InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Goddess of the Past ❯ Friends and Unfriendly Images ( Chapter 5 )

Yeah whole chapter is up!!

Enjoy,

Mystic

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Nena awoke suddenly from her quiet slumber by an abrupt 'thump.' Only after a moment did she realize that it was she who had caused the sound. She had fallen from her bed, blanket and all. She slowly sat up and brought her hand to her face in attempt to calm herself. But as her fingers grazed her soft cheeks, she discovered that she had been crying. It only took an instant for her to remember why.

"That damn dream again." Nena was becoming very frustrated. She'd been having the same dream for weeks. Nearly ever morning she woke in a cold sweat, but this was the first time she'd awoken during the night. And tonight the dream had become much more vivid. She could remember more of it than in the past.

The lake, the moon, his eyes. What does it all mean? What am I missing?

Nena could remember the feel of his touch this time. His face had haunted her for so long. But now the caress of his hand will plague her as well. Who is he? She knows every angle of his beautiful face, but his name is still a mystery to her.

Slowly, Nena got to her feet and went back to bed. As she tried to get back to sleep, she couldn't get the image of his face out of her mind. "Beautiful stranger, what are you trying to tell me?" With that Nena fell into a deep, dreamless sleep. Her body waited for the morning light to greet her, while her mind wandered aimlessly.

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That morning Nena awoke with a start. She felt as though she was being watched by someone. Sure enough, when she opened her eyes her two sisters were staring down at her, almost willing her to wake up. After recovering from her racing heart, Nena rolled over and moaned slightly. "You guys know that I hate it when you wake me up like that."

Her sisters smiled mischievously before Lissy was the first to speak, "We know. But it's not our fault you're freakishly aware of everything around you." Now Kira decided to put in her voice as well, "You wouldn't have moved if we had tried to wake you any other way. And we want to go soon."

"Go? Go where?" Nena moaned as she tried to inch her way back under her covers.

"To the mall!" the girls cried in unison.

Nena sat up in realization. "It's Friday?" she her fingers upon her eyelids in attempt to push away her fatigue.

"Yes!" two voices spoke yet again.

"Okay… I'm up. Let me take a show and we'll get out of her."

"Yeah!" Kira jumped for joy.

"Now go!" following the sound of Nena agitated voice and the direction of her extended index finger, the two younger girls went out of her room and down to breakfast.

Nena had promised her sister that she would take them to the mall before she left a week ago. And today was the last day she that could do it.

I can't believe it's tomorrow.

Everything was set; all her things were packed and sitting in the living room. All that was left to do was… wait.

So Nena showered and dressed quickly. With a little makeup and a quick dryer to her hair, she was all set. After a quick breakfast, she and the girls left in her black Passat.

I'll miss driving around all the time. Nena wasn't sure how she was going to survive without her car. But she was going to the city and walking might be fun. Yeah right.

Nena took the girls everywhere they wanted to go. Soon their arms were overflowing with bags. By the time she them to the food court for lunch Kira had no more money and Lissy was down to $15. So Nena decided to treat them to pizza.

As she watched her little sisters inhale the food she'd put in front of them, she realized for the first time how much she really would miss them. Their antics, their smiles, even the way they snooped in her room all the time. Her sisters meant everything to her and knew how important she was to them. She could see it. The way they were so upset that she was leaving, she knew how much they really needed her. Even if they tried to hide it.

Suddenly Nena was interrupted from her thoughts. "NENA!" the girls screamed at their older sibling. Nena looked up quickly to see what was wrong. But all she saw were the puzzled looks upon her sisters' faces, two sets of eyes staring directly at her. It was Lissy who spoke first.

"Are you already, sis?" the younger girl never took her eyes off of Nena.

"Why would I not be alright?" Nena was becoming more and more confused by her sisters' unusual behavior.

"You couldn't hear us, it was like your mind was gone." This was Kira now. "And your eyes looked different."

Nena wanted to laugh but held back. If she laughed, she might offend her sisters who seemed genuinely concerned for her. "I was just thinking about how much I'm going to miss you guy and guess I got lost in my thoughts, that's all."

"But your eye were weird colors!" Kira pointed at Nena's face.

Now Kira was just trying to be ridiculous, and Nena had heard this before. "Kira, you know that my eyes are always like this." Nena gestured towards her face as she spoke. "One blue. One green. Don't try to play this game with me again."

"No! I'm really not playing this time! They were all red, then they began to glow yellow!" Kira looked very worried and slightly afraid.

Nena realized it was probably the sunlight coming through the skylights that caused Kira to see a change in her. So she decided that there was no reason to argue with her, because it would get them nowhere. "Alright Kira, maybe they did look that way, but I feel perfectly fine. So how about we go get some slushies and forget about it?"

