The Dream Shifter

Chapter 16

Yuki turned away from Ayumi and resumed walking up the side of the street. Unfortunately, Ayumi was still following behind him at his pace and he was quick to pick up on it. "Leave me alone, Stalker."

"I live in this direction as well." She closed the distance between them coming up along his side, but looked forward. The mood that he was in made it clear to her that he did not want to see her, but she figured that the nagging feeling behind was more annoying than being at the side.

Yuki stopped and turned to her only getting more annoyed by her presence. "You've got to be kidding me! Why do you think I would possibly believe that? I know for a fact that there are no houses that are open on my street, except for the Kitayama's and no one wants to buy it because of all the strange stories about them being involved with the Yazuka or the Triad or whatever."

"The neighbors said something about that. I didn't know what they meant."

"What?! You can't be serious…" Yuki said as his voice trailed off at the end as he remembered his sister saying something about movers last night over dinner. He began to slouch over nearly dragging his bag along the street. 'Why does she have to torment me?'

"Well I can't very well keep an eye on you if I'm not nearby."

"You really are a stalker…" He marched on with a heavy blue gloom hanging over him until he ran into street barricade that knocked him flat on his back. Yuki blinked in confusion until the pain in his stomach from the barricade finally spoke up. His hands held him with one eye closed trying to get through the stinging.

Ayumi walked over to him leaning over him checking to see how he was feeling. "You alright?"

"Huh?" Yuki pushed himself up sitting on the ground looking at the barricade in front of him. "When did get placed here? It wasn't here this morning."

"Looks like something happened."

Yuki stood up dusting himself off and walked around the blocked off area of the street. There were piles of a tree's trunk cut up in the street along with a lot of sawdust. He came to a slowed pace as he stared longer at the tree. The tree was old, but it was in no means weak from what he remembered. It looked like they had cut it down for some reason. Around the edge of the street was broken glass and on the opposite side of the street the grass was filled with branches and leaves as though the tree has been resting there. Yuki walked over closer to see that the ground was pushed down a little from the impact of the tree. "This tree fell…this tree…"

"Yes, this was the tree that you-"

"Shut up!" Yuki ran up the street not stopping until he was on the sidewalk in front of his house. He was bent over breathing heavily. Ayumi had arrived soon after him standing next to him with that same cold expression that she wore outside of the view of the public. "Leave me alone, Stalker. This is my house. Yours is further up."

"Indeed it is." Ayumi walked on past Yuki quietly not further pressing the matter. Her body had disappeared into the distance and passing students.

Yuki remained standing in front of his house for several minutes as his mind finally began to accept thoughts to flow. The quiet void had been replaced with a loud train station. It was almost deafening making him wish for the void nearly. There were too many questions and thoughts passing through him that he could not keep anything straight in his mind for longer than a second. He did not know what he was going to do. Finally, he took a step and reached his house eventually. "I'm home!" he said subconsciously.

"Yuki!" Ken said with Jun at his side as they arrived at the door to greet him. "Welcome home!" They attempted to latch on to him but found that he was slippery today and only collided into each other falling amongst the shoes. Yuki disappeared upstairs before they realized their mistake and closed the door quietly.

The room felt noisy even though he knew that it was only his head. He dropped his school bag on the ground and fell down on his bed burying his face in his pillow. The events of lunch played through his mind and the story from Ayumi. 'Heir…assassins…power…none of it makes any sense…but even still…' Every image spiraled around him refusing to let him ignore it. All his concentration was focused inward on this. He had nearly died today and was unable to do anything about it. There was something larger than him pulling him into a world that he did not understand and he was not sure if he wanted to accept it.

Saki seemed to have quickly taken it all in without a single question of it. Yuki did not understand why she did not freak out about what happened. She acted like it was an everyday occurrence and yet he was one that dreamed of these things happened. It was him that could not accept it. 'Am I so ground in fantasy that I can't believe it to be reality? What is it?' His thoughts spun around trying to think about it from different angles, but the more that he focused on it the more he was starting to realize that there was something else holding him back even deeper.

"Hey, Yuki!" Momoko shouted from the side of Yuki's bed nearly in his ear.

It was enough to throw him to the ceiling and drop him back down on his bed face up frizzled. "Why you yelling?"

"Because you fell asleep. Now get moving downstairs and help me with dinner."

"Asleep?" Yuki looked around his room and then the window seeing that it was dark out. He stretched out his arms and back realizing quickly that she was correct. "Why you need my help?"

"I had to stay late for class and I have work in thirty minutes. So you need to help if we're going to have a meal in time. Now out of bed!" Momoko grabbed Yuki by his ear in his protests and brought him to his feet. She waited until he was in front of him and moving to the stairs before she started out of his room.

"I can't believe I have to help with dinner…" Yuki said slouching over again a little. He could see his little brothers running around the first floor of the house playing some game. All he wanted to do was sit in a corner and do nothing, but his sister was not going to let him. She began to drag him by the arm into the kitchen when he suddenly slipped on a pool of water bringing Momoko down with him.

Momoko crashed against the wall of the stairs alerting Jun and Ken. Yuki was still stunned by what happened, but Momoko was already getting to her feet. "Yuki…watch your step…next time…" Her voice trailed off almost not finishing her sentence.

Yuki rubbed his head in pain feeling his back crawl in needles as well. "Well make sure you clean up Ken's messes then." He slowly pulled himself up shaking his head still feeling uneasy from lunch. His hand was pressed in the pool of cold water and when he realized this he brushed it against his school uniform to dry it. When he looked at his hand to check if it was not any worse he saw that it was stained red. From above him a red drop fell into his palm drawing his head and gaze up. His eyes drew out wide and his pupil's shrank in horror and surprise. "Blood? On the ceiling?"

"It's everywhere!" Ken said jumping up and down in an expanding pool of blood nearby them. He did not understand what it was only finding it to be a similar to water after it rained and just as fun.

Momoko and Yuki looked around the house confirming for themselves that the house was being covered in blood for no apparent reason. Yuki could see panic slowly wash over Momoko as he stood up and watched her run for Ken and Jun. Yuki watched paralyzed as every surface was slowly engulfed in blood. Once all was crimson the ceiling above him suddenly gave way filling them up to their knees in a pool of blood. It felt like it was crawling on him and soaking through his skin. His paralyzed body could not move and his mind was empty screaming through his mouth that would not budge. All that Yuki could do was shake in uncontrollable horror as his house was pulled part.

All that remained in their house was the first floor walls now as all of the furniture had fallen apart as well anything above them. The cloudy night sky with thin rays from the moon poured down on him tinting the blood an eerie color. Blood filled up to their necks finally gave out with the walls collapsing spilling countless gallons of blood into the yard and street. The sight was the same next to them as there was nothing, but a field of blood on everything. The neighbor's house was falling apart in a bloodied mess accompanied by screaming.

A heavy splash like the sound of a foot echoed through the area into Yuki's ear. The paralysis ended, but he collapsed to the ground in fear as every muscle in his body that had been tensed relaxed letting him go free. His mind was empty, but his body understood all too well. All he could do was sweat and shake violently making ripples in the blood. "Yuki Hayashi..."