Endless Perspective - Open Role Playing :: The Only Story I've Ever Completed

Hikuya · The Only Story I've Ever Completed (Wed Aug 09, 2006 5:59 am)

This story is very near and dear to my heart. Please read(hopefully enjoy) and if you have the time to tell me what you think, awesome.

“Night, Daddy”
By Hikuya

She was sleeping again. She did that a lot. There wasn’t much else she could do. Sitting in her dream realm, she saw HIM. He was beautiful. There was no other word for it. She suddenly felt very sad, for she never remembered what he looked like when she woke. Only his eyes, his lovely, glowing red eyes stayed as a reminder. He sat beside her, pulling her next to his body. She shivered at the contact. He wasn’t warm, like people were supposed to be. He was just cold, so very cool. She was tucked against his form, his chin resting atop her head. His hands ran through her multi shaded brown hair lovingly. She smiled, a small smile, and leaned closer. Her head was resting against his chest. Listening closely, she realized that he had no heart beat.

Fear began to course through her veins. Pulling away, bands of iron kept her close. Then his mouth was close to her neck, his warm breath sending shivers along her spine. She felt the sharpened fangs grazing against her lightly tanned skin. She felt herself beginning to wake, and just before she was jerked back to reality, she heard his words, the words he always said, whispered into her ear.

Tsukino Marth jerked awake, sitting up in her clean, white hospital bed. Rubbing the sleep from her hazel eyes, and clicking on her bed side lamp, she turned her gaze to her sleeping room mate. Scowling at the popular blond girl, she stood shakily and walked to her mirror. A pale, angry face looked back at her. Her odd, star shaped piece of black hair stuck out every which way, before she carefully brushed her hair. As soon as she finished, she started coughing horribly, clutching her throat as she tried to breathe.
Lights flashed on as a team of nurses ran into the room. Needles were pushed into her arm, people shouting to each other, and far too much activity. When things finally died down, Tsukino was even angrier. ‘I hate them…their noise, and light, and false caring. I want them all to go away, and leave me to the dark, to the silence.’ And coming unbidden to her dark thoughts ‘to HIM.’

“Tsuki-chan! Your parents are here to see you!” one of the many overly happy nurses sang into her ear. “I can hear you perfectly well, so could you kindly stop your inane shrieking?” she asked. “Looks like someone got up on the wrong side of the bed this morning!” The nurse giggled shrilly, before leaving the room. ‘God, I hate it when they visit.’ Tsukino thought quietly to herself as she listened to the footsteps heralding her family’s precsence. ‘And I hate being called “Tsuki-chan”. Anything –chan, for that matter.’ She was cut off from her thoughts as her mother practically ran into her room, and swallowed her daughter in a hug of death.

“Oh, hello sweetie!! How are you? Are you eating enough? How do you feel? Do you need anything?” The barrage of caring questions threw Tsukino a little, until she noticed that her STEPmother was watching her father out of the corner of her eye. ‘Thought so. She’s always hated me, since I’m not REALLY her kid and all.’ Her dad smiled, and walked over as well.
“Now, Mira, don’t smother the poor girl. She’d have told us already if she was anything less than okay!” He stated firmly, planting a kiss on his daughter’s head. Tsukino managed a faint smile, directed only towards her father.
“Yeah, I’m fine. I’ve actually been feeling a lot better lately. I’ve only had one attack this week.” She informed in a soft voice.
“That’s wonderful! I’m positive that you’ll be back home with everyone in no time!” He warmly claimed. She noticed her stepmother scowling darkly, and Tsukino knew that she had to get rid of them quickly, before her stepmom started whining about something.

Yawning fakely, she told them that she was tired, but she was happy that they had visited. Giving her another hug and kiss, her guardians left, promising to bring the other two children soon. Flopping back on her bed, a look of bitter resignation graced her delicate features. Rolling onto her side, she looked at the picture of the smiling family, HER family. “Thanks, mom. Thanks a lot.”

“Jacob, I don’t see why we still put up with her.” Mira Marth complained to her husband.
“Dear, Tsukino needs our support and love. She’s had a rough time of it. It wasn’t her decision to go and get sick. She was born sick. Her life has just been one long death sentence.” Jacob tried to explain gently to his second wife. But Mira, refusing to give in, pressed on.
“I know that, but do you see the way she looks at me? At her siblings? She’s ungrateful to us, all the money we’ve given for her stay here. Not to mention she gets all the attention!”
“That’s ridiculous! I pay attention to every-“ “No you don’t! Susan and Dave hardly ever do things with you! It’s always Tsukino this, Tsukino that! She doesn’t even have a real name! It’s her mother’s fault! If she’d never even had a child, then none of us would be like this!”

