Earthbound: Right at Home [Complete]

Chapter 27: Of Fear and Blood

The room felt especially chilly now, even with the quilt.

You decide to wake up, placing your feet on the wooden floor, and this time it makes you shiver. The wooden floor almost felt like stepping on a sheet of ice. But after a while it warms up, and the cold of course goes away entirely when you finally put your socks on.

Ness of course wasn't in the room, you knew he was already down stairs probably eating or watching TV.

Like always his bed was his bed was neatly made, just lacking a quilt which you put back on his bed, folding up, getting dressed and heading down the steps.

Ness, however wasn't doing any of the things you predicted. The television was on, and the fruit basket was lacking one less apple from the other day. The core was probably in the garbage by now, because Ness was looking out the window.

Curiosity of course strikes you and you join him. Ness didn't really acknowledge your presence, so you assumed that he was lost in thought.

Looking out of the window, you noticed that the grounds were covered in a blanket of pure white snow that glittered in the sun. Snow still fell from the skies,  but it was bearable enough to walk in.

Excitement swelled in your chest as you couldn't help but smile at the scenery. You didn't know why the snow made you happy, or even gave you the slightest hint of nostalgia.

You noticed, however that Ness's expression was blank which was almost rare. You couldn't quiet tell what he was staring at or why he was so lost in thought, but you didn't need to be a psychic to tell that something was bothering him.

"You alright, dude?" You say, almost sounding too peppy for a person lacking in sleep.

Ness seemed to have flinched at your sudden introduction, but once he was snapped out of his thoughts he looked at you and smiled.

"Err... yeah I'm fine." He replies.

"Nope, somethings on your mind." You say, not buying it.

The smile quickly fell into a frown, he returned gazing out of the window and casually leaning on the wall.

"You can read it, you know." He says dryly.

"I'm choosing not to."

Ness seemed to glare at you for a second but then his eyes quickly soften.

"Ever get a memory that makes you cringe or suddenly feel sad?"

You nod knowingly.

"Well this weather triggered one."

You tilt your head, wondering what the memory could be, but knowing a list of possibilities you just nod your head knowingly.

"But you know what, I think this one memory just might help solve everything."

The excitement that swelled in your chest was quickly deflated and replaced with a hint of fear. Something that Ness quickly picked up.

He gently takes your hand, making you flinch as a light red streak crosses your cheeks.

"You'll be fine, alright?"

You look down at your feet, nervously.

"I promise."

You look back up at Ness, heat feeling your face, you cover it trying to hide the blush and the nearly goofy smile you were making. Of course, he picked this up and laughed.

He was still holding your hand... you noticed.

A silence rested between you two.

"Erm..." Ness says slightly blushing and putting your hand down.

You blink. "S-so are we doing anything today?"

Ness clears his throat.

"I do realize that you're gonna need a new jacket for this weather. The snows not stopping anytime soon, it looks like."

"Well at least its a nice snowfall and not a blizzard. I think we can survive... besides I haven't seen any shopping districts around town."

"I know where we can go." He smiled before grabbing your wrist.

Oh crap...

Suddenly the world around you started spinning as if you were traveling at light-speed. You stop, nearly falling to the ground as your scenes gather them selves together.

You were never going to get used to that.

You found yourself surrounded by beautiful tall buildings that scraped the skies. It was much busier than Onett. People were all over the place, shops and food places were all about.

This place seemed oddly familiar to you....

"Threed?" You say, turning towards Ness and questioning him.

"Hey, you remember?"

"Yeah, we went Christmas shopping here a long time ago..."

"Yeah, we did that one year when we had that huge snow dump." Ness added, shivering in the cold.

At that moment you also realized it was freezing and instinctively began to shiver.

Next time you two teleport you were forcing Ness into wearing a jacket.

"You're dad was there."

Ness seemed to cringe, but it seemed playful.

"Yeah, the day was long because of him. He just had to get everything on the list and mom was just as persistent."

"Yeah..." You shiver, chattering your teeth.

It came to a point where the cold became unbearable.

"Can we go inside before I freeze my arms off?" You say, stuttering over every other word.

"Good idea..."

You two stood up, letting the snow fall to the ground. Ness took the lead and you two started warming up.

Though in the middle of it all, you couldn't help but feeling... watched.

You didn't know weather or not this was part of being psychic, but you knew some one was following you. You were surprised Ness hadn't picked it up first, considering his powers were much more stronger than yours. Your heart started to increase dramatically with every step you took as you two neared a small shop at the end of the street.

Fear once again, swelled inside your chest.. but for  what... reason?

As you entered the shop, you saw someone of the corner of your eye.

A rather tall man who looked as if he didn't belong. You did not like the way he was staring at you, as if he knew who you were.

You wondered if Ness knew what was going on, bur decided to keep quiet. Being a psychic who could literally predict the future, and guess it right, that was entirely possible at this point.

You looked at Ness, who had stopped walking at this point.

He looked ready to fight.

'You knew they'd be hear, did you'  you thought, fear obviously taking over you.

'Yup.'  Ness replied simply as if he'd done this a million times before.

'Okay. I'm not sure weather or not to be  extraordinarily pissed at you or  extraordinarily impressed.'

'Why the first one?'

'I'm not ready to face them... we are walking into something deadly... and impressed because you've probably been planning this out for weeks.' 

Ness looked at you, his expression seemed serious.

'Remember what I said yesterday?'

You look up at him and say nothing.

'I'm not going back on my word.'

You nod, swallowing hard.