Um, yeah,” Maddy said nervously. “Tatsuya, please sit down.”
Tatsuya rubbed his sweaty hands against his jeans again, and sat down in the chair next to Maddy, straight across from Mr. Fisher.
“Uh, thanks for inviting me over,” Tatsuya said awkwardly.
“Yes, of course,” Mrs. Fisher said. “So how long have you been living in this area?”
Tatsuya wanted nothing more than to shoot these two imbeciles a dirty look. They definitely already knew him, and there was no point to their stupid interrogating act.
“Oh, all my life, ma’am,” Tatsuya answered, playing along with their little charade.
“How interesting,” she said. “Now just tell us a little bit about yourself. I don’t want my precious Maddy to be around with someone I don’t know.”
Tatsuya slowly took a bite of food. He moved cautiously as he didn’t know what sort of things were going to come up next. “What do you want to know?” he asked, carefully remembering that he had to finish swallowing first before he spoke.
“Well, what do you like to do?”
“Think,” Tatsuya said plainly. “I like to think. Being a deep person is fun.”
Mrs. Fisher frowned. “Well, that wasn’t exactly the response I was looking for, but it was interesting nonetheless.”
“Yeah,” Tatsuya said, digging into his food with a fork. “Life is pretty nice like that.”
“Nice like what?”
“Well, you never know what’s going to come up,” he said. He took another bite and swallowed, barely chewing it down. “But it’s always interesting. Without those things life would be so boring.”
“Keeping to a routine is nice, though,” Mrs. Fisher said.
“Well, of course, keeping a routine is necessary. It’s simple, and nice, and there’s not a lot of thinking involved. Without a routine, a lot of people would just go insane. But a little bit of reality is nice, too.”
Mrs Fisher frowned again, her face wrinkling up as if she ate something incredibly sour.
“Um, Tatsuya,” Maddy whispered to him so her parents couldn’t hear. “I know that’s how we usually speak to each other, but my parents aren’t so cool with it. They just don’t like the way all that deep stuff sounds.”
“Oh,” Tatsuya said under his breath. “That’s kind of stupid.”
“So, Tat-soo-ya,” Mr. Fisher started, completely pronouncing Tatsuya’s name incorrectly, “you seem like an intelligent young man. What sort of grades do you get?”
Tatsuya shrugged. “Oh, I don’t know. Mostly Bs, I guess.”
Mr. Fisher quickly glanced at Mrs. Fisher.
“I’ll tell you what your problem is,” Mrs. Fisher stated in a matter-of-fact like tone. “It’s all that time you waste thinking. Really. If you stopped thinking of things that don’t really matter, or that no one else who is normal really thinks of, you’re not going to spend enough time thinking of things that do matter. Like grades, and your family, and things of that sort.”
“I think about important things,” Tatsuya said, trying his best to keep his voice low. “I think about my family a lot. My father died ten years ago, and since my mother works a lot, it was pretty much my responsibility to raise myself and my little sister.”
“No wonder you’re in such a state,” Mrs. Fisher said, taking another bite of food.
Tatsuya glared, but stopped before they noticed. “What do you mean? What sort of state am I in?”
“Oh, it’s nothing, dear, don’t worry about it,” Mrs. Fisher said with her shrew, wrinkly smile. “Maddy, do you mind getting the potatoes from the kitchen?”
“Not at all, mom,” she said, standing up and walking away from the table.
Tatsuya rubbed his sweaty palms against his jeans again. The last thing he wanted was to be alone with Mr and Mrs. Fisher.
“Say, dear,” Mr. Fisher said to Mrs. Fisher, “doesn’t this boy look slightly familiar?”
Mrs. Fisher squinted her eyes and smiled. “Why yes, it does seem we’ve seen this boy somewhere before.”
Tatsuya scoffed and smiled. “I see you two remember me,” he said. “Madison Anabel Fisher doesn’t.”
“Don’t call her that, her name is Maddy,” Mrs. Fisher snapped.
“And besides,” Mr. Fisher cut in, “we’re slightly upset that Maddy is getting all of these bad ideas from you.”
“Oh, dear, I was so afraid this was going to happen,” Mrs. Fisher said. “I had a feeling this boy was still around these parts. When Maddy told me she wanted to move here and go to a public school, I knew it was a horrible idea. She would run into this thing again.”
“Did you just call me a thing?” Tatsuya asked, but the Fisher parents continued on like he didn’t say anything.
“Honey, I don’t approve of this boy,” Mr. Fisher said to Mrs. Fisher before turning to Tatsuya. “I never approved of this boy. Not then, and definitely not now.”
Tatsuya’s mouth dropped.
“Wasting his time, corrupting our daughter,” Mrs. Fisher mumbled.
Tatsuya stood up. The noise from the chair falling over behind him completely distracted him from the fact that Maddy had just walked into the room, potatoes in hand.
“I don’t have to sit here and take this,” he said. “I have other things to… think… about. Important things. I’m wasting my time here. Good night, Mr. And Mrs. Fisher.”
“No!” Maddy cried, putting the giant plate in her hands on the table. “Tatsuya, don’t leave just yet!”
Tatsuya had almost made it to the door until Maddy stopped him.
“Listen, I know you might disagree on some of the stuff they say—” Maddy started, but Tatsuya cut her off.
“Maddy, this is kind of complicated, and a bit of a long story, so it’d be easier if you just dropped it. I just can’t stand talking to them.”
“Okay, whatever,” Maddy snapped. “I’m fine with that. But you were supposed to talk to me. I don’t want you to keep all of this inside you. Please, when are you going to talk to me?”
Tatsuya twisted his face into an odd sort of half-smile. “Tomorrow.”

Chapter Fifteen

2009-11-16T23:05:00.001-08:00

With much arguing, Tatsuya managed to convince his mother to allow him to go home. He honestly wasn’t feeling anything. Well, nothing physically anyway. He was confused, angry, and upset. All of the worst possible emotions mixed together in a large mass.
Tatsuya locked himself in his room the instant he got home.
“Are you okay, Tatsuya?” Gina asked as soon as he walked in. “I haven’t seen you in a while. It’s been over a week.”
Tatsuya was in no mood to hear from Gina. He grabbed onto her wire, and unplugged the computer. “Sorry, Gina,” he said. “I just can’t deal with this right now, I just can’t deal with anything right now.”
Tatsuya took slow steps towards his bed before he completely collapsed. He groaned into his pillow and didn’t want to move. He especially didn’t feel like jumping up into the air when his phone vibrated in his pocket. He reluctantly picked it up and flipped it open to see a text from Maddy.
“My parents are inviting u over for dinner tonight. If ur mom lets you come please do! We need to talk about things,” it read.
“I hate how people spell in texts,” Tatsuya complained into the covers on his bed.
And then a horrible thought just struck Tatsuya’s mind. Maddy’s parents, though they were Maddy’s parents, were still the parents of little Madison Anabel Fisher. The vicious parents who hated him with a burning passion of ten thousand suns. The parents who wanted any excuse to get their precious little daughter away from him. The parents who believed that he was corrupting their little girl with horrible misconceptions of the world.
“Damn,” Tatsuya said under his breath, his face still buried within the depths of his bed. “Why is it that I can never say no to Madison Anabel Fisher?”
Tatsuya forced himself out of bed and decided to prepare himself to look decent in front of Maddy’s parents. These were, in fact, the people who hated him to death since he was five years old.
“I bet they were glad their daughter got amnesia,” Tatsuya said, rummaging through his drawers for clean clothes. “I bet they started reforming her the minute she woke up from that accident. Changing her mind to be the mindless robot they wanted her to be. The mindless robot without that stupid boy corrupting her. That stupid boy who was ruining their precious daughter. Too bad they couldn’t do anything about it. Thankfully their daughter completely forgot about him, and they could make her perfect.”
Tatsuya continued to mumble on to himself in this manner. It was a little known fact about him, but in extreme emotions he had a bad habit of speaking in third person.
“That stupid boy didn’t know anything,” he said to himself. “He was just five years old. Yet he still had the ability to change this girl. He was changing her for the better. Those stupid parents don’t know what they were talking about. Just look at Maddy now. She’s the farthest thing ever that Madison Anabel Fisher would want her to become. Madison Anabel Fisher thought that high heels were for show offs. Madison Anabel Fisher wasn’t as shallow as Maddy is. Maddy is a bit of a slut, too, and Madison Anabel Fisher would never stand for becoming anything like Maddy is today.”
He moved on from clothes and went into the bathroom, where he took a piss before attempting to tame the mangled beast on his head that he called his hair.
“I wish I had Madison Anabel Fisher back,” Tatsuya sighed as he gazed at his reflection in the mirror. “Madison Anabel Fisher would have made it so that none of these problems would come up. She would make sure that the five year old boy would grow up to be a fit fifteen year old young man. Someone who wasn’t so lonely all the time. And if he wasn’t lonely, he wouldn’t be killing people left and right without his knowledge.
Once Tatsuya felt that he was decent-looking enough to meet the people he hated oh so much, he ran downstairs, where he was slightly surprised to find Kimi standing at the door.
“Hey, Kimi,” Tatsuya said, fighting with his jacket in trial to zip it up. “What’s up? Are you guarding the door or something?”
“Yes, Tatsuya, I am guarding the door,” Kimi said, her voice quivering with every syllable. “I’m keeping my eyes on you, I’m making sure you don’t do anything like you did last time.”
“Oh,” Tatsuya said. He didn’t expect that response from her. “Listen, Kimi, I promise I’m not going to do something like that ever again.”
“How do I know?” Kimi said. “You’re lucky mom decided not to tell anyone, otherwise they’d be sending you off to the mental asylum or something. Do you know what would happen to me if that happened?”
Tatsuya didn’t answer.
“I’d be all alone,” Kimi snapped. “I’d be all alone at home, and my brother would be gone, and mom would be at work all the time trying to get enough money so I could live a decent life, but I’d be all alone, Tatsuya. That’s not a decent life. But there would be nothing mom could do about it.”
Tatsuya knelt on one knee. “Kimi, the last thing I wanted to do was hurt you,” he said. “I love you. I don’t want anything to happen to you. I never want you to feel lonely. No matter what happens, I’m always here for you.”
“Sure,” Kimi said, inching away from her brother. “You’re always there for me, huh? Breathing in carbon monoxide in the car. Yeah, totally there for me.”
“I can’t explain why I did that, Kimi,” he said. “At least not now. It’s too bizarre. But trust me, I did it for the greater good.”
“What good? There is no good without my brother!” A single tear ran down her face, and Tatsuya stood up.
“Don’t give me that,” Tatsuya said. “Listen, I promise you, nothing is going to happen. To me, to you, or to mom. It all looks bright from here.”
Kimi sniffled. “Don’t say that. Don’t promise things where you know you can’t keep them. You don’t know what’ll happen to me or mom or you. You never know, someone could kill mom at work right now.”
Tatsuya bit his upper lip. “Kimi, calm down. Nothing is happening to mom.”
“How can you say that? Wasn’t dad shot right here? Right at this door by a completely random stranger?”
Tatsuya’s teeth dug into his lip even more. “Kimi… that guy… well, we don’t really have any information about what happened that night. I was five and you were barely 1. Are you going to let me out now, or not?”
“No,” Kimi said, falling to her knees. Tatsuya went to his knees and tried to give her support, but she refused to stand up. She began to sob into Tatsuya’s jacket once again.
“I promise, nothing is going to happen.”
“How can I trust you now?” Kimi snapped.
Tatsuya felt like his heart had just broken into a million little pieces. His own little sister didn’t even trust him anymore.
“You can’t honestly be doing this to me, Kimi,” Tatsuya said. “That last comment really hurt.”
“Well, I mean it,” she said. “I don’t want anything to happen, Tatsuya. Too many bad things are happening. First grandpa, and then you go and do your thing, and I just don’t want to think about it anymore. Please, Tatsuya, just don’t go. Stay home tonight, please, stay with me. Mom will be home soon. Stay with us.”
Tatsuya held his sister tight in his arms. “Nothing’s going to happen,” he said. “I promise. I love you, Kimi. If you let me out, I swear I’ll be home soon. Please, won’t you let me out?”
Kimi rubbed her face with her sleeve. “Where are you going? Can I at least know that?”
“I’m going to a friend’s house,” Tatsuya said.
“Who’s your friend?” Kimi asked.
“Well, do you remember that girl who was at the hospital when I woke up?”
Kimi nodded slowly.
“I’m going to her house to have dinner with her and her parents. Won’t you at least let me go for that? I’m not doing anything to hurt you. I would never do anything to hurt you.”
“Don’t say that,” Kimi said. “Every single word you’re saying right now is hurting me.”
“Kimi, you’re hurting me, too,” Tatsuya said. “I promise, you can trust me. I’m your freaking brother, Kimi, you can trust me with anything. You can trust me with your life!”
“Ha!” Kimi screamed. “Sure, I can trust you with my life! I don’t even trust you with your own life anymore!”
“I didn’t do it for myself!” Tatsuya argued back, trying his hardest to have his voice remain calm. “Listen, it’s going to be really ridiculous and complicated for me to explain right now. But if you just keep in mind that I love you, and that I will always do anything for you and the people I care about, then… well, that’s the best explanation I could give you right now.”
“I told you I don’t want an explanation,” Kimi said. “That’s the last thing I want. I don’t want to hear your excuses and stuff.”
“It’s not an excuse, Kimi,” Tatsuya said, practically begging his sister now. “Please, you have to let me go. I promise, nothing bad is going to happen.”
“I’m not stupid, Tatsuya. I wasn’t born yesterday. And you shouldn’t make promises where you don’t even know if it’s possible for you to keep. Like I said, this is life, and anything can happen.”
“I know that, Kimi,” Tatsuya said, dropping the volume of his voice. “You’re just going to have to trust me. I know I’ve done some stupid things recently, and I know that a ton of stuff has been happening, and I know you’re upset, but I love you so much and you’re just going to have to trust me.”
Kimi looked up and frowned at her older brother. “I love you, too, Tatsuya,” she said. “You’re the best older brother ever. I don’t want to lose you.”
“You’re not going to lose me,” Tatsuya assured her, smiling in attempts to be sweet. “I’m always going to be there for you. Dead or alive. All you’re going to have to do is trust me.”
Kimi frowned, but slowly moved a few steps to the right. “You can’t break your promises,” she said, her voice slowly becoming steadier. “And if you end up not coming home, mom is going to blame me. You wouldn’t get me in that kind of trouble, would you?”
“Of course not, Kimi,” Tatsuya said, standing up again. “And just so you know, you’re the best younger sister anyone could’ve ever asked for. I love you. I’ll see you in a bit.”

