The Dream Shifter

Chapter 37

The low groans and sounds from Saki caught up to Hiroshi pulling his head up and turning to Saki. When he confirmed that he was not dreaming it he turned to the kitchen. "Yuki! Saki's awake!" Saki was already trying to sit up, but a pained bite across her lips pulled Hiroshi back. "Hey, don't overdo it. Just lie down."

"Yuki…"

"Saki?" Yuki said from the edge of the living room before he sprinted over to her side dropping to the floor to meet with her eyes. "Saki! I-I…" Relief and joy overcame his words choking them before they could get out. He reached out his hand resting it on her hand needing to have the contact to remove any thought he could be dreaming. "Saki…"

Hiroshi stepped in between the two seeing that Yuki was too buried in his feelings to be able to talk properly. "I think what he's wanting to say is 'how are you feeling?'"

"Where am I?" Saki said trying to look around from her position, but finding it too difficult to move. She tried to pull back away from all of the faces that she was getting in front of her becoming unnerved by the attention.

"You're in my house," Yuki said.

Saki was feeling a little better and broached the effort to sit up. This time her body did not protest as painfully for her, but it put Yuki on edge. She gave him a comforting smile to ease his concern that she could read so easily.

"Easy. You were banged up pretty good," Hiroshi said trying to give his aid to Saki where he could.

"What am I doing in your house?" she said once she was sitting up on the couch with the blanket on her lap. She was getting looks from the others and feeling like she was an invalid. It was a helpless feeling that she did not like.

Yuki, Hiroshi, and Ayumi turned their heads to each other in silent stares as though they were communicating with each other without words. When they finished their telepathy Yuki leaned in having become the elected leader. "Well, we were sort of hoping that you could tell us. We found you down the street barely standing before you collapsed in front of us. We brought you back here so that you could rest." At the end of Yuki's words, they lean in a little towards Saki awaiting an answer to the mystery.

Saki pulled back from the ganging up that she was receiving from her friends coming to a loss at their reactions. Her mind was still catching up to what was happening to her immediately that she had not thought about why she was in the state that she was. "I collapsed? Outside…" Various images caught in the filters of her mind were slowly piecing together events. 'What was it… I was…' Saki tried to go back to the start when it happened. "I was… doing something… important I think…" The gears were turning in her head, but it was slowly dragging their feet along as though they did not want to be let outside for everyone to see. Saki pressed her palm against her forehead pushing through her hair straining at the edge of her memories.

"Important? What were you doing?" Hiroshi said pressing her.

Having Hiroshi in her face made her angry almost instantly. She threw her other hand out hitting him on the top of his head with her fist. "Stupid, I'm trying to remember. So shut up!"

The assault was enough to quiet Hiroshi and turn him a little blue while Yuki and Ayumi stared sweating in embarrassment. "Guess she's feeling better…" he said under his breath.

"Did it have anything to do with why you were late to class yesterday?" Yuki said hoping that it would help trigger something for Saki.

'Yesterday… Hitomi!' A light in her mind had just turned on revealing how all of the pieces fit together for her. All of the events from the other day came back to her so quickly that she was overwhelmed with the memories. Saki took a heavy breath propping herself with her hand against the couch as she played through the images that became memories.

"Saki!? Are you alright?" Yuki said quickly coming to her aid placing his hand on her hand looking up at her unable to hold back the wrinkled panic that was enveloping him. "You should lie down."

Saki pulled herself back up having caught her breath and leaned against the couch. "No… I just remembered it too quickly. I'll be fine."

"So you know what happened?"

Saki evened out the blanket on her lap before she began her story. "After school, I was with Hitomi, from the track. She was worried about a friend of hers who had gotten sick. She wanted me to go with her to Takako's house…" Her mind went back to the day before walking through the steps that lead up to what happened. It was the only way she could sort and process everything that was hitting her at once.

A minute later of waiting a reply over the speaker came. "Yes? We aren't interested in anything you're selling." The voice was deep and old with a little c***k in the speech. It made the two girls step back expecting that they would see someone rather than a voice.

