This one's a good one. Bold and italics together is flash back! You'll see what I mean. ENJOY THE END OF DREAM WAVE!
Dream Wave
-chapter 5-
-Mine Own Grave-
He ran like he had never thought he would be able to, watching as the glaring red light came upon him. There was something bad about that light. Real bad. Just like... it reminded Kouji like the dark red eyes of the demented black cat he had first encountered, always watching him and out to hurt Kouichi. It reminded him of the storm that had haunted him while he had stayed at his Grandmother's Gingerbread House. It glared like the red moon he had seen on top of the hill... just as Duskmon's eyes had glared at him. This red light... it wasn't good, not at all.
"Kouichi!"
He was in another room suddenly, filled with a red light that glowed from the lantern hanging in the middle. There were scattered shards of mirror pieces and glass all around the floor, covering a rough red carpet. The walls were just plaster, angled purposely for the effect of shadows to take place all around the sides. Pulled back into a kind of nook of darkness was Kouichi, struggling at the binding ropes of darkness wrapped around him. The shadows were moving as if alive along the walls, creating shapes upon shapes of turning darkness. Kouji was about to rush to his twin when the shadows jumped out at him.
A cat manifested itself in front of him, hissing and screeching audibly. Kouji growled deep in his throat, hands gripping the air so tightly he might have drawn blood. Anger burned within him, like a fire that was being fueled with gas, making the hair on the back of his neck bristle. "Get outta my way!" He roared, lunging savagely. But as he met the shadows, all it did was flow around him and out of his hands, back onto the walls.
"Kouji! Don't let it get to you, please!" Kouichi cried, bringing Kouji's attention back to his brother. The shadows around him were moving over and along Kouichi's body as if caressing him. He looked disturbed by the darkness, his eyes darting from Kouji to the lantern in front of him, wincing each time the shadows loomed over his face.
"Kouichi." Kouji muttered under his breath in a slight sigh, then rushed forward again, senses heightened to watching the darkness around him. As expected, there were other shapes following him, his own shadow that was strewn across the walls coming to life, shaping itself. The red light from the lantern on his other side grew lighter suddenly, accompanying the deep, black darkness of his shadow... The shape was clearing itself, a picture rising out of the wall toward him. He turned from his place a few feet in front of a wide-eyed Kouichi, intent to protect him, standing here to face off against what was coming at him. The light was taking shape, the darkness was coming closer to him... it looked... it looked...
Kouichi had been tired lately, for some reason. Kouji could tell, but he didn't want to go and harp on his brother, as it seemed the elder twin had things on his mind. Every day he looked a bit more sleepy, and he was paying less and less attention. It hadn't really been anything he should worry about, not really. Sure, Kouichi was his brother, and he was just being overly worried. Kouichi had even told him so, over and over, whenever he tried to help or get information from him. It must have just been he couldn't sleep well, nothing to worry about.
Kouji had noticed that his own sleep was being affected. There were no dreams, just darkness, but every day he found it harder to get to sleep, staying up, not able to keep his mind from his brother. He didn't know why Kouichi seemed to be on his mind, but it worried him. His twin connection with his brother was just ridden with concern.
Kouji convinced his brother to stay over for the night, though the elder twin had been somewhat hesitant about the whole thing. When they'd laid down to sleep, there hadn't been too much of a problem. Not when they were together. The next week though was the worst, and soon Kouichi and Kouji both were looking for excuse apon excuse for them to be together during the night. After a while, not even them being together could help. They were up until late after 1am, in bed with insomnia, not wanting to tell any of their problem. They could handle it, just the two of them could tough it out together...
They'd been wrong.
Kouichi was suffering the most, having Kouji and his friends have to drag him most places. Whenever he fell asleep, Kouji tried to keep him asleep, just so that he could regain energy. The two of them were at the bus stop, on their way to the train station. It was kind of silly to take a bus to a train, but they hadn't been looking forward to dragging themselves all that way, so now they sat on the bench together, just waiting. Kouichi's head was bobbing, up and down as his eyes dropped. Kouji just shook his head, wiping his eyes sleepily.