As Mira calmed herself down, Jacob was silent. After a few minutes, he spoke.
“Don’t ever blame my first wife for this, or my baby girl. I care deeply for Susan and Dave, but my daughter is dying from the inside out! Is Susan in constant pain while she’s awake? Has she ever been so sick she was puking up blood? Is Dave having his lungs destroyed by his own white blood cells? Has he lived his whole life in a hospital? I understand, Mira, but Tsukino needs the extra attention, just like her mother. You may not like her, but she isn’t going to live past another two months. Her condition is worse. So just leave her be.” He finished his own tirade, almost in tears, before striding away, Mira following silently.

Dreaming. She loved to dream. Sitting underneath her dream tree, she remembered her mother.
“My little moon, that’s what you are. You can be so bright, yet completely black, and only show one face. But you are so lovely, little moon. For even when you are at your darkest, the light is still there.” I’m like the moon in one other way, mother. I am so very cold and alone. Thinking to herself, she missed his coming.
“Welcome back, moon child. I have missed you.” His honeyed words were breathed into her ear, gently, even as his arms tightened around her. “Lovely moon, have you missed me as well?” He murmured as he cradled her in his arms.
Had she missed him? How can one miss something, if that something is only a dream? Or was this real, and all else she knew merely the dark dreams locked in her soul?
“Yes. I did miss you.” He smiled, she could feel it against her throat.
“Lonely moon, do you wish to come with me?”
“I do not know you.”
“Does it matter?” He asked. Did it matter? He had always been kind to her. He wanted her. Wasn’t that enough?
“Why should I go with you?”
“I will take away your pain, and give you a life like none other. You and I shall both live in the darkness, together, for long after forever.”
“How do I know that this is real?” He smiled at her query, before digging sharpened nails into her arm. It was quick, clean, barely hurt at all. She gazed at her arm, five marks marring her skin.
“When you wake, you will know the truth.” She stood to go, it was time, but she turned and looked at the black guardian. “What is your name?” She was being pulled back, but she heard his words again.
“Soon you shall know me, and soon you shall be mine.”

Hearing the voices of the night shift nurses, Tsukino listened to their talk.
“God, these kids are so whiny!”
“I know. I’m so sick of working here. I can’t wait until my residency is done!”
“They’re so annoying, you wonder why the parents bother.”
“Come on, guys, they have a right to whine! I mean, they’re all going to die, more than likely, and never even get the chance to really live! So cut them some slack.”
“Yeah, you got a point.”
“Hmph. I was just in a bad mood. Didn’t mean it.”

Sure you didn’t, she thought. You tell yourself that at night so you can ease away your guilt. I do understand your dislike. Very few can understand us.

Susan and Dave came to visit her, all alone. Had to, really. Got to keep up appearances. All they did was sit in silence, the two beautiful, healthy teenagers chatting away, ignoring the frail seventeen year old. ‘My birthday is soon. I wonder if I’ll live that long. It’s only a month away.’ Gazing at her arm, she saw the fading marks. The marks that he had given her. ‘I wonder if I’ll see him before I die. I know it will be soon. I hope I get to go outside one more time, as well.’ She waved goodbye, a sign not returned, and once again she surrendered herself to her dreams.

Warm, but cold. Firm, but soft. There, but not. What was he? So many contradictions of himself. But that was okay. She didn’t mind.
“Dearest moon, your death approaches.”
“I know.”
“I will not let you go that easily.”
“This I know as well.”
“Why do you still stay?”
“I am waiting.”
“For what?”
“The right time.”
“The right time for what?” Silence reigned for a few moments, before her quiet reply.
“The right time to say good bye.”

And so the eve of her death came. “Happy birthday, sweetie!” Jacob said brightly, trying to lighten the sour pall that hung over the room. She could feel him now. When had her lovely dreams become such a bitter reality? She couldn’t tell. The marks he had left had long since faded, but the evidence remained. Her fantasy had come to haunt her. She knew he was waiting, outside the building of blinding light, and pristine white.
“Daddy?” She asked softly after opening her few gifts.
“Yes?”
“I’d like to go outside for a little bit. Not very long, just fifteen minutes, or so. Please?” She begged. She silently prayed that he would agree. He was thinking, and nodded finally.
“A little fresh air never killed someone! Just let me grab a wheelchair for you.” He said, trotting out of the room. An even more tense silence stayed behind, swallowing up all sounds. Jacob finally returned, after what seemed an eternity. “Here we go! Can you get in all right? Do you need help?” Tsukino smiled at her father’s genuine care, and slid into the rolling contraption.