"U-Uh…I'm sorry," Hitomi said finding the courage to speak while Saki kept a placid face trying to look like she belonged. "We aren't selling anything. We're classmates of Takako."

"I see. Well, Miss Takako is not here currently."

Hitomi looked back at Saki as though she was expecting an answer to explain what she was just told. It was plainly clear to her that the instant glance at Saki told her that she had no answers. She turned back to the speaker. "What? But we were told that she was sick. We have her assignments for her."

"You may leave her things in the box. I'll inform her of your visit. Thank you." The voice ended and a clicking sound that seemed to tell them silently to leave.

"What does this mean? The school says she's sick and her family says she's out." Hitomi looked back at Saki wanting something from her this time. She was at a loss as to what was going on, but there was something being hidden by someone.

Saki had no more of a clue to what was going on than Hitomi, but it had been made clear to them that someone was lying. She did not know why they were doing it, but this was not going to be as simple as she thought anymore. 'What's going on?' However, it was clear to her that it was going to be impossible, short of breaking into the grounds, of getting anything more from her family or even confirming if she was home or not. She turned away from the gate walking back into the street still pensive over the contradiction.

Hitomi rushed over to Saki's side when she saw that she was no longer near. The worry was still heavily plastered on her face unwilling or unable to be pulled away. The mystery that they faced only made it more difficult for Hitomi to be brought to ease. "What should we do, Saki? None of this makes sense. Saki?"

Saki had become cornered again through her thinking and Hitomi was not going to let her go until she gave some sort of answer, hopefully, the right one. Unfortunately, there were no answers that she had come up with. The facts were too few to work with and they were cut off at every chance. They were left with little to nothing. 'If only there was some way or someone that would listen and be able to get the answers for us. Heh…if it was that easy I wouldn't be out here. Wait…that might be it…' Saki knew someone that she could talk to that would get an answer for her that she could press for more than just a simple line. "We can talk to my dad. He's a teacher at the school. So he should be able to get some answers for us."

"Really? He'd help us?" A hopeful shine came across Hitomi from Saki's offer. It seemed to brighten everything up in her features.

Saki nodded back to her. "Yup! It's probably too late to find him at school, but I'll talk to him when I get home. Alright?" The delay did not sit well with Hitomi and Saki picked up on it immediately. She thought quickly grabbing up her hands to console her. "I'll call you after I talk to him. It'll be alright."

"Thank you, Saki. I'm sorry I'm causing you so much trouble."

"It's fine. Now let's get back to the station before it gets too dark." Saki started taking Hitomi along with her away from Takako's house until she walked completely on her own. They slowly made their way through the narrow streets keeping the train station in their view as a marker. Saki was glad that Hitomi had calmed down, but feared what sort of answers she would get from her father.

Hitomi began to get ahead of Saki until she suddenly tripped over something that sent her to the ground roughly. She had managed to catch herself before it was too serious, but her palms were bruised. Saki rushed over to Hitomi's side to help her up. "What did I hit?"

"Probably just a crack."

"I think my leg's caught..." Hitomi looked up at Saki and then back down to see what was holding her leg in place. There was a thick vine that had become tangled around her ankle. "My leg won't…come free…" She pulled on her leg to break free, but the vine was stubborn. Saki helped her but still did not make any progress. Saki went to the source and grabbed the vine trying to break it, but it grew spontaneously wrapping around her arm.

"My arm! It's too strong…"

"Saki!" Hitomi screamed as more vines came up from the ground wrapped around Hitomi tying her to the ground. Fear and panic were quickly set in for her trying to reach for Saki for help, but her free arm was immediately grabbed by the vines and pulled back.

"Hitomi! Agh!" Saki was caught up in the vines just as quickly but managed to break her arms free snapping the vines. However, her victory was short as several even thicker vines than before grabbed her and tied her down to the street tightly. As she struggled to get free a purple flower grew from the vine around her neck. The flower bud grew to nearly half the size of her face before it stopped. It slowly opened itself facing towards her releasing pollen into her face that caused her to cough and feel lightheaded. "Hitomi…"

Before Saki lost consciousness she caught a shadowed figure staring down at her with a familiar circular badge shining on their left shoulder.