Kouji spotted a row of vending machines on the other side of the street, pop and coke and other caffeinated drinks that would last until that eavening.
The younger twin sighed lightly, getting up and stretching. "I'll get us some drinks, 'kay Kouichi? That might wake us up, ne?" Kouji muttered as he looked in both directions of the traffic, then ran across the street while pulling out his wallet. It took him a minute of blurry staring to figure out how much the drinks cost, and another minute to figure out what he wanted and which buttons to press to get it.
After the correct buttons had been pressed and lighten up he turned around to check on his brother across the street to see if he'd fallen asleep. His eyes widened, but it wasn't because Kouichi was asleep.
The elder twin was awake, but it seemed just barely, his eyes glazed over as he looked down at the small black kitten he was crouched over. His hands were trying to gather it up into his arms, or trying to usher it away, anything to get it out of the street. As in, to get it away from where they were right now.
Kouji had opened his mouth, barely even lifted his foot, worry already flooding his systems... there was a loud sound, but it was blocked out of Kouji's deaf ears by pure terror. A red light had fallen on the street and over his brother, seconds before there was a sickening screech and a deafening crash like lightening.
The familiar darkness had taken the shape of a speeding car, the red light it's headlights. He was watching as the thing speeded up to him, watching through Kouichi's eyes as his bangs blew out of the way from the furious wind. Then, with complete silence, the darkness hit him.
Kouji and Kouichi were sent tumbling into the darkness, arms up to fend themselves from the pain of the crash. They span together in a heap, rolling to a stop in the blank blackness. There was silence around them. It was stunningly silent.
Kouji's eyes opened to stare at the ceiling of the darkness in confusion and shock, chest heaving in air to his sore lungs. He could feel Kouichi beside him, hear his hacking coughs as he pulled in breath. "What had happened?" that singular thought made Kouji sit up and groan with aching pain, looking over to his brother's huddled form on the blackness around them.
"Kouichi! Kouichi, wake up! Are you okay?! Please, Kouichi!" Kouji shook the prone form in worry, his voice a clear indicator of his panic. Kouichi seemed to groan with the shake, moving under Kouji's touch. The longer-haired twin immediately helped his brother sit up, startled to find Kouichi crying. "Kouichi, what's wrong?!"
"I-I'm sorry Kouji... I c-can't take it... I'm s-s-sorry..." He sobbed, cheeks glistening with tears. Kouji felt his heart race when he spotted something gleaming in his brother's hands. A knife. The silver blade was curved sharply, shining with unseen light to glare into Kouji's eyes. The hilt was red and black, and there was an eye shaped into the hilt.
Duskmon.
"Kouichi! What...?!" Kouji gasped when he saw the blade, about to pluck it out of his brother's grasp when Kouichi pulled away suddenly, leaving him cold. "No! Don't do anything Kouichi! Don't do this!"
"I just can't bare it, Kouji! It hurts too much..." Kouichi muttered miserably, holding the knife in two hands as he moved away.
"Kouichi, please! Don't!" Kouji was afraid to move, afraid of what Kouichi might do. He knew his brother would never hurt him, but he might hurt himself. "Don't, Kouichi!" Tears started to prick at his eyes, sadness filling his heart. "You can't do this! You have too much to live for!"
"Like what?" Kouichi asked, turning the shining blade toward himself.
"Like mother! Like our friends! You can't give all that up! All that you've got going for yourself!"
"I'm sorry! I just can't take it!" Kouichi sobbed, readying the knife with a tear-filled vision. Kouji couldn't move, he couldn't do anything as Kouichi lifted the knife away from himself...
"Kouichi, you have me!" and the knife stopped it's thrust and Kouichi stopped to listen. "Kouichi, I would do anything to make you happy! Please, don't!"
"I can't... not unless you understand..." Kouichi mumbled, sniffling heavily.
