Return To Twilight 001

Currently Playing: Hikaru Utada - Can You Keep A Secret?

I'm sure that there are many things to life. Some, which you can understand with the greatest of ease, and others that--no matter how hard you try, and despite your every attempt--you just can't explain in any way at all. Sou, I've been around the block with that before. I mean, I've read about it, and I've heard people..strangers talk about it, but I never really gave it much thought, or thought that something like that could ever happened to me. When the reality of the matter proved that it can happen to anyone, and everyone.

My life lately has gotten pretty weird. I wake up in the middle of the night either screaming, or else Rae walks in, and hears me talking in my sleep. He usually will shake me awake, and then ask if I were all right. I'd just look at him, and nod, asking why I wouldn't be? And then he'd explain that he had heard me talking in my sleep. At first he'd just tease me about it, and I'd just tell him to go back to sleep smiling, but at present these night-talks have been getting out of hand, and not only am I worrying Rae, but I'm starting to also question my own sanity.

I don't usually remember too much from my dreams anymore either. All I know is that I've been having a lot of really bizarre dreams. Dreams in which I am dressed as a battle priestress, and fighting against some demonic enchantress, or I'd see the faces of people that I thought I should know, but when I try to think of their names, I just can't. Things have gotten to out of hand with my sleeping problems, that sometimes at night I'll walk downtown to St. Ellen's church, where I'll usually curl up underneath a pillar, and just go to sleep there. Albeit, even if it were a temporary release from my dream problem, I tend to worry Rae, and his parents when they wake up in the morning, and I'm not in my room.

Rae finally managed to put two-and-two together, though, and now knows to look for me at the church. He said though, that he had been really worried about me. He always has been like that, ever since we were really young, and I had to move into his house with his parents, because mine had perished in a car-wreck up in the mountains. My ryooshin had been going to visit relatives, and I, being a stubborn child didn't want to go, so they left me in the care of two of their dearest, and most trusted friends Mina and Jou. A young couple, who at the time had been married but only a couple of months at the time.

My okaasan knew Mina from her work, and Jou had graduated with my mother. The two had also been very close friends with Rae's parents. But when my own died in the crash, even though Mina and Jou had as much a right to adopt me as Rae's ryooshin, they knew I'd do better growing up in the same home as my childhood best friend. Who, now is my foster brother, and someone that I have sensed and felt an uneasy attraction towards. vn.nv;; In other words, I was in love with him. Not just as a sister, but as someone just as close. -Laughs lightly.- Albeit, I still have to tell him that I've been in-love with him--well, since I was old enough to know what love, and a boyfriend was. -Chuckles nervously.- Though, I don't think that I'll ever have the strength or courage to fess up, and tell him..

Anyhow, back to what I was saying before I got sidetracked. About my sleeping problem. Back when I started going off to St. Ellen's Rae had gone a few nights without sleep as well since he'd go and search for me. Eventually, though, someone would find him and tell him to go back home, which he did. But the following night when I'd disappear again, he'd be out searching for me. And this went on for a couple of nights before he finally realized that ever since I was little I have had a tight connection with my religion. He had often times heard me praying before I'd go to sleep, and even during the day; it seemed like I prayed a lot to him. And he was finally able to put it all together to search for me one night at the church, where he found me, gently woke me up, and I explained to him what I was doing at St. Ellen's.

There were a number of reason, though, that when I told him, I don't think even he could completely understand. I remember telling him about how I had seen this church countless times in my waking dreams, and had always felt a strange connection to it. I also said I came here because I felt closer to Inari-sama, and being someplace like that also helped me to sleep. That was probably the only one, though, that Rae could understand. vn.nv;;

Also, I have been working a couple of summers at the church, and have recently heard gossip about a young girl who was constantly being found laying beneath the sakura tree in the courtyard. Which was a tree that never, ever bloomed. They'd say that this girl had hair the color of a raven's wing, and eyes the delicate, yet deadly color of blood. Some rumors even said that she was the child of a devil. Though, in all my time working, and sleeping at the church I have never seen any such girl.

Well, that was until one fateful night, after I finally got fed up with the fact that my nightmares, and dreams had become so vivid that even going to the church could do little to ease my plagued mind. And that's when it happened..I remember asking Father Tanaka if it would be all right for me to stay later, and clean up the church with the night priests. Which he was plenty happy enough with letting me, and that was when I met--her, and a whole knew chapter was added to my already strange life.

I was working really late, and cleaning up the church proper, and must have at some point fallen asleep, because the next thing I know, I'm waking up to find myself leaning against one of the center pillars. I can't even remember what it was that woke me, just that I remember jolting awake, and looking frantically about the room. My sapphire-blue eyes were wide with some potential fear that I was unable to place, and my breathing was short. A few strands of my rosewood colored hair fell into my eyes, and I brushed them anxiously aside. I pushed myself into a standing position, and cast one last look about the area before beginning my previous task again.

I was just lining up one of the candle holders with the rest, when I heard the doors slowly creaking open. I immediately stopped what I was doing, and spun around quickly to face who had entered. And my heart skipped a beat, for before me, and across the way there stood a young girl of about my age with dark-black hair, and vivacious crimson eyes. I was rooted to the spot by something--not really fear, but something unexplained. I felt a strange, and incomprehendable tug towards the other young girl. However, she looked just about as lost as any of the late night entrees that I sometimes found myself dealing with, and yet at the same instant she also looked almost as if she had just woken up.

