Chapter 1
The day was warm, the sun was bright, it was just a perfect springtime day in Tokyo. Thirteen-year-old Taichi, or Tai, as he was more often called, pulled off his sneakers and waggled his toes in his white socks, adjusting the large round goggles he wore on the crown of his head. He sighed contentedly and flopped backward onto the checkered red-and-white blanket that had been laid on the cool grass.
Tai clasped his fingers behind his head and stared up at the sky. Then he turned to look beside him. Seven other children were seated on the blanket, arranged in a haphazard circle. Next to Tai on his left sat Sora, also thirteen, a longtime friend of Tai's from soccer. Beside Sora was her good friend, twelve-year-old Mimi, and beside Mimi sat thirteen-year-old Yamato and his little brother Takeru, or TK for short, who was ten. Hunched down beside TK was Koushiro, twelve, who was contentedly tapping away at his laptop computer, and the eldest of the group, fourteen-year-old Jyou, watched as Koushiro typed, intrigued by the younger child's technical aptitude. Directly to Tai's right sat Hikari, or just Kari for short, his ten-year-old sister. Tai grinned at his younger sibling, who winked at him, and then he closed his eyes and smiled as warm sunbeams beat down on his face.
A sudden gust of chilly wind made him gasp, and he placed his hands atop his unruly dark hair, squeezing his eyes shut and rolling over onto his stomach. He pushed up to his elbows to see what had caused the unexpected gale. His chocolate brown eyes widened at what he saw. The eastern horizon had gone almost completely black, as though a massive storm cloud were trying to swallow the earth whole. Tai slowly got to his feet, as though he were worried that any sudden movement might alert this strange ominous shadow of his presence. Without a word, he turned to his friends with a severe look in his eyes, and then looked back at the horizon. The children followed his line of sight, and their young faces clouded with fear and shock. They all looked back to Tai, and he nodded once. They understood. It was time to get the hell away from there. Without another moment of hesitation, all eight children started to run.
Hikari Kamiya stirred awake from a light sleep. She blinked her large brown eyes and looked up at the ceiling from the top bunk of the bunkbed she shared with her brother. What had awakened her? She wasn't sure. Hikari had always been a rather light sleeper, but she was uncertain of just what in particular had roused her from slumber that night. She ran her fingers through her short tawny hair and then sat up. A short, sharp sound snapped her to attention. She blinked rapidly, a little startled, and then poked her head down over the bottom of the upper bunk and frowned.
"Tai?"
RUN!
Tai glanced back over his shoulder. The shadow on the horizon was moving now, roiling and pulsating like some sort of massive beating heart, coming closer and swallowing the light from the sun. The sky was darker now, like twilight, the sun only a golden glow from somewhere within the black pulsing shadow. All the children were running now--running as fast as they could. Running for their lives, all in a line, like frightened mice scampering to find a place to hide, with Kari at the head of the line, and Tai at the end. He glanced behind him again, and a grimace split his face. They would never make it, they would never get away in time. It was moving too fast, it would swallow them up. He faced forward again, and kept on running.
"Tai?"
Hikari frowned as she saw her brother jerk in his sleep again. He was having a nightmare, she realized. She climbed softly down the ladder to the floor and leaned over Taichi's bed, watching his face contort in fear. She gnawed on her lower lip.
"Tai?" she whispered, leaning over him. "Tai, wake up."
His face twitched, and he jerked again, as though he were in pain.
"Tai!" she said, a little louder this time. "Tai! Wake up, Tai!"
The shadow was gaining. It was almost upon them now. We'll never make it, Tai thought, scanning the area for somewhere--anywhere--to hide. His mind was racing; the shadow was right on their heels. He grit his teeth. In front of him, Sora glanced behind her to look at him.
"Don't look back!" he shouted, placing his palms on her shoulders and pushing her forward. "Don't look back, just keep running!"
Kari jumped. Tai had never really talked in his sleep--much less shouted in it.
"Tai," she said again, worried now, "Tai, come on, wake up!"
She cautiously reached down and shook his shoulders. He jerked again, lost in the nightmare, and she recoiled quickly, as though he had burned her.
