Soulmates: The Saga of Ryokai and Latricia, part 2.
Ryokai Matsuda stands at his own funeral. He watches as his body, which he no longer inhabits, is lowered into the ground. He watches on from his girlfriend's eyes.
His parents glare across the cemetery at him. They appear to blame Latricia for what happened, for the loss of their son. He wants to tell them that he isn't lost, that he's still here, but he knows they'd never believe him. He wants to tell them also that it wasn't Trish's fault at all. He doesn't want them hating her, especially with himself trapped in her body.
Latricia is called up to say something. Ryo looks around, not sure what he should say. What would Trish have said? He doesn't want her to seem out of the ordinary. He doesn't want to hint at what's really going on.
He steps up to the front, and looks down at his casket, lying in the ground, not yet buried. "Ryokai was..." He begins, but cannot think of what else to say. He looks up, toward his parents, but they simply glare at him, hatred in their eyes. Its all too much for him. "I... I can't do this..." He says through Latricia, as tears stream down her face. Ryo steps down and hurries back to Latricia's car, leaving the funeral.
* * * * *
Ryo hasn't called anyone in weeks. Latricia's family keep coming over, trying to get through to her, but she isn't there. Ryo is, and Ryo's family hates the body he inhabits.
Latricia's apparent depression worries her family, and her mother sets her up to see a psychiatrist, at her mother's expense.
After a few weeks of blowing off Trish's mom and causing her to waste a lot of money, Ryo finally decides to go. These things are confidential, right? Maybe he can finally explain to someone what really happened. Maybe if someone other than him knew the truth, he could recover.
* * * * *
He's not recovering. The psychiatrist refuses to believe him. As a matter of fact, the psychiatrist is telling him that he actually is Latricia. That she'd felt so bad about Ryokai dying that she'd made up this elaborate story in which she had died instead of him, allowing him to live on through her sacrifice.
Every week, he tries to get Latricia to admit to it, and to start being herself again. To let go of Ryokai.
Ryo begins to believe it might be true.
* * * * *
Latricia has been trying to let go. The psychiatrist has to be right, she just made this whole story up out of surviver's guilt. It is unfortunate that Ryokai died, but she needs to live her life.
"Hey, chica..."
She'd been walking to her car from the club. She'd tried hanging out with her friends tonight. They said she seemed different somehow, but that they were glad she finally came back out. She had an alright time, but felt uncomfortable, badly uncomfortable, when one of her male friends hit on her. She figured it was her feelings for Ryokai.
"She's ignoring you, man."
Trish just realized someone had called for her. She turns to look , and sees two white-painted faces. Painted like Skulls. As in the gang. She knew she was in trouble.
"Now we've got your attention girl. Good."
"I wanna cut her."
"She looks like the kind that cuts herself."
Latricia narrows her eyes. She's scared, but she can feel something welling up inside of her. An urge, primal, instinctual. Like a hunger.
"You like the nighttime don't you girl? One of those goth chicks."
"Yeah, you like the darkness, huh? We can show you darkness..."
The Skulls laugh, but they stop soon after. Tendrils of shadow whip around Latricia's body. Her flesh darkens to a deep purple color, her hair changes to a stark white. From each of her major limb joints, large bone protrusions emerge, spraying acidic green blood as they do.
Latricia's body leaps forth, tearing into the Skulls with her freshly-grown weapons. All the while, the darkness leaking out of her reminds her of something.
That thing that pursued Ryokai... that wisp of darkness that broke the barrier! It must have come with him, somehow they're sharing her body!
Ryo snaps out of the near-brainwashing that the psychiatrist had done to him, once again realizing the truth. Only now, he looks down at the transformed body that was once Latricia. He drops to her knees.
"Latricia... what have I done...?"
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I haven't done anything like this on here before, writing out a detailed backstory for a hero, but here's my first shot. Feel free to leave C & C if you have any. Without further ado, I present:
Soulmates: The Saga of Ryokai and Latricia, part one.
__________________________________________________ ___
"I can't let her die."
That was the last thing Ryokai Matsuda remembers thinking. His body is stiff, and all his muscles ache. He tries to move, but it only hurts worse. Deciding to let himself rest, he thinks back to the events that led up to the accident, hoping to recall what happened since.
* * * * *
Ryokai Matsuda loved Latricia Reilly. This had been true since high school, when they had dated for six months. Latricia felt that Ryo was a little too clingy, though, so she broke it off. He never got over it, and how could he? She kept telling him they'd get back together. Eventually. He kept waiting.
