One

Chance Encounter

For the first time in a while I wanted to be left alone.

The revving of the engine from my truck was the only noise that comforted me now. The radio didn't work and my iPod was stuffed somewhere inside my duffle bag. Having run out of my house that quickly didn't leave me enough time to pack much of what I wanted. If anything inside that bag were only the necessary clothes I thought I would need and a couple of treasured items from home. Besides that it was practically empty. The countryside in Boston was chilly this time of December and the few streets that led to town were covered in a thin layer of ice.

As careful as I was or could have been didn't matter when I lost control of the truck. It swerved to the side and into the woods. There at least I managed to gather a bit of traction to gain control back. Or so I thought until the truck tipped over and began to spin. My body crashed back and forth along with the metal cage that I was now encased in. My head wracked back and forth along with everything else. My head hit the upper side of the ceiling and a terrible ringing came to my head along with a pain.

After an eternity, the truck came to a stop on its back. My vision was blurry and my ears were ringing. When I could finally move, my trembling hands reached to my seatbelt and unlatched it. My body fell painfully on the ceiling and I let out a groan. Feeling my way around, I find the latch on the door and try to open it in vain. Clicking my tongue, I muster what I have of my strength and kick open the driver's door. Once it's open, I crawl out of the car and drag myself out into the snow.

The woods were quiet for being the middle of the night. Usually birds or insects were heard around them. But then again, I couldn't hear or see very well. The cold air and the snow felt incredible against my bruised body. It was soothing.

"Try not to lose your head there."

The voice that reaches my ears is crisp and clear. It's a man and his voice echoed in my head with a nice timbre and lilt to it. The footsteps that I hear come closer to me I assume to be his. Before long a shadow obscures my already blurry vision and a dark blur stands over me like a cold and dark angel.

"W-Who—" It's hard to speak. My throat burns and my whole body hurts with every word.

A hearty laughter that reminds me of my brother's rings through my ears. This one seems even more so like warm syrup, sweet and mellow. But the words that follow are as cold as can be. "Does it matter? You're dying."

"The...road—"

"You swerved out from the iced road. Jumped quite a distance. Frankly, I'm amazed you remained conscious."

"Ambu...lance."

"The old couple that just saw you careen from their window has already called." His shadow leaned back and out of my sight before it spoke again. "Oh, they're actually pretty close." The shadow came over me once more. "We don't have much time it seems. I'm pretty sure you're wondering who I am or why I'm just standing here and not helping you."

My voice failed me now and he simply continued. "Well, in reality, I'm the one that will give you the most help!" The shadow looms even closer and I feel a distinct warmth hovering over me. He's so close I can feel the heat from his body. "First, let me tell you a little story. Long ago, a little girl prayed to God for something; she wanted her life to change. So miserable was she that she would rather live a different life than struggle for a better tomorrow." More warmth came over me and I felt a warm air beside my ear. "I'm here to grant your wish, Reina."

How did he know my name?

The warmth that had came left just as quickly as before when he spoke again. "I'll give you a few to say goodbye. Enjoy and I'll see you when I see you." His voice echoed before it all disappeared and within those few seconds that the cold air embraced my body, my mind let go and I saw black.

It seemed like I had only taken a nap when I opened my eyes again. My body didn't feel as beat up as before nor did my lungs hurt when I breathed but my head was still pounding. My vision was still blurry but it didn't resemble any night sky that I remember. Instead it was pure white. The first thing that my hearing registered was an annoying beeping that echoed throughout the room.

The next thing I heard was my brother's voice, Jaden, calling out to me gently as ever.

"Rei? Reina, can you hear me?" His voice sounded far away and his image wasn't clear but I knew it was him. When I tried to speak something lodged against my throat. The moment it did I felt like I wanted to throw up. "Don't, Rei. It's helping you breath. Don't speak right now."

More shadows came over me and all were blurry. Above the relieved voice of Jaden, I heard the voices of my parents; my mother's cries and my father's prayers thanking God. But the voice that caught my attention most was hers when she spoke in such a worried voice.

"Rei?" Above the other voices, I heard Kathleen's sweet voice mingle in the air. It always brought me joy to hear her calling my name but now that I heard anguish in it that I had caused all I felt was guilt and remorse. "You're okay, right? You're gonna be okay, right Rei?"

