Escaping Sanctuary

Chapter 4

Day One

Rika shifted in her warm blankets as the cold air caressed her skin. A small smile lingered on her lips. What happened was a just a dream. When I wake up, it’s just going to be a normal Monday morning.. That’s right, everything was just a dream. But it was such a nice dream.

Groaning slightly from the cold, she began to draw in and hug the blanket toward her. After a few more shuffling, the small smile deepened to a frown. Somehow, the blanket’s texture, the atmosphere around her was different. It was cold and the blankets were too fluffy. Rika’s eyes fluttered open. Her new blue eyes widened as she quickly sat up in the empty hotel bedroom.

Besides her, the neon alarm clock flashed 6:04A.M. But she didn’t pay it any attention as she was too busy searching around the room for the other occupant. Finding him nowhere, she slid out of bed.

Suddenly, the entrance beeped as a key card was used. And in stepped the Rika-look-alike. No.. Rika corrected herself; his name was Yuki.

Yuki balanced a tray of breakfast on his right arm while with the other left hand, he tried to take the key card back out of the slot. Managing to slip the card back out, he walked in awkwardly and finally set the tray down on the nearby desk.

He finally took a notice of her and smirked. “You sure took your time having a good sleep. Here. Have some breakfast.”

Rika watched the whole scene with unblinking eyes as she sat watching in a daze. He had never seemed like the type of person who would be generous. Taunting, yes; but generous?..

Suddenly, Rika snapped out of her daze and turned away, feeling the heat crawl up her cheeks. The memory of last night rushed up all to her like a rough blow of a tidal wave.

After the phone call to her father, she had sat silently, still too frozen with horror to make any movement. Yuki, sensing the negative aura, had become uneasy. He began unsurely. “Uh.. hey.. did I .. what’s wrong? Did I mess up?”

Rika had suddenly stood up, shaking her head furiously. “No.. It’s not that.. I just..” She didn’t get a chance to finish that sentence as suddenly her foot got caught unto the uneven bed sheet and had tripped, falling unto and right on top of Yuki.

But the moment she had fallen, she was astonished to find herself below and softly crushed by the weight of the body of a boy she had been in before. Yuki, too, have been shocked by the sudden change and both figure laid, frozen on the spot, too surprised and astonished to think correctly.

Finally, Rika blushed and pushed him away. Yuki immediately got off of her and, awkwardly, looked at the clock nearby that flashed 12:04 A.M. “I’ll go wash up a little.” Scratching his head, Yuki headed towards the bathroom. Rika sat there embarrassed when suddenly, all the event of the days caught up to her and a heavy drowsiness settled upon her as she drifted into a long sleep.

“Oi, are you awake or still sleeping with your eyes open?” Rika blinked rapidly, rushing out of her memory and turned shyly to the tray. She noticed there was only one serving. “Aren’t you eating anything?”

Yuki was tying the long brown hair back into a ponytail to keep it from his eyes. With a rubber band in his mouth, Yuki just replied almost inarticulately.

“I already ate so go ahead.”

Rika nodded silently and began to eat in silence.

After she had taken the last bite, Yuki rushed up to her and in the next minute, Rika found herself once again blinded by the black hat and tinted sunglasses and being lead to somewhere by Yuki’s hand.

Rika asked when she got a little close to him. “Where are we going?”

Yuki replied curtly, but in a friendly manner. “My house.”

The way there had been brisk and easy as not a lot of people were around this early in the morning and there were no rush of crowds searching for them.

Soon enough, Rika found herself looking upward at a tall black apartment building. Gaping at the luxurious looking building, she found it hard to keep her mouth shut as Yuki lead her.

Reaching the tenth floor, Yuki turned them to a door on the far right of the hallway. He told her to pay close attention. The door was locked with a number combination so that anyone with the right code could come in. 89112. The order was put in. But the door didn’t budge. Yuki took Rika’s hand and pushed her finger unto a small black square that was on the lock. Suddenly a click sounded and Yuki opened the door. Seeing Rika in a shock made him smile as he stepped into his living quarters.

“Never can have enough security to keep unwanted stalkers from reaching here.. Although they probably couldn’t even find this place.” Shrugging, Yuki went into a room. He kept speaking though. “ I should arrange for the door to accept your fingerprint too, as I think it’ll come in handy, especially during this week.”

Rika stood, staring around curiously. The room was wide and furnished very neatly. With a light cream colored carpet and white walls, a black flat screen plasma TV, and a stereo system, the place felt very new and organized. What caught Rika’s eyes the most was an electric guitar that sat on its holder.

Before she could even venture to touch it, Yuki came back out with clothes. Throwing them to her for her to catch, he ordered. “Put these on. And don’t worry too much. Tsukino-chan will pick me .. um you up and she’ll tell you everything you need to do for the day so just follow what she says and it’ll be alright.”