Kouji shook his head to clear his vision, working out the corks and screws imbedded in his mind... this place, this dream, was it only that? This memory...
"It's... your memories." Kouji stated, and suddenly, Kouichi turned and smiled at him.
The darkness was starting to lift, Kouji watching as the world around him started to disintegrate, the darkness was crumbling.
"Wait!" Kouji shouted, directing himself at his brother. "What will happen to you! What's wrong!? Kouichi?!"
Kouichi extended a clutched fist, and Kouji noticed that the blade was suddenly gone. The longer-haired brother watched as Kouichi's fingers slowly uncurled, revealing a single, white feather.
"For you, brother," he said quietly, placing it into Kouji's numb hands before he too, was gone as an image with the darkness.
When Kouji woke up, there was only light around him. The glaring light of the hospital. He was running, which was odd, because he had only woken up. But still, he was rushing through as if he knew where to go... but he didn't.
/"When I was little... really little, I used to dream about a place where I could just think, you know? I used to dream about this magnificent castle... my dream castle..."/
The Castle Kouji had been to, it had been in Kouichi's dreams, somewhere to retreat to after the harshness of the divorce. Kouji kept running, down the long, endless halls, a sort of dread engulfing his senses.
/"Mother used to read me fairy tales before I went to sleep... Sometimes I'd imagine my Grandma's house like that... like the gingerbread house in Hansel and Gretel..."/
The Ginger Bread house was how Kouichi remembered his grandmother's house; as a warm treat. Kouji's feet banged against the hard ground loudly in his haste, he knew he had to get there, and he had to hurry!
"...I'm here... I'm here... because this is what I remember."
The hill was a nice place Kouichi always used to go, somewhere he could just watch the stars. Doors apon doors, people apon people, Kouji would never get their in time!
The backway of the alley was Kouji's neighborhood, the mirrors were his twin, the darkness was his nightmares.
"Kouichi!" Kouji called, rushing up to his brother's side, laying lifeless on the hospital bed. There was a machine next to him, beeping faintly. He was dying. "Kouichi! Please, brother!"
Kouji ran to the lifeless figure of his brother, laying sprawled on the concrete ground. His eyes were open, staring at nothing. Kouji looked into them, could see his memories, could see all that he'd been through. See his pain, feel him, just as twins do. Everything about Kouichi just lifted into him, and he felt a great weight on him, then... nothing. Black.
"Kouichi! WAKE UP!"
...there was a long, sigular beep on the monitor.
Kouji was suddenly up in his bed, his breath coming in great gasps. Fear was still beating within his veins, pumping through his blood which was having a hard time getting to his head, making him dizzy. But he couldn't lay down, not now. His hands shook, gripping the covers tightly with balled fists, making sure to keep his gaze ahead of him, glaring at nothing.
What was it?
His shivers started to cease, and his breath started to calm, but his fear had only been replaced with a growing worry. He tumbled out of the side of his bed onto the floor, where the blankets were all bunched up together. One hand extended hesitantly over the lump, the other clutched in on itself, then, gathering his courage, Kouji withdrew the blankets.
The other stirred, and turned his head, blinking up at him sleepily, sweetly.
"What is it, Kouji?" He asked, titling his head in curiosity. But Kouji only sighed, letting all his fear and worry escape onto the dry air of the dark room he was in.
"It's nothing, go back to sleep." Kouji said back, patting the other's head kindly before shuffling back into his bed and staring at the wall. He noticed his fists were still clenched still, and he opened his hand to a single white feather.
There was silence for a moment, then:
"Kouji? Will you come sleep with me?"
Kouji smiled to himself, putting away the feather and rolling down off the bed again to lift the covers and pull himself closer to the other.
"Alright."
"Thanks, Kouji."
"Goodnight."
"Goodnight, brother."
Dream Wave
-END-
That's it!!!! THAT'S ALL! And that was just brotherly moments between them, kk? Alright? YAAAY!!! Any questions and I shall answer!! Though, it wasn't TOO confusing... was it? Haha!