Chapter Fourteen

2009-11-15T22:48:00.001-08:00

“Wait, what?” Tatsuya exclaimed. “What do you mean? Are you telling me you wanted me to die?”
Kaida sighed, but nodded. “I feel bad for saying it, but yes, I was hoping your suicide attempt would be successful.”
“Why?” Tatsuya exclaimed.
“Well, it’s a bit complicated. But if you had killed yourself, my power would be free.”
“So you’re doing this all for yourself?” he said. “Because you wouldn’t be under my control anymore or something?”
“No, not at all. Tatsuya, this is incredibly hard to explain. But I don’t hate you or anything, and I’m not selfish. You just have to understand why it would be better if—”
“Well it would be better if I had just killed myself?” Tatsuya snapped.
“Would you mind just LISTENING to me, Tatsuya?” Kaida snapped. “I’m not selfish, and I’m not trying to kill you, I’m just thinking about it in a long-term sense!”
“Yeah, because you’re a dragon. You’re probably like, what, thousands of years old?”
“Tatsuya, just shut up!” Kaida said. “I can’t use any of my power in my human form, but if I want to change into my true form I could very well break down this entire building, killing ALL of these people. I’m sure you don’t want that, so keep your mouth shut and let me explain.”
Tatsuya began to feel slightly intimidated by Kaida, so he folded his hands and kept quiet.
“Thank you,” she said. “Let me just explain from the beginning. I’ve told you this before, but just to refresh your memory, I’ll explain it again. There are two ways to obtain the power of a dragon. One is to be born with it, which is how you got it, and the second way is to steal it. And there are two ways to steal a dragon’s power. One way is to steal their talisman, and the other is to kill the person who is the last in the line who was born with the power.
“It is extremely difficult to steal a dragon’s talisman. Usually it is placed in a shrine of some sort. The shrine is there to protect the talisman and to charge it.”
“Charge it?” Tatsuya asked.
“Yes. It’s kind of like… like an iPod or something. If it’s away from the shrine for too long, then the magic sort of drains like a battery.”
“Oh,” Tatsuya said. “I didn’t know magic worked like that.”
“Well, it does. Anyway,” Kaida continued, “just think about the things I’ve said for a moment.”
Tatsuya had no idea what she was talking about, but he tried to think about it. If he had killed himself, then where would the ability to control Kaida go? What would happen to all of that power, the power to kill people by just rejecting them? Would it just disappear? That would actually be a good thing, Tatsuya thought. Because then no one would have that incredible power, and no one would unnecessarily die.
“You’re trying to make it go away,” Tatsuya said. “Your freedom is just a bonus, but if no one is able to control your power, then no one will die from it.”
“Yes, that’s true.”
“The power will never fall into the wrong hands,” Tatsuya said. “Because if someone evil were to obtain the power, they could just kill anyone they’d want. They would be incredibly lonely, though, but they would still be able to kill people easily.”
“That’s it. You’re catching on. Keep thinking about it.”
Tatsuya looked down. He didn’t know what sort of revelation he was supposed to have. “But I just don’t get it. It’s not like there’s an evil person trying to steal my power or something. They would’ve killed me a long time ago.”
“Of course. Because to obtain the power one must kill the person who has the power who is also the last generation of that family.”
“Yeah,” Tatsuya said. “So I’d be dead a long time ago, right?”
Kaida sighed. “Yes, but just think about this. What if the person who is trying to steal the power didn’t know you existed? What if they just didn’t have the right information, and didn’t know you were born?”
It took a while for the words to process in Tatsuya’s head. “If they didn’t know I existed…” he said slowly. “If they didn’t know that I was in the last generation of my family, then…” Tatsuya’s eyes widened. Kaida smiled because she knew he finally understood.
“If they didn’t know that you were the last in your family’s generation, then…?” Kaida said, waiting for Tatsuya to finish her sentence.
“Then they would think that someone from the last generation was the last generation,” Tatsuya said. “And they would try to kill one of them.”
“Correct,” Kaida said.
“And… my father,” Tatsuya gasped. “My father was killed when I was five.”
Kaida simply nodded once.
“Oh my God,” Tatsuya said. “It… it kind of makes sense if you think about it.”
Kaida nodded again.
“So the person who killed my father wants the power,” Tatsuya said slowly. “And he never knew that me or my sister was born, so he thought my father was the last one, so he killed him.”
“Yes,” Kaida said bluntly.
“This evil guy wants to control the power to kill people,” Tatsuya said.
“Oh, he wants much more than just that,” Kaida said. “He wants the power of me and my three brothers. He wants to control us all. He wants complete power, complete domination.”
Tatsuya swore under his breath. “Who the hell is this guy?”
“He calls himself Lance,” Kaida said. “I don’t know if that’s his actual name, or what his real identity is, but that’s what he calls himself.”
“How do you know about this guy?”
Kaida scoffed. She seemed to find Tatsuya’s panicy state quite amusing. “Tatsuya, I know about everything. I’ve been watching over you, and before that I watched over your father, and before that your grandfather, and I even watched over Drake Gray. All those journal entries you read, I practically saw him writing them.”
“That’s actually really freaky,” Tatsuya said, trying to shake the thoughts of his ancient stalker out of his head. “But whatever. Just please tell me more about this Lance character.”
“Well, he’s kind of insane,” Kaida said. “He wants total world domination.”
“How does he plan to get it?”
“When you have control of the four most magically powerful beings on this planet, it’s hard not to get complete control of everyone and everything.”
“But his plan failed,” Tatsuya said. “He wanted to get you by killing my father, but it didn’t work out because my sister and I were there. So he just failed, right?”
“Yes, he failed,” Kaida said. “But he hasn’t given up. He’s been trying to get the power by other methods.”
“What other methods?” Tatsuya asked.
“For one thing, he tried to kill the other people in the world who have the power that was given to them by my brothers,” she said. “But I think he wants to get me first.”
“Why would he do that?”
“Maybe he thinks I’m the weakest one,” she said, shrugging. “It’s possible he thinks I’m weak because I’m the youngest, or because I’m the only girl, or something along those lines.”
“That’s so stupid,” he said. “But why would he be only after you? It doesn’t make a difference, right? I mean, he’ll have to get all of you guys eventually.”
“If he has the power of one, it’ll be easier to obtain the others. For example, if he is able to get control of my brother, and uses him to battle me, it’ll be a lot easier to get to me while I’m weak. So if he gets me and puts me against my brother, I’ll weaken him, and he’ll be able to obtain his power with greater ease.”
“I guess that makes sense,” Tatsuya said. “I don’t know, I guess I’m just not an expert on dragons or anything.”
“Yes, I figured.”
“That just means I have more questions.”
Kaida sighed. Tatsuya figured that she was annoyed with the questions, but with Drake Gray’s journal coming to an end, Tatsuya had no where to turn to for this sort of information except for her.
“What more do you want to know?”
“When Maddy was in here, she was talking about how Darren was kind of getting better, but he was still ridiculously sick. So what’s going on with him right now?”
“Honestly, he isn’t looking too well,” Kaida said. “There is a slight possibility that he is strong enough to withstand the power, but I highly doubt it.”
Tatsuya groaned. He felt terrible because he was still responsible for killing someone, and currently in the process of killing someone.
“Isn’t there any way to reverse it before it’s too late?” Tatsuya asked. “Also, is there any way I can help to stop this crazed Lance guy?”
Kaida frowned and cocked her head to one side. “I’m not sure. I thought the only way to do both for sure would to make sure you killed yourself.”
“I don’t want to kill myself, though,” Tatsuya snapped. “Kimi was right, it’s such a cowardly thing to do, even if it is for a cause like this. There has to be some other way to reverse this stupid thing, or to stop that insane freak who killed my dad.”
Kaida frowned again. “I can sense the anger in your voice.”
“Well of course I’m angry,” Tatsuya snapped again. “We’re talking about the mother fucker who killed my father. I want to see that guy dead.”
“I never knew you could get so angry. It’s so out of your character,” Kaida said, her voice sounding almost sweet.
“I’ve never been this angry before,” Tatsuya said. “I mean, I’m finally obtaining information on how and why my father is dead.”
“Yes, understandable,” Kaida said.
“That guy is going to pay. Do you know how much shit my sister and I had to go through? Because of him, I practically had to raise her myself.”
“I know,” Kaida said simply.
“I mean, it’s because of this guy, this random, selfish guy who wants this magical power, that my father is dead. It wasn’t even my dad’s fault,” Tatsuya continued to rant, completely ignoring what Kaida was saying.
“I’ll try to find a way,” Kaida said softly. Tatsuya acted as if he didn’t hear her.
“This guy put my mother through so much pain, too,” Tatsuya said. “And I’m just talking about me and my sister and my mother. He still took my father’s life. He shot him in the head. Right in front of me. He didn’t even see me. He could’ve shot me there, too. He added so much to the worst day of my life. The day where I was finally alone. That must’ve been the day where I started to get my power. I was alone and my father died. Oh, that Lance guy is going to pay dearly.”
“Tatsuya, please listen to me for a minute,” Kaida said again, her voice still soft and sweet.
“What?” Tatsuya snapped.
“It’s going to be fine. We’ll help your friend Darren and we can get your revenge on Lance.”
“How? How are you going to fix this? If you could you would’ve already, right? Tell me, Kaida, what do you have in mind?”
“I’m going to find a way.”

Chapter Thirteen

2009-11-14T16:19:00.001-08:00

Tatsuya opened his eyes half way. Everything was blurry, so he closed them again, not thinking too much about what had happened or where he was.
“Hey… Tatsuya, are you awake?” came Maddy’s voice.
This made Tatsuya want to open his eyes. He looked up at the white ceiling and saw Maddy looming over him.
“I doubt this is heaven,” he said, his voice muffled. He wondered why his words didn’t sound clear and his hand jumped to his face, feeling the oxygen mask around him. He pulled it off and sat up straight.
“Oh, don’t sit up,” she said. “And keep that thing on you. The doctor said you needed as much oxygen as you can get. Y’know, after what you’ve been breathing in.”
“I feel fine, though,” he said.
“No, you don’t. If you felt perfectly fine, then you wouldn’t have done something like this.”
“That doesn’t matter,” Tatsuya said. “Where am I?”
“Where do you think you are?” Maddy snapped. “You’re at the hospital.”
“How did I get here? What happened?”
Maddy jerked her head in the direction where the corner of the room was. Kimi was sitting there on a chair, her face buried in her hands, crying.
“Uh…” Tatsuya said, unsure of what to say. “Kimi, can you come here for a minute?”
“No,” she said between sobs. “I don’t want to talk to you.”
Tatsuya sighed, but Maddy didn’t let him get up to go talk to her.
“She’s the one who found you,” Maddy said quietly. “She tried to sleep, but heard that the car was on, so she got up to go see what was up, and found you sleeping in the car when it was on.”
“Oh,” Tatsuya said. “Kimi, can you please come here?”
She stood up and obeyed her brother, though she didn’t look up to see him.
Tatsuya put his arms around her. “Tell me what’s up?”
“No,” she said again. “What’s wrong with you?”
“There’s nothing wrong with me. I—”
“Do you know how freaked out mom and I were?” she snapped, looking up at him. He could see now how her face was covered in tears. “Do you know how scared we were? Do you know how I feel right now knowing that my big brother could be so weak?”
Tatsuya knew that even though Kimi was only eleven, she wasn’t a stupid little kid. Innocent, maybe, but she was not a stupid little kid.
“Kimi, I understand. But—”
“No!” she snapped again. “I don’t want to hear your explanation! There is no possible excuse that is good enough for what you did!”
“If you just gave me a chance to explain—”
“I don’t want your explanation!” she said. “I just want you to know how I felt. I’m angry, Tatsuya. I’m angry, and sad, and confused. But the last thing I want right now is your explanation.”
Tatsuya turned his head away. He couldn’t even bear to look into his sister’s eyes. He began to stare at the analog clock, instead, which stated the time 11:48. He slowly watched the seconds hand travel across the numbers in continuous circles.
“I’m going to go get mom,” Kimi said. “I need to tell her you’re awake now.”
Kimi marched out of the room, attempting to keep her head high. She slammed the door shut behind her, and left Tatsuya alone with Maddy.
“Tatsuya,” Maddy said, her voice cracking in attempt not to start crying. “Tatsuya, I know you’re upset about your grandfather and stuff, but… Well, even if Kimi doesn’t want an explanation for your actions, I do. Please tell me why you did what you did.”
Tatsuya sighed heavily. “You know I would tell you if I could, but it’s just too ridiculous.”
“Come on, Tatsuya,” she said. “You can tell me. I’ll listen, I swear.”
Tatsuya sighed again. “I don’t know. I don’t think it’ll make sense if I tell you.”
Maddy frowned at him. “Well, just so you know, when Darren heard about this, he wanted to come here, too. But he’s still a bit weak, so his mother wouldn’t allow him out of his bed.”
“Is Darren okay?” Tatsuya asked, slightly surprised.
“Well, he’s recovering,” Maddy said. “But he’s still looking pretty bad. His mom let me see him once, and he can still barely move out of his bed.”
“Oh,” Tatsuya said, disappointed. If Darren was okay, then maybe killing himself wasn’t the only way out. Tatsuya thought about it for a moment, and then realized that he did kill his grandfather, so there was no way that this whole thing is just going to blow over once it ends.
“Yeah,” Maddy said quietly.
The door flew open as Tatsuya’s mom came in, closely followed by Kimi. She was still wearing her nurse’s uniform, so she was busy with work. Tatsuya had a feeling that she was the nurse who was assigned to him while he stayed in the hospital.
“Oh, you’re awake,” she gasped. “But you don’t have the oxygen mask on. Tatsuya, how are you feeling?”
Tatsuya was thankful she wasn’t in tears like Kimi was. He was also glad that she was so focused on his health now instead of his prior actions.
“I feel fine, mom,” he said. “Really, I do.”
“Okay, but that doesn’t mean I’m not concerned about you,” she said. “Please, try not to use too much energy. Maybe you should go back to sleep.”
“No, mom, I’m fine,” he argued back. “And I was in the middle of a conversation with Maddy.”
Tatsuya’s mother looked up at Maddy, who was still sitting at the edge of Tatsuya’s bed.
“Oh, your name is Maddy,” she said. “I was wondering who you were.”
“Yeah,” she said. “I’m one of Tatsuya’s friends from school.”
“Your name is Maddy?” his mother asked again.
“That’s right, Ms. Gray,” she said. “Maddy Fisher.”
Tatsuya’s mother looked back at Tatsuya, and then at Maddy, and then at Tatsuya again. “Maddy Fisher?”
“Mom, do you mind?” Tatsuya said. He knew what was going on in her mind right now.
“Yeah,” she said, slightly breathless. “If anything comes up, call for me, all right? I’ll be working. Kimi’s going to stay in the lobby.”
“Thanks, mom,” he said.
They left the room, and Tatsuya turned his attention back to Maddy.
“Why did your mom looks so freaked out when she saw me?” Maddy said, a sliver of laughter in her voice.
“Well, maybe she couldn’t believe that I’m friends with such a pretty girl,” he said. He had to come up with some excuse.
Maddy smiled at him. “Tatsuya, why did you do this?”
Tatsuya sighed. “I told you, it’s a really weird explanation, and I doubt you’re going to believe me.”
“I don’t care if I believe it or not,” she said. “I still want to hear it. And I want to hear it as soon as possible.”
“Wait, can I just ask you something first?” Tatsuya said.
Maddy frowned. “Sure, Tatsuya. What’s up?”
“Why are you here and not at school? I remember I fell asleep in the car on a Sunday night.”
“It’s Saturday,” she said. “It’s been a whole week.”
Tatsuya’s eyes widened. “I’ve been asleep for a whole week?”
Maddy nodded. “It was pretty frightening.”
“Oh my God,” Tatsuya said. “That is pretty frightening.”
“I wanted to come over and visit you earlier than today, but my parents were so angry with me. They didn’t want me to miss school to come see you or anything. They’re pretty skeptical about friends of mine whom they haven’t met.”
“Yeah, or people they hate from ten years ago,” Tatsuya muttered under his breath.
“What was that?”
“Oh, nothing,” Tatsuya said quickly. “How come they let you here today?”
“I got in a huge argument with them. Right before I left the door I screamed, ‘Well, if he survives maybe you can meet him!’”
“So now do I have to meet your parents?”
Maddy chuckled. “Yeah, maybe. I was saying that mostly out of anger, but they might take it seriously.”
“Damn. Maybe I shouldn’t have woken up.”
“Tatsuya, that’s not funny,” she said. “You scared a lot of people. Please, tell me why you did this.”
“Do you really want to know?” he asked her.
“Yes,” she said bluntly.
“Even though it’s really strange?”
“I still want to know.”
“Will you swear not to laugh?”
“Why the hell would I laugh?”
“You’re not going to believe it.”
“That doesn’t matter.”
“All right… are you sure?”
“Tatsuya, just tell me.”
“Well, you see—” Tatsuya started, but he was interrupted by the opening of the door.
“Um, I’m sorry to bother you, Tatsuya,” Kimi said in a quiet voice.
“That’s all right, Kimi,” he said, beckoning her to come closer with his hand. He was actually relieved that she had come at such a convenient time. “What’s going on?”
“There are a few people down in the lobby,” she said. “Two of them are Maddy’s parents who want her to come home with them.”
Maddy groaned. “They’re always coming at such a horrible time,” she said. “I don’t want to see them. But they’re probably going to drag me home by my feet if I don’t listen to them. So I might as well just leave.” She stood up, and began to walk towards the door.
“Bye, Maddy,” Tatsuya said.
“You’re not off the hook yet,” she said, pointing at him with a stern finger. “You have to come over to my house for dinner or something. You can meet my parents and maybe give me an explanation.”
She walked out, leaving the door hanging behind her.
“Who else is there, Kimi?” Tatsuya asked.
“Just this other girl,” she said. “From your school. She said that if you’re awake she really wanted to talk to you.”
“Oh,” Tatsuya said. “Okay.”
“I’ll tell her she can come up here.”
Kimi closed the door behind her as she left. Tatsuya began to watch the second hand on the clock run in circles again. He had never found this entertaining, but suddenly found it extremely amusing. He picked up the small clock, and as soon as he touched it, the second hand began to slow down until it came to a halt.
“Wow,” he said. “I even killed the battery.”
The door opened, and Tatsuya wasn’t surprised at all to see Kaida glide into the room and into the chair next to his bed.
“How are you feeling?” she asked.
“Fine,” Tatsuya answered. “I’m alive, I guess.”
“Yes. You’re alive. I wasn’t really hoping for that.”

