Alone (Digimon Fanfic - Pt 2)

The restaurant crawled with people. Techno-pop blared. Video monitors hung from the ceiling blinking images in rhythm to the music. Matt felt claustrophobic sitting next to Joe in a small booth, looking over at Sachi squeezed between Tai and Izzy, her shoulders pressed tightly from both sides. She was wide-eyed and lost in the visual stimulation, giddy from the physical contact. As she leaned close to Tai’s face, he leaned towards her, lips close but not touching as they smiled and flirted, thinking they were inconspicuous.

Matt hardly followed the conversation. The noise closed in around him, blocking his thoughts. Most of his thoughts. He watched as Tai’s hand reached out and covered Sachi’s, fingers separating hers, sliding, caressing.

Swallowing hard, Matt pushed on the table as he stood up. “I’ll be back in a minute.” Leaving their surprised faces, he lost himself in the crowd.

Why was it so easy for Tai? To be with someone…

The music thumped through his bones, reverberating in his throat. Bodies crushed against his. Girls turned, noticed, smiled. It was always this way. One with strawberry blonde ringlets bouncing beside her bright smile. One with long dark hair hiding porcelain skin and melancholy eyes. Another with green eyes, freckles softly decorating her nose. A smile was all he ever gave them.

Matt turned away and focused instead on the monitors lining the ceiling. They hung in every corner, facing every direction, broadcasting the same gyrating bodies, too close close-ups and sexual innuendos music videos always did these days.

Except for one screen. It featured the face of a lion-man, complete with flowing yellow mane, staring down intently on the crowd.

Matt recognized Leomon in an instant, and wondered what the Digimon was doing on the monitor. He glanced around at the sea of faces, so busy with how they looked and how they moved and how they were looked at, it was obvious none of them even noticed the creature. Turning back, Matt saw Leomon’s image slide off the edge of the screen only to reappear on another screen, then another, in sequence, around and around the room, as if he were searching, circling from monitor to monitor until he finally found what he was looking for and locked his dark eyes with Matt’s.

Something must be wrong, Matt thought, gazing up into the Digimon’s eyes. Why else would Leomon be here?

Then, in a blink, Leomon was gone.

As Matt searched for Leomon on the other screens, he felt the crowd move behind him, almost imperceptibly. Matt turned slowly, a creepy feeling crawling up his throat. Leomon stalked towards him, the mass of people moving aside but not reacting to the huge creature, as if he were a force they felt but couldn’t see. By the time Matt noticed Leomon had drawn his sword, it was too late.

Matt took a step backward instinctively, but Leomon was upon him, his forearm striking Matt across the chest and knocking him on his back with the slightest effort. Flight was impossible as Leomon pinned Matt’s arm to the floor under a massive clawed foot. Matt scanned the crowd for assistance. No one was even watching. In disbelief, he watched as Leomon raised his sword with one arm and held it high above his head, then brought it down like a spear straight through Matt’s shoulder into the wooden floor beneath.

Pain shot throughout Matt’s body, screaming up from his gut as he arched his back and hips in the air, both heels slipping across the floor in wild desperation. Matt craned his head around to find his own bright eyes reflected in the blade that had skewered him, and he was frozen by the fractured blue fear he saw there. Leomon leaned in, bowing close to Matt’s strained face. His low growl rumbled from deep in his chest, “It must be done.”

Leomon pulled away and the girl with melancholy eyes suddenly appeared and grabbed the hilt of the sword, her foot pressing into Matt’s shoulder, drawing out the spit-clean blade, a single trickle of blood running off it’s tip. The weapon moved in a heavy arc as she swung it around, the momentum pulling her off balance as it passed right though his attacker. Leomon deftly pulled his sword from her toppling figure before disappearing in a burst of glistening black stars.

As Matt let himself slip into unconsciousness, he was followed by images of the girl, her hair falling over his cheek as she shook his face in her hands.