Rika gulped. Turning her attention to the clothes, she felt herself blush again. “Um.. I’m going to change..?” Yuki nodded, and turned to her curiously when he noticed what was troubling her and smirked evilly.

He shrugged. “Why are you complaining? I thought it would be treat for you to see my body. Well, compared to yours, which is as flat and uncurved as much as possible, I’m not getting any benefit out of this and should be the one with the full rights to complain.”

Rika stared at him in shock. “You.. you.. When did you..” Yuki shrugged again without even one line of worry on his face. “Well, I have to go to the bathroom sometimes too and it can’t always be somewhere around twelve to one o’clock.”

Rika found herself wordless as she felt her face blaze furiously. He was so .. how could she even think for once that he had been generous?!

He continued boldly, smirking. “If you don’t want to change that much, I could do it for you.” That snapped her nerves. As confused and distressing this argument was, she knew she definitely didn’t want to feel him touching her, even though this was his body. Angrily, she grabbed his clothes and began for the bathroom.

Gulping, she closed her eyes and began changing.

In a moment, she was out and she glared at him proudly. But all he did was continue watching TV and shrugging her off like an annoying fly.

Rika strode purposefully across the room to the couch he sat and started with the business of explaining the way to her school on a paper. Yuki just nodded without even looking once at the paper. Rika found herself frowning.

“You’re not even looking.” Yuki replied back. “I’ll take a look at it once it’s time. It’s still only 7 A.M. School starts around 8, right?”

“You still need at least thirty minutes to get there. So, would you please stop and pay attention..”

A sharp buzz rang throughout the apartment. Yuki didn’t even flinch or blink as he pointed blankly. “That’s Tsukino-chan. You should start going out, or she might break down the door again and I am not willing to pay for another door.”

Rika braced her hands to stop them from shaking and started towards the door. It was all her fault. She had to do this. Before she opened the door, she casted one more glance at the brown haired girl who sat lazily on the couch and praying that Yuki didn’t mess up, stepped out to start dealing with her own problems.

The moment she opened the door, a woman with short sandy hair and large dark green eyes, lunged at her and grabbing Rika’s arm roughly, began to run to the car parked outside. Rika began to get tired and tried to speak. “Can’t we.. slow down .. a bit?” She gasped.

Tsukino just began yelling as all the vented up anger came pouring out. “Too bad. It’s all your fault really. If we’re going to finish all the schedule you messed up yesterday with today’s, we better start fast and early. So don’t complain and run, idiot.”

Rika shut her mouth and tried to keep up with the figure ahead of her, dreading what laid ahead at her destination.

Yuki found himself looking curiously at Hyukuto High. A crowd of students began to walk in, wearing their standard dark maroon and cream colored uniforms. Every pair of eyes turned to her as they passed by as she was the only one without the uniform. But Yuki didn’t even take a notice as he was too busy studying the school building.

Before he could venture anymore, a hand grabbed him from behind and he found himself being dragged somewhere. Angered, he quickly turned and started to yell when he suddenly noticed who was dragging him.

“Re..na, right?”

Rena quickly dragged ‘Rika’ behind a shed and began to talk.

“Rika, I don’t know what has gotten into you since yesterday, but you really put yourself in a bad position. Dad is furious that the family meeting got ruined and mom is fretting so much, it’s.. Anyway, you really better have a good explanation for yesterday. They’re not going to accept excuses or lame stories you know...”

Rena came to a stop as she eyed ‘Rika’ yawn and rub her words off like nothing. Too stunned to speak, Rena gaped at ‘Rika’ silently.

However, the stunned silence was broken as the first bell rang throughout the school, marking the start of the day. Shaking out of her astonished state, Rena shoved a bag into her older sister’s arm and yelled back while running to her own homeroom.

“I sneaked your uniform in there, so hurry up, change and get to your classes, alright?”

Yuki curiously looked into the bag. The uniform consisted of a cream colored top with a maroon skirt. He stood silently, standing in his dark misery. He mumbled angrily. “This week better go by really fast.”

Rika fell down on the couch in dead exhaustion. For the last four hours, she found herself still in the recording room without and results. It was just that, every try, she had stuttered through the song, forgotten the lyrics, or her voice cracked. Mostly, it was the director complaining that “he wasn’t into his songs”. By the end, she found herself shaking from the exhaustion of standing for consecutive four hours. Tsukino, noticing her unusual fatigued state, had been kind enough to provide her with a thirty minute break. And here she was now, trying to calm her still beating heart and trying to keep in the frustrated tears that were almost threatening to pour out.