Bringing myself to, and back down to earth. I blinked looking at the other young girl before voicing kindly, "Can I help you?"

But she just looked back at me with a blank expression before shaking her head. She then glanced around the cathedral. I followed her gaze.

"This is St. Ellen's church, I'm one of part-time workers here," I explained.

"You mean your a priest?" asked the young girl.

"Ano..not exactly, I just come to clean up, and sometimes help with the sermons," I answered truthfully.

"Oh, I see," said the girl. "I'm sorry, but I think that I may have fallen asleep beneath your cherry tree.."

I glanced at her, curiosly.

"The cherry tree?" I repeated.

The other girl nodded. "Yeah, but I think it's only the first time that I can ever recall ever having done such a thing," she said, pausing for a moment to gaze at one of the stained glass window. "I probably got into another fight with my dad, or something.."

"Your dad?" I asked.

"Yeah, we just moved here, and I really didn't want to leave our home town. All my friends where there, and the life that I had always known had been there as well. I wasn't at all happy to just up, and leave it. And so we tend to fight, a lot, always over that stupid move."

"Oh, I see," I said sympathetically. "But this town really isn't all that bad of a place to live. We have lower crime rates then most areas, if that accounts for anything."

"No, not really," answered the girl nonchalantly.

I just sighed at that before saying, "I'm Sakuuya, by the way. Iwamoto, Sakuuya."

"Kira," said the other girl, "or well, all my friends call me Himitsu."

"Oh," I said smiling a little, "my friends all call me Fox."

To that Kira cast a skeptic glance in my direction. "Now why on earth would they call you that for?"

I shrugged. "Well I--uh--don't really know..Probably because I'm smart, and crafty, and have too many boys wanting to date me than is good for either me, or them," I said chuckling softly.

"Crafty, huh?" said Kira raising an eye-brow. But her suspicion dropped as she just shrugged, before leaning down and picking up a small red shard of glass. She analyzed it, turning it in her hand, and then held it up to the full moon's light, and her crimson eyes narrowed curiosly. Turning away from her discovery, she held the shard out to me. "What the hell is this a part of? Did one of your stained class windows break, or something?"

I glanced at her. "No, I don't think so.." I stepped down from the altar, and walked over to her. "Let me see." I took the tiny piece of glass from her, and looked at it with my own eyes. "I really don't know," I said handing it back to her. "Father Tanaka never said that there had be a break in, or at least an attempted one. Hm, maybe it was some item that the priests use in one of their ceremonies of worship." I just shrugged, and began to walk back towards the altar, but just as I did something caught my eye, and I reached down to pick it up.

In my own hand I now held a small crystal-blue shard of the same making, and as I continued to walk towards the podium I began to collect more pieces of the same. Across from me Kira had also bent down, and was walking up the opposite way that I was, and she too had stopped several times to pick up more the shards. Now standing just before the altar we just looked at each other, and then Kira held up her handful of glass.

"Not a broken window, huh?" she said.

"No," I said, "it isn't. The glass is too fine to be one of our windows. Not to mention, that even though the glass is almost see-through, I can't break it with just my hands alone. These shards must have come from something under a great deal of pressure," I explained.

Kira just looked at me, before I was a faint glint in her eyes, and she said, "hey, what's that?" And walked up to almost just behind the podium, and I followed her from the opposite side. An there, just barely behind the artifact where two halves on some spherical shaped object.

"What do you think it is?" asked Kira prodding at a large oval shaped half which was blood-red in coloration.

"I think," I said, "that this is what these shards are from." I looked at the other half of the sphere, and noticed that it was the same pale shade of blue as the fragments that I held in my hands.

"Kami," said Kira, "you certainly got some funny priests that you're working with." As with that she reached down to pick up the red half, and as she did I just sighed and without even thinking instinctively reached down to pick up the opposite hemisphere.

"Here," I said disregarding her earlier comment, "we can put them in here." I pointed towards one of the bowls used for baptism. Albeit, just as we did, and as the two parts touched one another, they refused back into one whole. The shards in our hands sailed up and into the air reconnect with the main frame. I was stunned momentarily, and Kira backed off just slightly.

"Okay, that was just fucking weird," said the other girl, her bloodred eyes wide.

All I did was not in agreement, before managing to shake the shock off, and gather my bearings. I then walked back across the way to grab a broom, when Kira suddenly said, "Uh..Sakuuya, you might want to take a look at this.."

"What is it now?" I dared ask, though their was faint annoyance in my voice. An emotion that I did not mean to show.

"Come here," said the raven-haired girl. I sighed again, but walked over to humor her. Although, once I rejoined her I froze in my footsteps once more. There before us, there now laid two swords before the orb we had earlier gathered the pieces of.

"What the hell?" I asked.

"That's why I said you should take a look," said Kira, and then she eyed me questionably. "Just what kind of worship ceremonies do these priests of your's partake in?"

I just shook my head. "I..I really don't know. But this..this is really weird..."

And I think that I am going to leave it there, gomen for the cliffhanger, demo, I just don't want my posts to get so long (a bad habit of mine vn.nv; ) that you don't even want to read them anymore. vn.nv;; So I guess then that this just keeps you guessing..All the way up to the end. -Eyes sparkle mysteriously, foxears twitching. Smiles.-

Signing out. K'yotseke, minna. Ja ne.

So here we are again. Not alone, but together. Waiting outside Destiny's door...