Glancing behind him again, Tai saw the strange cloudlike menace closing in. He put on some speed, but the children just weren't fast enough. They would never be able to outrun it. Sora looked back again and let out a shriek. Tai lunged forward and shoved her out of the way as the black cloud descended upon the group, enveloping him in an ebony fog.
Kari yelped and jumped back when Tai shouted and lurched bolt upright in his bed, his fists clenched around the blanket, his brown eyes wild, darting around the room, wide in fear. Hikari looked her brother in the eye. He stared at her, not recognizing for a moment that it was his own little sister who stood before him. Kari bit her lip, but said nothing. Tai's brow was covered in a cold sweat, and his breath came in ragged gasps, his heart pounding in his throat. He blinked rapidly, and his eyes seemed to focus.
"Kari?" he said, sounding perplexed.
"Tai, are you okay?" she asked, her hand by her heart. Tai clenched his fist again, then relaxed his hand. He tried to smile reassuringly at his sister, but it came out looking more like he was wincing.
"Yeah, I'm okay," he said, his voice a little shaky. "I'm sorry I woke you up, I..." His voice trailed off as images from the nightmare looped in his mind.
"What was it, Tai?" Kari asked, her voice small. "What did you see?"
He grit his teeth and looked down.
"It was nothing," he said, plastering a forced smile on his face. It didn't quite come out like he had hoped.
"No, it wasn't," Hikari insisted, squaring her slim shoulders under her orange pajamas. Kari may have been three years his junior, but she was wise beyond her years, and fiercely protective of her elder sibling. She hated how he kept everything bottled up inside of him. "You scared me, Tai," she went on. "I want to know what you saw."
He hesitated.
"It was just a nightmare," he said, as if he were trying to convince himself of that. He looked at his sister. "It was only a dream," he repeated, "but, jeez, it seemed so real." Kari sat down on the edge of his bed. He avoided her eyes as she waited for him to tell her more. "There was this...this black cloud," he said haltingly, looking up at her. "It was kinda like a storm cloud, but it wasn't like any storm cloud I had ever seen before. It was almost as if it were alive. It was chasing us," he went on, "all of us. We were all in the park, you and me and Sora and Koushiro, everyone, we were all there... We were running...the cloud was chasing us. We ran from it, as fast as we could...but we weren't fast enough. We just weren't fast enough." He looked away again. "We were in a line, running in a single file line. You were at the head of the line, Kari, and I was at the back." He winced. "Sora was right in front of me...but we were just too slow...we couldn't get away from it. I pushed Sora out of the way"--he looked at Kari--"and it swallowed me up."
Kari gasped.
Tai clenched his fists and grit his teeth.
"I couldn't move, Kari," he said, like the words were painful to speak, "I couldn't breathe...I...I couldn't see..." He paused. "It was like it had sucked all the life out of me as soon as it touched me."
"Tai..."
Kari hesitated, then impulsively reached out and rumpled her brother's hair. He glanced up at her, and she smiled sweetly.
"But it was just a dream," she said reassuringly. "It was only a nightmare, Tai, it wasn't real. It's over now, you're awake."
Tai plastered on another fake smile.
"Yeah," he said neutrally, "you're right, Kari." He gently clapped her on the shoulder. "You're right, it was just a silly dream." He paused. "Go back to sleep, Kari," he said softly. "Sorry I woke you up."
Hikari smiled.
"Don't worry about it," she replied, and scampered back up the ladder to the top bunk. She pulled the blanket up to her chin and rolled onto her side. "Good night, Ani-san," she said, using the customary Japanese term for one's elder brother.
"'Night, Kari," he responded softly. He lay back on his pillow, his mind still troubled with worrisome remnants of the dream. He stared at the underside of the top bunk for a moment, letting his thoughts clear, then he rolled over and pulled the blanket up over his head and squeezed his eyes shut.
It was only a nightmare, he told himself over and over in his mind. Only a nightmare...none of it was real... It was just a dream, he knew that was true...so why couldn't he put it out of his mind? Why did the horrifying scene keep looping through his mind's eye? It was only a dream...but why couldn't he believe that?
The next morning, Kari woke up early. She stretched her arms up over her head and rolled onto her stomach. She lay there for a moment, just staring at the wall, then she sat up and swung her legs over the edge of the bed, letting her feet dangle. She swung them back and forth a few times, then she climbed down the ladder and dropped softly to the floor. She glanced behind her to see if Tai was awake yet. He was still sound asleep.