Being a singer was really tough, she thought as she closed her eyes and breathed deeply. About four hours before, she never could have imagined how hard it was. Or maybe, it was just her that wasn’t made out to be a singer. Either way, right now, not one thought was able to comfort her still panicked mind. Sighing deeply, she wished desperately that this day would finally come to an end.

Meanwhile, in school, everybody in the class looked on in amazement at the girl that was once an invisible substance of the class; that is.. until now.

The girl named Rika, whose body was currently inhabited by Yuki, wolfed down her lunch ravenously with much more enthusiasm that she had ever shown during the last two years she had been in high school. Yuki, as always, didn’t pay any attention to his surrounding, and enjoyed his lunch. It really has been a long time since he had any lunch made especially for him like this. Most of the time, his meal was only a bottle of water or a granola bar..

The chime of bells that marked every hour of time rang loudly throughout the schoolyard.

Rika’s eyes widened as she found her whole face covered with rice. She blushed deeply as she also noticed everyone’s amazed stares. Blushing vividly, she gracefully took the untouched napkin and started to wipe the mess off her face.

Yuki almost yelled out a curse when he found Tsukino gently poke him awake. Tsukino frowned and sighed. “You know, I’m starting to think today’s just not one of your good day. But we have to at least finish this one recording today, you know. So just try one more time..”

Yuki sighed. That girl... Yuki suddenly energetically stood up and smirked up at her in his familiar confident, irritating way. “I’ll finish it in one hour. And Tsukino-chan? For today, can I just go home after this recording and reschedule all this at least one week later? ..I just really don’t feel well today at all.”

Not leaving her a pause in which she could squeeze in a reply, Yuki nodded, and began to saunter into the recording room, leaving Tsukino stunned and amazed from the sudden, subtle change in Yuki.

Rika sighed and stared outside. She wondered if Yuki was doing ok. The entire morning had been wasted because she couldn’t do anything right. He probably was rushing to do everything in right in this hour... all because of her.

“Rika Fuyuyama!”

Rika turned her attention swiftly to the new math teacher who had found this student very displeasing today. “If you can’t figure the problem out on the board, you’ll have to stay after school!” He warned.

The class sat silently. That problem was 2 levels ahead of the book they were currently using now. Rika silently went up to the board and to the surprise of everyone she began to solve the problem. Just this morning, she couldn’t even solve a simple algebraic question. After finishing the problem, Rika went back to sit and stare out the window, while the teacher and class looked on at the perfectly solved problem in confusion and awe.

Tsukino opened the door for Yuki, who was sweating and breathing heavily. But he smiled brightly at Tsukino. “So about that break?” Tsukino sighed in defeat and glanced at Yuki suspiciously. “Sure, you earned yourself one I guess... So I’ll let you go off early today as promised.”

“Huh? I’m being let off for today?” Rika looked up at her questioningly. Tsukino frowned. “Yea, we promised you’ll be let off early today... You’re acting really strange today, you know?”

Rika realized they switched back and smiled sheepishly, trying to seem as if she knew everything all along when she didn’t have a clue.

“Anyway, Fuyuyama, I guess my first impression was wrong about you. I was wondering if you were interested in joining my math team...”

“Huh?” Yuki looked at the math teacher that had been harassing him all day with problems. Why was he so generous all of a sudden? And math team... “Um, no thanks. I’m not really interested in things like those... I’ll see ya tomorrow Mr...er... See you tomorrow!” With that Yuki began to run off, leaving the teacher in shock.

“Rika!”

Yuki turned around to see Rena. “Hi Rena!” Yuki replied cheerfully. Rena looked at her suspiciously. “Aren’t you heading home? Cause home is that way...”

“Oh.. Um.” Yuki shrugged and began to scratch his head. “ I thought I’d stop by the... the library for something before I went home.” Rena nodded unsurely. “Ok..Just be back home by six. Mom and dad aren’t going to be thrilled if you’re later than that... Rika?”

Rena looked around to see she had been talking to herself. Just what had gotten into her sister?

Rika stared at the lock dumbly. She had forgotten the combination and was stuck out here. She crouched in front of the door. She tried so hard to help Yuki today, but she wasn’t able to do anything, not even a bit for him at all. And now she couldn’t even get inside. She felt hot tears begin to surface when a figure poked her from behind.

Turning around, she saw her own self looking at her questioningly.

“What are you still doing out here?” Rika just looked up, frowning. Yuki sighed and pulled Rika with his new short arms. “You really are an idiot.” Yuki pressed the numbers and pulled Rika’s hand to the door. Opening the door, Yuki nodded to Rika smiling. “Come on in. I bought treats.”

Rika blinked back the tears and smiled back... when she realized something. “Wait. Treats? With..With my money?!” Rika tore in after him and the door closed as day one ended.