It was the same damn dream.
It was always the same damn dream. Or, at least it had been for the past two weeks. Every night, he expected it. Yet at the same time, every night it scared him. It wasn't so much the sight of it, but the realism of it that sent shivers crawling up his spine. Every night, the pale body would wait, in a glaring pool of blood, life spilling out with the sultry liquid. A lip of broken flesh placed innocently on the throat, wrists, and forearm. The pools of sapphire eyes, once bursting with well concealed emotion, lifeless; dull, empty. Thin pink lips, slightly parted, perhaps with the action of the boy's last breath, turning a pale blue. His legs, tucked tightly to his chest, balancing his head on his knees would be covered in scratches with rips tearing through his slacks. Wisps of fair, pale golden locks shooting out would be stuck to his face like split ink on parchment, its tips turning pink with the blood. The tenseness of his body always gave him the appearance of being alive, though the boy seeing the dream doubted it.
When the dream came true, the mysterious blonde boy would surely be dead.
Kurogane jolted up out of bed, his head pounding, pants of breath drawing in and out of his aching lungs. He froze, a familiar creep of warning hissing its way around his chest. He shut his eyes closed nearly violently when he felt himself embarrassingly close to tears. He raised his hands to his head, massaging his temples as he rocked himself back and forth in bed. Trembling, he set his right foot on the ground, a chill running across his skin at the feel of the hard, wooden floor board. Quickly, he set his other foot down, jumping off his bed entirely and making a mad dash out of his room and down the hall. He threw the last door of the hall open and blinked a few times to make out shapes in the dark. He sighed with relief at the sight of Tomoyo, his younger sister, sleeping soundly and unaware of his worries. He nodded his head. As it should be. As long as it was him having the dreams, that meant she was safe from them.
She was safe.
It was a fair exchange, he supposed. She was much younger than him and he knew he could handle the burden much better and longer than she could. He closed his eyes and drew in a sharp breath. It was all for the best this way.
"Kurogane?" a sleepy voice asked from behind.
Kurogane jumped, snapping his head back to see his mother standing in the hall way, a confused stare fixed on her flawless features.
"M-Mom!" Kurogane exclaimed, rushing toward her with opened arms. He hugged her waist hopelessly as she cooed her shaking son. Eventually, he mumbled, "I h-had the d-dream again."
His mother stopped her ministrations for a moment, before returning the reassurances to him again twofold.
"Oh, Kurogane! I'm …" His mother trailed off, sounding close to tears herself. "I'm so very sorry."
Kurogane nodded his head, burying his face in her shoulder as she crouched down to his level. She stood up after a while, and took his hand, leading her shaken son back to his room where she lied down on his bed with him until he could once again fall asleep.
Once asleep, the concerned mother still didn't leave him. She knew she could do nothing to help, but being there somehow made her feel useful. The woman sighed, closing her eyes in agony. Being there made her feel like she could stop the dreams from haunting her son any longer.
Kurogane stretched his arms over his head, giving a loud yawn for the hundredth time. He slumped back down in his chair, glaring at any of the other students in his classroom that dared to look at him as he tried in vain to stay awake. Stupid kids. What did they know? Seriously, so what if he was tired? Was staring at him really the only entertainment they could find to occupy themselves with? Kurogane snorted, kicking the leg of his desk uselessly. He had to get out of here.
A young, shy looking girl walked up to Kurogane, looking slightly afraid and slightly curious. "U-Um, Kurogane-kun?" she started lowly, earning an annoyed glare from the boy.
"Yeah, what?"
"W-Well, I was just wondering if you had finished using the rubric for the writing assignment." The girl blushed slightly, staring at the ground, "I lost mine."
Kurogane rolled his eyes, before leaning down and digging threw his back pack for said paper. He hadn't done the assignment himself yet, but he figured it would be put to better use with the girl.
"Here." Kurogane grumbled, handing the sheet to her.
The girl smiled happily, turning to Kurogane. "Thank you very much Kurogane-kun! I'm Sakura, by the way."
"Yeah, sure." He replied disinterestedly. Truthfully, he knew her name. He just didn't like addressing people by their names in general.
The girl pouted slightly, before shrugging. "Okay. Bye!"
Then the bubbly girl skipped off, making Kurogane wonder if she had been trying to start a conversation with him. He shook the thought, and settled back on looking annoyed at anyone who passed by. It was easier than talking, at least.
"Tsk, tsk, Kurogane!" a familiar voice rang, approaching him from behind.
