TC

A/n: Heh….no spellcheck…no proofreading, no grammar check….augh….plus a lot of weird drivel from my mind….guuhhhh…

Tesha awoke to the shock of being hit sharply in the face. Attempting to lift her hand to her face, she found it entangled. Opening her eyes, she saw that she was holding someone’s hand, a blue-grey-furred someone.

"What the hell was that??!" Tesha winced and looked up, remembering where she was. Marl was leaning over her, one hand still entwined with hers, the other grabbing the collar of Aishin’s shirt. It was Marl who had spoken, a slight snarl twisting his lips.

"It worked didn’t it?" Aishin was seemingly unpreturbed by this intrusion of his space. His stare was the same flat look it always was.

"You didn’t have to slap her!" Marl protested, his anger seeming to fade before her very eyes.

"I felt it was necessary. Your shouting at her wasn’t doing much good." Aishin continued to stare at Marl. "She’s awake." At that Marl blinked and seemed to come out of a trance. He looked down at her, gave her an odd look that she couldn’t decipher. A frown; worry, confusion, …and something else. His hand slipped from Aishin’s shirt and he looked back up at the youkai.

"I’m sorry Aishin." He ruefully smoothed the pale man’s shirt.

"No offense taken Marldunn." Aishin replied unemotionally.

"Excuse me but what happened?" Tesha looked from one to the other in confusion.

"How did you know she wasn’t…" Marl couldn’t bring himself to finish the sentence, but Aishin understood anyway.

"I am a youkai, different from you humans. I can sense life energy, sometimes. Besides, unlike you I wasn’t panicking and could see that she was breathing, if somewhat shallowly."

"Oh." Marl looked somewhat chagrined.

"Excuse me!" Tesha said somewhat grumpily. "Would anyone care to tell me what just happened?" Both of the men looked at her as if she had appeared out of nowhere.

"Huh?" Marl said intelligently.

"What happened? You two are talking about me like I’m not here, I want to know what happened." Tesha was fairly annoyed by this point.

"Well you fainted I guess…" Marl looked at her.

"But how did I get here? In the living room? Start from the beginning!" Tesha stomped her foot for emphasis. Marl seemed to think for a moment before starting.

"Well, I was fast asleep, when suddenly I heard the fridge opening. I figured someone was just getting a late-night snack, so I went back to sleep. But then I sensed someone nearby, and when I looked up, I saw Tesha. Her eyes were open, but she didn’t seem to see anything, especially me. Her pupils were contracted much more than normal and she kind of stared off into space. Then she just kind of collapsed on me." At this point Marl looked somewhat embarrassed, although no one present but himself could really fathom why… "I…well I got kind of distressed and I guess I yelled, because next thing I know Aishin is out here and standing at the end of the couch while I’m on my feet staring at you lying on the couch."

"Then he started trying to wake you up, and when he did not succeed, he started to yell at your unconscious body. As if that would help." Aishin snorted, casting a disdainful look in Marl’s direction.

"And then he slapped you…and well, you’re awake now." Marl finished

"No thanks to him." Aishin provided. Marl glared at him.

"Maybe you should see a doctor…" Marl looked concerned.

"Err, no it’s okay, I guess I was just sleepwalking. I had a bad dream." Tesha shivered. That was more than a bad dream and I have never sleepwalked in my life.

"Are you sure? I mean this is like what, the second time tonight?" He wouldn’t take those honest blue eyes off her dammnit.

"I said I’m fine." If she was going crazy that was her business. She could figure these peculiar…visions…out on her own. The other two would just think she was nuts if she told them. Although the youkai might know something… He was a demon after all, and they were just as farfetched as visions, if not more. However she didn’t know him well enough to trust him. "What time is it anyway?"

"3:30am" Marl replied after a quick glance at his watch. Tesha made a face.

"Dear gods, this can’t be good for either of us, much less our recovering patient!" She complained ruefully. "I definitely don’t want to have to explain a sick youkai to the campus doctor, so off to bed you!" The cool and composed Aishin found himself being ushered off to his temporary bedroom like a naughty duckling. He was somewhat bemused and bewildered by this human female’s ability to boss him around like she was his mother, but he went to bed anyway.

Tesha shut the door after she had made sure the youkai was ‘tucked in’, and turned to tell Marl the same. However he was seated on the back of the couch, staring at her. It wasn’t an unfriendly stare, but it wasn’t a chummy one either. He studied her like she was one of those puzzle-toys, something to be solved. She shifted uneasily, not sure she could yield up an answer to whatever mystery those bright blue eyes sought to solve. A period of uncomfortable silence stretched out until Marl broke it.

"You’re hiding something." It was neither an accusation nor a question. It was merely a statement, voiced in a soft, but firm, tone. His terrible stare did not abate either. Tesha couldn’t answer for a moment, those eyes stared at her so. Seeming to demand nothing but the absolute truth, almost daring her to lie, to see if she could fool the gaze that pierced such follies. Then she shook her head and looked at the carpet instead, attempting to rid herself of such childish thoughts. However she still did not want to lie.

