Endless Screams

A/N From here on the angst gets almost unbearable and all the warnings come into play. Not quite so much in this chapter but in Chapter Six watch out!


Chapter Five. Burning Bridges.

I'm scared for Kairi. I know she's in pain, but I don't know what I can do. I hurt her, Sora hurts her, the whole fucking school hurts her, and there's nothing I can do about it. I have to find some way to make her see…See what? I don't even know how I feel about her. I feel something, but…Oh god, this is too fucking hard!
-Excerpt from Riku's diary.

The rest of Kairi's school day seemed to pass in a haze of blurred colors and garbled words. She didn't hear a word that her teachers said, and all her responses were automated. All that kept running through her mind was 'Oh gods, he likes me. What am I going to do? How can this be?' And as her last class for the day drew to an end, a thought hit her like a lightening blot from the blue; 'He was the one who connected with my thoughts!'

On her walk home, Kairi wandered along the familiar route in a daze. So lost in her own thoughts was she, that she didn't notice that someone was following her. She let herself into her empty house and drifted into her bedroom to fall onto her bed. She ignored the bloodstained sheets and the tackiness of the half dried blood, and lay staring at the ceiling.

Her mind raced faster and faster, thoughts of Riku and the scene earlier repeating again and again like a broken record. 'How do I say this…I can't stop thinking about you…can't stop thinking about you…hate seeing you hurt…' Dammit, how could this be happening? The look in his eyes as he stared into her own…what was happening? The only possible explanation could be that he was just trying to fuck with her some more... But his eyes...

Kairi jerked herself into a sitting position and let out a scream of anger and confusion. She jumped off the bed and looking round for something to throw, picked up her lamp and hurled it at the wall. The light bulb burst in a small shower of sparks but Kairi was so deep in her rage that she didn't even notice a wisp of smoke rising from the remnants of the lamp.

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Riku had tracked Kairi surreptitiously all the way from their school. He was careful not to be seen, keeping low and ready to dodge behind a tree, but he needn't have worried for Kairi was beyond noticing anything. He slowed as she turned into her driveway and stood on the pavement indecisively. If he went in, what the hell would he say?

He saw a light go on in the room closest to the street and watched as Kairi's silhouette disappeared from view. Riku walked up to the door and reached tentatively for the knocker, but he jerked his hand away as a scream came from within the house. Telling himself that there was no way she could have seen him he sat down gingerly on the steps and his brow furrowed as he puzzled deeply about what to say.

It took a few minutes before Riku noticed a strange smell in the air, but once his brain registered the smell he leapt to his feet and ran to the door. From within the ramshackle house Riku could smell the thick smoke of a house fire. Torn with indecision for a second the boy stood poised by the door, but his sharp hearing picked up Kairi's rasping cough from inside and he burst through the door.

The inside of the house was filled with choking black smoke but Riku hardly seemed to notice as he ran toward where he guessed Kairi's room should be. He kicked open one door to see an empty spare room, but the next door he tried flew open to reveal a scene out of a nightmare.

Flames crackled and leapt around the windows of the large room, roaring as the wind fanned them from outside. Kairi lay beside her bed coughing weakly. Riku stared for a second at the bloodstains that covered the bed before a piece of the window frame fell in, dragging his attention back to reality. Without a second thought for his own safety the boy ran across the room to Kairi and began to drag her towards the door.

By the time Riku managed to drag Kairi outside of the front door, fire engines and an ambulance were pulling up in the driveway. It was still light outside and glancing briefly at his watch, Riku was amazed to see that it was only four. The time from trailing Kairi home from school, to being outside the burning house was no more than fifteen minutes. He collapsed next to Kairi's still form as the medics rushed to get them away from the house.

From the back of the ambulance Riku watched as the fire fighters tried to save Kairi's house. The water from the hoses eventually got the fire under control but the force of the water pressure collapsed part of Kairi's room and half of the hallway. Riku tore himself away from the sight and went to sit next to Kairi as the ambulance began the long trip to the local hospital, when suddenly a monitor beside her began to beep urgently.

Riku could only watch helplessly as the doctor pushed him out of the way and knelt next to the motionless girl. The doctor ripped Kairi's shirt open exposing her chest and lacing his fingers tightly together began to depress her ribcage to force air into her lungs.

For what seemed like forever to Riku, the doctor breathed air into Kairi's mouth and pumped her chest. Just as hope began to die in his heart, Kairi took a great whooping breath and let it out in wracking cough that doubled her over. She retched over the side of the gurney that she lay on for a few seconds and then fell back to the stretcher, her eyes raising up to meet Riku's.

Time seemed to stop for them both until puzzlement took over Kairi's jumbled thoughts. 'What's going on Riku, why are you here?' she managed to whisper. 'This…this is an ambulance…what am I doing in an ambulance?' That much speech seemed to exhaust her and she broke into a series of hacking coughs.

'Your house Kairi,' Riku managed to stutter. 'There was a fire. And, and I managed to get you out, but your room…it was burning so bad…I couldn't do anything more.' He cringed slightly at this incoherent statement lowering his eyes from hers, and waited for the inevitable question of what the hell he was doing at her house.

The question never came. Riku looked up to see that Kairi had lapsed into unconsciousness beside him. He stared at her still form for a second before recovering the presence of mind to pull her ripped shirt together to cover her exposed chest. Suddenly dizzy from his close call, Riku leant back and rested his head on the wall of the ambulance and closed his eyes. He wasn't given a long respite however, for almost as soon as his eyes fell shut, a medic climbed into the back of the ambulance and sat opposite him.

'So, what's your name?' said the medic shortly. 'And can you tell me where we are to take this young lady? No one can seem to tell us where her family is, or how they can be contacted. She doesn't need to come into the hospital, the doctor just informed me of a multiple car crash and the emergency ward is full. This girl just needs rest and someone to supervise her.

Riku sat stunned. He didn't know where any of Kairi's family was, and hearing that she couldn't be admitted into hospital had utterly thrown him. He couldn't think, and with the medic waiting for his reply he blurted out the only thing he could think of to do. 'She can come home with me.'

The medic gave him a searching look and Riku immediately tried to qualify his statement adding, 'She's my best friend from school. My parents are home and they can help me look after her.'

This seemed to convince the ambulance worker as he nodded briefly, jotted a quick note on his clipboard and climbed again out of the ambulance. Riku sat slightly stunned at this turn of events, and hardly even noticed when the ambulance started moving slowly away from the remains of Kairi's house towards his own.

They arrived at Riku's house just as the sun was slipping below the horizon and Kairi was carried indoors and laid gently on the couch. Riku thanked the medical team before taking a deep breath and walking back inside to sit with Kairi. He had no clue as to how he would explain himself, but before he could puzzle out a reasonable answer tiredness overwhelmed him and he fell into a fitful sleep half draped over Kairi on the couch.

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