Without even realizing it, I had fallen asleep in his arms, and I found myself in an unfamiliar place when I awoke.  I was lying down in a large bed with silky, maroon sheets.  I pulled myself up in order to get a better look at my surroundings.  The room was a decent size, but it seemed barren.  There was a chestnut dresser with a mirror attached to it, and an enormous window with plants lining the edge.  Other than that, the room was empty save for Kima who was asleep on the chair next to me.  I had failed to notice him at first, which made me slightly embarrassed.  Shouldn’t that be one of the first things that a girl notices?  I mean, he was still a man.  There were dark spots on his body, obviously bruises.  Even though they looked painful, he seemed to be sleeping peacefully.  There was a slight pressure on my hand, and I looked down to see that he was holding my hand.  My face grew hot as I looked back at his face, trying to not think too much about his hand in mine.

            I couldn’t help but realize how gorgeous he was.  His face looked like a child’s at this moment.  By that point, I found myself realizing how soft his face was.  Wait.  I pulled back my hand quickly, not even remembering when I reached out to touch his face in the first place.  I stared at my hand for a moment before looking back up at him.  Something about him was extremely alluring.  I found myself leaning towards him, repositioning myself to all fours so I could get even closer to him.  His lips looked inviting.  I seemed fixated on them, and before I knew it, my lips were almost on his.

            No!

            I pulled back, face growing hotter because I realized that I was about to kiss him.  What in the world came over me right then?  I stumbled out of bed in order to prevent myself from attacking him in his sleep or something.  My eyes were drawn back to him though, a smile playing across my lips.  Taking a deep breath, I gathered my wits and pulled a chair up next to him.  I sat down and leaned my head carefully on his shoulder, closing my eyes and returning to the sleep realm once again.

            Screams forced my eyes to snap open.  For some reason, the scream sound so familiar, but I know that I had never heard it before.  It occurred to me that it sounded like Kima’s voice.  I immediately flew out of bed, panic filling my every being.  My legs couldn’t seem to run fast enough, and I was praying that it wasn’t what I thought.  My eyes began to water from the force of the wind being pressed against it.  When I arrived at the scene though, it was worse than I had expected.

            Kima was lying on the ground with a sword stabbed right through his chest, a blood pool beginning to form around his body.  Just like Mom, he began to cough, spitting out blood before going silent, and body falling limp.  The sword was then pulled out by the same shadowy figure that we had encountered back at the school.  As he walked closer to me, I caught a glimpse of bright red hair.  I didn’t know what move to make.  I could feel tears streaming down my face almost as quickly as Kima was losing blood.  I looked over towards his lifeless body again and decided to make a run for him.  When I got to his body, my legs gave way and I grasped onto him, shaking him as if he would wake up.  His eyes showed no life though, and my tears began to flow more.

            An overwhelming urge to destroy everything around me filled my every being.  I wanted nothing more than to end everything just like Kima was ended.  My hands began to glow as if they were embers, my eyes turning from blue to red.  I could feel my face being distorted as I turned towards the shadow that I had taken away Kima’s life.  My body was no longer my own.  I could do nothing but watch as my shell began to walk towards the figure, the longing to kill him clearly evident.  I attempted to scream out to stop, but I could only watch as she reached around the figure’s neck, choking all life out of him.  He was about to take his last breaths whenever I woke up screaming.

            I was sweating and shivering just like I had done all of those times I was having the dreams recalling my past.  All this did was scare me even more.  I looked around the room and noticed that the chair that Kima was once in was now empty, and that I had been placed carefully on the bed.  The dream appeared in my head anew.  Kima’s lifeless eyes stared into my mind’s eye hauntingly.  I began to panic then, calling out his name as I stood from the bed, frantically heading towards the doorway.  What if that dream was a premonition?  Maybe that’s why I awoke like I did for the others.  I had almost placed my hand on the doorknob when it was thrown open, Kima standing in front of me looking panicked as well, sweat dripping down his face.

            I collapsed to the ground, joy filling me because he wasn’t hurt.  He was alive.

            “Thank you,” I said to no one in particular.  “Please don’t leave without me again.  Okay?”

            ‘As you wish’ he responded in my mind, reminding me that I shouldn’t be speaking out loud with him.  ‘What frightened you so much?’  Flashes of the dream passed through my mind, but I pushed them aside.  It was only a dream.  That’s all it could be, right?

            I looked up into his face to see it clouded with a variety of emotions.  I guess no one liked seeing their death from someone else’s eyes.  The comforting voice entered my mind once again.  ‘I decided to bring you home with me.  I can’t leave you alone anymore.  I must protect you no matter what.’  I didn’t argue at that, not wanting to leave him alone either from fear that the dream just might come true.  ‘We’ll leave in the morning.’  I froze.  I had expected to leave, but not so soon.  Thoughts of my friends and family filled my head.  Although I didn’t live with my aunt, I knew she’d like to know if I was leaving or not.  Then there were my friends.  Even though they didn’t seem pleased with me, I know that they would want to know.  They were my friends after all.

‘We will go deal with all of that now.’

            I couldn’t help but smile a little.  He always seemed to know what I needed and wanted.  I suppose that is part of the package deal with telepathy though.  Slowly, I stood up, ready to say goodbye to everything that I knew of thus far.  I didn’t want to leave, but at this point, there was not much else that I could do.

            Jin’s house was the first stop that we were going to make since it was the furthest from our end destination.  I’m not going to lie; Jin lived in a pretty well-off family, so his house was small by no means.  It has a type of old-fashioned feel to it and stands three stories tall.  I have only been to his house a couple of times, but for some reason, there was a strange aura being emitted from it today.  I shrugged off the thought though and went up to the door, ringing the bell.