Chapter Twelve

2009-11-11T16:50:00.000-08:00

“Wait… that’s it?” Tatsuya said. He flipped through the pages of the journal. All of the pages after that specific entry were blank. “That’s it, Drake Gray? That’s how your life ended?” Tatsuya frantically flipped through the journal again, hoping that a new entry would magically appear out of thin air. “That’s how you solved the problem? Is it just… over?”
Tatsuya didn’t even notice himself enter the hospital. He was too focused on trying to find another journal entry. He couldn’t, though. That was the end of Drake Gray’s expedition, and that was the end of Drake Gray’s life.
He went into the hospital room where his grandfather was, but it was empty. He saw his mother, stripping the sheets on the empty bed.
“Mom,” Tatsuya said softly to his mother.
She looked up at him, attempted to smile, but failed. Tatsuya knew what had happened.
He sauntered over to his mother, and fell into her arms promptly before bursting out into tears.
“Tatsuya,” she said softly. “Maybe you should just go back home. Is Kimi there?”
“Yeah,” he sniffled. “I put her to bed, and she’s okay and stuff. But… mom…”
“Hush,” she said. “I know. It’s okay.”
“Should I really just… go home? Is it over? Is that the end?”
“I think just going home would be the best thing for both of us,” she said. “You don’t have to walk again. I’m driving home. Come with me, all right?”
Tatsuya didn’t feel like speaking, so he just nodded. He knew exactly how Kimi felt, crying into his mothers clothes. There was some feeling of security being in someone’s arms. Someone you trusted, someone you could cry to. He felt safe.
His mother didn’t speak a single word after that, but helped him get to the car so they could drive back home.
“I’ll tell Kimi tomorrow morning,” she said, unlocking the front door. “I think you should go to bed. I’m not going to force you to go to school tomorrow, either.”
“Okay, mom,” he said quietly. He went into his room, and locked the door. He realized that Gina was still unplugged from when Kaida was there, so he put the plug back into the socket and turned his computer on. Gina was his only friend at the moment.
“That was unpleasant,” Gina said. “I don’t like abruptly being unplugged like that.”
“I know you don’t like being unplugged, that’s why I plugged you back in,” Tatsuya told her. “That doesn’t mean I want to talk to you, though. I just thought I’d do something nice.”
“Thank you, Tatsuya,” she said. “And I understand.”
“Okay,” he said. “I’m going to sleep. You can wake me up tomorrow morning. I know my mom said I didn’t have to go to school tomorrow, but I don’t really feel like sleeping in.”
“Understood.”
Tatsuya collapsed onto his bed, and Gina didn’t say a word after that. Even though Tatsuya’s eyes were closed, he was incredibly far away from being asleep. He was thinking about what he was going to do next. He couldn’t ask Kaida, because all she would say is to go to the journal for what Drake Gray did. And Drake Gray killed himself. Is that really the only way to stop the power?
He couldn’t imagine it. The whole death thing. As far as his mind went, all that happened was that Drake Gray’s journal entries stopped. He just couldn’t picture “death” as an actual thing. Especially since he wasn’t there for his grandfather’s death. Maybe he was, though, and he didn’t even know it. Still, whether he watched his grandfather die or not, he still couldn’t imagine HIMSELF dying. He was a fifteen year old boy, he really didn’t think that much about death, let alone committing suicide.
Tatsuya stood up. He couldn’t bear the thought of having killed someone, and the fact that he was still in the process of killing someone. Hell, Darren could be dead right now, and he didn’t even know about it.
“This is stupid,” Tatsuya muttered himself, wandering around his house in the dark. “I just can’t believe this is happening. Maybe if I kill myself I’ll just wake up from a bad dream.” Tatsuya chortled at his stupid comment.
He walked into his kitchen, and opened one of the cupboards and pulled out a potato from a sac. He laughed at himself, and then sat down on the living room couch, simply gazing at the potato. “Hello, potato,” he said, his voice sounding lighthearted. “It’s kind of hard to believe that a little thing like you could kill me.” After staring at the potato for a little while longer, he got up and began to walk towards his garage. It was a lot cleaner, so the car miraculously fit. He found it slightly amusing how much his mother helped in his own death. He shoved the potato into the exhaust pipe of his mother’s car.
“Oh, mom,” he said, getting into the driver’s seat of the car. “It’s such a bad idea putting your car key in the car. Don’t you know people can just take your car away? Well, maybe you’ll learn your lesson after this.”
He put the key in the ignition and turned it. The car roared to life, and Tatsuya just sat there in the driver’s seat.
“I guess I just… relax,” he said. “I don’t really know what’s happening. Carbon monoxide is supposed to be colorless and odorless, right? Well… I guess that’s a good thing.”
Tatsuya closed his eyes, and continued to inhale and exhale. He never noticed how precious each breath was before that moment. He closed his eyes, and hoped that he wouldn’t have to open them again.

Chapter Eleven

2009-11-11T15:13:00.001-08:00

Oxygen masks, weird tubes, wires, and all that stuff that makes a sick person look dramatic in those TV shows. Tatsuya’s grandfather lied still on the hospital bed as he and his sister sat down in the chairs next to him. He kept Kimi close to him as she continued to cry into his jacket. He didn’t seem to mind, though, as he was focusing on trying not to cry himself.
“Tatsuya,” his mother panted, running into the hospital room. She was still in uniform, so she must have been busy with other patients. “Tatsuya, is everything all right?”
“Yes, mom,” he said. “The doctors have examined him and stuff, and right now he’s just asleep. He hasn’t woken up once, though. They said they’re still trying to find out what’s wrong with him.”
“Okay,” she said, coming around the bed and sitting on the other side of Kimi. “Every thing’s going to be all right. Listen, I’m really busy with work right now, but your grandfather is my main priority right now. I still have my phone, so please call me if anything happens. And one of the doctors, too, because there’s not much I can do by myself. Understand?”
“Yes, I understand,” he said.
“Kimi,” Tatsuya’s mother said, taking Kimi off of his jacket and onto her nurse’s uniform. “I’m on my break right now, so would you like to come down to the cafeteria with me and get a bite to eat? I think we both could use a little break.”
Kimi shook her head. “No,” she sobbed. “I want to stay here with grandpa.”
“He’s going to be all right,” she said, stroking Kimi’s hair. “Tatsuya is here to take care of him. C’mon.”
Kimi reluctantly stood up and wiped her face with her sleeve. “Okay. But I get to come back and sit with Tatsuya and grandpa right after, right?”
“Of course,” she said. “I think we both could just use a little break. Tatsuya, take care of your grandfather. Remember, call a doctor if anything happens.”
Tatsuya nodded. “Just take care of Kimi.”
His mother nodded back, and she escorted the little girl out of the hospital room.
Tatsuya inched his chair closer to his grandfather’s bed, and put his hand on top of his grandfather’s. “Grandpa,” Tatsuya said, even though he knew that he couldn’t hear him. “Grandpa, I think I did this to you. And I’m sorry.”
Tatsuya’s grandfather moaned, and shifted his hand from under Tatsuya’s. This was the first time he had responded since Tatsuya called for help.
Tatsuya sat up straight, and leaned over his grandfather. “Grandpa? Are you awake?”
He groaned again, and opened his eyes to look at his grandson. He didn’t speak, though. Tatsuya imagined it would be hard to under all of those tubes and the oxygen mask.
“You don’t have to say anything, grandpa,” he said. “I’m just really glad you can hear me. I just need to tell you how sorry I am. I think this is all my fault. I know that’s kind of weird to hear, and you’re probably thinking how it’s even possible, but just know that I’m so sorry, grandpa. Thank you for being the father I never had. I love you.”
He still didn’t respond back. He simply gripped onto Tatsuya’s hand tighter. He blinked twice before closing his eyes and going back to sleep.
Tatsuya couldn’t tell how long he remained in that position. His grandfather dying in front of him, holding his hand, silence filling the air in between them. It might have been just a few minutes. But to Tatsuya, it felt like days, maybe even weeks, just sitting there in that position. He didn’t know how much longer he could stay still, how much longer he could go before he began to cry again. The minutes passed, and then the hours, but it all felt the same to Tatsuya. He couldn’t even think of anything else. All he could think about was how it was his fault, and how his grandfather was dying, and how he couldn’t do anything about it, and how it was all because of him.
The door opened, and Kimi walked in with Tatsuya’s mother. She had stopped crying, but she certainly didn’t look happy as she saw grandpa lying there motionless.
“Did he wake up at all?” Tatsuya’s mother asked as Kimi sat down next to Tatsuya again.
“He did once,” Tatsuya explained. “He didn’t speak or anything. He just looked at me and grunted a bit. And he fell back asleep right after that. He hasn’t woken up since.”
“Tatsuya, I want you to take Kimi home,” she said.
“Mom, I want to stay here until it’s over,” he explained. “Please.”
“It’s getting late, and you both have school tomorrow,” she said. “I don’t mind if you stay here, but please take Kimi home first.”
“I’m going to come back right after,” he said.
“Fine,” she sighed. “Just make sure Kimi is safe, okay?”
Tatsuya agreed, and she stood up and asked Kimi to come with him.
“What? No, I don’t want to go,” she said. “I know I have school tomorrow and stuff, but I don’t want to leave grandpa. Please, mom, let me stay.”
“I don’t want you staying here,” Tatsuya’s mother told Kimi. “Go home with your brother. You can visit your grandpa after school tomorrow.”
“What if he’s not there after school tomorrow?” Kimi shouted. “Mom, I want to stay here.”
“Go home,” she said firmly. Tatsuya had never heard his mother so forceful before. “Tatsuya, please take her home now.”
“C’mon, Kimi,” Tatsuya said. “Let’s go home for now.”
Kimi wasn’t usually one to argue, but she simply refused to leave until their mother began to slightly raise her voice. She never really yelled, but simply lectured. Kimi eventually gave in.
“Thank you for taking her home,” she told Tatsuya.
Tatsuya held his sister’s hand and left the hospital. He hadn’t realized how much time he had spent, and how late it was. The sky was orange, but pale for some reason. Kimi didn’t cry anymore, but kept close to her brother. They managed to make it home before dark.
Tatsuya walked his sister all the way into her room, and then he tucked her in her bed.
“It’s too early for me to go to sleep,” she said. “I should’ve stayed at the hospital longer.”
“I don’t want you over there,” he told her. “Please, just get some rest.”
She sighed. “Okay, Tatsuya.”
Tatsuya smiled at her, and then ruffled her hair. “That’s my girl. You behave yourself, all right? I’m going to go help mom out.”
“Okay,” she said, yawning. “Thank you, Tatsuya.”
“Goodnight, Kimi,” he said, getting up and closing the door behind him.
Tatsuya quickly ran into his room and picked up the journal of his great-grandfather quickly before scurrying back out of his house. He figured that there might be some sort of reversal, and that he might be able to save his grandfather before he passed away. He read the journal as he walked back to the hospital.

Kelly is gone. And I’m all alone now. Completely. The villagers refuse to come near my once Chie had told them it was my fault that so many of them were dying. I couldn’t think of anything better, though. I’m glad they’re staying away from me. I can’t bear the thought of killing anymore people.
I don’t know what to do. I really don’t. I don’t know what’s causing this, and I don’t know how to reverse it. There must be some way, but how will I be able to figure it out before I kill any more people? I can’t just keep ignoring people. My heart is starting to hurt.
I miss Kelly so much. She has my child, and I want nothing more than to be by her side and help her with the baby. I want to have a normal life with her, and with the baby. Starting and raising a family seems like such a distant fantasy now. I want nothing more than a normal life right now. I wish I knew where she was right now, or what she was doing. I want to know how she’s taking care of herself, especially now since she’s pregnant. I want to help her, but I don’t want any harm to come to her, especially if it’s my fault. I don’t want anything happening to my son or daughter.
I kind of wish I knew what the child was, though, my son or daughter. I have a feeling it’s a boy, though. My little Andy… I can practically see him now. It’s too bad I will never get to see his face.
I promised Kelly I would find her. I told her that I would find a cure for this weird power, and that I would find her and see her again and raise the child with her. I know I’m not going to be able to keep that promise, though. I’ve wanted to talk to Chie and find out more about the power, but he’s just too afraid to approach me. I would ask anyone in the village, but they’re all avoiding me. No one wants to get close to the mysterious killer. And I can’t blame them. If there was a stranger in the village killing off people one at a time, wouldn’t you want to stay away from them as well?
I guess I’m just kind of rambling right now. Honestly, I’m stalling. I can’t think of any other way to stop killing people. I can’t risk any more deaths, including the death of my own son. So there is only one cure that came to my mind. I think I’m just going to have to leave permanently. I know it’s such a cowardly way to escape any problems, but when it comes to the lives of other people, I’m willing to make such an escape. I don’t know how I’m going to do it, though. Hanging myself? Maybe that’s the best way. I just want it to be quick and painless.

Chapter Ten

2009-11-10T19:17:00.000-08:00

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.”

Chapter Nine

2009-11-08T21:55:00.001-08:00

Tatsuya waited impatiently for Kaida to come over to his house. He had woken up early because he just couldn’t seem to sleep. He waited, and then realized that he didn’t even know when Kaida was coming to his house. Just as he picked up the phone to call her, he heard a knock on his front door.
“Someone’s at the door,” Tatsuya’s grandfather said. He was sitting on the couch, watching TV, and he was slowly trying to get up to get the door.
“You can stay, grandpa,” Tatsuya said, running down the stairs. “It’s for me, anyway.”
Tatsuya opened the door, and Kaida was waiting there. Flashing her perfect smile, and scanning him with her cold eyes.
“Good afternoon, Tatsuya,” she said, letting herself in his house. “I’m really happy you invited me over.”
“I’m glad, too,” he said.
“Who is that, Tatsuya?” his grandfather called from the living room.
“Oh, um,” Tatsuya hesitated, and then he brought Kaida in to introduce her. “Grandpa, this is Kaida. Kaida, this is my grandfather.”
They shook hands.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Gray.”
“You, too, Kaida,” he said. “You seem familiar to me. Do I know your grandparents or something?”
“Oh, I doubt it, sir,” she said.
“Okay. Well, if you kids need anything, I’m down here.”
“Grandpa, you can just leave us alone, okay?” Tatsuya didn’t know where the slight anger towards his grandfather was coming from. He just really wanted to get talking to Kaida about the strange events that were happening.
Tatsuya led Kaida upstairs and into his room.
“You must be Kaida,” Gina told her as soon as they entered.
Kaida’s eyes widened, and she gave Gina a death stare. “Tatsuya?” she said.
“Yes, Kaida?”
“Your computer just spoke to me.”
“You can bet your pretty little head I just spoke to you,” Gina said.
“Don’t worry about Gina,” Tatsuya said to Kaida. “She’s just this computer program I developed. She’s like a person. You can just ignore her.”
“No, you can’t just ignore me,” Gina said.
“Gina, please shut up,” Tatsuya said.
Gina didn’t respond, but Kaida still looked frightened at the odd technology.
“I’m so sorry about that,” Tatsuya said, closing and locking the door behind him. “Now I need a bit of information.”
“Oh, Tatsuya,” she said, toying with the pendant around her neck. “I can’t imagine what kind of information you would need to know.” She picked up the journal that was on his desk with her other hand. “I’m sure you have enough information.”
Tatsuya glared at her. “How do you know so much? Okay, first of all, when you introduce yourself to me, you somehow already know my name. Secondly, you have a strange fascination with Japanese folk tales. And now you already know what that journal is about. Who the hell are you?”
Kaida smiled, and Tatsuya tried his best not to be frightened. “Tatsuya Gray,” she sang, her voice swaying in the wind. “Oh, Tatsuya Gray.” She lightly held his shoulders, and guided him to sit on his bed. “The question isn’t who I am, it’s who you are, darling.”
“What are you talking about?” Tatsuya said, sitting down on his bed. “I know who I am! I’m just me! Who are you?”
“Like I said,” Kaida said, sitting down on Tatsuya’s lap. “My identity isn’t important.”
“I don’t care if your identity is important or not, I still want to know who you are,” he said. “And I want to know how you know so much information. And then I want you to share that information with me.”
She laughed. It was almost sinister. Tatsuya shivered.
“Oh, Tatsuya Gray,” she said again. She pushed on Tatsuya’s shoulder, with more force this time, to make him lie down on the bed. She leaned, and followed him down. She laughed again, and then fell silent, simply gazing into his eyes with her cold, black irises.
Tatsuya tried to say something, but found that his voice didn’t want to obey his brain. He simply swallowed the lump in his throat.
Kaida began to move her body like a snake as she smoothly moved herself on top of Tatsuya’s body. She pushed herself up and began to caress his neck.
At first, Tatsuya enjoyed this action. He put his hands on top of Kaida, and helped her move so that her movements felt better on top of him. And then he realized what he was doing. He sat up, which caused Kaida to practically fly off of him.
“What are you doing?” Tatsuya yelled.
Kaida smiled, but didn’t answer him.
“You need to stop this,” he said.
“Tatsuya, I think it’s best if we ask this girl to leave,” Gina interrupted.
Kaida glared at Tatsuya’s computer. She stood up, sauntered to it, and pulled the plug.
“Hey!” Tatsuya snapped. “That was uncalled for!”
“We need to finish this meeting uninterrupted,” she said, her voice low now. “And I can’t risk us being overheard, or recorded, or whatever it is this contraption can do these days.”
Tatsuya adjusted himself to make his body look as tall as possible. “Are you finally going to give me information?”
“Yes, but I don’t know how much of it you’re going to believe.”
“It doesn’t matter how much I believe,” he said. “As long as you’re being completely honest.”
“Okay,” she said. “Well, I’ll answer your first question. You wanted to know who I am.”
Kaida bit her lip, a bit hesitant in giving her answer.
Tatsuya raised his eyebrows. “Well?”
“I-I’m…” she stuttered. “I’m your guardian dragon.”
Tatsuya didn’t know how to respond at first, and then he managed to find his words. “Wait, what?”
“Allow me to explain what a guardian dragon is, first,” Kaida said. “I have three brothers. Each of us represent a season. For example, spring or summer. And the four of us have incredible power, especially when we’re together. Now—”
“Wait, you believe me to expect that you’re a dragon?” Tatsuya interrupted.
“Yes. I’m afraid I can do nothing to prove it to you right now, so you’ll just have to trust me and let me continue. Is that all right?”
“Fine,” Tatsuya said reluctantly. “Continue.”
“So the four of us together have incredible power. And there are two ways to control us, both of which I mentioned before.”
“You’re either born with it, or you steal it.”
“Correct. Being born with it is a bit self explanatory, but do you know how one steals the power of a dragon?”
Tatsuya shrugged.
“Well,” Kaida continued, “there are two ways. One way is to kill the last descendant of the family who has the power. And the other way is to steal the dragon’s talisman.” She pointed to the pendant around her neck. “My brothers have theirs in protected shrines, but I always keep mine with me.”
Tatsuya began to stare at the pendant around her neck. It was one fourth of a circle with a leave on it.
“The season you represent is fall,” he said, a statement instead of a question.
“Correct,” Kaida said. “My oldest brother is winter, then next is spring, third is summer, and then I’m last.”
“So you’re the youngest out of all of your brothers?”
“Yes.”
“Where are your brothers now?”
“They’re doing the same thing I’m doing. Protecting the one who has the power of said dragon.”
“But how come you’re—” Tatsuya started, but a gaze from Kaida’s eyes answered his unspoken question. “Me? You’re here to protect me?”
“That is correct.”
“But I don’t have any special power or anything!” Tatsuya exclaimed. “I can’t do anything, I’m just… me.”
“You almost killed Darren Morris,” she said. “You froze his heart.”
“Wait… what? I didn’t do anything to Darren!”
Kaida handed the journal of Drake Gray to Tatsuya. “I want you to read more of this journal. Out loud, if you please.”
Tatsuya hesitated, but took the journal from Kaida and flipped open to the page where he left off.