"Yes." She answered simply, hoping he would not ask her to elaborate. She did not want…him…to think she was insane, or an idiot. Especially since he was her only friend right now, other than the demon Aishin…and he didn’t really count as a friend… Marl did not ask her to elaborate, however he did keep looking at her. Not glaring, not prying, only waiting. Trusting her dammnit! It was the trusting look that got her. His gaze was so calm and patient, like that of a wolf, and she knew she had to answer. So she walked over and sat down on the couch, at least she couldn’t see him this way. Tesha faltered as she tried to speak and had to clear her throat a couple of times. "I…I had…visions." She admitted. "I know it sounds crazy, but those times I fainted, I saw things…and they weren’t dreams. Too real." She shivered, despite the warmth of the living room. Marl placed an encouraging hand on her shoulder, the touch was oddly soothing and Tesha continued. "The first one was when I heard those howls…I…I told you it was just remembering earlier, but I was lying. I was somewhere else, being chased by something…the Beast? I don’t know…but the forest was different from here, wilder. And there was blood, so much blood. I fell against a tree trunk and my hands came away covered in blood, fresh blood and lots of it. Then I heard something behind me, and….I don’t know…I know I screamed and the vision ended." Tesha realized she was probably giving Marl more detail than she needed, but it was strangely comforting to share this burden that she had obtained only hours before, but which carried the weight of a lifetime. She was caught up in her tale and couldn’t stop, even when she realized that her partner had somehow moved off the back of the couch and onto the cushions beside her without her noticing. "The second time was more confusing. Something caused me to wake up, it could have been another nightmare or maybe just a noise from outside. However I don’t know if I ever really woke up, because I don’t remember falling asleep again. In fact I couldn’t get back to sleep after ‘waking up’ so I went to the kitchen to get a glass of milk. But there was nothing in the fridge. All the stuff you brought over was gone and the cheese we threw out was still there. It was like just before all of this demon stuff happened. So I went to check on you, but…" Tesha paused, gathering her words and her spirit. This part of the vision had shaken her badly. "My couch…this couch…was empty….and …and it was covered in blood. I…I don’t know…but I think it might have been…but then I was in the forest again, the same as in the first vision and I knew…I don’t know how, but I suddenly knew I had been there. The real me, not in a vision. I knew that I had been there a long time ago. But this time…well there was a man. I heard something…I turned around and…and there was a beautiful man, barely beyond being called a boy, but…oh…he…he had the…the glass of milk I was looking for…and….and…and…" Tesha didn’t notice the silent tears beginning to crawl slowly down her cheeks. Nor did she notice the comforting arm that was now slung around her shoulders. The vision, it burned at her mind, burned at her soul, burned her from the inside out. She needed to speak it, to expel it from herself with words. But oh, the words hurt, they made her remember. Remember what the man had been holding. "He…he had your head Marl…just your head…it..it…I…" For sure he would she was sick now, imagining such things, seeing them. But he just held her as she broke down into sobs. Desperately needing to tell the rest of her tale, but unable to do so because of her traitorous emotions. She could not cry and speak at the same time so she stifled her sobs and doggedly pushed onwards. She could feel the words inside of her, leaping to get out like wolfhounds tug at their leashes when they smell prey. The story was moving along on it’s own volition, gaining momentum. It wasn’t going to be stopped by the emotions of it’s medium. It needed to be told, needed Marl to know. "I…everything gets so muddled after that. My vision spun and all I could see were those hands, my hands, a child’s hands, covered in blood. Then there was only darkness, no…that’s wrong. I was in a cave…but it felt like nowhere, like I was floating in darkness. There….there was no light. But there was a voice. It kept asking me to tell it where I was. I didn’t understand, it seemed like it was trying to comfort me, there was a hand, a cold hand, rubbing my shoulder, and the voice said soothing things. But no matter how many times I told it I just wanted to go home, it would only ask me where I was, where I wanted to go home to. I realized something was wrong I guess, because then I screamed ‘no’, that I wouldn’t tell it where I was. Then I truly was floating in darkness, nowhere, nothing, alone but for the voice. It wouldn’t leave me alone. Then there was another voice. Your voice…I think…and it yelled for me…at me…and then…I think I woke up…I don’t remember…there was something…something else…" But the tale had finished its telling, and the mortal girl was shown more knowledge of her mind’s insights. The last vision remained a mystery to her except for thing left for her now exhausted mind to ponder. It was a final puzzle…the ghost vision of a child’s hand, glowing with white light, superceded over the very real image of Marl’s entwined with hers. And the sound of laughter.

Marl looked down at his now-sleeping partner. She was curled against his chest, the light frown brought on by that last mystery slowly surrendering to the peaceful look of one asleep. She looked somehow different now. Sleep has been known to reduce certain people to the way they would look if they had not been touched by the evils of the world. The look of an innocent, a child, vulnerable and pure. Perhaps this was why she looked different. Although he did not know it, Marl had an ability to evaluate people. A nearly useless power since it worked only on the subconscious level, but it did allow him to get a ‘feel’ for people. So when he looked at the Tesha of the waking world, he saw a young woman hidden by many layers of emotional scar tissue. A person not only touched by the evils of the world, but beaten with a baseball bat by them. He understood that her past was one of fear, tragedy and struggle. All of this he saw and stored as information somewhere in his mind, yet consciously comprehended none of it. He only knew that she looked different while sleeping. Eventually, as he looked at her, his mind drifted to their rather one-sided conversation. He didn’t know what to make of her or her visions. What she had just told him was puzzling in the least. He didn’t understand any of it, much less how it involved them. Perhaps in the morning they would consult the youkai, Aishin. He might know more about this than either of them. There wasn’t a question as to whether to take these visions of hers seriously or not, she had spoken to him with such feeling, with such determination, like one possessed. Perhaps she was, possessed by these visions. Marl was sure they meant something, they were too cryptic not to, but what? What did they mean? Why was she having them? There was a reason but Marl couldn’t see it. All he knew was that something was brooding on the horizon. As clichéd as it sounded, he could feel trouble brewing like a distant storm, and he was sure that these visions were only the first rumble of warning thunder…