            There was a slight scuffle inside before someone was at the door.  There stood his mother, a rather frantic and tired look in her eyes.  She smiled anyways though, attempting to tuck loose strands of hair behind her ears that had fallen out of her ponytail.

            “Oh, Eliza!”  Relief filled her voice as she spoke, gesturing for me to come inside.  “Thank goodness you’re here.  Jin’s been in his room for hours and won’t come out for some reason.  Do you think you could help?”

            “Of course I can,” I told her, smiling at the middle-aged woman, “He’s pretty much my best friend.  I can handle this much.”

            I entered into the house, gesturing for Kima to wait outside since they weren’t really too keen on letting strangers into the house.  I remember the first time I came over; Jin had to beg them to allow me inside.  Taking one last look at Kima, I began to make my way up the stairs towards Jin’s room.

            Once there, I knocked on the door, testing the knob which was definitely locked.  “Jin?  It’s Eliza.  Open the door please?”

            A click sounded in the lock, sending a chill down my spine.  Something didn’t seem right.  The door opened, giving me the perfect view at what was just so wrong.  Jin was standing there, but it looked nothing like him.  Fangs were visible as he showed this utterly disturbing smile, and his features had become distorted, giving him snake-like eyes, the pupils stretched.  His hair was no longer short.  Instead it went and shaded his eyes to some degree, making a veil of hair.  A spiked collar was on his neck, and there seemed to be a type of anklet attached to something that I couldn’t quite make out.

            Then he spoke, his voice sounding like some creature, “Hello Eliza.  If only it was nice seeing you again.”  The horrible smile he had deepened, sending more chills down my spine.

            I spoke in almost a whisper, unable to fully find my voice.  “Is this even you Jin?  What happened?  Who did this?”

            A demented laugh came from his mouth before words.  “Yes it’s me Eliza.  This is what happens when you see someone you have always cared for kissing some Casanova who randomly shows up.  Luckily, a friend named Ryu decided to help me.  If anyone, you did this to me.”

            Wait, so he did like me?  Why did he never say anything to me then and constantly flirt with everything that moved?  I mean, it wasn’t as if I even wanted to kiss Kima at that moment.  I didn’t mind the kiss, but I didn’t as for it. One of the most curious things about what he said was who that Ryu character was. I had never heard of him before.

‘Eliza, get out of there now!’

            The thought was too late though.  I looked Brett in the eyes, ready to tell him that I was about to leave town with Kima in order to discover who I was since there was a whole other life about myself that I was ignorant to.  I didn’t even have to chance to speak though because a force impacted me, forcing the door shut as well as slamming me against a wall.  Shakily, I rose to my feet again, unaware of how that had exactly happened.  I looked up at Jin to see him smirking now.  What was with everyone smirking?  Did it satisfy some desire or something?

            I couldn’t just stand there though and let my friend continue turning into whatever he had become, so I began to walk closer to him.  The smirk faded from his face, rage and something like fear taking its place.  Objects began to fly at me from every direction, causing me to lose my balance a few times, some even ripping at my clothes.  Finally, I made it to him, cuts lining my body as blood dripped from them.  I was afraid to look down at myself, knowing full and well that I was colored with bruises and blood.

            Without another thought, I grabbed his hand.  “If you truly hate me that much, then kill me now.  I don’t want you to be like this anymore.”  I tried smiling up at him, tears blurring my vision.

            His reaction was to snatch back his hand and push me on the ground before responding verbally.  “I want you to suffer like I did.”

            Shock filled me.  Had I really hurt him this much without even realizing it?  Maybe he was right; maybe making me suffer was the only solution in order for him to become sane again.  My heart felt heavy after hearing him say that, and I could feel the fight leave me.

            ‘Eliza!  Don’t give up, I’m heading up there whether they like it or not!’

            Moments later, a crash sounded through the room.  I glanced over to see Kima standing in the doorway, glaring at Jin.  He then looked over in my direction, emotions dancing across his features as he took in the sight of me.  I could see in the reflection of his eyes that I most definitely looked horrible.  Tears streamed down my face while bruises formed on my body, cuts decorating them with the color of red.  His eyes drifted back towards Jin, and that’s when I saw something that scared me more than Jin did.  There was pure hate and bloodlust in Kima’s eyes at that moment.  A sword appeared in one of his hands and he charged towards the other male.

            “No!”  My voice reached him just before he stabbed Jin.

            Instead of stabbing him through the stomach, Kima pushed the sword into Jin’s leg, cutting through muscle and tendons.

            “Don’t you hurt her ever again,” Kima warned, the sword dissipating into the air.

            Kima walked over to me, pulling me off the ground before starting to walk off, passing words only meant for me.  ‘We’re leaving.  You’ll have to contact the others by phone.’  There was no arguing.  Anger still filled him, and I did my best to keep up, not wanting to be a burden upon him.  I felt dizzy though, and before we were even to the stairs, I collapsed onto the ground.

            ‘Are you okay?’  I shook my head.  How could I be okay?  My best friend just tried to kill me, and then was about to be killed by Kima.  How was that in any way okay?  My whole body ached and didn’t seem to want to cooperate as I tried to stand again.  After another failed attempt, Kima picked me up bridal style, walking towards the door.  My face felt as if it had become three shades darker, and I found myself struggling to be placed down.  ‘Let me do at least this.’  I stopped moving.  Everything in front of me began to become blurry, and I could feel myself becoming faint.