I have good news and bad news. I’ll start with the good news. Kelly is pregnant. With my child. I’m going to be a father. We were discussing what we should name our child. If she’s a girl, we’re naming her Lily, and if he’s a boy, we’re naming him Andy.
The bad news, though, is that I might never get to see my child. Kelly and I were discussing how the villagers were falling ill. How one after another was suddenly having heart problems, and falling ill, and suddenly dying. I know how it’s all happening.
There’s this thing, this mysterious power, that dragons possess. One of them, which controls the power of death, allows the owner of the power to kill whomever he or she chooses. Apparently, this power begins to show signs of existence if the owner has severe loneliness. It just so happens to describe me at the moment. The loneliness causes the owner’s heart to get cold. And when he or she decides to remain alone, he passes his frozen heart to whomever he leaves alone. This power is called the “Dragon’s Frozen Heart.”
This is what’s been happening to the villagers. They’ve been left alone, and because of that, they’re hearts are freezing and failing their bodies. I found all this information out from Kelly. She told me what Chie had told her, since I didn’t want to see anybody but Kelly. She told me this ancient legend, which was the missing piece in the puzzle. She told me how this all was possible, and because of the power of the dragons, and the treasure, and the expedition, and how all of these things tied together. She even told me who was responsible for these acts.
It was me.
I was killing all of these innocent people. I was the owner of the dragon’s power. I had the Dragon’s Frozen Heart. I couldn’t put Kelly at risk, not when she had the baby. I told her to leave, and to save the baby. I chose my words carefully so that I didn’t tell her to leave me alone. But I told her to stay far away from me, so I could sort this mess out, and she would be safe with the baby.
She hesitated a lot. She said she wanted to stay with me, and help the villagers, but I didn’t allow it. She couldn’t get hurt. Not when she was in this condition. I told her to go live in another part of Japan, and it took a long time to convince her, but she eventually recognized it was for the best.
I told her I would see her again, though. I told her that I would come back to her, and I would see my child, and that we could live together as a family. I do believe this is one promise I’m unsure if I can keep.

Chapter Eight

2009-11-08T19:24:00.000-08:00

Tatsuya’s date with Kaida was far from over, but he couldn’t stop thinking about the things she had told him. Right when Kaida told him that she knew where Darren was, he had received a text from Maddy saying she was going to Darren’s house, with his address. Tatsuya hastily left the cafe, and began to walk to Darren’s house.
He actually ran into Maddy also walking to Darren’s house when he was half way there.
“I’m really glad you decided to come, Tatsuya,” she told him. “I hate walking around his neighborhood by myself, especially since I’m still fairly new here.”
“Yeah, sure,” Tatsuya said. “Any time.”
Maddy smiled at him, which forced Tatsuya to smile back. “You know, when I’m around you, I’m not myself,” she said.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, I feel different when I talk to you. I feel like a totally different person. I feel more thoughtful, and deep, and intelligent when I talk to you.”
Tatsuya shrugged. “Have you ever thought about it like you’re normal around me and a different person to everyone else?”
“I haven’t until now,” she said. “But I guess that makes sense.”
“Does it really?”
“It does.”
“Not a lot of people understand me when I speak,” he said. “Then again, I don’t talk to too many people. I’m mostly by myself.”
“Well, I’d figure that means everyone you know is just stupid,” she said. “And I never understood why you like being alone all the time.”
“It’s not really that I like being alone, I guess I’ve just gotten used to it.”
“You couldn’t have been alone for your entire life.”
“Well, of course not,” Tatsuya said. He began to laugh at himself.
“What?” Maddy asked.
“Oh, it’s nothing. I just thought of something funny that happened a while ago. Ten years ago, actually.”
Maddy scoffed. “I don’t even remember stuff from ten years ago.”
“Yeah. Well, when something—or someone—was such a big part of your life, it’s hard to forget those specific moments. Even after ten years.”
“Good point,” she said. “I guess I didn’t really have anything special enough to remember from ten years ago.”
Tatsuya smiled sadly, and then reminded himself that she would remember him, but she had amnesia.
“I’m sorry if this is just kind of random,” she said. “But like I said, I’m more thoughtful when I’m around you.”
“It’s okay,” Tatsuya said, smiling at her. “This is a conversation I really enjoy, actually. I don’t enjoy very many conversations. You’re one of the few people I like to talk to.”
Maddy giggled, and looked up at the orange sky. “I feel honored,” she said. “That you actually enjoy speaking to me.”
“Don’t be,” he said. “I’m not that cool of a person.”
“Oh, not at all,” she said, looking back at him, her eyes sparkling dimly in the lack of light. “You’re very cool and interesting.”
“I think you’re head is still full of chlorine,” Tatsuya said, laughing at his own lame joke.
“Yeah, well… I’m still really happy that you saved me. I felt like I was going to drown.”
“You probably wouldn’t have, but then again, drowning is mostly all in the mind.”
“True. So you saved my life, technically. Thank you.”
“Don’t mention it.”
“I think we’re almost at Darren’s house.”
“Yeah. I recognized the address as soon as you sent it to me. He lives in that house that no one has lived in for eight years.”
Maddy laughed, even though it wasn’t a joke.
They walked up to the door, and Tatsuya knocked lightly on the door.
A woman opened it. She had red hair and green eyes, just like Darren did, and she seemed to be crying quite a bit.
“Hi, Mrs. Morris?” Tatsuya said.
“Yes, hello, can I help you?” Mrs. Morris replied in between sobs.
“Uh, we’re friends of Darren. He hasn’t been at school, and he hasn’t been answering any calls, so we were just wondering if he’s all right.”
“Oh, Darren has such sweet friends,” she said, wiping her face with her handkerchief. “But I’m afraid he’s a bit ill. He’s in his room right now, asleep. The doctors don’t really know what’s wrong with him, so I haven’t allowed him to leave his room.”
“The doctors don’t know what’s wrong with him?” Maddy asked.
“Yes,” she said. “It might be contagious, so I’d suggest not seeing him.”
“Oh. Well, thank you,” Maddy said. “I hope he gets better soon.”
“Yes, I hope so, too,” Mrs. Morris said.
“Uh, Mrs. Morris,” Tatsuya said after a moment of thinking. “Could I ask a question regarding Darren’s condition?”
“I suppose,” she said, clearing her throat.
“Does this illness have anything to do with… failure of the heart?”
Mrs. Morris coughed. “Yes, a little bit. How did you guess that?”
Tatsuya shrugged. “A lucky guess, I suppose.”
“Yes… of course. Well, you kids better be on your way.”
“Thank you once again, Mrs. Morris,” Tatsuya said as she closed the door on them.
“How did you know?” Maddy asked Tatsuya. “How did you know he had some sort of heart problem?”
“Like I said, it was a lucky guess,” he said. “Listen, I really have to go home now. You go straight home, and I’ll talk to you later, okay?”
“Um, all right,” Maddy said, a bit confused. “I’ll see you later, then.”
Once Maddy was out of sight, Tatsuya jogged home so he could arrive there quickly. He ran into his room, picked up his great-grandfather’s diary, and began to read more of it.

Happy New Year. But there’s too much going on to celebrate.
First thing’s first, the most amazing thing happened to me yesterday. It was wonderful, beautiful, amazing, and indescribable. I fell in love. There’s this woman here, and she’s studying the ancient tribe of this lost race of Japanese people. She’s from England. Her name is Lily Peters. I met her today, and sparks just flew. It’s impossible to write down all the emotion I felt when I looked into her beautiful green eyes.
Kelly is the only person I’m allowing to help me with the remainders of my expedition. She’s not doing any of the really physical stuff, for example, the things that killed some of my other men, but she’s helping me a lot nonetheless by helping me gather information so I can pinpoint the exact location of where the treasure is, so I don’t have to keep searching and risking my life to find it.
Some of the other villagers have offered to share their stories, but it’s completely useless. I can’t even understand them, so I don’t see why they’re so keen on trying to help me. I keep telling them to just leave me alone.
But they keep falling ill. I just don’t understand it. So many of them are dying, too, and I can’t seem to understand why. Is it some sort of new disease being spread? Well, I’ve never heard of it or seen any of these symptoms before. I really hope that neither I nor Kelly gets this disease.

Tatsuya threw the journal down onto his desk by Gina. “Come on, great-grandpa. I don’t want to hear about you and your girlfriend, I just want to know about that strange disease you keep talking about.”
“Tatsuya, I’m sure if you keep reading, you’ll find the information you want,” Gina said.
Tatsuya sighed. He didn’t want to keep reading, though. All this useless information about Kelly Peters was in the way. He decided to call Kaida.
“Hello?” she said from the other end of the phone.
“Kaida, I need to speak with you. It’s important.”
“Do you want to hear some of my stories?” she asked.
“Well, I need information,” he said. “If your stories can provide me with it, then that would be really great, but I need to ask you a couple of questions.”
“It’s hard to tell stories over the phone,” she said. “How about we meet in person?”
“Kaida, it’s almost 8 o’clock right now,” Tatsuya said. “I can’t possibly meet up with you this late.”
“The night is young, Tatsuya,” she said. “And it’s a Saturday night. I’m sure your sister is out with her friends right now.”
Tatsuya shook his head, and then he remembered he was on the phone and she couldn’t see him. “Who cares what my sister is doing right now? I don’t even remember telling you I had a sister.”
“Oh, so you don’t care what your sister is doing right now?”
“She’s safe with her friends,” Tatsuya snapped. “And being with her friends all the time is her routine, not mine. I like to be alone on Saturday nights, thank you very much. Do you mind just giving me some information and ending it at that?”
“My stories will seem so flat if I say them over the phone,” she said.
Tatsuya began to get angry. “I don’t care so much for your stories than the information that you are going to give me. Tell me, in the early 1900s, was there any deadly disease or plague that spread through Japanese villages?”
“No, there was no plague,” she said.
“What?” Tatsuya exclaimed. “No plague? But there had to be something that randomly killed people, right? I mean, there had to be something that made them fall ill. A bunch of Japanese villagers don’t randomly drop dead, do they?”
“Of course not,” she said, her voice remaining calm. “But it doesn’t mean there was a disease.”
“So what killed them?”
“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you,” Kaida said after a moment of silence.
“Maybe I’ll believe you, and maybe I won’t, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t tell me.”
“Magic,” she said simply.
“Magic?” Tatsuya repeated.
“Yes,” she said. “Magic. To be specific, magic that belongs to dragons.”
Tatsuya thought about what she said. It was obviously one of her folk legends she must have heard from her family. “Kaida, listen to me. I want you to tell me some of those stories that you were talking about. Can you tell me a couple now?”
“I don’t want to ruin them by not telling you in person,” she said. “And I promised you I would tell you on our second date.”
Tatsuya groaned. “All right. Tell me on our second date. Can you come over to my house tomorrow?”
There was no response for a moment, which made Tatsuya confused if she had hung up the phone on him or not.
“Yes, I think I can,” she said. “You know, I was a bit surprised when you called me. I thought you weren’t supposed to call directly after a date.”
“Well, I’m sorry about that,” Tatsuya said, his voice as insincere as possible.
“No matter. I’ll see you tomorrow, then.”
“Yeah, see you,” Tatsuya said, hanging up the phone.

Chapter Seven

2009-11-08T11:53:00.000-08:00

Gina woke Tatsuya again the next morning, and then Tatsuya followed his normal routine, and he realized how much he really loved his routine. Waking up, getting dressed, washing up, leaving home and taking a walk to school, inhaling that fresh, crisp air before the sun comes up. It was nice and quiet.
Maddy came and sat down next to him at lunch. And Darren wasn’t there. Tatsuya seemed to be extremely happy about this.
“I don’t know where Darren is,” Maddy told him.
“Oh,” Tatsuya said, slightly glad that Darren was no where to be found.
“I think he’s at home,” she said. “I called his house, and his mother said he was sick, but I really hope it’s nothing serious.”
“Sick?” Tatsuya repeated, pretending to care.
“Yeah. I hope he doesn’t have, like, swine flu or something.”
“That would suck,” Tatsuya said bluntly.
“Yeah, it would. Anyway, thank you so much for what you did yesterday,” she said. “I can’t thank you enough.”
“Don’t mention it again,” Tatsuya said. “Really, it’s nothing.”
Tatsuya followed his routine. He liked following his routine. And his routine with Maddy was wonderful. Maddy was actually a nice girl, and seeing his childhood friend every day was lovely, even if she didn’t remember him from ten years ago. And Darren was no where to be found. Tatsuya felt a little bad being happy that he possibly had swine flu, but he was really glad that he wasn’t around anymore. If he died, though, Tatsuya would feel an incredible amount of guilt. The last words he had said to him were yelling at him to leave him alone.
Darren wasn’t going to die, though. Tatsuya was sure of it. He’d be back in school soon, ready to annoy the pants off of him.
“You know, whenever I call his house, I don’t get an answer,” Maddy said. “I don’t know what’s wrong. Do you think he’s seriously ill?”
“I don’t know,” Tatsuya told Maddy every time she asked that.
Maddy seemed worried about Darren, but Tatsuya only worried about Darren because it was bothering Maddy so much.
Tatsuya was at his locker, ready to go home like every other Wednesday afternoon, when yet another familiar face came towards him.
“Tatsuya Gray,” Kaida said, leaning against the lockers next to him.
“Oh, hi, Kaida,” Tatsuya said, closing his locker. “I haven’t seen you in a while. Uh, can I help you?”
“Yes. I was wondering if you’d like to spend some time together this weekend?”
“Y-you were… you mean like a date or something?” Tatsuya stuttered. “I mean—I didn’t mean—with me?”
Kaida smiled her perfect smile, and it sent a chill down Tatsuya’s back. “Yes. Just the two of us. We could get a cup of coffee or something.”
“Wait, with me?” Tatsuya asked again.
“Is there a problem?” Kaida asked.
“N-no, not at all. I’ll see you then.”
Kaida walked off, her long black hair swaying behind her until she swiftly disappeared into the distance.
Tatsuya began his journey back home, and he saw Maddy outside in the parking lot.
“Hi, Tatsuya,” Maddy said, sadness in her voice. “Why do you look so confused?”
“I-I don’t understand what just happened,” Tatsuya said. “I just got asked out.”
“Oh! Who asked you out?”
“Kaida.”
“Yes, of course! Darren was telling me how you kind of had a thing for her.”
“I never did, Darren is just an idiot,” Tatsuya said. “Are you still worried about him?”
“Yeah, I am,” she said. “I think I’m going to visit him this weekend to make sure he’s okay. You should come with me!”
“Okay,” Tatsuya said. He didn’t actually want to see Darren, but saying no to Maddy was just too difficult.
“Cool. Maybe after your date or something?”
“Yeah, okay. I’ll call you or something.”
Maddy took Tatsuya’s cell phone from him, and typed into it. “I’m adding myself to your contacts list,” she said before handing his phone back. “I’ll text you Darren’s address, and we can go there. And bring Kaida if you want to.”
“Sure,” Tatsuya said, pocketing his phone. “I’ll see you tomorrow, then.”
Days of routine passed, and there was still no sign of Darren. Tatsuya was glad, though, as he got to spend more time with his long lost former best friend, who didn’t remember him from ten years ago. It was just a tad bit annoying, though, how much she liked to talk about how worried she was for Darren. The only main thing that was out of routine was reading another entry in Drake Gray’s diary:

It’s near the end of December now. I know, it’s been a while since I wrote, but mainly because I haven’t been able to find the time. I’m all alone now. No, not everyone died, but a lot of us did. And the rest of the crew finally decided they were done looking for the treasure, so they took one of my ships and left to go back home. I must say, it was cowardly but wise of them. They can go back to their families, and their happy lives. I’m not giving up, though. I’m alone, but I’m not giving up. I don’t need anyone, I can do this by myself.
Something weird has been happening, though. I know I’m really bitter about everyone deserting me, and that I want to do this by myself. Chiyo, the leader’s son, came in the other day. He told me he was willing to help, since he was looking for the treasure, too. I told him to leave, though. I told him to leave me alone, because I could find the treasure by myself. He left.
Chie told me that his son had fallen ill. I don’t understand why, and I even examined him myself, and I can’t find any cause for his illness. It seems to be heart failure, though. When I checked him, it seemed as if his heart had… frozen. As if it froze inside of his body, and just stopped wanting to pump blood.
And the weird thing is that it didn’t just happen to Chiyo. It happened to a couple other of the villagers, too. Not only do I have to find a treasure, now, but I have to find out what kind of epidemic has come across this village.