She frowned.
Poor guy, she thought. She reached out and pulled the blanket up to his shoulders. Then she slowly backed away from the bed and walked out of the bedroom, into the hallway.
"Hi, Mom," Kari said, seeing her mother in the kitchen. Mrs. Kamiya turned and smiled at Kari, a spatula in her right hand.
"'Morning, Kari," she said, and waved the spatula in the air, "I made silver dollar pancakes, you want some?" Kari's face lit up. She loved pancakes.
"You bet I do!" she replied with a grin, and slid into a chair at the table as her mother flipped three of the palm-sized pancakes onto a plate, and poured Kari a glass of milk. She set the plate down in front of Kari, then placed the milk beside the maple syrup.
"Bon appetit," Mrs. Kamiya said, and headed back to the stove.
Kari smeared butter over the pancakes with a knife, and grinned as she drowned them in her mother's home made maple syrup. Just as she cut a triangular piece of the circle of sweet pastry, her mother turned to her with a questioning stare.
"Kari, honey," she said, spatula still in her hand, "where's your brother?"
Kari made a face, and didn't reply for a moment, as her mouth was full. She swallowed, took a sip of milk, and glanced up.
"He's still sleeping," she replied, refusing to sound worried.
Mrs. Kamiya put the spatula down on the counter and looked up at the clock on the wall.
"That lazybones," she said with a smile. "I'd better go and wake him up."
Kari leapt to her feet so quickly she nearly toppled the table.
"No!" she said quickly, slapping her hands down on the table. Mrs. Kamiya stopped in mid-stride and stared oddly at her daughter.
"Why not?"
Kari hesitated. Tai was always such a leader, the kind of person who never let anything stand in his way. Kari didn't think he would want their mom to know that a nightmare had scared the wits out of him.
"Um," she began, floundering for a reply, "well, you see...he...well..."
She avoided her mother's eyes.
Mrs. Kamiya placed her hands on her slim hips.
"You two were up late goofing around again, weren't you?" she asked with mock anger.
Kari's face flushed.
"Ahh...yeah..." she said, trying to sound sheepish. She wasn't a very good liar, though. Hopefully her mom would fall for it. "We were"--she thought quickly--"telling scary stories," she fudged. "He told me a really scary one, too," she went on dramatically, gesturing with her arms, "about a monster, like a huge fire-breathing dragon that tried to eat all of Tokyo! And even the whole air force couldn't stop it!"
Mrs. Kamiya sighed complacently and rolled her eyes.
"He watched Godzilla on TV the other night, didn't he?" she muttered. Kari blinked innocently, but made no reply. Her mother laughed softly. "Okay, okay," she said, "we'll let Tai-zilla sleep a little longer...you'll be in charge of waking him up, Kari, okay?"
Kari nodded, sighing inwardly with relief. Mrs. Kamiya patted her daughter on the head, and Kari climbed back into her chair to finish her breakfast.
"Where's Daddy?" she asked through a mouthful of pancake. "He went downtown to the store," she replied, flipping the last of the batch of pancakes onto a plate. "I have to meet him there soon, we've got some errands to run. We'll probably be gone most of the day, you think you and Tai will be okay by yourselves?"
Kari smiled, and held her fingers up in a V for victory.
"Sure thing, mom," she said, "we'll be fine."
"Good girl," her mother said, putting the dishes in the sink. She placed the milk back in the refrigerator, and tossed the spatula in the sink. Brushing her hands off, she ran her fingers through her tawny hair. "Well, I'm off to the transportation center then," she said.
"Bye, mom," Kari called as her mother walked out the door. She finished her pancakes, then put the dish in the sink and ran hot water over it, watching the steam rise up toward the ceiling. Washing the sticky syrup residue off her fingers, she noticed her cat's food bowl was almost empty. She crouched down to pour some fresh kibble into the small glass dish.
"Miko!" she called. "Miko! Breakfast!"
There was a pitter-pat of soft feet as the orange-and-white cat hurried into the kitchen and dove into the food dish. Kari laughed.
