Just Unique: Beginning

CHAPTER IX

We stopped at the edge of the forest and peered out. I let Captain scout ahead, so we would know if it was safe or not. Captain gave off a call, and we walked out of the hiding place. She landed on my shoulder, and I gave her a nice pat.

"This is where you live! So cool!" Sugar squeaked. I gave her a nod. I felt a hand on my shoulder.

"So, what are we doing here?" Mei asked. I gave her a look.

"To find out what that dream meant," I said and walked on. I walked to the door and turned to see if everyone followed. I gave them a nod and opened the doors. It didn’t look any different. It was filled with students. Some I know, some I don’t. They all stopped what they were doing and looked in our direction. In an instant, whispers started to go around. My eye started twitching in anger. They don’t have to talk as if I'm not here.

"Yuki, Yuki, Yuki. So, you are not dead," Ronku, my rival, laughed as he walked up. I gave him a dirty look.

"And I can see that you’re not either, yet," I snapped back. He gave me a slick look. I gave him one back. Sugar said something, but I didn’t hear her. Ronku pulled his bokken (a training sword made of wood. also known as a bokuto), and he charged at me. I picked up one and deflected his attack. He growled with frustration. Footsteps came and we stopped.

"Why do I not hear training? I leave to my office for one second and--" He brought his eyes up and looked dead at me. I gave him a look back.

"Hello... father," I said. His eyes went big with tears as he ran and embraced me in a hug.

"Now I see how he can deal with you," I heard Shino mumble to Ember. I pushed myself out of his embrace.

"Your breath smells like alcohol," I grunted. He looked at me with this annoying look he gives me.

"I just had a little, why don’t you help out here and--" I put my hand up.

"No, we need to talk. Now," I demanded. he looked at me with concern, then pointed to his office. Everyone watched as we walked by, one tried to reach for me. I gave her a look of confusion.

"Looks like you got fans," Mei teased. I gave her a small shove. We all walked into his office, and I closed the door. Father pointed to a chair, and I sat down.

"So, what do you need to talk about?" he asked. I watched as he got another drink.

I gave a grunt, "father, how did mom and Farro die?" I said, he choked and gave me a look. Father put his cup down.

"I told you how they died. Why do you want to hear it again?" he said eying me with every word. I hesitated, wondering how to answer.

He kept going, "your mother died in a car crash. Your brother from Pneumonia. You saw the hospital bill. Do you remember now?" I gave him a scowling look. He grunted.

"I want to know the truth," I said. Father looked at me confused. Sayu in the others stayed back and listened.

Guess I'm getting no help from them. Sugar smacked my arm, stay out of my head sugar! She stuck her tongue out at me.

"I don’t know what you mean by 'the truth', but I told you how they died," He said, sitting down in his chair.

I took a deep breath and told him about my dream. We sat in silence after that. Father broke the silence.

"I don’t know how you came up with that, but I told you the truth. People have nightmares all the time my son, it doesn’t mean that it really happened. How many times do I have to tell you this?"

His voice was calm, but his eyes told me he was hiding something. I gripped the arm of the chair in frustration.

"So, you are not going to tell me the truth," I said standing, my body shaking with anger.

"Why? Why can’t you just tell me?! There is no way someone can make something like that up! It was too real to be a dream. Why can’t you just tell--" he gripped my collar and I felt a hand go across my cheek. It stung and I tasted blood. Sayu gasped, Sugar started crying. He let go and I looked down.

"I understand." I grabbed Sugar, who was still crying, in my arms and walked out.

<><><>

We were far in, when I finally stopped. I felt a hand on my shoulder, and I put Sugar down and turned. I felt Romeo’s arms around me, and I put mine around him. Then, I felt them. Each tear stinging my eyes as they fell. I stayed in his embrace and cried. I cried until the tears wouldn’t come. I felt Romeo’s words in my ear, echoing through my head, telling me that it will be okay. I let go of him and wiped my eyes. My cheek wasn't stinging anymore. I gave Romeo a smile. Sugar pulled on my shirt, and I turned around. She was still crying, but not as much as she was.

“Does he always hit you?” she asked. I gave her a small smile.

“Well, I can say it wasn't the first,” I told her, and she gave me a worried look.

“ It's not nice to hit people,” she cried. I gave he a sorry look. Mei crossed her arms.

“I don't like him,” she announced.

Everyone shook their head in agreement. Shino looked at me.

"What are we going to do now?" he asked. I gave him a shrug.

"Guess I have to find out on my own."

They all gave me pitiful looks. I gave them a smile, then faded when a terrifying scream came. I looked around our area and noticed someone missing. I gave everyone a look and ran towards the scream. She was pinned against a tree.

"Sugar!" I yelled. She gave me a look of fear, the creature brought its paw up to rip through her, but I jumped in front of it before it could slash its claws into Sugar. I winced as the claws dug into my chest. I screamed in pain, blood leaving my body, hitting the ground. I gave the creature a good look. It looked like a lion mixed with a hawk, mixed with some other creature that I have seen in a book. A griffin? I thought. Everything was getting blurry. The griffin screeched and charged. I'm going to die here. I don’t want to die... I don’t want to die! I closed my eyes, and threw my fist at it. The griffin screeched a painful screech. I opened my eyes to see a blurry griffin face, it was steaming. Distorted, like it was burned.

"Sugar, Yuki! Are you--" Sayu's voice came to a stop as she looked at me.

"Holy shit!" I barley heard Ember yell. The griffin screeched at the others and ran away.

"Yuki! Your arms on fire!" Mei yelled. That's when I felt the weird sensation going up my arm, and I brought it up. I got scared, like they said, my arm was filled with bright blue fire! I couldn’t stop staring. What’s happening to me! I thought. Sugar yelled something, but it was blocked out. Everything started to go black, then nothing.