Kami Cursed (Dragon and Phoenix) (2 page)

Ryuu grabbed a long
black jacket off the back of the plastic chair and hurried toward the door,
leaving behind the scent of leather and something else, something smoky and
flowery at the same time.  It was strange.  My Ryuu didn’t smell like that.  Pausing,
he glanced back at me, looking dark and strange.  “Don’t worry, Kit.  I’ll be
back.  We’ll come and take you home.” 

Then that
weirdness about him vanished and he was just a kid, pushing through the door
and into the hallway with an excited bounce in his step.

The nurse shook
her graying blond head and closed the door firmly behind him.  Then she turned
to me.  She wore her hair pulled back in a slick, severe bun, but the lines
around her eyes were soft.  I could see that she was being careful, like she
expected me to freak out.

“Don’t let that
boy get you all riled up, honey.  He’s a sweet thing, but he’s got a terrible
habit of making up stories.”  She sighed.  “Besides, we all know how much he
upsets you.  I won’t let him back in here today.”

“He doesn’t
upset me.”  In fact, Ryuu’s weirdness was the only familiar thing- it was kind
of comforting that at least
that
was still the same.  “Where am I?” 

My voice still
sounded strange to me.  I tucked my knees up under my chin, curling my toes
into the mattress.

She barely
glanced at me as she went to the pressboard dresser in the corner and started
taking out a change of clothes.  “You’re at Birch Hill sweetheart, just like
yesterday.”

I didn’t know
much about Birch Hill, just enough to know that it was a place for crazy
people.  Not fourteen-year-old girls. 

“No,” I said
slowly.  Why didn’t she understand?  “Yesterday I checked out a book from the
library and went to walk home from school with Ryuu.  And today I’m here.  How
did I get here?”  My breath caught and my chest started to ache.

She stopped and
looked at me with wide eyes.  “Calm down honey, it’s okay.” 

I couldn’t
breathe; my lungs weren’t working right.  Everything felt wrong.  “What’s wrong
with me?  My body doesn’t feel right!”

The nurse
crossed the room and pushed the little button attached to my bed.  A crackling
sound came over the speaker in the bedrail, followed by a bored male voice. 
“What can I do for you?”

She leaned over
the little speaker.  “Hey Joe, its Wendy.  I think we should call Dr. Norton. 
Something’s up with 103.”

More crackling. 
“Okay, I’ll let him know.”

Then she turned
to me with a soothing smile.  “C’mon honey, you can take your shower while we
wait for the doctor.  He’ll explain everything.”

*****

I stepped out of
the shower, refusing to look in the mirror while I dried off.  Seeing my reflection
the first time had been enough of a shock.  I wasn’t doing it again.  I’d grown
up.  Overnight.  My flat chest was gianormous, I was taller, and everything was
all wrong- my legs were too long, my feet were too big, and I had trouble just
moving around.  Had I really been here for three years?  Why couldn’t I
remember?  When I tried, all I got was a pain in my head and burst of fear.  So
I stopped trying.

I smoothed the
towel over my new arms and legs, not believing what my eyes and hands were
telling me.  I’d been fourteen yesterday.  Today I was seventeen.  I was
awkward, gangly, and beyond uncomfortable.  I grabbed the sink to steady myself
as I stood on one foot to dry the other.  My dad had always teased me, saying sarcastically
that he should have named me Grace.  Man, he’d laugh his butt off now.

There was a
commotion from outside the bathroom door and I could hear muffled voices.  One
of them was smooth like silk- the new Ryuu- and the other was probably my
father.  There was a third male voice that I couldn’t place.

I pulled my clothes
on while they argued.  A sports bra, a t-shirt with a rhinestone rose, and some
stretchy, fitted jeans with narrow legs that felt all wrong.  None of the
clothes were familiar to me, and I wondered where they’d come from. 

“There is just
no way this sort of thing could happen,” the stranger’s voice was saying.  “I
don’t want you to get your hopes up Mr. Callahan.”  His voice was dripping with
disapproval.

 Ryuu’s voice
was soft, but filled with anger and impatience.  “It’s her.  I’m telling you,
she’s woken up from the thing that was possessing her.”

Dad laughed
nervously.  “She wasn’t
possessed
Ryuu.”  His voice was thin and he sounded
tired.

