𝑬𝒚𝒆𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝑱𝒂𝒅𝒆：𝐴 𝐿𝑙𝑜𝑟𝑢𝑚𝑖 𝑆𝑡𝑜𝑟𝑦

Chapter Nine

•Harumi•

The morning after the night of the summer fireworks, I was awakened by the sound of my door opening, and someone gently shaking me awake. Lloyd.

"Rumi, wake up!" Lloyd whispers quietly but urgently. I groan and roll over, not processing the urgency in his tone.

"Rumi!" He says a little more loudly. I finally detect the urgency in his voice, and sit up quickly.

"What's wrong!" I say groggily and looking into his concerned eyes.

"Rumi, last night. Someone must have said something. It's..."

"What Lloyd!" I say with an urgent annoyance in my voice. "You need to tell me." I say seriously.

"Well, the word got around back to the police and the commissioner is here. Right now." He says looking back and fourth frantically between the door and myself. My eyes widen. This was bad.

"But I'm not going to let them take you away. You have changed Rumi. You're not the same person you were before. I just won't let them." He says as tears start to form in the corner of his eyes. I pull him into a hug. Now I was starting to cry.

"Hey." I say softly rubbing his back. "It's okay. It will be okay. I'll go talk to them. Whatever I have to do to be able to come back into your arms again, I will do it."

The truth was that I was terrified. I had done a lot of bad things, but I truly felt horrible for them. My past kept following me and affecting my future. I just wanted a second chance. Lloyd could see that, but I wasn't so certain that I could make the police and commissioner see that. They only saw the bad parts of me. Lloyd was different. He could see the good, even after all the wrong I had done.

"I'm not going to let anything happen to you." He says as he places his hands on top of my shoulders, and looks into my eyes. "I promise. I told you that I would protect you and I will. No matter the cost. I'm not going to loose you again."

I bury my head into his shoulder. A thousand thoughts start racing through my head. I might never see Lloyd again. I am going to have to re-live so many memories that I try to forget. We should have told the police department sooner that I had survived. We shouldn't have waited. This is going to hurt Lloyd. I'm am not ready for this.

"I'll be okay." I say to him reassuringly. I try to give him a small, teary smile. He nods, and pulls me into one more hug.

"They say for now, they just want to talk to you." He says looking at me. "Master Wu and the others have already told them the whole story, and have argued that you have changed, and are a new person." He sighs, closing his eyes. "I just want them to not put you through all of this. There has to be another way. There is always another way." A tear falls down his face as I place my hand on his cheek.

"Hey, it's going to be okay." I say, wiping away the tear with my finger.

"I just don't want to lose you again." He whispers.

"I know..." I sigh. "And I don't want to lose you."

We hold each other in each other's arms for a minute, until Kai comes in.

"Guys. We can't keep them waiting for this long. They are mad enough as it is. You need to come out here." He says frantically.

Lloyd and I both get up, and I grab a hoodie, throwing it on over my T-shirt and shorts. Lloyd takes my hand, and we walk out to the living room together.

Two policemen and the commissioner are standing and talking to Master Wu. When Lloyd and I enter the room, the commissioner locks eyes with me, and glares. I bite the inside of my lip to stop the tears from falling out of my eyes. Lloyd squeezes my hand.