Kurogane groaned loudly. "What the hell do you want, Souma?"
The girl laughed languidly, sitting herself in the chair next to his. "I'm talking Kurogane. It's this thing people do to communicate and be, oh, I dunno … social!"
"I asked what you want, not for a lecture." Kurogane growled, already feeling annoyed.
The girl batted her hand. "You just don't want to admit that you have no social skills. I mean, c'mon Kurogane! It's free time! Stop snoozing and let's go play!"
Kurogane shot her a death glare as she grabbed his arm in attempt to hoist him up out of his chair.
"Geez, Kuro! Either you're glued down or you need to loose some weight!" Souma chided, ignoring Kurogane shooing her away.
"Aw, shuddup! I'm not heavy, you're just weak!" He shot back lamely. After a second, he decided to just tell her the truth. "I'm really tired from last night. I didn't get any sleep … I had the dream again."
Souma froze, staring down at her friend in silent fear. Eventually she sat back down next to him, holding his hand comfortingly. "Oh. Was it, um, the same?"
Kurogane nodded and sighed dejectedly. "I'm tired of it. It's a pain to deal with …"
Souma nodded her head in understanding, though truthfully she knew she had no experience with such things. She'd been friends with Kurogane long enough to know that Tomoyo, his younger sister, along with all other woman in the Suwa family, had the ability to see the future in dreams. It had startled her at first, but after a while she thought it was pretty neat to have such an ability. Until, for unknown reasons, Kurogane somehow got the gift as well.
Ever since, two weeks ago exactly, Kurogane's been having the same dream. A young blonde boy about their age, lying, dead, in a pool of blood. Despite feeling fear for her friend's well being, Souma had tried time and time again to explain to him that maybe he was seeing the boy's death for a reason. Maybe … they had to help him.
However, in the end, the argument always ended the same. Kurogane would flatly refuse over and over, until Souma caved. She wasn't going to push things she didn't fully understand herself. Besides, they were after all only children. Who could they save?
"I think the day that it happens is coming sooner." Kurogane finally whispered. Souma shot her head up at his voice, and knitted her brows together in confusion.
"How do know that?" She asked.
Kurogane was still for a moment as he gathered his thoughts in his head. After a while, he said, "The first few times I had the dream, there was less blood and less cuts. After each time, it seems to get worse and worse. I think … maybe that's because it's getting sooner to the day it happens. In the dream, he still kinda seems sort of alive." Kurogane rubbed the back of his neck worriedly, trying to avert Souma's attention to the fact that he was shaking again. "I think that when I have a dream of him actually dead … it'll be over."
Souma hid her face from view, staring down sadly.
Kurogane followed suit, until the bell to dismiss free time rang.
Kurogane wasn't quite sure why he decided to walk home that day. It was cold, looked like it would start raining at any second, and even more his house was a little more than a mile from the school. Kurogane liked exercise, and was extremely active, but even he preferred to use the after school bus rather than walk that wretched mile. But that day, something compelled him to walk. He knew he would regret it, which he did about halfway there, but he did get a sort of accomplished feeling as he rounded the second to last block. Almost there.
Just as he did, however, he was instantly knocked to the ground as a running child crashed right into him.
"What the hell?!" Kurogane exclaimed indignantly at the fallen kid beside him. "Could you watch where you're going, moron!"
The kid sat there for a moment, as if considering to just lay there on the sidewalk until he gathered himself completely, before he shot up his head, an apologetic grin on his lips. "S-Sorry, I was in a hurry and wasn't watching where I was going."
Kurogane was about to go on again and even threaten the startled boy, until his breath caught in his chest as he caught sight of the boy's face for the first time. Kurogane could only stare as it all registered in his mind. His heart pounded so loudly in his chest he was surprised the other boy couldn't hear it. The hair, the face, the slender form … if Kurogane would have imagined a voice to match the body, the one apologizing to him would have been it. This boy was the one. This boy … was the dying child in his dreams.
Um, okay so this is my first fanfic on this site. This … is really bad, but this is just practice! Every time I'm about to post a story here, something pops up and prevents me from even going on this site. This is going to be a short story and I know this chapter was short, but the next one will be longer, I promise! Please review and tell me about any spelling mistakes or anything to improve this story. I'll take any review; flame me if you wish. Oh, and Souma is going to be very OOC in this story, because I had her role originally planned for Tomoyo, but she ended up being his sister, and I couldn't think of anyone else … sorry! Thank you for reading this! 3