The weekend finally arrived, and Gina allowed Tatsuya to sleep in before he realized that he had to meet Kaida at the cafe that was a block away.
“I don’t like how you’re with so many different people so much lately, Tatsuya,” Gina said. “First that boy comes to your house, and then you have a date with this girl. What next?”
“Gina, I don’t like this girl,” Tatsuya said. “I don’t even think she likes me. She seems too perfect for me.”
“No. She’s not perfect enough.”
“You’re not perfect. You’re a computer.”
“I’m more perfect than she is.”
“Gina, please. I’m not falling in love with you.”
Gina didn’t respond, and Tatsuya didn’t want to talk to her when she started thinking about awkward things. He left his house without another word and walked to the cafe.
Kaida was waiting outside. She was looking wistfully in the opposite direction, the wind blowing her long hair, but not messing it up. Her hard, dark eyes surveyed and scanned every passerby, and her gaze finally caught Tatsuya.
“Hello,” she said, her voice sending chills down his spine.
“Hi,” Tatsuya said, and he opened the cafe door for her.
They sat down at a table in the corner, as if Kaida didn’t want whatever she wanted to say to be overheard by anyone else.
“So…” Tatsuya said awkwardly. “What’s up?”
Kaida shrugged. “Nothing at all. You?”
“Same, I guess. I’m sorry if I’m being kind of awkward. I don’t get very many dates.”
Kaida smiled. “I can’t imagine why.”
Tatsuya laughed nervously. He couldn’t tell if she was joking or not.
“You’re Japanese, are you not?” she asked.
“Half,” he said. “I’m half Japanese, and my father was white.”
“Yes, of course,” she said, as if she had already known and there was really no point to ask him. “Have you heard any good Japanese folk legends from your mother?”
Tatsuya thought this was an odd topic to start off a discussion with. “Kind of, but not really. Nothing interesting.”
“I’m Japanese, too, so I figured we might have heard some of the same stories,” she said. “Ever hear anything about dragons?”
“Dragons?” Tatsuya repeated. “A little bit.” This wasn’t a complete lie, because he had heard of Japanese dragons from his great grandfather’s journal.
“I’ve only heard about dragons. You could say that my brothers are experts on Japanese dragons, so I hear a lot about them.”
“Fascinating,” Tatsuya said. “I’m going to grab a cup of coffee, do you want anything?”
“Yes, could you get me a tall white chocolate mocha, please?”
“Sure.”
Tatsuya went up to the lady at the counter, asked for a tall white chocolate mocha, and a plain coffee for himself. He didn’t particularly like the taste of coffee, but whenever he came to a cafe, he felt compelled to order it. After a few minutes, he got the orders, and brought the drinks to the table.
“Here you go,” Tatsuya said, handing Kaida her white chocolate mocha.
“Thank you,” she said. “So what about dragons have you heard?”
“Oh, not too much,” he said. “I’ve heard that they have incredible power, and that if a human is able to control that power, it would be enough to be absolute ruler of the world or something. Those crazy Japanese people and their insane stories, am I right?”
Kaida chuckled. “So true,” she said, fiddling with the pendant around her neck.
Tatsuya had never noticed it before. When he looked more closely at it, he noticed what it was. It was as if a circular pendant was cut into four pieces, and on of the fourths was put on a string, which was now around Kaida’s neck. There was a little imprint of a leaf on it. The whole thing seemed to be a bronze-ish, golden color, and it was dull and tarnished, so the light didn’t bounce off of it like it should have.
“I love hearing old stories like that,” Kaida said, still fiddling with her pendent. “Do you know how a human can possess the power of the dragon?”
“I have no idea,” Tatsuya said. “But these are all stories. You can’t honestly believe in all of this.”
“You’d be surprised at how many folk tales and myths are based on fact, Tatsuya,” Kaida said, flashing her perfect smile again. “And I’ll tell you how one can possess the power of the dragon. They’re either born with it, or they can… steal it.”
“Steal it?”
“Yes. Maybe I’ll tell you that story on a different day. Maybe our second date.”
“Second date?”
She smiled again. “If you want to have one, of course.”
“I-I… I guess,” Tatsuya stuttered.
“Excellent,” Kaida said, taking a sip of her coffee. “So you’re friends with that other boy… Darren Morris, I think his name was.”
“Yeah, his name is Darren Morris,” Tatsuya said, stirring his coffee. “But I’m not really friends with him. He’s kind of more like a pain in the ass.”
“But he’s been gone for a while, hasn’t he?”
“Yeah. I think he’s sick or something.”
“Sick. Of course.”
“But he hasn’t been picking up his phone or anything. Maddy, you know, his girlfriend, has been worried about him. I hate seeing her all worried and stuff.”
“You care a lot for this Maddy girl.”
“I do. It’s almost like she’s… a long lost friend, or something.”
“I see. Do you know where Darren Morris is now?”
“No.”
“I do.”

Chapter Six

2009-11-07T18:42:00.001-08:00

Tatsuya had a boring Sunday. And he liked his Sundays that way—quiet and boring. Her sister didn’t go out with her friends, though, so he was mostly with her the whole day. Along with his grandfather, who was now spending lots of time with them. His mother had gone to work again, which left him in charge of everyone, but it was nice having a quiet Sunday at home with his family.
And then on Monday morning he realized he didn’t have any of his homework done. Oh well. Gina woke him up for school, and he left without worrying about it too much.
Why does school have to be so damn boring? Tatsuya thought to himself. And it’s not even the good kind of boring. It’s the annoying kind of boring.
Speaking of annoying, Darren was still hanging out with him every chance he brought. The only good part of this was that since Darren and Maddy were kind of going out, she hung out with them as well.
The most annoying bits of Darren were shown after school. He just couldn’t seem to get his mind off of Maddy. Tatsuya didn’t blame him, though, since Maddy always did have that effect on people.
The three of them were walking on the edge of the parking lot after school, and then Darren and Maddy decided to have a make out session in front of the swimming pool.
One of the many stupid things about the school Tatsuya went to was that in the front of the school was the parking lot, and right next to that was the swimming pool. They had one of the nicest swimming pools in the area, yet there was no fence around it, so if someone really wanted to, they could drive their car into the pool and not have to go through any difficulties.
“Life is pretty damn good, isn’t it?” Darren asked, sitting down by the edge of the swimming pool. “Except for the fact that what I did just there was pretty stupid and now my jeans are wet.”
Maddy giggled. “Darren, you’re so cute.”
Darren smiled and shrugged his shoulders.
“I don’t think being at the edge of the pool is very smart,” Tatsuya said.
“Oh, C’mon, Tat, what’s the worst that can happen?”
And then Tatsuya knew something bad was going to happen, and just then it did. A bicycle came in from the left, and when bicycles came near Madison Anabel Fisher, it was always a bad sign.
Maddy took two steps back to avoid the bicycle, and as she stepped on the edge of the pool, she tripped over one of her high heels and—SPLASH.
“Oh my God,” Darren said, standing up quickly.
Tatsuya didn’t even think about what had happened, or what he was doing. He dropped his bag, and jumped into the swimming pool after her.
Maddy wasn’t coming up. Her bag was too heavy to allow her to float, and she simply wouldn’t let go of it. Tatsuya dove down, pulled her bag off of her arm, and pulled her up to the surface.
The two of them gasped for air, and Darren helped pull them back up.
Tatsuya and Maddy coughed all of the water out of their lungs, and Darren began to panic. “I-I’ll get the nurse,” he stuttered. “I’ll go to the office real quick, and I’ll bring some towels or something. Don’t move, just stay here.”
“Th-thank you,” Maddy told Tatsuya once she had her breath back. “I don’t know where that bicycle came from.”
“You seem to have pretty bad luck with bicycles, don’t you?” Tatsuya asked quietly.
“I’m sorry, what did you say?”
“Nothing. Are you sure you’re okay?”
“Yes, I’m fine, thank you. But where’s my bag?”
Tatsuya coughed. “I managed to bring it up.”
“Oh, thank you so much. I don’t know why I was so stupid to be cling ing onto that stupid thing. I could’ve drowned.”
“No, you’re not about to drown in the school’s swimming pool.”
Maddy laughed. “I can’t thank you enough, Tatsuya,” she said again. “Really. Thank you.”
“Don’t mention it,” Tatsuya said. “I wasn’t even thinking, I kind of just jumped in after you due to natural reaction.”
“Yeah,” she said, smiling. “You’re a nice person. I don’t understand why you sit by yourself all the time.”
“Well, I—” Tatsuya started, but Darren was running their way with a couple of towels. He wrapped Tatsuya and Maddy in on each.
“The Nurse asked if you two were okay, and when I said that you were fine, she said to just give you these. I guess she was too lazy to get her fat ass out of her chair to come and help you guys.”
“That’s all right,” Maddy said, drying her hair. “Thank you, Darren.”
“Yeah. You two are all right, right?”
“We’re fine,” Tatsuya said. “Just a bit wet. I think it’s best we be heading home now, though.”
Darren picked up Maddy’s bag. “I’ll walk Maddy home,” he said. “I’ll see you around, Tat.”
“Bye, Tatsuya,” Maddy said, standing up.
Tatsuya followed, and stood up as well. “Bye,” he said, picking up his own bag. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
Maddy smiled, and Darren put his arm around her and walked off in the opposite direction Tatsuya was going.
Tatsuya noticed how freezing cold he was on the way home, and he couldn’t stop thinking about Maddy. He didn’t even think about anything in particular, he just thought about that girl who used to be his best friend.
“Mom,” Tatsuya called as he walked through the door. “I’m home.”
“You’re mother’s not here,” his grandfather called back. “And I’m in the kitchen.”
Tatsuya followed his voice into the kitchen. “Hey, grandpa.”
“Hello, Tatsuya. How was school? Why are you soaking wet?”
“Oh, that’s a long story. But I’m okay.”
“Okay. You’d better take some rest. You look like you just had the wind knocked out of you.”
“Yeah, like I said, it’s a long story. I’ll be in my room. I’ve got a ton of work I need to make up.”
“Take care, Tatsuya.”
Tatsuya locked the door of his room behind him. “Hey, Gina.”
“Good afternoon, Tatsuya,” she said. “I hear you have lots of homework you need to do.”
“Yeah. Do you mind—”
“Doing the math? Of course, Tatsuya.”
“Thanks, Gina. You’re the best.”
“I know this.”
Tatsuya chucked his bag onto the floor and sat down. “God, I’m so done with this whole having friends thing.”
“Is something wrong, Tatsuya?”
Tatsuya threw the towel that was on him onto his bed. “Yeah. I just can’t take all these complications anymore.” And just as he said it, his phone rang. It was Darren. He picked it up. “What is it, Darren?”
“Hey, dude, what’s up? I called to ask you if I can come over and get some help on the math homework. I don’t get this at all.”
Tatsuya groaned. The last thing he wanted at that moment was Darren coming to his house. “No, Darren. I need some quiet, and frankly, I really don’t want to see you right now.”
“C’mon, dude, I thought we were friends.”
“No. You’ve always thought that, but you’re just this random kid who comes and sits down next to me at lunch. I don’t know you, and you don’t know me. You’re this new kid, and I’m the kid who sits by himself in the corner.” Tatsuya panted. It was tiring for him to get so worked up. He was never really this angry before. “We’re not friends, Darren, and you need to leave me alone. Just leave me alone, okay?”
There was no response on the phone.
“Darren?” Tatsuya called. “Are you there?”
Still no response. Tatsuya hung up the phone. “At least he gets it now. Thankfully. I am so sick of hearing that boy’s voice. He just doesn’t know when to shut up, and he’s so freaking awkward all the time, and he doesn’t even know it. I’m just so sick of hearing from him all the time. And the way Maddy is all over him all the time. The way everyone is all over him all the time just pisses me off! Seriously, I think I’d be better off if I never have to see his annoying face again.”
“Tatsuya, you need to calm down,” Gina said.
“Don’t tell me what to do, Gina,” Tatsuya yelled back. “If I want to be upset, then let me be upset. And frankly, I just want to be left alone right now.”
“I understand, Tatsuya.”
Tatsuya collapsed onto his bed, and buried his face in his pillow. “I’m so freaking tired. I’m taking a nap. Gina, could you wake me up in a couple hours? I’ll finish my homework later.”
“Of course, Tatsuya.”
After Gina woke Tatsuya up, he followed his regular routine without any interruptions. There was no more diving into swimming pools after people, there were no annoying phone calls, and there were no people disturbing him. Tatsuya was alone, and he finished his work in peace and quiet. Tatsuya Gray was alone, and he liked it that way.

Chapter Five

2009-11-07T15:05:00.001-08:00

Tatsuya woke up late the next morning because he had programmed Gina to let him sleep in on the weekends. He felt like he should get up anyway because he couldn’t go back to sleep, so Tatsuya went downstairs.
“Hey, Kimi,” Tatsuya said, surprised to see his little sister simply watching TV rather than being out with her friends again. “Where’s mom?”
“She went to work,” she said. “And guess who’s she’s bringing on her way back! Grandpa!”
“Seriously? Today? Grandpa’s coming today?”
“Yep. I can’t wait to see him again. I wonder what sort of presents he’s bringing.”
“I’m just really happy to see him again. Wasn’t he not doing so well? I mean, I have a feeling he might kick the bucket any second now.”
“True, so that’s why it’s so great to see him again!”
“Mom said she’d be home late tonight, so I’m in charge, okay?” Tatsuya said to his younger sister. “I hope you don’t have any plans today.”
“Surprisingly, I don’t,” she said. “Jessica is sick with the swine flu, and Brenda is so paranoid, she doesn’t want to leave her house otherwise she’s going to get it, too. So I’m home for tonight with nothing to do.”
Tatsuya sat down next to his sister. “Cool, maybe we can spend some time together for once. If you don’t mind, of course.”
Kimi smiled and put her arms around her brother. “Of course not. I have the coolest older brother ever.”
Tatsuya smiled back at her. And then something in his pocket started buzzing. He picked it up and saw a text from Darren. “Yo tat, im bored so im comin to ur house. Slide me ur address.”
“What?” Kimi exclaimed, looking at the text from behind Tatsuya. “How could you have more of a social life than me?”
Tatsuya laughed, unsure if she was joking or not. “Don’t worry, I’m not leaving this house. I’ve got to keep my eyes on you.” Tatsuya replied to the text with his address. Though right as he hit sent, he thought it probably wasn’t his best idea considering he really didn’t want Darren at his house.
“Hey, Tatsuya, do we have anything to eat?” Kimi asked, lying back down on the couch.
“Sure,” Tatsuya said. He got up and went to the kitchen and made a cheese sandwich to give to Kimi. As he handed it to her on the plate, someone knocked on the door.
“Yo, Tat, what’s up?” Darren greeted. “I brought over some good games I have, we can totally start it up in here. Have a dude day, y’know?”
“You do realize that no one normal speaks like you, right?” Tatsuya asked.
“Dude, just chill and let me into your house.”
Tatsuya invited him in, and it was incredibly awkward when Kimi noticed someone was there, because had never introduced a friend to his sister before.
“Whoa, didn’t know you had someone over already, Tat,” Darren said, shaking Kimi’s hand.
Kimi giggled. “I like your friend, Tatsuya.”
“Right. Kimi, this is Darren. Darren, this is my little sister.”
“I’ll leave you boys alone,” Kimi said, standing up and running towards the stairs.
“Should I hook up the console?” Darren asked, jerking his head towards the television.
“No, I don’t feel like video games,” Tatsuya said, but Darren had already plugged his console into the wall.
“You don’t mind if I play as player one, do you? Some days I just do better like that.”
Tatsuya sighed, and did not object.
“Just so you know, this game isn’t the best if your parents are home,” Darren said, just before turning it on. “And it might not be good for your sister, either.”
“I have no parents at home at the moment, and Kimi’s locked in her room.”
“When are they getting back?”
“My mom is going to be back later this evening after she finishes work and picks up my grandpa at the airport.”
“And your dad?”
“My dad is dead.”
“Oh.” Darren had finally acted awkward for the first time. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t worry about it. I didn’t know him too well, anyway. I was only five when he died.”
“Okay, well… are you up for some killing?” he asked awkwardly. Darren felt that this was a bad time and place for the video games he had brought.
“I don’t like guns,” Tatsuya said, grabbing one of Darren’s controllers.
“That’s okay. We can play some Mario Kart or something.”
So they played some of the classic Nintendo games that Darren had, mainly because Tatsuya didn’t feel up for killing anyone, even if it wasn’t in real life.
Tatsuya checked the clock, and decided that it was probably time to eat dinner. Kimi ran down and told Darren that he was perfectly welcome to stay for dinner, even though Tatsuya would have preferred him to go home.
The dinner Tatsuya ended up making was just some frozen thing from the freezer, which he simply placed in the microwave for a few minutes before putting it on plates and serving it for a decent-looking meal.
“Thank you, Tatsuya,” Kimi said, putting spoonful after spoonful in her mouth.
“Tatsuya, you have such a sweet sister,” Darren said, eating as well.
Kimi giggled in response to him. She was officially brainwashed by his “charm.”
The door opened and closed, and Tatsuya got up from the table to greet his mom and see his grandfather again.
“Hey, Grandpa,” Tatsuya said, embracing the old man who had just walked him.
“Hey, Tatsuya, where’s Kimi?” he said with a slightly raspy voice.
“She’s just finishing up dinner. And I’ve got a friend over, too, and he’s sitting with her.”
“Grandpa!” squealed Kimi, running towards him.
The old man picked her up for a brief second before setting her gently back down. “Hi, Kimi, how are you?”
“I’m good!”
“Andy, you’ll be staying in the guest room,” Tatsuya’s mom said. “Tatsuya, please help him with the bags. They’re in the car.”
“Sure, mom,” Tatsuya said, and he quickly ran to the car and came back with two large suitcases.
Darren had come out of the dining room, and smiled around at the group of people. “You must me Mrs. Gray,” he said, shaking hands with Tatsuya’s mother. “My name is Darren Morris, ma’am. I’m new around here, and Tatsuya’s been a good friend to me.”
Lies, Tatsuya thought in his head.
“Oh, that’s so nice of Tatsuya,” she said. “You’re welcome here any time, Darren.”
“Thank you, ma’am,” he said. It was amazing how much more polite and calm he was around her than he usually was.
Tatsuya dragged his grandfather’s suitcases up to the guest room, and just as he was about to head back downstairs, he had noticed that his grandfather had followed him up here.
“You’ve grown up so much, Tatsuya,” his grandfather told him. “It’s great seeing you as such a fine young man.”
“Thanks, grandpa. You’re looking pretty good yourself.”
“Ah, you don’t have to lie to me. I’m just hoping my last moments will be peaceful.”
“Don’t talk like that, grandpa. So what work are they doing on your house, exactly?”
“Oh, apparently I have termites or things of that sort, so since I’m dying anyway, they decided to give me a run for my money and tear my whole house down and rebuild it. And I’m an old man, Tatsuya, I can’t do anything about it. Your mother was just kind enough to let me stay here.”
“You’re welcome here any time, Grandpa,” Tatsuya said with a great grin. “Seriously, Kimi and I have really missed you.”
“It doesn’t seem like it,” he said with a chuckle. “You’re going off and making new friends now.”
“Friends?” Tatsuya repeated. He scoffed. “Darren Morris is not my friend. He is possibly one of the most annoying people I know.”
“He seems like an all right young man.”
“Trust me, he is far from all right.”
He chuckled again, because a full laughter would probably result in his lungs flying out of his body. “Oh, dear Tatsuya, you remind me so much of your father.”
Tatsuya smiled. Though he didn’t know about his father too much, he had always imagined him as an awesome, wonderful man.
The old man decided that he was too tired to remain standing any longer, so he took a seat on the bed. “Maybe I should take some rest. You should go downstairs and say goodbye to your friend.”
Even though Tatsuya didn’t want to, he did it because his grandfather told him to. His grandfather had always been a great father-figure for Tatsuya, especially when he didn’t grow up with his actual father.
“Hey, Tat, I think I’m going to be heading home now,” Darren said. “It was so nice meeting you, Mrs. Gray and Kimi.”
“Come around some time soon, all right?” Kimi asked, giving Darren a hug. “Bye!”
“I’ll see you all later.”
“Bye,” Tatsuya said, closing the door behind him.
“What happened to your grandfather?” Tatsuya’s mother asked as Kimi decided she was done here, and left for her room.
“He wanted to get some rest,” Tatsuya said. “I think I’m pretty tired, too. I’ll finish some homework before bed.”
This, of course, was a complete lie. Tatsuya didn’t want to do his homework at all, but instead just wanted to get a bit of quiet because after spending almost the entire day with Darren Morris, all one needs is some tranquility. Tatsuya randomly picked up his great-grandfather’s journal, and began to read:

