Chapter 28 : Moments of Peace
Sora
I paced. Back and forth from one end of the waiting room to
the other. Koushirou was sitting on the bench with Kari, who was
still unconscious. Tai was in a room somewhere having his wounds
treated. They told us that the gash in the arm was pretty
serious. Only one thought plagued my head; Why? What did we ever
do to cause someone to want to kill us? Is it merely a
coinicidence that we had been the Digidestined? Or did this;
Resuko Aymichi hold some kind of a grudge against us? Could it be
that he had been some lacky of Myotismon? The Dark Masters?
That was an impossible possibility. But then again, so was this
whole entire ordeal. It is all a nightmare I will eventually
awake from. Right? Takeru is dead and buried. Matt is in a
nuthouse some miles from here. Mimi is being transported
somewhere to be dressed and prepared for her funeral. There are
only five of us left. Five. Including Joe. And I hoped Joe would
come, I had no idea why he had grown apart from us. But I hoped
he'd return. I sat down on the bench with Izzy and Kari, my legs
hurt from the pacing.
"Are you alright?" The Keeper of Knowledge asked me. I
gave a bitter laugh, "One of my best friends is in an
ayslum, his little brother is dead, and another one of my best
friends was killed a few hours ago. What do you think?" The
sourness in my voice registered only a mild amount of surprise.
Kourshirou sighed, "Know what you mean." he answered
simply, "It's so unfair."
We sat there for a while in silence, each pondering our own
thoughts. I guess I tried to calm myself, I guess I was almost
feeling what Yama felt right after TK's murder. Anger and hate. I
wanted so much to strangle that bastard, Aymichi. Make him suffer
as we had, and make him die, then burn. Burn. I remembered his
maniacal laugh right before he bolted. Crackling insanely as he
clutched Mimi's dead body with one hand. Laughing over having
taken a life. Heh. Funny. Right now, I'd probably be laughing if
I were standing over his dead body. Scary thought. Being like
that crazy jerk.
"Hey." I almost jumped at the sound of Izzy's voice.
"What?" I blinked, turning to him. "Ever wonder
what TK thinks about all this?" he asked, "I mean, I
know he's gone, but if he was really an angel, and he's looking
down on us, watching, what would he think?" I didn't know
what to say, the thought had never crossed my mind. What would
Hope think of all this? Would he be angry? Sad? I shruged;
"I don't know...I never really thought about it." I
answered. My friend just seemed to nod and stare off in the
distance, still shround in his thoughts.
I was about to go over my thoughts again, but Hikari began to
stir. Her eyes opened suddenly and they darted around the room,
settling on me. She sat up and looked around the room once again,
then at the floor. Her body racked with sobs, trembling and
shaking. "Tell me this is a dream..." she whispered. I
felt my own grief well up again. "It's not." Izzy
muttered. "Mimi can't be dead...she isn't dead...just a
dream...." Kari kept murmering.
Comfort was hard to give when you long for it yourself. I sighed,
and placed my hand on her shoulder, what could I say? That
everything would be alright? I would only be lying to her..and
myself. So is this what Matt was thinking when TK died? This this
how he felt? Now I knew why he kept yelling at us, telling us we
were lying when we told him everything would fix itself. He was
right...maybe we should have listened...but then...too many
thoughts, too many unpleasent thoughts. My head swelled with
them.
Hikari was ignoring me, simply staring blankly forward and
ignoring the rivers that seeped from her eyes. A nurse came up to
us, holding a clipboard and wearing a concerned mask. "You
are Kamiya Taichi's friends?" she asked. The Keeper of the
Crest if Light snapped from her trance and almost leapt at the
woman, "How's my brother!?" her voice choked. The nurse
backed up a bit and shook her head, "He had to get stitches
in his arm, that gash was the worse injury, the rest is just
bruises and cuts, though a few of them may scar a little."
Kari didn't reply, just sort of went back to her blank stare.
