Karin:
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Not again.
Please, stop. It hurts.
I shrieked as his needle stabbed into me, injecting me with poison from Hell itself. It felt like acid was washing through my veins. My spine arched as the agony began to overwhelm me, but my tight constraints sent me back down on the hospital bed with a soft FWUMP.
My neck rolled to the side because I couldn't even hold my head up anymore. My face tickled as strands of sweaty hair cascaded across my cheeks. Unconsciousness, take me away, I prayed, my eyes scrunching tight to fend off the agony. The acid blood was surging through my arm now, racing towards my heart.
I opened my damp eyes to a plain, gray curtain.
I had seen this awful curtain a thousand times. It was the only thing between myself and the prisoner on the other side. The dreaded thing was always taut, obscuring any contact I might have with my poor roommate. Sometimes I could see the end of her pillows, or a lock of her raven hair as it tumbled across the side of the bed.
The doctor smiled as he saw his concoction working its way through my body. He scribbled something on his clipboard and abruptly turned to survey his next captive. He disappeared behind the barricade, yanking it harshly behind him as he went.
By now, the acid had flooded my rapidly beating heart. My breathing was ragged and panicked. Colorful speckles danced across my vision as unconsciousness began to take hold. Even so, I fought the sanctuary back, because I needed to see her.
Piercing red eyes were the last thing I saw before darkness won my body.
“Akira,” I gasped, lurching forward. No constraints. No pain. Not even a bed; there was just the soft whisper of a stranger.
“Karin, it’s me.” his voice was low and gentle. “You’re okay. You’re okay now...”
“But Akira’s-!” Realization stung me, and I suddenly noticed a gentle hand caressing my head. I could feel my face beginning to burn red. I glanced out the small window beside me to find nothing but clouds.
Not again.
“We’re on the plane coming back from Paris, remember? No one’s gonna hurt you up here. You’re perfectly safe. It’s okay...” He sounded like he was trying to convince himself more than me.
“I’m sorry, Sebastian,” I whispered, wiping the pesky tears off my eyelashes.
“What? It’s not your fault...” I felt his hand tremble as he pet my twitching ears, concealed from human eyes beneath my favorite beanie.
I gazed at my hands, too embarrassed to say anything else.
Wait, what is that? I twisted my wrist slowly, rotating it as it gleamed in the sun. A small, white mark appeared- exactly where the doctor had vividly pierced me in my nightmare. “Sebastian,” my voice cracked. I could feel my 300-beat-per-minute heart pumping in a panic. He sat up in his seat anxiously, ready to catch me if I fainted, which I kinda did a lot. “I have a scar that I’ve never...ever seen before.”
He shuffled his feet uncomfortably. “Karin, you got that scar when you were a kid, remember? You fell down and cut it on a rock, or something.” I began to scrutinize the miniscule scar. No... it was much too clean to be an accidental cut. It was a careful incision, right above my prominent vein. Besides, what was he talking about?
“I don’t remember that at all. Why do you?” I looked at him for the first time since I’d awakened. He was a little blurry from the lingering tears, but I could just make out the puzzled expression in his bright green eyes.
“I don’t know. You’re the one that told me about it,” He took my arm in his cold hands to investigate. “Yeah. I definitely remember. You were playing with Akira in the forest, and there were sharp rocks everywh-”
“What are you talking about?” I was seriously freaked out by now. I never played with anyone in a forest. I grew up in the city. Besides... “I only met Akira a year ago!”
“Okay, Karin, calm down...You’re probably just in shock because of the nightmare, right?” He put his arm around me and the next thing I know, the rest of my tears are soaking into his hoodie.
“It hurt so much, Sebby,” I cried quietly, my voice muffled by his body.
He held me tighter and cooed, “It was just a nightmare. None of it was real...”
“It’s real when it’s happening,” I murmured, clutching the fabric of his hoodie.
After we landed, I anxiously made my way through the crowd of humans with Sebastian, my eyes scanning the whole airport for my friend. She wasn’t holding a sign with my name on it or anything, but I still managed to spot her several meters away. She had her back to me-- big mistake.
“Akira!” I squealed, hopping over to her in excitement. Before she could turn around, I leaped onto her back like a little kid, my arms hugging her neck. She nearly fell, but managed to regain her composure and carry me, piggy-back style. It still amazes me how strong she is sometimes.
“Hey, Karin, I missed you, too,” she laughed, turning around with me to greet Sebastian. “Hey, how was Paris?”
“Fantastic, as always. It felt great, this time of year. I think Karin had a good time, right?” he giggled at the scene of me scrambling up Akira’s shoulders.
I grinned and tugged at the hat on Akira’s head that hid dark, fluffy ears. “You bet! It was so beautiful! I loved everything in that city! Well, other than...” my smile was lost as I slid down Akira’s back and let my feet touch the ground again.
“Other than what?” Akira queried, disturbed by the sudden change in mood. Her red eyes flickered over me carefully.
Sebastian explained in chagrin. “Karin...didn’t exactly sleep very well. It actually got a lot worse...”
Akira’s eyes narrowed very slightly, her expression serious. “Is that so...”
“Akira, I saw you,” I blurted. She stared at me, perturbed. “In the nightmare. You were there- in that awful place... with me, and- It was you. It was real. I was so-”
“Karin,” She halted me by spreading her hand out in front of her. The other was grasping the bridge of her nose as her mind whirled. “We’ll talk about this later. Let’s go home, okay?” Sebastian seemed relieved, but I certainly wasn’t. Suddenly all the long nights lost to fitful dreams and jet lag made me realize just how tired I was. Even then, I didn’t want to go to sleep anytime soon. I reluctantly obeyed Akira and followed her to the car with my eyes on the ground. On the short ride home, Sebastian kept me awake with a cold kiss on the cheek when it looked like I was about to doze off. I managed to fake a smile for him, because I knew it would make him feel better.