“Even if she has
overcome whatever caused her to become unstable, we don’t know what kind of
mental state she’ll be in.”  The doctor said, in a tone that made me think he
had said this before, and that he thought they were both idiots.  “You won’t be
able to just take her home, Mr. Callahan.  People don’t spontaneously recover
from this sort of illness.”

Tired of hiding,
I opened the door and stepped into the room.  They all stared at me.  Dad
rushed forward and took my hands.  Ryuu hung back.  He stood beside the guy in
the long white coat, but it was like there was a wall between them.

“Kit, honey, do
you recognize daddy?”  My Dad looked terrible.  His eyes were red and his skin
looked kind of saggy.  He hadn’t shaved in a while, and he stank.

“I…think so…”  My
eyes found Ryuu and he lifted one shoulder in a shrug.

Dad pulled me
into his arms in a puff of fumes, then stepped back again, grasping my
shoulders.  “Look at her Doc,” he said excitedly.  “Look at how clear her eyes
are.”

“
Y
ou really don’t
remember anything since that time with the book?” Ryuu asked once Dad had left
with the doctor.

I shook my head,
looking down.  It was hard to look in his eyes.  He was my Ryuu, and not my
Ryuu at the same time.  “Well,” I said hesitantly, a misty memory tugging at my
brain, “there was something…but it’s really dumb.”

I glanced at him
and he nodded encouragingly.  “What?  This is me you’re talking to.”

I shrugged. 
“Well…there was this dream, but I only know it was a dream now.  At the time it
seemed so real.” 

I pointed at the
vase on my desk.  “There was a whole field of flowers.  But they weren’t real
flowers, they were like that.”  Three intricately crafted paper flowers filled
the vase, each of them different, but all in vibrant shades of blue.

Ryuu picked up a
flower and twirled it between his long fingers.  When had his hands gotten so
big?  I remembered when they felt small in mine- fragile.  When I’d protected
him from the bullies, and walked him home from school…

 “These?”  His
dark eyes watched my face intently.  I couldn’t handle those eyes just yet, so
I looked away.

“Um…yeah.  They
were just like that- but there were so many- a whole field filled with them.  I
would walk through them and they made this swishing sound against my legs. 
Sometimes I laid down in them and looked up at the sky.” 

I grinned.  “It
was purple, the sky I mean.  Purple with puffy pink clouds.”  It had been way
more girly than anything a tomboy like me would normally imagine.

Ryuu smiled at
me.  “That’s good.  It sounds like a nice dream.”

I frowned,
trying to remember.  “I think it was.  I loved the flowers.  I felt like I
could look at them for hours.  Sometimes I wanted to leave, and the dragon
wouldn’t let me- but I was never scared.”

Ryuu’s smile
faded.  “Dragon?  I never put a dragon in there.”

I stared at him
for a minute.  “What?”

He shrugged and
rubbed the back of his neck, looking embarrassed.  “When you went under- when
you were cursed,” his eyes met mine.  “Or crazy, or whatever,” he waved his
hand dismissively, knowing that I would argue the point.  “I couldn’t get near
you when you were awake.  Other people were fine, but the minute you saw me…
well, you wanted to kill me.”

I stared at him. 
“I wouldn’t do that.”

He laughed. 
“You almost strangled me the first time.  After that we knew what to expect, so
the staff was more careful.”

He reached out
and took my hand and I had that moment of right-wrongness again.  It felt
familiar, holding his hand, but it felt all wrong.  “I know it wasn’t you,” he
said seriously.  “It was that thing inside you.  The curse hated me.  And it
got worse the longer you were under.”        

 He paused,
tilting his head to the side, considering.  “I think it knew somehow.  I think
it sensed that I could drive it out.”

I shook my head,
struggling to make sense of even half of what he was saying.  “And the
flowers?”  I tried desperately to bring this odd conversation back on track.

“Right.  Well, I
found out that the only time I could be with you was when you were sleeping. 
The thing seemed to go dormant for a bit and I could sit here and watch over
you.”

He sounded so
old. 
Something about the way he said
watch over,
like I had been in
danger, made the back of my neck tingle as if someone was watching me right then.

