Forget Me Please

Fox Spirit Series, can be read alone. A couple is cruelly torn apart, and the man left behind has a hard time adjusting to the loss of his beloved.

He woke up when the bed shifted. A cold, bitter sensation gripped him, and he whipped around, one hand blindly snapping out. The dark-haired girl quietly climbing out of bed squeaked in surprise when his hand closed tightly around her wrist.

“Tadao?” she gasped, clutching her racing heart with her free hand. “You scared m�"”

“S�"Kaori, where are you going?” Tadao breathed, eyes wide as saucers despite his mind still being half asleep.

She frowned, confused. “I’m just�"”

“Don’t go,” he interrupted, not actually caring where she was going. Gently, he tugged her back into bed, pulling her back close to his chest, her warmth soothing his nerves. “Stay here with me.”

Kaori giggled and tried to turn around so she could snuggle into him, but he just tightened his arms around her waist, burying his nose into her hair.

“No,” he whispered. “Stay like this.”

She didn’t argue and, soon, had drifted back to sleep, but Tadao couldn’t. Not when nothing seemed right at that moment. Not Kaori’s scent; not the way she fit into his arms. But it was close, and looking at her from behind, in the dim light of his bedroom, he could almost trick his mind that she was the real one.

Even though he knew she wasn’t.

“Where’re you going?”

At the half-asleep murmur, she froze, one hand still reaching out towards a flowy white dress. Sheepishly, she threw a glance back towards the bed, smiling fondly at the young man groggily rubbing at his eyes. “Sorry, Tadao, did I wake you?”

Noticing the way she ignored his question, Tadao squinted at her, trying to look stern even as he fought back a yawn. “Where’re you going?”

Sighing, Suki quickly slipped on her dress, clothing her nearly naked body, much to Tadao’s displeasure. “The shop. Ying’s bedridden so I wanted to pick up some herbs for her.”

Tadao frowned and sat up, the bedsheets falling to reveal his naked chest. “Don’t go.”

She sent him an odd look before walking over and wrapping her arms around his neck. Immediately, his arms encircled her waist tightly and pulled her close. “Why’re you so worked up? You know I can handle myself.”

“I just have a bad feeling this time,” Tadao insisted, his embrace so tight that�"had Suki been human�"would have left bruises along her waist. “Just postpone the trip for a few days, and stay here with me. Please?”

“Aww,” Suki cooed, taking his face in her hands. Soothingly, she brushed her thumbs over his cheeks in circular motions as she stared into his eyes with her ashy grey ones. “Don’t you know your girlfriend is one of the toughest foxes in these parts?” she teased. She leaned forward and pecked his nose affectionately. “I’ll be back before you know it. Okay?”

A cold, numbing fear still clung to Tadao’s gut, but slowly, reluctantly, he nodded and let go, knowing he couldn’t have restrained her even if he wanted to. Suki was a free spirit, one that did what she pleased when she pleased. He knew he was lucky just to be included in her life. “Be safe.”

She smiled and pressed her lips softly against his. “I will.”

Sometimes, he could swear that he saw her. In the streets, teasingly beckoning for him to hurry up. At the playground, carefree as she played on the swings, waiting for him to get off work. In their kitchen, teasing him of how their measly apartment kitchenette hardly matched up to the gourmet kitchens at the foxes’ complex. On his loneliest days, he would smile and go along with the vision, but more often than not, he would stop, wipe off his smile, and remind himself, “Tadao, you dummy. She’s gone already.”

Nevertheless, when he reached for the door of his apartment and found it unlocked�"which was odd considering how he always locked it�"his mind couldn’t help but jump to impossible conclusions. There was only one other person with a key to his apartment, and that was�"

His breath hitched, and he surged inside, forgetting in his haste to take his shoes off. He caught sight of a female figure standing by the window�"dark hair, petite form, clad in a flowy dress. Before his rational mind could catch up with his still-mourning heart, he had flown over to her, wrapping her up in a hug. “Suki!”

Immediately, he noticed something wrong.

The scent was wrong, the way she felt against his body was wrong, somehow everything was wrong.

“It’s not Suki,” came the somber voice of Ying, one of the other foxes at the compound Suki had once lived at.

His heart breaking for a second time, Tadao swallowed heavily and stepped away, only then noticing all the little things that marked Ying as not Suki. It was also just then that he noticed the other man sitting on his couch, an equally somber-looking Taichi�"Tadao’s one and only blood brother.