"Yeah!" both girls got up and disposed of their now cleared pizza plate and Lissy led the way to the slushy stand, while Kira pulled on Nena's hand imploring her to go faster. Nena was happy to submit to her desire. Promise them sugar and they'll forget everything!

As the three of them were walking out of the mall with their slushies in hand, Nena began to feel a familiar pressure behind her eyes. Nena looked around her to see if anyone was watching her, when she saw no one she figured it the pain was from walking around for so long, and chose to ignore it. But then she heard someone call out her name. She stopped and turned to meet the eyes of her best friend Mareo.

"Nena!" the strong, handsome male, now walking towards her, stated calmly. He smiled and Nena returned the gesture.

She stared into his gentle, familiar honey eyes, and smiled more. "Hello Mareo. It's wonderful to see you again." The boy also increased the size of the size of the grin on his face. They both laughed.

Normally, Nena would have been ecstatic that the sight of him, but right now Kira and Lissy were here and would begin to whine if she talked for too long. Which was a guarantee when it came to Mareo. Plus, the twinge in her head was turning into a full-blown headache, and Nena hated driving when she had one. So she wanted to get home quickly, but now that seemed almost impossible since she so longed to catch up with her closest friend.

Mareo was the type of guy that most girls dreamed of. He had a wonderfully pleasant personality, a strong intellect and he was just so damn gorgeous. He and Nena had known each other for very long, ever since they were kids. Although they never became romantically close, they were the best of friends. And had an emotional connection that no one could ever break.

Nena could talk to him about anything. He really was like a twin brother that she never had. And their families were very close as well, so they saw a lot of each other when they were younger. This was probably because of the fact that their parents wished for them to date one another, in hopes that they would one day marry. So as children they saw each other several times a week. But when they were the appropriate age, and their parents approached them about dating, they both simply laughed. They felt like they'd be dating a cousin if they did that. It would just be too weird. They had become too close to let something as foolish as romance ruin it.

Unfortunately because they attended different high schools, Nena had seen less and less of him these past four years. They were both Honor student and were busy all the time. The last time she saw him was at Christmas, and that was over two months ago.

Nena wished she'd run into him sooner. Then she could have caught up with him without having to leave the very next day. She wanted to talk to him very badly and now there was very little time for that. Maybe he could have helped her with this dream issue? Nena was jerked from her thought by his smooth voice.

"So my mom tells me that you're going with the exchange program this year?"

"Yes, actually I am. I'm leaving tomorrow afternoon."

"Wow. Your school must want you to get settled before you attend classes."

"Yeah, and I'm grateful for it. I want to be adjusted to the time change so I don't pass out in classes."

"Oh yeah I forgot about that. When is your flight?"

"Noon tomorrow. And it's fifteen hours, so when I land, it will be 3am Sunday here. But over there it'll be 5pm."

"Woah. That'll take some getting used to. I kind of worried now; we don't leave for five more days. Only leaving two days before classes start." Mareo had a pensive look in his eyes.

"We!? You mean you're going as well?" Nena was a little surprised, but realized she should have expected this.

"You bet. This isn't something you can easily pass up, as I'm sure you're well aware. I can't wait to get out there and see what the world is really like." Nena couldn't help but smile at her friend's excitement. She too was getting very enthused about her trip. "Plus Kyoto is such an historical city, and…" But he never got to say what else Kyoto was, because was interrupted by Nena's suddenly and rather loud cry.

"Kyoto!? You…. You're going to JAPAN?!!!"

Mareo somehow was unfazed by the shrillness of her voice. "Yes, and I'm ecstatic. We always seemed to have a special interest in Japanese culture, remember." Nena, who was still in shock even though her expression did not show it, didn't respond.

"So where are you off to, Nena? Paris? London? Which of your many languages will you be using?" Mareo looked at her expectantly, no seeming to realize how shocked she had been.

But Nena, who had recovered from her shocked state, this time, responded quickly. "Mareo, I am going to Tokyo!" Nena had a large smile on her face showing her shock and joy at the same time.

Now it was Mareo's turn to be shocked. Although he was slightly more vocal about it than Nena had been.

"Wait, wait, WAIT! You are going to JAPAN as well!!?" All Nena could manage was a small no in response. The two of them stood there for just a minute, completely incapacitated. Mareo was the first of the two to recover.

"This is wonderful! We both get to go to the places we've always wanted to go. This thought snapped Nena out of her shock and into realization.

That the understatement of the year, Mareo.

Most of her life, Nena had a great interest in Japanese culture and more recently had found a strong desire to become involved with Anime, Japanese animation. And Tokyo was the Anime capital of the world. This is why Nena was so happy when she got her first choice and would be staying in Tokyo for three months.