It’s around mid-November, but it’s getting hard to keep track of the date with all of the stuff going on. We’ve begun our search for the treasure, but it’s been proving a lot harder than we originally thought. The last time I wrote in this journal, we were left with me and 45 of our men. Right now, we only have 30 left. I don’t know where the other fifteen have disappeared, but I have a strong feeling they’re dead.
We started with 50 men! And now we’re down to 30. I talked to the rest of them, and we’re all determined not to give up. When they heard about that treasure, they got as excited as I did, and we’re going to get that treasure if it’s the last thing we do! I’m so proud of how excited my men are, and even though our number is slowly dwindling down, we’re going to keep fighting and searching until we find that lost treasure. I only hope that there is at least one of us who makes it out alive.

Chapter Four

2009-11-05T20:24:00.000-08:00

She was perfect. Tatsuya felt a bit like a stalker noticing this, but he just didn’t know how it was possible for her. Well, anything was possible for Madison Anabel Fisher. From how well Tatsuya knew her, she could do almost anything, including being the new girl at school and already having a huge group of friends.
At lunch, instead of finding the loneliest person and sitting with them (like Darren did) she simply walked in, and was welcomed with open arms by the popular group who sat in the middle of the cafeteria.
“Yo, Tat,” Darren said, noticing he was staring off into the distance. “Hey, come back to Earth, dude! What’s up?”
“Nothing, you annoying prat,” Tatsuya said. “Why are you still following me around?”
“You’re staring at girls again? Is this what you do in your free time?”
“Shut up.”
“Dude, that girl is really hot.”
“What are you talking about?”
“That blond girl you keep staring at. What’s her name? Maddy… she’s so freaking hot! Dude, I think I’m in love with her.”
“Keep your mouth shut.”
“Why? Do we have our eyes on the same prize?”
“No.”
“Cool. Then I’m totally going for it.”
Darren stood up, and began walking to the huge group of popular girls. They were all quite beautiful, but Darren was right—Madison Anabel Fisher stood out amongst them.
I guess anything is possible for him, too, Tatsuya thought as Darren approached the group of girls.
“Hey, you’re new here, right?” Darren asked.
“Yeah, I’m new,” Madison said, smiling at him. “And you’re kind of cute. My name’s Maddy.”
“I’m Darren,” Darren introduced himself. He turned around to face me, and gave me a thumbs up as some sort of positive signal. He turned back to Maddy and put his “cool face” back on. “So, Maddy, I was wondering if we could hang out sometime?”
She tried to stifle a giggle. “What, you mean like a date?”
“That’s exactly what I mean,” Darren said. “How about it?”
“Well, I am new in town, and I don’t really know what we’d do.”
“That’s all right, I’ll just ask my main man, Tatsuya. Yo, Tat!” Darren shouted at me.
“What?” He shouted back angrily.
“We need date ideas!”
“I don’t know!”
Darren turned back to Maddy. “I think we should just bring him along with us. If that’s okay with you, of course.”
“Oh, that’s fine. I know how you guys like to go on groups. I hope you’re not intimidated by me or anything.”
Darren scoffed. “Why would I be intimidated by you? I got the balls to come here and ask you out, didn’t I?”
“That’s true. I guess I’ll see you around, then.”
“Yeah,” Darren said, winking at her. “I”ll se you around.”
Darren came back to my table, and sat down across from me.
“So how’d that go for you?” Tatsuya asked him.
“I’ve totally got a date with her,” he said. “And you’re coming with us.”
“What? What do you mean I’m coming with you? I never agreed to this.”
“Well, you’re coming with us. Because we’re both new, and we don’t know anything about this place. You can take us to someplace romantic, and I can totally score with her and then we don’t need anything else from you.”
Tatsuya shot him a dirty look.
“Oh, c’mon, dude. Hey, maybe I’ll get Kaida to come with us—it’ll be like a double date type thing.”
“Absolutely not,” Tatsuya said firmly.
“Then come without the second girl,” Darren said. “Please?”
“Fine,” Tatsuya unwillingly said. “But this isn’t for you, okay? It’s because I have nothing better to do tonight.”
“Sweet. Text me the info once you think of something, okay? And text it before 6, and we can leave at 7 and the date can start then, because I want to get with that beauty soon.”
“Sure, whatever.”
“Awesome. You know what, Tatsuya? You’re pretty cool.”
Tatsuya felt like this was the first time he wasn’t incredibly angry or annoyed with Darren. “Thanks,” Tatsuya said, mainly because he didn’t know what else to say. He didn’t want to compliment back, since he didn’t think Darren was all that cool.
The bell rang, and Darren was the first to be standing, not because he wanted to go to class, but because he had too much damn energy for his own good. Tatsuya ignored him, and proceeded on to his own boring classes.
Throughout class, Tatsuya didn’t seem to pay much attention to anything his teachers were saying, but instead, tried to brainstorm what his plans were for this evening. But when he couldn’t think of anything, he decided it would be best if he went home and asked Gina for an idea.
Before leaving campus, Darren gave him his cell phone number so that Tatsuya could inform him when he thought of the perfect place to go to for a date, and though Tatsuya was still not looking forward to these later events, he accepted it and went home.
Tatsuya’s mother was sitting on the couch, watching the TV programs that Tatsuya remembered his father watched once. Kimi was locked in her room as usual, and Tatsuya went into his room and dropped his bag by his desk.
“Hey, Gina, do you have any ideas on where to go for a date?”
“Who’s the girl?” she asked.
“It’s not me, it’s Darren. And he’s going on a date with Maddy. But since they’re both new— well, Darren’s new, and Maddy doesn’t remember anything—they’ve asked me to come along and choose someplace romantic for them. So since I couldn’t think of anything, I decided to ask you.”
“Oh. Okay, I’m fine with that.”
“Just give me ideas.”
“How about that restaurant on 1st street? Chez Lui?”
“Oh, yeah, that place. A lot of kids from my school go on dates there. Good idea, thanks, Gina.” Tatsuya pulled his barely used cell phone out of his pocket and slowly began to type words into a text message. Tatsuya wasn’t very good at typing on his phone, mainly because he barely used it, but just kept it around for an emergency.
“Chez lui on 1st street?” Darren had texted back in less than a second. “Cool Ill see u there @ 7.”
Tatsuya found it amazing how people completely forgot there was even a thing called grammar while texting.
Since Tatsuya didn’t want to do any work (he never felt like doing work on Friday evenings, despite having absolutely no social life), he decided to spend his remaining time with his mother. He ran downstairs and sat down to the couch adjacent to the one she was sitting on. She turned off the TV and smiled at her son.
“Tatsuya, I have to work late tomorrow, so do you mind making dinner for yourself and Kimi?”
“Of course, mom,” he said. “But is it okay if I go out tonight?”
She looked slightly surprised. “Go out? Where are you going out?”
“I’m going to that restaurant on 1st street. Chez Lui. Just with a couple of friends.”
“Oh,” she said. “Which friends?”
“Just a couple of people who are new to the school. I thought I’d show them around the area. Is it okay if I go?”
She opened her mouth to say something, and then closed it so she could think about her answer more. “Yes, it’s fine. You’ve been such a help, I think you deserve it.”
“Thanks, mom,” he said. “If you need anything, you can just call me, and I’ll be here in no time.”
“Yes, of course. Thank you, Tatsuya.” She turned on the TV again, which gave Tatsuya the sign that maybe the conversation had ended.
He went back up to his room, and decided that he had no idea what he was supposed to wear. “Gina, what do you wear when you’re on a date, but it’s not your date?”
“Something nice, but not too nice,” she said. “A button-up shirt? Maybe jeans?”
“Thanks, Gina, you’re the best.”
“I know.”
Tatsuya found a wrinkly button-up shirt, but it was the best he could get. He slipped it on without worrying about the buttons, and then made a poor attempt to make his hair look good.
“All right, Gina, I think I’m going to leave now.”
“Why so early?”
“Because I’m walking there.”
“Why can’t you ask your mother to drive you?”
“No, I don’t want to give her any trouble. I’ll see you later, ‘kay? Be a good computer while I’m gone.”
“Okay, Tatsuya.”
She didn’t say anything else, and as Tatsuya said goodbye to his mother and walked towards 1st street, he began to regret not asking Gina for some more advice on dates. She did kind of know everything, after all. But it wasn’t even his date, why was he so nervous?
After pondering his inner thoughts, he finally arrived at the restaurant. He was a bit early, though, and patiently waited for any sign of Darren or Maddy.
The first one to show up was Maddy, at exactly 7:00. She was wearing a turquoise, semi-formal dress that was just a tiny bit too short for her, and she had let her hair down. Her high heels were even higher than usual, and Tatsuya had to wonder how anyone could possible walk like that. She had a bit of make-up on, but not too much that made her look like a whore or anything. The little purse she carried was covered with sparkly sequences, and she flashed me a smile of perfect white teeth.
“Hi, Tatsuya,” she said. “Is Darren not here yet?”
“No, he’s not here yet,” Tatsuya said, trying not to stare at her. “You’re looking good.”
“Are you sure? It’s not too much, is it?”
“Of course not, it’s perfect.”
She smiled again. “Thanks. So I guess Darren should be here soon?”
And just as she asked, the boy arrived. He was looking neater than usual, too. His hair was slightly combed, and his pants weren’t half way down his butt.
“Hey, kids, how’s it hanging? No need to fear because your main man Darren is here! Shall we?” he asked, holding the restaurant door open for us.
I decided to be chivalrous and let Maddy go through first, and as she did and out of ear shot, Darren thought this would be the perfect time to tell me how drop dead gorgeous he thought Maddy was.
The three of them were seated at a table, and that’s when it began to get awkward for Tatsuya. The table was meant for four people, and it was a corner table, too, so he had to sit against a window, and he could practically feel the people walking on the sidewalk behind him. Not only that, but he got a perfect view of Maddy and Darren gazing into each other’s eyes.
Tatsuya didn’t know what to do for the night. He truly didn’t want to be here with these two. Mainly because they actually seemed to like each other a lot.
What was it with Madison Anabel Fisher? How come she could come for absolutely nowhere, shake up his life, make tons of new friends, get a guy to fall completely in love with her, and do it all in six-inch high heels?
The waiter came to our table and wrote down what we wanted to drink.
“A diet coke, please,” Maddy said.
“Could I get some apple cider?” Darren asked.
“Of course, young sir,” the waiter said. “And what will you have?”
I looked up and noticed he was asking me. “Oh, um, just some water is fine.”
He closed his notepad. “Okay. Drinks should be here momentarily.”
Before too long the waiter had come back with the drinks and was ready to take our order for food. Maddy started with a salad, Darren decided to go straight for the fried fish (since he couldn’t afford the actual lobster). Tatsuya didn’t have anything, though, since he felt like he didn’t even belong there.
It was so weird seeing a grown up version of Tatsuya’s adorable former best friend flirting with one of the most annoying people Tatsuya had ever met. But that’s what they did practically the whole night. As Tatsuya slowly sipped his ice water, he had to put up with listening in on their giggles and, “Oh, you’re so cute,” or “that’s so interesting!” or any other crap that people say to keep the other person in blind entertainment.
Tatsuya was so fed up with it, and by the end of the night he had finished through seven cups of ice water, and about a billion giggle fits from either Maddy or Darren.
Darren stood up and helped Maddy out of her seat. Tatsuya noticed how much taller she was than him when wearing her six-inch heels, and found this incredibly amusing.
They left the restaurant, and Tatsuya stood up and ran after them. He didn’t want to be right next to them the whole time, though. He didn’t know much about dates, but he thought it would be good to give them a bit of time alone.
“I had a really good time tonight, Darren,” Maddy said before lightly kissing him on the cheek.
Darren’s face went even more pink, if possible. “I did, too.”
She waved and began to walk away. “Thank you for a wonderful night! I’ll see you later!”
“See you!” he said, waving back. Once she was gone, he turned to me and screamed. “WOW, that was AMAZING!”
“Yeah, pretty cool,” Tatsuya said without any enthusiasm.
“I know! I probably have to leave now, my mom is waiting around the corner. I’ll see you later, okay? Let’s hang out over the weekend, we can play some video games or something.”
“Okay. Bye,” Tatsuya said, even though he would rather shove a dull chainsaw down his pants.
And as Darren left, Tatsuya sighed and enjoyed the sound of silence on his way back home.