“How did you guys get in?” Tadao asked dully.

Ying held up a key�"Suki’s key. “I came to return this.”

“And I came to see how you were doing,” Taichi added as Tadao accepted the key.

“I’m fine,” Tadao said at once, wincing at how fake he sounded even to his own ears.

“Then why’re you still f*****g around like a fox?” Taichi demanded. Almost as a side note, he threw a hasty glance at Ying, adding, “No offense.”

She shrugged, unoffended, and merely watched Tadao for a response.

Tadao averted his gaze.

“Tadao, it’s been almost six months,” Taichi sighed. “The foxes have already avenged Suki’s death and gave you her bead�"” at that, Tadao couldn’t help but reach up and grasp the luminescent bead he wore around his neck. “Suki wanted you to move on, right? You think she would’ve wanted you to keep suffering like this? To torture yourself by dating only girls who resemble her? To cruelly lead on Asuka or Mika or whoever�"”

“Kaori,” Tadao said quietly, head bowed in shame. “It’s Kaori now.”

Taichi sighed and opened his mouth to continue speaking, but Ying beat him to the chase.

“Suki’s bead is nothing ordinary, Tadao,” she said. “It’s her very being�"her essence. If you immerse it in fresh blood, you can speak to an imprint of her in her last moments.”

At that, Tadao’s head snapped up, hardly able to believe what Ying was saying.

The fox demon pressed on. “It’s a one-time thing and will only be for a minute or two, but it’s your last and only chance to speak to her. If you want, I can bring you the blood tonight.”

Taichi glared at Ying, growling through gritted teeth, “What are you doing? He needs to forget Suki, Ying. This is just going to make him fixated on her forever.”

“Or it could help him come to terms with her death and move on,” Ying argued back. She turned to Tadao and arched a brow. “Well? Do you want to do it or not?”

Tadao didn’t even need to think.

“Yes,” he breathed, ignoring his brother’s sigh. “I want to see her again.”

Their last meeting had been far too short.

Tadao sighed as he placed plastic wrap over the half-eaten plates before storing them in the fridge for Suki to eat when she returned�"whenever that was. Though she had promised to return quickly, the sun was already long-gone, and the bad feeling that had been nibbling at Tadao’s gut had turned into full-blown gnawing.

“Where could she be?” he muttered to himself, turning off the lights to the kitchen as he made his way to the living room. Plopping down, he turned on the television, watching the first show that came on. It was a re-run of a popular drama�"one he had already seen before, but he propped his feet up, getting himself comfortable anyway.

He hadn’t even watched the first ten minutes when his phone rang, and when he noticed that the caller ID gave Suki’s name, he picked it up immediately, concern and annoyance bleeding into his voice.

“Suki, it’s almost midnight. Where�"”

“Tadao.” Her voice was so faint and breathless that he was immediately on edge.

“Suki?” he said, his worry growing when he could hear nothing but laboured breaths on the other end of the line. Quickly, he grabbed the remote and switched the television off, drowning the apartment in silence. “Suki, what’s�"”

“Tadao,” she said again. “Just listen, okay?”

He fell silent, ears strained to pick up any sounds she made.

“I love you,” she finally said, her voice deathly calm.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Tadao immediately exclaimed, his heart pounding in his chest. “W-why do you sound so�"” defeated? Resigned? Sad?

“I love you,” Suki repeated. “So, so, so much. That’s why you’ve got to go live, okay?”

He could have sworn his heart stopped. Why was she saying such stupid things…?

“Forget about me,” Suki all but ordered, her voice growing thick. “After this call ends, forget everything I’ve just said. Forget that I’ve ever existed or that I ever loved you, okay? Can you promise me that?”

“H-how can...why the f**k are you saying this?” Tadao roared, clutching onto his phone for dear life. “Suki, this better not be some sick joke! Hurry up and come home�"”

“Tadao, please. Tell me one more time that you love me.”

His mouth was so dry; he tried to lick his lips, but it didn’t help. “S-suki…”

A sob escaped from the other end, and it was then that he realized she was crying.

“Tadao, I love you,” she cried. “Go and live your life, o-okay? I...I have to go now. I’m sorry.”

“Suki!” he gasped. A single thought�"oh god oh god please don’t let this be happening oh god no�"ran through his head like a mantra, making it near impossible to think. “Suki, I love you too, but stop�"stop talking like this is the last time we’ll get to speak to each other. Y-you’ll be coming home, r-right?”