On the flip side of things, Mareo was obsessed with Japanese history. He loved to study the 'why' and 'how' of what occurred in the past. He plans to major in history at New York University and become an analyst of Japanese history, the Tokugawa regime specifically.

Their shared interest in the Japanese culture is probably what made them become so close. But their opinions were different enough to create some interesting debates between the two of them. Keeping their friendship very entertaining at times.

Mareo had noticed that Nena had a very familiar look in her eyes and realized she'd become lost in her thoughts yet again. He decided he should snap her out of it. So, he slowly reached out to her with both hands, index finger extended. He quickly poked her at her sides, just below her ribs. This caused a small "Eek" to come from Nena's voice box, and a slight jolt through her abdominal muscles.

"Mareo! What was that for?"

"You drifted off in though, as usual. I had to bring you back to earth."

"But do you always have to get my attention like that?"

"Yup." a rather satisfied smile crept on to Mareo's face.

Nena let out an audible sign, while she hung her head slightly in defeat. She had tried several times in the past to convince Mareo that there are more mature ways of getting her attention, but he way not to be swayed. So there was no point in trying again now. Plus she was much more interested in the matter at hand.

"Anyway, this is definitely going to be an exciting couple of months, eh?

"It sure will be. With you in the country, it will probably make the transition much easier. Plus, I can call you anytime with my cell phone. Mom said no long distance calls to you while I'm over there, but now there're not long distance, are they? I'll be closer to you than to her!"

Nena was tempted to roll her eyes at his antics, but resisted. Instead she gave a small laugh, just thankful she would be able to hear a familiar, English speaking, voice while living in a sea of strangers.

While the two friends had been conversing, completely unaware of those around them, Lissy and Kira had moved to sit on a nearby bench. They knew all too well, that once Mareo came around it would be a very long time before Nena decided to leave. So they sat contently sipping their slushies, observing the two teens in front of them. After a while Kira decided to speak, "How long do you think they'll take this time?" Kira took a sip at her now half gone slushy.

Lissy thought for a moment, then looking down at her drink she said, "We'd better get some milkshakes too."

*~*~*~*

After the sisters had downed their slushies, drank some milkshakes and were now working on their fruit smoothies, Lissy had decided that enough was enough. Not only had waited quietly for an hour, and used the last of her money to buy more frozen drinks. But now she had to deal with a sugar high Kira, whose mouth was running a mile a minute. And having her ear chewed off was the straw that broke this girl's back. I'm done.

"Nena! Can we please go!? Kira is going nuts over here!"

Nena, who had been busy making plans with Mareo to meet up once out East, turned to her sister finally realizing how long she had been talking. "Okay, okay. Will you take Kira to the Ladies' Room while I say goodbye to Mareo? Please?"

Lissy begrudgingly complied and with Kira's hand in her own she took the hyperactive eight-year-old towards the restrooms.

With her sisters out of sight, Nena let out a small sigh. While she had been conversing with Mareo, her headache had slowly become much worse. And with her sister's complaint she knew it really was time to go. "Well I'm glad I saw you before I left. Now we can have a Japanese meal in a real Japanese restaurant together like we always dreamed."

Dreamed… Suddenly Nena headache turned severe, her head pounding with every beat of her racing heart. She began to see flashes of light, and before her very eyes she saw images from her dream interchange with the sight she knew to be reality. Slowly the images slowed and then ceased to return. All she could see now was the look of terror plastered upon Mareo's face.

"Nena! What's wrong?"

Nena began to stagger as she became very dizzy. She felt that she no longer had bones within her legs. But that she had legs made of Jello that she had to try and stay balanced upon.

Through the haze that was in her head, she could hear Mareo's voice, full of concern. But it sounded so far away.

The lights began to fade away and everything was silence. The last thing Nena could remember was the look in Mareo's beautiful honey eyes, before she fell against his strong chest. Then everything went black and Nena fell into darkness.

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Nena awoke completely surrounded by black. The only source of light given to her was a faint glow, which seemed to emitting from her own body. A bluish silver light that only extended so that she could twenty feet around her, everything else shrouded in the dark.

Nena tried to stand, but the pain in her head screamed in protest. So she was bound to a sitting position waiting for the pain to subside so that she could investigate this strange place further.

Before Nena could try to think of another course of action, the light that she was radiating became stronger and bright, almost as if it was responding to her desire to know more. For when she looked up again she was able to see who was standing a mere thirty feet away from her.

"You!" her eyes widened at who stood before her.