I wanted to speak. I wanted to assure her that everything was going to be all right like many times before. When I tried to though my throat began to react again. Then my panic set in. Jaden tried to calm me down. The beeping became more rapid and more annoying. Why can't they take this out of my throat!? Take it off! More beeping.

"Stop, Reina!"

"Rei!"

Shut up. I just want this thing off! Let me talk!?

"Now, now, Reina. I think this is enough of a farewell."

What?

"Doctor! Doctor!?" My mother's cries were starting to get muffled like I was under murky water and I was drinking it all in. It was getting even harder to breath. The beeping was getting too fast for me to mind anymore.

"Say goodbye to this life, Rei. You won't be seeing any of it where you're going."

The voice of the man from the woods echoed in my head along with the screams of many more people surging into the place. More shadows blocked my view and I felt countless of hands touching me, moving me. One pain took the bothersome thing from my throat and I could finally breath but all that came in was empty. No air. Nothing.

The last thing I remember was being thankful that the fast beeping stopped and instead was replaced by a single low pitch that lulled my mind until I fell asleep.

It was like waking from a nightmare. My breath was caught in my throat when I took the big gulp of air. My eyes shot open and my pupils were burning. It took me a few minutes to gain some composure. My lungs finally got used to the air again and my vision became clearer by the second.

By the time I completely managed to regain myself, I noticed that I was still in the hospital. The room I was in was small and there was not much furniture except for a chair that stood beside my bed. The door exiting the room was to the far side of the other side of my bed. But besides that...

Empty.

I thought my parents would be here. Kat would be worried but she would be forced to go to school. And even if they didn't stay then at least Jaden would have. Jaden came home from his exams; if anybody would have stayed by my side it would have been him.

But there was no one here. I was alone.

Before I could do anything about it, the door opened. Turning my head in that direction, I watched as a nurse came in and gasped at seeing me awake. She hurries over while rambling on.

It seemed that both of us were at a loss for words. Her because I had just woken up and she made haste to check my vitals. Me because...her clothes. I had never been in a hospital before but I knew what a nurse was supposed to look like. And if this wasn't some kind of vintage hospital then I had no idea why the nurse was dressed in such attire.

It was just so...outmoded.

It isn't until I hear her ramble about how long I've been there that I interrupt her. "U-Um, excuse me?" With a sweet smile on her face the nurse turns to me and briefly stops her work. "H-How long did you say I have been here?"

"You've been unconscious for about five days now."

F-Five days?! "You're kidding me."

"I wish I were," she answered with a giggle and pointed at the clock that hung on the wall across from me. "It'll be five days at six, I believe."

"Has my family called in yet?"

If I thought things were weird before nothing compared to the expression that she gave me. "Miss..." She averted my gaze and her lips pursed as if trying to find the words to tell me. Wait, did something happen to them? "Nobody has come in to visit. None have claimed you yet."

"C-Claimed me?"

"You were found by the monastery that's close to the outskirts of town. In fact, they're the ones that are covering your medical charges." She placed her fingers on her cheek as if deep in thought. "They're the charitable kind and since they have the kind of money, they're very hospitable towards the homeless. You must have had a pretty bad accident before they found you, you know. Your head and body were pretty torn up when you were brought here."

"Where is here, exactly?"

"You're in St. Clavell's Hospital. You're in Pavillion town."

P-Pavillion? What's this lady talking about? There's no town with such name anywhere near Boston. And what the hell is this talk about a monastery?!

"Oh, which reminds me!" The nurse took the clipboard she had entered with which she had laid aside and looked into it. "You're still registered without a name. Would you mind giving it to me? It'll be easier to contact your family that way."

It took me a few seconds to realize that she was talking to me and without really thinking it through, I answered with my name. "R-Reina. My name's Reina Amaro."

"Reina Amaro," she pronounced slowly while writing it down on the paper. She smiled after she finished and glanced over her work. "Well, so far you're doing well on recovery Miss Amaro. Any wounds you had have already healed but we'll most likely keep you overnight to make sure you're healthy and that whatever blood loss you suffered didn't cause anemia. So for now try to rest." She gave me another bright smile before she turned to leave.

Okay, now I was more confused than ever. Forget her odd fashion sense, where the hell were my parents? And where the hell was I!?

"Pavillion..." I groaned under my breath while trying real hard to remember if a town with such a name really did exist and I just happened to miss it. No, I knew Boston and its vicinities like the back of my hand. There's no such town. So...where am I?! "I don't get this."