Sure, he'd dated other girls in the time since, but a part of him always longed for Trish. Every time his girlfriends broke up with him, he went back to her. He tried again to make her remember her feelings for him.
His friends teased him, called him a stalker, but he knew they just didn't understand. Couldn't understand what it is like to find the person they are meant to spend the rest of their life with, and not have that person realize it.
Finally, Ryokai had talked Latricia into a date. They would go to dinner, then they would hang out at the nightclub that Trish frequented. Ryokai was confident that he could make her remember her love for him.
* * * * *
It went great. Trish picked the movie, but her and Ryo's tastes in movies were pretty in synch, so they both enjoyed it. They hung out at the club, as planned, and Ryokai not only seemed to be entertaining Latricia, but he got along great with her friends as well.
Everything was going perfectly!
In the car, on the way to drop her off, Ryokai asked Latricia if she would go back out with him. It took her a few minutes of contemplation, but she said yes. Ryo was elated, this was the happiest moment of his life!
Then the headlights came, speeding from the right. The other car was going to hit Trish's side of the car! He had only one thought, "I can't let her die." He knew he'd never make it past the car in time, so he turns the car in a hurry. The speeder smashed into the back of Ryo's car. His airbags failed to deploy, and his head rocked hard against the steeling wheel. Blood running from a gash in his forehead he looked over as he lost consciousness. He could think only one thing.
"I can't let her die."
* * * * *
Ryo clenches his eyes shut. He knows there's more. He can start to remember, but things get... strange... at this point. Strange to the point of being unbelievable.
* * * * *
Ryokai was being tortured. He was being flayed and torn apart. Sentient wisps of darkness spun around him, a whirlwind of evil energy that tore into the fabric of his soul.
"I can't let her die."
He couldn't lose that thought. He couldn't let it go. He'd just gotten her back, after all this time! How could he let her die?
No matter what the things did to him, no matter how bad the pain they caused, nothing was as bad as the thought that Trish might be dead now, because of him.
Ryo tore free, losing parts of himself in the process. He didn't care. He didn't know why he'd ended up in some sort of hell, but he had to rescue his love. He spent what seemed like weeks chasing spectres that looked like her, each time only to be recaptured, retortured. Something was trying to break him. Something was trying to keep them apart.
"I can't let her die!"
Every time, he broke free. Every time, he chased fleeting glimpses of her to no avail. He finally came to the realization that they were toying with him.
She wasn't there at all. He had to escape. He had to find her, save her. He couldn't let her die.
Ryokai battled his way through demon after demon. He felt like he must have passed through a thousand different hells on his way back, but he made it.
Only one barrier stood between his soul and the world fo the living. He could see two bodies being sped down the hallway of a hospital. He could see Trish's dyed-purple hair, it was them! He'd definately made it, right bakc to their bodies!
He couldn't pass through, the wall between the living and the dead was too thick. Before he could try to think of another way, he was attacked. One of the shadow-things had followed him!
A struggle ensued, and it raged on while the world seemed to move in slow motion around them. Oppurtunity came when the creature's attack missed, tearing a hole between the worlds of the living and dead.
Ryokai leapt through the tear, with only one thought in his mind. "I can't let her die."
* * * * *
Ryokai can't believe his own memories, it all seemed too strange. He shrugs it off as fever dreams while his body struggled to recover. Finally, as feeling returns to his body, he realizes that he's covered in a sheet, which he reaches up and tosses aside. He has to find her.
Ryo sits up and hops off of the table, but he must have moved too fast. He stumbles, light-headed, not fully aware of his surroundings. He realizes that his body is mostly numb, but everything seems to move just fine.
As he stands to move, he stumbles again. Something isn't right, his balance is off. Like his center of gravity had moved. This isn't important, though. He has to find Latricia.
He stumbles to a door, and fumbles with the knob. It feels so large in his hand, and with his mostly-numb fingers, its difficult to get a grip. Finally, he turns it and shoves the door open, lurching forward out of the door, leaning against the wall on the other side of the hallway so as to remain upright.
He looks over, his vision finally clearing. He can see Latricia's parents. Her mother is sobbing, her father holding her tight. No, it can't be! Is he too late?
"Latricia!? Oh thank God, Latricia... you're alive!"
Ryo looks around, having heard Trish's mother call out. He can't see her anywhere. What's going on?
Suddenly, he feels arms around him. Trish's mothers arms. "The doctors told me you were gone... you died on way into the hospital! How did you... oh it doesn't matter... my baby's not dead!"
It all makes some kind of strange sense. The changed center of gravity. The smallness of his hands. The general awkwardness of his movements.
He'd climbed back into the wrong body!
To be continued...