Ryuu didn’t seem
to notice that he was freaking me out.  “Well, I thought since it wasn’t trying
to kill me when you were sleeping, maybe that meant that I could reach you on
some level.”  He shrugged and looked down at his hands.  “So I talked to you. 
I built you a garden in my mind, and I tried my best to…I don’t know,
send
it to you.”  He looked up, excitement overtaking his embarrassment.  “I can’t
believe it actually worked!”

I frowned at
him.  “So you think you- what, made my dream?”

He nodded,
ignoring my raised eyebrows.  “Sorry.  I was younger.  I tried to make it as
girly as I could.”  He scowled.  “But I didn’t put a dragon in there.  That
must have been your subconscious.  Or maybe it was part of the curse.”  He seemed
completely oblivious to how insane he sounded right now.  “Did the dragon try
to hurt you?”

I shook my
head.  I didn’t have a clue what to say.  “No.  It mostly left me alone.  It
was a smoky silvery color, like a ghost, and it would prowl around the edges of
the field where it was dark.  If I tried to leave, it would block me.”

I shrugged. 
“Every once in a while there was this guy; I could never see his face, but he
had long black hair in a pony-tail.  And he wore these weird white robes.  When
he was there, the dragon would wrap itself around him and they would walk
around and around the edges of the field together.” 

I picked at the
seam of my jeans.  “Weird, huh?  But when I was dreaming it all felt normal.  I
knew the guy and the dragon weren’t going to hurt me.  I wasn’t scared of them-
in fact, I felt better when they were there.  But at the same time, I knew that
I really didn’t want to make them mad.  So I just stayed where they wanted me
to stay.”

Ryuu muttered to
himself.  “Huh.  Some sort of guardian… it must have been protecting you from
the kami’s curse.”

He frowned,
looking a little deflated.  “You never saw me, though?  In your dream?”

I shook my
head.  “Was I supposed to?”

He shrugged,
suddenly looking younger again.  I was starting to get used to the way he
shifted back and forth, but it was still a little odd.  “I tried.  I imagined
standing there telling you everything was okay.  It must not have worked.  It’s
not like I knew what I was doing.  I’m just making this stuff up as I go.”  He
twirled the flower between his fingers again.  “I wonder though… well...never
mind.  I’m glad I could get to you.”  His smile was filled with relief- Ryuu,
but not Ryuu. 

I gestured
toward the flower he was holding.  “Where did those come from anyway?”

His cheeks flushed
and he looked away.  “I made them,” he muttered.

I took the
flower out of his hand and studied it, amazed.  “You did?”

He nodded. 
“Origami,” he explained.  “I had to have something to do while you slept.”

I laughed at the
thought of a boy sitting around folding flowers.  But my laughter died out pretty
fast.  He had been by my side for three years, not knowing if I was ever going
to snap out of it. 

All of the
sudden, I was worried for this new Ryuu.  He’d been through so much.  He’d lost
both his parents in a car accident and moved here with his stupid, boy-crazy
aunt when he was just ten.  My dad, who was a complete stranger to him at the
time, had given him a place to stay when his only living relative forgot about
him.  His size, Japanese features, and that hint of weirdness he’s always given
off made him an easy target for the bullies in our podunk little town. 

Being older, I
had protected him from the other kids.  But then I’d suddenly and up and gone
insane.  Maybe all this talk about curses and dreams was just his way of
dealing with stuff that would drive a normal kid crazy.  Maybe he wasn’t so “stable”
himself.

“Hey!  I almost
forgot.”  He dropped my hand, startling me out of my thoughts, and went to riffle
around in his book bag.  “I brought you something.”  He pulled a book out of
his bag and came to sit next to me on the bed. 

I leaned close
to peek at the title, old memories flooding my mind.  How many afternoons had
we spent under the big old tree in my backyard, me reading stories to my
strange, motherless little friend?

I curled up on
my pillow beside him.  This time Ryuu read to me, and his different but
familiar voice- deeper, but still smooth like silk- lulled me to sleep.  It
wasn’t much of a dream, but as I drifted off, I saw the strange man.  The
silvery dragon was wrapped around and around his body like a living garment,
always moving, flowing like water.  He raised his hand toward me and there was
a soft tinkling sound.  His face stayed shadowed, but the dragon’s eyes met
mine and they were a glowing golden topaz.  Then I tumbled over into dreamless sleep.