"You must've been hungry," she giggled, stroking the cat's ears. She stood back up and stared down the hall. She wondered if Tai was still sleeping, and decided that perhaps she should go check on him. He didn't usually sleep so long. That nightmare must have really taken a lot out of him, Kari thought, frowning. She started down the hall. Cautiously peeking through the door to their room, Kari looked to see if her brother was awake yet. She pushed the door open a little--
--and it creaked loudly.
Tai jerked awake, his eyes wide.
"Kari?" he cried, gripping the sides of the bed as though he were afraid it would buck and throw him off. Kari knit her brow.
"Sorry," she said quickly," I didn't mean to wake you up." She walked the rest of the way into the room. "I was just coming to check and see if--"
"Kari, what time is it?" he interrupted quickly, his eyes flicking back and forth across the underside of the top bunk. She blinked.
"About eleven," she replied.
"At night?" he asked in a hurry.
Kari blinked again, confused. She took a step closer to her brother.
"Eleven in the morning," she clarified, frowning, "couldn't you tell?" She was starting to get a little worried.
"Are the curtains drawn?" he demanded, still gripping the sides of the bed.
"Yes."
"Open them."
Unsure of what was going on, Kari walked over to the windows and slid open the pale blue curtains, letting golden sunlight pour into the room.
"They're open," she said haltingly, walking over to the side of the bed. "Tai, what's--"
"Kari," he said suddenly, "where are you?"
Kari started.
"Right here," she responded, jumping to his bedside. Now she was really starting to get scared. "I'm right beside the bed, Tai...can't...can't you see me?"
Tai didn't reply, just lifted one arm, waving his hand in front of his face. A cry escaped his throat.
"Kari--Kari, I...I can't see! I can't see ANYTHING!"
Kari lunged forward and grabbed her brother's arm. She clasped her fingers around his.
"Tai--Tai, whaddya mean you can't see?" she cried, squeezing his fingers. "You can hear my voice, can't you? Look in the direction of my voice!" Her eyes welled up with stinging tears. "I'm right beside you, Tai...CAN'T YOU SEE ME??"
Tai looked in her direction, and she gasped at the sight of his eyes. They were glazed, glassy, and the usual sparkling deep brown of the irises had become a faded, monochrome sienna. It was as though the pupil of his eyes had just vanished. She squeezed his hand again.
"Tai..." she whispered.
He sat up quickly, and slid his hand along the wall, dizzy with fear. This can't be happening, he thought, his mind racing. What the HELL is going on??
"Kari," he said, calmer now as the more rational side of his brain took control. He was a leader, and he wasn't going to let this stop him, at least not until he knew what it was. "Kari, where are Mom and Dad?"
"They went out," Kari answered, her voice trembling, "Mom said that they would be out shopping for most of the day."
"Good," Tai said, and swung his legs over the side of the bed.
"Tai--don't!" Kari shouted, and blocked him from getting up. She looked into his cold, unseeing eyes. "You're...you're not going anywhere," she said firmly, shoving him backward onto the bed.
"Kari--?"
"Stay here," she said, pointing, even though she knew he couldn't see it.
"You're not in any condition to be going anywhere. Just wait, here, I'll be right back." She turned to leave.
"Where are you going?" he asked. Kari spun back. He suddenly sounded so small and afraid it made her heart ache.
"I'm...I'm calling Koushiro," she replied. He sat up again.
"No!" he shouted, reaching out to the sister he could no longer see. She took his hand. "Kari, don't," he pleaded, "don't call Koushiro."
"Why not?"
"Just...just don't," he begged. "I...I don't want him to see me like this."
Kari frowned.
"Tai, if anyone would know how to explain this, Koushiro would," Kari said, sliding her hand out of her brother's grip. She tried to smile. "Koushiro-kun is your friend, Tai," she went on, "and if he can figure out what happened, and what's causing this, he might be able to reverse it."
Tai let his arm drop to his side, and looked at Kari with his blinded eyes. Then he looked away and flopped back onto the mattress.
"Okay, okay," he said, trying desperately not to sound worried. Kari turned to leave.
"Kari!"
She stopped and looked over her shoulder.
"Yes?" she asked.
He stared, unseeing, at the underside of the bed, and Kari felt her heart jerk in her chest.
"Hurry back," he said quietly, "it's...it's dark."
Wai! Okay, chapter one is finito. Till the next installment, oyasumi nasai!
~~hikari
