Cardcaptor Sakura: The New Trials (Wish-luv)

Chapter 48: The Duel of the Sun and Moon

Mizuki Kai, almost seventeen and former world criminal, was currently in the guise of a junior high student at Seijou Junior High, the most difficult occupation he had undertaken as of late. He sat up in the sofa-bed set up in his apartment living room almost soundlessly. At the moment, Li Meilin, cousin of his next-door neighbor, Li Syaoran, was occupying the only bed in the flat so he was reduced to sleeping in the living room. Of course she locked the bedroom door, because she did not trust him. Not that it would make a difference, for no lock would keep him out of any room, had he desire to enter it. Actually, the only obstacle was the ferocious cousin next-doors. 

Marks of his days as a thief still flaunted his daily pattern of life, especially his nighttime activities. He was perpetually a nocturnal animal, not being able to sleep in more than three or four hour blocks, a direct result of his insomniac tendencies due to a former criminal lifestyle. In fact, Meilin, who habitually went to bed at eleven and received at least eight hours of sleep per night, was greatly annoyed by Kai’s restlessness in the nighttime, for he never went to bed before three; usually by the time he fell asleep, it was around four. He barely woke up in time for school the next morning, around seven thirty in the morning. All-nighters were not uncommon either—often, Meilin left him on his computer at his “study” desk in the evening, and in the morning, she would wake up to find him still sitting in the same position, typing away gibberish.   

Shifting over, Kai saw that the glowing red digits of his alarm clock indicated that it was 

4:30 AM

. He sighed. Had it only been half an hour since he had fallen asleep? How long was it till morning came? He had always been a light sleeper. Usually, he drifted between momentary blankness and a groggy, semi-conscious state, the only manner in which he caught sleep besides the daytime naps he took in class. He rarely recalled dreaming. This time he had awakened because his dreams had been pervaded with the piercing wail of the police sirens and the deafening bang of a gun in the starless night. They would not stop chasing him, and he had been choking for breath, clawing for refuge. An ominous cement wall prevented him from running forward, while the police were inching up on him from behind. He was pinpointed. Trapped. Blood splattered. Unconsciously, he reached for his heart. His hands were stained with blood. His own blood.

He had awakened with a burst of pain in his upper left chest area, near his heart. Minutes after, he was still clutching the spot, the spot where he had been shot that summer. More paralyzing than the actual pain was the fact that his shirt was completely sweat-soaked and clung to his skin like a second skin. Disgusted, he tore it off and flung to the overflowing laundry basket at the far end of room.

Once he gathered his breath and calmed down enough to stumble out of bed, he staggered across the living room to open wide all the windows. The night’s air was bitingly cold, but though he was shirtless, he welcomed the iciness slide over his clammy skin, still burning and prickly from his dream. How he cherished predawn, the hour of silence and solitude, late enough that no one was awake, early enough that the night could officially be called over. Still dark, but not pitch-black, more grayish toned and faded, mellow. Neither sun nor moon were up. The time of tranquil peace and despair. The in-between of two days, the null and void.

Gaining full consciousness, Kai realized that he must have sweated out all the fluid in his body for his throat was completely parched. Without any of his customary grace, he staggered to the kitchen sink, turning on the cold tap and sticking his head underneath the burst of water, cooling his head. Then he fumbled in the cabinet for a clean glass, and filled it with cold tap water. He downed it in one gulp and filled it again before turning around at footsteps and shuffling. His soaked hair dripped water droplets down his neck and shoulders, trickling down to his back.