*****

The next week
was a blur.  I met with a neuropsychologist who had me take a bunch of tests,
look at pictures, and put together all kinds of odd puzzles.  Dr. Norton, who
turned out to be the medical director of the facility, gave me a butt load of
physical tests.  I even had the joy of having my head scanned and my blood
tested for about a million things I’d never even heard of, and couldn’t
pronounce if I tried.

It was a bright,
sunny Thursday afternoon when Dr. Norton sat down with my dad and me to review
the results.  Ryuu was there too, dark and brooding, but he was told off by the
adults, and had to wait outside.

I took a seat in
one of the uncomfortable orange chairs across from the Doctor’s big, shiny
wooden desk.  Dad sat beside me, holding my hand in a death grip.  His own hand
was shaking, and his eyes were still red and watery behind his wire-rimmed
glasses. 

Dr. Norton ran a
hand through his thinning, snow-white hair.  Then he slipped a report out of a
soft folder with my name written on it in thick black letters.  “I’ve read
through the results of the psychological testing.”  His hazel eyes met first
mine, then my father’s.  “This is a very unusual case.  I’ve never seen
anything like it in my twenty years of practice.”

I shifted
uncomfortably, wishing he would just spit it out already.  Dr. Norton had a way
of making you squirm while you waited for whatever it was he was about to tell
you.  You could tell right off that he wasn’t used to dealing with kids- at
least, not kids who weren’t punks and druggies.  “Kit seems to have made a full
recovery from the severe mental distress that she has demonstrated for the last
three years.” 

He let out a
long sigh.  “In all honesty, I’m dumbfounded.  Things like this just don’t
happen.  It’s like something from a corny television show.”  He said frankly.  “The
only remaining anomaly is the total lack of memory of that time.” 

Dad scooted to
the edge of the chair, glancing between me and the doctor.  “She doesn’t
remember it at all?”

I shook my head,
but it was the doctor that answered.  “She has amnesia beginning from just
before her seizure activity until the day her friend says she ‘woke up’.  To
Kit, it feels like she’s been here for about a week.”

Dad squeezed my
hand even harder.  “Well, that’s a good thing, isn’t it?  I wouldn’t want her
to remember…”

The doctor
nodded.  “It could be a defensive mechanism to protect her mind from dealing
with traumatic memories.  We’ll have to watch her closely to make sure nothing
crops up.  But in the meantime, the bigger issue- as far as Kit is concerned- is
that she still feels like she’s fourteen years old.  She may have some
difficulty adjusting to her new life and fitting in with her peers.”

That was an
understatement, but I tried to smile at my dad, so that he wouldn’t worry. 
“It’s okay, Dad.  He says I can see a therapist from home.”

The doctor
nodded.  “Of course, I recommend that she have outpatient psychology services,
and any additional therapy that she may need to help her re-integrate into
society.”

The meeting
didn’t take long.  Dad and I were both too shocked to ask questions, and the
doctor seemed relieved about that.  He probably didn’t have many answers.

Ryuu was in the
waiting room.  He popped up out of his chair the moment the office door opened,
with a rattle of plastic on tile.  “You’re coming home?” 

I nodded, and
the smile I gave him was a bit more convincing than the one I’d tried to show
Dad.  I was going home.  This nightmare was finally over.

*****

Ryuu helped me
get my stuff packed up and loaded into the car while Dad was busy signing my
discharge paperwork and getting instructions from the nursing staff.  They were
sending me home with some medication to calm me down, just in case I had some
kind of episode.  But I had news for my dad; I wasn’t taking any more stinking meds.

I frowned as I
pulled clothes out of my closet and stuffed them into garbage bags.  “Where did
all this stuff come from?”  My closet was packed with clothes, none of them
familiar.  They were all pretty, girly things, but nothing I would pick out on
my own.

Ryuu was packing
some books into an old cardboard box.  “Dawn,” he said without looking up. 
“She loves buying stuff for you.  She brings up a bag of clothes and stuff
almost every time she visits.”

I stared at
him.  “Dawn?”  The last time I remembered talking to Ryuu’s aunt, her pretty
face had been slack-jawed with shock.  I couldn’t remember much, but the memory
of my shouting at her, telling her that I didn’t like her and that she made a
terrible mother- that memory was pretty clear.  I hadn’t told Ryuu about the
exchange.  He had always been so defensive when he thought I was trying to
mother him.