He could practically see her smile on the other end.

“I love you,” she said one more time.

Then the line went dead.

“Don’t worry about the blood,” Ying told Tadao when she saw the slightly guilty look on his face. Calmly, she poured the plastic bag of crimson fluid into a glass cup. “Cao was hunting for once. This guy would’ve died either way, whether or not we needed his blood.”

It still bothered him slightly how easily the foxes talked about killing humans, but Tadao merely nodded, too preoccupied with the prospect of seeing Suki again.

Ying crumpled up the plastic bag and gently nudged the glass cup of blood towards Tadao. “Go on. The blood’s pretty fresh so it should give you a few solid minutes.” After making sure he understood, she turned and hopped right out of the window to give him privacy during his meeting with Suki.

Taking a deep breath, Tadao looked down at the cup. With shaking hands, he unclasped his necklace, rolling the bead off of the chain and into his palm.  It was about the size of a marble,  clouded with wispy strokes of silver and pearlescent white. Gulping once more, he dropped the small bead into the cup.

At first, nothing happened.

But then, shimmering and flickering, the outline of a person faded into view.

A petite body.

A flowy dress, its loose fabric frayed at the edges from multiple wears�"the same dress she wore when she left that fateful day.

Raven black hair, tied in a single braid that trailed over her shoulder�"the same braid she’d carelessly tied the day she left.

Finally, the features of her face came into focus: soft grey eyes, high cheekbones, and quirked smile that showed off the long dimple in her cheek.

She must have imprinted herself just before she was attacked, for she looked radiant as ever despite the foxes’ report of all the injuries she’d received in the battle for her life.

“Suki,” Tadao breathed, a burning sensation building up behind his eyes.

“Tadao!” Suki exclaimed, her smile widening into a toothy grin.

Without prompting, both rushed forward, meeting each other in the middle with a bone-crushing hug. Suki’s inhumane strength squeezed the breath out of Tadao and surely would leave bruises, but he didn’t care. Finally, finally, embracing a woman felt right. Her scent was just right, her body folded against his just right, and it was her�"it was finally Suki back in his arms.

They spent half of the first of their precious, limited minutes in silence, just relishing in the familiar comfort of each other’s hug. Finally, it was Tadao who spoke first.

Sucking in a shaky breath, he asked, “Why’d you have to go?”

“I’m sorry,” Suki said quietly. “I didn’t want to go.”

Silence. Their first minute was gone.

“You left so suddenly,” he murmured. “It hurt...so, so much.”

“I know, honey,” Suki sighed, her hands rubbing soothing circles into Tadao’s back. “But you’ve got to let me go, okay? Move on with your life and find a new girl to love.”

“You idiot!” he seethed, pulling away and grabbing her by her shoulders. He glared into her annoyingly calm grey eyes. “How can I live without you?! How can I act like nothing happened between us?! Don’t you know I’ll fly even with broken wings to catch you? I’ll stick to you even if I die�"”

“But I’m not here,” Suki cut in, taking his face gingerly in her hands. For a moment, he had a flashback to that fateful day she left, and just like that, he crumpled, falling into her arms. She took him close, rocking their bodies slowly. “I know it’s hard, baby, but you need to forget about me and find someone new.”

She was starting to turn transparent, and with a glance down at the cup of blood, they both knew that their time was running short.

Suki smiled sadly. “I love you.”

“I love you more,” Tadao insisted, steeling himself for the final goodbye.

“I love you most,” Suki teased.

“I doubt it,” he whispered.

Hooking a hand on the back of his head, she pulled him in for a goodbye kiss. He closed his eyes, not wanting to watch her disappear. Slowly, the pressure against his lips lessened until it disappeared altogether. Choking on sobs that he tried to keep inside, he opened his eyes, his teary vision greeted by nothing but his living room.

Swallowing his sobs, he looked down at the cup.

It was now pristine. The bead had soaked up the blood, its wistful silver now a hazy bloody red, Suki’s essence forever drowned in blood. With trembling fingers, he picked up the bead, carefully threading it back onto its chain. He clasped it around his neck again, whispering one last promise to his beloved.

“I’ll forget your last words of loving me.”

Author's Note

If people could give me feedback on basically everything, that would be great. I'm fairly confident in grammar, spelling, and sentence structure, so things to focus on would be like character, idea, plot, etc. Thanks in advance!