Chapter 9

Blackness, she couldn’t see a thing, if the blackness would just clear then it would be so much easier to see.  That white haired boy, the one in front of her, she didn’t know him but at least she had something to look at now.

He blinked at her, pink eyes flashed.  If she could just get to him, maybe he knew what was going on, she certainly didn’t.  She tried to call to him but no words would come.  Her arms felt too heavy to move.  It wasn’t that she was afraid, she just could not do anything.

Perhaps the boy was stuck here too, perhaps he couldn’t move; didn’t know what was happening either.  No, that wasn’t right.  She didn’t know how she knew but she did know that that boy knew exactly what was going on, he knew everything and he would tell her if she could only reach him.

‘Come to me,’ she pleaded silently, ‘come over here.’

He turned and looked at her, one white strand of hair falling across his pink eyes, “No, you come to me,” he said his voice rich and soft as velvet.

‘I can’t,’ she thought, knowing now that it didn’t matter whether she could actually speak or not, he would hear her somehow.

“You can!”

Nanako sat bolt upright in bed.  The image of the white haired boy was burned to the back of her eyelids, she saw him every time she closed her eyes no matter where she turned them.  That was too weird, it must have meant something.

Thankful she hadn’t taken her clothes off before falling asleep she jumped up and ran out into the hall.  All the lights were out and the place was eerily quiet, there was no sign of life from anywhere in the house.  She glanced around herself, a shiver from the chill of the dream trickling down her spine and tried to shake off the feeling the dream had left her with.

Heading for the spare bedroom where Nezaki now slept she couldn’t shake the image of that boy from her mind.  He was someone important, he meant something to her – or would – and she had to find out what.  This time Nezaki would tell her, he would tell her if she had to choke it out of him.

She walked straight into the bedroom and up to the bed.  The way she saw it she didn’t have to knock, this was her house after all and she hadn’t exactly invited him as such so he was hardly a guest.  Nezaki was lying on his back, one arm raised above his head on the pillow, the duvet resting to cover anything lower than his waist.  Nanako registered that he was not wearing a top but, for once, this did not matter.

“Nezaki,” she called shaking his shoulder, the fingers of his hand twitched but he did not wake, “Nezaki.”

He wasn’t going to wake up, not easily.  She scrambled up onto the bed, straddling his hips so she was sat on him and, grabbing both his shoulders shook him hard.

“Wh-what?” he blinked himself awake and looked up at her, “Nanako?  What is it?  What happened?”

“I had a dream,” she wondered how to explain about the boy in a way that would get her the answers she so longed for.

“Ahh, was it a scary dream?  Well I’m not your mother Nanako, go tell someone else.”

“No,” she glared at him, “there was a lad in it, white hair, pink eyes, it felt like he should mean something to me, should he?  Do you know him?  Do you know the boy I’m talking about?”

Nezaki blinked up at her, “an albino?” she nodded, “yeah, I know him well.  What did he say?”

“He said I should go to him, only I don’t know where he is.  I don’t even know who he is!”

Nezaki shifted his hips, reminding Nanako of where she was sat, and ran his hand back through his golden hair, “I know where he is, and I know how to get there too, but you have to think about whether or not you actually want this because once we go things will get a lot harder and you may find yourself wishing you had never gone in the first place,” he looked up at her, eyes inquisitive, “Nanako… get off me.”

Nanako blushed lightly and cleared her throat, slipping off him and sitting on the corner of the bed, “So… who is he?”

“He’s… he’s a prince of a nation and you, well, you have to help him defend his kingdom.”

“Me?  How can I help him?  I can’t help myself half the time, and what nation exactly?  I’ve never heard of any albino princes.”

“He’s the leader of the Ademot race and you do have power and he can teach you how to use it, I’m sure of that,” Nezaki didn’t look like he was joking.

“But I thought you said that there are no other Ademots on Earth, so how can there be a whole nation of them?”

“I don’t believe I mentioned anything about him being on Earth.  I’m talking about the dimension of Eclabor.  You obviously didn’t know anything about other dimensions, but let me tell you, there are a lot, and this is just one of them,” Nezaki looked at her sympathetically, “if you want to go then we can go and it is where you are supposed to go.”

“According to this prophecy thing again?  This is starting to annoy me now.  I asked about what I was supposed to do a while ago and you couldn’t tell me then.  Now I’ve had a stupid dream about an albino prince who I have to help defend a nation that I’ve never heard of and you can suddenly tell me about different dimensions,” she wondered how much more he had to tell her and what else there was that she didn’t know yet.

“I’ve already told you, I don’t make the rules, if it was up to me you wouldn’t have to go at all because, honestly, it doesn’t have anything to do with you and it isn’t fair to ask you to do this.

He did look sincere and she wondered what it was she would be asked to do once she was there, because now she had to go, didn’t she?