Chapter 39 : Silent Oblivion

Hikari

She was exactly like him. She was an identical copy of him. She was Yamato. She was matching the description of your stereotypical psychopath. Sitting by the window, away from us, trembling, wrapped in a straitjacket - blanket. She seemed worse than Yamato, even. My brother's best friend had simply been distant, cold, silent. Sora,...Sora looked like she was having minor seizures and was lashing out at us at every remark. Was she really going insane? Would she turn out like Yama had? Would she go off and try to kill Aymichi? She wouldn't...she wasn't like that, she wasn't violent...but who could be sure now? She was one of the last people I would expect to be like this...Sora wasn't supposed to be like this! This was the person who told me everything was going to be alright a few weeks ago!?

Its not fair. Everything is falling apart around us. Everyone's dying or going insane; its all the same. They're being torn away from his life or falling out of this reality. They're all slipping away. These people...I've known them forever. They are my friends, my brother's friends, each other's friends. They protected me, they looked out for me, back then. They protect me and look out for me now. But they're all slipping away, water between my hands. And I can't do anything to stop it. Its not fair...He's already taken Takeru....he's already taken Mimi and Joe....he's converted Yama into someone I don't know anymore. Now he's going to take Sora too!? When will he stop? When will he be stopped? When will the nightmares end?

"Sora? Please, talk to us..." Taichi said, putting his hand on her shoulder. She recoiled, pulling away from his touch and growling like an animal. "Get...away...from...me...." My brother sighed and tried again. "C'mon Sora. We all miss Joe, and Mimi, and TK. But we can't let it get to us. Aymichi is after us all and if we fall apart like this it'll be all the easier for him. You don't want him to win do you?" The Keeper of the Crest of Love said nothing. I glanced at Izzy, he was nodding absently, agreeing with everything Tai said. "We're here for you Sora, remember that. You're not alone." he added, looking out the window with her. The sky outside was still dreary and grey, lifeless. It reflected everything in the room, everything that was happening. Nature's projection of impending doom.

"Why did he kill them...? Why did..." her new voice was barely audible, barely understandable. But it was louder than the hushed silence between us. "Why...did he do that...to Joe?" her voice grew a bit stronger, though shaky and full of tears. "How could he do that to him...? What did he ever do to deserve...to...why did..." her voice broke, she turned slowly to face us. "Why is this happening to us...?" tears were streaked down her face, wet ones layer over dried ones. She had rings under her eyes from lack of sleep, and red blood vessels were visible at the edges of her eyes. She did not look like Sora. Why is this happening to us? I don't know. None of us knew. We knew nothing,...would we die knowing nothing?

"I don't know, Sora...I don't know." Taichi slowly pulled his friend into a hug, and this time she did not pull away. Instead, she cried onto his shoulder, and continued to ask why. Could Tai bring her back to who she was? "We have to stay strong...we have to stick together...and we can't let him get to us. We're all we have left." The four of us, all we have left. The four of us. Eight Digidestined. Three dead. One gone. Four left. How many more will go? Will Izzy still be with us tomorrow? Would Sora? Would my brother still be there when I wake up tomorrow? Would I be there to wake up? Would the police really be able to stop Aymichi from getting the rest of us? Yes, its been quiet this last week or so...but how can we be sure? How are we supposed to feel safe until he was caught?

"Come for a walk outside." Koushirou said, standing up, "We shouldn't let our fear of him keep us in...that's just another way of letting him win. Some fresh air will do you good, Sora." Tai agreed, "The police will be watching us anyway." Outside? Where there was no cover, no roof, no walls around you? How would we know who stood behind the corner? How could we tell if there was anyone hiding in the sewers? How would we know? Did the police monitor every corner around us? The open air scared me, it made me feel vulnerable and helpless. Outside, unsheltered and unprotected, was where TK had died. I looked at Sora, almost hoping that she would decline. Was I going insane if I didn't want to go outside? Would I turn out insane if I didn't want to go outside? It was natural to want to stay in...letting Aymichi win. Was wanting to be safe letting him win?

If his goal is to kill us, and staying inside made that harder, so how was it letting him win? Sora looked out the window again, clutching the edges of her blanket nervously. Did she want to venture outside? "Sora?" She stood up, and the white sheet that had been wrapped around her fell to the floor. "Lets go..." Taichi and Izzy both rose from their seats on her bed and started for the door. I didn't move. Looking out the window, the city really did not look inviting. Every corner was dark, every person had a turned up coat collar. Everything was a potential hiding place for the presence of death. Death was outside, beckoning us out. Why were they listening?! It wasn't safe out there, they knew it, I knew it, everyone knew it. We hadn't even been allowed outside in weeks. Why were they going?

"Kari?" My brother paused at the door, waiting for me. I looked up. His wound was healing slowly, layers of white bandages were still wrapped around his left arm. He had already been injured, did he want to be killed too? Did they all want to die...? "C'mon, Kari, don't be afraid. We'll all be with you, the police will be with us. We'll be fine." he told me, reassuringly. I was a damn chicken. That's what I was. And paranoid. I knew that's what they all thought of me. I was paranoid. But...I had a reason to be didn't I? It wasn't wrong to be afraid...but...I didn't want to seem like I was...I reluctantly stood up. Taichi smiled, and I followed him out. I had a bad feeling in my stomach as I did so. What if he was wrong? What if it really wasn't safe. Just because I'm paranoid doesn't mean he really wasn't out there....it doesn't mean he really wasn't hiding behind a corner...