Then Nena felt as though her body was suddenly pumped full of lead, for it had become impossible for her to move at all. She was completely frozen where she sat. She couldn't even speak, and it was taking all her energy just to breathe. She could only stare into the eyes of the man who'd haunted her for weeks, the man she'd only seen in her dream.

This man before her didn't move at all, he didn't even blink. Which made Nena wonder if he even could. Is he paralyzed like I am? But when he moved his right hand to place it upon the hilt of the sword hanging at his waist, she realized he was not under the same spell that she was. She also realized that him placing a hand on his sword might not be too good for her. Is he my enemy?

He slowly turned his head to view what was standing to his left. Nena followed his line of vision and, if she could , she would have gasped at whom was standing before her. Mareo! Her closest friend stood there, staring at her with the same stoic expression on his face as the man that stood to his right.

Nena groaned in frustration as the situation became more and more complicated by the instant. Almost on cue, the light became bright once again, this time revealing a path behind each of the males in front of her. Each path leading through the darkness, into the unknown.

As Nena tried to make sense of all this, the two men turned their back to her. And they proceeded to walk away, into the endless black. Nena wanted to cry out in protest, to call the back, to make them stay. But the state she was in would not allow such an action. She could only sit there, motionless and silent as the two walk away from her.

Nena could feel the tears begin to build in her eyes, but refused to let them fall. No! I won't cry! I'm alone, so what? I've been alone before. I like being alone. I'm not emotionally weak like other people. I don't need them! Solitude is a good thing! What reason do I have to cry? I…don't …need….THEM! Nena let out a cry in frustration, finally able to use her voice again.

What happened next made Nena believe that fate was playing with her on purpose. That she was being tortured like a bug under a magnifying glass. In that moment when she cried out, whatever force that was holding her body like a straightjacket suddenly vanished and Nena had her mobility and strength back.

She cried out in rage, before running to where the two paths still remained. She screamed for the men who abandoned her to return. She needed answers, and they were the only ones to give them to her. She looked at the two paths, each leading to a different man. But which path to take? Who could help her more? The one from her dream or the only friend she'd ever known?

Out of nowhere, her headache returned to her tenfold. The light she emitted blasted out in all directions. But she still could not find them. She began to stagger from the pain, but still trying to seek out those whom she'd lost. She fell to her knees, thought passing through her head violently.

Which way?

Her light began to fade away.

Who can help me?

She fell to the ground, hands clutching her skull tightly.

Mareo…?

It began to get darker, the strength fleeing from her body.

Dream…?

The pain increased, tears blurred her vision.

Left or right?

Her light was nearly gone

Past… or…

…future…?

Nena collapsed and the darkness engulfed her.

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Slowly images began to return to her. Blurry images, but anything was better than that never-ending abyss.

Voices, she could hear voices. Had they returned to her? Nena opened her eyes, placing the back of her hand upon her eyelids to push away to fuzziness. She then looks around her, and realized that she was staring at the ceiling of a building

After taking in all of her surroundings, Nena knew that she back in the mall. But now, she was on a bench, lying upon Mareo's lap of all places. If only our parents could see us… Looking up into his wonderfully brown hued eyes, Nena finally decided to speak. "Hey." She giggled softly in embarrassment, smiling up at her friend.

"Hey yourself. Do you want to sit?"

Nena gave a small nod and slowly rose to sit next to Mareo. He smiled nervously, obviously still concerned for her. Then he handed her some water. "Here." As Nena was about to drink, he stopped her. "Slowly. I don't need to have you collapse again."

She accepted the drink and began sipping the cool liquid. Nena was now fully aware of herself, and she began to wonder what exactly had occurred. One minute she was here talking to Mareo, the next she was surrounded in darkness, completely alone. Now she was here again. What happened? Maybe she should ask Mareo to see if he could clarify things.

"Mareo? What happened to me? And why was I lying in your lap?"

The male next to her flushed a little red at those last words. But he began to speak in spite of it. "Nena, you fainted. You had this weird look on your face, like you were in pain, then you just collapsed. But luckily, I caught you before you hit the floor.

Like a brick wall hitting her smack in the face, a wave of memories came flooding back to Nena. The visions. Her headache. The flashes of her dreams. The darkness. Now she understood. It had all been another dream. Almost as if her first dream had spawned this new one. All those visions that had flooded her brain had simply overwhelmed her. And her body reacted by shutting down.

But what did this all mean? What was causing these visions to come to her? And why were they coming to her while she was awake as well as asleep? It's like a message is being sent to me that I can't decode. And the sender is becoming more drastic.

Then she looked into Mareo's soft honey eyes, and she found some comfort in them. I think I'll bring Mareo home with me so we can talk. I need to figure this out… and I can't do it alone.