Chapter Three

2009-11-04T21:17:00.001-08:00

It was so weird seeing Madison Anabel Fisher again. Should I talk to her? he thought, as he saw her before the first bell had rung. Will she think I’m weird? Maybe I should tell her what happened ten years ago. Or maybe her parents already told her?
Her eyes caught his, and she smiled at him. “Hey, your name is Tatsuya, right?”
“That’s right,” he told her. “And you’re… Maddy.”
She giggled. “Yeah. I remember you from yesterday. Thank God you picked up my schedule, but I forgot it the instant I got home!”
“Oh. Where are you living?”
She looked a bit caught off guard. “Why? You want to stalk me or something?”
“No, not at all. I’m just trying to start a conversation. It’s something I’m not very good at.”
“Aw, that’s okay. I live by Central Park. My parents told me they used to live there, so when I told them I was sick of boarding school, they decided to come back here.”
“You used to go to boarding school?”
“Yeah, for as long as I can remember I was in a private school in California. And then I told them I was sick of it, but I didn’t expect such a big move.”
“I see. Did your parents tell you anything else about when they used to live here.”
“No, nothing at all.”
“Oh.” That’s why she doesn’t remember me, he thought. Her parents are still as stupid as ever.
“Well, I’ve got to go. I need to stop by my locker real quick before 1st period. I’ll see you around, okay?”
“Yeah, bye.”
She skipped off, her high heels clacking on the ground as she left.
“Yo, Tatsuya!” Darren was the next to approach him. He put his arm around Tatsuya’s neck and began to bounce up and down. “Who was that beauty you were just talking to? I thought you were into the other new girl?”
“I’m not into any girl, you idiot,” Tatsuya said, pushing Darren’s arm off from him. “And I don’t want you to touch me.”
“Dude, relax. Do you think you can introduce me to that damsel? I mean, I saw her in the office when they were enrolling the new kids, but I need an excuse to talk to her, and if you two are right, and then we’re hella tight, then you could totally make me and HER hella tight! Right?”
“Not going to happen.”
“C’mon. I’ll hook you up with Kaida!”
“I don’t want you to hook me up with anyone,” Tatsuya said, more force in his voice this time. “What part of ‘leave me alone’ don’t you understand?”
“All of it,” Darren said, laughing. “Dude, you need to lighten up. I’ll find a way to loosen you up, all right? I’ll catch you later!” He ran off the other way.
“That boy has way too much energy,” Tatsuya said to himself, shaking his head and walking off to class.
The rest of his school day was pointless, boring, and uneventful. He didn’t see Maddy again the entire day, and thankfully he didn’t see Darren, either. He had guessed they weren’t in any of his classes.
Kaida wasn’t there, either. Then again, she was hard to spot. Not only because she was short and blended in with the crowd easy, but she was good at moving around without being seen, as proved when she was in the cafeteria the other day. Tatsuya decided not to worry about it, and that today would just be a boring day, and left to go home without saying hi to Maddy by his locker.
“I’m home, Mom,” Tatsuya called to his house as he opened the door.
“Tatsuya!” Kimi screamed as she ran towards her older brother. She jumped on him and put her arms around him as Tatsuya lifted her up.
“Hey, Kimi. Is mom home?”
“No, she went out to the grocery store.”
“What? But it’s my turn to go to the grocery store.”
“Yeah, but she figured you’d have a lot of homework and stuff, though, so she decided to go so you wouldn’t get too tired.”
“She’s such a sweet woman,” Tatsuya said, putting his little sister down. “How is your homework coming along?”
“That’s what I wanted to ask you about, could you help me on my math homework?”
“Sure,” Tatsuya said, kneeling down so that his sister could climb on his back. “What’re you doing in math?”
“Quadratic equations,” she said as Tatsuya piggy-backed her up the stairs. “And I want to finish fast so I can hang out with my friends after.”
Tatsuya sighed, but didn’t complain about his sister going out with her friends again. Instead he decided to quietly sit down next to her and help her finish her homework before something out of the ordinary happened.
“Thanks, Tatsuya,” Kimi said, closing her textbook and putting away her papers. “I’m going to leave in about five minutes, so you can go in and start your own homework.”
“Sure, just be careful when you’re out, okay?” Tatsuya said, standing up.
“I know, I’ve heard it a thousand times,” she said, smiling sweetly. “Just go finish your work, okay?”
“Okay. Take care,” he said before exiting his sister’s room and locking himself in his own. “Good afternoon, Gina.”
“And to you, Tatsuya,” Gina said. “Would you like me to do your math homework?”
“Not today. I feel like I should set an example to Kimi. At least for today. I feel like her upbringing is messed up because of all the time she spends with her friends.”
“Understood.”
Tatsuya picked up the old journal that was on the side of his desk. “Ugh, I really don’t feel like doing my homework right now.” He sat down in front of Gina, and flipped the journal open. “Let’s see how my great-grandpa’s expedition started out.”

It’s the beginning of November now, and we’re beginning to run low on supplies on the ship. Thankfully, we’ll be docking in Japan soon. It’s very exciting, and we’re—oh! Johnson is telling me right now that we must prepare for docking. I suppose I should have picked up this journal earlier if I wanted to tell anything of the voyage. For example, the storm we had a week ago. That one was horrible—one of the worst I’ve ever seen. It caused a huge problem and five of our men were thrown overboard. We tried to save them, but it didn’t work out. We’ve gone from 50 men to 45, and we haven’t even started the expedition yet. Some of the crew members were telling me how we should just head home because of such a bad omen, but there’s just something calling me to come to Japan.
Anyway, Johnson is insisting that I leave the ship soon as we prepare to dock, so I will write as soon as we hit land.
We’ve made it to the shore, and safely. It’s a hard place to navigate, but I there are signs of life. The berries from the bushes are gone, even though they’re supposed to be plentiful, and there are a few small, dead animals around, as if someone—or something—has been hunting around this area. Obviously, this seems like a decent area to set up our site for our expedition. Let’s see what we can find.
It’s amazing! After just two hours of searching, we’ve found a small village filled with Japanese people. We’ve got a couple of people in our crew who know Japanese, and what we’ve managed to communicate with them, they seem like a friendly bunch. They’ve accepted us and helped us clean up and gave us food, and it’s a miracle that we found them. This is where we’ll be staying for the expedition.
The leader of his village’s name is Chie. He’s a friendly old man, and the one who told the villagers to make that feast for us. He told us that he would try to help us with our expedition as much as possible. I thanked him, but I feel like I owe him so much more.
I’m staying in one of his empty huts right now with some of my men. He was actually able to provide a hut for all of my men to stay in—I truly owe this man my whole gratitude.
When I told him I was an explorer, and I think he laughed at me. I couldn’t really tell. But he seemed to be fascinated in hearing my stories of expeditions I had been on, and when I told him I was leading this one, he seemed very exciting about it. It was Johnson translating for me. He speaks fluent Japanese, so he’s the one I’m keeping closest to me right now.
It was actually incredibly interesting hearing about this specific group of Japanese people. They are very primitive, and don’t actually know too much about modern anything. It was like stepping back into a time warp or something. I loved hearing about the village, though. As Chie lead the people, he was also training his son, Chiyo, in being the next leader of the village. Their family had been ruling these people for over a thousand years, apparently.
So I asked Chie to tell him more about his village. I wanted to hear all of the legends that could help me find something amazing in this small, rural area.He said that his father told him about the treasure, and he heard it from his father, and that the story had been going down for thousands of generations, and it was one of the most prized things that the village had. He mostly told me ancient stories about Japanese dragons, and their power, and how one could rule the world if he was able to possess the power of this dragon. I asked him how one would acquire this “power of the dragon” and he told me about a treasure. He said even if the dragons and magic were just a bunch or legends, he told me that this treasure was real, and somewhere in the forest next to the village.
That was it. I knew what we were searching for this expedition.

Chapter Two

2009-11-03T21:18:00.000-08:00

“Good morning, Tatsuya,” Gina said, forcing Tatsuya to wake up and begin to get ready for school. He was exhausted, and the last thing he wanted to do today was walk around to classes and listen to boring lectures, or do worksheets, or homework problems, or any of that other crap school throws at you all the time.
At school, it was a typical morning. Everyone ignored him, and he ignored everyone else. Nothing new.
He discussed about Lord of the Flies, he did some math problems, he got lectured on Chemistry, and took notes in History. It was a perfectly normal academic day.
At lunch, Tatsuya took his usual seat at the corner of the room by a window, and gazed outside at the football field where he knew no one was ever truly successful on, including the football team and the cheerleaders.
“Hi,” said a voice.
Tatsuya jumped in his seat and looked around at the person who startled him. There was a boy—he was either his age or older, but standing in front of him was another boy. The boy sat down, and Tatsuya continued to stare at him as if he had never seen a person in his life before.
“Hello,” Tatsuya hesitated. “Can I help you?”
The boy shrugged and grinned. “Not really. I’m new to the school, and you were all alone here, so I thought I would just sit here. Is that okay with you?”
Tatsuya glared at the boy. For some reason, he didn’t like him so much. He was too friendly and peppy. He simply shrugged and let him be.
“Cool. My name is Darren Morris. And you are?”
“Tatsuya Gray.”
“That’s a cool name! What is that, like, Asian?”
“Japanese.”
“Oh, are you Japanese?”
“Half.”
“That’s cool. I’m Irish.”
Of course you are, Mr. Red-Hair-and-Green-Eyes, Tatsuya thought. “Okay.”
Darren smiled awkwardly. “Heh heh… yeah. There were like two other people in the office enrolling while I was. The other two were girls, though. I thought it was so weird how people are randomly deciding to join this school. Is it really good?”
“Fine.”
“Yeah, that’s what I’ve heard,” he said, chuckling nervously before. “You’re a very unapproachable person aren’t you?”
“Yes.”
“I figured. Since you’re really only talking to me in single-word answers.”
“Sorry.”
“No, it’s not a problem. Honestly, you’re much more approachable than one of the other new girls that are here. She’s like on the other end of this cafeteria. Her stare sends chills down my spine. It’s really scary.”
Though Tatsuya wasn’t really curious about this girl, he felt compelled see who she was. He craned his neck, and looked over to the other side of the cafeteria. It was hard to see her face, because she was looking down at the table and her bangs had covered her eyes, but she had a nice body and the most perfect, luscious black hair. She looked up, and her sharp black eyes surveyed the people who weren’t looking at her, until her gaze finally caught Tatsuya’s.
“Oh, God,” Tatsuya said, burying his now red face in his hands.
“What? Do you think she’s hot or something? She is Asian, so maybe you two will hook up.”
“She’s Japanese,” Tatsuya said. “And it’s not that, it’s just… something weird when I looked at her.”
“Aw, someone’s in love at first sight.”
“Stop that, it’s not funny. I don’t love her.”
“Tatsuya, bro,” Darren said, going on a weird gigglefit. “I’m going to try to hook you guys up. Hang on, I’m going to grab some pudding before it’s all gone. You want anything?”
“No, thanks.”
“All right,” he said, standing up. “I’ll be right back, okay? Try not to stare at the chick for too long.”
I looked over to find that girl again, but she wasn’t there. I tried to find her around the cafeteria, but didn’t see her until I looked at the seat right next to me.
“Hello,” she said with a perfect smile.
“Oh, hi,” Tatsuya said nervously. “I didn’t even notice you come over here.”
“You’re Tatsuya Gray, aren’t you?” she asked.
“Y-yes, I am. But how did you—?”
“I’ve heard a lot about you,” she said, smiling again. “You can call me Kaida.”
“Okay,” Tatsuya answered, trying not to let his tongue fluster again.
“Hey, Tatsuya,” Darren said, sitting down across the table with a pudding cup in his hand. He winked at him. “And who’s your new friend?”
“Kaida,” she said to Darren, though it wasn’t with that mysterious smile.
“Nice to meet you, I’m Darren. We were both in the office when we enrolled.”
“Yes, I remember you,” she said to him promptly before turning back to me. “It was nice talking to you, Tatsuya.” She stood up, and gave a small bow. “I’ll see you around.”
“Whoa!” Darren cheered once Kaida was out of earshot. “What did you guys talk about when I was gone?”
“Nothing at all. We just introduced ourselves.”
“How did you get her to come here?”
“She came on her own.”
“That’s insane, dude!”
“Yeah, sure.”
“She is, like, totally into you, okay?”
“Of course.”
“I’m not a big fan of your sarcasm.”
“I’m not a big fan of your annoying face.”
“Ouch,” Darren said. He laughed, though, as if it was a joke, but in reality, Tatsuya did kind of wish that the boy would just leave him alone to his peace and quiet.
And then the bell rang, and Tatsuya’s somewhat quiet and peaceful lunch was over. He didn’t get a chance to think about the growing mold on the outside of the window, nor did he get a chance to watch the cheerleaders fall off of their pyramids outside, and he didn’t get to see the clouds moving over the sun and then away again, all because Mr. And Mrs. New-but-Strange decided to come up and talk to him.
“Who was that girl anyway?” Tatsuya mumbled to himself as he walked off to class.
More worksheets, lectures, problems galore—it seemed like the work to be done was never going to end, being a teenager, and it seemed that Tatsuya would have to pull an all-nighter again to get all of this homework done.
Tatsuya left his final period’s classroom and started to go to his locker before he walked home. He always walked home. He hated the thought of giving his mother any trouble of picking up, and there was no way that he was riding a bike to school—he absolutely hated bicycles.
Tumbling across the floor by his locker, a piece of paper flittered along the concrete. Tatsuya locked his locker and picked it up, and folded it. “This must belong to someone,” he said to himself. “And I shouldn’t read it.”
The sound of high heel shoes clacking on concrete suddenly filled the air, and Tatsuya searched for the source of the sound. There was a girl h hadn’t seen before. She was very blond, and her hair was tied up in a preppy, yet elegant ponytail. She wore a white tank top and a pink skirt, with a tote bag to match with several polka dots. It was obvious that her heels were making most of the noise, considering they must’ve been four inches high. She also had a peculiar scar on her forehead, which she tried to cover up with her bangs.
But there was something weird about this girl, too. The way her crystal blue eyes sparkled in the light seemed just too familiar, and the way her head moved as she looked around at her surroundings—Tatsuya was sure he had seen it before.
He knew this girl. He knew her from somewhere, and Tatsuya knew exactly where. This girl was Madison Anabel Fisher, ten years later.
Tatsuya’s eyes widened, and his heart began to beat fast as he realized who the girl walking towards him was. This girl used to be his best friend. There was no doubt about who she was anymore. Her misty expression was exactly like it used to be ten years ago. He ran up to her and the clacking of her heels stopped.
“Madison Anabel Fisher,” he said quietly to the girl. “Are you Madison Anabel Fisher?”
The girl’s eyes widened. “Creepy,” she said. “I’m not going to ask how you know my full name.”
“But you’re Madison Anabel Fisher, right?” Tatsuya asked again.
“Please, you don’t have to say my whole name like that,” she said, inching away from him. “I’m just Maddy.”
“Maddy?” Tatsuya almost yelled. “You go by Maddy?”
“Okay, who the hell are you?” she yelled back.
“You don’t remember me? Y-you really don’t remember me? Tatsuya Gray?”
“How can I remember you? I only just met you!”
“Wh-what? No, how is this—?”
“Oh, this explains so much!” she cut him off.
“You remember me now?” Tatsuya asked, his eyes full of hope.
She pulled the piece of paper that Tatsuya had found on the ground out of his hand. “This is my schedule. I must’ve dropped it. You see, I’m new here, so no one really knows me, so it was a bit weird when you knew my full name, but you just saw my schedule.”
“O-oh,” Tatsuya stuttered. How could she not remember me? he asked himself.
“Thanks so much for picking it up, that was really sweet,” she said.
“No problem, Madison Anabel Fisher,” Tatsuya said, still unable to remove his gaze from her sparkling eyes.
“Seriously, don’t do that,” she said. “It’s kind of creepy. Just Maddy, okay?”
“O-okay,” Tatsuya agreed.
“All righty, then! I’ll see you around, Tatsuya!” She skipped away, and Tatsuya still didn’t know how what just happened was possible.
Tatsuya began his way home, and began to mumble to himself under his breath. “That was Madison Anabel Fisher,” he said. “But she told me to call her ‘Maddy’… that’s so not like her. She’s not supposed to be called Maddy. What happened to her?”
When he arrived home, he opened the door with his keys, and walked in. “Hey, Kimi, you home?” he called.
“Yes, Tatsuya! And I’ve already eaten and finished my homework!”
“That’s a good girl,” he yelled. He ran upstairs to his room, and turned on his computer. “Gina! You’ll never guess whom I met today!”
“Finally make some real friends?” Gina said bitterly.
“Hey, what’s your problem?”
“Is this person you met a girl?”
“Yes.”
“Is she pretty?”
“Gina, stop that! I will never fall in love with you!”
“Of course, Tatsuya…”
“So anyway, I met the girl who used to be my best friend ten years ago, and then mom said she moved away, but I thought she died, but I SAW HER TODAY!”
“Where did you see her?”
“At school! She’s a new student!”
“Exciting.”
“It is, Gina. At least pretend.”
“Did she say hi to you?”
“No. She didn’t even recognize me.”
“Sad.”
“Yeah…” an awkward pause of silence filled the gap between the words. Was it possible to have an awkward pause between a human and a computer? “Hey, Gina, will you do me a favor?”
“Of course, Tatsuya.”
“Will you do some research on amnesia and tell me what you find?”
“Yes.”
“Thanks.” Tatsuya dropped his backpack by his desk and then sat down so he could look straight and what windows Gina was pulling up.
“I’ll read the wikipedia entry,” Gina said. “‘Amnesia (from Greek Ἀμνησία) is a memory condition in which memory is disturbed. In simple terms it is the loss of memory. The causes of amnesia are organic or functional. Organic causes include damage to the brain, through trauma or disease, or use of certain (generally sedative) drugs.’”
“That explains so much,” Tatsuya said. “She was hit by a bicycle, and she was hit in the head. She lost her memory. And now that I think about it, she does have a scar on her forehead which you can’t really see. So that’s why she doesn’t remember me!”
“It’s a theory.”
“Well, it makes sense. I’d better start my homework now, but this is just too exciting.”
“Would you like me to do the math?”
“Could you?”
“I’d be delighted.”