"We're going for a walk outside." Izzy announced to the parents. Mr. and Mrs. Takenouchi looked shocked to see their daughter out of her bedroom. "Are you sure its safe?" My mother demanded. "Don't worry, mom, the police are outside. We'll be fine." Taichi assured them. "We'll come with you." Mrs. Izumi said, standing up. All of the other adults did so as well. The nine of us slowly went down the apartment steps and out into the world. It was like making a grand entrance into another dimension even though I had just been outside minutes before. Nothing happened. No one jumped from the shadows to attack, no one came up to us and pulled a knife. Nothing happened. I was going crazy.

And so we started walking. No one really said much. We were a group traveling the sidewalk on a Saturday afternoon. A group with two police patrol cars following us. No one bothered us. One of the officers was even walking with us. The parents lagged behind a bit, doing their own conversation. We walked ahead, the four of us and the officer. "Feel any better?" Izzy asked, turning to Sora. She was looking around like she had never seen these buildings before, as if she had never walked down this street before. But she had. She had walked down this street a thousand times. Twice a day. To and from school. That hadn't been so long ago....only a few weeks. She seemed to ignore the Keeper of Knowledge's question at first, but then nodded slowly. "I'm sorry..." she whispered, "For worrying you guys..."

They talked more, but I wasn't listening. Shapes moved in the shadows, darting from corner to corner, following us. No one else seemed to notice, not even the police. So many shadows....they were everywhere. There seemed to be more alleys than usual, each one filled with strangers; strangers whose faces were blocked by tangled messes of hair, or hats, or hoods, or collars. They were all mysterious and dangerous looking. They all watched us, laughed with each other, pointed. No one else noticed. I didn't want to point them out because I was afraid that I was seeing things. I didn't want them to think that I was psychotic too. I didn't want them to not see what I was seeing; I didn't want proof that I was insane. I didn't want to know that they were figments of my imagination.

We stopped in front of the high school. It was deserted, of course, but the gates were open. "It seems like forever since I've been here..." Sora muttered, running her hand over the rusted metal bars. "It seems like another reality all together." I stared at the courtyard of the school. I had only been inside a couple of times before, to see some of Matt's first concerts, to see some plays, the soccer field was out back, and I had been there many times to watch Sora and Taichi play. But it did seem different now. Darker. Everything was darker. The windows looked blacked out and broken. The trees seemed to be hiding something or someone behind them, they were all against us. They had all sided with Aymichi, concealing him from view, hiding him...God, I'm crazy. The trees were not conspiring against us. The trees aren't...

Sora slammed against the wall violently, and blood gushed everywhere. There was a hole through her neck, and a bullet deep within, burning through her. Her eyes instantly rolled to the back of her head as blood bled from them. The wall was stained crimson with her blood, splattered everywhere like messy red paint. I was covered in the paint, I had been standing beside her. I had been showered in her blood, and so had Taichi and Koushirou. I was...I was covered in her blood!! Sora was dead! Just like that....dead....just like the rest of them. Right here, right now. Dead...why had we come outside!? WHY!? If we had stayed in...this would have never happened. Why didn't they stop us from coming outside? Why hadn't they had enough sense to? What was wrong with this world!?

"Sora!?" Tai was at her side as soon as she fell, but it was already too late. She was dead before she hit the ground. She was dead...just like Takeru. Just like Mimi. Just like Joe. She was dead now too. Dead. One of the parents screamed. I didn't know who. It didn't matter who. Another scream. Pounding footsteps against the pavement. The two patrols came to a screeching halt. They were too late. They were all too late. She was already dead. I couldn't find my voice to scream. Footsteps and shapes and movement. The police were all crowded around now. Some of them going off to see where the shots had come from. Sora's parents were by her side now with Taichi, screaming, crying, crying.

Koushirou was yelling for someone to call an ambulance, didn't he know that it was already too late? Sora was dead. A second. One shot. One life. Gone. The blood was soaking into her clothes now, dying it the same ruby red as everything else. My brother was covered in her blood, Izzy was covered in her blood, I was covered in her blood. Oozing from her eyes, her nose, her mouth, her ears, pouring down her neck, everything was so red...I heard two shots fire in the distance. Why hadn't the shot that killed Sora sounded off? A sniper. Aymichi had a sniper rifle? What else did he have? Knives, grenades, bombs? What did he have within his reach? What was he going to use to kill me? What was he going to use to kill me?

I dropped to my knees, unable to support my own weight. The sky was falling on me. The stained sky was falling, it was raining blood on me. Sora was dead. Killed right in front of me. Right in front of the police. They were all worthless! They hadn't done anything to prevent anything! And we were all going to die! Aymichi was outsmarting everyone, no one was going to stop him from getting the rest of us. My nightmares were real and we were all going to die. Taichi was crying. Koushirou was trying not to. All the parents were crying. The police were not. They did not know us. It was simply their job to protect us, and they failed miserably at it. They were worthless...I hadn't wanted to come outside. I hadn't....why hadn't they listened to me? Why? If they had Sora wouldn't be dead...if they had listened Sora wouldn't be laying there against the wall, bleeding. The world was falling apart, and another piece had just fallen off into oblivion. Then it started raining.

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© Kiriska