God, it’s cold. So very cold. Dark too, I can’t see anything.
“Taiki?” I hear Seiya call out.
She sounds so young, vulnerable. Afraid.
“Yeah?” I call back.
“What happened? Where are we?”
I shake my head.
“There was…an accident. We were in a fight, the building collapsed around us. Where are you?”
I hear slow shuffling coming towards me.
“Oh…I’m somewhere…dark…”
“Come towards the sound of my voice.” I tell her.
More shuffling. I fell something touch my hand.
“That you?” she asks me.
“Yeah,” I answer her, “are you hurt?”
“My head hurts, I fell sleepy.”
She must have been hit on the head; she can’t go to sleep now.
“Tell me about that book you were reading.” I ask her, trying to keep her focused.
“Uh, well, it was about these cats an’ they were tap dancers an’ they went to a place and danced for the princess…where’s Yaten?”
I frown. The book she was reading was an Earth classic Ami gave me, ‘Gone With the Wind’, Seiya isn’t making a lot of sense. Yaten…
“I dunno where Yaten is, she’s probably gone to get help.” I lie.
I know exactly where Yaten is. She’s dead. I saw her be crushed under a pile of fallen ceiling, before the lights went out, but Seiya doesn’t need to hear that yet…at least, I think Yaten is dead.
“Oh right, one of then was blue…”
“What?”
“One of the cats, it was blue. The other was orange and yellow, they both wore tap dancing shoes…”
Seiya’s words are beginning to slow. God, she must be hurt badly. My head’s throbbing. It’s dark. Too dark. I feel Seiya shift on the floor beside me; she’s lying down now.
“I’m so sleepy…” she says quietly.
“Don’t go to sleep Seiya, please…”
But I can feel my own eyelids drooping. It’s dark. It’s cold. Oh God! Get us out of here! I can feel Seiya’s hand tightly clenched around my own, oh great, now I can’t tell if my eyes are open or not. Dark, cold, my head hurts so badly. I think I’ll go to sleep now; maybe this is just a bad dream…hey, what’s that? Two cats, tap dancing…