Who Will Heal the Broken?

Chapter 12

ONE DAY

I woke up feeling better than I had in ages. I noticed I was back in the warehouse but I had a couple of IVs attached to me.

I turned to my brother, "How long was I asleep?"

"About a full day, Rin. I can't say it wasn't scary but you seem to have gotten the rest you needed. It's not exactly the same as sleeping but it's good enough." Yukio said rubbing his nose. He looked like he hadn't slept the whole time I was out.

"On the bright side, you finally got some sleep!" Bon said as he came in.

"Not really the same thing, idiot." Izumo said, walking in behind him. Soon everyone else was in the room. They all looked relieved.

"I really FEEL much better than I did yesterday." I joked.

'One day. Although, since you slept through most of it, I'll have to make this day really good...'

I cringed as the demon started thinking out loud, "Uhh guys the demon seems pretty happy about making the rest of this day a good one so I'd be on guard if I were you."

Just as I said that we could hear the demon cackling around the room. Everyone was instantly alert and I yanked the IVs out of my arm. I stood up just as the demon entered the room.

"Now now," it spoke, "I'm not REALLY here. We've still got another day to go! I'm just playing with you by this point, really."

"Straight to the point." I muttered. Suddenly everyone but me froze.

"Shall we make you see some of your worst nightmares again?"

"NO!" I yelled as he began replaying the events from the warehouse. I had to watch all of my friends die in front of me, AGAIN.

"Please stop!" I begged.

"Grandma?" I heard Shiemi say. I turned around, confused, but she still seemed to be frozen.

"Rin, NO!" my brother yelled. I whipped around and faced him.

"What are you talking about, I'm right here!" I yelled, waving my hand up and down in front of his face.

The demon snickered, "He can't hear you, boy."

Slowly it dawned on me. This time it wasn't just me seeing my worst nightmares. It was my friends seeing theirs. Somehow that was much much worse.

"They're not a part of this! Leave them out of it!" I yelled.

"They became a part of it as soon as they started helping you out. Now, I get to play with them, too!" the demon gleefully exclaimed.

And just like that, my visions were coupled with my friends scattered shouts and yells. It went on like that for an hour before the demon finally left.

"Is everybody okay?" I said after a few minutes of silence. To my relief, everyone said yes.

There was no chance anyone was going to talk about it so Yukio said, "I think it would be best if we went to sleep now. We should sleep in shifts, though. Rin and I will take first watch, and we'll decide the rest from there."

After everyone's breathing evened out as they fell asleep I said, "The demon's still probably not going to let me sleep so we only have to get one person up at a time."

"I figured." said Yukio, "If you feel like you can actually go to sleep I'll get two people up so they can help keep each other awake."

I nodded to his plan. I didn't know about him, but I was extremely nervous. Something big was going to happen tomorrow, at the end of the countdown. But what? Was he going to go after me? Or one of my friends? What if he went after Yukio? I couldn't let that happen.

"We're with you every step of the way, you know." said Yukio. He must've been thinking about it, too.

"Just promise me something." he said. I nodded my head for him to continue. "Don't... use your power if it's going to kill you."

"Yukio you know I can't promise that. I have a better chance of surviving a bad wound than any of you do." Yukio looked like he was going to say something but I cut him off, "But I'll try. Besides, you guys can kick its butt." I joked.

"I guess that's the best I can ask for." Yukio said.

I nodded again, this time mostly to myself. Yukio switched off with Bon about an hour in and I kept him entertained with whatever the demon said to keep me awake. This continued through most of the night with my other friends. Well, except Izumo. I'm pretty sure she would have punched me if I kept talking.

Before I knew it, it was Yukio's turn again. This time he stayed for two hours to let the others get more sleep. It was about time for him to get up anyways so he was probably going to stay up.

He started working on some papers for school and tried to get me to do homework if I was going to be up anyways. No thanks! I decided to steal some of his manga instead and read that in a corner.

I got bored after I had read all of them that Yukio had brought and decided to make an extra delicious breakfast with all the time I had.

I tried not to think about what was in store for everyone in the next twenty-four hours.