Calm down, Reina. This must be some type of cruel joke. Some sick, cruel joke my family must have gotten the hospital to do. They must be trying to teach me a lesson for driving away in the middle of the night. But even if this was a joke, shit, then they had some awful sense of humor. But then again the nurse said that the monastery "found me". What if that was a part of the joke as well though?

Backtrack, Rei. Think. What's the last thing you can remember?

Last thing I remember...was hearing Jaden's voice. Yeah, his voice was the first thing I heard when I woke up in the hospital. I remember mom and dad; I remember the doctors struggling after I heard Kat's voice.
Then...I heard him. The man.

"Him!" The one who found me after the crash. But I can't remember what he was telling me. Damn, all this thinking is just making my head hurt that much more. Sitting up from my bed, I notice that my clothes were taken off after the crash too and replaced by a thin hospital gown. Hurriedly, I went over to the edge of the bed and tried getting up. But when I did an ache on my body coursed through me like a giant stampede. "I've got to—" a groan slips from me when I force myself to stand up. "I've got to get out of here." Ripping the needles stuck up my forearm—they hurt like a motherfucker—I went over to the duffle bag and pick out some dark pants and the plainest shirt I can find before stripping and changing into them. It takes me a few seconds to check what I had in my bag. Not knowing what could happen, I pull out my butterfly knife and put it in my back pocket. Once done I grab everything that I have in the bag, put it over one shoulder while putting the bag on my back, and head to the door.

I know sneaking out of a hospital is bad specially when someone else is paying for my stay, which in my opinion is stupid as hell. Nonetheless, I do my best to walk out without being seen. Someone once told me that it was incredible where people let you go when you walked around like you knew the place. And they weren't wrong. Although I wasn't sure where I was going, the fact that I acted like I did let me walked by staff without raising any flags.

It's not until I'm out of the hospital that I'm positive I must still be in my coma. That or hallucinating from the bunch of medications they surely gave me because there was no way in hell that this place was real. Standing aside so that people could walk by, I stared after them. Their clothes were the first thing that I noted.

Now, I'm no expert in history so don't get me wrong. Even I could be wrong at times but I'm pretty sure that no woman in her right mind would choose to walk around during such warm day as today was in such antiquated clothes. They were in frilly dresses for goodness sake! It's like being stuck in that Cinderella movie but much worse.

And the women weren't the end of the story. The men, at least most of them, were dressed in tuxedos and if not a tux then something that looked like it came out of a crappy play staged in old England. Damn, this wasn't normal. I had to be dreaming. Please, God, just let me still be knocked out in the hospital at Boston. Even having a concussion sounds better than what I'm looking at right now.

Wait. Boston! I need to ask where I am and get back home first. Not being shy about anything right now, I come up to the first people that comes across my field of vision which turns out to be a middle-aged couple taking a stroll. "Excuse me, sir!"

The moment that the hand I reached out to him with touches his arm, he scowls at me before jerking his arm away. "Get your hands off me, you filth."

"Filth?!" My voice raises a full octave at such insult. He doesn't even bother with me and they simply continue on and even when they're getting further away, I can still hear their additional insults towards me. "Well, fucking excuse me."

But my anger doesn't stop after they leave because the people around here make it no easier for it to dissipate. The ones that resembled the couple would do the same as they did and the ones that didn't simply chose to ignore me altogether. Well, hell, what now?

Might as well hit the road and hope to run into an highway out of this old-timed town. Heaving one last sigh, I turn with the intention of leaving until I hear a ruckus not far behind me that makes me look over my shoulder.

"You worthless brat!" The heavyset man that yelled shoved a boy that couldn't be any older than eleven away from himself. From the looks of it, the man was one of the many snobs I kept encountering. "Look at this!" He motioned his hands to the stain of dirt that spotted his clothes. "And it's brand new!"

"I-I'm sorry, sir," the kid stuttered quietly and sloppily got back to a stand. "I wasn't seeing where I was going. It won't happen again."

"You think a damn apology is what I need!?" The yelling was getting louder and he more livid. Really, all over some clothes. But the way this was escalating was really bothering me for some reason. Shit.

Don't do it, Rei. Hoe, please, don't meddle!

"You need to be taught a lesson, boy!" The man raised his chubby gloved hand in a menacing threat to the little kid.

Too late.