The whole family trotted outside into the small park surrounding the Hospice Care Center. Passersby saw a wonderful family, full of love and worry. But this was merely the surface, carefully crafted and preserved. Finally, they parked themselves by a picturesque lake. Seeing the straining relations, Jacob spoke up once more. “Well, wouldn’t you know it! I completely forgot my camera. Mira, dear, would you come help me look for it?” He asked in a strained tone. Mira nodded, and they left, telling the kids to stay put. But since when do teenagers listen? Susan walked to the rim of trees and disappeared to call her boyfriend, and Dave wandered off to go to the bathroom on a nearby tree.

And Tsukino, left to her own designs, stood shakily, and walked into the woods on the other side of the clearing.

“What do you mean, she’s gone?! Didn’t you stay with her?!?” Jacob yelled. See the two shifting guiltily, Jacob took off in the same direction as his daughter had, though completely unaware of that.

Bits and pieces. She could recognize them from her dreams. She had walked along this path before. Emerging from the wooded path, she saw him lounging underneath her dream tree. She stood still, her breath hitching at his beauty.
Slightly mussed brownish orange hair, pale, yet not too pale skin, pulled tightly over slightly defined muscles. He was slim, but his strength was obvious, flowing from him in waves. Wearing a long sleeved black shirt and extremely dark blue black jeans, his gaze turned to her, pinning her with his red eyes. It was him. Suddenly he was in front of her.

Letting out a startled squeak, she slipped and started to fall, but his arms had swiftly wrapped around, pressing her fully against him. Blushing furiously, she laid her head against his shoulder, her eyes sliding shut. His lips pressed against the crown of her head, and he brushed stray strands of her hair away from her ears.
“Lonely moon, will you come with me? The scent of death lays heavily upon you. Is this the right time you spoke of?” He softly whispered to her. She shook her head.
“I am coming, but I must wait for the final player in this dark game.”
He scowled at her cryptic reply, tightening his grip on her. She smiled, and wrapped her arms around his torso. “Don’t worry, I’m merely waiting for my father to come. He was kind to me, and I suppose he can see me once before I go.” Just as she finished this, her father burst from the tree line. Pulling carefully from his embrace, she smiled at her father.

“Tsukino! Tsukino, it’s dangerous out here! Please come here.” He pleaded with her, eyes darting fearfully towards the dark man holding his child. The youth yanked her close to him.
“Daddy, I’m leaving here now. You’ll be better off without me here. Besides, I’ve never really belonged here, in this world of light. Be happy. I will see you again.” And then she turned from her father, towards the yawning darkness of eternity. He grinned, fangs flashing in the waning moon’s light, and then they were gone.

The Marths mounted a missing child search that became legendary. But no matter how hard they searched, they could not find their little moon. Years passed, and times changed. The family became more strained, then less, after the odd disappearance that Jacob refused to speak of. Susan and Dave grew up, got married, had children. Mira died of a heart attack at age seventy one. Jacob got older alone, in a nice nursing home. Always he would stare at the last picture of his daughter. At age eighty four, he was confined to his bed. A year passed, everyone knew he was going to die soon.

Forty years after his child’s disappearance, September fifteenth, he lay alone in a dark room. ‘Now I know what she must have felt like, alone like this.’ Jacob thought to himself. ‘I wish I could see her one last time. Isn’t that what she promised me, all those years ago?’ He shut his eyes, tiredness washing over him. He felt a cool breeze flow into his room, even though he knew the window had been locked. Opening his eyes, he felt a pair of cool hands close over his wrinkled one. His hazel eyes began to fill with tears, for the face that he had most longed to see was there.
“Tsu…kino…” he whispered, reaching to her. She smiled, gently kissing his temple.
“I told you I would see you again, Daddy.” He gazed at his child, looking not one day older than from when she left. And the hazel eyes, once so like his own, were now a warm, dark red, resembling blood far too much.
“It’s time for you to sleep now.” Her gaze filled with sadness as his eyes shut for the final time. “Tsukino…my little…moon…I do so…love…you…” He was almost gone. Just before he slipped away, he heard her sweet reply, a smile gracing his features.

“Night, Daddy. I love you, too.”

"Not that evil...Not that good either!" -Happy Bunny

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