"Can we see him?" Izzy asked. The nurse nodded and led
the way. The three of us trailed behind her, uncertain. Tai would
probably be furious, knowing him, he would want to get out of the
damn hospital and track down Aymichi. That was what we all
expected, but it wasn't what we got. Funny how in these
situations nothing is what you expect...even the reactions of
your best friends.
Tai's room gave me deja vu, it was only then did I realize this
was the same hospital Takeru had been taken to when he died. But
it wasn't the same room. But still, the scene before me was all
too familiar. Tai was pale, like he had blood drained from him or
something. His arm injury was painfully in view, it looked worse
every time I looked at it. The gash, running from the mid-bicep
to a few inches from the elbow, was a blackened-red color. The
stitches didn't look clean at all, they were like large, thick
strings sewn to bind the wound. Remember the movie, Gladiator?
When he woke up and was being carried along in a cage and was
about to become his infamous life as a gladiator? That scar he
had? That's what Taichi's gash looked like.
Our old self-proclaimed leader glanced sideways at us, his
expression was ...calm almost, like he was in very deep thought.
We just stared at each for a while, not knowing what to say.
"How do you feel?" Koushirou wondered, ackwardly
breaking the silence. Tai shrugged, "Alright I guess...it
kind of stings, but not that badly." I pulled a chair over
and sat down. Izzy and Kari did likewise. "When can you
leave, did they tell you?" My friend nodded, "Tomorrow
if the antibotics work and I don't get an infection." he
answered. "I hate him." Hikari growled suddenly,
startling us all.
"I hate him. I want him to die." she repeated herself.
We all knew who she was talking about of course, the murderer,
Aymichi. This must be awful for her, I thought, she seemed so
insecure. Tai looked away, then said, "So do I, Kari."
There was an weird silence, then the door to the room burst open,
the parents had come. "Taichi!" Mrs.Kamiya shrieked and
pushed her way through us to her son. Mr.Kamiya followed her
slowly and embraced Hikari. Izzy and I went to our parents. I
didn't see Mimi's parents. Were they at the morgue to see Mimi? I
shuddered at the thought. Where was Joe? Was he going to come?
The next 30 minutes was spent explaining to the folks what the
hell happened. There was a lot of tears and words of comfort, but
I zoned most of it out. I had already cried myself out, so I just
nodded to everything said to me. At one point I saw a clock, it
read 11:53. It was almost midnight, I guess Joe wasn't coming.
Had we done something to make him hate us? My parents and I were
about to go, when the door burst open once again.
Joe stood at the door, panting heavily.
"Ran..two..miles...slowed...accident...horse...tired...Tai...ok?"
All heads turned and blinked at him. "Joe! What
happened?" I asked anxiously, I had totally given up on him
coming. Probably because I expected him here sooner, it wasn't a
long drive from his apartment to the hospital, but he ran!? No
wonder!
"Sorry..couldn't make it...sooner..." he managed,
gasping between words, totally out of breath. "Glad you
could make it though." Izzy said smiling. "Is everyone
alright?" The Keeper of Reliability asked, speaking normally
now, well, kinda panicy, but he wasn't panting so hard anymore.
"More or less." Tai grumbled, "Give or take a few
bruises and a life." I sighed, well, I guess Tai had gotten
over his shock, 'cuz he was acting like I predicted now. Joe
paled, but didn't say anything, I guess he was the one in shock
now.
I decided to change the subject, "What were you saying about
an accident, Joe?" refering to some of the words he had said
when he first entered the room. The blue-haired teen shook out of
his daze, "There was a horse running around in the streets
scaring people. It ran over this one guy." he answered.
"A horse? Why would there be a horse in the middle of the
city?" Izzy wondered. "Got me." Joe shrugged. We
stayed there in the hospital into the late hours of the night,
just taking about everything. It felt good to have everyone
together..or, what was left of us together. But how long before
another one of us is picked off?
© Kiriska