I was right, but ashamed at the same time.
Back at the house, Akira led us into the dining room, where she had already prepared a regal dinner fit for kings. Really weird kings with specific tastes, at least. Sebastian grinned impishly at the sight of raw steaks on his plate. When I saw the stacks of fresh fruit and veggies on my plate, my stomach growled happily. “Wow. Thank you, Akira.”
“It’s nothing,” she replied humbly, sitting down. “いただきます.” she murmured in Japanese.
“いただきます!” I chimed in reply.
“BON APPETIT.” Sebastian dug into his steak with his fangs gleaming. Akira donned her savage teeth as well, and I forced myself to look away as they tore apart their slabs of meat. Sometimes it’s hard to imagine these two carnivores are my best friends. In the meantime, I nibbled on my lettuce and apples, nervously waiting until it was safe for me to look up again.
“Okay, Karin.” Akira dabbed away any traces of blood on her lips. I looked up warily from my blueberries. She had licked her plate clean, and so had Sebastian. “Now tell us what’s wrong.”
I started to gush about all the nightmares I’d had since the trip to Paris. Every night was the same. I’d wake up screaming or crying from unbearable pain. It was always the same doctor, performing tests and experiments and surgeries without sedation. The most disturbing part was finding the same scars in my dreams upon my own body, with no recollection of how I really got them.
“Hmm...” Akira hummed, her mind trying to knit together a logical solution. She glanced at Sebastian for help, who just shrugged in reply. “This is really disturbing...and, you said you saw me there?”
“Yes, that was the worst part,” I swallowed past the lump of tension in my throat. “I saw Sebby a couple times too. Just talking to me at the foot of my bed.”
“Well, I was, sometimes,” Sebastian cut in, “If I saw you squirming, I’d hold your hand and try to wake you up. Your mind was probably just-- incorporating me into your dream or something.” I shook my head vigorously.
“But you were young. Your voice was different,” I protested. “And you weren’t trying to wake me up. You would just... talk to me. And then, you’d run away at the last second, like you were afraid someone would-” I shuddered, unable to keep going. Sebastian took my hand in his.
“Karin, we’re going to figure this out,” Akira said firmly, her hands balling up into fists. “Something about this whole thing is just really sketchy. And we’re gonna figure out what it is.”
“We are?” Sebastian stared, dumbfounded.
“Yes. There’s something I need to tell you guys, too.” My ears twitched up curiously. “I found something... really weird today. I didn’t really want to tell you guys until I figured out what it was, but now I’m starting to think it might have something to do with Karin’s visions...” She moved her plate out of the way before producing a small, shiny hard drive and her personal laptop. Sebastian and I scooted our chairs closer to see the file she was opening.
Instantly, an official looking program filled her screen. On the screen was a globe with several flashing dots of different colors. Sebastian and I traded looks of confusion before gluing our eyes back to the screen. Akira zoomed in on the globe, and I watched as the Globe spun into the U.S. and then Virginia, slowly zeroing in on our home. My eyes grew wide when I saw three little dots blinking monotonously.
“That can’t be us,” I laughed nervously. “Right? What is this, some kind of new GPS?” even as the words came out of my mouth I knew that wasn’t it.
“No, Karin,” Akira laughed. “Watch this.” She hovered over the dots, and text suddenly popped up above them. AKIRA E. CORNERS. . . SEBASTIAN de LEFÈVRE. . . TONIKU KARIN. . . I blanched. It even knew our names.
“What the hell?” Sebastian stood up and started pacing. “Okay, big deal. This is probably just some prank by a bunch of nerds. They make a BIG fancy program with a bunch of blinking dots and they think we're gonna freak out. I swear when I get my hands on them...”
“Sebastian, I admire your enthusiasm,” Akira droned sarcastically, “...but this is way too complex for a couple of nerds."
"Okay, so a lot of nerds-"
"Sebastian," Akira snapped, "It tracked you two across the Atlantic Ocean. This isn't a joke. I think this program can track Mythological creatures! Hear me out," she begged at the looks of evident disbelief on our faces. "What's the one thing we all have in common? We aren't human. And somehow, this thing knows that. There are more creatures out there that are like us! Don't you understand what this means?" her tail started wagging and I stared at Sebastian in concern. "We can use this to make the MCC!"
Sebastian facepalmed as I looked at her blankly. "The what?"
"It's... this thing," Sebastian began, his hand sliding down his face. "She's been dreaming about it since she was a kid. The 'Mythological Creatures Club.' MCC."
Akira huffed, "I'm being serious, Sebastian! I want to know what's going on, and these people," she gestured at the mass of dots scattered across the globe, "they might know something we don't."
Sebastian still looked skeptical, but he shrugged anyway. "Whatever, I'll join your club. Just don't expect me to be your errand-boy or anything, got it?" Akira was positively beaming.
"Wouldn't dream of it!" She turned to me and took my hands. "Karin, will you join, too?"
Her smile was like a child's awe on Christmas day. Contagious. "Of course I will, Akira-chan!" Her tail thumped back and forth as she jumped up to hug me.
As usual, I had no idea what I was getting myself into.
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Hey Guys! harvestmoonluvr here :)
I hope you liked the beginning of Karin's story! And well, the beginning of the MCC! <3
