The Tutor

Chapter 15: Knowing

When they got back to the suite, changed into their PJs, and started watching The Social Network, but Nick was nodding off within half an hour.

"Aren't you guys tired?" he asked, looking at Darcie and Sumire, who were sitting in the same bed, sharing a bowl of popcorn.

"Are you kidding?" Darcie asked in disbelief. "Andrew Garfield and Armie Hammer, doubled, in the same picture? I love this movie."

"Yeah, me too," Sumire chimed in with a smile.

"Well, I can't keep my eyes open," Nick said, sliding off the other bed. "Andrew and Armie's charms notwithstanding. I'm going to sleep in the other room, okay? See you in the morning."

The girls called out their goodnights without even looking away from the screen, and Nick left, shaking his head and chuckling.

By the time the movie was over, Darcie had fallen asleep as well, leaving Sumire in a bit of an awkward position. Technically, Darcie and Nick were supposed to be sharing a room, but now they were each sleeping in a different room; should she wake Darcie up and send her to Nick's room?

She decided that this would be picking at nits, and that there would be no harm in two girls sharing a room. She moved to the other bed and turned off the light, reflecting that she might come out of this week with another friend.

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Nick was roused from a sleep so deep that for a moment he had no idea where he was. Someone was shaking him.

"Nick! Nicky!"

"Darcie?" He sat up as she switched on the light. "What's the matter?" He blinked at her in the sudden light.

"You'd better come. Something's wrong with Sumire."

"What?" He was already getting out of bed as he oriented himself. He was in a suite at the Plaza. He glanced at the clock on the table. Three thirty-seven AM. "Where is she?"

"We fell asleep in the other room watching the movie," Darcie explained as she pulled him along. "She woke up making these weird noises. Hurry up!"

"Noises?" Nick picked up his pace and followed his sister, not at a run, exactly, but walking pretty quickly, in his bare feet and USC sweats and T-shirt, his usual sleeping attire. He could hear Sumire before he even got to the room, but at first his brain refused to believe the sounds he was hearing were even human.

"Is that her?" he asked Darcie as they crossed the lounge area. It sounded almost like the noises he heard whales make underwater on Planet Earth and other similar programs. It was a keening sound, soft and strange.

Darcie nodded and bit her lips together as they entered the room where she'd been sleeping.

Nick stopped dead when he saw Sumire, swallowing with a throat that was suddenly bone dry.

She was sitting up in the bed, with all of the blankets kicked off to the side. She looked very small in the middle of the large bed with her braid hanging down over her shoulder. Her eyes were half open, but he could tell she didn't see him or his sister.

She was crying.

This shocked Nick. He'd never seen Sumire cry before, not in all the time he'd known her. Not even when she'd been attacked had even one tear escaped her.

Her knees were drawn up, and her arms were wrapped tightly around them, her face tucked behind. Her mouth was open, making that odd, keening cry.

Then she spoke.