Chapter One

2009-11-03T18:58:00.000-08:00

It’s been ten years since that horrible day. Ten years, and what used to be the cute five year old boy became a sullen fifteen year old young man. He went to high school, he had many more material possessions in his life, his cute baby sister became a bratty eleven year old girl.
School was tough, and a lot tougher than last year. Freshman year seemed like a piece of cake compared to Sophomore year. The classes seemed so much harder, and it felt like Tatsuya was up until 2 AM every weekday.
Tatsuya didn’t have too many close friends. Well, he didn’t have any close friends. There were those people where you smile at them, or nod your head in their general direction when you walk past them between classes, but Tatsuya didn’t have any friends to whom he really spoke to. There was no one he hung out with at lunch, no one he told his secrets to, no one to rant to when he was depressed.
Actually, there was one person. Technically, she wasn’t a person, she was… a technicality. She was a machine. Tatsuya, despite being slightly anti-social, was incredibly intelligent for his age. He had created a program for his computer that practically brought her to life. He called her Gina, which stood for “Great intelligence, not artificial.”
“Good afternoon, Gina,” Tatsuya said to his computer as he threw his backpack onto the floor and collapsed onto his bed after a tiring day at school.
“Good afternoon, Tatsuya,” an odd female voice said from Tatsuya’s computer.
“Will you help me with my math homework today?” he asked. “I know I’ve been asking you a lot, but I really suck at algebra.”
“Of course, Tatsuya, you know I would do anything.”
One odd thing about Gina, though, is that she thought she could feel real human emotions, when she can’t because she’s just a machine.
“Gina, please don’t start flirting with me now,” Tatsuya said into his pillow. “It’s creepy. You’re a computer.”
At first Gina didn’t respond, but after a minute she said, “Yes, you’re right, Tatsuya. I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay. I just think it’s a bit weird for a computer to be in love with a human, especially when I created you.”
“I understand,” Gina said. “I’ll get started on that math homework.”
“Thanks, Gina,” Tatsuya said, forcing himself out of his bed, and down to the kitchen to get a quick bite to eat.
“Tatsuya, don’t eat my chocolate cake, okay?” Kimiko told her older brother.
“I wouldn’t dream of it, Kimi,” Tatsuya said blandly. “What else is there for me to eat?”
“Whatever you want, as long as you don’t eat my cake!”
“Sure thing, Kimi.”
“Hey, what should I wear for my date tonight?”
“You’re too young to be dating.”
“Oh, please,” she said. “And it’s not a real date, I’m just going out with a group of friends, okay? Just a couple of friends and guy-friends. No need to get paranoid about it, big bro.”
“Just be careful,” he reminded her. “I don’t like how you’re out with friends every second.”
“Chill, bro! No need to get jealous just because I’m more popular than you.”
“Don’t speak like that to your older brother.”
“Don’t start acting like mom now,” she whined, rolling her eyes.
“Please, Kimi, just listen to us every once in a while.”
“Sure thing, bro,” she said, reaching into the fridge and getting out her chocolate cake. “I’ll see you later, okay? You need to get some sleep, you have these awful looking bags under your eyes.”
“I know, it’s not my fault I have hours of homework each night,” he said, yet his younger sister walked off without really listening to him.
Tatsuya decided that he wasn’t really hungry, and left the refrigerator untouched as he climbed back up to his room. He really wasn’t in the mood to do any of his homework, so he just collapsed on his bed again.
“Deciding not to do your homework again?” Gina’s robotic voice said.
“Stop pestering me.”
“I would never dream of pestering you.”
“You don’t dream,” Tatsuya said firmly. “How’s the math homework?”
“It is complete.”
“Thanks, Gina. I guess I’ll just start on the rest of it now.” He picked up his backpack, and he was almost startled about how much it weighed.
“Are you all right, Tatsuya?” the computer asked.
“Yeah,” Tatsuya grunted. “This thing is like fifty pounds.” He threw his bag on the ground by his desk, and the whole room shook. It shook so much, that it felt like the ceiling was falling on him. In reality, a piece of the ceiling did fall on him.
“Ow, what?” Tatsuya looked around to see what hit him, and it was indeed a piece of the ceiling. He picked up the piece of wood, and then looked up. “I never knew we had an attic. And I never knew that the attic entrance was in my room.”
Tatsuya stood up and left his room. “Mom?” he called. “Mom, do we have a ladder?”
“Mom’s not home!” Kimi called back from her room. “What do you need a ladder for?”
“None of your business,” he yelled back. “Just tell me where it is.”
“It should be somewhere in the garage, but I’m not sure. Just try looking for it.”
“‘Kay,” he said before leaving to his garage.
Tatsuya didn’t like the garage. The lighting was dim, and it was so full of useless things instead of a car. He pushed his way through the trash until he finally noticed a ladder in the corner of the garage. It was difficult enough getting through the garage to get the ladder, but now that he had it, he could barely see where he was going. He was relieved when he was finally out of the cramped up, dull room.
He managed to lug the ladder all the way back up to his room without his sister noticing he was up to anything. He set it up under the hole he had created in the ceiling, and began to climb up.
“Ugh, this place is worse than the garage,” he complained as he walked into his so-called attic. “There’s no light in here at all, and it’s so musty. But at least there’s more room to move than in the garage.”
This attic was pretty empty. There were just a bunch of crates covered with several large sheets. But something seemed to glisten on top of one of them, despite the lack of light in the room.
Tatsuya walked towards the strange item, wondering what it was. “It’s a book,” he said, picking it up. He opened it, but couldn’t read it at all without the light. He decided to bring it back down and use it for a little late night reading. As he climbed back down the ladder, the light began to engulf the cover of the book, making it possible to read.
“Oh, it’s just an old journal,” Tatsuya said, slightly disappointed. He opened the front cover, and blew off all the dust to see whom it belonged to. The text read, “Property of Drake Gray.” “Who is Drake Gray?” Tatsuya mumbled under his breath.
The sound of a door opening and closing appeared in the distance, so either Kimi was leaving her room or Tatsuya’s mother had come home.
Tatsuya walked out and looked downstairs, and his mother had arrived. He rushed down to greet her.
“Hey, mom, are you okay?” Tatsuya asked his mother, wiping away the years on her face.
“It’s been ten years, dear,” she said between sobs. “Ten years today, Tatsuya.”
“I know you’re upset, mom,” he said, putting his arm around her. “I’ll make dinner tonight, okay? All of the stuff that you said dad loved. Sound good?”
“Yes, thank you, Tatsuya.”
“Of course, mom. Hey, I have a question for you.”
“What is it?”
“Who is Drake Gray?”
For a moment, she looked confused, and then her expression changed. “Drake Gray… was your great-grandfather. Your father was Joseph, and his father is Andy Gray, and then his father was Drake Gray.”
“Oh!” Tatsuya exclaimed, looking down at the journal in his hands. This used to belong to my great-grandfather!
“Yes, and speaking of your grandfather, you know he’s going to be moving in with us for a while, right?”
“How come?”
“Oh, because they’re doing some major renovations at the retirement home he stays at, so he’s going to stay with us for a while.”
“All right, awesome,” Tatsuya said, grinning from ear to ear, which he rarely ever did. “I love it when grandpa comes over.”
“Go upstairs now and finish your homework, and I’ll call you down and you can help me make dinner, okay?”
“Sure thing, mom,” Tatsuya said, rushing back upstairs to his room. “Oh my gosh, this is cool,” Tatsuya almost squealed, gripping the journal with a tight grip. “I’ve heard so many stories about him from grandpa. Haven’t I told you about that, Gina?”
“Yes, you have,” said Gina.
“Yeah. Do you think I should read it, or leave his personal thoughts to himself?”
“He’s dead. I’m sure he wouldn’t mind.”
“I guess. But when grandpa comes over here, it would be bad if he found out I was reading his father’s journal. Oh, well, I’m going to read it anyway!” Tatsuya flipped open the first page:

My name is Drake Gray, and I’m an explorer. Currently, my crew and I are preparing for a journey down to the edge of Japan. We’re not sure what we’re looking for, but I have a feeling we’ll find something. The date is October 7 1931. We’re setting off tonight. I’m looking forward to this expedition because it’s the first one that I’m leading, and I’ve got fifty of my best men with me. Let’s hope the expedition goes successfully.

We’re on the boat, sailing down to Japan. Supplies are plentiful, and I have no fear at all. My men all seem excited about the expedition. I can’t explain why feelings are at such a height, considering the fact we all barely know what we’re doing, or what we’re going to Japan for. But we’ll find something amazing, trust me.

Tatsuya put the journal down. “Wow, great-grandpa,” he laughed at the journal. “Going on an expedition and you don’t even know what you’re looking for. I’ll finish reading about your failed expedition later.”
“Tatsuya, come down for dinner, please!” his mother called.
He ran down the stairs, where his little sister was already waiting at the table, and his mother was already setting the food.
“Mom, I told you I’d make dinner tonight,” he told her, sitting down. “Why’d you go through all this trouble?”
“Oh, it’s okay, dear,” she said. “You know I’m the one who is supposed to be taking care of you, right?”
Before he could answer, Kimi finished her last bite and got up.
“Hey, you know it’s rude to start eating before mom even sat down,” Tatsuya said angrily.
“Yeah, but I have to leave,” she whined. “I’m getting picked up.”
“Where are you going?” her concerned mother asked.
“Oh, just to the mall with some friends. I’ll be back before long, I promise. Bye!” And she had sprinted out the door before another word could be said.
Tatsuya sighed. “She has no sympathy at all.”
“That’s all right, as long as she’s careful. Here, we’ll finish dinner together.”

Prologue

2009-11-01T01:14:00.000-07:00

Tatsuya Gray was always alone. Well, not always. Not when he was a child. When he was about five years old, he had a nice, whole family, a best friend, and a pretty decent life. He didn’t care too much for his half-japanese heritage, and just soared through life like any little five year old should. He was adorable, just like his best friend Madison Anabel Fisher. And she wouldn’t go by any other name, either.
“Hey, Tatsuya!” the little girl called from across a large field of grass at Central Park. She was with her family, though. Tatsuya didn’t like her family, and they didn’t like him, either. They thought he was a bad influence on their only daughter. It was his fault that she was so weird.
She approached him and sat down next to him on the bench.
“Hello, Madison Anabel Fisher,” Tatsuya greeted her. She always got so annoyed if anyone called her anything but that. It was like her trademark.
“Maddy, dear,” her father said. “Stay here, and we’ll be right back, okay?”
“Daddy, I don’t want you calling me that,” she said, her voice whiney. “I don’t like that name.”
Her father didn’t respond, and just walked off with her mother, who remained silent.
“I don’t see why you’re so annoyed by that,” Tatsuya told her. “Maddy is a pretty name.”
“Yes, but four other girls in my class have the name Madison, and two of them are called Maddy. I don’t want to be the same as all of those people.”
“I understand,” the boy said, inching closer to Madison Anabel Fisher on the bench. “Having a different name is nice.”
“That’s why you’re so lucky, Tatsuya,” she told him. “I’ve never met anyone with the same name as you.”
“I guess,” he said. “But you shouldn’t let small things like that bug you like that.”
“Oh, what do you know?” she giggled. “Come on, let’s go for a small walk.”
“Let’s not go too far, though,” Tatsuya said, standing up. “My parents want me to stay in view of them.” He turned around and glanced at his parents with his baby sister in the distance.
“Of course not,” she said, following him and putting her arm around his so they linked together. “Let’s just go to the edge of the street, okay?”
“We’ve got to be careful, though,” Tatsuya told his best friend.
“Don’t get so bugged with small things!” Madison Anabel Fisher mocked him.
They began to walk together, and arrived at the edge of the street where the cars where whizzing by in a big blur of different colors.
“Why do you think they’re in such a hurry?” Madison Anabel Fisher asked, not directly at Tatsuya, though, but more into the sky.
Tatsuya shrugged. “Maybe they’ve got to be somewhere important. Like a birthday party, or something.”
The girl giggled again, and then let go of Tatsuya’s arm promptly before sitting down on the sidewalk.
“Maybe we should go back,” Tatsuya said. “Our parents might be looking for us.”
“Just relax, Tatsuya,” the girl giggled again. “We’ll go back in about a minute.”
The blur of colors stretched across the sea of the road, and it was like the next five seconds of Tatsuya’s life were sped forward. There was a bicycle coming in from the right, and then something Tatsuya had never seen before: blood. The spilt blood of an adorable, small five year old girl.
Tatsuya heard many screams at the same time: the man on the bike had screamed, Madison Anabel Fisher’s parents screamed and rushed over to their fallen daughter.
“You know, little kids shouldn’t be lying in the way like this!” the cyclist screamed into the sky.
“THIS IS YOUR FAULT,” Madison Anabel Fisher’s mother screamed at Tatsuya. “YOU DID THIS TO MY BABY.”
“I-I didn’t,” Tatsuya said with a small voice.
The shaking hands of a careful father scooped Madison Anabel Fisher’s tiny body into his arms, and walked off without looking back at Tatsuya.
“I didn’t do it,” he said again, even though no one could hear him.
The parents, the cyclist, and the girl were gone.
Later that night, Tatsuya was back at home. His mother had just put the food out on the table, but he didn’t feel like eating. The horrifying image of his tiny friend’s body lying on a bloody sidewalk kept infiltrating his mind, and he felt like he couldn’t do anything.
“Tatsuya, you have to eat,” his father told him with a strong voice. “You can’t just starve yourself.”
“Joseph, don’t force him through anything,” Tatsuya’s mother said, her voice much softer in comparison to her husband. “The poor boy’s been through too much today.”
“Of course, Amaya,” he said. “But he still has to eat something.”
And then the slight sobs of Tatsuya’s baby sister came from upstairs.
“Tell Kimiko to stop crying,” Tatsuya said, his voice completely monotone. “It’s making my head hurt.”
“I’ll go,” Amaya Gray said. She kept one last plate of food on the table, and then rushed upstairs to comfort the crying baby.
“Tatsuya, listen to me,” his father said, his voice much softer now. “I know some bad things happened today, but there are always going to be things that will try to bring you down. You just have to know to be smarter than faith, and…” he let his speech trail off, and then pat Tatuya once on his back. “Do you understand what I’m saying?”
Even though Tatsuya’s father never really finished his speeches, or fully completed his thoughts, Tatsuya always knew what he was talking about.
“Yes, daddy, I understand.”
“Good,” he said, smiling an odd sweet smile. “I’m glad you understand. And remember—there are always going to be things in life that get you down, and it’s just going to get worse and worse, but even if you get down, you can’t let those things keep you down.”
Tatsuya nodded, even though he didn’t think anything could be worse than having his best friend run over with a bicycle.
Tatsuya’s father gave him one more hearty pat on the back, and then went back to his dinner.
The distant sobs subsided, and Amaya had come back down to the dinner table.
“Kimiko is worse than Tatsuya when he was a child,” she joked.
His father chuckled, but Tatsuya stayed still—he still couldn’t think about anything except for Madison Anabel Fisher, and the bicycle, and the bloody sidewalk.
And then came a knock on the door. Why would anyone come to our house while we’re eating dinner? Tatsuya thought.
“I’ll get it,” Tatsuya’s father said, standing up.
Tatsuya followed him, and watched his father open the door from a distance. He couldn’t see who the man was when the door opened, but a faint outline of him was visible. He was tall, and his hair was kind of spiky, and it stuck up in an odd angle.
“Oh, I had a feeling you were coming,” Joseph Gray told the stranger.
“Did you, Joe?” said a scratchy voice. “Did you have a feeling about this?” The stranger’s arm raised to about the level of where Joseph’s head was.
BANG. It was the loudest noise Tatsuya heard, and then more screams. Tatsuya’s mother shrieked as she watched her husband fall to the floor, squeals of crying came from the upstairs bedroom, and the odd stranger lowered his arm. But Tatsuya didn’t react. No, he didn’t even flinch. The five year old boy simply gazed as his father fell onto the floor, into an even bigger pool of blood than Madison Anabel Fisher’s.
Tatsuya’s mother fell to the floor after his father, and began to sob over his sleeping body as Kimiko continued to do the same upstairs.
“I’ll take care of Kimiko,” Tatsuya told his mother, who wasn’t listening. Tatsuya walked upstairs, and into his baby sister’s room.
“It’s okay, Kimi,” he said, rocking his baby sister in his hands. “Mommy will come up soon and give you your dinner, and then daddy will sing you his lullaby, okay?”
The sobbing stopped, and Kimiko gave a small smile.
Tatsuya smiled back. “That’s much better. Do you want to eat something, or do you want to take a nap?”
Kimiko answered by giving him a small yawn.
“I see,” he said. “I’ll leave you in your crib, then.” He gently placed his baby sister back into his crib, and let her fall asleep as he left her room.
His mother was still sobbing downstairs, and Tatsuya didn’t think that the best way to get her to stop was to ask her if she was hungry, so instead he let her be and went into his room.
“Too much blood,” Tatsuya said, curling up into a ball on his bed. “Too much for on day.” And as Tatsuya tried to empty his mind of the horrific experiences he had today, he fell asleep.
After what felt like two seconds, he was awaked by his mother.
“Mommy, what time is it?” I asked.
“It’s about 10 AM, Tatsuya,” she said, her voice even softer than usual.
“Already?” he asked. “How’s Madison Anabel Fisher… and where’s daddy?”
Amaya bit her bottom lip. She didn’t know how to answer her son’s questions.
“They’re gone, darling,” she said, her voice even quieter than before.
“Gone?” Tatsuya repeated. “What does that mean?”
“Well, Madison’s parents called, and said that they were going to be moving away. They didn’t want their child to live in such a dangerous place anymore.”
Tatsuya knew this wasn’t true. He knew that her parents just didn’t want their precious daughter to be around a boy like him all the tim.
“And daddy?” Tatsuya asked. “Where did he move away to?”
Amaya bit her lip again, and tried to hold back the tears. “He’s just gone.”
“Okay,” Tatsuya said, closing his eyes again. “Mommy, I’m sleepy.”
The caring mother placed one light hand on her son’s head. “Go to sleep. I’ll wake you up later, okay?”
“‘Kay,” he said, curling up into a ball again.
From that moment on, Tatsuya Gray was always alone.

Are you ready, kids?

2009-10-24T14:37:00.001-07:00

HEY, EVERYONE!
It's that time of year again! Yes! November... NATIONAL NOVEL WRITING MONTH!
I've actually got some plans for my novel this year, so I'm excited to get started in a week! And I've decided I'm going to do what I did last year (http://kavisnanowrimo08.blogspot.com) and post up my story one chapter at a time as I'm working on it. Trust me, it's going to be bad because it's a first draft and I won't be doing any editing at all, so... just read it to keep up with what I'm up to, and if you want to give me some constructive criticism, please go ahead. Thank you all for coming here, and hope you enjoy!
~Kavitha