A quick sprint was enough to reach in time to stand between the two and catch the man's wrist before it could connect to the boy's face. He may be fat but that only gave him a little more strength than the usual people. Nothing I probably couldn't handle myself. A cocky smirk comes to my lips before the remark that I can't control slips from them. "And here I thought that big folks were suppose to be jolly."

"W-What did you say!?" His faced flashed in embarrassment and anger but it gave me enough pause to throw his hand away.

Turning slightly to my side, I catch a glance at the boy who hid behind me. "The boy apologized and I'm sure he merely bumped into you. Violence is highly unnecessary in this case."

"W-Who are you to talk to me..."

His angry shouts are easy for me to tune out and instead I focus on the boy that cowardly hides behind me. "You okay?" I whisper gently letting him know I mean no harm. He nods shyly and suddenly recoils and takes a tight hold of my pants' leg. Almost instantly I knew what that meant.

Fine, want to dance like that? I'll pick the tune.

Without a second thought, my left hand is already pulling out of my back pocket and I fully intend to fan my knife open to scare him away but I'm caught off guard when another hand stops the trajectory of the one that intended to slap me.

"Now, now. Fighting little kids is such a shameful thing. Specially in the open."

Gravelly. That's the first word that comes to mind when the voice reaches my ears. My eyes follow suit and go along the way of the arm to join it to the rest of the body. What I see before me is a man taller than the XXXL Monopoly guy wanna-be. Much taller. My neck was literally arching upward; he really must be at least a head taller than me. The wavy mess of hair that he had was almost to his nape and the hideous pair of hugely rimmed glasses hid the top half of his face from sight. The clothes he wore clearly said that he wasn't well off but that didn't really matter.

What left me speechless and what had the Monopoly guy trembling in his socks was probably the commanding tone that was veiled by the playful one. When I heard scuffling behind me, my eyes quickly shoot to my side and I see the boy run behind the man to take refuge. Well, he must know him then.

"How 'bout we let this bygone be that. Mmm?"

Translation: Go now or else...

And it seems Monopoly guy got the point because he simply cursed us and walked quickly away and out of sight. A scoff comes out of me before I put my knife away.

"Goodness, Eeze." At hearing his voice again, I turn to see the man with a more friendly smile now instead of the creepy one from seconds ago. He lays his huge hand upon the boy's—Eeze?—head to ruffle his hair. "Don't get lost again. Too much trouble."

"Mm!" He gives an airy chuckle before turning towards me. When he sees this, the man does the same and scrutinizes me for a couple of seconds before grinning.

"Thanks for helping Eeze, little lady."

My brain had shut off for a few seconds when I heard him giggling so carefree and it takes me another few to repeat his question to myself. Oh, right.

"It was nothing, really," I answer with a smile while I adjust my bag behind me. "Keep him under better watch so that this won't happen again, is all."

"Yeah, that's definitely a given."

The scene makes my chest ache a bit and I think it's nostalgia and guilt from not being with Kat until it isn't just my chest. It's my body then my head and, before I know it, it turns into a splitting headache. The last thing I hear is his chuckle then a concerned 'lady' before everything just goes black.

Well, that's the first chapter c: Or actually half of what I had originally written as the first chapter cx It turned out to be sixteen pages to I split it up where I could and where it wouldn't mess the flow. So I suppose a little snippet was better than anything c:

I hoped you enjoyed it and that it piqued your guys' interest for this story. I still don't have a clear plot about where I want this to go but a lot of the first chapters won't be plot-centered around the DGM plot. The couple isn't clearly stated in the first chapter but by the next it'll be clear.

Some points to be put. I'm noticing I've been using a couple of names with the initials 'Rei' on a couple of fics but I've gotten attached to that nickname since reading tysunkete's Imitation Black and Cantarella. Great freaking DGM AUs that I've read at least twice. I just love Reiichi -w- So shameless tribute there c:

Another point would be about how this is a normal-girl-into-another-dimension type of story. So the references that Reina makes aren't misplaced. Just wanted to put that out there.

The last point is if you're a follower then you'll recognize Reina from my oneshot The Devil's Pet. Title of this story sort of resembles that except for the slight change. The scene that was portrayed in that oneshot—or a variation of that—will come along sometime in the future. But that'll be in the future and it depends on where this story is going. Hopefully somewhere cx

Anyway, thanks for reading all the way to the end. If you did there have a cookie! c: Hoped you liked it and stay tuned for the next chapter c: