Chapter 29 : Informing

Taichi

My parents and Hikari left around 3 am, they would have probably stayed longer if I hadn't forced them to go. I wanted to be alone for a while, plus they all looked exhuasted. Especially Kari...she had been pretty much silent the whole night, she had almost died tonight...actually we were all lucky...except Mimi. I shuddered, I had been right there, merely a few feet's distance...I could have saved her. I could have saved her, if I hadn't stopped up in shock, I could have saved her. I felt worse than I ever did with Takeru...

Yama's brother had been alone when he was murdered, but Mimi? I was right there! I could have done something! Why didn't I? Why was I such a coward? I sat up in my bed and winced. I ran a finger across my stitch, it was rough and bumpy, a bit sticky here and there. It stung sharply, then slowly faded for a moment, before returning at my next movement. I leaned against the wall behind me and stared at the ceiling, why did people both making those stupid swirly designs in the ceiling? So people who stare up there can start seeing things?

The swirling shapes, they start to morph into things, images. Aymichi, Mimi, TK, Matt, pools of blood...I guess thats what happens when you have too much on your mind and are tired but can't sleep. I thought about our position now, two dead, one gone, leaving the five of us left. Was this psycho killer just randomly picking off people? Or was he after us Digidestined? It was the latter, I knew, how else could he have known our names?

~Flashback~

He turned his head and looked back at us, he eyed me, I was still clutching a book. Hikari glanced sideways at me as well, worried, I was fuming, inhaling deeply, trying to calm myself. How could I be calm!? The bastard had a knife to Mimi's throat!? "I wouldn't do anything if I were you." Aymichi smirked, "I might accidentally slit Tachikawa's throat." I boiled.

~End Flashback~

"I might accidentally slit Tachikawa's throat." I repeated aloud to myself. He knew who we were, our names, where we lived. But WHY?! What had we ever done to make anyone want to kill us? Fuck, I didn't even know who this Resuko Aymichi was until now! And now what are we going to do? We're being hunted down like animals, how long before he attacks again? How long before another one of us is killed? How long til we're all gone?

What can we do to stop him? Police these days aren't what they used to be, the guy is on the loose after commiting two successful murders! What can the authorities do to protect us? Security systems, locks, potrals, can all be evaded one way or another. The guy obviously had had practice if he had made it this far and had only been *suspected* for Takeru's murder.

I guess I eventually fell asleep staring at the ceiling, because I had the weirdest dream. Yes, dream, amazingly, it wasn't a nightmare like I had expected. I was talking to Takeru. We were sitting on the front steps of my apartment, I don't remember a sky, or the ground. It was just emptiness all around us. TK looked fine, had both his arms, no cuts or nasty bruises, no messed up hair. He was as he should have been. He was telling me about Yamato. I couldn't remember his exact words, because even if you remember a dream after you wake, it always has it's missing pieces.

His voice sounded weird too, it was echoy, disembodied even though he was right next to me. He said something about Matt being out of the ayslum, I said something in reply. I don't remember what I said. And the rest of the dream was very fuzzy, we talked some more, about things I don't recall. Then Takeru sprouted wings, yes, the white, feathery, angel kind, and flew off. And that's when I woke up, at 8:23 am, the next morning. Five hours, well, it was better than some of the other nights I had spent. During the past weeks, some nights I only managed one or two hours.

I realized I was still leaning against the wall, I had fallen asleep like that. Therefore, I had slumped forward and my back hurt. I stretched, and immediately wished I hadn't. My stitches stung like *hell*! And they were ITCHY. I growled softly to myself and tried to stretch the rest of my body, no luck, pain greeted me at every action. I noticed a tray of food on a nearby desk, but I wasn't hungry. I didn't like toast anyay.

Well, what was I supposed to do in the mean time? I was stuck here until someone comes to get me anyway. My room felt very empty, even though it was crowded with the dozen or so chairs brought in last night so everyone could sit down. There was a tiny TV in the corner, I shrugged mentally, and reached for the remote. Good thing it wasn't far and required only minimal movement.

The stupid thing didn't have cable, so basicly all I could watch was the news. I guess I was hoping to see that Aymichi Resuko had been caught, or something. I sat through about 10 minutes of boring regular news, global warming, earthquakes, mad cow diseases,...mostly international news. Finally, the local news came on. I leaned forward a bit, hoping. But of course, nothing I hoped came on.

"And on local news. Odaiba High is hosting a Fall Festival on the 15th, both students and teachers are working hard on the projec--" "Screw that news, " I barked a harsh laugh, "I can't believe they're still going ahead with that. Especially since Mimi was the head directer and..." I shut myself up, and tuned into the news once more. The Fall Fest wasn't important, it probably wouldn't occur, because Mimi is gone.

"--escaped from a secluded ayslum south of Odaiba." I choked on my spit. What? Wasn't that where..."The escapee had actually only been sent there two weeks before and was reported missing last night. Psychiatrists warn that the subject may be react violently to others and that anyone who has seen or heard from him should call 154-0913, extention 56." A picture of my best friend flashed briefly on the screen. So...Matt's escaped? But how? Wow,...what would he do now?

Would he try to contact us? Or was he still angry at us? What was his plan? To go after Aymichi? Probably,..but there was no way he could do that by himself! Aggg, he was going to get his ass handed to him. I sighed and focused on the news again, Mimi's picture was there, with the newscaster babbling about her murder, the fuckass himself also appeared on screen, and there was a brief interview with the dumbass head of the police, who still hasn't *confirmed* that Resuko was TK's killer too.

Hm, TK, I remembered my dream again, well, he was right about Yama being out of the ayslum, but...what else had he said to me? What if it was true that your dreams are your prophecy? Damn, what if what he said to me was *important*? D'oh..this is stupid, said a voice in my head, you're listening to you're fucked up dreams now? A nurse entered the room, dragging me out of my thoughts.

"Don't you know how to knock?" I growled, not bothering to hide my anger that was slowly resurfacing. "I apoligize Mr.Kamiya, I did not know you were awake." she stated, she sounded like one of those recorded phone messages. I didn't reply and just watched as she surveyed the room. "You didn't eat your breakfast." she commented. I shrugged, "Wasn't hungry." I told her, in the rudest voice I could summon. "Well, your parents are here to take you home."

Good, I thought, I really don't like hospital. Especially since my room was identical to TK's. To the nurse I said nothing and she left the room. A few moments later the nurse reentered, accompanied by my parents and Hikari. A doctor came in as well, he applied some gel to my stitched gash, and wrapped a bandage around my arm. I guess he was being as gentle as he could, but it still stung. He told me to try not to move that arm much and to scratch the stitches no matter what.

Blah, blah, blah, I finally got out of that damned building like an hour later, after my doctor laid a million precautions down with my parents. The drive home was somewhat quiet. I debated whether or not to tell my parents that Matt had escaped his prison. That's a stupid I idea, one voice said, they'll lock you in the house thinking Yama's a killer too. Yeah, agreed the other voice, just tell your friends, maybe they can think of a way to help him. Wow, my voices are agreeing, well, now I know I'm insane too.

As soon as we arrived home, I went straight to my room, my parents were still ghostly silent, to me and Kari at least. But they kept on giving each other sideways glances and mouthing things when they thought I wasn't looking. I don't care, as long as they didn't try to ask me a bunch of questions like after the incident with Matt. I sat down on the edge of my bed. It had only been yesterday I woke up here, why did it seem like I had been away for weeks and months?

"Tai?" I didn't bother turning to see who it was, I knew it was my sister. I didn't say anything, just listened as her footsteps neared my room and came inside. "Are you ok?" That question are getting so old. Those damn doctors must've asked me a million times; 'Does this hurt?' ' Are you ok?' 'How do you feel?' But I could tolerate my sister, "I'm fine, Kari...are *you* ok?" She didn't say anything for a while, then replied; "I miss them." I let out a loud sigh and turned to face her, I wasn't too shocked to see her face tearstained anymore. I had come to almost expect it now. I didn't like that I expected that. It meant that this crazy ordeal had been going on too long. "I miss them too."

