VIII: Old Friend:

I can feel them starting to move. Her energy stood out the strongest. However, I’m not strong enough to go to her. I can’t see shapes, just their lights. They were getting closer. I rose to my feet. Who was going to get to me first?

It’s been so long. My memories were starting to come back. There was a man. Yes, there was a man I was close to. Or he was close to? I haven’t been able to tell him and me apart lately. Is it because of him? What if he was the one to get here first?

To my left, there he is. To my right, there is that guardian that came with them. In front of me, there she is. I should go to her, but I can’t fully move yet. The best I have gotten is standing up.

However, I was not alone.

I looked up when I heard the flapping in the air. I thought I was smiling.

“What do you have for me?”

The air felt colder around me. Sharp notes filled the air next to my right ear. I closed my eyes.

“Hm…”

I opened my eyes. Well, okay. I knew what I needed to do next. I took one step forward. It didn’t matter how much power I had left. I would have to try and call out. It felt like I wasn’t the only one.

I closed my eyes and drew in a deep breath.

I let loose a power, silent scream.

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Sakura lifted her head. Her spine began to tingle. She trailed her eyes toward the sky.

“Hello?” she asked in a whisper. For a second, everything was quiet. The tenshi-chi found herself unable to move. In the distance, she could hear footsteps walking toward her. Sakura felt her heart crawl up into her throat.

Spike?

No.

The footsteps were so slow. Did she invite it over to her when she spoke? Sakura tried to look for a place to run. Everywhere around her looked the same. Swirls and spirals from the void. They made no sound. One step in the wrong direction could end her existence. Then… how were they getting closer?

“Hello?” she asked again. The tenshi-chi didn’t know why she did that. There was another second of silence. She noticed that the footsteps had gotten closer. They didn’t run up on her. The footsteps were taking their sweet, sweet time. Sakura tried to stay calm as she tried to look for an escape again. There had to be some way to…

Crunch.

What was that? Her eyes trailed to her left. She noticed a small cluster of dots just out of sight. Another second of silence flared up around her. The tenshi-chi could feel fleshy, pulsing tips on her back. She tried to move but found that she couldn’t.

A voice started whispering in her right ear.

“Hello.”

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I found her! I found her! I didn’t have the strength to pull her to me. The best that I could do was reach out and touch her. That one touch ran a shock through my whole body. She opened my eyes to things that I thought I could never see. More memories filled my head.

What… What was this?

I thought I was going to drown. I reached up and clawed at my throat. But suddenly, my body went limp. Everything went silent around me. My body began to shake. So many images shot through my eyes.

I saw a pink rabbit with white wings floating in front of tall, ivory-white gates. Her hand reached toward the lock. I didn’t know why, but I started to panic when she tried to open those gates. What was behind them? Why didn’t I want her to open them?

Suddenly, the little rabbit turned and saw me. I think she was looking at me.

Something yanked my body back into the space that I was trapped in. Only, I noticed that something was different. I looked down and saw my hands. Hands? I haven’t seen those in I don’t remember when. Yes, something about them looked so familiar. At first, they looked so skinny and pale. I blinked and their color came back. My skin started to look so much darker. I blinked again and the fingers got fatter. A feeling that I could name filled my body. I had it on the tip of my tongue but I couldn’t get it out. All of that came from one touch?

I heard a rumbling sound to my left. He was on the move again. He’s starting to break through. Will he be the first one to reach me? To my right, I heard a low boom sound. That guardian was starting to make her way through to me too. Will it be her to get to me first? I couldn’t explain, but I had to see how this was going to play out.

My eyes trailed back to her in front of me. I still had her trapped in place. I could still touch her, but I couldn’t bring her to me. It wasn’t enough to have that one touch. The more I thought about it, the more it started to make sense. Maybe she had the chance to finally free me.

I had to have more.

In that moment, I realized that I wasn’t alone.

This time, he was behind me. Not the one from my left. He still had a long way to go. I wasn’t worried about him coming here any time soon. He was just a man after all. No, this was someone else behind me. I didn’t have to turn around and see who it was. More memories about him were starting to come back into focus.

“Hello.”

He said my name. (Or rather said his name.) I froze but then I looked down at my hands as I held out the fingers. Come to think of it, I didn’t think these were really my hands. They might have belonged to him. The one behind me started to talk.

“We have to end this now,” he said. I shook my head. I think I said something in his voice. The words that came out of my mouth sounded and felt alien to me. I couldn’t understand the rest of the conversation. Maybe that one touch allowed me to hear what he was saying clearly only once. The rest of it was out of automation. Something about this scene felt so familiar. From the fragments of memory in my head, I tried to piece together where.

I noticed that we couldn’t reach each other. He was right behind me. But he hadn’t taken a step closer. I hadn’t turned around and tried to do anything to him. We were still talking. Why were we still talking? It felt like I needed to do something. What was supposed to happen?

Then something he said cut through the silent haze.

“I’m so sorry.”

What? My vision doubled and cleared in and out as he ran toward me with a sword. I should do something. I held out those hands as he got closer.

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Sakura tried to cry out to Spike or the guide. She couldn’t move her mouth. The force around her fixed it shut. Sakura still had to try and reach out. She blinked her eyes. Good, she could still move her eyes. The tenshi-chi closed her eyes and tried to cry out for help.

That might have done more damage than good.

Sakura didn’t realize how fragile the air around was. She didn’t know it at the time. Her panic and desperation wouldn’t let her take a look. The tenshi-chi had to try and reach out for help.

Spike! Miss Guide! Where are you? Something has me trapped! I can’t move! Help!

That message was all it took for things to go sideways. It didn’t happen right away, but it was coming.

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That screaming cut through the space around my being. When I came back to my head, I looked down to see that my hands were covered in bright red. I looked down to see the bright red spreading at my feet. That was another thing that I noticed. The feet looked so small and black underneath me. They stood out in the spreading red around me.

He wasn’t there anymore. I didn’t know where he went. I couldn’t feel him, but more fragments of memory filled my head. He had a name and I knew who he was. I could feel it turning over in my mouth. I tried to force it out, but it wouldn’t come out. Still, the letters came together piece by piece. I looked down at the red on my hands and spreading around my feet. What happened here? The situation gave me a clue. I had some idea what was happening to me. At random, I could finally say that name.

“Miguel.”