Groggily

You stir in what you think is a bed. Every part of you is sore and feels like it weighs over a ton. With effort you manage to open your eyes, blinking a few times while you adjust to the light. When you do, you take in your surroundings.

Judging by the sterile smell, the neutral white walls and the EKG machine beeping next to you, it’s safe to assume you’re in a hospital.  You see through the window that it’s night out now.  To your left, Hinako is napping in a chair using your jacket as a blanket.  She looks pretty disheveled; like this is the first sleep she’s had in weeks.  Her outfit’s different so you must’ve been out for more than a day.  She’s wearing a short skirt that’s hiked up a little from shifting around in the chair.  That’s quite a bold color she’s wearing as you lean in further to-

She groans and rouses from her rest, interrupting your reveling.  She opens her eyes and vacantly stares at you for a second before she jolts in her seat.  “Welcome back, sleepy head,” she says with a smile.  She comes over and hugs you close to her.  Her body warms you up nicely.  “Why are these hospitals so cold?  You’re freezing.  I’ll have a nurse bring you another blanket.”  She reaches for the call button, but you stop her.  You tell her you’re fine, but mainly because you don’t want anyone else to show up yet.  Not until you’ve had a chance to talk to Hinako.

Hinako gets you up to speed since you fainted three days ago.  Apparently, the moment your head hit the pavement, everything went back to normal, including the traffic.  A car was leering down on you and Hinako barely got the driver to stop in time.  She got him to call for an ambulance since neither of your phones were working.  Actually, none of your electronics were running.  Your phones, Hinako’s PDA, your iPod, even this wireless vibrator egg she had stashed away in her purse (“it was gonna be a surprise” she said.)  All the batteries were dead.

When you got to the hospital, the doctors couldn’t find anything physically wrong with you.  They took a blood sample and ran some tests on it.  After that, the doctors seemed spooked by something.  They have been coming in every hour since, and when she asked what they found they just gave her the runaround.  The police have been trying to get her to sit down and ask her questions about what happened.  She had no idea what to tell them, so she got her dad to stall the investigators, saying she was too distraught over your condition to talk to anyone.

“Why are the police involved?” you ask her “all I did was faint.  Do they think I was high or something?”  Hinako is hesitant to respond.  “Well. . . I don’t know all the details.  But from what I managed to find out from the news and from pestering my dad. . . they found a dead body in the shopping district.  He was found near the store we were in.”

The news puts a shiver down your spine.  “That couldn’t have anything to do with us. . . could it?  I mean, it does seem kinda coincidental-“

“It’s not just that.  He died right around the time we disappeared.  The store has security cameras, they would’ve seen us going in but not coming out.  There’s no one to account for our whereabouts at the time. And then you suddenly pop up in the middle of the street nearby after he died?  The police think it’s fishy.”

“Why would they think I killed-“

“Why they think WE killed him.  Remember, we were both gone,” she corrected.  “How did the guy die?” you ask.  “I don’t know, the police didn’t release that information, except to say that it was under suspicious circumstances.  They didn’t release the name of the guy either.”

“So for all we know, he could be one of your exes.”  Your half hearted attempt at humor is lost on Hinako.  You would continue pressing her for info, but that’s when the doctor decides to check in.  When he sees you’re awake, his face goes ghostly white.  He stammers a bit before he manages to blurt out, “oh, I s-see you’re awake now.  G-good, I’ll go get your attending.”  He leaves so fast he kicks up a cloud of dust in his wake.  When you turn to Hinako she nods her head knowingly and asks, “they’re all like that.  I wonder what their problem is?”

“He’s scared of me.  I’m a murder suspect, remember?” you say with a mock crazy look on your face.  She rolls her eyes at you and lightly slugs you in the arm, “you could be a little more serious about this.  Anyway, you’re not a suspect.  At least, not according to the news.”

She seems to be pretty calm about this.  You’d expect her to be traumatized by what she saw.  You’re surprised she’s even in the room with you after what she saw what you did.  This could be a good sign, it could mean you’re just going crazy and there’s nothing to worry about.  “Listen, up until I passed out, was I acting weird?  Did I say anything funny?” you ask.

“You mean ‘did I burst into flames and summon a character from Fist of The North Star to battle a gigantic fox monster?’”  Hinako asks.  You can feel the blood drain from your face and the heart rate monitor hooked up to you speeds up its beeping from resting to flamenco.  She continues, “if you went crazy, then I did too because we saw the same damn thing.  I’m not sure what it was but I am NOT gonna let shrug this off mister!”  While you are glad you’re not crazy, the implications of this do little to relieve you.  “I’m not sure what’s going on, but I am sure of one thing: this isn’t a one time thing,” she tells you, “my friends say I have a sixth sense about these sort of things.”  While you have doubts about the credentials of Hinako’s friends, you’re pretty sure she’s right about this not being over.  “Here John chan, I got this for you.”  She reaches into the pocket of your coat, but pulls it back out as the doctor chose that very moment to come in.  Unlike the first guy, he’s older and more professional than the last one.  He’s more interested in the chart in his hand than you.  He says in a droll monotone, “glad to see you’re awake Doe san.  I’m Dr. Izuki, your attending physician.  We’ll have a nurse come in to see if you’re fit to leave.  If you check out you’ll stay overnight for observation and you can leave in the morning.”  He looks up for the first time and sees Hinako, “visiting hours are over, I’m going to have to ask you to leave now.”

With the murderous look she’s giving the doctor and the vice grip she has on your arm, slowly cutting off circulation, it’s safe to assume she has no intention of leaving.  All she says is, “I’m staying.”  You can feel the temperature in the room drop a little and the shadows on Hinako’s face seem to sharpen and stretch over her face.  Either that, or you’re exaggerating.  The doctor falters a bit, but manages to maintain his composure.  He clears his throat and says, “well I suppose you could stay here a few more minutes until the nurse arrives.”  With that, he heads out the door and you’re alone with Hinako again.

She reaches back into your jacket pocket, “as I was saying, I got you this in case those things show up again.”  She pulls out a 9mm semiautomatic and slides it under your pillow before you can say anything.  “It was my dad’s old service pistol.  He leaves it at home nowadays.  He doesn’t need it behind a desk.   I have his backup with me so don’t worry.”  She flashes a little snub nosed revolver then stashes it back in her purse.  “Thanks Hinako I hope this doesn’t get you into trouble.”  She smiles, leans in and gives you a peck on the cheek, “relax, I do this all the time.”  You open your mouth to speak, but decide you’d rather not know.  Conveniently, the nurse walks in to diffuse the awkwardness.  Before she’s able to shoo Hinako away, Hinako cuts her off, “I know, I know, visiting hours are over.  I’ll go in a sec.”  The nurse waits at the door while Hinako leans in again and gives you a nice slow open mouthed kiss.  Before you can get too into it, she pulls away and moves her lips to your ear.  She whispers, “there are two spare clips in your jacket.  There’s this 24 hour internet café across the street from here.  I’ll be hanging out there in case something happens.  Either way, I’ll see you back home tiger.”  She gives your ear a quick love bite.  The pinching feeling combined with her hot breath blowing in your ear causes your cock to stir under the sheets.  You hope the nurse didn’t notice.