We talked for a while, then she left me alone to rest. Rest, right. I hadn't told Kari about Yama's escape, it would have probably made her more afraid than she already was. I knew she felt guilty about being responsiable for getting Matt caught, and I knew she didn't trust him as much after seeing him pin Mimi to the wall, so I figure she would be better off thinking that he was locked up. As soon as my sister left the room and I grabbed the phone with my good arm.

"Takenouchi residence." a tired voice answered after the 5th ring. "May I speak to Sora please?" "This is she." I blinked, the voice sounded nothing like Sora. It sounded way to strained, tired, and forced. "Sora, are you alright?" I guess we'll all be asking that question a lot now. "Taichi? You sound different.." I did? I hadn't noticed. And Kari hadn't said anything. Ug, we were all sleep-deprived. "So do you, did you get any sleep?" Probably not, I guessed. "No, I was up all night. How bout you?" Poor Sora, I wondered if any of the others got sleep. "I managed 5 hours." I mumbled. "Lucky."

"Anyway, do you think you can come over later? I'm going to call the others, we need to talk." There was a short pause before she answered; "I can't. My parents won't let me leave the house. They aren't even sure if they're going to let me go to school on Monday." "What?" Her parents weren't letting her leave the house? Wow, well, I guess I couldn't blame them. If I had a kid who was probably being targetted by a psycho killer, I'd make her stay home too.

"Sorry, Tai." she sighed. "It's alright, you get some sleep. Talk to you later." I was about to hang up, but Sora said something else, "Wait, what were you going to talk to us about?" I thought briefly, should I tell her? She trusted Matt didn't she? She would be glad he was out of that prison...."Well, Yamato escaped from the ayslum, it was on the news." I told her simply. "Really?" she sounded happy, hopeful. "Yeah." "Do you know where he is?" "No," I answered, "But I'll bet my soccer uniform that he's going to go after Resuko." "I hope he does." my friend said darkly, "Well, bye." "Bye."

I dialed Izzy's number as soon as the phone clicked off. "Hello?" another tired voice answered. "Koushirou?" didn't *anyone* get sleep last night? "Tai? Hey, are you still at the hospital?" "No, I'm at home. Dude, are you ok? You sound like a zombie." I tried to keep a light tone, tried to lighten the mood. "Heh," he laughed dryly, "You don't sound so great yourself. So what's up?" he was trying to sound cheerful too. "Well I just wanted to know if you could come over later." "Can't." was his immediate reply. "M'parents are locking me inside, they installed these bars on all the windows too."

"You too?" I grumbled. "Huh?" "Sora's parents are keeping her home too." "Damn. Have you tried Mim--Joe?" The break in his sentence was too easy to catch. The pain and grief. It was so easy to forget that she was gone. She had been with us for so long, and now suddenly she's gone. "No, I haven't." doing my best to pretend that Izzy's slip hadn't happened. "Well, ..." "Well, I was going to call you all over to tell ya'll something, but I guess I'll have to just do it over the phone."

"Tell us something? What?" "Matt's out of the ayslum, and probably back in Odaiba." I told him. There was a short silence. Then, "Is that a good thing?" he asked uncertainly. "I don't know. He's probably going to go after Resuko, but what if he gets caught? Or what if he get's killed?" "I don't know..I really don't know. I wish all this would just end." Koushirou sighed. "Well, talk to you later, I'm going to call Joe." "Alright, bye."

The Kido residence didn't pick up. So Joe wasn't home. Where was he? Oh well, I felt suddenly tired again. I lay out on my bed. The sheets smelt of familiarality. Of home. Of normalcy. It was calming I guess. Peace slowly took over my head, Iulling me into a restless sleep. I had no idea that Hikari had been listening to all my phone conversations.

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© Kiriska